Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) (23 page)

“We’re delighted to have you,” Ashlynn told her frankly.
“There’s a lot of work to be done here and not enough hands to go around.”

“I’ll be dedicated and work hard here, but, King Edvard? You
have to make me a promise first.”

Edvard got his ‘king face’ on and faced her directly. “Ask,
lady.”

“You will never, ever, try to pick out a husband for me.”

He blinked, then smiled. “I would not ever be that foolish.”

Kirsty beamed at him. “I like you already. Well, if we’re
all agreed to me joining Estole, where do I start?”

“There are a few legal procedures to registering you as a
full citizen of Estole,” Troi started before catching onto the general feeling
of the room. “Ah, I suppose we can do those later.”

“Do them now, get them out of the way,” Ashlynn directed.
“But do them fast, I want her out of here within an hour. After that…Kirsty.”

“Yes?”

“How are you at building things?”

Riana had never been so glad to see a place in all her life.

Word had spread before they even reached Main Gate and by
the time they passed through the outer wall, a welcoming party was standing
there waiting for them. Broden came directly to her and gave her a warm bear
hug. “Daughter.”

She relaxed into the embrace with a sigh.

“Rough trip, I take it.”

“Ye have no idea,” she groaned into his shoulder. “We got
attacked
four times
.”

He stepped back and looked at her. “Did ye lose anyone?”

“Thank the heavens, no. We did no’.”

“Then it be a good trip.” Patting her gently on the shoulder
he stepped half-around and extended a hand to Ash. “Lad, I see ye made it back
in one piece.”

“It was a near thing.” Ash clasped the hand firmly before
letting go.

Edvard clapped Ash on the shoulder, looking over the people
following behind. “Welcome home, Ash.”

“Good to be home,” the wizard returned. Turning to the man
standing behind him, Ash introduced, “This is Gerrard Seaton, my magical
instructor. Master, this is Edvard Knolton, King of Estole.”

Edvard beamed at him as he stepped forward, offering a hand
which Gerrard took in a warrior’s clasp. “Well met, sir.”

“Well met, King of Estole,” Gerrard returned in kind. “I
have only one question for you before I properly enter your territory. Ash
tells me you’re offering citizenship rights to all that enter. Any exceptions
to that?”

“Iyshian spies,” Edvard responded promptly, without missing
a beat.

Gerrard grinned at him. “Good answer. In that case, King of
Estole, the Seaton Academy would like to move here and build its new location
on your land. In return for a place to build, I will train up a new generation
of wizards for you. Do we have a deal?”

“We do.”

Riana blinked at this quick exchange. She hadn’t expected
the men to hash that out right here on the doorstep. Then again, maybe she
shouldn’t have been surprised as Gerrard was not one to stand still on matters
for long.

With that settled, Gerrard flung his arms out wide and
Ashlynn stepped into them like it was the most natural thing in the world.
“Ahhh,” the man sighed with considerable pleasure, “here’s my Ashlynn. I’ve
missed you.”

“You old scoundrel,” Ashlynn greeted happily. “How have you
been?”

“Well, child, well. But restless. Not enough going on to
keep my interest. I’m also deeply disappointed in you. You should have invited
me before rebelling against Iysh. All of that excitement and I missed it
completely.”

“Plenty of that coming our direction, I assure you,” Edvard
drawled.

Gerrard chuckled, the sound reminiscent of a wolf that had
just caught scent of prey. “Good, good. Now, I see another archer here that
carries himself like Riana. Who are you, sir?”

“Broden Ravenscroft,” her father introduced himself with a
polite inclination of the head. “I be Ashlynn’s partner.”

“Ho? So this is the father that you mentioned to me, Riana.
Harmony find you, Master Broden.”

“And ye, sir.”

From behind, still on the carts, Maree called out, “Can we
pause on the pleasantries and get all of these children in somewhere? We’re
deathly sick of being on these carts.”

“We certainly can,” Edvard promised. “Ash did call ahead and
warn us so we’ve had a room in the castle prepared. It’ll be a temporary thing
but you’ll have a safe and warm place to sleep tonight at least.”

There was a general sigh of relief as no one had had that
for the past two and a half weeks.

