"I think you two have totally lost your minds!" Kiara shook her head, hands on hips, as she watched Alle take a piece of charcoal from the fire and smudge a rune on the mantle of the doors and windows of the hunting lodge.
Alle stopped long enough to turn and look at Kiara over her shoulder. "What, Isencroft is too sophisticated for wardings?"
Cerise gave a sharp laugh, and joined them, depositing four small, smooth stones on the window ledge. "Not you, too!"
Cerise dusted off her hands and shrugged. "Your mother said an Eastmark warding over your crib every night. Viata disguised a Markian holy woman and spirited her into the palace to say the elements over you when you were born." She chuckled. "Your father and mother rarely fought-at least where I could hear them, but Lady True! What a row they had over that. Donelan was hardly devout, but he didn't want the gossips to get a hold of anything they could use against your mother. Viata wouldn't be moved. She knew she had to give you up to making offerings to Chenne in public, but at home, in a hundred little ways you never realized, she taught you the ways of the Lover."
Kiara raised her hands in a gesture of surrender. "All right, you fish wives. Tell me what I need to do so we can get back inside before we catch our deaths from cold." "It's pretty simple, really," Macaria replied. "Everyone in my village made wardings around their house on the bright quarters, and strengthened them at the cross quarters." Alle laughed. "I learned more from my year in exile then I ever learned at court about blessing and cursing! Between the whores at the inn and the hedge witch in the village, they could curse an unfaithful man a dozen ways-and that was before they really got going!" "Something from each of the elements, for each of the Aspects, my dear," Cerise replied. "Pine boughs to keep away ill humours, and rock to anchor our souls. Those are from the land. Charcoal from the fire, to banish the dark spirits. Pine in the fire works for that as well, and the pine smoke clears away bad air. Water, four times blessed, dripped from a leather bucket to circle the house."
"If you knew these things, why didn't you work them around our rooms at Shekerishet?" Cerise shrugged. "We tried. But we couldn't ward the whole palace-it was much too large. And as you've said yourself, the king warned you that Jared left dark energies behind." Kiara helped Macaria gather up fresh pine branches while Alle finished marking the windows. They watched in silence as Cerise made a slow circle around the lodge, lips moving with the blessing, dipping her hand into a small leather bucket and splashing water out of her palm as if sowing seed.
"Can we go inside now? I'm frozen through!" Kiara said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms underneath her thick cloak. Inside, Macaria placed four boughs of pine in the fireplace, and a smaller sprig on the inside sill of every window. Alle withdrew a rough piece of rose quartz from her satchel and placed it on the mantel, and another piece over the door. "And these will keep us safe?" Kiara asked skeptically as the scent of fresh pine filled the room.
Cerise made the sign of the Lady facing the four quarters and drew a deep breath. "It can't hurt. They say that, properly warded, the only evil that can enter is what is carried within or invited inside."
"I shudder to think what Hothan and Ammond made of all this," Kiara said. Down the lane, she could see her guards on patrol.
"Ha! Who do you think found me the rose quartz?" Alle said triumphantly. "And before you start to worry that the servants will think we've gone dotty, I spotted them not half a candlemark ago making bakers' wardings over the wine and the flour." "Since I seem to be outvoted, I surrender," Kiara laughed. The trip to Bricen's old hunting lodge lifted her spirits more than she dared to hope. Although the candlemark-long trip by sleigh was cold, it was the first time since Tris left for war that she had felt her spirits rise. "Skrivven for your thoughts," Alle said, seeing Kiara's expression.
Kiara smiled. "I was just thinking about how happy Tris was when he brought me here after the wedding. This was one place Jared left untouched. The dogs stayed safe here, and I think they're glad to be back. Although it's hardly the 'small country place' that Tris described to me!" As if on cue, Tris's dogs came loping up. Jae flew behind them, landing on Kiara's shoulder. The wolfhounds bumped Kiara's hand shamelessly, begging for attention. Jae hissed and kneaded her shoulder with his scaled feet before settling down. The large black mastiff eyed the others and then circled to lie down at her feet.
