EPILOGUE

Kel swung herself into Hoshi’s saddle, taking one last look around her. After two months or so the fortified town of New Hope still looked raw, but it was starting to resemble an actual town rather than a logging camp thrown together in a week. The sight of cart after cart bringing their hard-earned harvest to the storage barns filled her with profound satisfaction. Not for the first time, she blessed Lord Raoul for waiting until the crops were in before he set his wedding date. She wouldn’t have been able to enjoy herself at Steadfast if her people had still been in the fields. With the crops taken care of, she could feast with a carefree heart.

“Stop fussing,” Fanche commented. She stood near Kel, hands on hips, her dark eyes amused as she looked up at the younger woman. “You’ll be away for a week—if we can’t manage for that long, what good are we?”

Kel grinned at New Hope’s headwoman. “Actually, I was trying to remember if there was anything I hadn’t done. Shutters left open—”

“Shutters closed,” said Tobe, mounting a small, spritely, piebald mare who had taken a liking to him in Scanra. The greatest change the events of June had made in him was that he no longer trusted Kel out of his sight unless they were inside New Hope’s walls. Kel understood and hoped he would relax as the winter’s snows made it impossible for either of them to go very far. “Shutters closed, bed made up, leave-behind weapons and armor cleaned,” Tobe continued to rattle off, “don’t have to worry about feedin’ your animals because they’re comin’ along with us. Duty rosters for the week in Master Terrec’s hands.” Terrec was the clerk who had taken Zamiel’s position.

“She’s fussing, isn’t she?” Merric strolled out of headquarters, his hands tucked comfortably in his breeches pockets. “You women are forever fussing.” Things with their fighters had reached the point where occasionally Merric would let a sergeant command a patrol rather than do so himself. Today was Sergeant Jacut’s day to patrol with his squad of former convicts and men of the town intermingled. While there had been no official attention paid to Kel’s Scanran journey, a week after her return the silver marks on the convicts’ foreheads had faded, a sign that someone somewhere had decided they were pardoned. As mistrustful as Tobe in their own way, they had elected to remain with the army, in the north, with Kel. Merric’s staying in town while a convict squad patrolled showed all of New Hope that he trusted them not to return to their criminal habits.

“I’m not fussing,” Kel retorted. “And where’s Neal?”

Neal came racing up to them, windblown and hands only partially cleaned of blood. “I’m sorry! I don’t tell babies when they’re allowed to get born.”

“Neal,” Kel said as he reached for the horse Loesia held for him.

Neal looked at her, his green eyes feverish. He was in a hurry to get to Steadfast. His betrothed, Lady Yukimi, was there. Like Raoul’s betrothed, Buriram, Commander of the Queen’s Riders, Yuki had tired of waiting for her man to return south. As soon as the celebrations for Prince Roald’s wedding to Princess Shinkokami had ended, Buri had resigned her post as commander, to be replaced by her assistant commander, Evin Larse. Together she and Yuki had bought passage on the first ship north, then traveled overland to Steadfast.

“Your hands,” Kel pointed out as Neal simply blinked at her. He looked, saw they were not entirely clean, and released a sound that was a cross between an anguished cry and a wail. Back into the infirmary he went.

“If he’s like this now, how will he stay calm when his daughter tries for her knighthood?” a youthful voice asked.

Kel looked down at Irnai. The girl was one of several homeless children who had come to live in headquarters with Kel, Neal, Merric, and Tobe. She did her best to act like a normal child of her age, but when she foresaw things, she sounded as world-weary as Neal at his most sophisticated.

“Perhaps we won’t share that knowledge with him just yet?” suggested Kel. “Let it be a surprise for him.”

Irnai grinned up at her. “He doesn’t like surprises, and the road of his life is littered with them. I like that.”

Kel couldn’t help it; she grinned at the child. “I do, too,” she admitted. “It will be good for him.”

Neal came back, hands dripping wet and clean. He flung himself into the saddle and raked his hair back from his eyes. “I’m ready,” he declared. “Let’s go.”

Kel led the way, Neal on one side, Jump trotting on the other. People waved as Kel and Neal rode by but immediately returned to their work, putting on roofs and shutters, making the nails, preserves, and kindling New Hope would need to see them through the winter.

Passing through the gate, Kel waved at Sergeant Adner, who now commanded the village guard. He waved in reply. “Bring back some pretty, meek girls,” he called. “Ours is too quarrelsome.” Agrane, whom he was courting when he was off duty, elbowed him.

“Enjoy your holiday, Lady Kel,” Irnai called as they rode down the inclined road that served the village. “There will be work for the Protector of the Small soon enough.”

Kel shook her head. No matter what she did, she couldn’t stop people from calling her that.

She let her guard escort, Neal, and Jump ride ahead as they crossed the Greenwoods Bridge. She looked north. The dark high ground of Haven, now their burial ground, lay two miles upriver, too far from New Hope for an enemy to use it as an attack base. She had also asked Numair if he could raise the ground they would need forty feet rather than twenty, to put off all but the most determined attackers. This time Numair had kept his health and shared the work with Harailt of Aili and a few other mages who had responded to his call for assistance. Lord Raoul had confided that Kel should ask for all the extra help she needed. Giving her all she asked, within reason, was a kind of silent apology from the Crown for putting her people in harm’s way.

Kel turned Hoshi to look up at New Hope’s walls. She thought the battle flags and shields taken from those Scanrans who had attacked her people that summer gave the walls a nice, homey touch. They also served as a warning to any raiding parties that New Hope had teeth.

“Kel!” shouted Neal. “Are you going to dream all day? She’s waiting for me!”

Lovers, Kel thought, rolling her eyes. At least there was one headache she didn’t have. She was about to tell her friend he could wait when she remembered that she’d get to see Dom while at Steadfast. It would be nice to be able to sit and chat for a while without kidnapping, flight, and war to distract them.

She nudged Hoshi to a trot.