The Eighth Warden Ch. 007-008

"You're the heir!"

"As I've told you before, and I've told Mother, I've abdicated. I'm no longer in the line of succession."

"You can't abdicate!"

"Well, I did," Ellerie said. "And you know very well that Vilisa is a better choice. She likes all that nonsense, and she's smarter than Mother. Just teach her to fake having a backbone until she can grow a real one."

"You must return!" the man said, pushing his chair back as he stood to loom over her.

"Or what?" she asked. "Are you going to drag me back to Terevas in chains?"

There was no mistaking the look of anger that crossed his face, but he was not allowed to act against her in any way—he could only cajole her. Even if he took her abdication seriously, she was still a daughter of the di'Valla dynasty. Still, Ellerie touched the comforting weight of her rapier's scabbard, to remind herself it was there if she needed it.

Composing himself, the man gave a formal bow. "Exalted, with your permission, I will take my leave."

She nodded in acceptance and waited until he was gone, then stood and walked to the other side of the room, joining her stoneborn companion.

"He's persistent, that one," the dwarf said. "I thought I might have to go whack him over the head."

"I can defend myself, Boktar."

"With what? That little sewing needle you call a sword? I wish you'd wear some bloody armor."

"How many times must I tell you? Too much metal interferes with my spells."

"Then at least wear a gambeson, Elle."

She shrugged uncomfortably. "I'll think about it." She preferred to have more freedom of movement, though it was true that when they ran into trouble, it meant it was usually Boktar that took the brunt of the fight.

"Who is that fellow, anyway?" he asked. "This is the third time he's shown up."

"I don't know his real name—he's used so many. He's the man my mother sends to do her dirty work."

"You sure you don't want to go back? Being a queen sounds like fun."

"No, I'm not returning. Trust me, Terevas will be better off if I'm not around. Slightly better, anyway; it's still a cesspool. I feel bad about throwing my sister to the vipers, but she can handle it better than I."

Boktar nodded. "So, we're really going to do this, then?"

"It's taken us two years to translate the book after that librarian disappeared. I'm not going to stop now. Besides, I want to get out of Matagor. It's too close to home."

"You still think the librarian went after the treasure himself? He'd have a big head start."

Ellerie shrugged. "Maybe. It depends on whether he was able to get more out of the book than we did. I never told him about the amulet, and I hope he needs that to figure out where to begin."

Their first translator had disappeared just as he'd claimed to be getting close to something, so Ellerie had changed the translation process to make it more cumbersome. She'd broken up the work across several different people and never told them what she was looking for. The book was large, with small print, and the translation had taken longer than she'd expected. It hadn't been helped by realizing—only after translating the entire book—that most of it was worthless. Most of the delay could have been avoided if she'd just told the translators what to look for, but that's how the problem with the librarian had started. The task was complete now, and she had the information she needed, but she was still frustrated by how long it had taken.

"So, if he knows the route but not the starting point, he's just looking around blindly?" Boktar asked.

"He may have thought that's all we had, and he may have had some guesses about the starting point that he didn't share with us. Besides, we'll be looking blindly, too. I haven't been able to match the markings on the amulet to any recognizable mountain ranges yet."

Boktar shook his head. "Then we're going to spend the next year or two looking for mountains? Are you sure you don't want to stick with bodyguard work? It's good, steady pay, and you told me yourself, even if there was treasure once, it's probably long gone."

"If I have to break up one more fight between the duke's daughters, I might forget I'm their bodyguard and kill them myself. I'll pay you the same as the duke's been paying you—I still have most of the coin I took when I left home." The treasure wasn't important to Ellerie, but she didn't think Boktar would believe her if she told him that. She wanted to find whatever the book led to because, for once in her life, she wanted to accomplish something important. Of course, if there was any treasure, it would help ensure she never had to return to Terevas.

Boktar said, "How long is your money going to last, though, when we don't know where we're going?"

"We can take jobs along the way. Being a caravan guard doesn't pay as much as the duke, but it's something. I'll make up the difference if you want."

"No," Boktar said. "If we're going on this wild goose chase, let's stretch your money out as far as we can." He picked up his shield and patted the warhammer on his belt. "Come on, kid, let's go tell the duke we're leaving."

"Kid?" she complained, following him. "I'm older than you."

"I guess that's a matter of interpretation."