Barrenlands (The Changespell Saga) (26 page)

"Well, yes, but…why?" Laine's potatoes sat untouched. "Why would anyone care where you were going? You're a Guard, not a member of the royal family." He grinned. "Guess I can't say that about
us
anymore."

"There have been several attempts on my life since Benlan was killed," Ehren told him. "No doubt because I won't stop looking for the killers. And there are ways to get messages from the Solvan border station to T'ieranguard."

"Birds, for one," Dannel said. "Or magic."

Ehren nodded, feeling grim. "And what about those men who asked about me in T'ieranguard?" They'd asked Ansgare to play dumb should anyone inquire again, but... "Do you suppose it's occurred to Sevita or Dajania that discussing me with the other women might be a problem?"

"They'd never do anything to get you in trouble," Shette said, all confidence. She returned the iron skillet to the small cookstove and dropped in a generous number of ham slices.

"Not on purpose," Ehren agreed. "But anyone who really wanted to find me could discover I'd gone off with you and Laine. I should have thought about it right away, but it seems I wasn't doing much thinking at all. The only way to keep them from coming
here
is to make ourselves known at T'ieranguard again."

Jenorah said, "Don't let the ham burn, Shette," and turned back to Ehren. She gathered up a hank of her long hair and fiddled, worried. "That agent may have had nothing to do with you. As you've said, there seems to be plenty going on at the border right now."

"Then going to T'ieranguard poses nothing but an inconvenience. Jenorah, I'm trying to protect what you and Dannel have built here. If people come to this valley looking for me, they're going to ask questions. It may not take them very long to figure out who you really are."

"I don't think you're ready to travel again," she told him. Ehren noticed she wasn't arguing his point.

"And I don't think we have any choice. I may not have any magical Sight, but I've lived this long because I know when to heed my feelings."

"Mum, Da..." Laine started, then hesitated. He took a deep breath and spoke quickly, the words tumbling out. "I think Ehren is right. I think I've caused more trouble than I ever thought."

Ehren's voice held an anger he hadn't intended. "The people that cause the trouble, Laine, are the ones that try to bend the world to their personal whims."

"In the end, it doesn't matter," Dannel said, and his voice was just as hard. "Life doesn't come with directions, Laine." He looked at Jenorah. "We'll manage. We've done it before."

"Once we arrive in T'ieranguard, we'll spend a day or two being visible," Ehren said. "And then we'll make some very public good-byes, and I'll head back up the Trade Road."

"I really don't think you should head out on your own." Doubt drew Laine's brow.

"There may be another way," Dannel said, realization crossing his face. "There may be..." He sent an unexpected grin at Jenorah. "It's been done before."

Shette scowled, looking like a kid left out of a secret. She scraped surprisingly crunchy ham onto everyone's plate and plunked the skillet down on the table. "Just
tell
us," she said, sitting down in the empty chair. "And eat before it gets too cold."

Jenorah lifted an eyebrow at her, and after a moment, Shette wiggled. That seemed to be enough; Jenorah took up the tined spoon beside her plate and calmly began to eat. "She does have a point. And it might be good for everyone to have a chance to think before this conversation goes any further. Eat."

They ate in silence, but not for very long. Dannel was the one who broke it. "It's a good idea, I think," he said. "Listen, Ehren. You want to get back home as soon as possible. I want my children in a safer place than T'ieranguard."

"Ehren taught me how to watch out for myself," Shette said, stung.

Laine shook his head. "And now I know how to hold a sword correctly. But do you honestly think, Shette, that if the bandits ambushed you today, things would turn out any differently?"

She looked down at her plate. "No."

But Ehren watched Dannel. "What have you got in mind?"

"The summer clan house for Grannor is practically on the border of the Barrenlands. That
is
how I found Jenny, after all. They'd probably be delighted to take Shette in for a while— and you, Shette, would probably have the time of your life there. Laine'll chafe, but he'll survive a month or two of it." He looked at Ehren and grinned. "And, as I mentioned before, Grannor
is
the T'ieran clan again."

