Vael waited until the next evening, the way she had said she would.
She found Aria in the small sitting room off the royal chambers, the one with the window that looked east toward the slope where Maren and Brann and Roen were buried. Aria was alone, a cup of tea cooling untouched beside her, her eyes on the dark line of trees against the dusk.
"You have a letter you have been holding," Aria said, without turning.
Vael was not surprised that she knew. Six years of being queen had given Aria a way of sensing the things people carried into a room before they said a word.
"I do." Vael crossed the room and held it out. "From Helsa's contact in the old territories. It came the same morning Damon Kane reached the gate."
Aria took the letter. She read it once, quickly. Then she read it again
