Chapter 5

“I remember there being more people here,” Sarette said as she and Katrin wandered through the market stalls.

“You’ve been to Lanport before?” the other woman asked.

“Once, years ago.” Her parents had taken her so she could see the ocean.

“Well, it’s cold and wet today. It’s not a surprise that the market’s quiet.”

Sarette hadn’t considered that. She hadn’t even noticed it was raining, and the temperature would have to drop much lower before she’d be bothered by it. Cold rain was a fact of life in Snow Crown—the price they paid for the valley keeping the worst of the snowstorms out.

She nodded to a stormborn man as they passed him in the street, his pale, slightly blue skin and the purple markings along the sides of his head standing out even here, in the one human city that her people regularly visited. He nodded in return but didn’t stop to talk, intent on his business.

Like her, he was armed, but with a quarterstaff rather than the more common staff-spear of their people. Stormborn always went armed in Lanport. The city guards were ineffective at dealing with the pirates and bandits that made their home here, far away from the laws of Tyrsall and the other southern kingdoms. Often, the guards were allied with them.

“How long does it take to reach Tyrsall from here?” Sarette asked.

“If we don’t stay over in High Cove this time, it should be about twenty days, but it depends how muddy the roads are.”

“Are there really a million people there, all in one place?” That would make Tyrsall five times the size of Snow Crown.

“That’s what they say. It’s huge—from north to south, it’s over twenty miles long.” Katrin stopped, facing a row of shops lined with a covered wooden walkway. A lone man was there playing a lively tune on the fiddle, using the walkway to stay out of the muddy street. “This is where she used to play when it was raining. If she’s not here and she’s no longer at the inn she was staying at, she’s probably left the city. I was hoping to convince her to come with us.”

“Is this the same bard that told you about Snow Crown?”

“Yes. Anise visited there before us, and knew more about your people. Without her, we would have probably gone straight through Tarvist Pass. Ellerie wanted to get a look at the mountains from both the east and the west.”

Sarette laughed. “That’s what Tarvist Pass is there for—so outsiders have an easy way through the mountains without getting stranded or stopping to visit Snow Crown. Other than traders, we try to discourage visitors.”

“I guess it worked out despite that. Her Royal Bitchiness seems excited, at least.”

It had been a week since the revelation that Ellerie was the daughter of the queen of Terevas, and of everyone in the group, Katrin had had the hardest time adjusting to the news.

Sarette didn’t know either of the women well enough to speak up about it, so she changed the subject. “How did you and Corec meet?”

Katrin frowned. “Do you really want to know?” Then she sighed. “Everyone else does, so I guess I might as well tell you. Let’s head back, though. I think we can reach our inn by heading directly west from here.” She was quiet at first as they walked, but then said, “Corec and I met when he captured me for a bounty that had been put out on me for theft.”

“Oh,” Sarette replied, not sure how to reply.

“It’s a long story. I needed the money to get my brother out of prison. I’d stopped stealing before that, but I took it up one last time to get him out, and it didn’t go well. Or maybe it did go well—Corec ended up paying Barz’s penalty fee and my own. I don’t know how I’ll ever repay him. Maybe I should forgive him for not telling me about Ellerie right away. Anyway, we’d actually run into each other before that, and he’d cast the binding spell without realizing it, so the day after he caught me, the runes showed up. We were near the Terril Forest, so we went to ask the elves about it, and that’s where we met Shavala.”

“I remember Treya saying something about the runes taking a long time to appear.”

“Yes, over a week, and they itched the whole time, so be glad it didn’t happen to you. I scratched my head so much, it almost started bleeding. Be glad you can hide it, too. It’s no fun having people stare at you all the time.”

“What do you mean?” Sarette said. “You’re hiding yours.” Katrin hadn’t bothered to conceal her rune when they were in the mountains, but she was doing so now.

“Only because it’s raining. I had to get better at hiding it because I’m not supposed to get my hat wet—it’s made out of straw. But it’s still easier to wear the hat than focus on concealing the rune all the time. I don’t know how the rest of you were able to figure it out so easily.”

“It reminds me of the concentration exercises I learned during my stormrunner training.”

“Treya said something like that, too. So you’re saying I’m bad at concentrating?”

“No, I didn’t mean...” Sarette glanced at the other woman, worried she’d offended her, but was relieved to find her grinning. “No, but how does the warden bond work for you? You’ve never mentioned being a mage.”

“Bardic abilities are magic of a sort, but I honestly don’t know if the rune’s done anything for me. Other than singing for an audience, I never tried to use those abilities much until after I had it, so I don’t know what I was able to do before that.”

They were following a quieter street away from the market when two rough-dressed men stepped out in front of them.

“Hello, ladies,” one said with a grin. “Looking for company?”

“No,” Katrin said flatly.

They tried to walk around, but the men blocked them.

Katrin drew in a deep breath, but before she could do anything, Sarette rapped the butt of her staff-spear against the ground, charging it. The clouds in the sky provided extra power, despite the lack of a lightning storm.

Strands of blue and white light flickered over the spear, and the men backed away, their eyes wide. One fell into the mud and scrambled backwards, trying to get to his feet.

“Storm witch!” the other said. “I’m sorry! We weren’t gonna do nothing!” He turned and ran, and his friend managed to stand and follow after.

“They must be locals if they know about stormrunners,” Sarette said, staring after them.

“They were afraid of you.”

“Vartus says the people around here still tell stories about the wars. It was a long time ago, but humans used to try to conquer the Heights. I hope I didn’t interfere with whatever you were going to do.”

“It was pretty much the same as what you did,” Katrin said. Then she grinned. “Except they wouldn’t have known why they were running.”

“Burton isn’t hurting Kerris?”

“Or, at least, he didn’t do so on the days I spent watching,” Razai replied. After she’d gotten the information she needed from Tobin Senshall’s home, she’d moved on to his brother. “Their problems aren’t much better, though. Everyone in that family hates each other. Burton, Kerris, the wife. There’s a lot of yelling at night.”

Renny chewed on her lip. “I suppose that might explain Kerris’s behavior. Do you think seven days is enough time to know for sure?”

“How would I know? But if I keep going back, I’ll get caught.” Without a job opening up in Burton’s home, or any other legitimate reason to be there, she’d been forced to sneak in, spending long stretches of time invisible while spying on the family.

“I guess I’ll only report Tobin, then,” the concubine said.

“To who?”

“Mother Ola. She’s in charge of the Three Orders chapter house here in Tyrsall. She can terminate Elba’s contract and assess Tobin with a penalty. If she convinces Elba to complain to the constabulary, he might even get arrested, though that’s not likely—the family holds too much power. But if we let people know why the contract was terminated, he’ll be publicly humiliated. That’s probably the best we can hope for.”