by Liam Carrack
“Scinna, don’t sneak so. The girl is doing just fine, under the circumstances. She gambles, but the stakes are not so terrible.” Cook chastised Scinna, though she appeared unperturbed by the latter’s abrupt appearance.
I took a step closer to Cook and beckoned for Scinna to join us. “Things may be more treacherous than I intended.”
“Harrumph. I don’t see how that is possible, unless you have invited the Guild Council to dine here this evening.”
I blanched and looked at my slippers. They were quite dirty after the use I had put them to today.
“What have you done child?” Cook’s voice was calm, but there was an edge to it I wished never to hear. Fear perhaps, or her seldom used but fiery anger?
“Yesterday I invited Gemsman Tobbyrn to dine with me this evening. I had intended only to thank him for the service he did our family at Garvyn’s death and to widen my social circle. I do not know if he will call or not. As for the Council…” I turned to Scinna who wore a look of bafflement as if she didn’t know me, “Gemsman’s Guild Head Jespyrn has made it clear he wishes to dote on my favor, will I or no, as I have told you. He may arrive unannounced, as family, at any moment, on a whim. I can not control that or I would send him from me forever.” My frustration at this point was plain on my face. “Tobbyrn may prove a useful ally, but Guild Head Jespyrn will ever be a thorn to worry us.”
Cook made a small cough and looked significantly toward the open door through which her helper had gone. Scinna and I turned to look as Horice crossed the threshold. Two shadows lurked within the folds of his tattered robes. He carried three significant parcels before him. Had he gone out looking thusly? Surely his wardrobe had not been so neglected that he thought this a worthy garment? It was better than the stained and rumpled vestments he roamed the Hall in, but still! He was setting his parcels down just this side of the door when Scinna spoke.
“More strays? Has the whole world gone mad?” As she said this I saw the flit of a tiny hand come up to tug at Horice’s but drop again quickly at Scinna’s tone. I walked slowly but confidently closer to the hidden children in Cook’s kitchen, and therefore toward Horice, but my eyes were not for him. He began making some excuse, but was stumbling over his tongue, as I knelt beside him and touched the tiny girl’s face. She smiled at me and I knew her Power and her purity in that moment. She would wield great Power and do great things for the good of the many even unto her own death. That such a one had fallen into my keeping I rejoiced. I smiled at her to let her know my joy, and I turned to look at her companion. I held out my upturned palm as I might to a frightened animal. He was fearful, of me, and what might become of the two of them. That he was fiercely protective of the tiny girl beside him was obvious. Even now he edged to move between us. He stared, openly hostile, at my hand and then into my eyes. His tiny companion placed his hand in mine before he knew what she would do. Again that strange spark of Knowledge came to me. He held the Gift as well, not so strongly as his companion, but more than Talent. With his Abilities, so too came the Knowledge that he came here for the betterment of her life. Horice had promised them safe walls, good food, and learning. I smiled a greeting to him too.
Without looking away from him I asked Horice if he brought them here to teach them. I did not wait for a response, nor did I look to any of the others in the kitchen save the two tiny new members of my household. They came with me, hand in hand back outside, and toward the stable’s bathing facilities. These were updated, but closer to what these children might have known. Some small part of me knew that if I had taken them through the house Scinna’s temper would not have been easy to sidestep. These children were quite filthy.
As we reached the baths I recalled the fighter I had sent here earlier. It appeared that Jesemn had taken care of the man. He was of an age with my brother I thought, if my brother still lived. Both children stood their ground before me at the sight of him cleaning his mail, the boy in a defensive stance. “I see you have made good use of the facilities. I hope they are up to your standards.” I said with complete candor.
“My lady, they are well appointed and were thoroughly enjoyed. I have had little but country streams and ponds these last two years. I can ask for no better.” His speech was polite and self-deprecating, and yet jovial and well turned. Not what I expected after Fistall’s fit of earlier.
“I am glad.” I smiled and wondered at so well educated a swordsman. “I can only assume that you hunger after so trying a day. Perhaps Cook has something ready for you in the kitchen.” He took careful note of my escort and smiled again.
