Chapter 9: Letters from Brindlemere

The rider Ronan sent to Brindlemere returned nine days later with a letter sealed in wax so plain it might have belonged to anyone — no crest, no flourish, just Mara's blunt, slanted hand across the outside: For Talia. Read it alone. She took it to the edge of the border camp, past the last picket line, and sat on a fallen log with the Reach's copper-tinged haze visible in the distance like a bru...