Chapter 4

“This feels too tight,” Corec said, looking at himself in a mirror. He was wearing a gray shopkeeper-style suit, but he’d insisted on pants rather than breeches, and a coat without tails. He couldn’t bring himself to dress in anything fancier than that. His father might have been a baron, but Tarwen was a small barony, tucked away deep in the Black Crow Mountains. There hadn’t been many formal occasions, and Corec had left home before he’d been old enough to dress up for them.

“It looks good,” Katrin said, tugging on his coat to straighten it.

“I suppose I can’t bring my sword.”

“I think it would be out of place,” she said with a grin.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”

“Not if they didn’t say anything about bringing guests. I don’t want to show up and not be expected. Besides, I don’t have a gown.”

“What about your green dress?”

She laughed. “I can’t wear that! It’s fine for playing in the common room, but not for something like this. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to teach Shavala and Treya how to play cards tonight.”

Corec added his sheathed long knife to his belt, not wanting to be completely unarmed. “That sounds more fun than this. Have a good time.”

“You, too.” She kissed him, then waved him out the door.

In the stableyard, he found Ellerie already waiting near a carriage. She was wearing a sleek red dress with flowing sleeves, and hadn’t brought her own sword, either.

“Where’s Sarette?” she asked.

“Ambassador Tomek didn’t invite her, only her uncle. I asked Katrin, but she insists she doesn’t have anything to wear.”

“Oh, I should have taken her with me this afternoon—I didn’t think about that. I tried to convince Boktar he should come with us tonight, but he just laughed at me.” She looked at the carriage, then down at her dress, and frowned.

“Do you need help getting in?” he asked.

“I can’t move in this bloody thing,” she said. “They don’t have Terevassian robes here, but this is elven silk. It was the best I could come up with on short notice—and much too expensive.”

Corec lifted her into the carriage and climbed in behind her, then signaled to the driver.

As they got underway, he said, “Are we going to talk about what happened earlier?”

Ellerie had snuck out of the council chamber while Vartus and the Councilors were crowding around to get a better look at the sword. Before Corec had made it back to the inn, she was already gone, either avoiding him or just shopping for the dress she was now wearing.

She looked out the small window in the carriage door. “Have you already told everyone?” she asked quietly.

“Not yet, but Sarette heard it, too. You won’t be able to keep it a secret.”

“I know.” She turned back but didn’t meet his eyes.

“I didn’t quite follow what they were saying. You’re related to the Terevassian royal family?”

“I’m...” She hesitated, but then her voice grew more firm. “I am Princess Ellerie di’Valla, eldest daughter of Her Exalted Majesty, Queen Revana. Until I left, I was heir to the throne.”

A princess? Ellerie was well-educated, and Corec had always suspected she’d come from a wealthy family, but being a princess just didn’t match the image of her he had in his mind. He’d always assumed her family was more like his own—lesser nobles, or perhaps rich merchants.

“I don’t know what to say. Why did you leave?” He didn’t use the titles she’d gone by in the council chamber. She’d never asked for any titles before, and it seemed wrong to start using them now.

“A lot of reasons, and I really don’t want to talk about them,” she said.

Corec was silent for a moment. “I was kicked out of the Knights of Pallisur for using magic. I don’t think I ever told you that. My family follows Pallisur, and you know what the Church says about mages. So, I left Larso. I’ve only been back a couple of times since.”

She finally looked at him, a confused expression on her face. “I knew some of that already, but why are you telling me?”

“I spent six years not telling anyone who I was. It got to be a habit, until I finally realized there really wasn’t a reason for it.” Then he laughed, hearing how self-righteous he sounded. “I’m sure it’s different for you, of course.”

“Yes, well, I left because I didn’t want that life, and now everyone’s going to treat me differently. Like tonight, I’ll be stuck talking to a bunch of people I don’t know, pretending I’m still that person. How do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Talk to people. You always seem comfortable no matter who you’re with.”

“Do I? I never really thought about it.”

“That’s what’s so frustrating! It’s so easy for you to talk to people, and you don’t even realize it. How do you think our first meeting with Yelena would have gone if I was the warden?”

Corec chuckled. “You seemed a little annoyed with her.”

“Because she was annoying! But you got along with her just fine. All right, another example—we’ve all been traveling together for months now, and Katrin still barely speaks to me.”

