Chapter 1Realization

The last petitioner of the morning had come about foreigners. Three of them had slept in his hayloft and gone before dawn without paying. Under King Indren’s decree, Sedric could not have them driven out of the barony. He could only ask them to pay what they owed. Sedric watched the man go. The morning’s complaints were finally over.

“Brother!” Rin burst through the double doors, startling the departing visitor. She hurried past him toward Sedric’s chair.

“Rin, stop running and apologize to the gentleman,” Sedric called.

“Sorry, sir.” Rin stopped long enough for a quick curtsy, her necklace swaying with the motion, then hurried on to her brother.

Rin took his arm in both hands. “May I go to the fair in Nelvin? All of my friends are going. It only happens once every two years.”

“That’s a day’s ride,” Sedric said, “on roads full of foreigners. No.”

Rin’s smile faded, but she kept hold of his sleeve. “I’ll travel with my friends. They have their own guards, and they’ll be with us the whole time.” She backed away and called toward the doors. “Come in!”

Her friends entered with a tall, red-haired stranger. Gallar, Sedric’s guard captain, accompanied them from the doorway and stopped beside the man.

“Lord Sedric, I apologize for intruding at the end of your audience,” the stranger said. He introduced himself as Anbar and bowed. He stood a foot taller than Gallar, his red shirt neatly tucked into plain brown trousers.

“They asked if I could serve as an escort for a few days,” Anbar continued. “They were quite insistent that I meet you.”

“I appreciate your willingness,” Sedric said. “But I’m sorry to say they have wasted your time. Rin will not be joining—”

“Brother, please.” Rin tightened her grasp on his sleeve. “I never go anywhere. Am I going to be stuck in Telaris for the rest of my life?”

Sedric looked toward the doors. He had expected to leave Telaris himself before he inherited this chair. There had seemed to be years for it while his parents were alive. Now Rin was asking for a few days, and his first answer had been no.

“My lord, if I may,” Gallar said.

Sedric turned to his guard captain. “Gallar, don’t tell me she’s made you an accomplice in this matter.”

Gallar cleared his throat. “I will accompany the young lady to ensure her safety.”

“What training do you have?” Sedric asked Anbar.

“Paladin, my lord,” Anbar replied. “Shield work, mostly.”

Gallar gave a small nod. “He knows how to use it.”

Anbar raised a hand as if to wave away the praise, then noticed a split in the skin across one knuckle. He pressed his thumb beside it. A faint glow spread over his fingers, and the cut closed.

“From practice,” Anbar explained, lowering his healed hand.

Sedric watched the last trace of light disappear. A shield and healing, in addition to Gallar and the other guards. For the first time, the plan sounded less like Rin rounding up anyone willing to agree with her.

Sedric lifted the necklace from Rin’s collar into his palm. His thumb rested against the lion stamped on the back of the oval pendant.

Its catch had worked loose, and the pendant had fallen open. Inside, the little picture of their parents faced him. It was familiar enough that he closed the pendant without needing to look twice.

“Fine,” Sedric told Rin, releasing the necklace. “But you listen to every order from Gallar and don’t cause him any unnecessary trouble during the trip. You got that?”

“Thank you, brother!” Rin threw her arms around him. “I love you so much!”

Sedric waited until she loosened her hold, then addressed the stranger. “Anbar, please step forward.”

Anbar stepped closer to the low platform where Sedric’s chair stood.

“I was too quick to dismiss you,” Sedric said. “Will you vow to protect Rin and her companions?”

[ QUEST OFFERED ]

Escort Rin and Friends

Objective:

Protect young Lady Rin and her companions for the entire trip to Nelvin’s fair.

Reward:

Choice of one item from the treasury room.

Status:

Pending

Sedric and Anbar both stared at the floating notice, which no one else could see. Shortly afterward, its status changed from pending to accepted.

“You can count on me, Baron Sedric.” Anbar saluted with a fist raised to his chest.

Sedric rose and offered his hand. Anbar’s grip was firm, his expression entirely serious.

Anbar began to turn away.

“Have you traveled far beyond Telaris?” Sedric asked.

“A fair way, my lord,” Anbar replied.

“What was it like?” Sedric asked.

Anbar glanced toward the waiting girls. “Mostly roads. It’s a long story.”

“One thing, then,” Sedric persisted. “Something I wouldn’t find here.”

That earned him a brief pause.

“The last town held its market on a bridge,” Anbar said. “You had to get past the stalls just to cross the river.”

Sedric tried to picture it: carts backed up at either end, people leaning out over the side of the bridge to see what was holding everyone up. He wanted to ask how wide the bridge was, and whether the town had grown around it.

