Firebrand

“Grandmother has powers,” Zachary said. “Maybe she thinks she can control the demons.” Was her motive really to release them, or just to lure and ensnare Westrion’s avatar? Or, both? If she had some way of controlling the dark entities, they could devastate his people. By ensnaring the avatar, she would prevent the avatar from interfering with her plans.

He contributed nothing more to the group’s speculation about the portal, and he was beginning to think that escape was not the best of ideas. If only he could get his hands on Grandmother, or at least prevent the opening of the portal, and should those efforts fail, somehow warn Westrion’s avatar. Unfortunately, Grandmother was away, and being significantly outnumbered by guards, he could not see how to disrupt the dig. Besides, how did one find a god’s avatar? Just thinking about it seemed beyond reason.

“Dav,” Lorilie said.

He looked up from his musings to see that the group had broken up. Lorilie knelt beside him.

“Yes?”

She gazed at him, assessing. Quietly she said, “I am a good judge of people, and you are no merchant’s son.”

He stiffened. “What makes you say that?”

“You don’t sound like one, and you don’t carry yourself like one. You are too, hmm, thoughtful to be the careless brawler you want Grandmother and her people to think you are.”

He started to protest, but she cut him off with a curt shake of her head.

Even more quietly, she continued, “I won’t say anything to the others. You might be an agent of the king, or someone more important. A noble, even. I hope, whoever you are, that you’ll find a way to put an end to all this.” She touched him lightly on the wrist and gave him an earnest look, then rose to go to her customary sleeping spot.

He would have to be more careful, forget that he was Zachary. Even if the other workers and guards didn’t see as Lorilie saw, he knew Grandmother would.

THE CAPTAIN’S RUNNER

Anna shifted her burden on her shoulder, saddlebags stuffed with supplies. Gil, likewise burdened, walked beside her as they trekked across castle grounds toward Rider stables.

“What about a Green Foot runner?” Gil asked, picking up on an earlier conversation.

“I’m just about too old,” Anna said. “Plus, I don’t want to be a runner.”

“Nay? What’re you doin’ now?”

Gil, Anna had learned, was the newest Rider to hear the call. He arrived in late fall just as the first snowflakes began to swirl in the air. He hailed from Arey Province, way up in the northeast coast of Sacoridia, and came from a fishing family. His journey to Sacor City was an adventure tale of stowing away on a ship, being caught and pressed into service as a deckhand, and his eventual escape by diving overboard into the freezing waters off Hillander Province. Fortunately, he knew how to swim and made it to shore shivering and numb. With his thick Arey accent and all, he was right. She’d become something like Captain Mapstone’s personal runner, sent on errands all over castle grounds.

They parted to avoid walking through a slushy mud puddle and came back together on the other side.

“I just don’t understand why,” Anna said, “I am being asked to do these things if I can’t be a Green Rider.” It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help and be around Green Riders—she did!—but it was confusing and a little hurtful. She was still, of course, tending the hearths in the royal apartments, except those of the king’s. They’d been left cold since his disappearance.

They hastened off the path into a crusty, dirty snowbank as a unit of infantry in formation trotted by at a good clip, splashing right through the puddles without a flinch. Castle grounds had become very busy with the general muster of troops for the forthcoming trouble with Second Empire. The fields outside the city had become a major encampment, and the city itself and castle were filled with uniformed men and women. Provincial militias were being summoned to their own capitals, as well. From Sacor City, the troops would move out to wherever their generals wanted them. It was all beyond Anna, but she did her best to stay out of everyone’s way.

When finally they reached Rider stables, they found Mara and Brandall waiting for them, and Sophina just leading her horse outside.

“Good,” Mara said, “the provisions are here.”

They helped strap the saddlebags to each horse’s saddle, while Mara gave Brandall and Sophina instructions. When Anna finished with her saddlebag, she patted Brandall’s mare, Eagle, on the neck. She’d grown much more at ease around the horses, thanks to her riding lessons.

“And here come your traveling companions now,” Mara said.

Anna glanced up as the two Weapons rode their black horses toward them. Actually, only one, Willis, was a full Weapon. The young woman beside him, dressed in charcoal gray, was a Weapon-in-training, but she looked just as grim as any full Weapon. Trainees and instructors alike had been summoned from the Forge to aid in the search for King Zachary, and to make sure there was no shortfall in protection for the queen. Parties of four had been going out to search for the past few weeks, consisting of a pair of Riders, a Weapon, and a Weapon trainee.

Gil sidled over to Anna and nudged her shoulder. “Mebbe you can become one of them.” He nodded toward Willis and the trainee.

The trainee appeared to overhear and watched Anna to see what she would say. Inside, she shrieked, No! Not for nothing! The idea of standing silently in the shadows did not appeal. Their ways were mysterious and they seemed unreal to her.