In his own tongue he spoke to the children. His voice was soft and caring. At his words the lad visibly relaxed. Then his jaw dropped and he stared openly from me to the fighter and back again. At that moment he did the oddest thing, he dropped to one knee. Damn it! I knew I should have learned Dynaly. Old Phiriaen, Salassari, Mountain Jar, and Holmish were all fine and good, but they weren’t very useful to me right now. The lad stood, bowed to the fighter, and then to me with more grace than I would have thought he knew.
The fighter stood and laughed. He ruffled the hair of the boy as he walked past. He smiled at me. “You are a lucky woman to find such devotion, even from someone as young as he. Good luck in all your fairings, lady.” The last he said with gravity, but he had on a smile as he walked past me toward the kitchen door.
“Do you know who that is?” The boy was obviously in awe of the soldier who had so recently left our presence as is often the way of boys, and yet…
I heard a splash to my left and turned to grin at the girl who was now playing in the water. I called to her as I moved into the screened bathing area. “Take those rags off, you silly girl! I want a clean girl, not a wet mop.” I hoped my tone was as playful as my words. She wriggled a bit, then handed up the sodden mess that had been her clothing and I tossed it into a heap by the entrance. “Now, out of that dirty water and into another tub with you.” I was filling the smallest washing basin with steaming water from a cistern heated by the sun and bade the lad fetch a few buckets of cold from a sluice. He did and she happily leapt from one pool to the other like a little fish. Again I laughed. The boy was prattling on beside me. He tugged and looked at me earnestly.
“That was Darvyl. Darvyl, the King’s own nephew, and the greatest of his Guard! I have heard stories of him all my life. Wasn’t he amazing, even dressed as a lowly farm hand?”
“What? He is a Prince?” Had I made another faux pas? To treat one so could be seen as a great slight.
“No, not a Prince, he’s Darvyl of The Dynal High Guard!” My ignorance was irksome to the boy, but the conversation was amusing and perhaps useful.
“But you said he was the King’s nephew. Doesn’t that make him a Prince?”
“He is the fourth son of the sister of King Jeivall. This makes him a nephew, not a Prince.” He sounded exasperated with my ignorance, “he is a great fighter. Is it true that you have King Jeivall’s son here? That you are working to help him?”
“That is what Darvyl’s Lord Fistall has told me. I believe him, but I do not think I like him.” I was speaking candidly to the boy while scrubbing at his companion.
“I pledged my life and my service to His Heir this day, and I mean to live my life in that service.”
“Is that so?” I was near mocking him and he might have moved to take offense when Horice began a defensive plea. I jumped and looked up at him in disbelief. He had no idea what we had been discussing and must have assumed that I meant to throw these beautiful, wonderful children to the wolves. Did he think so meanly of me?
“What do you think I am, Horice?” If he thought so little of me, what would the Guild Council see tomorrow? He continued on in a ramble about wanting to help the children and the Sage’s Guild’s shortsighted views on training the Gifted. It dawned on me that this tirade was based on his fears and not on anything I had done or said. He was so wrapped up in his own fears that reality went by unnoticed. Tears had
begun to stream down his face and collect in those laugh lines I have so treasured the sight of. The scene was so pitiful that I raised a hand to brush away his tears.
The emotional blow I felt when he shied from my touch was crushing, but I continued. My hand brushed gently at his face as I spoke. “Horice, Horice how could you think I know nothing of your ideas? You think I have not read your works? I know what you wish, and I support it. I could not throw anyone into the streets, Horice. You know better than that. Beautiful children such as these deserve the caring and compassion you offer. How could you think I would not accept them?” I was hurt, but I meant to have him know my mind that no further misunderstanding could follow. “How could you think I would hurt you? You shrank from me as a beaten dog. You have ever been my mentor, my teacher. I look up to you. I have known you nearly all my life. What makes you think I could strike you?”
