The Eighth Warden Bk. 05 Ch. 11-12

Before leaving, she poured an entire pouch of gold coins into the offering bowl.

#

Razai was atop the lookout tower, flicking pebbles at the roof of a cottage below, when there was a shuffling sound behind her and then a startled gasp. A little girl wearing a bright yellow dress with a dirty hemline had come up the stairs.

After a moment of surprise, the girl's eyes narrowed. "You ain't supposed to be up here," she said with a hillfolk accent.

"Why's that?"

"It's dangerous. Katrin says so."

Razai hid a smile. "It is, huh? Should you be up here?"

The girl took on a worried expression, as if trying to figure out which answer would get her in the least amount of trouble.

"I'll tell you what," Razai said. "How about I don't tell Katrin you were here, and you don't tell her I was?"

The girl thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "I know who you are," she said.

"Oh?"

"You're Razai. I saw you yesterday at supper."

The child could have been in the great hall the night before. Razai hadn't paid much attention--she'd just been in long enough to grab some food to take back to her suite, not wanting to eat with everyone else.

"That's me. What's your name?"

"Ditte, but you have to call me Princess Ditte."

"Princess, huh?"

"Yeah, cuz Corec and Treya 'dopted me."

That was news to Razai. "I don't think that's where princesses come from, kid."

The girl's lower lip quivered and her eyes began to water.

Shit. If Corec and Treya really had adopted the kid, she'd probably been orphaned recently. What could it hurt to let her play make-believe?

"Sorry, Princess Ditte," Razai said. "I was just teasing you, Your Highness."

Ditte's eyes widened, as if the girl was surprised someone had finally fallen for her scam. "You ain't supposed to do mean teasing. Only nice teasing, Katrin says."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time, Your Highness."

The girl nodded, seemingly appeased. "Why is everyone mad at you?" she asked.

Razai had preferred the previous topic. "Because they think I did something I shouldn't have."

"Did you?"

"No. I don't think so." Unfortunately, Corec seemed to be the only one who didn't blame her for letting his name slip to Rusol. Everyone else was anxious about his abrupt departure, and appeared to believe it was somehow Razai's fault. Leena, of all people, had taken it as a personal affront.

"Why not just 'polo... 'pology... why not say you're sorry?"

"Because I didn't do anything wrong!"

"Sometimes Katrin and Treya make me say sorry when I didn't do nothin' wrong."

Razai scowled. Was that how the others saw her? A misbehaving child, like Ditte? What right did they have? It wasn't like any of them had ever done anything for her.

Except Corec, that one time in Livadi--whether she'd needed it or not. And Boktar and Bobo, when the three of them had fought the war priests during the battle at Tir Yadar. And...

Razai angrily shoved the thoughts away. She didn't need the others, and soon she'd be done with them forever. Corec would be back soon, and she would insist he undo the bond once again. After that, she just had to wait two weeks for Nedley to return. Then she could finally go south.

Ditte was still staring at her, awaiting a response. Being orphaned at a young age was a rough life for a girl. Corec might make for a better father than Vatarxis had, but the kid should have been home with her own family.

Was it the dragon that did it? Raiders? Razai didn't want to ask. Asking brought back the memories.

What had the others been thinking, bringing a young child to a place they expected would turn into a war zone before the end of the year? Sure, they probably had some sort of escape strategy for the non-combatants, but it was impossible to account for every potential outcome.

Ditte was only a year or two younger than Razai herself had been when Vatarxis had taken her hellside, teaching her to use her powers and her wits. Teaching her to be self-reliant. Teaching her to fight.

"If you're going to be a princess, you'll need to learn how to take care of yourself," Razai said. "Has Corec shown you how to use a knife yet?"

Ditte tilted her head to the side. "I ain't allowed... I'm not allowed to use knives. Someone else has to cut my food."

"Not that sort of knife. Come on, kid. Let's go make some trouble."

#

Leena was already waiting in the glade when Corec arrived, but she was sitting on a large rock, leaning forward and resting her head on her hands.

"Hey, are you all right?" he asked.

She looked up. "What? Oh, I'm fine--just tired. Traveling here a few times a day to Seek the coins took more out of me than I thought it would."

Corec grimaced, feeling guilty. "Sorry. I should have left a note so you'd know everything was fine and you didn't have to keep coming back."

"There weren't any problems, then?"

"No. If Rusol knows about my family, he hasn't done anything about it yet. I warned them, but there's not much else I can do here without making things worse. I don't want him getting the impression I'm back in Larso--he needs to know I'm at the keep."

Leena nodded, then stood. "Are you ready to go?"

"Are you sure you're up for it?" Corec asked. There were dark circles under her eyes.

"I can manage. It should be fine now that I'm not Seeking on top of everything else."

Corec nodded and held out his hand. Leena took it and then with a blink they were in one of the suites back at the keep. Ellerie was carrying a pile of books and papers to a desk, but she squeaked and dropped everything when they appeared right in front of her.

"Leena!" she said. "Why did you--? Never mind. That was quick. I thought you'd be gone longer."

Leena didn't answer, just swaying unsteadily. Corec grasped her shoulders to keep her from falling.

"Maybe you should sit down," he said.

They helped her to the desk chair, and Ellerie tilted Leena's chin up so she could look her in the eye. "It's not drain shock, I don't think. Can you hear me?"

