Reader and Raelynx (10 page)

“What will you do with all the lesser lords, then?” Senneth asked. “Gift them their properties outright? Would you want to see Eighteen Houses, instead of Twelve? I am no apologist for the aristocracy, but even I find it hard to say such a phrase. Eighteen Houses. Twenty-four. There is no poetry to either.”

He smiled at her a little absently. “Another kind of title altogether, perhaps,” he said. “We might have both the Twelve Houses and the Twelve Manors. That is pretty enough, don’t you think?”

“Very nice. And can you find a property in each of the twelve regions that the marlords would be willing to give up? And would the lords of these manors be satisfied with their new status, or will they want full parity with the marlords?”

“I haven’t worked it all out yet,” he admitted. “But I believe we might take small steps to change our world, and so perhaps avert a war.”

She lifted her eyes and gave him a hard, comprehensive look. “And do you truly think any measures are sufficient to do that?”

He glanced away, for a long time merely looking out the window. Another gray day, though at least there was no rain to contend with this morning. Then he sighed and shook his head, glancing back at her. His face was sad. “No,” he said. “But I must do everything in my power to try.”

T
WO
days later, Cammon slipped down to the cottage just in time to eat lunch with Kirra and Senneth. “Justin and Ellynor will be here tomorrow,” he told them.

“Early or late?” Kirra demanded. “Do we have the day to work, or must we finish everything today?”

“I don’t know. If I were you, I’d finish up today.”

“Better finish up by this afternoon,” Senneth reminded her. “You promised Baryn you would attend the dinner tonight.”

Kirra cursed and then laughed. “Well, we’re almost done. Let’s go over now. What have Tayse and the other Riders cooked up?”

“I believe it involves pelting them with flowers and fruit as they ride up to the cottage for the first time, and then creating a great deal of noise outside their bedroom window in the middle of their first night here.”

Kirra grinned. “Everybody loves newlyweds.”

Cammon gulped down his meal and then went off to fence with Tayse, while Kirra and Senneth returned to the house set aside for Justin. It was tiny, a mirror image of the one Senneth shared with Tayse—merely one main room that opened into a small kitchen, with a single door leading to a cramped bedroom. Little more than basic privacy and a place to sit before the fire. But Senneth and Kirra had outfitted it with a new bed and several small storage chests, as well as chairs in the main room and dishes for the kitchen. Rugs on the floor to keep out the chill, curtains at the windows to keep out the curious. They had made Cammon and Donnal haul in wood, which was stacked before the fireplace, and Kirra had filched bread and cheese from the palace kitchen.

“What are those?” Senneth said, pointing at a row of terra-cotta planters holding a wilted assortment of scrubby plants. “Those are ugly.”

“Give me a minute,” Kirra said, and skimmed her hands over the bare, prickly branches. Instantly, the withered leaves turned green; the dried and folded petals were rouged with red.

“Very pretty,” Senneth said. “One would almost think you had the gift of growing things.”

“No—they’re altered, not coaxed,” Kirra said.

Senneth glanced around. “I would start a fire in the grate, but who knows how long it will be before they arrive? But I hate to have them come in to a cold house.” She leaned her hand against the wall, and the temperature in the rooms began to rise. “Perhaps just a little magic in the stone,” she said. “I’ll add another touch of heat before we go to bed.”

Kirra edged toward the door, pausing to survey the entire scene with a look of satisfaction. Warm, colorful, cozy, the front room had a most inviting feel. “Who wouldn’t want to live in such a welcoming place?” she said. “I hope Ellynor is happy here, so far from her family.”

Senneth followed her out the door. “Funny—I’m always happiest when my family is farthest away.”

“And I when I am either setting out to see them or preparing to leave,” Kirra said.

“But then, we’re unnatural.”

“Mystics,” Kirra said darkly. “Never just like everybody else.”

T
HE
formal dinner went well enough, though it was as dull to Senneth as most such events were. The regent and his wife were not in attendance, and consequently Kirra was in high spirits. She spent most of the meal attempting to catch Cammon’s eye and make him laugh, though he tried hard to hang on to his always precarious dignity. The rest of the time she flirted so boldly with the Fortunalt lord seated to her left that he followed her out of the dining room literally begging to see her again.

