Chapter 15

Present day...

“Heya, Kev,” Corec said, grasping the other man’s forearm. “They’ve got you back out on patrol already? That was fast.”

“They kicked me out of the Order.” Kevik kept his face stoic, but there was a heaviness behind the words.

“Oh,” Corec said, the smile slipping from his face. “Bloody hell. I didn’t think they’d actually do it. What was their excuse?”

“Take your pick,” Kevik said. “Disobeying orders, associating with mages, getting Willem killed.” He sighed. “I didn’t know what else to do, so I came here. Georg’s putting up the horses.”

“They kicked you all out?”

“Just me, but Georg wasn’t happy about how they were treating the rest of us, so he came along. He figures with the dragon gone, he’ll be able to find better opportunities out this way. And Barat sent a message for you.” He handed over a tiny slip of paper.

Corec read and reread the single sentence, trying to figure out if there was some hidden meaning.

“That’s all he sent?” he asked.

“That’s it,” Kevik replied. “Warn Corec he’s in danger. I thought you might know what it meant.”

The paper looked like it had come from a pigeon message, which meant Kevik hadn’t spoken to Barat in person.

“He’s in Telfort now, right?” Corec said.

“Last I heard, yes, but I didn’t have a chance to find out for sure. They wanted me out of town.”

“I’m sorry,” Corec said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten you involved, but you made the right choice going after the dragon. It had to be done, and we couldn’t have managed it without you. You have a place here if you want.”

“As what?” Kevik asked.

That was a good question. With his training and experience, Kevik was most qualified for Captain of the Guard, but Corec wasn’t going to remove Sarette from the position and give it to someone else.

Then he had another thought. “Why not as a knight?”

Kevik gave a short, bitter laugh. “A knight? In what Order?”

“Who says you need an Order?”

“A knight without an Order is just a mercenary,” Kevik said. Then he seemed to realize who he was talking to and grimaced. “Sorry—I didn’t mean...” He trailed off.

“The only reason the knights operate within the Order of Pallisur is to keep them under the priests’ control. It’s the oaths you need, not the Order. And not their oaths, but something you can live with—a code you can follow, to help you make the best choices you can.”

“New oaths?” Kevik said. “Then you’re talking about a new Order. Why? You’ve only got, what, two hundred people here?”

“Over five hundred now, I think. It changes every day.” Plus, they’d only been able to count the people nearest to the keep. They’d received word of other groups settling farther north, and rumors about the south and the west.

“Still, what could you possibly need knights for? You already have soldiers, and there’s no Church for us to serve.”

“Most of the knights didn’t join up to serve the Church,” Corec reminded him. “Osbert and the ones like him, sure, but the rest of us? You, me, even Trentin—we were there to make something of ourselves.” He was having trouble finding the right words to say what he wanted to say.

“That’s not a reason.”

Corec tried again. “Being a soldier is a job—when you quit, it’s over. But you can’t stop being a knight, even if they tell you that you’re not one anymore.”

“You still think of yourself as a knight?”

“Not really—certainly not a Knight of Pallisur—but I’ll always be what they made me. I left some of it behind, but I kept the rest. It means something. It’s got to, or else what were we doing all that time?”

“Is that how you ended up volunteering to lead an assault against a dragon?”

Corec chuckled. “I guess it is. You’ll find the same thing, you know—they may have taken away your title, but you’ll always be you. You’re still a knight in the ways that actually matter, so why not make it official? Back when Matagor had knights, they weren’t particularly religious. Larso’s way of doing things isn’t the only way.”

“You might be right, but an Order of one? I’m not going to accomplish much on my own, and Georg insists he’s ready for retirement.”

“You’ll probably have to spend more time working with the regular soldiers than you have in the past, but we can be on the lookout for some good candidates to recruit. You should talk to Nedley when he gets back from Four Roads.”

“Nedley? He’s a good kid, but a knight?”

“He’s bright—he picks things up fast. I’ll admit, I haven’t spent any time teaching him tactics or courtly graces, but he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do.”

Kevik nodded. “I’ll think about it, but if I’m going to stick around, I need to know what I’m getting into. What’s the deal with Barat’s note?”

“I don’t know,” Corec said. “I haven’t heard from him since I left Larso. If he’s in Telfort, though ... have you ever met King Rusol?”

“I don’t make it to the capital much. Certainly not for anything important enough to be meeting with the king.”

“I can’t say for sure why Barat sent the note, but I can make a guess. There are some things I need to tell you...”

Leena ruffled Udit’s hair, then knocked on the door. “I just need to talk to Ellerie first, then I’ll show you around.”

