Guarding the Thornwright

Alys Thornwright is the last of her craft, the maker of the living hedges that keep the Seven Marches from tearing each other apart. That makes her treasured, watched, and hunted by a rival house that would rather see the boundary fall. The Council's answer is Bregan Vane: a soldier, twelve years of service, no opinions on record. His orders are to shield her, escort her to the capital, and hand her over. His oath is to keep her alive no matter whose hands she ends up in. He tells her he will not cross her threshold. She spends the next two hundred miles finding reasons for him to. On the boundary road they mend feuds, weather storms, and survive an ambush — until the Gap of Sorrows, where Bregan has to choose between the Council and the woman he was sent to deliver. He chooses her. Then they go home and plant a hedge.