Caelan nodded. “At least as far as we’re concerned. But I doubt Rolan’s given up on his search for the girl.”
“As long as he stays out of North Amden I don’t care what he does.” Weldon frowned. “Those men just suddenly left. Do you know what happened?”
“From what I gathered, Myron found some assassins and spies in Milhaven and threatened to challenge Rolan if he didn’t get his men out of here and stop sending assassins after Landis.”
“Can he do that? Challenge Rolan I mean.”
“That was my reaction too, but Myron’s figured out a way to do it. He said he’d resign his seat on the council by turning his keys over to Glendymere and then he’d challenge Rolan.”
“Would Glendymere allow him to do that?”
Caelan hesitated. “I honestly don’t know, but from the bits I’ve picked up, there’s no love lost between him and the current Sorcerer of Brendolanth. He might go along with it.”
Weldon nodded. “Well, whatever Myron did, we owe him a big thank you. Be sure you let the federation know we’re pleased with the way he handled it.”
Caelan nodded.
“Guess it’s time to get our meeting underway.” Weldon called for Eldwyn. When Eldwyn opened the door, Weldon asked, “Is everyone here?”
“Yes, sir. They’re in the council room waiting for you and Caelan.”
“We’ll be right there,” Weldon said as he stood up. “Let’s go see what new problems have come up.”
Five minutes later, Weldon called the meeting to order and asked if there was any old business that needed to be addressed. One of the elves indicated he had something to say, so Weldon nodded to him.
“From what I’ve heard, all the humans who were searching for that girl have left our territory. Is that right?” The elf glanced around the room to see if anyone disagreed. When no one did, he turned to Caelan. “Please thank Myron for whatever he did to solve the problem, and since I’m sure our concerns were brought up at the last federation meeting, I’d like for you to express our gratitude at the meeting next week. Everyone on the federation needs to know the young sorcerer brought about a satisfactory resolution.”
Caelan smiled. “I’ll deliver your message.”
“Thank you,” the elf said as he nodded at Weldon and leaned back in his chair.
“Anything else?” Weldon asked. When one of the other elves lifted his finger, Weldon nodded.
“I’m still concerned about the root of the problem we had with Rolan. Does anyone know if the girl he was searching for is actually in North Amden? I didn’t want to ask last spring because I was afraid I’d cause more problems, but if she’s here, do we owe it to Rolan to produce her?”
Weldon cleared his throat. “The young lady in question was not anywhere near North Amden last spring and hasn’t been here since.”
“Where is she?” Owen asked. “Seems to me if any of us know, we should tell Rolan. He’s the head of her family.”
“Actually, I’ve spoken with one of Rolan’s representatives. I suggested that Rolan address his questions to Myron as she’s his apprentice.”
“That seems sufficient to me,” one of the other elves said as several others nodded.
Owen shook his head. “But if we know where she is, we should say so.”
“Why?” Weldon asked. “How is it our concern?”
“Because one of our warrior elves was instrumental in helping her hide from her brother. We need to correct that by helping him locate her. Then the two of them can sort out their problems without any interference from elves.”
Another elf shook his head. “Rhianna was hired as a bodyguard. If the girl felt she was in danger from her brother, it was her bodyguard’s duty to keep him away from her, which Rhianna did. It’s never a bodyguard’s duty to get involved in who’s right and who’s wrong. We protect the person we’re hired to protect, unless they’ve committed a criminal offense and are hiding from the appropriate court.”
“And who’s to say that wasn’t the case?” Owen argued.
Weldon shook his head. “Owen, if Rolan had charges to file against his sister, he’d have said so when he sent those men here to search for her. Whatever problem he has with his sister is family business and none of our affair.”
“You’re just saying that because your niece was involved.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Let me ask you something, Owen,” one of the other elves said. “How can you be certain Rolan’s telling the truth? How would you feel if we helped him and the girl ended up dead?”
Owen hesitated.
