Blackstone (Book 2) (9 page)

No drinks had been served with the meal—they hadn’t been
last night either, come to think of it—so Siobhan was more than ready to drink
something. “That sounds wonderful.”

“Then please, this way.”

Siobhan followed her hostess out of the room and into an
adjoining one that still gave her full view of the dining area. They sat at
another short table, but this time there were chairs. Sort of. It looked like a
chair, but it didn’t have legs to it. It sat squarely on the ground. But at
least Siobhan had something to lean back against and she could stretch her legs
forward. Just that was a relief.

Hye Ri brought a light green tea pot with two matching cups,
neither of which were larger than a child’s palm, and sat them on the round
table before sitting opposite her. “We are pleased you came tonight. I have
long wanted to see the people that my son chose to spend his life with.”

“I’m very glad you invited us,” Siobhan returned. “I know
how nerve-racking it is for parents to not know where your son is or who he’s
with. Every time I gain a new member of the guild, I make sure to introduce him
or her to my parents for that reason. If anything, our visit to you is long
overdue. I am sorry for that.”

“We are very far from your home and business after all,” Hye
Ri said in complete understanding.

“It must be hard on you, being so far away from your son,”
Siobhan said in true sympathy.

“That is so,” Hye Ri agreed, but her expression was one of
resignation more than anything else. “I cannot complain, however. I realized
years ago that my husband and I pushed him into this vocation.”

Siobhan blinked. “You did?”

“Unwittingly, yes.” She picked up the green tea pot and
poured them both a cup as she explained. “We have always been a scholarly
family. Most of our ancestors were priests, architects, historians, or
something of that ilk. So we encouraged our children to choose occupations
similar to what their ancestors did. But Fei Lei…” she let out a soft,
lady-like sigh. “His temperament was never suited to such.”

Siobhan struggled to picture Fei in some musty library,
studying day in and day out, and couldn’t. In fact, her eyes crossed at just
the attempt. The only time she had ever seen him still and quiet for a stretch
of time was when he was sneaking up on someone or spying on them.

“So you feel that because you pressured him to that path,
that he rebelled?”

“His master at that time was not surprised at the
rebellion.” Her nose wrinkled up, a flash of amusement crossing over her face.
“None of us anticipated just how far that rebellion would take him.”

“I bet.”

“If I may ask, how did he become a part of your guild?”

Siobhan took a sip from her cup and was surprised at the
fresh taste that exploded in her mouth. “This is excellent. What type of tea is
this?”

“Mint,” her hostess supplied, pleased she liked it.

Siobhan made a mental note to buy a bundle of the stuff to
take home with her. She stole another quick sip before answering. “Fei had
hired on with a caravan guard that left here and went down to Channel Pass. You
knew how he left? Oh, I see. He’s never forthcoming on details like that.
Anyway, that caravan had contracted us to take them from Channel Pass to
Winziane. I met him through the caravan boss, as he had taken a liking to Fei
and wanted him to find a good guild to belong to. When I met him, I saw this
quiet young man with the fighting prowess of a tiger.” Siobhan smiled at the
memory. “Anyone that can fight on par with Wolf
and
Tran catches my eye.
I noticed him for his skills alone. But the quiet personality made me think he
didn’t go looking for trouble, so I was more than willing to take him on.”

Hye Ri cocked her head, not following this last statement.
“This is important to you?”

She made a sour face. “Half my guild thinks trouble is fun.”

“Ah, I see.” Hye Ri was polite enough to not snicker, but
she was obviously laughing internally. Her eyes sparkled with it.

“Anyway, we hired him on short term, just feeling out how
well he worked with the guild while on a job. He was, of course, excellent. So
when we reached Winziane, I asked if he wanted to just stay on with Deepwoods
permanently.” A realization she had never made before popped into her head.
Slowly, she added, “I’m not sure if he would have stayed if we had been a
different type of guild. Fei was very hungry to see the world, and experience
as much of it as he could. He liked us, I could see that, but if we hadn’t been
an escorting guild, he might not have stayed with us.”

