Beyond the Gates
? Roman ?
Three mornings later, pounding begins at the outer door before dawn.
I wake before the second strike lands. Ivy shifts beside me, one hand finding the blanket between us as the guard calls through the wood.
“Alpha, a rider has arrived from Eastmere.”
I sit up at once. Ivy pushes onto one elbow.
Her hair has fallen loose across the pillow, and the strap of her sleep shift hangs from one shoulder in the gray light.
For one stupid second, my attention catches on the warmth of her skin and the memory of her curled against me before the pounding started. Then she looks at me.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know yet.”
I reach for the robe hanging over the chair and hand it to her. My fingers brush hers when she takes it, and she gives me the smallest look before pulling it on.
The guard opens the door after I call for him. Dane steps inside with road dust still dark on his boots and a folded dispatch in his hand.
“The Eastmere advance patrol missed two check-ins,” he says. “They should’ve sent word from the ridge station at second watch, then again before dawn. We haven’t heard from either rider.”
I take the paper. The patrol had left the previous morning, a full day ahead of Birch Hollow’s relief line. Their job was to clear Eastmere Cut, inspect the ridge station, and report that the road was safe before the medicine wagons entered it at fifth watch.
Nora prepared the fever medicine three days ago. The convoy had been on the Northern schedule before Ivy’s review became a bloodline inquiry, before Grant tried to turn her into a problem that required walls and guards.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, I let a routine relief run become something I trusted other men to carry.
“Does Birch Hollow still need the medicine?” I ask.
Dane’s face tightens. “The fever’s worse. Nora got word from the village healer before the patrol report came in. If the convoy takes the western road, the medicine might not reach them in time.”
Ivy sits up fully. All sleep has left her face.
“How much time would the western route add?” she asks.
“More than a day,” Dane says. “Maybe two if the rain comes in.”
“The medicine won’t last that long.”
“No, it won’t.”
I should’ve checked Eastmere myself yesterday. I should’ve asked whether the patrol had reached the ridge. Instead, I let Grant pull every hour into another council chamber while Birch Hollow waited for men who were supposed to be doing their jobs.
Dane looks between us. “Rowan called an emergency council session. Grant’s already there.” Of course he is.
Grant never misses a chance to turn fear into an order.
“I’ll be there,” I tell Dane.
He nods and leaves. For a moment, the room is quiet except for the wind pressing against the shutters.
Ivy swings her legs over the side of the bed and reaches for the dark clothes folded over the chair.
“I’m coming,” she says.
“I know the risk.”
“I know.”
“We don’t know what happened to the patrol.”
Her hands pause over the buttons of her shirt. “Then tell me what you know.”
I step closer. “There could be a damaged bridge or a rockslide. The patrol could be delayed by weather. Or someone could be waiting for the convoy. If the route’s compromised, Birch Hollow is farther away than it should be, and those wagons are carrying medicine people can’t afford to lose.”
She watches me without interrupting.
“I’m not forbidding you,” I say. “I’m telling you what we may be riding into.”
Her expression softens slightly.
“Thank you. I want to hear the council first.”
“That’s fair.”
By the time we reach the council chamber, lamps burn against the gray morning and every seat around the lower table is occupied.
Grant sits at the far end in formal black, his hands folded neatly in front of him.
Jace stands behind his chair, dressed too quickly, with a crease pressed into one side of his collar.
Rowan reads the Eastmere dispatch while Holt waits near the records table.
Nora stands beside him in a travel coat, her medical bag at her feet. Ivy walks in beside me.
Grant’s eyes go to her first.
“Luna Maddox shouldn’t be here,” he says.
Ivy doesn’t break stride. “I’m under summons.” Rowan looks up. “Sit.”
We take the chairs nearest the door.
Dane points to the route map spread across the table. “The advance patrol was meant to reach Eastmere Cut yesterday, clear the road, and light the ridge station beacon if the pass was safe. They missed both check-ins. A scout sent from the northern side hasn’t returned either.”
“And Birch Hollow?” Rowan asks Nora.
“The fever’s spreading,” Nora says. “The medicine in the lower stores is the only prepared batch close enough to matter. If we send it by the western road, we might still reach them in time, but I can’t promise that we will.”
Grant leans back in his chair. “Then the convoy waits until the patrol is found.”
Nora looks at him. “The fever won’t.”
“I’m saying we don’t send drivers and supplies into a route that may already be compromised.”
“The drivers agreed to carry medicine,” Nora says. “Don’t turn them into cargo.”
Grant’s mouth hardens. The advocate beside him lifts a page from the table.
“This is precisely why Luna Maddox should remain in the capital while the father inquiry is open. We have a missing patrol, a possible foreign threat, and a newly confirmed Alpha-born command. This isn’t the time for her to travel beyond the city walls.”
Ivy turns toward Rowan. “Am I under a travel order?”