“You don’t know Rolan any better than the rest of us,” the elf continued, “but he sent a bunch of humans here to do whatever it took to find his sister. They bullied our children, trashed some of our buildings, and pushed their way into our homes. And his reason for searching here? It wasn’t that she’d done anything wrong. He claimed she’d been abducted by an elf! We know that was a lie. Do you think he’s earned our help? What has his sister ever done to make us think she’s lying about being in danger? He seems to be the more treacherous of the two.”
Owen took a deep breath. “You may be right. But since Rhianna got us mixed up in this to start with, we should put things back to the way they were before she got involved.”
“Things are back to the way they were before she got involved,” Caelan said in a chilled voice. “Myron had the girl hidden, then he hired Rhianna because the girl was going to be out in public, and now he has her hidden again.”
“Is Rhianna still with her?” Owen snarled. “Still interfering with the brother’s efforts to speak with his sister?”
Caelan shook his head. “Rhianna’s in Milhaven.”
Several sets of eyebrows rose at that tidbit of information.
“Why?” one elf asked as another asked, “What’s she doing there?”
“That’s where she lives,” Caelan answered.
“But why?” the first elf asked. “Why isn’t she at home?”
Caelan shrugged. “As far as she’s concerned, she is at home. Why shouldn’t she be in Milhaven? Her family’s been friends with the House of Nordin since long before she was born.”
“Oh.” The elf nodded. “I was afraid something else had happened.”
Weldon shook his head. “No, nothing like that. Now, any other old business?”
When no one else said anything, Weldon opened the meeting to new business. No one had any, so he reminded them of their next meeting on December 15.
As the elves chatted and slowly made their way out of the room, Caelan stood back to watch and listen. Once he and Weldon were the only ones left, Caelan closed the door. “Owen’s going to be trouble.”
“I know,” Weldon said. “He blames Rhianna for Carris not passing her tests.”
“The girl didn’t want to be a warrior elf. How could he not see that? It was obvious to everyone else.”
“She’s his daughter, and from the moment she was born, all he could talk about was what a great warrior elf she would be. He’s embarrassed and looking for someone to blame. Rhianna’s it.”
“But she had nothing to do with it. She was in training herself,” Caelan insisted. “If he wants to blame someone, he should blame the trainers.”
“Oh, he does, but he blames Rhianna more. According to him, Rhianna got all the attention while his daughter was left to do the best she could on her own.” Weldon sighed. “And it didn’t help that Duane was in charge of the testing.”
“But you’re in charge of the school. You wouldn’t have let anyone get ignored. He has to know that.”
“I think he does, but he’s not going to admit it. When I realized she probably wasn’t going to make it, I asked every instructor there to offer her extra sessions, individual help, anything they could think of.”
“I know. I was there. She turned every one of us down. Does he know that?”
Weldon nodded.
“Don’t you have our records? I made
notes on every session I taught and every time I gave anyone extra help, or offered to and was turned down.”
“All of you did, and I’ve got the notes. I offered to let him see them, but he said just because it’s written down doesn’t mean it happened.” Weldon shrugged. “It won’t get any better until Carris tells him the truth, but I don’t think we need to count on that happening. In the meantime, we’ll try to protect Rhianna as well as we can. Maybe it’s a good thing she’s in Milhaven right now. Who knows? Maybe Carris will have babies before long.”
Caelan laughed and took out his key. “At least it would give him something else to think about. I’ll let you know if anything of interest comes up at the federation meeting.” Then he turned his key and left for home.
~~~~
Glenarbour
A couple of days later Sean and Kitra arrived on the outskirts of Glenarbour. Kitra sighed as she looked towards town. “It’ll be so nice to have a hot bath and sleep in a real bed tonight.”
Sean paused. “I don’t think we can, not tonight anyway.”
“Why not? We haven’t spent but one night in an inn. Are we running out of money?”
Sean shook his head. “No, we’re fine. The slave auction’s this weekend.”
“What slave auction?” Kitra frowned. “And what does that have to do with us?”
