Heroes at Odds (24 page)

It was not gratifying to hear my life, any part of it, described in such a way, but it wasn’t as though I thought these tests were anything short of ludicrous.

“You have no right—”

“You are performing this challenge at my indulgence,” she interrupted him in a hard voice. “I will not allow you to slither around the spirit of the agreement by demanding unreasonable compliance under trying circumstances. I am well aware you dragged your son to the field fully believing that no one else would show up and hoping to take advantage of that fact. You know we were all working in the village yesterday.”

“As was my son,” Cars reminded her.

“And you knew he would not have to ride today. Your actions were disingenuous. You will accomplish nothing by treating me like a fool.”

“You are favoring him!”

“Enough, Father!” Marcus snapped.

Cars turned to glare at him. “Don’t you—”

“We both knew we were twisting the meaning of the challenge by going out there today. It didn’t work, and I’m ashamed of us even if you aren’t.”

“You don’t get anywhere if you’re not prepared to insist on your rights.”

“Just because you have the right to do something doesn’t mean you should. Sometimes honor is more important.”

“That is not your decision to make!” Cars hissed at his son.

“But it is mine,” Fiona interjected. “And I have made it. Accept it with good grace or I’ll have you removed.”

Cars’s glare was poisonous. It seemed he had even less respect for aristocratic titles than I did and was even less interested in hiding it. “May we know when the test will be held?”

“When I feel like it. You can go.”

Cars gave her a shallow bow that managed to appear sarcastic. Marcus’s was deeper and more fluid, though he seemed at one point in danger of overbalancing and falling on his face. It must have been hell to ride all the way out to the site of the test. I’d barely made it to the kitchen.

“I’m terribly sorry you’ve been disturbed in this way,” my mother said to Fiona.

Fiona shrugged. “They are not under your control.”

“This is our family business. I would have preferred to have this all take place elsewhere.”

Fiona gave her a tired smile. “Family is rarely convenient.”

Fiona was looking pale, her face lined, and I had no doubt she had many more important things to attend to before she could get more rest. That she had been dragged into our sordid personal affairs was humiliating. After murmuring my appreciation, I led my mother and Taro out of the office.

“Nothing like knowing you’d have Cars as a father-in-law to inspire me to do well on the tests,” Taro said in a low voice.

“He wasn’t always like this,” said my mother. “When I first knew him, while we were negotiating the contract and through the first couple of years after, he was a warm, friendly man. Desperation can make anyone unpleasant.”

But a person who could remain calm and respectful while dealing with adversity, wasn’t that the sort of person to admire?

Who was I to talk? I was a mess when I was stressed. “I’d love to not have to think about this for the rest of the day.”

“I think you should go back to bed.” Mother looked me over critically. “You look terrible.”

So did she, really, but I was too polite to say so, and too ready to go back to bed to stand around talking about anything less than vital. Because while I was no longer in dire need of food and coffee, it wasn’t feasible to hold on to Taro all day, and I was very, very tired.

I hoped Fiona didn’t announce the next test anytime soon. I felt I could sleep for a week.

I visited Browne the next day. She was nearly buried under her enormous mass of patients, for while no one had died, many had burns and broken limbs and horrible hacking coughs. Her cottage had survived the fire untouched, but it couldn’t accommodate the number of injured, so she had established a temporary infirmary in the assembly room, a large building the size of a barn where the villagers danced and had public meetings.

Browne wasn’t the only one attending to the injured. A handful of men and women were there to bring water and soup and change bandages. They were all pale and they moved slowly. I was still barely able to put one foot in front of the other, myself. “Do you have someone young and spritely I could send to the manor to fetch Karish?” I asked Browne. “He is excellent with injured people.”

“He has a hand for healing, does he?”

Yes, but not in the way she meant, and I wasn’t going to tell her. “He can put them at their ease. Make them smile. Sometimes he’s able to help them sleep. He’s really very good. If either of us had thought about the injured, he would already be here.”