The advocate’s hand stills over his papers.
Rowan sets down the dispatch. “You’re under inquiry. You may not leave the realm or cross a foreign border without council approval. You must remain available for summons and record review.”
Grant’s advocate starts to speak, but Rowan raises one hand.
“An inquiry isn’t confinement,” he continues. “Luna Maddox may travel within Northern territory on official duty, provided the route, escort, and purpose are entered into council record.”
Grant’s chair shifts against the floor.
“That’s reckless,” he says.
“No,” Rowan replies. “It’s the law.”
Grant looks at Ivy as though Rowan has handed her a weapon.
“You have no field training,” he says. “You have no experience with active borders. If the Eastmere patrol is missing because someone is moving against you, you should be nowhere near that route.”
Ivy’s fingers tighten once around the edge of the table.
“That’s possible,” she says. “But you wanted to keep me here before anyone missed a check-in.”
Grant’s face doesn’t change.
“You’re making this personal.”
“You made it personal when you asked to put me under guard.”
Jace shifts behind Grant. “No one’s saying you should be locked away.”
“You’re asking for confinement with softer words,” Ivy says.
Grant turns to me. “You’d take her into a possible ambush?”
“I’d tell her the risk,” I say. “She decides.”
“That isn’t leadership.”
“No. It’s trust.”
Grant’s expression hardens. “Trust won’t stop an arrow.”
“Neither will a council door.”
Rowan looks toward Ivy. “The convoy leaves only if the North can provide enough escort strength. Ridge scouts ride ahead by the upper trail. Guards stay with both wagon lines. Healer Nora travels with the medicine. Every rider checks in at each station, and if the route shows a clear threat,
Alpha Maddox has authority to turn the convoy back.” Ivy studies the map.
The road to Birch Hollow cuts through Eastmere like a narrow scar.
“What happens if the convoy turns back?” she asks Nora.
Nora doesn’t soften the answer. “The village waits another day, and it may wait longer than that.”
Ivy’s gaze stays on the road.
Then she looks at Holt. “The route passed through Brooks records before it was entered into Northern dispatch, didn’t it?”
Holt’s eyes narrow slightly. “It did.”
“Bring the copied route sheets,” she says. “If someone changed the road on paper, I may see where.”
Grant gives a short, humorless breath. “You think paperwork will protect you in a cut pass?”
“No,” Ivy says. “But it may tell us who wanted us there.”
The chamber goes quiet for a reason that isn’t fear. Rowan folds the dispatch closed.
“Then it’s entered into record. The Birch Hollow relief convoy departs at first light under Northern escort. Alpha Maddox, Luna Maddox, Dane Carter, and Healer Nora Hayes will travel with the line. The route remains Eastmere Cut unless the forward scouts confirm it’s impassable.”
Holt writes the order into the record.
The meeting breaks quickly after that. Grant leaves first, with Jace close behind him. Neither of them looks at Ivy again.
Nora catches my arm near the door. “I need to pack the medicine and tell the drivers what’s changed.”
“Take whoever you need.”
“I already did.” Her eyes flick toward Ivy. “And Roman?”
“Yes?”
“If you get stabbed, I’ll be furious.”
Ivy almost smiles.
“Understood.”
Nora walks away. Dane waits near the corridor with two scouts. “I’ll send them ahead by the ridge trail. They’ll reach the first marker before the wagons enter the pass.”
“Keep them off the main road,” I say. “Don’t light a signal fire unless they find a clear threat. I don’t want anyone on the road knowing where our eyes are.”
He nods. “Understood.” When he leaves, Ivy and I are alone in the hall.
The capital is waking around us. Servants carry fresh coal toward the council rooms. Somewhere beyond the open arches, a bell begins to ring for first meal.
Ivy looks down at the map still folded in her hands.
“You wanted me to stay.”
“Yes.”
She looks up at me. “Not only because the road might be unsafe.”
“Not only because of the road.”
Her expression shifts, but she waits.
“I wanted you where I could see you,” I say. “That was fear, not strategy.”
“And the rest of you?”
“Fear doesn’t get to make your life smaller.”
Her fingers brush the back of my hand.
“I’m choosing to go.”
“I know.”
“I need you to tell me when you’re worried.”
“I will.”
“And I need you not to turn that worry into an order.”
“I won’t.”
She studies me for a moment, measuring whether I understand what I’ve promised. Then she nods.
“I will.”
The lower yard is loud by the time we reach it.
Wagons wait beneath the open gates, their canvas covers tied tight against the wind. Nora moves between the medicine crates, checking labels and wrapped glass bottles. Elden, the older driver, argues with a stable hand about a rear wheel that needs a new pin before they leave.
Dane rides through the gate with the scouts at his back. Ivy watches them go. I watch the road ahead.
Somewhere beyond the eastern ridge, a patrol has gone silent.
Before the sun fully clears the walls, we follow it.