who had just agreed to a task probably easily as nasty as cleaning that cistern had been…
'I'd like to help. If I'm allowed that is,' he added hastily.
Idalia looked a little surprised but quite pleased. 'Why, Kellen, that's very kind of you! I accept, but I want to go find the pond first and see what kind of tools we'll need. Meanwhile, there's something else you can do, right now—'
She got up off the ground and went back to the cabin with her basket of herbs and whatnot, scooping up the bloody bandages and splints as well. Kellen had already learned that here in the wilderness you didn't throw things away lightly. Anything that could possibly be reclaimed and reused would be, as it was almost always easier to reuse than to make new.
She returned with a couple of empty baskets and a leather bucket and handed them to him. 'If you'd be so kind, go off with Shalkan and see what you can find in the woods. It's summer—there might be berries, and if you can find enough we'll have pancakes and berries for dinner. I always find that I'm as hungry as a wolf after a healing, and especially hungry for sweet things.'
'Of course,' he said, wondering if she was trying to get him out of the way for some reason…
But no, probably not.
'Anything else you'd like me to look for?' he added.
She looked wistful 'Oh—mushrooms—if you're lucky enough to find mushrooms… I haven't had a good mess of stuffed mushrooms in so long…'
It was his turn to laugh, and he did. 'I'll look. And I'll see what else I can find to eat, too.'
'You won't need to worry about picking anything poisonous, not with me with you,' Shalkan said, a little smugly, coming a few steps closer. 'And I daresay I'm as good as one of those truffle-hunting dogs at sniffing out nice bits to eat.'
'Truffles?' Idalia asked, the longing so naked in her voice that both of them laughed. 'Now, I won't hold you to that, and I won't get my mouth set for anything in particular. Whatever you bring back will be more than we have already. And the walk will do you good, strengthen that ankle some more, and give you more woodscraft practice.'
'Then, we'll be off,' Kellen said instantly. Having just embarrassed himself so thoroughly in front of Idalia— and found out things he'd just as soon not know, come to that—he'd just as soon be somewhere else for the next little while. 'We'll be back when we've got something to show you.'
And without waiting for her answer, he strode off into the woods, making Shalkan trot to catch up.
THIS WAS THE first time Kellen had been very far from the cabin since his recovery, and even with Shalkan by his side, he felt rather alone. It was a different kind of aloneness than the kind he had faced in the City, where he'd been surrounded by people every waking moment, and his constant quest had been for privacy. But there, at least, irritating as it had been, he'd been protected— by the City Watch, by the fact of being the Arch-Mage's son. He couldn't have gotten into trouble—not real, point-of-death trouble—in Armethalieh, not really. The Watch was always keeping an eye on things, and if he'd really gotten in badly over his head, all he would have needed to do was reveal who he was, and everybody within sight would have been crawling all over themselves to do whatever he wanted and see him safely home. Oh, he might have gotten his pocket picked—that had happened to him a number of times in his early days—but that was just about the worst thing that had ever happened.
But here it was different. Except for Idalia… and Shalkan, of course… there didn't seem to be another person for miles. It seemed very odd never to see any other people, not to hear the sound of voices all around him, the sound of horses, and carts, and the City bells.
And the problem was that he really was alone, both physically and mentally, more alone than he'd ever been in his life, grappling with a problem no one could solve for him. Not Shalkan, and not Idalia.
Kellen was pretty sure by now that he could trust Idalia, trust her intelligence and her judgment, even if she didn't always tell him everything. After all, why should she? He was ten years younger than she was, and she had a lot of experiences behind her that maybe she wouldn't want to talk about to someone like him. He liked her a lot— more each day. He was in awe of her—not only her magic and her woodscraft abilities, but her plain common sense.
The trouble he had was that even though all those tales of Demonkind had seemed like nonsense back in the City, they weren't anything to be laughed at anymore. There'd been those dreams, for one thing. And for another, Idalia herself had said something in passing, but with a wary look over her shoulder, about Demons.
Now, if Idalia spoke of Demonkind without any irony—and given those awful dreams—Lycaelon must have had something behind his warnings, after all.
Idalia had been working with the Wild Magic for a long time—at least ten years more than he had, so if it was
