The Fourteenth Key (The Chronicles of Terah Book 3) (22 page)

“Oh, what fun. And I suppose I’ll be the first one she tries it out on.”

“Probably,” Kevin answered. “But you can always do what Chris did when I used him to test my skills.”

“What’s that?”

“Insist that Glendymere be around for the first few runs. He won’t let you get hurt.”

“Don’t suppose we could wake him up for this one, can we?”

“Relax, Rhianna,” Kevin said as he lifted them both off the ground. “Why are you so nervous? You’ve flown with Xantha, haven’t you?”

“Sure, but that’s different. He has wings. You don’t. And I was seated on his back with a handful of mane. With you, I’m standing on air with nothing to hang on to. Not the same thing at all.”

By that time, they were almost at the peak of the mountain. Kevin moved them over the treetops and set them down near the front door. “Now, was that so bad?”

Rhianna shrugged. “I still prefer flying with Xantha.”

Kevin grinned. “So do I.”

The front door opened and Chris stepped outside. “Are you coming in?” he asked Kevin. “Or are you ready to head home?”

“I’ll go in to say hello, but then we’ve got to go back.” Kevin turned to Rhianna. “You’ll be in Crinsor Run next Sunday, but we can still work on this. Will it be all right if I come after I finish sparring with Glendymere?”

“You’ll have to stay for lunch. You know Mother.” Rhianna turned to Chris. “You’re invited, too.”

“Sorry,” Chris said as he shook his head. “Kevin’s booked next Sunday for lunch.”

Kevin looked at Chris. “I am?”

Chris nodded. “Family lunch with Dayed. Laryn set it up. You can go to Crinsor Run Sunday morning but you’ll have to be back in Milhaven by 11:00.”

Rhianna interrupted. “Why don’t you pick us up a little earlier Sunday afternoon then?”

“Around 3:00?” Kevin asked.

Rhianna nodded. “We’ll be ready.”

Chapter 18

An Evening with Allisandra

Later that afternoon, Kevin was at his desk when he heard Chris say, “He’s in his office.”

“Thank you,” Laryn answered as she and Steve stepped into Kevin’s office. “Ready?”

Kevin nodded as he stood up. “Where are we going? I mean, I know we’re going to Allisandra’s, but where does she live? Do I need my cloak?”

“Not this time. She lives near the Agrenon Bay.”

Kevin took off his key and handed it to his aunt. Seconds later, they were in front of a large, one-level house that had more windows than walls. The front yard was sandy, with palm trees interspersed among several small garden areas made up of potted plants. A gravel walkway wound around the gardens through iron arches which supported flowering vines. Tiny glowstones sparkled from the palm trees, the arches, and even the potted plants.

As Laryn approached the door, it was opened by a woman who looked like a female version of Shadron, except for the unmistakable bulge at her waist. Laryn stared open-mouthed at her sister for a moment and then pulled Allisandra into her arms and cried, “You’re pregnant!”

Allisandra laughed. “I can’t breathe. Loosen up.”

Laryn pushed her back and took a good look at her. She playfully punched her sister in the arm and asked, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Allisandra shrugged. “There’s been so much going on I decided to wait until things calmed down a bit. And speaking of stuff going on, you’re getting married!”

Laryn laughed and introduced Steve. After Allisandra led them into the living room, Laryn asked, “How far along are you?”

“A little more than six months.”

“Have you told Danyelle yet?”

Allisandra shook her head. “We haven’t told anyone yet. Well, anyone who doesn’t live nearby. I think everyone in town has figured it out by now.” Allisandra wrinkled her nose. “You know how our family is about babies. Danyelle will make a list of everything I need to do for at least the first five years of the baby’s life and want to go over it with me before the baby’s born. Shadron’ll want me to come stay with them so Kayla can take care of us. Kyle will try to surround me with nanny dogs, and there’s no telling what Dayed will do.”

“Flood you with furniture. He’ll make you a cradle, a rocking chair, a clothes chest, anything you want for your baby,” Laryn said with a grin. “Just don’t ask him to be anywhere around when you give birth. I think that would do him in.”

Allisandra laughed and nodded her head in agreement. “I was planning to wait until after the baby was born and then send out an announcement. But now that you’re getting married in a few weeks and we’ll all have to show up, I don’t think my plan will work.”

