HOME.

The Weapon, Ellen, who was closest, moved to help Karigan into the chair.

“Mender Howell said you should rest until morning,” Laren told her.

“I’m fine.”

She didn’t look fine. She was still dressed in her ragged clothing that looked even worse than Laren remembered, including her cracked and worn boots, but there was more color in her cheeks, gaunt though they were. Not that Laren was going to argue too much if Karigan wanted to talk. She needed answers.

“Perhaps we might all have a sit down,” Lady Clary said. “I will see to some refreshment.”

Laren and Zachary did sit as Lady Clary swept from the room presumably to arrange for refreshments.

“You have information for us, Rider?” Zachary asked, Laren noting that he did not address her in a familiar way.

“The Eagle’s Pass Keep has been taken by Second Empire.”

It was not good news, and Zachary questioned her intensively about the situation at the pass, and they listened in dismay as she described the manner in which the pass had been taken. Then she told them how she and the others had been abducted.

“The Raiders are using us as bait,” she said. “Bait to draw in some witch.”

“The Red Witch,” Laren replied without emotion.

“You know? Oh . . .” Realization dawned on Karigan’s face. “Of course it is you. Why I didn’t figure it out sooner . . .”

“You have had a lot to contend with,” Laren replied.

Lady Clary returned, followed by servants who carried in a platter of pastries and supplied each of them with a hot toddy. She made to leave, but Zachary invited her to stay.

“You know the approach to the mountains well,” he said.

“Yes, born and raised in their shadow,” she said with a smile.

“Rider,” Zachary said, “please describe the scene for Lady Clary, the locations of Second Empire and the Raiders, and the terrain.”

Karigan obliged. When she finished, Lady Clary said, “I know that hut. It was used seasonally by a sheep herder, but from Rider G’ladheon’s description, it sounds as if he’s moved on and no one else has taken his place. It’s too bad as that is good grazing. As for the pass, there is not much to say about the area that you don’t already know, Your Majesty. My husband occasionally went there on business, as it was an extension of his holdings.

“I do not recall much cover in the approach to the keep,” Lady Clary continued, “though there are the pockets of woods as Rider G’ladheon stated, and perhaps it has grown up with no sheep there to graze the land.”

“It corresponds with what our scouts have been able to tell us,” Zachary said. “Is there anything further you can add, Rider?”

Karigan was gazing into her mug. “Prisoners,” she said. “Civilians taken by Raiders or Second Empire, besides Melry and our Riders. They are being held in the pass. I—I got a few out.”

“How?” Zachary asked.

She hesitated, and Laren suspected it had to do with her special ability and not wanting to speak of it in front of Lady Clary.

“It’s all right,” Laren said. “Lady Clary is discreet.”

Karigan nodded and explained how she had escaped the hut using her special ability.

“I wondered how that had been managed,” Lady Clary said.

Karigan continued to describe how she infiltrated the encampment in the pass and stole the travel device. Laren felt a great deal of pride for her Rider for her quick thinking and persistence, and immense satisfaction for the sabotage she had committed. Everyone was astonished by her description of Ripaeria the eagle.

“I have never!” Lady Clary exclaimed. “I’ve heard the old stories, of course, and I used to see those great birds at times soaring high above when I was growing up. I used to make up stories about them and wish they would speak to me.”

“It is not the first time a great eagle has spoken to Rider G’ladheon,” Zachary said. His own pride in her shone in his eyes and could be heard in his voice. “But that is a story for another time.”

Karigan then spoke of how she used the travel device to rescue the one family. She hid her face in her hands. “I lost him, I lost him . . .”

“Lost who?” Zachary asked. “And why did you choose to rescue this family over the others?”

“Cade,” she said, her voice muffled. “His family.”

Laren exchanged a look with Zachary. To Karigan she said, “Surely this wasn’t your Cade.”

“Who is Cade?” Lady Clary asked.

“Another long story, I’m afraid,” Laren replied with an apologetic look to the countess.

“His—his ancestor,” Karigan said. “I am sure of it. His name was Renn Harlowe. And now he is dead because I failed him.”

“You saved his family,” Zachary said quietly, “and that is no small thing.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “But I failed him, and I failed all the others, the rest of the prisoners. I need the orb so I can go back.”

“Karigan G’ladheon, it is not up to any single person to do all the rescuing, to solve the world’s problems. You could not even stand after the use of that device. You are going nowhere, but to bed to get some rest and recover as the mender ordered.”

“But—”

“The responsibility is not yours.”

“We do have the device,” Laren told Zachary, “thanks to Karigan’s cunning, and we should use it. It will be of great advantage to us.”

“But it does not have to be Karigan—Rider G’ladheon—who has to make use of it.”