The door opened and the elven woman peeked out, her puzzled look turning to a smile when she saw who was waiting. “You’re back,” she said. “Why did you knock?” Then she noticed Leena’s brother. “Oh, Udit, hello!” she said in careful Zidari. “Welcome to the free lands. I didn’t know you were coming so soon.”

Leena had to nudge Udit to get him to reply.

“Hi,” he mumbled, looking down.

Ellerie gave him an uncertain smile, then switched back to trade tongue. “Are you feeling better now?” she asked Leena. “You don’t look as tired.”

“I’ll be fine, I was just trying to do too much,” Leena said. She didn’t want to worry her lover. “I’m going to stop working for the Travelers’ Posts for a while.”

“Is that enough? Maybe you should stop running errands for us, too—Corec’s going to hire horse messengers now that the roads are in better shape, and we’re looking for a pigeon keeper.”

“It’s all right,” Leena said. “I don’t mind, and I still need the practice. I’m supposed to keep building up the northern network.” That part was true, at least, as long as she didn’t do more than she could handle. “I’ll just only go to Sanvar once a week now instead of working there every day.”

“If you’re sure,” Ellerie said, still a hint of suspicion in her tone. “It’ll be nice to have you around more.”

Leena grinned. “Yes, and that’s why I brought Udit, since I won’t be going home as often. I’m going to show him to his room, then introduce him to everyone. Do you want to come with us?”

“Oh!” Ellerie said. “We didn’t know he was coming, and a friend of Treya’s is staying in that room. Maybe he can share with Harri for a few days.”

Leena nodded. “That’s fine,” she said. She wanted the boys to get to know each other anyway, so Udit could practice speaking trade tongue. A shared suite wouldn’t bother him—he’d been living in a tent for the past year and a half.

“I’ll go look for Harri and ask him,” Ellerie said. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, then we can take Udit on his tour.” She offered him another smile.

He flicked his thumb against the side of his nose—a common child’s insult in Sanvar, though Ellerie just appeared puzzled.

After she’d left, Leena turned to her brother. “Why are you always so rude to her?” she asked.

Udit gave her a sullen look. “You were supposed to come home and marry Pavan and then we’d all move back to Matihar together. Instead, you want to stay here with her.”

“Who told you I was going to marry Pavan?”

“Everyone was saying it.”

“Did Pavan say it?”

Udit thought for a moment. “No. I don’t remember.”

“Rohav and Grandmother?”

He nodded. “And our cousins, everyone.”

Leena sighed. “Come with me,” she said, leading him into the sitting room, to a stack of blankets piled up like a rug near the hearth. There was no fire now that the weather had warmed up, but Leena still preferred the spot over the old, rickety chairs they’d managed to save. She and her brother sat next to each other, cross-legged, and she draped an arm over his shoulders.

“They shouldn’t have said that,” she continued. “Those were private discussions between adults, and I never agreed to marry Pavan. You already know why I can’t move back to Matihar yet. It’s not safe.”

“But why can’t you marry Pavan?” Udit asked.

“You like Pavan, huh?”

“He’s nice. He comes to the camp and teaches me Traveling when Uncle Rohav is too busy.”

“He’s a good man, but I don’t love him. That doesn’t mean you can’t still be friends with him.”

“But he won’t come here,” Udit said.

“He might,” Leena said. She had no intention of telling her little brother about the actual arrangement she’d made with Pavan, but it would, by necessity, require spending time together. “And you don’t have to stay here forever, just until it’s safer, or until you can Travel on your own. I’ll teach you for now, and Rohav’s going to visit. How does that sound?”

“It’s all right, I guess.”

“You know, Ellerie’s a lot like Pavan in some ways,” Leena said. “She’s a good person too. Will you give her a chance?”

He hesitated. “Can I still have a dog?”

Leena laughed. “We’ll check around the village to see if there are any puppies. If not, we can look in Four Roads, or even back in Sanvara City. We’re not stuck here all the time, you know. We can go anywhere we want.”

Ariadne found Georg leaning against the newly rebuilt paddock fence, watching the less experienced armsmen practice infantry formations.

“What do you think?” she asked, joining him. Ral was standing in front of the soldiers, barking off orders as he led them through the maneuvers.

“He doesn’t know what he’s bloody doing,” Georg said, keeping his voice pitched low. “He was on the ballista crews, wasn’t he? And too old even for that. Why do you have him acting as armsmaster?”

“Corec and Boktar don’t have time for it, and Nedley’s still away.”

“Nedley? Why not Cenric or one of the mercenaries?”

“Cenric went home,” Ariadne said. “And have you ever tried to get a mercenary to teach formation fighting? Enzo and Graeme are working with the men on their swordplay, but Corec didn’t want them handling anything else. Ral will do what he’s told, at least.”