“No, you can’t hide it at this point.” Laryn looked at Allisandra’s waist. “You know your life will be simpler that weekend if they know you’re pregnant before they see you, don’t you?”

“I don’t think anything will make that weekend easy, but I’ve already decided to send out notes sometime next week.”

“Good,” Laryn said. “Now that that’s settled, what else has been going on in your life?”

After they sat in the living room and talked for a while, Allisandra said she had a few more things to do in the kitchen for dinner. “Why don’t you take Steve and Kevin out back?” she asked Laryn. “It’s nearly sunset, and the back garden’s nice this time of day.”

“Speaking of your gardens,” Laryn said.

Allisandra raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

“Cryslyn’s in charge of the reception,” Laryn explained, “and she wanted me to ask you to take care of the flowers for the tables in the dining room for the brunch Saturday morning and dinner Saturday night. I told her I thought the same ones could be used for both, but she said to leave that to you. She also wants several arrangements for the entrance hall at the castle and the main rooms in the governor’s house. But you don’t have to do it, Alli.”

“Why the governor’s house?” Allisandra frowned.

“She and Joan are planning some kind of party for me Saturday afternoon.” Laryn shook her head. “It’s too much. Don’t worry about it. I’ll tell her you can’t manage it this time. She’ll understand.”

“Nonsense,” Allisandra said. “I’m pregnant, not sick. Of course I’ll do the arrangements. Tell her to let me know the number of tables and the color scheme she wants me to use.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Laryn said. “It doesn’t matter to me whether we have flowers or not, and if she wants them bad enough, she can have someone in Milhaven do it.”

“If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t,” Allisandra said. “I’m not the timid child I used to be, Laryn. I’ve learned how to say no, but in this case, I don’t want to.”

“Are you sure?”

Allisandra nodded. “Now go on outside and let me finish up dinner. And while you’re out there, make a note of any flowers you like and I’ll be sure to include them.”

The back garden was laid out similar to the front, but Allisandra had added several pools of water in the back. They followed the gravel walkway until it ended at the vegetable and herb garden Allisandra had planted between the house and her husband’s blacksmith shop. While they were looking at all the vegetables that were still growing, Allisandra’s husband, Craven, walked out of his shop, shut the door, and waved to Laryn.

Allisandra had dinner ready by the time they got back. The conversation was engaging, but inconsequential, and after a bit, Kevin sat back and observed. Laryn was completely at ease with her sister and brother-in-law, just like she’d been with Shadron, Kayla, and Kyle. These people might live hundreds of miles apart but they had a bond, a closeness he’d never experienced with anyone on Earth, certainly not with anyone in his foster family. And he’d never seen any evidence his foster parents had this kind of relaxed closeness with anyone either, not even with each other.

All too soon, dinner was over and it was time to leave.

“Take care of yourself,” Laryn said as she hugged Allisandra goodbye. “See you in a few weeks.”

Then, with a turn of the key, they were back in Kevin’s office.

“You got quiet for a while during dinner,” Laryn said, looking at Kevin. “Is everything all right?”

Kevin nodded. “I was listening.”

Laryn didn’t look convinced, but she let it go. “Well, I guess we’ll say goodnight and let you get back to what you were doing before we left.”

After Steve and Laryn had gone, Chris came in. “Did you have a good time?”

Kevin nodded and told Chris about the gardens and dinner. “They all seemed so relaxed at dinner, so comfortable with each other. It was nice.”

“Yeah, family dinners can be,” Chris said, “and they can be nightmares. Sort of depends on the family.”

“What were yours like?”

“Loud,” Chris said with a laugh, “especially while we were young. Everyone would talk at once and Mom and Dad wanted to hear everything everyone said. It got confusing at times, but mostly it was loud.”

“Dinner at our house was quiet,” Kevin said. He didn’t bother to add that until he was in his mid-teens, he either ate in the kitchen with the cook or up in his room. “About the only thing anyone said was please pass the bread.”

“I think I prefer loud.”

“Me, too.”

“What about when you went to a friend’s house to eat?”

Kevin shrugged. “Same as at our house.” He couldn’t remember one time he’d eaten with the adults at any of his friends’ homes until after he’d graduated from high school.

