Chapter 26

“And the big slimy frog jumped on the—“ Katrin sang, then pointed to the boys on her right.

“Rock!” one of them shouted.

She laughed. She’d been expecting lily pad. “And the big slimy frog jumped on the rock—“

She pointed to the girls on her left, who chorused, “and then he fell off!“

She pointed to the boys again. As a group, they yelled out “Plop!” then fell over themselves laughing when Katrin showed them a vision of the frog falling into the pond with a splash.

“How do you make it do that?” one little girl asked.

“I’m a bard, so when I sing something, I can let you see it.”

“But how?”

“I ... hmm. I don’t really know. Anyway, it looks like the food is ready, so you should all go eat.”

“Can we sing more later?” a boy asked.

“Well, I’m running out of songs. Do you have some new songs you can teach me?”

“Yes!”

Katrin had spent the morning entertaining the younger children. Luckily, they spoke Eastern; none of them knew trade tongue well enough to sing in it.

With Katrin occupying the children who were too young to look after themselves, the adults were able to get some work done. The men had divided into groups, cutting firewood, setting rabbit snares, or searching for already seasoned wood that was appropriate for fashioning into bow staves. Shavala had frowned at the snares—she’d convinced Corec to stop using his when she took over the hunting duties—but she’d let them pass without comment.

The women were cooking, or helping Shavala forage, or washing clothing in the bathhouse. The cooks had retreated to the far side of the room once Katrin had started applying her bardic skills to the repetitive children’s songs. She couldn’t blame them. She’d had fun, but one could only watch various animals fall off of different objects so many times before needing a break. The adults had been more appreciative of her skills the night before, when she’d played for everyone.

Until encountering the refugees, Katrin hadn’t spent any time with young children since she’d been one herself. They seemed more resilient than the adults. They knew something was very wrong and they wanted to go home, but unlike their parents, they could forget about it for brief periods of time while they played. None of the children knew how dangerously low the food supplies had gotten, but at least the stormborn patrol was due to arrive soon. The youngest of the children didn’t seem aware that half their village was dead, though in some cases, they knew that not all of their friends had come with them when they’d fled Jol’s Brook. Katrin was just relieved she could plead ignorance and leave those discussions to the parents.

There was a commotion outside and two of the older boys ran into the building, accompanied by Nedley, who was closer to their age than to the adults. Boktar had told him to watch over the older children, more to give him something to do than out of any real need.

One of the boys shouted, “The mountain lords are here!” That was how the refugees referred to the stormborn when Sarette and Gregor weren’t around to hear them.

“Nedley!” Katrin said. “Go find Corec, Sarette, and the others.” Everyone had stayed near the camp for the day, waiting for the stormborn patrol.

“Yes, miss!” he replied. “Alfin, Edgar, come on. Split up and we can find ‘em faster.”

Katrin headed for the door too, but had to wait while the women and children all filed out, more interested in seeing the new group of stormborn than finishing their midday meal.

Outside, Gregor and Tomas had already greeted the patrol, fifteen armed and armored stormborn with ten full supply sleds.

Katrin breathed a sigh of relief. They’d brought enough food for the villagers to return to Jol’s Brook safely, and fifteen soldiers would give pause even to snow beasts. She hadn’t realized until then how anxious she’d been.

“Will you look at that?” Corec said, coming up behind her and dropping an arm around her shoulders. “If we’re attacked again, we have a choice of a spear wall or an entire company of crossbowmen. Hell, we could split them up and do both.”

She laughed. Apparently he’d been thinking along the same lines. “Are we going to leave now?”

“I don’t know what those soldiers are going to want to do. If I get a vote, I think tomorrow’s soon enough to head back to Jol’s Brook—or Elmsford, or wherever they’ll be able to buy enough supplies. Then we can retrace our route back to Snow Crown and pick up the horses. I think Ellerie and Bobo want to talk to the historians some more before we head out, and I need to buy a new sword and give this one back.” He was referring to the strange, glowing sword he’d found below the ruins. It wasn’t glowing now, though—only when he drew it. He’d placed it in his old sheathe, attached to the harness on his back, where it stuck up two inches higher than his previous sword.

“What’s wrong with Sarette?” Katrin asked. The stormborn woman had joined Gregor and the patrol, but had suddenly stepped back, looking pale, as if she might faint.

“Captain,” Sarette said, saluting the officer. “Thank you for coming. I’m Lieutenant Sarette. I was the one who signaled for help.” She’d arrived while Gregor, Boktar, and Tomas were explaining which items they needed most urgently.

The captain, whose name she didn’t know, glanced at her, then turned away and issued orders to his men to start unpacking and distributing the supplies.

Sarette was accustomed to the High Guard not taking her seriously—the ones who knew her history, at least—but she’d never been completely ignored before. There wasn’t anything she could do about it, though, without being taken to task for insubordination. She waited to see if the man intended to include her in the orders he was giving.

“Just a moment, Scout,” the captain said when Gregor made a move to help haul a crate from one of the sleds. “I’d like you to remain here.”

Gregor nodded and waited.

Once everyone else was busy with their tasks, the captain switched to the stormborn language. “Junior Lieutenant Sarette, Senior Scout Gregor, you are both hereby relieved of duty.”

Sarette stepped back in shock.

“What?” Gregor exclaimed. “Why?”

“I’m told that you were assigned to accompany the warden’s party to South Valley, not to bring an entire village of humans here. And certainly not to make them aware of the watchtowers.”

“What were we supposed to do? Leave them to be killed by snow beasts? To go hungry?”

Sarette kept silent. Scouts were outside the traditional chain of command, and with his rank, Gregor could get away with talking back to the captain like that, but she couldn’t.

“If you have a defense, you can present it at your trial. In the meantime, I’m taking command of your expedition. Someone’s got to clean up your mess.”