Turning, Edvard motion for Amber. “Please show them the way.
Master Gerrard, if you can trust my people to settle everyone in? Good, then
please come with me. I’ve got separate quarters set up for you and there’s much
that we need to discuss.”

Riana took advantage as everyone went about settling into
the castle to duck into her rooms, wash up, and change into clothes that did
not smell of horse. Feeling better about life, she left and went into Edvard’s
study, as she was told that everyone would convene there. Upon entering, she
found Ash had already rejoined the group, and Ashlynn, Edvard, and her father
were comfortably seated. Ash patted the seat next to his and she sank into it
with a sigh of relief. Ah, a cushy thing that did not move. Glorious.

“Master Gerrard?” she asked him as she sat.

“Double checking that everyone is fine before coming up
here. Edvard has them set up in the ballroom, as that’s the only place big
enough to hold all of them, and they’re treating it like some huge slumber
party. I think they’re fine, but Master isn’t the type to take someone’s word
on that.”

Edvard cleared his throat. “Yes, well, he wasn’t quite what
I was expecting. But then your description of him is radically different from
Ashlynn’s, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. He strikes me as a very good
man.”

“He is,” Ashlynn confirmed.

A twinkle appeared in Edvard’s eyes as he continued, “So,
Ash. Once again I’ve sent you out to get something and you came back with far
more than I asked for. I’m seeing a trend develop.”

“The man had every intention of coming before I even set
foot inside the country,” Ash protested.

His words fell on deaf ears. Edvard spoke to the rest of the
room. “I vote that from now on Ash is in charge of any seek-and-find missions.
All in favor?”

Ashlynn and Broden promptly raised their hands. Edvard
joined them with a smirk on his face. “Majority wins on this. Motion carried.”

Riana and Ash gave squawks of protest.

“No, no. No wiggling out of it.” Edvard shook a finger at
them, that thrice-cursed grin still on his face. “I see good results. And when
you deliver twenty-three wizards into my hands, you can’t call it anything but
a good result.”

Ash leveled a basilisk stare at him. “Why do I put up with you
again?”

“Gwen,” Edvard answered, smile not wavering in the
slightest.

“If she wasn’t so cute, you wouldn’t be able to manipulate
me like this,” Ash half-growled.

“Oh I know it. I bank on her cuteness.”

There was a casual rap at the door. Gerrard drawled, “This
sounds like a serious conversation. Should I come back later?”

Ashlynn, laughing, waved him in. “Come sit here.”

Riana watched the man promptly sit next to Ashlynn with a
doting smile on his face. She certainly understood why Ash was convinced
Gerrard didn’t really like him. He certainly treated both twins differently.
But Riana had noticed that Gerrard just had a soft spot for women in general
and tended to be more rough-and-ready with the boys. It wasn’t anything against
Ash.

“Master Gerrard,” Edvard went back to being his kingly self
and met the man’s eyes squarely, “welcome to Estole. I’ve already started your
process of being admitted as a citizen of this country—you and everyone that
came along with you—but of course Troi will need to speak to you directly to
get some of the particulars.”

“Of course,” Gerrard agreed readily. “I’ll speak to him
after this, providing someone shows me where to go.”

“I will,” Ashlynn assured him. “But those are formalities.
Let’s get down to the important things. There’s no room in Estole for you to
rebuild the academy, so it’ll have to be the settlement.”

Ash cleared his throat. “We discussed as much coming here.
Edvard, I have a site in mind, and it’s somewhat off the main street but still
close to what will be the center of town.”

“I don’t care where you put it,” Edvard confessed frankly,
“as long as I know how to quickly reach people during emergencies.”

“In that case we’ll leave you out of the decision making
process.” Ash ignored Edvard’s spluttering and said to Gerrard, “The main site
I mentioned will be the best choice but there’s a great deal of land over
there. You can choose almost any location you wish. It’s just going to be a lot
of work because most of it hasn’t been cleared yet.”

Gerrard gave a dismissive huff. “I have twenty students and
two teachers who are motivated to get their new academy built before the snows
hit. I’m not worried about it. But what am I to do for building supplies? King
Edvard, do I buy them from the government?”

