The Eighth Warden Bk. 05 Ch. 01-02

"There's an entire village there, almost a hundred houses and cottages. Treya said they need cleaning and new roofs, but they're there for the taking, for whoever gets there first." That wasn't quite what Treya had said, but Nallee suspected her friend didn't fully understand the implications of what she and her companions had done.

"I want to go," Deni said in a quiet voice.

"You do?" Patrig asked his wife.

"Four Roads didn't do anything to help! You heard the rumors--Nallee's friends had to do it all themselves. They have soldiers and wizards and healers. They can protect us if raiders come, or another dragon."

Patrig took a deep breath, then exhaled loudly. "I guess we're going south, then. I'll let the others know."

#

The dragon's wing hit her, and then she was falling.

Falling.

Falling.

The ground was coming up fast. And then--

A voice intruded. "Sarette?"

Sarette blinked and banished the memory. "Sorry," she said, forcing her attention back to the task at hand. She pulled the next wooden drawer out of the cabinet and grimaced at the darkened, desiccated remains inside before passing it to Corec. "Something else for the trash pile."

He scraped the contents into an old burlap sack, then added the drawer to the stack of furniture which would need to be scrubbed and polished before it could be used.

The group had finished cleaning the keep's common areas the day before, so the two of them had moved on to the cellar, spending the morning throwing out old provisions. Nothing had been salvageable. Barrels of wine, ale, and salted pork and fish had gone bad long ago. Grains and flour and beans had been eaten by rodents, and what was left was covered with mold. Canisters of nuts had gone rancid, and dried fruits were barely recognizable. Even the salt had clumped together in its cask and taken on a musty smell.

Sarette moved on to the next cabinet, sneezing from the dust. "I know we have to clean things up if we're going to stay here, but shouldn't we be doing something about King Rusol? It feels like we're wasting time."

"We can't do much without supplies or men," Corec said. "We just have to get used to waiting. At least we have something to keep us busy in the meantime."

"How long do you think it will take before he learns you're here?" Sarette asked.

"He'll find out someone has taken over the keep as soon as the knights return to Fort Hightower, but he might not realize it's me," Corec said. "I doubt he pays much attention to mercenaries in the free lands, which is what we must look like to an outsider. The knights may send my name along to Telfort just because I used to be part of the Order, but I don't know if anyone would mention it to him. Even if they do, he might not care anymore--there haven't been any attacks since we returned to Aravor."

"So you don't think he'll send anyone after us right away?"

"It's hard to say. If he knows where I am and sends a small group of red-eyes, they could show up at any time, but why would he do it again when it's failed before? Even if he does, I don't think we'll have a problem dealing with them, especially if Treya's around to remove the spell. I'm more worried about the army, but it would take them months to muster together at Fort Hightower and then march here. We'll have plenty of warning. Razai is on her way back, I think, so hopefully she's learned more."

Sarette nodded. "If things will be quiet for a while, then maybe I should visit Snow Crown now. Once Ariadne is back and Leena is able to take us, I mean. I want to get my trial over with." And she needed to talk to her uncle. She wasn't ready to tell her friends about what had happened to her during the fight with the dragon, but another stormrunner would understand.

"This is a good time for it," Corec said. "The armsmen will be out clearing the roads, and they won't need you for that."

Sarette tilted her head to the side. "You want me to keep working with them?" She wasn't sure the extra training she'd given had been of any use. It was Corec who'd trained the men on the weapons and tactics they'd needed for the fight, designing a plan with a dozen different permutations and fallbacks and then drilling the soldiers until they could manage each step. Sarette's training had focused on discipline and teamwork, but four men had deserted during the battle. Had she really accomplished anything?

"How would you like to be Captain of the Guard?" Corec said.

"Captain? I'm not qualified for that." Her few months in the High Guard hadn't prepared her for a command position.

"It's ten guards and two scouts. How hard can it be?"

She considered that. "Why not Boktar?" she asked. The dwarven man had decades more experience than she did.

"You've been in an army before and he hasn't. Besides, we're going to offer him the position of Marshal, which means you'd report to him. You command the guard, but he oversees them. He'd also oversee the stables and any workers who aren't part of the household staff."

"That's better," she said. "As long as I'm not doing it alone." But would Corec have asked her to take the position if Cenric hadn't decided to leave? Then again, Cenric's experience was as a sergeant. He could handle the men under his command, but he wouldn't have wanted to deal with paperwork or logistics.

"I'll still be here, too," Corec said. "Really, things won't change that much. We're just trying to figure out how to organize it all in a way that'll work now that we're not going to be traveling all the time."

"Why the formal titles?"

"Ellerie and Treya think it'll be better if we pretend to have a full household." Corec shrugged. "I don't know about that--I'm not sure how long we'll be here--but if we need to negotiate any more deals like the one with Duke Lorvis, they think it's better if we can meet on even terms. The titles are based on a Larsonian duchy. In Larso, the household guardsmen are also trained as soldiers. The king keeps a standing army, but he can call up the lords' household guards in times of war."

"So a captain in Larso is both a captain of the guard and an army captain?"

"Well, there are separate army captains, but a household captain can be both. It's not like what you're used to, though. Outside of the knights, there's no formal training like the stormborn military academy. The knights and the nobles make most of the decisions, and the officers take care of whatever's left over. We'll have to figure out what works for us."

Sarette nodded. Maybe she could get some ideas while she was back home.