Fairhaven rising, p.5
Fairhaven Rising, page 5
Abruptly, Taelya laughed, then said, “You know me too well.”
“You don’t exactly hide your feelings,” Dorylt replied.
“No,” interjected Tulya, her voice even but firm. “What you saw, Dorylt, wouldn’t be enough for most people to draw that conclusion. How much additional chaos did you sense?”
“Some.”
“More than some, I’d wager,” replied Tulya.
As Taelya listened, she realized, again, what an advantage she and Dorylt had in reading people. And yet, even without that advantage, Mother can discern what she can’t order/chaos-sense. And, most likely, so could others.
“She was pretty upset last night,” admitted Dorylt.
“How long have you been able to really sense the order and chaos around Taelya?”
“Really sense it? The last season or so.”
“People who aren’t family and who aren’t mages won’t sense all that, Dorylt. So it might be best when you’re with others if you don’t say things that reveal, even indirectly, what you sense.” Tulya paused, then added, “Unless it’s to family or to prevent physical harm. And if you’re not sure, then don’t say anything others can overhear.”
“But I was just talking to family,” protested Dorylt.
Tulya smiled warmly. “That’s why I was so gentle with you. Beltur or Jessyla wouldn’t have been. You saw your sister’s reactions to what Beltur said. Would you have wanted to hear what he said?”
“No, ser,” said Dorylt quickly.
“Good.” Tulya turned to Taelya. “The scramble is quite good, but you don’t have that much time to eat it if you want to get to headquarters early enough not to hurry whatever you have in mind.”
Taelya nodded and turned her attention to eating, realizing as she did that the scramble had turned out well.
A quint later she was saddling Bounder, after checking him over and grooming him quickly. She’d just finished and was leading the gelding out of the stable when Kaeryla appeared.
“You’re early this morning,” said the girl who was effectively her cousin.
“I need to do some things at headquarters before muster. I’ll see you later. You’ll be at the Healing House?”
“I will. Is something happening? Father left early as well.”
“I don’t know of anything new. I just have to take care of some things, and I won’t have time for them after muster. We can talk about it later.”
“Do you promise?”
“I promise,” replied Taelya as she mounted Bounder and turned him toward the main street, her thoughts returning to how she could deal with Sheralt, preferably without getting him too upset. Although he was the one pushing for information that wasn’t yours to provide.
She had no more than turned Bounder east on the main street, heading toward headquarters, than she saw Taarna’s brewery wagon just ahead, with Buskar in the driver’s seat, unmistakable because only he and his mother had the same white-blond hair. Buskar was most likely heading for the East Inn, and probably after having delivered a keg or even two to the West Inn first.
As she rode up along the left side of the wagon, he glanced back, then smiled. “Taelya! You’re out a bit earlier than usual.”
“So are you.” Once Taelya had ridden up even with Buskar, she slowed Bounder so that they kept pace with the wagon. “How come?”
“Claerk’s running low on ale, and he thinks he’ll be getting more traders from Certis.”
“From Certis? How does he know?”
“That’s what he said. He didn’t say any more. Ma said some might be leaving Jellico for good. That’s because the Viscount keeps increasing tariffs on everyone.”
“Thank you for letting me know. I need to get moving, though.” She eased Bounder forward.
“You’re always in a hurry, Taelya.”
“Not always.”
“Every time I see you, you are.”
Taelya just smiled and kept riding.
When she reached headquarters, she noticed that she was early enough that the recruits were just beginning to form up. She dismounted and tied Bounder at the hitching rail in the shade, or where it would be shady for the next glass, then hurried inside and made her way toward the duty and briefing room—the space that had once been a small public room.
Lendar, Nardaak, and Varais stood at one side, quietly talking, while Sheralt stood alone at the far side of the table.
Taelya nodded to the three and then made her way to Sheralt. She wanted to take a deep breath. She didn’t. Instead, she smiled warmly. “Good morning.”
“Aren’t you cheerful.”