"This is wrong," Leena muttered. "I meant to go to the great hall."

"It's not a big deal," Ellerie said. "You just surprised me."

"No, you don't understand. I was thinking of the great hall right as we Traveled. I shouldn't have ended up anywhere else. I haven't missed my target since... since before Cordaea. I need to go home and talk to Rohav."

"Well, not right now," Ellerie said. "What if you miss again? You're too tired. You should go get some sleep first."

Leena nodded slowly. "Yes, sleep," she said, standing and making her way to the bedroom.

"Will she be all right?" Corec asked.

"She's been doing too much," Ellerie said. "We need to cut back on what we're asking of her."

"That's mostly my fault," Corec said. "But I'll tell the others, too. Did anything happen while I was gone?"

"I finished repairing the big gap in the northeast curtain wall." Ellerie was still staring absently toward the other room. "We're just patching the smaller holes now. There's not enough stone left to replace the upper half of the western lookout tower, and we haven't found the quarry yet. The carpenters are just going to build a wooden platform for now." She shook her head and turned back to him. "Wait--what happened where you were?"

He told her what he'd told Leena, then added, "So, nothing has changed. We'll just have to watch for any problems. Maybe the hillfolk towns nearest to Fort Hightower would be willing to listen for rumors in exchange for some extra coin."

"Except you'd need Leena to take you there."

"It can wait," Corec said. "Or we can hire messengers."

Ellerie nodded.

Corec checked on everyone's locations through the warden bond and noticed a change he hadn't expected.

"Is Sarette back already?" he asked.

"No, she decided to fly the whole way instead, but Ariadne is here. The visit to Snow Crown must have been good for her--she's in a better mood than usual."

Corec nodded. "Let me know if Leena gets worse. I'm going to go track everyone down and tell them what happened in Larso."

#

After changing out of his armor, Corec made his way to the tavern. Katrin was playing her harp and singing a song about the fight against the dragon, but she stopped when she saw him.

"I'm done for now, folks," she announced, standing up and nestling her harp back into its case. "Maybe I'll play again later." There were a few murmurs of disappointment, but it was a smaller crowd than usual.

"That's a new song," Corec said when she joined him.

"You weren't supposed to hear it yet--I'm still working on it." She poked his arm. "And that's how you say hello? After disappearing for three days? I was worried!"

"I'm sorry. I thought Leena let everyone know there weren't any problems."

"She did, but that just meant you hadn't signaled her for help! We still didn't know what was going on." She waved at her brother to get his attention.

Corec sighed. "I told my father about Rusol, though I'm not sure he believed me. He promised he'd be careful, but I think he was just humoring me."

"Do you think Rusol will try something? With your family, I mean?"

"That depends on why he's after me. If it's because I'm a warden, I don't see what my family would have to do with it. I just have to make sure he knows where to find me, and we've made a good start on that already."

Barz arrived then and set a mug on the table, then stalked away without a word. He avoided talking to Corec whenever he could.

Corec reached for the mug, but it was warm to the touch. "What's this?" he asked.

"Tea," Katrin told him. "We ran out of ale. We were never going to have enough for the number of people who showed up. I was only planning on serving our own workers, not an entire village. We're stuck with tea until Nedley gets back."

"People are paying for tea?" There were teahouses in the city, but Corec had never seen one in the countryside.

"I'm giving it away for free. We have plenty, and I didn't want to close the tavern for two weeks. Everyone knows they can come talk to us here. Not many people have been brave enough to knock on the doors to the keep."

Corec nodded.

"So, what else happened?" Katrin said. "You were away for three days."

"Well, three days is what I told Leena in case I needed that much time, and then I didn't want to worry anyone if I called her back early. It turned out I didn't actually need all three days, but it was good to see Branth and Isa. We, uh, spent most of the time planning the wedding."

"Branth is getting married?"

"Uh, no. Our wedding."

Katrin narrowed her gaze. "I hope you're not suggesting we get married in Larso."

"No, no, I convinced Isa I can't be away for that long. We settled on having it here, this winter."

"Winter? It'll be wet and miserable here over the winter. Why not this summer?"

"Isabel wants to come, and I couldn't tell her no. Winter's the only time she and my father can get away for any length of time, and it's not like I can send Leena to get them. Father would have a fit--he might try to have her arrested."

"And he's coming to a place full of mages?"

"Well, he hasn't agreed yet, but Isa intends to keep arguing with him until he does. If he refuses, I guess we don't have to wait until winter, but I'd like it if Branth could come. He's busy in the summer too."

Katrin shook her head. "Winter's fine, I suppose. If you're planning on having actual guests instead of just our friends, it would be hard to put something together in time for summer. Food's going to be tight for a while. Mella won't want to serve salted fish for a wedding."

"Ahh, yeah, about that... Cook and Isa put together a list of recipes in case they don't arrive in time to help. I hope Mella won't be offended."

"I'll let you talk to her about it. She won't argue with you."

"Trouble?"

"She's just used to working for rich people, and I don't know how to do things the right way. What if I say or do something wrong in front of your family and then they end up not liking me?"

"Well, they don't like me much either, so you'd be in good company."

She frowned at him, but he just laughed.

"Don't worry about what my family thinks," he said. "If you want something to worry about, then worry about whether we'll even be here by winter. If Rusol attacks, we might have to evacuate everyone before then."