“Every third Saturday of the month, Glenarbour hosts a big slave auction. People come to it from all over Terah, and Rolan usually sends someone with orders to either buy or sell slaves. I don’t want to risk running into someone who might recognize one of us.”
“But today’s Wednesday. We’d be gone by lunchtime tomorrow.”
“If Rolan sent slaves, his men would already be here. If I knew of any other place we could cross the Kivee River, we wouldn’t have come anywhere near Glenarbour, but I don’t. I want to get on that ferry, cross the river, and get as far away from here as we can.”
Kitra’s shoulders sank. “We can’t even go into town for dinner?”
Sean shook his head again. “Too big a risk. If we get caught here, we could easily end up in one of the slave cages ourselves, provided he didn’t kill us first.”
Kitra raised her eyebrows. “You don’t really think he’d do that, do you?”
“Do what? Kill us or sell us?”
“Sell us as slaves.”
“I know he would. He’s done it before,” Sean said as they came to a fork in the road. A wooden sign pointing to the left said Glenarbour and another pointing to the right said ferry. “We need to get across the river. I promise, if we find a town before it’s time to make camp, we’ll stay in a room tonight. If not, we’ll find something tomorrow.”
Kitra sighed as Sean took the road to the right. “All right, but you better keep that promise.”
~~~~
Timera Valley, Camden
Thursday afternoon a falcon arrived at Brena’s chapel. “I bet you’re hungry, aren’t you?” she asked as she untied the note and smoothed the falcon’s feathers. “I’ll get some food and water for you.” She turned to the cabinet and took out the small plate and bowl they used for the falcons.
After she’d taken care of the bird, she put the kettle on and sat down at the kitchen table to read the letter.
Sister Brena,
I need your advice. Sorcerer Rolan sent for me a couple of months ago and said there’s a tea that makes a sorcerer’s powers stronger. He told me to mix some up for him. I told him I’d never heard of any tea that would do that, but he said a sister in Camden gave some to a sorcerer there. I told him I’d see what I could find out.
He’s sent for me three times since then, and each time I’ve shown him the letters I’ve received from sisters I’ve contacted and explained that none of them have ever heard of any such tea. Yesterday he called me a liar and said if I didn’t fix that tea for him, he’ll kick all the sisters out of Brendolanth and have the chapels destroyed. He gave me until the end of the month to bring him the tea.
Have you heard of any such tea? And if not, what should I do?
Thank you,
Sister Molly
Verna walked in the kitchen while Brena was reading the note. She set out a couple of cups and poured hot water in the teapot. While she waited for the tea to steep, she sat down opposite Brena. “Bad news?”
“I’m not sure.” Brena handed Verna the note. “See what you think.”
Verna frowned as she read it. “What’s she talking about?” she asked as she handed the note back to Brena. “I’ve never heard of any such tea.”
“Neither have I.” Brena folded the letter and stuck it in her pocket. “When the falcon finishes eating, let’s put him in the aviary. I need to get to the bottom of this and I think I may know where to start.”
~~~~
Milhaven, Camden
Friday morning when Chris went through the mail, one of the letters was from Crinsor Run, recognizable by the picture of a pegasus in flight next to Myron’s name. He took the letter to Kevin. “I think this one’s personal.”
Kevin held out his hand. “Please tell me it’s not from Dara.”
Chris laughed. “Not this time.”
“Her last one was enough to last me a while,” Kevin said, remembering the long letter he’d received shortly after Laryn had let her family know she was pregnant. Dara had given Kevin a list of all the special accommodations she expected Cryslyn to make for her visit, including menus to be passed on to Miranda. Her letter along with the lists for Cryslyn and Miranda were buried in one of Kevin’s desk drawers, which was where he intended for them to stay.
Chris pointed to the flying pegasus as he handed Kevin the note.
Kevin grinned and opened the letter. “Duane,” he said as he quickly scanned it. “He and Shelandra would like to come on the twenty-fourth and stay until the twenty-seventh.” He looked up at Chris. “That’s next Wednesday through Saturday. Do we have anything we can’t get out of then?”