Rin tugged his sleeve.

He let the next question go. They still had preparations to make.

“Thank you, Anbar,” Sedric said. “Everyone, please give me a moment with my sister. Gallar, stay as well.”

Anbar left with Rin’s friends. Gallar waited beside the platform while Sedric turned back to his sister.

“Rin, you need to be careful,” Sedric said. “I’m still not entirely comfortable with you going. Are you sure you can’t wait until the next fair, when I might be able to come with you?”

“Brother, you worry too much.” Rin closed her hand around the necklace. “Mother and Father will keep me safe. Plus Gallar will be with us!”

“Don’t think you’ll have your way all the time,” Sedric told her. “Now go. Don’t keep your friends waiting.”

Rin gave Gallar a delighted grin on her way out. The door closed behind her.

Gallar brushed a hand over his graying beard. “I hope I haven’t overstepped, my lord. The little lady is like a daughter to me. She deserves a bit of fun.”

“No, you’re right,” Sedric answered. “It’s only that crime keeps rising since the decree, here and beyond Telaris.”

Sedric rested a hand on the back of his chair. “We’re ordered to receive these foreigners, hear their petitions and help them find honest work. The decree doesn’t make them any easier to keep in order, and more keep arriving. But you’ve enough to prepare without listening to me. Bring another knight with you.”

“Of course, my lord,” Gallar said. “We will protect the young lady with our lives.”

Sedric dismissed him. The party would leave at first light; Gallar still had another knight to find and horses to arrange.

The following morning, Rin and her companions had ridden out before the first petitioners were let in. Dew clung to the stained-glass window above the low platform. A burly man stood before Sedric with a list of matters to raise.

“A great deal of wildlife has been killed off,” the man told Sedric. He was the local butcher, speaking on behalf of the townspeople. “We could face food shortages. Herbs, timber, ore—they’re taking everything faster than we can replace it.”

Sedric opened the territory map and found the woodland the butcher was describing. Roads and plots of land appeared first, followed by the latest patrol reports. Most were already several days old.

“The woodland beyond the last farms?” Sedric asked.

“And farther east, my lord,” the butcher replied.

The map could tell him who worked each plot of land and which paths led to it. It could not tell him how many animals were left among the trees, or where the people taking them had gone. For that, somebody still had to look.

He marked the area for a fresh patrol.

“I’ll investigate these matters—” Sedric began, but the double doors slammed open. The knight on guard duty rushed into the room.

“My lord, Gallar has returned!” he announced.

Sedric rose as Gallar entered behind the guard. Blood had run from a hole punched through the captain’s armor near his waist.

“What happened? Where is Rin?” Sedric demanded, hurrying down the steps as the guard helped Gallar toward an empty bench.

“We were ambushed and separated.” Gallar clenched his jaw to hide a wince of pain. An aide ran in with bandages for his open wound.

“Hurry,” Gallar said. “They took the lady off the road.”

“Who took her?” Sedric asked.

“I lost sight of them,” Gallar answered. “Anbar was with her when the fighting started. I couldn’t get back across.”

An attendant tightened a bandage around Gallar’s waist while he spoke. When the attendant reached for another bandage, Gallar caught his wrist.

“That will do,” Gallar told him. “We need horses.”

“Have the steward finish the audience. We’re heading out—gather the guards!” Sedric ordered. Gallar was the only one who could lead them to the ambush site and, with luck, to Rin.

The mounted watch was still in the courtyard for the morning change of guard. Twelve guards in scale armor were ready by the time Sedric reached them. He sent another man for the physician, then mounted his horse before anyone could suggest he wait. Gallar led the way with Sedric beside him.

The clatter of armor and the rapid beat of hooves sent people on foot out of their path. The riders left a cloud of dust behind them.

“Hang in there, Gallar,” Sedric said. Each jolt of the galloping horse tightened the knight’s expression.

They reached the bend Gallar had described less than half an hour after leaving the estate.

The bodies lay beside the road. Sedric recognized one of Rin’s friends by the blue ribbon still tied around her wrist. He searched the others before he could stop himself, hating the relief that came with every face that wasn’t his sister’s.

“How long since the attack?” Sedric asked Gallar.

Gallar steadied himself against his saddle. “Three quarters of an hour, perhaps. We hadn’t gone far beyond the last farms.”

Sedric looked into the trees. Most of that time had been spent riding to the estate and back while Rin—

“My lord.” A guard crouched beside the ditch. “Someone went this way.”

Bootprints crossed the soft bank. Smaller marks ran between them, unevenly spaced, before disappearing onto a narrow cart path.