His reply was more heart wrenching. He had been sore hurt by his treatment in the Sage’s Guild. Had my father seen in him the greatness they had meant to tarnish? I must believe so, for why else would he have left me with such a teacher? I loved my parents the more for their foresight. The girl child lifted a sodden hand, reached up to touch his arm, and a wave of comfort and caring washed over me reminding me of soft songs my mother had sung to me as a child. My eyes were full of tears I had not shed. I let my admiration and love for him shine in my eyes as he looked from the child to me and back again.
“I am a lucky man to have such as you, and you.” The first was directed at me, the second to the little girl by our side.
“Uh-humm.” It was the boy. Having plunged himself into a third tub for bathing, he looked decidedly like a water logged cat, and about has happy.
Horice
Just as my heart slowed, and I planned to lead the children inside I saw a strange young Dynaly boy start walking toward the outbuilding we now sheltered in, while at the same moment an armor clad man limped across the yard toward the back of the stables. What was going on here? The young man stepped within reach and stopped cold to stare at me.
“What do you do here? Who is that man? What’s going on?” I was shaky and worried. Sounding unsure of myself even to my own ears I tried to exude a sense of confidence with my Abilities, but that too seemed to be failing me.
“What are you doing hiding in a shed? Stealing?” This wiry young man eyed me warily, as if he had every right to be here, and I did not. Then he sighted the two children peeking from behind my robe. His eyes widened, “Who are you?” but his voice sounded incredulous.
“My name is Horice, and I am the Hall Sage. Who are you?” I was frightened now. What change of fortune had this Hall befallen?
“I’m Scuf. Cook sent me to get some things for the meal she’s making. The Lady was asking after you a moment ago, but no one knew where you’d gone after she left this morning. I think she’s still in the kitchen.” He pointed back over his shoulder.
“I know where it is boy - Scuf.” I turned to look into the faces of the children I had in tow and then back at the boy. “You’re Gifted.” It wasn’t a question it was a statement. Something had passed between the untrained ruffian behind me and the boy before me.
He looked at me warily but said nothing. “You’re well shielded, son. I didn’t sense you at all until you touched this lad. If it is a secret you wish to keep I will do my best not to make it common knowledge.” He nodded reverently and began collecting things from the shelves. Quite a bit more, and richer food than I thought necessary, but it would be his task to replace whatever she didn’t need, so I would let him bear it.
I walked over to the doorway he had emerged from to see Scinna, Cook and Llanalla with their heads together and such a scene of chaos about the usually tidy kitchen as to suggest a grandiose feast in preparation. What was going on here? All three ladies looked up at me at once.
“More strays? Has the whole world gone mad?” Scinna’s exasperation was evident. More Strays? What? Ask fool and stop wondering. Llanalla was walking toward me, and both littles hid behind me, though I doubt the boy was terror-stricken.
“Llanalla, I went out to collect a few of the provisions that I… depleted yesterday… and …” she knelt beside me and reached tentatively to brush the face of the girl. The girl smiled at the touch and I fancied I saw her glow for a moment. I was sure it was some trick of the Sight. Perhaps a glimpse of an aura you old fool, still looking for what isn’t there? Llanalla smiled back and held out an upturned hand to the boy. He just stared at it, and at her. The little girl did a curious thing then. She picked up his hand and placed it on Llanalla’s. That instantaneous glow again? Mayhap it isn’t just in my mind.
“You want to teach them.” She wasn’t asking.
Scinna was looking on with a face that said she wasn’t happy, but I was. Llanalla understood. She got it. I didn’t want their power. I wanted them safe, and happy, and productive. They had enough of the Gift to help people and conversely enough to do real damage if they went untaught. There was a third possibility, but that idea made me want to wretch, so I put it from my mind.
Both littles looked up to her in a kind of quiet serenity that I thought the boy would never have shown me. She walked with them out of the kitchen and into the yard toward the bathing facilities behind the stable. At least I thought that was where she was headed. She gave no signs that she saw or even heard anything of Scinna’s displeasure. I followed her in a state of equal bemusement until Scinna caught at my arm.
“What are you doing, you old fool? First She brings us some haughty Dynal Lord with another squalling infant, and now we’re running some safe haven for all the riffraff of the city?”
“What do you mean about a Dynal Lord? She brought what?” That surge of rightness with the world was gone, and fear had replaced it.