“Let me check, but I don’t think so.”
Kevin nodded. “I’ll write back and tell him it’s fine. And I’m going to offer to pick them up unless they’re going other places, too. That’s a long flight.”
“I’ll let Cryslyn and Miranda know they’re coming. And Darrell of course. You’ll remember to mention it to Rhianna?”
“He probably wrote to her too, but I’ll mention it tonight, just in case. Anything else?”
“Not at the moment, but you might want to go ahead and get that one written. There’s a big stack of mail on my desk that hasn’t been sorted yet.”
Half an hour later Chris was back with more mail. “Most of this is routine, but you have one from Sister Brena. She needs to see you, Theresa, and Drusilla. She said it’s urgent and tomorrow evening around seven would be fine.”
Kevin raised his eyebrows. “Drusilla, too?”
Chris nodded. “What do you want me to do?”
“I guess the first thing I need to do is find out if Drusilla’s able to come. I’ll let Theresa know this evening.” Kevin took out his key. “Write a note to Brena saying we’ll be there, but don’t send it until I get back from Drisden.”
~~~~
Kevin, Theresa, and Drusilla arrived on Brena’s front porch promptly at seven Saturday evening. The chapel door opened as soon as they stepped out of the energy field.
“Right on time,” Verna said with a smile. “Brena’s in the kitchen. Go on in.”
Forty-five minutes later, after tea, cake, and small talk, Drusilla said, “This is nice, but you didn’t call us here just to chat. What’s happened?”
Brena pulled the letter from Trendon out of her pocket. “Dru, you’re here because this involves Brendolanth. Theresa, I’m hoping you can shed some light on it.”
Brena handed the letter to Drusilla, who read it, laughed, and handed it to Theresa. “Let him try to make me leave Drisden. Actually, I wish he would. It would solve a lot of headaches.”
After Theresa read it, she
grinned. “I’m the guilty party, or rather, we are.” She handed the note to Kevin.
Kevin quickly scanned the note and nodded. “We’re responsible for this. I’m sorry it ended up on your desk.”
“That’s all well and good, but it did, and we need a solution,” Brena said.
Drusilla leaned back and looked at Theresa. “I know there’s a story behind this. What is it?”
“We had spies and assassins crawling all over Milhaven,” Kevin began, “Rolan’s spies.” Then he told them about the attack on Landis and their plan to unmask the spies and identify the assassins. “Apparently the spy we sent to the chapel told Rolan about the tea.”
“Did you find all the spies?” Brena asked.
“I think so, but you can never be sure about something like that, and by now he’s probably found replacements.”
“Well, if you do something like this again, a quick word would be appreciated.”
“Sorry,” Kevin said sheepishly.
“So what are we going to do about it?” Drusilla asked.
“I was half expecting this,” Theresa said. “Sister Molly can give him a tea made up of ginseng and ginkgo.”
“But that has nothing to do with magic,” Brena argued.
“No, but it does enhance concentration. At no point did either of us say it would make her power stronger, but that could be what he was told. When Sister Molly gives him the tea, she should tell him there’s nothing that will make power stronger, but this is the tea that was made up in Camden. It enhances a person’s ability to focus which would help a beginning sorcerer, but won’t do much for one with his skill and experience. She can say she located the sister who made it, and it was made for an apprentice who was struggling with gathering and storing magical energy.”
“But ginseng doesn’t grow in Trendon,” Drusilla said.
“I know,” Theresa said. “She can use that as the reason she wasn’t familiar with it.”
Brena nodded. “That’s not bad. I can send her some tea already mixed up and tell her to let me know if she needs more.” Brena leaned back in her chair. “I like it. We’ll go with that.” Then she looked at Kevin. “And if that doesn’t work, he’s your problem, but we’re not pulling the sisters out of Brendolanth. If he tries to throw them out, I’ll go see him myself.” Brena looked off into the distance for a moment. “Think Glendymere would take me? I’d love to arrive on his back.”
The Rambling Spy Page 17