"They can give dispensation for traveling the Barrenlands," Ehren said, finally catching where Dannel's thoughts were taking them all.

"They'd probably be glad to, after you escort Laine and Shette there," Jenorah said, a smile breaking over her face as well. "I knew Sherran, when I was younger. She'll do this for me."

"Wait a minute," Laine said. "You want me to hole up in Therand and leave you two here alone?"

"Their best chance is to
be
alone," Ehren said. "And to be very quiet."

"I could come back here from T'ieranguard while you take Shette to Grannor..." But Laine trailed off, evidently realizing he'd circled back to the argument that was taking them away from the farm in the first place. He was associated with Ehren, now. He frowned, a mighty thing. "I don't like it much."

"We'll be fine." Jenorah gestured with her spoon for emphasis. "We're the parents and that means we know what we're talking about."

Ehren ducked his head, which didn't go far to hide his amusement. Laine rolled his eyes. "It's true, Ehren. That's a rule they made up when I asked
why
one too many times. It's been a long while since they dragged it out on me, though."

"In this case, a good rule," Ehren said, still smiling. "And it helps settle things. I want to leave tomorrow."

Jenorah rose and picked up her plate. "Then I'd best be finding that ring my mother gave me— the Clan Grannor crest with my birthstone. And some paper and a pen. My, I hope I remember how to write."

Dannel smiled at his wife's back, and gave Laine a wink. "It'll be all right, son. And it's about time you saw something of
one
of your countries."

But it was Ehren that Laine looked to for final reassurance— along with Shette, who gave him a worried eye. He nodded. "It's a good plan. It'll work."

We'll make it work
.

~~~~~~~~~~

CHAPTER TWELVE

Ehren limped through the open market of T'ieranguard, feeling very little like a King's Guard. He no longer wore his ailette. Nor did he look the part — with pounds lost in recovery, pants ripped and tied, and a borrowed old shirt too tight in the shoulders.

The used clothing booths drew him on.

Laine and Shette were off hunting traveling parties who might take them for part of the journey. They planned to barter on Ehren's ability to protect them— not too much, Ehren hoped. But they needed company, if only so there weren't three of them out on the open road alone, easy to identify.

Easy to ambush.

He found himself watched. The old woman sat in the sun on the other side of a table piled with clothes; her overloaded wagon stood behind her. "Don't I just know what you're here for, then," she said, raking him up and down with her gaze.

He spread his arms in capitulation, glancing down at his clothes, and grinned at her. She smiled back, a toothless expression, and her eyes, permanently narrowed from years of squinting into the sun, brightened as they traveled up and down his frame. "I can fit you well, I'm sure, lad," she said. "Not the fancy things, am I right? Just something broad enough for those shoulders, eh?"

Ehren moved his shoulders inside the borrowed shirt. "Well-made, well-mended, that's good enough."

"Pair of trous, too, I can see," she said, nodding at his leg. "I can take the shirt in trade, but those pants go to the rags. Those bloodstains'll not come out!"

"Not likely," Ehren agreed.

The woman ran her hands over a pile of shirts, tugging and prodding. "Wrong size…wrong color…" She glanced up at him. "A man like you should have a shirt to show him off."

He grinned. "That sell you many shirts?"

"Enough." She pulled a shirt free and snapped it out from its folded state. "But I have eyes, young man." She leaned over the table, stretching her bowed, shortened frame to hold the shirt in front of Ehren. "Not quite. Have you been long, here at the border?"

"A handful of days." One was more like it, but he wanted to lay a confusing trail, one that would hide the fact that he'd been away from T'ieranguard— one that would obscure his journey to Laine's home.

"Long enough to pick up some friends, then." The look she shot him was unreadable, but she shifted her gaze to look at something behind him, and then back again. "Ah." She pulled something out from the bottom of a pile. "I was saving this one. See if you like it."

It had been a deep scarlet, he guessed; now it was something a bit muddier. But it was a thick, tough weave, and the fit looked right. He pulled off Dannel's shirt and held it over. "I bow to your judgment."

"Something for the other half, then..." Her age-crooked hands prowled through the mounded clothing as he shrugged himself into the faded scarlet and tugged it into place. She glanced up and nodded. "That's just the thing for you, young man. Now then, tell me— you aren't planning to spoil it right off with more of your precious blood, are you?"

Ehren snorted, more surprised than anything else. "Not if I can help it."

"Couldn't help but wonder, you see, the way those two have kept an eye on you."

Ehren forced away the impulse to turn around find
those two.
He'd seen two men at the inn this morning who looked a little too familiar; he had little doubt he'd discover them now.

She glanced up at him, and the banter was gone from her gaze. "Here, now," she said. "You just turn all the way around so I can make certain that shirt fits." She gestured the circle with her finger, and then repeated it when he didn't respond immediately. "Go on, then. You don't get to keep it until I've judged the set of it across your back."

Holding his arms away from his sides slightly, he did as she requested.
Yes. The same men.

"Was that enough?" she asked. "Or do you need another go at them?"

He grinned at her again, only this one was tight. "I saw them, thank you."

"Good. Will these do you?" She handed him a pair of black pants with a line of grey piping down the sides, a soldier's wear. "I judge they'll go the length of your legs, which says something for them."

"Considering your eye with the shirt, I'll take that on faith." He paid her the few coppers she asked of him, and another besides. "Thank you for your help."

"Oh, my pleasure," she told him, and sent the faintest of scowls behind his shoulder. "I do know how to take the measure of a man, as you've seen."

Ehren only hoped those men were as unfamiliar with this market as he was— for if he didn't lose them, he was going to have to discourage them.

