Emfrith frowned. "I understand your feelings for her, but if the monsters are chasing you, wouldn't she be safer if she didn't travel with you?"

Yes!

But Aspar shook his head. "They're after her, too. The wyver was attacking her, yah?"

Emfrith nodded. "Yes," he conceded. "But why?"

Aspar took a deep breath. Could he tell Emfrith about the geos? Then the boy could kill him or imprison him long enough to get Winna away from him.

It was worth a try.

"You remember where I got the berries that cured you from the woorm's poison?"

"The Sarnwood witch, they say."

"Yah." There was a price for that. "She told me that Fend was going to kill Winna if I don't stop him."

He wanted to scream, but he couldn't.

"Look," he said desperately. "You said Winna dreamed I would be here?"

Emfrith nodded. "Does she often have premonitions?"

"No!" Aspar replied. "No, she-" But that was all he could manage. He was like a strangpoppet in a children's farce.

"We'll go to Ermensdoon for supplies and the rest of my men," Emfrith said. "And I'll send out a few scouts to see if they can get a better idea of how far behind you they are. You killed the wyver; maybe they've lost you entirely."

"Maybe," Aspar said dubiously.

The ride to Ermensdoon wasn't a comfortable one. Winna rode near him, and Emfrith wasn't far away. Leshya hung back, but that didn't do much good. No one wanted to talk in front of everyone, so they mostly went in silence.

Ermensdoon was an old-fashioned hill castle with a square central tower and a stout wall. It sat on a little stub of a mound surrounded by a moat so old and unused that it had reverted mostly to a marsh of cattails and river grass and was currently home to a number of ducks and coots.

"There's a newer fortress a league south," Emfrith told him. "A full garrison marched up from Eslen last nineday. I reckon the queen thinks Hansa may try a march to the Warlock and then take boats down. My father gave me Ermensdoon when I was little. Before that, it hadn't been lived in for a generation."

Aspar didn't really have anything to say to that, so he didn't speak. Soon enough they were inside, anyhow, and he was in a small chamber in the tower. He was supplied with several cotton shirts, a pair of sturdy riding breeches, and calfskin boots. The thickset fiery-headed fellow who had brought them looked him over.

"What sort of broon you favor?"

"Boiled leather," Aspar said.

"I can come up with a steel one, I think."

"I'm not a knight. Steel doesn't suit me: too heavy. Leather will do."

"I can make one in a couple of days."

"We're in more of a hurry than that, I think," Aspar said.

"I'll start it, but I'll see what else I might have on hand," the redhead replied.

"Thanks," Aspar said.

Then the fellow was gone, leaving him to his worries.

But not for long. The knock came that he had been both hoping for and dreading; when he opened the door, Winna stood there.

"Are you unpoisoned now?" she asked.

"I reckon."

"You'll kiss me, then, or I'll know why."

It seemed like a very long time since he had kissed her, but the taste came right back to him, and he remembered the first time his lips had met hers. He'd just encountered a monster then, too: his first. And the surprise of her kiss had easily matched the shock of seeing a kinderspell beast come to life.

The kiss went on a little longer than its sincerity. Too many questions were behind those lips.

They pulled apart, and Winna smiled.

"So," Aspar said, glancing down at her belly.

Her eyebrows went up. "I hope that's not a question," she said. "Aspar White, I truly hope you're not asking a question."

"No," he said quickly. "But, ah, when?"

"When do you think? In your tree house, back when we first saw the woorm."

Cold crept along his spine. Winna had conceived the same day she'd been poisoned by the woorm. Of course she had.

"That's not the look I was hoping for," she said.

"I'm just-I'm trying to take this all in," Aspar said.

"Yah, well, me too. Where have you been, Aspar? And what, by any damn saint, is she doing with you?"

"That's a long story."

"Does it start with you leaving me here?"

Aspar wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but he nodded. "Yah."

"Well, tell me."

"Sit down, then."

She took a seat on the bed.

"I went off after the woorm, followed it for a long time up through the Bairghs. Deep up in there I caught up with it, but I wasn't the only one. Hespero had been tracking it, too, somehow."

"The praifec?"

"Yah. He tried to kill me, so I reckon he knows we don't work for him anymore."

"Tried to kill you?"

"Yah. He was in the wrong place to do it, up on a cliff and me below, so I gave him the slip. But Fend was there, too."

"Right. Riding the woorm."

"And there were Sefry in the mountain: Leshya's people. I think they were fighting the praifec. But I was a bit occupied. The Briar King showed up, so only you and Stephen were missing."

"You didn't find Stephen?"

"No. I killed the woorm with the praifec's arrow. Then I had a bit of a fight with one of those Mamres monks. He hurt me pretty bad: broke my leg. If it hadn't been for Ogre, I'd be dead, and that's certain."

"Ogre…"

"Died saving me."

"I'm sorry, Aspar."

He shrugged. "I meant to pasture him soon, but the chance just never came up. But he died fighting. Anyway, then Fend, ah, killed the Briar King."

"What?"

"With the same arrow. Turns out it can be used any number of times, not just three. He was about to use it on me when Leshya showed up and got me out."

"Convenient."

"Yah. But I got sick after that, really sick. When I came to my senses, Leshya had found us a hiding place, but I wasn't able to travel for months. Fend found us. He's on my trail again, and he's not alone. We can't stay here, Winna."

"You were alone with her for four months?" Winna asked.

"Yah."

"That must have been awfully cozy."

He felt a flare of anger. "That's kindertalk, Winna. There's nothing there. If anyone's been courting all this time, it seems it was you."

"Emfrith? He's sweet. He's not you. He's not the father of my child." She stood up. "And as for kindertalk, yes, I'm young enough to be your daughter, but that doesn't make me a fool for being jealous. It just means I love you. I was actually beginning to lose hope, to think you were really dead, and then you show up with her? Just don't get all angry and don't dodge my question. You tell me nothing happened between you, and I'll not raise this again, ever."

"Nothing happened."

She let out a deep breath. "Fine," she said.

"We're done with that?"

"Yah."

"Good."

"That's all? Don't you have more to say than that?"

Aspar closed his eyes for a moment. "You know how I feel about you, Winna. But maybe it would be best for you-"

"Stop," she said. "Just stop there, Aspar. There's no best for me. There's only you. You know I never asked anything more than you could give, but you have given me something." She patted her belly. "I never imagined a normal life from you, holter. You never promised it, and I still don't expect it. But whatever happens, this child is ours."

He stared at her belly, remembering the greffyn being born. "Winna."

"What?"

Grim take the Sarnwood witch.

"Let's get you somewhere safe, then. Somewhere you can have this baby without fear."

"You'll go with me?"

"Yah."

She smiled and rushed to hug him, pressing the hardness of her belly into him.

"I've missed you, Aspar White. You've no idea how much I've missed you." She took his hands. "Where shall we go?"

He kissed her hands and answered. He meant to say that they would go to Virgenya or Nazhgave, anyplace that seemed outside the sickness wasting the world.