“It is a pleasant morning, but I owe you an apology for yesterday morning. I was trying to be gentle, and I might have misled you. After I left, I realized that firm directness would have been much better. Anything I hear at home stays at home until the majer or Captain Gustaan announces it. That is what I should have told you.”
“I appreciate the apology, Taelya, but you still ended up misleading me. You said we’d talk later, and then you avoided me.”
Taelya wanted to shake her head in disbelief. Instead, she smiled and said, “I didn’t avoid you. I was tied up dealing with the refugees from Certis. Now is as soon as I could have talked to you, and that’s what I’m doing. Also, the other matters that I mentioned are still concerns that face Fairhaven. Even though they are, I shouldn’t have mentioned them because you might have thought I was letting you know what was in the dispatch, when I was just guessing. But it’s not a good idea for me to share guesses, not when my mother and uncle are on the Council.”
“No … it’s not. How are you going to make it up to me?”
Taelya had a very good idea what Sheralt had in mind, but she smiled pleasantly. “By being pleasantly firm when I can’t say anything and by being nice to you even when you don’t deserve it.”
Sheralt’s face clouded.
Taelya could sense the swirls of chaos around Sheralt that suggested anger and strengthened her shields.
“Just because the majer is your uncle…”
“If he weren’t, you wouldn’t be trying to get information you shouldn’t have from me, and you wouldn’t even be angry.” Not about that, anyway.
“She’s right about that, you know,” added Valchar, who had eased up as the two had been speaking.
“Of course, you’d say something like that,” replied Sheralt, turning toward the other mage.
Even though Valchar was carrying full shields, something that Beltur insisted upon all the time, Taelya could sense at least a swirl of chaotic anger.
But Valchar smiled politely before replying. “I understand your skepticism. You spent far too much time in Worrak, where everything is based on immediate self-interest.”
“Please don’t tell me you have no self-interest.”
“Black angels, no. I have a very healthy self-interest, especially in not being blinded by appetites and greed of the moment.”
Sheralt snorted, then started to speak, but stopped as someone stepped through the archway into the briefing room.
Rather than Gustaan, Guard Undercaptain Therran entered, followed by Beltur. Therran only said, “The majer has a few words for all of you.”
Beltur smiled wryly before speaking. “As most of you know, yesterday, several families arrived from Certis. They’re Kaordists who fled from the Viscount because his men have been taking the golds and property of at least some of the Kaordists, as well as killing the men and boys and enslaving the women and girls. It’s likely the Viscount is doing that, at least in part, to blame the Kaordists for all the unpleasantness in Certis and to raise more golds than he can get from tariffs. That suggests that he’s making more preparations for war. We’ve also learned that there was at least one white mage with the force that destroyed the neighboring Kaordist village.”
After a brief pause, the majer continued. “The Prefect of Gallos has sent an envoy to Vergren to talk with Lord Korsaen … and the Duchess, and later possibly to approach Duke Maastyn. The Prefect is likely to propose an alliance with Montgren against the Viscount. There’s no word about whether the Prefect’s envoy will also attempt to engage Duke Halacut after he leaves Vergren, but I doubt that will happen.”
As if in response to Sheralt’s skeptical expression, Beltur added, “Duke Halacut’s forces were less than impressive in the defense of Fairhaven, and there’s every reason to believe that they are even less impressive today. In addition, Lydiar does not share a border with Certis. That provides Duke Halacut with even less reason to fear an attack by the Prefect. Does anyone have any questions?” The majer glanced around the briefing room.
Sheralt looked squarely at Beltur. “Why would the Duchess even consider an alliance that included Duke Maastyn?”
“That decision is for the Duchess to make, not the Council of Fairhaven,” replied Beltur. “I can only guess that she and Lord Korsaen will listen to the Prefect’s envoy and then make what they believe to be the proper decision.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to reject such an alliance and just let the Prefect attack Certis?” pressed Sheralt. “Because Gallos and Certis have been fighting for years, if Montgren becomes an ally of Gallos, wouldn’t that just give the Viscount another excuse to attack Montgren and especially Fairhaven?”