“Incorrigible,” Senneth murmured to Cammon on her way out the door. “Any news on Justin?”

“Tomorrow morning, I think. Depending on where he spends the night.”

“Come down early to help us greet him.”

“I will.”

Kirra had a similar plan, it turned out, for she and Donnal showed up at Senneth’s cottage a couple hours later. “Feed us, house us,” Kirra said, pushing past Senneth through the door. Donnal at least sent her an apologetic glance as he stepped inside.

“Why don’t you camp outside, like some of the Riders are doing?” Senneth said, leaving the door open suggestively. “See? Tayse and Wen and Coeval and a few others have stationed themselves all around the barracks and halfway to the gate. They have pots and pans and all sorts of noisy items with which to greet our young lovers. Why don’t you stay outside with them?”

“Too cold and nasty,” Kirra said. “It’s going to rain.”

“We’ll sleep on the floor again,” Donnal offered.

Kirra yawned. “
You
can. If Tayse is outside, I’m sleeping in the bed with Senneth.”

“Not that you were invited.”

“True friends never turn you out, no matter how inconvenient your arrival,” Kirra said, wandering to the kitchen. “Heat some water for me, could you? I want something warm to drink.”

Senneth grumbled some more, but in truth she had expected them and was a little surprised that Cammon hadn’t showed up as well. She poured a mug of cold water, set it to boiling with the touch of her hand, and pointed to the crock containing tea leaves. “But I’m going to bed,” she said. “I want to be up early enough to greet them.”

They all settled in quickly, though Senneth briefly found it strange to have Kirra’s light form beside her instead of Tayse’s darker, heavier one. She and Kirra had shared rooms and beds across half of Gillengaria, and there had been a time Senneth never expected to take a lover, let alone a husband, so it should not seem so foreign not to have him next to her; and yet it was. She and Tayse had not slept apart since their wedding. They had scarcely spent a day apart since they met. Even when he hated her, as he had at first, he had watched over her.

Not that she was in danger, here in the well-guarded confines of the king’s palace, two mystics in her house and almost fifty Riders within call. Not that Tayse could not be at her side in a minute if she should have need of him. Still. The fact that he was not sleeping close enough for her to touch him with her hand made it hard, at first, for her to sleep at all.

Dawn came, pink-and-white as a porcelain doll, and the three of them rose and dressed with practiced efficiency. Through the windows, Senneth could see frost laying a white-gold gilding over the hard earth and the winter vegetation. Tayse and Wen were already astir, striding down from the general direction of the palace, their hands full of copper pots and big wooden spoons. Their breath showed misty in the cold air. A half dozen other Riders had congregated around the small cottage, either leaning against the walls or making themselves comfortable on the ground. They all looked as if they had rested well and been up for hours.

“Everyone’s on the move,” Senneth said, letting the curtain fall. “Let’s go see if there’s any news.”

She almost screamed as she opened the door, for Cammon stood just outside, hand raised to knock. “You’ve been up for an hour,” he complained. “What’s taking you so long?”

Senneth brushed by him and spoke over her shoulder to Kirra and Donnal, laughing behind her. “Someone turn into a wild animal and kill him for me.”

They intersected with Tayse while Wen went off to join the others. “Cold night?” Kirra asked him brightly. “Nice and warm inside your little cabin.”

He gave her a lurking half-smile. “A Rider never notices the weather,” he said.

“Well, a mystic does.” Kirra rubbed her hands briskly over her upper arms and then frowned at Cammon. “So? When are they going to get here?”

Senneth thought Cammon looked the slightest bit uneasy—the expression Cammon always wore when he was trying to keep silent about something. “Well—”

Just then the door to the cottage opened, and Justin stepped outside.