Browne nodded and sent a six-year-old girl out to the manor.

“What can I do to help?” I asked.

Instead of answering me immediately, she took me out of the building and around the corner for some privacy. “What do you need to say?”

I passed along Radia’s request.

Upon hearing it, Browne looked weary and impatient. “The Wind Watcher feels it’s important to do this now?”

“She didn’t say so, but I would imagine the sooner the better. Given the circumstances.” Something as traumatic as the fire would leave a huge scar in everyone’s memory. Some unexpected good fortune might ease that pain a little. “Can it be done?”

Browne blew a stray lock of blond hair off her face. “I’ve never heard of anyone levitating anything that big before.”

“Does the size matter, if it’s moved with a spell?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never thought about it. Even when we heard that it was impossible to hang the rock, no one in the circle suggested there might be something we could do.” She frowned and looked off to the distance. “I’ll have to play with the idea a bit and talk to the others.”

I looked at her for a few moments. “You don’t seem upset that Radia knows about the circle. I promise I didn’t tell her.”

She shrugged. “She is the Wind Watcher. She knows everything.”

I contemplated telling Browne that, according to Radia, everyone knew about the circle of casters.

“Give me a couple of days,” she said.

I nodded. “In the meantime, is there anything I can do here?”

“There are always bandages that need cleaning.”

Ick.

Taro arrived not much later, taking in the rows of injured before kneeling beside the one who had been most badly burned, a young boy. Browne had assured me that she would be able to smooth away the disfiguring scarring in time, but in the meantime he was in some pain and very frightened. I watched Taro take his uninjured hand in a gentle grip and smile at him, his words inaudible from my distance. After a few moments, I saw the boy smile back, I thought I saw him giggle, and not long after, Taro rested his free hand lightly over the boy’s eyes. I was pretty sure the boy was asleep by the time Taro left him.

Taro’s next patient was a young man. From Taro’s mannerisms, I knew he was flirting shamelessly. I grinned and went back to scrubbing bodily fluids out of strips of cotton.

“What is he doing?” Browne asked a short while later.

“He’s just making them feel better.”

“How?”

“He’s very good with people.”

“That’s it?”

I looked at her and hoped my expression was blank. “What else could it be?”

She raised an eyebrow at me but chose not to pursue that line of questioning. “This will confirm to everyone that Source Karish should have been the titleholder.”

“What? How?”

“He is here, tending to the injured.”

“Lady Westsea can’t dedicate any significant time to work like this. She’s got a thousand other things she needs to be doing. And isn’t that a sign of good leadership, knowing when to delegate?”

“All that people will know is that he’s out here where people can see him, and she is invisible. For all they know, she’s lying about reading a novel and drinking chocolate.”

“I happen to know she plans on spending at least part of today visiting people, learning what they need.”

“That might have been more effective if Source Karish hadn’t chosen to do this.”

“You want us to leave?”

“No. I could use the help and your Source is clearly making people comfortable.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “I may be calling for you over the next couple of days,” she said, and it seemed to me that everyone in this place had a love for abruptly changing the subject. “I need you to be available to come.”

“Barring a natural disaster, I will be.”

Taro and I stayed with Browne for the rest of the day. It was hard work, and I was reminded anew just how easy the life of a Shield was. I played with the idea of doing something useful with my spare time, but what that could be didn’t come quickly to mind. I didn’t have a lot of useful skills.

When we got back to the manor, I was ready to crawl into bed and maybe sleep for a few days, but upon entering our suite we found my brothers sitting on the floor, looking as tired and dirty as we. They were drinking wine and eating fruit and they had a couple of small wrapped boxes near their feet. “Boys.” I sighed.

“We’ve got chocolate,” said Dias, holding up one of the boxes.

“We’re not children.”

“So only children like chocolate?”

Taro loved chocolate. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t crave it, either.