After a moment, Kevin leaned back in his chair and asked, “Anything happen I need to know about while I was gone?”

Chris shook his head.

“Then let’s call it a day.”

Chapter 19

Colby Falls

Shortly after breakfast Tuesday morning, Kevin looked up Colby Falls on his map. The letter he’d received had come from Chadwick, the district minister of Norwyn, but Kevin thought he should go see the district sorcerer, Nicolas, first. Chadwick maintained that the road was covered under the original contract. Apparently Nicolas didn’t agree.

Kevin went upstairs to get his heaviest cloak. Norwyn was in the area Kevin knew as upstate New York, and since he’d never been there, he’d checked with Steve. The Adirondack Mountains were in that area, and Steve said some of them were well over 4000 feet. Kevin figured with the way his luck was going, Colby Falls would be on top of the coldest one.

When he got there, he decided he was half right. Colby Falls was only midway up a mountain, but it was cold. The town was a little larger than Milhaven, having two inns instead of one and a few more shops. He spotted the Chapel of Light tucked into the hillside near the edge of town and was considering heading there to ask for directions to Nicolas’s house when he saw the blacksmith step outside his shop to take a break.

“Excuse me,” Kevin said as he approached the man. “Could you direct me to Sorcerer Nicolas? I don’t know where his house is.”

The blacksmith laughed. “You’re not from around here. Nicolas’s house is her house, not his house.”

“Nicolas is a woman?” Kevin asked. He made a mental note to have Chris add male or female to all personnel records.

The blacksmith nodded, still grinning. Then he pointed to the last house before the road headed up the mountain through the woods. “She lives over there, in the house with the big front porch, the last house on the left. See the one I mean?”

Kevin nodded and thanked the man.

When he got to the house, the door opened before he could knock and a woman stepped out to join him on the porch. She was neither young nor old, neither skinny nor fat, just an average woman around 40 or so. The first thing Kevin noticed was her hair. It was the shade of honey and fell in waves around her face. The second thing was her eyes. They were the same soft color as her hair, and although they were friendly at the moment, he also saw a touch of caution.

“Good morning,” she said. “Can I help you?”

“Actually, I’m hoping I can help you,” Kevin answered. Then he held out his hand. “I’m Myron, the Sorcerer of Camden.”

Nicolas’s mouth dropped as she shook his hand. “Myron. Welcome. Please come in,” she said as she opened the door for him. “Could I get you some tea? Or coffee? Or maybe scog?”

“No, thank you,” Kevin said as he sat down in her living room.

Nicolas sat down in a chair opposite him. “You said you’re hoping to help me? I’m not sure I understand.”

Kevin nodded. Right down to business. “Chadwick wrote a letter …”

Before Kevin could get any further, Nicolas shook her head. “I’m sorry he bothered you. That man is just trying to get out of paying me, and I’m not going to let him.”

“Perhaps if you could explain,” Kevin suggested.

“He wants a road from here to Briarwood. I have no problem with that, but I don’t see how he thinks I’d do it for free.” Nicolas sat back and looked at Kevin. “Briarwood is on the other side of the mountain. There’s already a road that runs between the two towns, but it goes straight up one side of the mountain and straight down the other. It’s dangerous most of the year, either covered in snow and ice, or deep in mud. Last summer a wagon turned sideways and flipped over the side into a gulch. The driver, his wife, and four of his five children were killed. That’s when Chadwick decided we needed a new road, and I’m with him on that.”

Nicolas paused and looked at Kevin. When he nodded, she continued. “The road he wants will go around the mountain, and I agree it would be a lot safer, but it’ll be difficult to build. The woods around here are thick, which is why the original road followed the path of a big landslide that happened several years ago. But in order to make the new road safe, a lot of trees will have to come down and a lot of sections will have to be reinforced. I’ve walked the path he wants to base the road on, and it can be done, but there are several places where it’ll take two sorcerers. He says he’ll supply the men, he plans to use local army units for that, but he wants me to provide the second sorcerer, as in pay them out of my pocket. I don’t mind that if I’m being paid, but there’s no way I’ll do it for free, much less at a loss. There’s just too much involved in this.”