Sedric called up the territory map. The familiar lines spread across his vision, uselessly calm. No marker showed his sister. He had known it wouldn’t, but still found himself searching.

On the map, the path bent away from the road and ended at a forester’s lodge.

He recognized the place from its timber reports. Privately worked, and only lived in for part of the year. The last report had placed the family’s workers elsewhere. There would be shelter, water, and no one expected to come asking questions.

“The lodge,” Sedric told the guard examining the trail. “Check the tracks. If they stay on this path, that’s where we go.”

The guard nodded and moved ahead.

They rode until the path narrowed between stacked lengths of timber. Farther on, a roof showed through the branches. Gallar lifted a hand for the men behind them to slow.

They dismounted among the trees, leaving two guards with the horses. Sedric passed over his reins and followed Gallar between the timber stacks.

Before they had cleared the stacks, Sedric was searching the yard.

A cart stood crooked beside the lodge, one wheel sunk into a rut. Someone moved behind it.

“There—” Sedric began, pointing toward the cart.

“My lord!” Gallar shouted.

Gallar crashed into Sedric’s middle and drove him to the ground. An arrow struck the dirt where Sedric had been standing.

Gallar’s forearm pressed across his chest as Sedric struggled to draw breath. A stone dug into his back, but every attempt to shift away from it sent another sharp pain through his ribs.

“Shields!” Gallar shouted. “Cover the lord!”

Their guards moved around them, boots scraping through the dirt. Sedric watched one drop to a knee behind his shield while another closed the gap beside him. He had brought twelve men out here, following the only person who knew where Rin had disappeared, and apparently that had been enough planning for him.

“Let me up,” Sedric whispered to Gallar.

“Stay behind the shields,” Gallar told him.

“I’m trying to,” Sedric said.

Gallar eased his weight off him. Sedric rolled onto one knee, careful to keep his head below the shield beside him. The arrow had come from somewhere ahead, but the trees offered far too many places to hide. Searching each one would take time they didn’t have.

“Did anyone see the archer?” Sedric asked the guards.

“Beyond the cart, my lord,” a guard answered.

Sedric peered through the narrow gap between two shields. The guards had formed a line at the edge of the yard, with Gallar crouched beside him. Across the open ground, the cart stood between the lodge door and a stack of cut timber.

He drew a breath and concentrated until a small flame gathered in his palm. His tutor had made him practice the spell until he could summon it reliably, but the cart was well out of its range. He let the flame die.

Rin stepped out from behind the cart.

Sedric’s hand closed around the nearest guard’s shoulder. Her dress was dirty, but she was standing, watching the guards for a way across the yard.

“Rin!”

She turned toward him, and the relief on her face nearly brought him to his feet.

Anbar caught her by the arm before she could take a second step. He had traded yesterday’s plain clothes for armor, with a broad shield strapped to his other arm.

At first, Sedric thought Anbar was keeping her out of the archer’s line of fire. He raised a hand above the guards’ shields.

“Bring her over! We’ll cover you!”

Anbar looked toward the trees instead of answering. A man carrying a bow emerged from behind the cart and stopped beside him. Neither seemed concerned about the other.

Gallar’s hand settled on Sedric’s shoulder. This time, Sedric didn’t try to stand.

“Brother?” Rin tugged against Anbar’s grip. “Tell him to let go.”

Sedric looked at the hand around her arm. He remembered shaking it in the audience chamber, remembered how reassured he had felt by the man’s courtesy. There had been a promise. He had watched Anbar accept it.

“Let her go,” Sedric said.

Anbar moved Rin in front of him. Sedric’s guards were waiting for an order, but his sister stood directly between them and the man holding her.

The archer fitted another arrow to his bowstring and began to draw.

“Hold,” Anbar told him. “That’s the baron.”

The archer lowered his bow at Anbar’s word, though his eyes stayed on the guards.

“What are you offering for her?” Anbar asked Sedric.

Sedric stared at Anbar. The archer had obeyed him. Anbar could let Rin cross the yard whenever he chose, but he was holding her there until Sedric paid.

Rin looked up at Anbar. “You told me you were helping.”

Rin twisted her arm out of his grip and stepped toward her brother.

Anbar swung his shield across her path. Pale light spread over the shield as it struck her side.

Sedric lunged forward, but Gallar’s arm held him back. Rin rocked sideways, then caught her balance. She was still on her feet. Before Anbar caught her wrist again, she had already taken another quick step toward the guards.

“Stay beside me,” Anbar told her.

Rin pulled against his grip. “Let go!”

