Kerowyn's Ride

“Kero—” he said, hoarsely, as tears began to trickle down his face once again. “Kero, it’s—my father’s dead.”

Ten

For one long moment, she couldn’t seem to do anything but stand there stupidly, staring at him. Then his shoulders began to shake with silent sobs, and she reacted automatically, pulling him inside, taking him over to the bed and getting him to sit down on the side of it.

“What happened?” she asked, bewildered. Last she’d heard, the King was in excellent health, and Prince Thanel had been safely married off to the Queen of Valdemar. Dear heavens, that was over a year ago. Closer to two. Daren expected to be called home then, but it didn’t happen, and that was when he started making hints about getting me ennobled. Have we been here that long?

She tallied up the seasons in her mind, and realized with a bit of shock that she had been Tarma’s pupil for over three years. She glanced reflexively at the mirror built into the wardrobe, and the Kerowyn that looked back at her, hard, lean, eyes wide with surprise, was nothing like the ill-trained girl that had arrived here.

Never mind that. Right now I have to get some sense out of Daren. She held Daren against her shoulder and let him cry himself out; that was the best thing she could do for him right now. As the pink light of dawn filled the room, he got a little better control over himself, and groped after a handkerchief. As usual, he’d forgotten one. She’d never been quite so conscious before of the fact that he was younger than she by at least a year. At this moment he felt more like her brother than her lover.

“Th-thanel,” he stammered at last. “It was all Thanel. He’s dead. A week or so ago. He tried to murder his wife.”

He what? But his wife—“He tried to assassinate the Queen of Valdemar?” she exclaimed. “Dearest gods—but what does that have to do with your father?”

“When they told Father, he—I don’t know, something happened. Maybe his heart g-g-gave out on him. There’s a branch of Kethry’s mage-school not far from the capital; they sent word there and one of the mages sent word to Kethry and she w-w-woke me.” He choked up again, and couldn’t get anything more past his tears. She patted his back absently, one part of her intent on comforting him as best she could, but the rest of her mind putting together all the possible ramifications.

Valdemar isn’t particularly warlike, and they just finished that mess with the Tedrel Companies. Tedrel “Companies, “ indeed. Trust Karse to find an entire nation of low-life scum, and hire them on as free-lancers ... then complain when Valdemar routs them and they turn back on Karse to loot their way home. Serves them right—She gave herself a mental shake and got back on the right trail. But that was just before Daren came. Valdemar took some pretty severe losses, and they can’t possibly have recovered enough to declare war.

Right. So—Thanel tries to take out his wife, I assume so that he can take the throne. He must have failed. I need to know who caught him and what they did with him. The King gets the news, and promptly collapses, then dies, which puts Thanel’s brother on the throne ... no love lost there, which means he could possibly placate Valdemar.

Damn. I need to know how Thanel tried, and whether or not he had any help, either from here, or from inside Valdemar itself.

She tried to calm Daren down a little, but he was incoherent; she hadn’t realized he cared that much for his father. So she just held him close, rocking him back and forth a little; it felt like the right thing to do, and it seemed to soothe him as well. He didn’t utter a sound after she stopped asking him questions, and that made her heart ache all the more for him. Those silent sobs bespoke more emotional pain than she had ever felt in her life....

Finally he stopped trembling; the storm of voiceless weeping that shook him went the way of all storms. She continued to hold him until she felt a little resistance, as if he wanted to pull away from her. Then she let him go, and he slowly raised his head from her shoulder.

Sun streamed in Kero’s window; ironically, it was going to be a beautiful day, but all prospect of enjoying it had just flown with the migrating birds. Daren winced away from the light, his eyes dark-circled, swollen and red, his face still white as the snow outside. “I think you should get some rest,” Kero said quietly. “I know you don’t think you’ll be able to sleep, but you should at least go lie down for a while.”

He bristled a little, which she took as a good sign. At least he wasn’t going to fall over helplessly and let her take charge of his life.

“Really, if you don’t at least go put a cold cloth on your eyes, you aren’t going to be able to see out of them,” she insisted. Finally, he nodded, and stood up.

“You’ll come get me if you hear anything, won’t you?” He seemed to be taking it for granted that she would be with her grandmother and Tarma.

That was as good an idea as any. “I will,” she promised, and got up to lead him out the door.

They parted company at his door, and she raced down the hall to the stairs, then took the stairway down as fast as she could without killing herself.

The common room was empty, but there was light coming from under the door leading to Kethry’s “working rooms.” Kero hesitated a moment, torn by the need to find out more information, and her reluctance to pass that