His mother nodded, not surprised. “It was his strong desire
to see the world with his own eyes that drove him out of the comfort of his own
home.”

“He only recently told me why he left.” Siobhan shrugged
ruefully. “None of my men are really talkers, not when it comes to themselves,
but Fei’s got them all beat. I thought for years that he had gotten into
trouble at home and that’s why he left. He finally disabused me of that notion
and said simply his family didn’t approve of his choice.”

“We do not,” Hye Ri stated simply. “I wish him closer to
home.”

No mother would say differently. Siobhan wasn’t the least
surprised. “Now that I understand that he won’t be in trouble if he comes here,
we’ll try to come up at least once a year.”

Hye Ri went abruptly still in shock, her eyes flying up to
meet Siobhan’s. “You can promise me this?”

“I promise it to all my guild members.” Siobhan found this
reaction endearing and amusing all at once. “Hye Ri-jia, you must understand,
we travel for a living. Organizing an escort that lands us near one of my
people’s hometowns isn’t much more than a challenge. If I have a whole year to
work with, I can manage it just fine.” She’d have done it for Fei earlier, if
she’d known what kind of reception he’d get. But even he hadn’t been sure.

Tears welled up in the other woman’s eyes and she bowed her
head deeply. “Thank you very much.”

Siobhan felt like giving the other woman a hug, but realized
that wasn’t something she could readily do in this culture. Instead she reached
out and clasped the woman’s shoulder. “This time, you’ll see him sooner than
that. We do have to bring the delegation back home again after we’ve borrowed
them after all.”

“Yes,” she agreed, drying up one tear with the pad of her
fingertips. With a soft laugh, she gave Siobhan a brilliant smile. “I’m glad
that he became a part of your guild. It is a mercy to know that he is
surrounded by good people.”

“Oh, we’re very grateful to have him,” Siobhan assured her,
deadpan serious. “Fei has more wisdom in his little pinky than I have had my
entire lifetime. He’s always the source of good questions and advice. One of my
newest members relies on him heavily for guidance and he’s an excellent teacher
and brother to him.” Without Fei, she might not have ever gained Rune. It was
Fei that taught Rune how to interact and accept people. “We would be sorely
lost without your son.” She still worried, in the back of her mind, that he
would choose to stay and not return with her. But she wasn’t about to say that
to his mother.

“I am glad.” Hye Ri smiled and lifted the tea pot.
“Another?”

“Please.” Siobhan glanced around the room, seeing what
everyone else was up to. Rune and Beirly were on the floor with some of the
younger cousins, probably teaching the impressionable children things they
weren’t supposed to know. Markl, Fei, and Conli were gathered around with the
older men, discussing something in quiet tones. From the happy expression on
Markl’s face, the conversation was a good one. Denney and Sylvie were with the
younger girls and it looked like a teaching session on intricate braids was
going on.

She glanced out the side door, into the garden, and found
Wolf, Tran, and some of the older cousins out there teaching each other
sparring tricks. That or admiring Wolf’s iron right hand. He’d gotten a lot of
attention because of that hand through dinner. The dogs seemed to find the
people outside more interesting, as they were circling the group and poking
their noses into people’s sides, getting absent pats on the head in return.
Everyone seemed comfortable where they were and enjoying the evening.
Satisfied, she turned back to her cup and took a slow sip, enjoying the taste.
“Mint. Is this a plant?”

“Yes, indeed. It grows wild here in the mountains.”

Siobhan looked into her cup thoughtfully. “Does it really. I
wonder how well it would grow in Robarge….”

“Is your climate similar to ours?”

“Year round? I’m not sure.” She’d certainly ask though. And
still take a few seeds home so she could try growing a few plants in pots.
Leaning forward, she said in a confidential tone, “The deal I have made with
everyone else so far is, if you tell me stories about Fei, I’ll do likewise.”

