Carrie, “Are you al right with that?”
“Bee growing a set and wanting to be a decent guy? Yeah.
I’m loving it.” Not a hint of acknowledgement of Kristen’s status.
“That, too. But I meant…” She looked at the girl’s waist and nodded.
“Oh. Sure. Yes. It happened…”
Inger grasped the truth as Carrie realized that her lover’s transformation had happened because he had figured it out, too.
The Queen shook her head, surprised by her own good feelings.
Josiah had men unloading donkeys already. Those poor animals were bedraggled. “Nathan, appropriate enough to buy firewood for us, the staff, and the stable, then get some decent food in here. Decent. Don’t go crazy. Then you and Josiah join me to go over our books.”
She owed a lot of money. Good people and bad, no one who had seen the El Murid Wars would have trouble rationalizing confiscation of wealth from the desert. Most of that would have gotten there as plunder, anyway.
“Babeltausque, I could bear your children myself. Conning you into signing up with me was the smartest thing I ever did.”
The sorcerer had trouble understanding when people were joking, especial y when they were drol or sarcastic but kept a straight face. He coped by remaining unresponsive til he gathered cues enough to guess what was going on.
Carrie said, “I bet he’d jump at that. But I’m selfish. I won’t share.”
Inger was stunned. Did the girl think she was amongst her own street people? She managed, “I’m heartbroken. Who is that forlorn cripple?” The woman did not look like much but seemed important even so.
Babeltausque said, “I’m not sure, Majesty. Something supernatural. She came out of the otherworld used by Shinsan’s portals. She took control of a boy who tried to fol ow us and transformed his body into that. The bad foot was the last part out. Maybe the boy wasn’t big enough to let her make a complete new body. Don’t offend her. She might look lost but stil be a goddess or devil.” He knew more than he was saying. He believed what he did say. Complying with his suggestions would be sensible.
“Doctor Wachtel, take charge of the young lady. Help her if you can.” She had forked branches for crutches. Lein She had made those for her.
Wachtel approached her, made himself understood by grunts and signs. Too, she understood a few Wesson words and phrases—which astonished everyone.
Inger said, “Toby, take our other guests to the empty quarters. Garyline, help him. Miss Depar, you seem able to communicate with them. Go with Garyline and Toby.
Kristen, contribute wherever you can.”
That earned her a grim look—fol owed by a curt nod.
Things did have to be done.
Inger added, “The lifeguard that got left might be helpful, too. Where is he? You’d think he’d want to see this.” Kristen said, “You asked him to stick to his quarters.” Of course. It was honorable behavior to the point of obnoxiousness. Centurion of the First. Something like that.
She was ashamed. She could not recal the man’s name.
“Tel him I said he can come out and help. We should hear from his boss again soon, shouldn’t we, Babeltausque?”
“As you say. Some of them are important officers.” The Depar girl engaged the one Inger thought might be cal ed Tong Shand. Inger said, “Get them settled, then join Josiah, Nathan, and me. We need to decide what’s next.”
“As you wil , Majesty.”
Damn. He was having serious moral difficulties.
She understood. He had delivered what might be the one tool she needed to turn completely nasty, at a moment when she had Kristen and her brat in grabbing range.
That move would alienate Babeltausque—and, possibly, Josiah and Nathan, too.
“Everyone, please handle your assignments.” Inger took herself to the wal . She stared westward, toward the part of the kingdom least likely to support her if she seized this day.
The Kavelin disease stirred. Anything she did to aggrandize herself could succeed only after savage cost to the kingdom. It would mean a return to the situation of a year ago, when Kavelin had been ready to indulge in a suicidal frenzy.
She reflected briefly. Ozora Mundwil er would not suffer what she was tempted to try. Neither would Abaca Enigara.
The Guild would stick a few spears in. And Bragi would be out there somewhere, unpredictable, with supremely dangerous al ies.
Michael Trebilcock was with him, wherever. Aral Dantice had turned invisible but rumor had him nearby and watching.
So, layer dire practical considerations atop the Kavelin disease and one might even overcome one’s own worst nature.
...
Mist told her daughter, “This isn’t something I’m qualified to help you with, dear. I’ve never been in your situation. I’ve never even seen anything like it.” She would not devalue Eka’s trauma. Puppy love or not it had to be taken seriously. It could shape a girl who might torture the world later on, trivial as this might seem to a jaded adult right now. “Talk to your Aunt Nepanthe.” Hardly an expert herself, of course, but Nepanthe had had more than one man in her life. She had navigated some fierce emotional waters.
Mist added, “Don’t be angry. I do want to help. I just don’t know how. The only man… Only your father… I was just hopeless.”
Ekaterina delivered a tortured sigh worthy of a girl a little older and much more put upon by an indifferently cruel world. “I guess I understand.”
“I do know that you can’t force things to be what you want.
The harder you try the worse they get.”
“I know that much, Mother.” Another mil ennial sigh. “So when wil al this stuff be over? I’m sick of this place. I want to go home.”
Mist maintained her composure. She did not ask where Eka thought home might lie. “I can’t even guess anymore, dear. Our opponent might have accepted defeat.”
“He’s up to something. Scalza and I can both tel that.”
“That’s his nature. We’re as prepared as we can be.” She saw Eka grasp the loophole, then choose to ignore it.
“I’m just tired… No, I’m real y depressed.”
“Here’s a thought. Just blue-skying. Did you ever tel Ethrian how you feel? Yes. I know. It’s dangerous. He might say what you don’t want to hear. But he might surprise you, too.
And if the wound is waiting, putting it off won’t help.” Eka’s response was instant outrage that gave way quickly to her dangerously grounded, deadly rational core.
Ekaterina set free a different species of sigh, the sort that eased tension before one commenced a risky venture. She went to where Ethrian was playing a sleepy game of shogi with Lord Kuo, whispered into his left ear. Puzzled, the boy excused himself. He let Eka lead him outside.
Dread rising, Mist whispered, “She’s too young.” Then started.
Michael Trebilcock was scarcely a yard away, one eyebrow raised. He shrugged. “I don’t know. The body may be. But it feels like there’s a very old soul inside.” She nodded. She understood, though she did not agree.
Eka could be unsettling to adults who expected her to be like others her age but half as bright and raised in ordinary family circumstances. “She’l be al right, though. Nepanthe is a good mother.” Which was painful to say. “Can you do me a modest favor?”
“Within reason.”
“Keep an eye on Eka til she comes back.”
“Any special instructions?”
