Owlsight

had responsibility shoved at her for so long that she probably hadn’t learned how to have fun. But prickly?

Yet, so far, Val, Nightwind, Healer Gil, and even Lord Breon had warned him that Keisha was touchy, difficult to get to know, and held people at arm’s length. He just didn’t see any of those things in her - unless, if by “touchy,” they meant that she didn’t have any sympathy for fools, if by “difficult to get to know” they meant that she didn’t talk about things she wasn’t sure of, and if by “keeping people at arm’s length” they meant that she was shy. She was certainly shy. That seemed a little odd in someone who had such a mob of siblings, but maybe she’d learned to be very self-contained because of that.

People in Errold’s Grove respected her, but she didn’t have any suitors. She didn’t even have anyone he would have called a close friend. The young men of the village didn’t even seem to think of her as a girl.

All the better for me. If they can’t see how pretty she is, that’s their problem. On the other hand, maybe it’s a bit difficult for anyone to think romantically about the person who’s patched you up after doing something really stupid, and threatened to hold your nose and pour medicine down your throat when you‘ve had a sick stomach.

He grinned into the dimness. He could just see Keisha doing that, too!

His pleasant thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the uncharacteristically rude entrance of a hertasi, who burst in through the front door. “Dar’ian! You are needed!” it cried as soon as the door flew open.

He thrashed his way free of his covers, and flung himself out of bed. “Where?” he asked, stumbling into the room. “What’s the matter?”

“The outsiders come! The Vale pillars - the others wait there - ” it said, and whisked out the door again, presumably to rouse other folks.

The outsiders come ? Well, it can’t be an enemy attack, or there would be a lot more shouting going on outside. Besides, I don’t think even a hertasi would refer to an enemy attack as “the outsiders come.” With that in mind, he took some care in dressing, though he did so quickly, and left his weapons behind.

When he reached the two pillars at the entrance, there weren’t too many of “the others” waiting; just Kel, Nightwind, and Snowfire. “What’s going on?” he asked, combing his hair with his fingers and confining it with a headband. He’d combed it properly before he left, of course, but all his efforts at looking neat had been destroyed when he ran.

“Kel spotted an armed force with a pair of Heralds leading it heading this way as he started out on patrol this morning,” Snowfire said, as Kel nodded. “He came back to tell us, and I sent hertasi around to wake you all up.” To Darian’s chagrin, Snowfire looked as if he’d been up for hours, and had gotten the hertasi to give him a complete grooming while he waited for folk to muster out. How did he manage to do that?

“So our reinforcements are here? Why are they coming here, instead of Kelmskeep?” Darian asked, attempting to neaten himself up.

“They’re coming from Kelmskeep; at a guess, they overnighted there, and Lord Breon sent them on to us this morning,” Nightwind hazarded. “We’ll find out soon enough.”

A drowsy-eyed Firesong joined them at that moment, yawning behind his mask, followed by Starfall. Firesong had thrown on a loose robe, and was still in the process of belting it about his slim waist. His hair showed signs of having been hastily braided, and his eyes still looked sleepy. “Ugh,” Firesong said with distaste. “Military types! Why on earth they should think that it’s admirable to shake everyone awake at dawn or before, I can never understand!”

“The forrrce isss larrge enough to sssatisssfy you all, I think,” Kel put in, ignoring Firesong’s complaints with amusement. “I counted overrr a thousssand.”

“I hope Breon sends some supplies with them,” Starfall said thoughtfully. “That is a lot of hungry mouths to feed. Well, we’ll manage, we generally do.”

“I suspect that would be why he isn’t bivouacking them at Kelmskeep,” suggested Nightwind, with one hand on Kel’s neck and the other on Snowfire’s arm. “Well, we have room; I’m sure they brought tents, and we can camp them out here if there isn’t enough room in the Vale itself.”

“For one thousand to fifteen hundred?” said Ayshen, who with Tyrsell and Hashi was the last to join them. “No problem.” He turned with a flourish of his tail, and issued orders in the hissing hertasi language to another of his kind that had trailed deferentially along behind him. The other bobbed an agreement and scampered off. Hweel raced in beneath the branches, heading straight for Snowfire, who extended his arm and braced himself for the weight as Hweel landed.’they’re within sight,” Snowfire reported, while Hweel transferred half his weight to Snowfire’s protected shoulder.

And so they were. Darian peered out into the forest. The first of the reinforcements, tiny in the distance and further dwarfed by the giant trees, came into view on the road. They were easier to see, perhaps, because in the lead were two Heralds, white uniforms and white Companions making them doubly visible.

They moved at a brisk pace, which showed that they were in good shape. As they neared, just at the point