The Rambling Spy

by Mackenzie Morgan

  “All right, but I’ll need to change clothes first,” Chris said. “Anything else?”

  “Water. Find one of the guards and tell them we’ll need five flasks, one for each of us.”

  Chris nodded and headed out the door.

  “I’m sorry to have to bother you in the middle of the night,” Damien said, “but I didn’t know what else to try.”

  “That’s fine. I just hope we can help. I’ll need to go upstairs and change clothes. Then I want you to take me to the fire. I’ll come back here and pick up the others after I see it.”

  Damien nodded. “I’ll be here.”

  Kevin ducked into his office and picked up Rhianna’s bag. Then he headed upstairs. After he explained the situation, they had to go to the basement so she could get some clothes out of her chest, but fifteen minutes later, he and Rhianna were back in his office, both dressed in heavy leggings, rugged boots, tunics, and heavy cloaks.

  After a quick introduction, Damien took them to the northeast edge of the fire. Kevin used his seeing eye to study the area. The grasslands in front of him were blazing and the fire was licking at trees along the edge of the forest. Damien’s soldiers, backed up by several sorcerers, were fighting along the edges as hard as they could to keep it from spreading any farther.

  Kevin extended his seeing eye towards the south and west, but all he could see was fire and smoke. “How far does it reach?”

  Damien shook his head. “At least fifty miles, maybe more.”

  Kevin put his hand on Rhianna’s arm and asked Damien to take them to the other side. When they got there, Kevin found pretty much the same situation, a raging fire with soldiers and sorcerers doing all they could to contain it. The only difference was that there were no woods around.

  Kevin turned to Rhianna. “Still want to do this?”

  She nodded. “I’ll get started while you pick up everyone else. Which side do you want me on?”

  “You take this one. I’ll take the one with the forest.” Then he put his hand on her cheek and turned her face towards his. “No chances. You won’t do anyone any good if you get yourself hurt.”

  “Same to you,” she replied with a smile. “Now go. I’ve got work to do.”

  As Rhianna closed her eyes and began working with the wind to stir up some clouds, Kevin said, “Damien, can I get you to stay with her until I get back? When you’re working in the clouds, you have no idea what’s going on around you. You lose track of time, everything. She’s completely vulnerable right now. We never do anything like this unless we have someone who can watch our back.”

  Damien frowned. “No one out here would hurt her.”

  Kevin shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. The fire could creep up on her and she could be surrounded before she had any idea what was happening. When we fight bad storms, we need someone to watch for flash floods, crashing trees, all kinds of things. Our bodies are here, but we’re not.”

  “Oh,” Damien said. “Yes, of course. I’ll take care of her. I won’t leave her side until you have someone here to watch for her.”

  “Thank you.” Kevin took out his key. “Back in a minute.”

  When Kevin got back to the castle, Alek, Marcus, Darrell, and Chris were waiting for him along with a dozen flasks of water and two big bags in Chris’s arms. Kevin raised his eyebrows, first at Darrell and then the bags.

  “Darrell heard me get Alek. He wants to go with us,” Chris said.

  Darrell shrugged. “Figured someone needs to keep an eye on Marcus and Rhianna. If Rhianna’s off playing in the clouds and Marcus is trying to keep the fire at bay, someone needs to be watching. Neither of them will be.”

  “All right,” Kevin said. Then he looked at Chris. “What’s in the bags?”

  “You always get worn out doing stuff like this and there’s no telling when you’ll get a chance to eat. These will keep you going.”

  “Brownies?” Kevin asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Where’s Nikki?”

  “With Marshall.”

  “Okay. Let’s go.” Kevin held out his arms and once everyone was touching him, turned the key.

  Kevin dropped Marcus and Darrell off with Rhianna, and then he, Chris, and Alek went to the northeast edge of the fire. After he found the spot he wanted, he handed Chris the key. “Check back with us at least every half hour to let me know how it’s going. But aim for a little ways behind me in case the fire’s advanced.”