“That’s one possibility,” said Beltur agreeably. “There’s also the possibility, if Montgren and Hydlen don’t ally with Gallos against Certis, that Hydlen will throw in with Certis and persuade the Viscount to attack Montgren so that they can split Montgren between the two of them. Then, the Viscount could turn his attention to Gallos without any worry of attacks from the east. I’ve sent a dispatch to Lord Korsaen pointing out both possibilities.”
“That sounds as though you favor an alliance with Gallos and Hydlen,” returned Sheralt.
“Those are the possibilities as I see them,” declared Beltur. “Do you have another likely possibility, Sheralt?” Beltur looked around the briefing room. “Does anyone? I’m scarcely infallible. If there’s something I’ve overlooked, I’d like to hear it.”
For a moment, no one spoke. Then Valchar asked, “What if the envoys from the Prefect are just a stratagem to distract the Viscount from attacking Gallos … or at least to delay such an attack?”
“That’s also a possibility, and it’s likely that Lord Korsaen has considered that as well, but I’ll send a dispatch to Vergren suggesting that, just in case he hasn’t. Since neither Montgren nor Hydlen had any idea that envoys were coming, all that the Duchess can do is react as she thinks best.” Beltur surveyed the room again. “I wanted all of you to know that so that you can keep your eyes open for any more signs of trouble. That’s all I have, but I’ll keep you posted when I know more.” He nodded to Therran. “Carry on.”
“Yes, ser.”
Taelya barely listened as Therran assigned patrols, except to note that she had the south patrol with Varais as the senior Road Guard. Her feelings hadn’t changed—the idea of an alliance with either Hydlen or Gallos didn’t appeal to her at all. At the same time, she thought that Valchar had a very good point. And as soon as the senior undercaptain left the room, she turned to Valchar. “I think you’re right. That sort of devious stratagem is exactly something that would appeal to the Prefect.”
“But don’t you think the Viscount would see that?” questioned Sheralt, almost testily.
“He probably does,” interjected Taelya, “but it might give him a pretext to attack Montgren and Fairhaven, and Duke Maastyn would like nothing better. You’ve pointed out that Maastyn has had more troubles with his own people, especially in Worrak and Renklaar. So he’s very unlikely to get involved directly.”
“That means we stand a good chance of being in another war before long,” said Valchar.
Another war? You weren’t involved in the last one. But Taelya just nodded and said, “It’s looking that way.”
“We’d better get moving,” suggested Valchar. “The senior guards already left for the courtyard.”
“You still owe me,” Sheralt murmured to Taelya as Valchar started to leave the briefing room.”
“I’ve already paid that debt,” replied Taelya quietly, turning away from him and walking from the briefing room.
When she reached Bounder, she immediately untied him, mounted, and rode to where Varais waited with Chaslar. Unlike the other senior guards, who carried sabres in waist scabbards, Varais wore shorter twin blades in crossed shoulder sheaths, since those were the weapons with which she, as a former Westwind guard, had been trained and with which she excelled. She was also the most recently promoted senior guard, at the end of harvest, having come to Fairhaven only a little more than five years earlier.
“Ready to ride, ser,” declared Varais crisply.
“Routine patrol. No special instructions. You can lead, Chaslar,” replied Taelya.
“I heard you brought in a bunch of Kaordists yesterday,” offered Varais as the three rode eastward toward the square. “How did that go?”
“There were something like nine families. One of their teamsters couldn’t believe that Fairhaven had women officers.”
“I’d have liked to have seen his face if I’d been riding with you.”
“He’ll see soon enough if they decide to stay.”
“They’ll stay. Where else would accept them as they are?”
“True enough, but we get more good people than bad that way … like a certain recently promoted senior guard. That’s one reason why we’ve grown so much.” Taelya glanced to her right at the nearly empty square, where the only figures near the fountain were two girls filling buckets seemingly too large for them to carry.
