the corner of her eye, she saw Kethry, Fallan, and the children entering the house. 'Listen, you're in the position to do us a favor, Landric. I hate to impose upon you, but -- well, we've got another 'pet' to find a home for.' Quickly and concisely she laid out Fallan's pathetic story. '-- so we were hoping you'd know someone willing to take her in. She's a good worker, I can tell you that; it's just that she's just not suited for the trail. And to tell you the truth, she's not very flexible. I think we shock her.'
He smiled slowly. 'I am not quite that stupid, Sworn One. You hope that I will take her in, don't you?'
'Oh, well, I'll admit the thought did cross my mind,' Tarma smiled crookedly.
'It is a possibility. It would neatly balance some wrongs I committed in my soldiering days ...' His eyes grew thoughtful. 'I'll tell you -- let's see how she does with the younglings. Then I'll make my decision.'
By the look in Landric's eyes when they crossed the threshold, Tarma knew he'd made up his mind. It wasn't just that Fallan had duplicated their feats of setting the place to rights, (although it wasn't near the task they'd had) nor was it the savory stew odor coming from the kettle on the hearth, nor the sight of five of the six children lined up with full bowls on their knees, neatly stowing their dinner away. No, what made up Landric's mind was the sight of Fallan, the youngest on her lap, cuddling him and drying his tears over the skinned knee he'd just acquired, and she looking as blissful as if she'd reached heaven.
They stayed a week, and only left because they'd agreed to act as caravan guards before all this began and would be late if they stayed longer.
Fallan had been in her element from the moment they'd entered the door. And with every passing day, it looked as though Landric was thinking of her less as a hireling and more in the light of something else.
'Are you thinking what I'm thinking?' Tarma asked her partner as soon as they were out of earshot.
'That he'll be wedding her before too long? Probably. There's mutual respect and liking there, and Fallan loves the children. She even likes the little beastie! It's not a life that would appeal to me or you -- but it looks like exactly what she wants. There've been worse things to base a marriage on.'
'Like the lord's daughter and her 'hero'?' Tanna grimaced. 'I don't know whether to feel sorrier for him or her or both. From the little I saw and heard, she's no prize, and m'lord is likely to have made an arrangement that keeps the pursestrings in his hands and out of her husband's.'
'Which is hardly what he'd counted on when he went to slay the monster. On the other hand, we have reason to know the man is an insensitive brute. They deserve each other,' Kethry replied thoughtfully.
'As Landric and Fallan do. There's your real heroes -- the people who keep coping, keep trying, no matter how many blows Fate takes at them. Nobody'll make a song about them, but they're heroes all the same,' Tarma said soberly, then grinned. 'Now, if we're going to get our deserts, we'll have to earn 'em. Let's ride, she'enedra -- before that damned sword of yours finds something else it wants us to do!'
FRIENDLY FIRE
Ever have one of those days?
Sometimes you can get into more trouble just because of Murphy's Law than for any other reason. The problem with heroic fantasy is that very few of the heroes seem to be affected by Murphy's Law.
But very few heroic fantasy heroes are like Tarma and Kethry.
Tarma shena Tale'sedrin, Swordsworn Shin'a'in, was up to her earlobes in a different kind of battle than she usually fought.
A battle with current finances.
She and her partner, the White Winds sorceress Kethry, had taken to the marketplace armed with slender pouches of copper coins; no silver there. With luck, they would be able to stretch those pouches of coin enough to cover provisions for the two humans, the two Shin'a'in battlemares, and Warrl, the wolflike kyree. Those provisions had to last for at least three weeks, the time it would take them to get to their next job.
There was a certain amount of self-provisioning they could do. Warrl could hunt some for himself, and so could Tarma and Kethry if they were careful. Warrl was quite intelligent enough to confine his hunting to nondomestic beasts, and there were always rabbits living in hedgerows that could be snared. But this was farm country, and there was very little for the warhorses to forage on along the roadside -- and if those rabbits proved elusive, any fresh meat would have to go first to Warrl.