Bricen's lodge was built of stone, a one-story building with high oak beams and walls covered with the skins of bear and deer. It was small only in comparison with Shekerishet, but larger by far than the homes of all but the nobility. There were three guest bedrooms and a servants' room, with a large common room for feasting and relaxing by the fire after a long day's hunt. Outside was the kitchen and pantry, and cut out of the ground beneath the servants' room was a cellar for keeping roots and wine. A few paces outside the door sat a small stone building that served both as gatehouse and guards' quarters. Kiara had brought only two servants with them-a cook and a maid whom Alle could vouch for. The lodge was well provisioned with food, wine and firewood. Alle had overseen the provisioning herself, and had promised to share a few of the recipes she had learned during her year with the innkeeper during the rebellion. Cerise had brought an ample supply of powders, roots and medicines, and Macaria saw to the diversion, making sure they would lack no entertainment during the long winter evenings with a supply of cards and dice, and a warning that no one should expect to beat her at tarle or contre. Her lyre and flute came with her as well, and a small pennywhistle. Free from the stifling scrutiny of the Margolan court, Kiara found herself actually looking forward to their stay.
"Who knows? Cerise might actually teach me to embroider something," Kiara said, dropping into a chair near the fire.
Cerise laughed loudly. "That will be the day, my dear. Not unless you can embroider with the point of a sword. Viata never had the patience for it, either, much to her father's chagrin.
It's still considered to be part of the finishing of a well-born lady, you know."
Alle gave an unladylike snort. "It wasn't my stitching that vexed my tutors. My stitches are neat and regular. But once my tutor realized that I'd woven the curses I heard the stable hands say into the design, she made me tear out every stitch!"
Kiara snickered. "Now I'm sure I know why Soterius fell in love with you. Although really, I've never heard anyone curse as creatively as Carroway."
Macaria's expression darkened and she turned away. Kiara exchanged glances with Alle, immediately regretting her comment. "Macaria, I'm sorry. I know you're worried about him." Macaria shrugged. "No harm done, m'lady. But news of how he fares won't be easy to get out here. I have to hope that Crevan will leave matters as they are until the king returns." "Speaking of Crevan, aren't you expecting him?" Alle asked.
Kiara nodded. "He promised to come along with the wagon-load of supplies and bring any news that may have come from the troops." Alle frowned. "He's coming himself?"
"He said that, given the attacks at the palace, the fewer people who came to the lodge, the better. Goddess bless! What I wouldn't give for there to be a note from Tris in the packet this time."
"Has Crevan told you anything of how the war goes?"
Kiara shook her head. "Very little. He claims that he doesn't know, but I think he's coddling me. I'd asked Comar Hassad, but he said that the ghosts of Shekerishet can't go beyond the bridge. And with Mikhail imprisoned, I hear nothing from the vayash moru." She twisted her belt between her fingers. "All I get are dreams, and they're dark." Cerise looked at her closely. "What do you see?"
Kiara looked away. "Fire. Glimpses of battle. Monsters, like the one that attacked at the wedding. Sometimes, it's the same things I saw in the scrying ball. Other times, I see snatches of things, too little to understand the meaning." She avoided looking at Alle as she spoke. Last night, in her dreams, she'd seen Ban Soterius fall, the hilt of a knife deep in his back. He hadn't gotten up, and she feared for him almost as greatly as she feared for Tris. "Keep heart, Kiara," Cerise said quietly, patting her hand. "Your young man is full of surprises."
Kiara forced herself to smile, but her heart ached. The biggest surprise had been that in the nearly three months Tris had been at war, there had been no news from him. None at all. I shouldn't doubt. I know what he did, when we fought the Obsidian King. I've seen his soul. What he felt for me was real-at least it was, then. I had hoped he would miss me. But deeper than her disappointment lay a larger fear. Has Crevan told him about the Council of Nobles? About the gossip? Sweet Chenne, will he believe that Carroway and I betrayed him? Is there anything either of us can ever say to prove our loyalty? Cerise squeezed her hand, drawing her out of her thoughts as if she could guess the course they took. "The king has a good head on his shoulders, my dear. Trust him to make the right decisions."
Kiara bit her lip, forcing back tears and nodded. Dammit! I should blame this on being pregnant, but I'm supposed to be a warrior and I'm acting like a farm girl. If I were in the salle back in Isencroft, Derry would tell me I needed some steel in my spine. Tris expects better from me. I expect better. But the reality remained. Nothing was unfolding as expected.