Firebrand

“She knows how much you worry, and admittedly, some of the things she’s done are hair-raising, but it only further exemplifies her competence.”

She gave him the details of stories of which he had heard only the basics, like those of Karigan’s rescue of the then Lady Estora in the Teligmar Hills, and more of her experiences in Blackveil than she had told him the day before. Laren didn’t tell him everything, certainly little about Cade Harlowe, whom Karigan had been so careful to keep to herself. Another subject she avoided? Karigan’s mirror eye. Few knew of it for her own protection.

So many secrets.

Even as Laren attempted to enlighten Stevic about his daughter’s adventures, she held back much. How calculating was the exclusion of details, how it could manipulate emotion and opinion, and make certain truths mislead. How she could soothe the worry of a father by emphasizing his daughter’s cleverness.

“Not only is Karigan able to find her way out of insane situations,” Laren concluded, “but she helps people along the way, like that ash girl yesterday. It was not only the queen she kept safe.”

Stevic had bowed his head so that it was hard to know what he made of it all. She rubbed her lower back. The cold had crept up from the floor into her joints. The city bell rang ten hour.

Eventually he said, “She would have made an excellent merchant, but it is clear she was meant to serve the realm and its people, and not just one clan. I thank you for telling me what she would not, though I sense there are details even you are holding back.”

She gave him a tight smile. “Greenie secrets.”

“Hmm.”

Bluebird rubbed his head on her shoulder, and she turned to pat him, only to find it wasn’t Bluebird, but the horse in the neighboring stall. He was at least sixteen and a half hands high, and was white with a splattering of black spots.

“No nibbling, Loon,” she told him in a stern voice. He stopped and shook his mane and blinked at her. She turned to speak to Stevic again, but paused and stood frozen for a moment.

“What is it?” Stevic asked.

She glanced back at Loon. He’d returned to his hayrack, paying her not a whit of attention. How was it she knew his name? He’d been brought by the horse trader, Damien Frost, last spring with all the other new horses. Loon must have partnered with one of the newer Riders and someone had told her his name, but she couldn’t remember anything about it. She’d have to ask Elgin when she next saw him.

“Laren?” Stevic asked. “Something wrong?”

She noted his use of her name and smiled. “No, nothing is wrong.”

He nodded, getting that intense look in his eyes again as he gazed down at her. “I believe our business is not quite complete.”

Just then, a horse nose—she didn’t know if it was Loon or Bluebird—shoved her so that she neatly stumbled into Stevic’s arms.

“No,” she said, looking up at him, “I guess it’s not.”

EMINENTLY SUITED

A full night’s restful sleep did Karigan a world of good, and so far this morning there was no reappearance of the strange ice creatures that had terrorized the castle the previous day. At breakfast, however, she heard about the escape of Immerez.

“I thought you’d want to know,” Mara said.

And with good reason. Karigan had been caught in his clutches more than once, the first time when she was carrying a desperate message to King Zachary before she was even officially a Green Rider, and the second time in the Teligmar Hills when she served as a decoy to draw away Immerez’s henchmen to enable Estora’s escape to safety. He had never forgiven Karigan for cutting off his sword hand.

“Thank you,” Karigan replied, picking at her sausage, “I think.”

“The king has soldiers out tracking him. I am sure they’ll bring him back one way or the other.”

Karigan decided she would not allow this piece of news to overshadow her day. Mara was right—the king’s soldiers would bring Immerez back, and she felt too good after yesterday’s exertions fighting the ice creatures and then having a full night’s sleep, to get tied up in knots about it, though she suspected that some vestige of a shadow would follow her no matter how much she tried not to worry.

After breakfast, she sought out Lhean, but learned he was still helping Merla with the warding around Estora’s apartments. Just after ten hour, she strode along the path to Rider stables to visit Condor, her breath fogging in the frigid air. She wore a new pair of wool mittens, a scarf, and a cap knitted by Aunt Brini. They were Rider green, and the envy of several of her fellow Riders.

The large sliding doors to the stables were closed against the weather, so she entered through a side door. Like the Rider wing filling up with new Greenies who had heard the call, the stables were now quite filled with horses, and a new section that had not been used in decades was now occupied. It only made her happier to think about it.

She turned a corner to where Condor’s stall was and halted. Down the aisle she saw her father, his height and beaver fur coat unmistakable. A Rider stood in his arms. Karigan squinted through the gloom and realized, with a start, that that wasn’t just any Rider, but her captain.

What in the name of the gods . . . ? Clearly they were unaware of her arrival. They spoke to one another so quietly she could not hear their words. Her father placed his finger under the captain’s chin and tilted her face up, and she grabbed handfuls of his coat and rose on her toes to meet him in a kiss. It was no simple, friendly peck, either, but the lingering, intense kiss of romantic partners.