He was dressed in a loose shirt and a pair of breeches that he might have pulled on as he rolled out of bed, and his sandy hair was tousled with sleep. He stretched his arms overhead, manufacturing a big yawn, and then gave a mock start as he noticed the welcoming party. “Oh! Company! I don’t know that we’re actually ready to receive guests yet, but—”

That was all the further he got. Kirra shrieked, and the whole contingent descended on him in a fury of noise and shouting. The Riders shoved each other aside, one after the other, to beat him on the back or take him in a rough embrace. Kirra actually kissed him and then pushed past him to enter the cottage, calling, “Ellynor? Are you in here?”

Senneth was left staring at Cammon. Who stared back, a stupid grin on his face.

“You told him,” she said in an ominous voice.

He nodded happily. “Had to. I told you he was coming. Only fair I told him you were waiting.”

“You
told
him!” she shouted, and pounced on him, grabbing him in a headlock and then wrestling him to the ground. He yelped and flailed around, trying to get free, but Cammon was no fighter, and she landed a few hard blows just to teach him a lesson. “I ought to roast your heart in your chest!”

“Ow! Ow! Donnal! Help! Tayse!
Help!
”

Tayse actually came to his rescue, putting a hand under Senneth’s arm and pulling them both to their feet. She kept her arm locked around Cammon’s throat, though, and another around his waist, but now the grip was more affectionate than punishing. He left off trying to get free and stood tamely in her arms.

Tayse watched Cammon with his eyebrows lifted. “So? What information did you give him? And how?”

“I met them outside the palace gates yesterday afternoon. He knew to wait for me but he didn’t know why.” He grinned and elbowed Senneth in the ribs, so she briefly squeezed his throat again. When he could speak once more, he said, “He’d guessed, though.”

Tayse glanced at the cabin, where Riders were spilling in and out of the door, and a great deal of commotion was being created on the copper-bottomed drums. “And they managed to elude us how? Through Lirren magic?”

Senneth nodded. “That would be my guess. Ellynor snuck them inside the gate—and past a whole gauntlet of Riders. Both of them.”

He met her eyes, a certain disquiet in his own. “I find this extremely disturbing.”

“Oh, but you can trust Ellynor!” Cammon exclaimed.

Senneth released him and gave him a little shove. “You half-wit, what about her brothers and her cousins and the members of feuding clans?” she demanded. “What about Lirrenfolk who might be siding with Halchon Gisseltess? What if
they
decide to come sneaking into the palace grounds at night?
You
can’t sense Ellynor, you’ve said that before.
Riders
can’t see them or hear them. Not Riders guarding the gate, not Riders stationed along a pathway where they
know
one of them is going to come. I find it disturbing myself.”

Cammon looked horrified, but Tayse’s dark eyes glittered. “And yet, if this is a magic we can harness, I find it very valuable indeed,” he said.

“Well,” Senneth said. “They’ve ruined our surprise and scared us to death, but let’s go say hello to them anyway.”

“Yes,” said Tayse, turning to lead the way. “It will be good to have Justin back.”

I
T
was maybe two hours before all of the other Riders cleared out. Senneth was not much for playing hostess, but Kirra had hissed at her and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the small kitchen, where Ellynor was standing in some bemusement. The Lirren girl was delicate and pretty, with exceedingly long black hair that just now was piled on top of her head in a hasty knot. She was scarcely more dressed than Justin, though he’d obviously given her time to wash her face and pull on a gown before he went out to taunt the welcoming party.

“Am I supposed to
feed
everybody?” she whispered when the other two joined her. “
Is
there food? What am I supposed to do?”

“They’re Riders. You don’t have to take care of them,” Senneth said, but Kirra had been raised more politely than that.

“We’ll go to the barracks and lift some bread and fruit,” Kirra said. “I’m not going to cook or anything, but maybe it would be nice to offer them something to eat. Oh, but do you like the plates? Do you like the pans? We picked them out for you, but if you don’t like them—”

Ellynor still looked overwhelmed, but now gratitude crossed her fine features. “That was so kind! I’ve never been to such a big city! I thought
Neft
was an intimidating place, but I’ll never be able to find my way around Ghosenhall!”