~~~~~

In the deep darkness of early morning, Laine tightened the cinch on his father's pony Nimble and made sure the new mule's packs were fastened securely— and wished his thoughts would settle.

Ansgare had convinced him to make a run of the route when he returned from Grannor, just the two of them— hopeful that the wizard's death during the avalanche would mean their troubles were over.

Deep inside, Laine knew better.

Until then, Ansgare would stay here in T'ieranguard, feeling out new connections in case the route remained unmanageable. And he was willing— or, more accurately, eager— to spread misinformation about Ehren's whereabouts.

Shette led Nell up beside Laine in the inn stable overhang, both of them nothing but dim figures in the new hint of dawn. "Are you sure we should let Ehren talk to these guys alone?"

Laine hesitated. "He knows what he's doing. But... I'm not sure we should let him do it alone, no." He sighed, testing one last knot and letting the stiff rope fall to the side of the pack with a
thwap
. "Of course, I'm not sure he's any better off with me there, either."

"But Laine, his leg..."

I know, Shette, I
know.

But too much time had passed.

Laine handed her the mule's lead and tossed Nimble's lead around the hitching post. "I'll go see." He headed for the inn, as uneasy about it all as he'd been the night before when Ehren had told them about the men over dinner.

"You were followed?" Laine had asked numbly, and the fine venison in his mouth had turned dry and hard to swallow. Ehren's concerns about staying at the farm had been justified, then. And the danger to his parents... Laine longed to return to them, to make sure everything was all right.

But that would only make things worse.

He gritted his teeth, then deliberately unclenched them to take a long draught of watered wine. "I take it you lost them."

"I did," Ehren nodded. "But it was only an exercise. They were here this morning, too."

Shette's light brown eyes went wide with worry. "What're we gonna do?"

"Discourage them, I suspect," Ehren said. "And leave tomorrow."

"I found a small group of travelers," Laine said. "They're willing to have us along— in fact, I think they'd be glad for us. They were just visiting family, and don't seem too confident about being on the road— I guess there's been some trouble here, too. But they're not leaving for another several days."

"It's more important for us to get out of here. It's time to lose those men and move on, before they decide to do more than just keep track of us." He took a generous gulp of his wine. "We can always wait a few days down the road for the people you've found."

Laine said, "I think we should. They're heading right for the Grannor summer home. Or the closest town, anyway."

"Discourage those men... how?" Shette asked faintly, pushing a strip of venison around on her plate.