  Chris nodded, turned the key, and left for the southwest edge where Rhianna was working. Then Kevin nodded to Alek, closed his eyes, and began working with the air currents.

  The fire had dried the surface air, but there was moisture in the upper atmosphere. It was harder than usual to stir up a storm, but eventually he managed to squeeze a little rain out of the clouds. As the rain began to fall, Kevin reached even farther and pulled in more clouds. Before long he had a good steady rain falling, but the clouds weren’t thick enough to provide much rain on their own so he had to keep working.

  Finally he felt like he could take a quick break and see how things were going on the ground. When he opened his eyes, Alek handed him a flask of water. “Rhianna’s got rain too, but she said she’s not sure how long she can hold it.”

  Kevin nodded. “Same here. I’m going to have to get back up there in a minute or we’re going to lose it. How are they doing with holding the line against the forest? Has anyone said?”

  Alek nodded. “One of the soldiers came by a few minutes ago and said with the rain, they’ve been able to start pushing the fire back, away from the forest. He said they’re all hoping you can keep the rain coming.”

  “I hope so, too.” Kevin took another long drink of water and handed the flask back to Alek. “When Chris gets back, tell him to find out from Damien or one of his people how they’re doing with the fire on that end. Best case, we end up with my rain meeting hers in the middle, but I’m not sure that’s going to happen. When this area’s clear and I can push the rain in, let me know.”

  Alek corked the flask and nodded as Kevin closed his eyes and got back to work, and for the next few hours, Kevin and Rhianna worked with clouds and rain.

  As dawn broke over the east, the worst of the fire was out and Damien’s men were clearing the last few areas and guarding against new flare-ups, but dense smoke was making it difficult.

  Kevin began gently working wind currents to get enough breeze to clear the smoke but not enough to spread the embers. Sweat rolled down his face and dampened his tunic, but he didn’t feel a thing except the headache building behind his eyes. After another hour, he took a break. “Holding the line between enough breeze and too much is harder than anything I’ve tried before. Squeezing rain out of dry air is a piece of cake compared to that,” he mumbled as he lifted the flask.

  “You’ve cleared most of the smoke in this area,” Alek said. “Why don’t you rest a bit? You’ve been at this for over six hours.”

  Kevin frowned. “That long?”

  Alek nodded. “It’s after seven now. I’m not sure, but I think we were here by one this morning.”

  Kevin nodded. “Sometime around then anyway. Got any of those brownies left?”

  “Here.” Alek reached in the bag. “Anything else?”

  Kevin shook his head and ate half the brownie. “Has Chris checked in recently?”

  “About ten minutes before you opened your eyes. He said Rhianna’s got most of the smoke out of her area, too. She wanted to know what you want her to do next.”

  “I’m not sure. I need to find Damien and see how his crews are doing and if they need help anywhere. Have you seen him around?”

  “He came by an hour ago and said he’d be on the line near the forest. The fire seems to be out over there, but he wants to make sure it stays out.”

  Kevin set up a seeing eye in that direction. A few minutes later he had Damien spotted. He took another brownie out of the bag and said, “Wait here. I’m going to check with Damie
n.” He took off the key to the gate, turned it, and a few seconds later stepped out of the energy field beside Damien.

  As he held the brownie out to Damien, he said, “I doubt you’ve eaten much more than I have and these are pretty good.”

  Damien quickly ate it and wiped his mouth. “Thanks. That was good. And thank you so much for that rain. I don’t know what we’d have done if you and your elf hadn’t been able to help us out.”

  Kevin laughed. “Don’t let her hear you call her my elf. She’s a warrior elf, and starting tomorrow she’ll be an instructor at their training camp.”

  “A warrior elf, huh?” Damien nodded appreciatively. “I had no idea. I’ll write Weldon and let him know how valuable her assistance was. Rhianna, isn’t it?”

  Kevin nodded. “I’m sure she’d appreciate that.” Kevin looked around for a minute, “Any other section we need to work on?”

  Damien shook his head. “We can take it from here, but again, thank you.” Then Damien smiled. “My soldiers were saying how lucky we are our Master Sorcerer can do things like that. I pointed out that you wouldn’t be able to if you didn’t have elven blood in your veins. Sometimes people get the wrong idea about other races.”

