Storm Breaking

Elspeth looked back over her shoulder to Vallen; he nodded, and with a gesture sent four of the guards off to the kitchen. The rest took seats with, and carefully around, Elspeth. Darkwind remained at her right hand, and she was not in the least deceived by his casual pose. If anyone so much as raised his voice in a way he considered threatening, the offending party might find himself facing the point of a knife or being held in the bonds of a most uncomfortable tangle-spell or racking paralysis.

And that's assuming I didn't act on a perception of threat first, for myself.

Hob sat across the table from Elspeth, and rubbed his nose, as if wondering how to begin. Finally he just set his shoulders and blundered in. 'You say you're going to Shonar. How much do you know about this Tremane?'

Not long on tact, but I doubt he's used to being the leader of these people. He probably hasn't had much occasion for tact. Elspeth shrugged. 'What we know is this; he's brought in his entire force to Shonar, and he's broken off all hostile actions with Hardornen loyalists. From what we've been told, he's going out of his way to avoid conflict with loyalist groups, which, you'll admit, in this weather isn't exactly difficult.'

Hob snorted in agreement.

'Not only has he expressed an interest in joining the Alliance, he loaned us several of his mages to help us with—' she hesitated. How much would he understand if she told him about the mage-storms? '—with the magical problem that's at the heart of all the weird things that have been happening.'

'The monsters? The weather? Them circles?' Hob's eyes widened and he grew quite excited. 'Tremane helped you with fixing them—'

'He did, and he continues to,' Elspeth replied. 'It's a bigger problem than you may realize. It isn't just Hardorn that's been plagued by all these calamities. It's Valdemar, the Pelagirs, Rethwellan, Karse, the Dhorisha Plains and, we're guessing, just about everywhere else, right out to the Empire. The Alliance, with Tremane's help, managed to fix things temporarily, in the area covered by the Alliance nations.' She decided that it might be best not to mention Solaris' personal interview with the Grand Duke; after all, she only knew that it had occurred, not what had been said. 'As for the rest that we know about Tremane, we have been told that the citizens of Shonar and the surrounding area have come to look upon him as their protector. We have heard that he has been doing good things for them.'

'Aye,' Hob said slowly. 'We've heard the same. We've heard that them as was fighting against him have come over to his side, that he's been acting like—like we was his people. And now he's helping you in Valdemar?'

She nodded. He pursed his lips and exchanged glances with some of his fellow villagers. They weren't very good at hiding their expressions; what she was telling them agreed with some of what they had heard, and they were surprised to have an outsider confirm what they'd clearly thought were hopeful but unlikely rumors.

'We've heard as how things are pretty fat in Shonar, all things considered,' he said finally. 'We've heard that it's because of Tremane. We've heard he set his men out helping with harvest, building walls around the town, doing other things like that 'sides taking down monsters.'

She spread her hands in a gesture he could read as he chose. 'We've heard the same things,' she said. 'I don't know yet how much truth is in what we've heard, but I'm certain that your sources are completely different from ours. I can tell you this, not all of our sources are Tremane's people.'

'And when two people say the same thing... aye.' There was a great deal of murmuring behind him. He chewed on his lower lip. 'All the same—'

'All the same, it's possible that he is putting on a good face for us, hoping to lure us into accepting him,' she said, as bluntly as he would have. 'We don't know, and we won't know until we get there.'

Hob traced the grain of the wood of the table with his finger and avoided her eyes. 'All the same, lady—we need a leader. There's nobody left of the old blood; damned Ancar saw to that.'

'And people have been talking about accepting the Duke?' That was more than she had expected to hear, on this side of the former battle lines. 'A foreigner? An Imperial?'

'The Duke, not his bloody Empire!' someone said in the back. 'We heard his Emperor left him hanging out to dry when the troubles started; we heard he's not Charliss' dog no more.'

'Hell, he couldn't be, could he, if he's comin' to you with his brass hat in his hand, looking to get into the Alliance,' Hob said, looking hopeful. 'He's proving himself for Shonar; if he proves himself for Shonar, why not for Hardorn?'

'But what if he doesn't just want to be your leader?' Elspeth asked softly. 'What if he wants to be your King?'

Hob hesitated a moment, then shrugged. 'That's all cake or calamity tomorrow, isn't it?' he said philosophically. 'We got to get through the winter first.' He favored Elspeth with a shy smile. 'I can tell you this, there's one way we'd take him.'

'Even as a King?' Darkwind asked quietly.

He nodded, slowly. 'Even as a King. He'd have to swear on something we'd trust that he wasn't Charliss'