Laren understood what was in his heart all too well. He didn’t want to put Karigan in further danger. She didn’t want to either, and one of the hardest parts of her command was ordering her people into difficult and dangerous situations. To increase the odds of a mission’s success, and the safety of her Riders, she made it her business to assign the best person suited to a given job.

Quietly she said, “But Rider G’ladheon has been there. She knows how everything is laid out, and she is the one who made contact with the eagle.”

“We will discuss this later, once I’ve had a chance to meet with General Washburn and his officers.”

He did not look happy, which meant he’d heard the logic of her words. She sipped the last of her hot toddy, which had become lukewarm.

“I am curious,” she told Karigan, “about your time among the p’ehdrose and your return journey from the north. We know you made it as far as Boggs before the Raiders captured you.”

Karigan, who looked so exhausted, brightened. “Condor made it home, then?”

“Yes. We found your messages and papers in your satchel, so we received the letter from Lady Vinecarter.”

“Now there is a name I have not heard in years,” Lady Clary said.

“Lady Vinecarter?” Karigan asked.

“Why, yes, sister to King Amigast.”

“My father disowned her when she married against his wishes,” Zachary explained to Karigan, “a situation I intend to rectify. Lord Vinecarter was an honorable man, but beneath her station, so it was not an advantageous marriage for the realm, in my father’s opinion.”

“It happened before you would have been born,” Lady Clary told Karigan, “so it is not surprising you had not heard of it.”

As requested, Karigan began to recount her quest to sign an alliance with the p’ehdrose. There was hedging when she discussed how she finally convinced them that they should renew the old alliance, though it did not register as a lie. Laren assumed it was something she didn’t wish to say in front of Lady Clary despite the countess’s discretion.

“I explained what the future could look like,” Karigan said, adjusting her eyepatch in a way that was not lost on Laren. She’d shown the p’ehdrose her mirror eye? Visions of the future then, were what must have convinced them.

Zachary interrupted when she discussed parting with Enver. “He was supposed to accompany you to Sacor City.”

Laren did not miss the angry undertone in his words.

“I decided I needed to travel on my own,” Karigan replied.

There had to be, Laren thought, far more to the story than that. She would get to the bottom of it another time. She had a feeling it was something that would displease Zachary.

Karigan described bushwhacking through the woods until she came upon the Boggs Road, her time in Boggs, including the scene at a farm that had been massacred by Raiders. Then she went into more detail about her abduction on the Kingway and her conditions as a prisoner of the Raiders.

“Curious the Raiders were keeping you a secret from Birch,” Zachary mused. “I wonder how that can be exploited to best effect. But unless you have more that you must tell us now, perhaps you should get some rest. You look done in.”

“There is one more thing, and it may be of special interest to Fastion and Ellen, and the rest of the Weapons.” If they were surprised to be addressed, Fastion and Ellen did not show it. “While I was scouting around the encampment of Second Empire, a group of swordsmen appeared.” She poured out the story of the Lions Reborn.

“A hundred of them?” Fastion asked.

“Yes.”

“I shall look forward to meeting them on the battlefield.”

Laren shook her head at Weapons and their desire to live up to their motto of Death is honor.

“That is the last of what I’ve to report,” Karigan said. “I can think of nothing more.”

Lady Clary rose. “Here then, with your king’s and colonel’s permission, let me return you to your guest room.”

Laren and Zachary gave their assent, and Karigan stood unsteadily. “Oh, I can make my own way, but is there a chance of a bath?”

“Of course. I will order that one be prepared for you.”

When the two left the parlor, Zachary slumped in his chair and shook his head.

“I know how you feel,” Laren said. “Karigan has been giving me gray hair for years now.”

“I don’t wish for her to use that device again, and return to the danger she only just narrowly escaped.”

“I understand, but if she can return and bring out our people, my daughter, then it is worth considering. Plus, you heard of the sabotage she committed. Imagine what more could be done with the orb, and she doesn’t have to do all of it.”

“I suppose not, and using the Raiders’ own device against them has appeal.”

“I know you hate to send her back in, and why, but Zachary, she is a Green Rider and it is her job. If I might speak plainly?”

“Why not? I’ve never stopped you before.”

“You cannot play favorites, no matter your true feelings.”

“You don’t think I know that? I admit, I did not do well tonight before Lady Clary and her people.”

“No, you did not, but fortunately, as I told Karigan earlier, Lady Clary is discreet.”

They sat in silence for some moments before he said, “Don’t you think Karigan has done her share?”

“I admit she does seem to end up with the weightiest assignments.” Laren decided she’d best step carefully to quell his anger. “The combination of her ability and experience, and, frankly, her skill at handling herself in difficult situations, explains why, don’t you think?”

“Difficult situations? Like nearly being flogged to death? Gods, Laren, you did not see what . . . what was done to her.” He shook his head. “Yes, she handled all that very well.”

