Janis limped to his chair and sat, sighing with relief, his left foot propped up in the chair to his left. Ondus sat on Janis’ right, leaving Khollo to choose a seat from the remaining spots. He sat beside Ondus, feeling he would be rather more included in the discussion there than if he sat by Janis’ injured foot.
Janis dragged a clean sheet of parchment towards him and snatched up a writing stick, scribbling furiously. After five minutes of absolute silence, save for the scratching noise of Janis writing, the lord of the West Bank read over what he had written and passed it to Ondus.
“Send that to Ishkabur. They must be warned. Hurry back as fast as you can.”
Ondus left without another word, racing down the stairs outside.
“What – ” Khollo started to ask. But Janis cut him off with an impatient hand gesture.
“Wait for Ondus to return,” he said. “It will save us saying everything twice.”
Khollo sat back, thoroughly disgruntled and feeling left out. Janis winced and rubbed at his bandaged ankle, grumbling to himself in a voice so low that the words were indistinguishable.
Ten minutes later, Khollo heard footsteps racing up the stairs of the keep, drawing nearer and nearer. But when the council room door opened, it was Sergeant Wilkes who entered, not Ondus. When he saw Khollo, he scowled angrily and marched to the other side of the table.
“What is the meaning of this? Horses galloping into the fortress in the middle of the night, messages being sent, squires in the council chamber? What do you mean by all of this, Lord Kurkan?”
“You’ll find out, I daresay,” Janis growled. “Just wait for once. And Khollo is here because his assignment is related to this.”
“You mean the one he refused to tell me about?” Wilkes growled.
“Do you have any other assignments, Khollo?” Janis asked.
“No.”
“Then, yes, Wilkes, I assume we are talking about the same assignment,” Janis replied. Wilkes frowned and turned away, stalking to the nearest window and looking down into the snow-covered courtyard.
Ondus returned less than a minute later, panting from the exertion of climbing the stairs so quickly. He shut the council room door with such force that the doorframe shook and an echoing boom rolled up and down the stairs. Khollo flinched.
“Sorry,” Ondus said. “We’ve been on the run for over a week now.”
“On the run?” Wilkes demanded, swinging back to face the others. “What have the pair of you gone and done now?”
“Easy, Wilkes,” Ondus growled. “Remember who you’re talking to.” There was an implicit threat in the words, even though they were spoken calmly.
Wilkes glared at Ondus and took a seat opposite Khollo, still refusing to look at him. “I suppose this isn’t about me throwing the boy out of training?”
“What?” Ondus demanded, stunned. “Khollo never told us that you – ”
“We were getting to that,” Khollo muttered.
“You have no right!” Ondus growled. “I don’t know what you have against this boy, but this has gone far enough.”
“It’s okay, Ondus,” Khollo said quickly. “Really, it is. Things are better this way.
“But, your training!” Ondus spluttered. “How are you supposed to defend yourself?”
Janis had been observing the exchange quietly. Or at least, Khollo had thought he was paying attention. When he looked at his master though, he was picking chunks of dirt and small stones from the sole of his right boot with a dagger.
“It looks,” Janis said finally. “As though you now have a chance to try your method, Ondus. That’s what you wanted isn’t it?”
“Not this way,” Ondus muttered, dragging a hand through his hair. “Transferring him is one thing, but throwing him out . . .”
“Same result,” Janis grunted.
“It’s the principle of the thing!”
“It’s not a problem!” Khollo roared, jumping to his feet. The three men looked up at him, stunned.
“I never was good at this whole soldier business,” Khollo growled. “I’m better off away from Wilkes and his teachings. In his system, I never would have succeeded. I’ve been working with the smiths, and I’m good at that. For once, I’m enjoying what I’m working on. But if Ondus has a plan for me, you’d better spit it out and get started before I decide I don’t want to switch careers again. But first, you’d better tell me the results of your escapade, and quickly!”
Ondus and Janis exchanged a look. Wilkes was glaring at Khollo furiously, positively florid, ready to attack him for his outburst.
Then, the most unexpected sound of all filled the room.
Laughter.
Janis laughed on and on until Khollo became afraid that his master had gone quite mad in the hunt.
“Well, I’d say that confirms our decision, Ondus,” Janis said, still smiling. He chuckled again.
“Your decis – ?”
“Khollo, let us explain this first,” Ondus broke in. “We’ll get to our . . . findings right after, deal?”
“Deal,” Khollo said immediately.
“Talk,” Ondus said to Janis.
Janis paused to gather his thoughts. “If you’ll recall, Khollo, Ondus proposed a different sort of training for you, said I hadn’t been doing a very good job and that passing you off to Wilkes was a mistake.” He frowned. “Apparently, it was.”
“Thing is, Khollo, you’re intelligent. That’s the reason I stuck up for you when you tried to pinch that idiot nobleman’s purse. And you had spunk, backbone. A rare find these days. The fact that you stood up just now confirms it.”
If you thought that was impressive you should have seen my argument with Wilkes, Khollo thought, smirking.
“Ondus was right about something else,” Janis continued. “I haven’t done well by you, Khollo. I should have