“Eating chocolate makes you relax,” Mika informed me. “So does drinking wine. Take some floor.”

I gave in. “Is there a reason we can’t use the furniture?”

“Sitting on the floor fosters an air of intimacy,” said Dias.

Something about his choice of words struck me as uncharacteristic, though I couldn’t say why.

“And the floor is easier to clean,” Mika added prosaically.

They had both red and white wine, and the chocolate they offered was quite nice, hard little balls with soft tasty centers. And sitting on the floor, drinking wine that I liked and eating with my fingers, did make me feel better.

“So,” Mika drawled. “What
were
you doing that year you disappeared?”

Well, that question had come out of nowhere.

Taro frowned and straightened his spine and shoulders. “What is this?” he asked coolly. “You are trying to lure us into revealing information you’re not entitled to? With chocolate and wine? Are you amateurs?”

“Well done,” Dias said with admiration. “Very lord of the manor.”

“Very pretty,” Mika agreed.

“Don’t be idiots,” I snapped. “We’ve already informed you we can’t tell you anything about that.”

“Because it’s Triple S business.”

“Yes.”

Mika pointed at me. “You’re lying.”

And he was right, of course. He wasn’t supposed to be able to read me. We barely saw each other while we were growing up.

“Your manners are exquisite.” The sarcasm lay thick through Taro’s words.

“We’re family.”

“So you don’t need to treat your sister with courtesy?”

“No,” said Dias. “I mean, yes, we must treat her with courtesy, if you want to be all stiff and unfriendly about it. But what I’m talking about is that one of the jobs a family has is to guard your blind side.”

“I don’t have a blind side,” I said. And if I did, well, I felt that was for Taro to guard.

My brothers ignored my comment. “Now, I appreciate that neither of you really understands that,” said Mika as he poured himself another glass of white. “You grew up in the academies. You never got to learn how families are supposed to work. But one of the things we do is keep your secrets.”

“We have no secrets that need keeping,” I said.

Mika rolled his eyes while Dias put a hand on Taro’s knee. “I understand you have always had difficulties with your family, and we don’t want to dredge any of that up.”

Taro glared at me, but before I could say I’d never discussed his family affairs with anyone, Mika said, “No, we’ve learned nothing from Lee. People talk, right?”

Taro tightened his jaw and his hands, and chose not to answer.

“I suppose what we’re saying is that we think the secrets you’re keeping aren’t your own,” said Mika. “And it can be dangerous to be the only ones holding the vital secrets of someone else. They may decide you’re a stray thread that needs cutting.”

It was a horrifying idea. I didn’t want to think about it.

“What are you trying to say?” Taro demanded.

“Let me put it this way,” Mika said. “Since his coronation, Emperor Gifford has had fifteen titleholders executed for treason.”

That was the first I’d heard of it. “Is that a lot?” It seemed like a lot, but what did I know?

Mika looked disgusted. “Of course it’s a lot. What’s the matter with you?”

“I don’t know about such things.”

“And that’s what we’re talking about,” said Dias. “You don’t keep an ear to what’s going on for the rest of us. And maybe you shouldn’t. Maybe you’re supposed to stay above it all. Or, at least, to the side of it all. But that’s what a family is supposed to do, fill in the gaps for you. We can watch these things for you.”

“But why do we need them watched?” Taro asked.

“You don’t understand,” Mika said. “Things have changed a lot since Emperor Gifford took the crown. Old laws that have faded past practicality dredged back into common use. New laws that are enforced inconsistently. Those who are in favor with the Emperor are spared anything, those not are condemned on the slightest of evidence. If you can even call it evidence. Those fifteen titleholders, most of them were known for being loyal to the Empress, and they were convicted on nothing more than the testimony of the friends of the Emperor.”

“And that’s horrible,” said Taro. “I’m serious. That’s tragic perversion of the law, and I feel badly for these people and their families. But it really has nothing to do with us.”