The safest place

«Kyre?» the guard repeated. «That Kyre?»

«As far as I know, there is a single family with the right to use a land's name as a family name,» the child next to him replied before I had time to add anything. «We're in front of his highness, the Archduke. What a coincidence!»

The guards couldn't be sure about my identity, so he kept his sword raised, but he stepped back.

«Is there anything that could prove it?» he asked.

I threw him my ring with house Kyre's sigil. I had brought it with me, leaving Countess de Ruis a medallion with the same pattern.

It would have been too brave to leave everything in Stoneyard since I couldn't predict what could have happened.

It was the right decision since I was stopped from returning home for years.

«This is indeed house Kyre's coat of arms,» the little girl stated after looking at it for a moment.

She then turned to me and curtseyed flawlessly.