“It’s also another reason why the Viscount might want to attack us. Fairhaven’s prosperous now, and getting more so.”
Taelya nodded. “Have you been able to find more junior guards?”
“More volunteers, but not enough that Gustaan and the majer are likely to accept.”
“Maybe they’ll get some from the Kaordists.”
“They don’t have much of a tradition with arms.”
Unlike Westwind. But Taelya merely said, “I don’t come from that tradition, and neither did the majer.” Her eyes and senses went to the two older men standing to one side of the front entrance to the East Inn, but neither even looked up at the passing Road Guards.
“No … but none of you had any choice, from what I’ve heard. That tends to make you a quick and passionate learner … if you want to survive, and all of you clearly did.”
Taelya laughed at Varais’s dry tone of voice, even while she winced slightly inside, because not all of them had survived, and one of those had been her father.
When the three passed the East Inn, Taelya could see the east patrol ahead—Sheralt, Nardaak, and a junior guard she couldn’t absolutely recognize from behind, but suspected was Sheppyl, who glanced back, then spoke to Sheralt. Sheralt did not look back.
“You once mentioned that all the Westwind guards had other skills…”
“And you wonder why I’ve never mentioned mine?”
“I have thought about it a few times.”
Varais reined in her mount slightly, slowing and letting Chaslar move farther ahead. Taelya did the same.
After a short time, Varais spoke again, keeping her voice low. “I was a scrivener. I wrote up all the reports, all the tariff receipts, all the discipline reports, anything that needed to be documented in our part of the border.”
The flat statement, along with a certain amount of free chaos, told Taelya that Varais either hadn’t been pleased with those duties or was unhappy mentioning them. For a moment, she wondered why. Then she nodded. “I won’t ever mention it. I never asked, and you never told me.”
Varais’s laugh was sardonic. Then her voice softened slightly. “I never liked it. This is what I enjoy. It’s what I always wanted, except in someplace warmer than Westwind.”
“And you thought…?”
“I was very good at scrivening where many weren’t. But here, in a place where few women bear arms…”
“You didn’t want to be a clerk, ever again.” But you needed to tell someone. For a moment, Taelya wondered why Varais had chosen her as the one, but realized that there was no one else, given her own mother’s hardheaded practicality and the fact that Tulya really needed a clerk and that Jessyla would likely support anything that would make Beltur’s life less demanding, even if it happened to be the last thing that Varais wanted … or needed.
The senior guard nodded.
“Have you thought about trying to recruit women for patrollers or Road Guards?”
“I would, if I’d seen any likely to want this kind of life and who’d be good at it.”
“Some of the girls who run sheep are strong enough.”
“They’re happy with the sheep.”
Taelya had the feeling that the word “sheep” referred to more than the ovine quadrupeds.
By the time the three passed the stone posts on the east side of town, which, as in the west, no longer marked where the houses ended, the two had closed the gap with Chaslar and were nearing the side road to the left which formed an irregular semicircle around the south side of Fairhaven, and which had been one of the sites of a major battle during the war with Hydlen—and the place where her father had died in destroying most of that part of the invading army.
The first time she had ridden through the battle site as an undercaptain, she’d choked up, and she still felt a certain sadness each time she passed, despite the fact that his bravery and sense of duty had likely saved her and all of Fairhaven. Past the site of the battle, where the once-shredded trees and bushes had long since recovered with no trace of the carnage, the road slowly curved to the southwest, then straightened out heading due west.
As they neared the low red sandstone bluffs that stood just north of the border with Hydlen, Taelya concentrated on sensing whether there were other riders nearby, but all she could discern were sheep and their herders, and they were well to the east of the road and north of the border. But, as they neared the midpoint road that ran from the southern road north and into Fairhaven proper, she had a vague feeling, but the road only showed recent wagon tracks, and not separate hoofprints.