Sedric watched her turn, searching for a limp, a hand pressed against her side, anything to show where the blow had landed. She moved as freely as before. He could not understand it, but he needed Anbar’s attention back on him.

“The reward I promised,” Sedric said. “Let her come to me.”

“For all this?” Anbar asked.

“More, then.”

Sedric called up the escort agreement he had offered in the audience chamber. It was still there, but it was already marked failed.

[ QUEST FAILED ]

Escort Rin and Friends

Objective:

Protect young Lady Rin and her companions for the entire trip to Nelvin’s fair.

Reward:

Unavailable

He remembered the blue ribbon on the wrist of the girl beside the road. He had asked Anbar to protect all of them.

Sedric dismissed the notice and looked at Rin. She was still standing in front of Anbar. The agreement had failed, but he could still pay to bring her home.

“Two items from the treasury,” he told Anbar. “Your choice.”

Anbar’s gaze shifted past Sedric, as though he expected something else to appear.

“Make the offer,” Anbar said.

“I just did,” Sedric said. “Two items. Your choice.”

Anbar waited. Nothing replaced the failed notice. He looked back at Sedric.

“Then one item,” Anbar said. “What you promised before.”

“One, two—yes,” Sedric said. “Whatever you want. Just let her go.”

No new notice appeared. Anbar exhaled through his nose and turned to the archer.

“We’re not getting paid for this.”

“You will,” Sedric called. “I’ve given you my word.”

Anbar no longer seemed to be listening. His attention had dropped to Rin’s free hand, closed around the pendant at her neck.

“What’s that?” Anbar asked her.

Rin held the necklace closer. “Mine.”

“I can see that. What is it?”

“It has our parents in it.”

Sedric reached for the purse at his belt. “I have money here. Take it and let her go.”

Anbar glanced at the purse, then back at the pendant. “Keep your coin. I’m asking her.”

Rin looked down at the pendant, then across the yard at her brother. “If I give it to you, can I go?”

“Rin—” Sedric began.

“I want to go home,” she told him.

“Give it here, and you can go,” Anbar told Rin. He released her wrist so she could reach the clasp and held out his hand. Beside him, the archer watched the guards, his bow still in hand.

Rin fumbled at the clasp behind her neck. It took two attempts. Sedric remembered fastening it for her when her fingers had been too small to manage, and forced himself to stay behind the guards.

The necklace dropped into Anbar’s waiting palm. His expression changed as he looked at it, then at a point just above it.

“Oh,” Anbar murmured.

Anbar fastened the necklace around his neck. The pendant settled against his armor.

“Is there anything else?” he asked her.

Rin shook her head and stepped toward Sedric. Anbar caught her arm again before she could pass him.

“You said I could go,” she protested.

“She’s given you what you asked for,” Sedric said. “Let her come.”

Anbar glanced down again, but Rin tugged against his grip and drew his attention back to her.

Sedric leaned toward Gallar. “Can you get her clear?”

“Not while he’s holding her,” Gallar answered quietly.

The knight’s breathing had grown shallow, and fresh dampness showed beneath the bandage at his waist. Sedric wanted to ask again, as though the answer might change if Gallar understood how badly it was needed.

“You wanted something from my treasury,” Sedric called to Anbar instead. “She can’t give you that. Speak to me.”

Anbar looked up. “Then take me to it.”

“Let her stay with Gallar,” Sedric said. “I’ll take you myself.”

“She comes with us.”

Anbar turned toward the archer, loosening his grip as he did. Rin pulled her arm free and lunged toward the guards. She had taken only a step when Anbar moved after her.

Sedric stood to meet her.

Anbar swung his shield. Pale light spread across it, and Rin looked back.

“Don’t—” she cried.

The shield struck her before she could get clear. The force threw her onto the packed earth between Anbar and the guards.

“Forward! Cover her!” Gallar shouted.

The guards advanced with their shields raised. One drove toward the archer, forcing him behind the cart before he could shoot another arrow. Sedric followed through the opening in the line and dropped to his knees beside Rin.

For a moment he expected her to scramble up. He was already holding out a hand to help her.

“Rin?”

Her eyes found him, but she made no attempt to stand. Each breath came short and shallow.

Anbar stood a few paces beyond her, staring down at her over his shield.

“That barely touched her before,” he said.

Then two guards closed on him, driving him back toward the lodge. Anbar raised his shield, and a broad sheet of light spread from it. A guard’s blow struck the barrier. Anbar braced himself and retreated toward the corner of the building.

Gallar knelt on Rin’s other side. Sedric had seen her stay on her feet after the first blow. Now she could barely breathe.