A mischievous glint appeared in Hye Ri’s eyes. “What type of
stories?”

“Whatever comes to mind.” Siobhan grinned at her. She knew
she liked this woman for a reason. “Would you like to start?”

“I don’t mind if I do.”

Siobhan settled in for what would surely be an entertaining
evening.

Wolf was rudely awakened that morning when a dog landed on
his gut, nearly squeezing the breath right out of him. Grunting, he
half-flailed upright, eyes popping open wide. “What the—”

“PYPER! DROP IT!”

Blinking to clear his eyes, he saw Denney darting into the
men’s rooms, her feet skidding on the slick wooden floors, bed hair sticking up
every direction. Pyper, the culprit that was still sitting on his stomach,
glanced back at her nervously but seemed to feel that if she sat on Wolf, the
man would protect her.

The dog was wrong.

Grabbing her by the scruff of her neck, he demanded of the
dog, “What did you do?”

The collier turned enough to face him, eyes round and
pleading, tail wagging hopefully. From her mouth a suspiciously fuzzy tail was
hanging and the oddest squeaking noises were coming from the dog’s mouth.
Frowning, he tried to bend his neck so that he could see better, but the dog
turned her face away to keep it from him.

“What’s in her mouth?”

“She’s caught one of those finger monkeys,” Denney explained
in exasperation, stomping toward them. “And she won’t let go of it. I don’t
think she’s actually hurting the poor thing, but it’s still not something you
should be carting around in your mouth! Who knows what kind of diseases those
things carry.”

Wolf had seen this same dog lick and eat things that no
other animal would be insane enough to try, and the dog had always lived
through it. He was less worried about diseases and more worried with the fact
that he had an eighty pound dog on his stomach that seemed content to stay
there. Keeping his grip firm on her neck, he pulled her off and to the floor,
where Denney promptly took advantage of the dog’s caged position and forced her
mouth open with both hands.

The poor finger monkey, now dripping wet with dog slobber,
promptly escaped and sprinted across the floor with all due speed straight for
the nearest window. Of course, in doing so it took the most direct route it
could—across everyone else in its way.

People flailed as something wet and slimy flew across their
faces, making some interesting noises as they jerked awake. Wolf enjoyed the
show with a boisterous laugh. Getting pounced on by a dog as a wakeup call
wasn’t a nice experience, but surely getting slimed with dog slobber was worse.

Markl was the first to wake up enough to get his mouth
working. As he wiped dog drool from his cheek, he demanded, “What was that?”

“Finger monkey covered in dog spit.”

Their resident scholar put two and two together quickly and
glared at Pyper. As did most of the room. Rune, who had been sleeping upright
in the corner of the room (and thereby out of the path of the monkey) found
this funny and chuckled.

Denney turned to him and said plaintively, “I think Pete
caught one too. Help me catch him.”

“Sure, sure,” Rune agreed easily. But then, he was one of
the few fast enough to catch the dogs. Amiably, he got up and followed her,
Denney scolding the dog as she dragged the collier out.

“Well this was a fine start to the morning,” Beirly
grumbled, still trying to wipe all the drool off his face.

“Right entertaining,” Wolf agreed.

For some reason, this got him glared at by every man in the
room.

Not bothered by it, he grinned and rolled to his feet,
kicking the covers free. “Alright, let’s move. We need to learn how to beat up
Saoleords today.”

ӜӜӜ

Saoleord was dizzying and confusing. No one had road signs
up here—there was no need. They were born here, learned the roads growing up,
and never left. Siobhan found it impossible to navigate and often just grabbed
any child passing by her, paying them to be her guide. The kids found that
leading these strange adults around was easy money, and soon they were swamped
by the ankle-biters.

After breakfast was when she tended to lose people. Well,
mostly. She knew where some of them were going. Fei, Rune, Wolf, and Tran would
predictably head straight for the training field in the middle of the city.
They seemed to be having a grand time learning how to kill each other. At
least, judging from those wild smiles and new bruises they came back with at
the end of every day, they were enjoying it.