“The government has none to offer,” Edvard answered
cheerfully. “We’re using it up as fast as we can get our hands on it. Anything
that you can mine or log in the settlement lands is yours. Use it as you see
fit. I just ask that you not waste anything. If there’s leftovers from your
building, then give it to someone else that can use it.”

The master wizard liked this answer. “Noted, sire.”

“Also, I realize you want to get the academy up as quickly
as possible, but be aware that we are ridiculously short on manpower. If you
can spare anyone, even if it’s just one, to help us with other projects I’d be
very grateful.”

“He knows it’s just the two of us working on things here,”
Ash assured Edvard.

“Three now,” Ashlynn corrected.

“Three?” Ash blinked at her. “Where did the third person
come from?”

“Kirsty Kilpatrick waltzed in here about five days ago and
joined Estole.”

“Kirsty Kilpatrick…” Ash repeated, staring up at the ceiling
as he tried to recall.

“Remember when we got together with Master Poole’s students
for those competitions?” Ashlynn waited for a nod before continuing to jog her
brother’s memory. “There was a skinny little brunette that I made friends
with.”

“Ah, yes, her. She came to join? But I thought she was from
a good family.”

“She is. But she had a rotten fiancé. So she came here
instead.”

“Philip Poole.” Gerrard’s tone suggested he had bitten into
a rotten lemon. “Now there’s a person you don’t want to be involved with. I was
required by Iysh to give all of you practical experience working with other wizards,
otherwise I never would have dealt with the man.”

“I know you didn’t like him?” Ashlynn trailed off
encouragingly.

“Not a likeable man.” Gerrard crossed his arms over his
chest, still frowning. “Manipulative, scheming, back-stabbing, boot-licker. And
that’s the kindest description I can use for him. He was always trying to get
into someone’s good graces and he didn’t particularly care what methods he had
to use to do it. Sometimes, as a Wizard of Iysh, they asked you to do some
dirty work. I left court because I wouldn’t play into their games. Poole
voluntarily took on whatever tasks I refused to do.” Shaking his head, he
looked at the room in concern. “And you say one of his students is now here?”

“Kirsty is nothing like the man,” Ashlynn assured him. “In
fact, she left Iysh because they were trying to force her down that same path
and she balked at the idea.”

“That does give me some peace of mind.” Gerrard’s expression
said he still had reservations about her.

Ashlynn, apparently realizing that nothing else she said
would make much of a dent, let it lie. “Anyway, Ash, I had her pick up two of
the projects you were working on. She’s continued to put in some of the streets
and buildings over in the settlement, and she’s helping the miners when they
need it. For someone who was born with a silver spoon in her mouth, she’s
certainly not afraid to work.”

Riana was relieved to hear it. Just one wizard to split the
workload with would make all the difference in the world.

“And the warehouses? The storage rooms for food?” Ash asked
her.

“Some of them built. But we’ve had a…setback.”

Her brother gave her a leery look. “I’m not going to like
this, am I?”

“We sure didn’t.” Ashlynn rubbed at her temples, not looking
up as she related, “Two nights ago, the settlement was attacked.”

Riana felt her stomach drop out. “They came back?!”

“Aye,” Broden growled.

“Ah?” Gerrard waited for Ashlynn to face him before
continuing, “What am I missing?”

“When we first started the settlement, we had trouble with
bandits coming in from Cloud’s Rest,” Ashlynn explained. “Two of the gangs
joined up together to attack the second time, but we drove them off, and after
that we didn’t see any sign of them wanting to try again. But apparently they
were just waiting us out. The minute that we stopped putting the ward up every
night, they attacked. We lost a great many supplies, some of the buildings were
damaged, but thankfully the people were able to either get out of the way or
fight them off. My guardsmen were quick to respond.”

“Why did you stop putting up the ward?” Ash wasn’t quite
accusatory, but his tone expressed his unhappiness.

“It had been a month,” Ashlynn retorted, a grimace on her
face. “We couldn’t risk driving Kirsty into exhaustion like you had done.
Either she was building, or she was putting up a ward every night, she couldn’t
do both. I had guardsmen over there; I thought it would be fine as long as a
guard was in place.”