He raised his head and called across the yard. “Anbar! Heal her! I saw you do it. In my hall!”

“It only works on me!” Anbar shouted back.

Sedric turned back to Gallar. “Help her. Please.”

Gallar bent closer to Rin. “I’m here, my lord. Stay beside her.”

Across the yard, Anbar kept his barrier facing the guards while the archer slipped behind him and rounded the corner.

One of the guards started after them.

“Hold here,” Gallar ordered. “Protect the lord and the lady.”

The guard stopped. Anbar withdrew around the corner after the archer, and the barrier vanished from view.

Sedric heard them leaving, but Rin’s fingers had caught his sleeve. He bent toward her while Gallar checked where the shield had struck.

“Can we get her home?” Sedric asked him.

“We need to keep her still,” Gallar said.

“We can bring the horses closer.”

Gallar looked up at him without answering.

“Can we go now?” Rin whispered.

“Yes,” Sedric told her. “You’ll ride with me.”

He brushed the dirt from her cheek. There was more caught in the little stitches along her collar. He picked it away while he told her about the ride home and the room waiting for her.

Her fingers loosened against his sleeve.

Sedric stopped talking. He watched her chest, waiting for the next breath.

It didn’t come.

“Rin?”

Gallar took her wrist. Sedric watched the knight’s face, then leaned closer when Gallar bent to check her breathing.

“Do something,” Sedric said.

Gallar’s hand settled over his.

“She’s gone, my lord.”

Sedric shook his head. Rin had been speaking to him. She had asked to go home, and he had told her they would.

He stayed beside her until a guard brought a cloak. When Gallar reached to help wrap her in it, Sedric caught the edge and drew it around her himself.

They brought Rin’s body home before midday. Sedric carried her up the stairs and laid her on her bed. The physician examined her, but there was nothing he could do. He went to see to Gallar, whose wound had begun bleeding again on the ride. The physician had only a little healing magic. It slowed the bleeding under his hands, but the wound still had to be cleaned and bandaged.

Sedric ordered the guards to find Anbar and the archer, detain them, and bring them before him. He described both men and told the guards about the necklace. He had to repeat Anbar’s description when one of them asked him to speak more slowly. By evening he had returned to Rin’s room, where someone had washed the dirt from her face and drawn the bedcover over her.

Her room looked ready for her to wake in. Sedric sat beside the bed. He could not make that familiar sight fit with the stillness beneath the cover. He had promised to bring her home. His mind kept coming back to that thought, as though there were another part of the promise he could still keep.

Long after the house had quieted, the room grew cold. He went across the hall to fetch his cloak and sat down in his own chair to pull off his boots. He meant to return to her bedside. Exhaustion overtook him before he removed the second boot.

“Brother?”

Sedric woke to morning light across the floor. For a moment he thought he had dreamed her voice.

He was still in the chair, but both his boots stood neatly beside it. He remembered struggling with the first one. He had never taken off the second.

He looked down. A clean shirt had replaced the clothes he had worn home from the lodge. His hands were clean too, even beneath the nails. He turned them over, trying to remember washing them.

Someone must have helped him. Yet he could remember nothing after sitting down, and the last thing he wanted was to ask who had put his room in order while Rin lay across the hall.

“Sedric? You missed breakfast.”

Rin stood in the doorway.

He stared at her. He had left her in her bed last night. Gallar had checked for her pulse. The physician had examined her. Sedric had carried her all the way home.

“Are you ill?” Rin asked.

He stood so quickly that the chair caught against the rug. She stopped just inside the room as he took her shoulders.

“Rin?”

His grip made her wince. He loosened it and looked at the arm Anbar had held, then at her face. There was no mark. She was warm beneath his hands, breathing easily.

“What happened?” he asked.

Rin glanced at the turned-up edge of the rug. “You nearly fell.”

“Yesterday. What happened yesterday?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Sedric searched her face for some sign that she was afraid to answer.

“You were hurt,” he said.

Rin looked down at herself, then back at him. “I’m not hurt.”

When he didn’t answer, she drew her shoulders inward.

“Brother, you’re scaring me.”

Sedric let go of her. “I’m sorry. I thought—”

He could still feel her weight in his arms on the ride home. He looked down at his clean sleeve, unable to finish. Nothing on it showed where he had been.

After a moment, Rin caught his hand.

“Sit down,” she said softly. “I’ll stay with you.”

He looked back at her. She was waiting for him to sit, watching him with the same concern he usually had for her.

Then he noticed her bare neck.

“Where’s your necklace?” Sedric asked.

Her hand rose to where the pendant had rested. She tilted her head, looking back at him.

“What necklace?”