“I think that has something to do with you threatening to kill me back when we first met.”

She looked abashed. “Oh. I forgot about that. Why doesn’t it bother you?”

“You’re not the first person who’s threatened to kill me, and since you never actually tried to do it, I figured it wasn’t a big deal.”

“I guess I should apologize to her.”

“No, don’t bring it up at this point. Just talk to her, and she’ll talk to you. She’s not avoiding you; she’s just not going out of her way to be friends, so you’ll have to do that part.”

“Or she’ll avoid me more, once she knows who I am.”

“Then don’t be that person. Just be who you’ve been since we met, and that’s how people will treat you.”

“You make it sound easy.”

Ellerie usually responded well to Boktar’s sense of humor, so Corec risked a joke. “That’s because I’m not the one who has to do it.”

“Very funny,” she said, but she laughed anyway.

With the tension broken, Corec said, “I’ve got a question. If you were trying to hide who you are, why did you use your own name?”

“Ellerie isn’t an uncommon name in Terevas, and my sister and I aren’t well known outside of the city. Until Shavala figured out who I was, it had been a couple of years since anyone had recognized me. You should ask Boktar about it—he loves that story.”

“Shavala knows? She didn’t say anything.”

“I asked her not to. She didn’t seem to think it was that important. But as long as we’re asking personal questions, I’ve got one for you.”

“All right.”

“Why have you only cast the warden binding spell on women? Six binding spells, and not a single man.”

Corec grimaced. He’d managed to put that out of his mind. “I didn’t have any control over it until recently.”

“You must have, or you’d have cast the spell on those wizards you spoke to. Three men, right? And how many other mages have you passed on the street?”

Corec exhaled slowly. “To be honest, I’m worried about it too, but I don’t know how to get any answers. At least I can control it now.”

“Why not cast the spell on that other stormrunner they asked about, just to see if you can actually bond a man?”

“Because I’ve already bonded six people in just a few months, which is as many as Yelena’s bonded in over two hundred years. She and the First both warned me that I had to be more careful about that. Razai’s already gone and you’re not planning to stick around. Shavala may visit us from time to time, but she wants to return home. Sarette will probably do the same. Katrin and Treya are the only ones planning on staying, and I wouldn’t lay odds on Treya. I may not know much about wardens yet, but Yelena seems to send her bondmates out as her agents when she needs something done ... and I’m not going to have any left.”

“I didn’t realize you were actually worried about that,” Ellerie said, raising an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say worried, because I’ve got other options, but I think I want to do something more important with my life than bodyguard work or protecting caravans. I liked helping those villagers against the ogres, and protecting the folks from Jol’s Brook when the snow beasts attacked. But with each person that leaves, I’m more likely to find myself back on the road with the caravans. According to Yelena, I can only cast the binding spell two more times.”

Ellerie stared at him for a moment. “I suppose if you ever need a wizard and I’m nearby, I could help out.”

“You’d do that? I thought after we found Tir Yadar, we’d never see you again.”

“Well, it depends on where you’re at. South Corner isn’t that far from Matagor. Four Roads would be harder, since the dragon’s in the way.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, but I probably won’t make any decisions until we’re back from Cordaea. Four Roads and South Corner are both too close to Larso if Prince Rusol is still trying to hunt me down. I hope Yelena will have some ideas on what to do about him.”

Ellerie’s jaw hurt from all the fake smiling. The reception wasn’t as bad as she’d feared, but it was difficult to be friendly all the time, and she was out of practice.

“You’re from the Black Crows?” Vartus was asking Corec. “Mountains are nothing new for you, then.”

Corec laughed. “There’s a big difference between the Black Crows and the Storm Heights. Not just the mountains but the weather. I’ve never seen a snowstorm as heavy as the one we ran into here. If Sarette and Gregor hadn’t been with us, everyone would have died.”

“Which I pointed out to Les, but he’s a stickler for the rules.” Vartus waved to Councilor Lesander, who was on the other side of the room talking to a woman Ellerie didn’t recognize.

Councilor Rurik said, “The High Guard’s much larger than the stormrunner order, and the rules are there for a reason. Let’s not spend the whole night debating something that’s already been resolved.” He turned to Corec. “You’ve got maple trees in the Black Crows, right? We make an ... interesting rum out of our own syrup. I think there’s a bottle here somewhere.” He peered around the room.