Siobhan was formally invited by Hyun Woo to sit and watch a
mock battle. She was very curious what her enforcers had been learning from the
man for the past week, so accepted the offer, which led to her sitting on the
hill while the men ‘fought’ on the flatter land below them. This area was
designated as a training ground, so no one went near it unless they were
fighting or observing. A few women and older men were scattered about on the
same hillside, some of them cheering the fighters on, others critiquing. Sylvie
and Denney, equally curious, had decided to join her. The day was a fair one,
the grass comfortable to sit on, so they lounged in a shady spot and watched
the battle below them unfold.

“Are we absolutely sure that they aren’t trying to kill each
other?” Siobhan asked, almost rhetorically.

“I wouldn’t swear to it,” Sylvie responded in amusement,
lounging back against the grassy hillside.

Being no stranger to skirmishes, Siobhan thought she knew
what fighting was like, but this wasn’t anything like she had seen before. No
one moved individually, but in units. The units were always at least ten men
strong, and they coordinated their attacks, never leaving each other’s backs
unguarded. From what she could see, there seemed to be some coordination
between the units, as some would advance forward, others moving to flank either
right or left, and others still that would hang back until the front units were
fighting before engaging. They all supposedly had headbands of different colors
on, clearly dividing them into two armies, but from this distance she couldn’t
really tell who was who. Her own people were easy to spot simply because they
looked so different from everyone else, but other than that it was anyone’s
guess on which army was winning.

From this distance, though, and with the amount of war cries
going on, it certainly looked like a real battle instead of a mock one.

Denney, sitting on her other side, sat up enough to scratch
behind Pyper’s ears. “They do this once a month? Wouldn’t it get old after a
while?”

“Do Wolf and Tran get tired of fighting each other?” Sylvie
countered dryly.

“Point,” Denney conceded, snorting amusement. “Why do men
never tire of fighting each other?”

“It’s like having multiple bandy roosters in the same hen
yard, I swear.” Siobhan shook her head in resignation. “Well, at least this
time it’s
constructive
fighting, as they’re learning something in the
process.”

“Let’s hope they don’t need to use it,” Sylvie said quietly.

Truly. Siobhan prayed for that on a daily basis. Siobhan’s
eyes cut sideways to study Sylvie’s expression. After their little talk the
other day, she’d noticed that the distance between her and Markl had all but
vanished. With a house full of people and guests popping in and out, she hadn’t
had enough quiet to ask for details yet though. Actually…none of the men were
around now, and they had time on their hands. Perhaps this would be a good
point to ask.

“So, how did Markl get dragged into this?”

“They said the magic word. Learn.” Sylvie shrugged, eyes
twinkling. “Next thing I know, he’s strapping on leather armor.”

Denney must have caught the nuance behind this, as she
leaned even further forward so that she could see Sylvie. “So you and Markl
are…?”

The most smug, feminine expression crossed Sylvie’s face.
“Officially courting.”

A wash of relief went through Siobhan and she couldn’t help
it. She clapped. “Congratulations!”

Denney joined in on the clapping, to which Sylvie gave them
a truncated bow from her seated position. “Thank you, thank you, or I would
thank you if I didn’t know you had bets riding on this.”

“We bet on everything in this guild, don’t take it to
heart,” Denney advised.

Very true. Siobhan couldn’t think of a single thing that
people wouldn’t bet on in Deepwoods.

“Is that right?” Sylvie arched a challenging brow at her.
“In that case, I’m going to bet on when you and Rune get together.”

Denney choked, cheeks flushing.

Siobhan watched this reaction with acute interest. Oh? She’d
thought that Conli’s grumbling about the two of them getting closer was just
that—overprotective complaints. She hadn’t seen anything that would give any
weight to his suspicions. Until now, that was.

“Ah, Denney? Are you really crushing on Rune?”