He still had, Laren thought, unexpressed rage burning inside him from all that had happened up north. She was not going to get through to him with this mood upon him. Fortunately, Lady Clary returned at that moment.

“Your Rider will soon get her bath,” she said. “She is quite remarkable, meeting with p’ehdrose, traveling with Eletians, and speaking to eagles. I am so pleased to have met her.”

“Yes, she is remarkable,” Zachary said, and he stood. “More than you can know. I do thank you for your kindness toward her, and for your hospitality to all of us, but I must return to my troops now. I’ve much to discuss with my officers.”

“Do you wish me to attend?” Laren asked.

“I will simply be reiterating what we’ve learned from Rider G’ladheon, so there is no need. However, you will notify me if she remembers anything else she wishes to convey.” He then bade them goodnight, Lady Clary accompanying him to the entryway.

Laren removed the orb from her pocket and gazed speculatively at it. Her reflection was distorted in its silvery surface. Perhaps they didn’t necessarily need it to be Karigan who went back to rescue the prisoners.

---

•   •   •

When Laren returned to her guest room, she found Elgin snoring in her chair, a polishing rag in his hand. She should have made him stay behind in Sacor City. He was not a young man and the journey had been harder on him than her. She gently shook his wrist.

“Chief?” she said. “Chief, wake up.”

“Wha-a-a?”

“You were dozing.”

He looked groggily about. “Asleep? Nah, I was just resting my eyes.”

“Of course. If your eyes are rested, I wonder if you might go find Tegan and help her gather some uniform parts for Karigan. Everything needs to be replaced, and Tegan ought to be able to judge Karigan’s size.”

“Karigan? What in bloody hells did I miss?”

Laren told him, and displayed the travel device on the palm of her hand.

“So that little thing is what gave the Raiders the advantage over us,” he said.

“It would seem so.” If only she knew how to work it.

“I see that look in your eye,” Elgin said. “You aren’t thinking about doing anything stupid, are ya?”

“Of course not.” She placed the orb on the table beside his chair. “Please do as I ask and go find Tegan.”

“I’ll do that, Red.” He dropped the rag into a bucket with other polishing tools and pushed himself out of the chair. She watched him leave.

Once he was through the door, she closed it softly behind him and turned about, taking in her luxurious room filled with furniture upholstered in velvet and silk, and a huge postered bed that had steps one must ascend to reach the high mattress. It would be so easy just to go to bed and leave everything for the next day, but the shiny orb drew her eye like a crow to a silver coin.

She strode to the table and took the orb in hand again. It appeared to be divided into two halves with a hairline groove around its circumference. Karigan had not explained how she made the device work, except that she told it where she wanted to go.

I could bring my daughter to safety now. I could rescue her and my Riders just like that.

It sat glistening on her palm in the lamplight as she considered for a long moment. Then she shook her head.

“No,” she murmured.

She was too disciplined, knew how badly so rash a decision could end. She’d too many years of command not to see how much more successfully a rescue could go with proper planning. They had the travel device, and they would use it to best effect against Second Empire and the Darrow Raiders. It would not be just one person against all of them, but the full backing of Zachary’s army and her Riders.

She set the orb back down on the table and sat in Elgin’s chair. She picked up a book she’d borrowed from Lady Clary’s extensive collection with the hope of relaxing before she went to bed. It was a tome of a novel by a Second Age author who had practically invented the form, but she did not know how much time passed before she realized she’d been turning pages without taking anything in. Her mind was too much on the plight of Melry and her Riders. She glanced at the orb and was surprised to see it emitting a red glow from the fine script on its surface.

Curious. She picked it up only for it to start quivering on her palm.

“What the—?”

The quivering intensified and the two halves of the orb rotated in opposing directions. Home, a calm voice said in her mind.

The world reeled and Laren was swept away, swept away in a whirlwind to someplace new. She sprawled headlong onto the ground. Her surroundings spun around her, and the orb rolled off her open hand and away. She closed her eyes against the sickening disorientation.

“Well, well,” said a man.

She dared to squint to see who spoke, and gritted her teeth against the vertigo. The face of a leering skull looked down on her. Tent walls rippled in the background.

“What a gift the gods have brought me,” said Torq, leader of the Darrow Raiders. “The Red Witch in the flesh.”

She frantically reached after the orb, but he stepped on her wrist and placed his weight on it. She felt her bones straining and she grunted with the pain.

“Did you not know that after a certain amount of time and use,” he said, “the orb must come home to restore its power?”

Even as she watched, the orb floated into the air and then flew across a table and deposited itself into a gold, jeweled coffer. The coffer’s lid immediately snapped shut of its own accord.

The pressure on her wrist ended when Torq knelt beside her. He grabbed her braid and yanked her head back to bare her throat. He placed the edge of a knife there. “I think it was time we caught up, yes?”