  “Sadly, I’ve run into a bit of that.”

  Damien laughed. “I’d say. Even had to fight a duel over it, although no one called it what it was.”

  “At least Alastar doesn’t seem to be consumed with hate like she was. I almost feel sorry for her. It must have been a horrible way to live, hating like that.”

  “It was by her own choice.”

  Kevin nodded. “Do you need any help with the clean up? The rebuilding? I can get you some more sorcerers if you need them.”

  Damien shook his head. “All we’re going to do today is make sure this fire’s out. Tomorrow we’ll take a good look around and figure out what needs to be done to get everyone back to normal. But thanks for the offer.”

  “Well the offer still stands. Let me know if you change your mind. I’m sure they’d be happy to come.” Kevin took the key back out. “Get some rest, and something to eat, soon.”

  Damien grinned. “I will. You, too.”

  Then Kevin turned his key and left to go round up his people.

  Half an hour later a motley crew stepped out of the energy field on the back patio. They were wet, covered in soot and ash, and everything they had on reeked of smoke. And they were all worn out.

  Fortunately the guards had anticipated the shape they’d be in when they got back and had fresh clothes and baths standing by. By midmorning, everyone who had been involved with the fire was clean and fed, and with the exception of Chris, Kevin, and Rhianna, had gone to bed.

  Once Kevin and Rhianna made it back to his office, he shut the door and put his arms around her. “Not exactly the evening I had in mind. Sorry.”

  With a soft laugh, she said, “Not what I had planned either, but you have to admit, it was exciting and sort of fun.”

  Kevin chuckled. “Yeah, it was, and it was a good thing you were here. I’m not sure I could have handled that one by myself. You were a lot of help.”

  “We make a good team.” Rhianna kissed his cheek. “And if anything like that comes up again, come get me, no matter where I am.”

  “I doubt the rest of the staff at the training camp would appreciate that.”

  Rhianna shook her head. “For something like that? Everyone up there would jump at the chance to help out. You’d have more volunteers than you could use.”

  Kevin considered what she’d said. “I hadn’t thought about it, but weather emergencies pop up on a fairly regular basis. Most of the time there’s no time to get help, but sometimes, like this time, it wouldn’t hurt to have a team we could call on. Might be something to think about one day, maybe when you get back.”

  Rhianna took a deep breath. “And speaking of getting back, it’s time for me to go.”

  “You need to get some sleep.”

  “I know, but most of what I need to take with me is at Mother’s. I need to get moving if I’m going to get packed and report to the camp by sundown.”

  Kevin hugged her and whispered. “I really don’t want you to go. You do know that, don’t you?”

  Rhianna smiled as tears gathered in her eyes. “And I really don’t want to leave.”

  Kevin stepped back enough to look into her eyes. “You’ll love it once you get started. Take care of yourself up there. Don’t take any unnecessary chances. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  Rhianna laughed. “I’m an instructor, not a candidate. The candidates are the ones who take all the risks.”

  “Right.” Kevin dropped his mouth on hers and fell into a deep kiss. When they broke apart, Kevin stepped around his desk and opened the bottom drawer. He took out a box that had a big bow on top and handed it to her. “This is to help you remember I love you.”

  “You didn’t have to get me anything. I won’t forget.” Then she opened the box. As she peeled back the small cloth, her eyes grew wide. She fingered the stone before she took the pendant out of the box. “Tiger’s eye. My favorite stone.”

  “The warrior’s stone,” Kevin said softly. “According to Glendymere, it’s for someone who demonstrates courage, integrity, and the right use of power. It fits you perfectly. Here, let me help you.” Kevin took the pendant out of her hand, slipped it around her neck and fastened the clasp. “It’s small enough you can slip it under your tunic and no one will ever know it’s there.”

  Rhianna shook her head. “No, I’ll wear it on top, where everyone can see it.” She put her hands on either side of his face. “It’s beautiful. Thank you.” Then she leaned in and kissed him.