Denney started twirling a lock of hair in her fingers and
steadfastly refused to look up. If staring at the grass made it easier to talk
to them, that was fine with Siobhan. “I don’t really know?” she trailed off,
uncertainly. Glancing up, and getting nothing but encouraging nods, she
continued, “I think he’s amazing, and he’s one of the people I count on when
something happens, and it’s easy being in his company. I mean, he never really
demands anything from me, or expects anything, which is why I like being with
him. But I’m not sure if that really counts as ‘liking’ someone.”

To Siobhan’s mind, that fit the description perfectly. In
normal circumstances, she’d encourage Denney to pursue the relationship, but
there were too many things that Rune just didn’t
get
yet. Trying to
maneuver him into a romantic connection right now might turn out disastrously,
which would cause tension in the guild, and Siobhan despised tension of any
sort.

Sylvie caught Siobhan’s eyes and the two exchanged a knowing
look. Clearly, the other woman had the same opinion.

“Don’t rush this, whatever it might be,” Sylvie advised the
younger woman. “For one thing, Rune’s just now found his footing in the guild.
I think it’s best if the two of you just naturally let your relationship
develop whichever way it will rather than trying to force it in a certain
direction.”

“Wise counsel,” Siobhan added, backing this up.

Denney nodded, humming a nonverbal agreement that didn’t
actually sound like an agreement.

Siobhan leaned over to knock her shoulder gently into the
other woman’s. “What.”

“It’s just…” Denney paused, chewing on her bottom lip in
frustration. “Rune won’t let other men near me. Not ones we don’t know. It
doesn’t matter if they’re friendly, or trying to speak to me about business, or
what. They’re only allowed so close and then he makes them back up.”

Siobhan blinked. He was? She’d never seen him do that.

“If this were any normal guy, I would think he’s jealous and
take it as a sign of interest.” Denney’s lock twirling became hair tugging.
“But from the get-go, you’ve told him to be protective of me, and the closer
that we’ve become, the more protective he gets because I actually
mean
something to him now. I don’t know how to take this.”

Neither did she.

A cheer went up from the other spectators on the hillside,
abruptly reminding Siobhan of where they were and what she was supposed to be
doing. Belatedly, she looked toward the training field below and discovered
that the white army had won, the red defeated. There seemed to be some good
natured bickering among the combatants about who owed drinks or dinner, the
words carried to her on the wind in bits and snatches.

Her enforcers had been on the white team, so…they’d won? It
was a shame she hadn’t been able to figure out what they were doing and why,
but she was glad to see that they’d learned enough in the past week to win. Of
course, they’d also been on Hyun Woo’s ‘team’ as it were, so that could be the
reason alone.

Standing, she brushed strands of grass off her backside. “It
looks like we won.”

“Sure does,” Sylvie agreed, also standing.

Siobhan offered Denney a hand up, which the girl took,
although she had to push the dogs off her lap first before she could stand.
“Denney, I’ll try to find a moment to talk to Rune about this. It might be he’s
just overprotective. He does that with me sometimes, when it’s just the two of
us. Keeping us from harm is the most comfortable way he has of showing how much
he cares for us. It’s the thing he knows how to do the best. It could very well
be just that. On the other hand, it could be more, too.”

“It’s confusing,” Denney grumbled. “But if you can talk to
him about it, I’d appreciate it.”

“Sure, sure.” Siobhan made a mental note to do that, at some
point when she had Rune alone. Or relatively alone. “Well, for now, let’s join
in the after celebration. Our men will probably want to relive the whole thing
blow by blow for us.”

“They always do,” Sylvie said in resignation.

ӜӜӜ

Stretching her arms above her head, Siobhan tried to get the
knots out of her back after sitting on the floor for three hours. She didn’t
have a lot of experience with sitting through meetings but this one had seemed
to drag more than normal. Her legs had gone numb from sitting there on the
floor and the cushion had gradually grown thinner with every minute she sat on
it. It was a relief to escape.