“And you, I suppose you walked about the city in those rags. Does no one think of the reputation of this Hall? We are to be envied by all, not looked upon as crazies to be suffered. We could lose everything with this insanity.”
Cook placed a heavy hand on Scinna’s shoulder. “You have things to look to.” Since when had Cook taken an upper hand in anything? But, Scinna didn’t notice. She just turned away and stalked off down a corridor. “Horice, she is right, but I think you meant well. They are half starved, the poor things. Go to Yesmena in the nursery, and ask her for some of Llanalla and Garvyn’s old things for those two. Also, have a look in on the boy they call the heir. You should be able to tell me if he truly is the son of Horsewoman Lanydda. You knew her father and you would know his grandson wouldn’t you?” She had gone back to her preparations, and I could see that Scuf fellow making his way back into the kitchen with the supplies she had sent him for. “Good, good. Just there, I’ll arrange them. Would you please take those to your master?” She pointed imperiously toward a neatly folded pile of clothes. “Go on, Horice.” Cook had become the voice of rational thought in a storm of anarchy.
I wandered up to the third floor of the East wing, and into the old nursery. Two babies sat in cradles, one makeshift, while Yesmena worked on some mending, her feet rocking both cradles in a steady tap-tap-tap. She looked up and smiled serenely at me. I could feel the Power billowing up at me from Maersyn, but beside him slept an almost identical babe. Did all babes look so much alike, or was this resemblance particular to these two? I shook my head to clear it and stared down at the less Powerful of the two. If Maersyn was a mighty river, this one beside him was a nearly dry creek bed.
“Hmmm, an heir? Well my boy you have something of the Horse in you, that is plain, but I see nothing definitive.” For that matter I would be just as willing to say they both did.
A voice sounded behind me. “He IS the Heir. I will swear my life on it. Her Majesty died in his birthing.” I looked around to see a woman who appeared much younger than the conviction her voice held suggested. She took the steps to gain level with me and looked from my eyes to the sleeping infants. She gasped and tried to recover, but the pal
lor of her cheeks belied some problem.
Yesmena must have missed the gasp while smiling down at the infants. “It’s uncanny how much they look alike isn’t it? So happy, and so peaceful. I’ve never thought babies from two different mothers could look so alike.” She turned her head to look up at us now.
“Yes, uncanny. That be the word I would choose.” But her voice shook a little. Could she not tell the one from the other? Did she worry about fingering the wrong babe?
“I put the heir Maevall in the proper crib. Maersyn is happy in the improvised one. He was happy enough in a basket last night, so I’m sure he can make do.” I heard the maid stifle another breath at her precious heir’s name. Silly woman, a baby does not care what you call it.
“Yesmena. I have been sent to you for some of Llanalla and Garvyn’s old clothes. We have two more visitors. The girl will probably fit into what Llanalla wore at age 3 or 4. The boy is more like Garvyn at 5 or 6, but very thin.” She gave me an odd glance, but left the rocking to the newcomer, and led me to a closet and began rummaging about in it. She handed me several garments that she thought might work and shuffled past me toward the cribs.
“Will you be okay with them?” The woman nodded. “Then I will be on about a few other things.” She moved to leave and then turned back to the woman in the chair who had picked up her mending and continued it. “Did you find everything okay? Is everything as you would wish?” All the haughtiness had melted from the woman as she sat in that chair. “Oh, yes. The bathing chamber…I have never seen its like, and the rooms are better than we’ve known. We were taken up by Her Majesty for reasons known only to her. I always fancied it was because we stood up for ourselves, but…” She smiled as tears formed at the edges of her eyes. If her mistress had died as she said, there was reason enough for her unhappiness.
“Good. I think my Lady means to keep you on here if she can. And what your people might call willfulness in a maid will not so easily go noticed here. Stick up for yourself if you feel need. I heard that bully from up here and he deserves to be taken down a peg or two.” This I heard as I was walking off toward the back stairway. What followed it was a quiet laugh, but a hearty one. Yesmena walked the other direction down the hallway and knocked at a door.