Senneth laughed. “I don’t believe you. If you can track your brothers through the Lirren wilds, you can make your way through the royal city.”

Ellynor smiled. “Fewer dangers in the Lirren wilds,” she said.

“That’s probably true,” Kirra said. “But come with us, then, if you want to see the city. Senneth and I can protect anybody.”

They made a foray to the barracks and returned with an assortment of food and drinks, Donnal assisting them. Senneth noticed that Ellynor was pleased to see Donnal and reflected that the shy Lirren girl probably found Donnal the least frightening of Justin’s friends. But she, at least, was not fooled by Ellynor’s soft voice and kind expression. The woman was unyielding if called upon to protect someone she loved; she had literally hauled Justin back from the abyss of death. And she was dense with magic. No, Ellynor was no helpless child dependent on the strength of her husband or her friends.

Although even a mystic might quail at the thought of navigating Ghosenhall on her own.

Eventually the Riders had had their fill of purloined breakfast goods and ribald jokes. Tayse practically pushed Hammond out the door, and Wen was still talking to Justin through the front window. But finally everyone else was gone. Kirra and Cammon flopped onto two of the chairs, Senneth coaxed the hearth fire higher, and Tayse turned the lock on the door.

Cammon looked swiftly around the room, an oddly sweet smile on his face. That was when Senneth realized it: For the first time in more than six weeks, the six of them were together again.

Seven. The seven of them. For Ellynor sat curled next to Justin, who had sprawled on the floor before the fire. Not one of them and yet somehow belonging, somehow seeming to fit right there under the crook of Justin’s arm.

Tayse dropped easily to the floor near Justin, while Senneth took one of the other chairs. At some point, Donnal had melted into his familiar shape of a shaggy black dog, and lay with his head across Kirra’s dainty feet.

“Let me commend you on your trick,” Tayse said. “Very effective.”

Justin grinned. “Wasn’t sure we could pull it off, not when I saw a Rider every three paces for a quarter of a mile! And then getting through the front door—how to do that so no one saw it open?”

“And how did you?” Kirra asked.

Justin looked down at Ellynor, who answered in her sweet voice. “I made the shadow so deep no one would notice it, and then we slipped inside.”

“I’m even more concerned about how you breached the front gate, where I know four Riders were on duty,” Tayse said in a calm voice. “How did you manage to open
that
without anyone being the wiser?”

Justin shook his head. “Didn’t even try. We came in with another party last night—a group of nobles all dressed up, so I suppose they were arriving for dinner. Ellynor just cloaked us in magic, and we stepped in right behind them.”

Tayse nodded. “That’s a slight comfort, but very slight. You could bring a whole troop inside the palace grounds if you slipped them in by ones and twos behind other parties.”

Justin looked grave. “I wasn’t thinking about it that way yesterday, but you’re right.” His eyes narrowed; he was already considering solutions. “So then—maybe some kind of trip wire—the Lirrenfolk are impossible to
see
, but they still have weight and mass. Though, that won’t work—everyone would stumble over that.”

“What about dogs?” Kirra asked. She prodded Donnal and he sat up, ears pricked forward. “Or a wolf? Would Donnal have noticed you going by last night?” She glanced at Senneth. “We should have slept outside after all.”

“You might have heard or smelled us,” Ellynor admitted. “The few times my brothers were caught were when a guard dog raised the alarm. But I can cover almost all trace of our passage. It has to be a pretty smart dog.”

“Donnal’s an exceptional animal,” Kirra drawled. Donnal’s black mouth opened in a canine grin.

“Let’s try that,” Tayse said. “Over the next few days. See how well Ellynor can trick Donnal and what he has to do to catch her. See if Cammon can learn how to sense her, too.”

Senneth smiled at Ellynor, who looked a little startled. “He never asks,” she said. “He just assumes that everyone is as focused as he is on keeping the palace and all its inhabitants safe.”

“Of course—whatever I can do,” Ellynor said earnestly, and the rest of them laughed.

“Jerril can help, I bet,” Cammon said. To Ellynor he explained, “Jerril’s my tutor. He’s teaching me how to improve my magic.”