  When she stepped back, Kevin’s eyes misted over. “I’m going to miss you so much.”

  “I’ll miss you, too.” Rhianna wiped the tears from her cheeks. “And I’m already looking forward to our first break. It can’t get here soon enough to suit me.”

  Kevin laughed. “I’ll try to make sure we don’t have any fires to deal with then. We’ll find something else to do, something a bit more private.”

  Rhianna smiled and picked up her bag. “I hate to, but it’s time to go. This won’t get any easier by putting it off.” She put her hand on his arm. “And when we get there, just drop me off and leave.” Rhianna swiped at the tear sliding down her cheek. “After all, this isn’t goodbye. I’m just heading out to teach some classes, same as I do every day.”

  Kevin took a deep breath as he fought the tears gathering in his own eyes. “And I’ll be thinking of you while you do.” Then he turned the key and took her to Crinsor Run.

  Chapter 43

  Plans Get Underway

  As soon as he finished eating Monday morning, Kevin took out his key and turned to Chris. “I’m going to pick up Eryn before I get involved in anything in the office. I shouldn’t be long.”

  “Are you bringing her back here or taking her straight to Doreen’s?”

  Kevin shrugged. “I’ll leave that up to her.”

  “Okay. I’ll be in the office when you get back.”

  With a quick nod, Kevin turned his key, and a couple of moments later he was on Eryn’s front porch.

  Eryn had been watching for him and had the door open before he could knock. “Come on in. Would you like anything? A cup of tea?”

  Kevin shook his head. “I’m fine. Are you ready to go?”

  Eryn bit her lips, then said, “That depends on you.”

  “Why?”

  “This morning my father said if I go, I’m not to come back unless I bring Marshall with me to take his rightful place as a soldier.” Eryn shook her head. “We both know that’s not going to happen, so my question is how do you feel about it? Would you rather I not go since I won’t be coming back?”

  Kevin shook his head. “It’s beyond me how Dougan could say such a thing, but I have no problem with you living in Milhaven or anywhere else in Camden. I told you that when you first got there. You have a
home there for as long as you like, same as Marshall.”

  “Then, yes, I’m ready to go. I’m afraid I have a little more to take with me since I won’t be coming back, but it’s packed and ready.” Eryn waved towards three bags sitting in the hall.

  “He didn’t give you much warning. Are you sure you have everything?”

  “I haven’t been back long enough to accumulate much but it’s more than I’d originally planned to take.”

  “How does Murphy feel about it?”

  “He’s not happy, but he didn’t try to talk me out of it. He did ask if it would be possible for him to visit once in a while. I told him I’d let him know.”

  “He’s welcome any time he wants to come. All you need to do is let me know. If I can’t pick him up, Chris can.”

  “Do you have a minute for me to let him know? It’ll set his mind at ease.”

  “Sure. Where is he?”

  “Oh, I meant I’d leave him a note. I really don’t want to see my father right now.”

  Kevin nodded. “I’ll wait right here.”

  A few minutes later, Eryn came back out and nodded. “Let’s go.”

  “Where do you want to go?” Kevin asked as he used his outstretched hand to pick up her bags. “To Doreen’s? Or to the castle?”

  “I’d rather go straight to Doreen’s if you don’t mind.” Eryn looked around as she put her hand on Kevin’s arm. “This house never has felt like home. I have a feeling Doreen’s might.”

  ~~~~

  The next Monday, Cryslyn knocked on Kevin’s door a little before lunch. “Do you have a minute?”

  “Sure, come on in. What can I do for you?”

  “Lend me a key?”

  Kevin took the Key to Terah off his chain. “Where are you off to?”

  “I got a letter from Kitridge this morning. He’s done with that job he was working on and wanted to know if you’re still interested in hiring him. I want to get down there before someone else grabs him.”

  “There’s that much demand for trackers?”

  “I’m not sure as far as most of them are concerned, but good ones are few and far between, and he’s good, which is why I want to get him before someone else does. You do still want to hire him, don’t you?”