Behind him walked Kitai, scowling, dressed in a loincloth and wearing an Aleran tunic carelessly stained with food and dirt. Her long, pale hair had been pulled back into a neat braid, revealing the delicate curves of her cheekbones and neck.
"Well, young warrior," Doroga said. "I have paid you back for saving my whelp-"
"Daughter," Kitai interjected. "I am not a whelp anymore, father."
"Daughter," Doroga rumbled, with an expansive smile. "You saved my daughter, and I paid you back for it. But then you saved me as well. I find myself still in your debt."
"I didn't do anything," Tavi said.
"You shouted a warning to me, Tavi," Doroga said. "Without it, I would have died." He squeezed Tavi's shoulders, and Tavi briefly thought something was going to break again. "Thank you."
"But what I did was small. You're the one who did all the big things. You led a horde against another horde, sir. A horde of your own people."
"I set out to repay my debt to you," Doroga said. "Finish what you set out to do. It is part of being a man." Doroga smiled at him and rose. "Kitai."
Kitai scowled.
Doroga frowned at her.
Kitai rolled her eyes and snapped, to Tavi, "Thank you. For saving my life."
Tavi blinked mildly at her. "Um. Sure."
She narrowed her eyes. "Don't think I'm going to forget it, either."
Tavi thought that it sounded a great deal more like a threat than a promise. "Uh. No. I don't think that."
Kitai's scowl deepened, though something around her eyes softened at the words. "I am going to learn to ride a horse," she stated. "If it is all right with you."
"Uh. Sure, whatever. Good, that's great, Kitai." Tavi glanced at Doroga, hopefully.
Doroga rolled his eyes and sighed. Then said, "We should go. Your headman wants to thank me tomorrow, and Kitai should wash her tunic."
Kitai snapped, "Whelps wear tunics. It is foolish to make me wear this one. I don't like it, I don't want it. Why shouldn't I wear what the rest of the Marat women wear?"
"You want to walk around here naked like that?" Tavi demanded. "Are you crazy? Dress like a normal person while you're here."
Doroga abruptly smiled at Tavi, his face stretching into a broad grin. "Good. That is good."
Kitai folded her arms and shot Tavi a look that could have crumbled stones to dust. Tavi sank a bit under the sheets. Kitai made a sound of disgust and stalked out of the room.
Doroga broke into a rumbling laugh and ruffled Tavi's hair in a gesture
peculiarly like Uncle Bernard's. "Doomed, young warrior. Doomed. But her mother and I started off that way."
Tavi blinked. "What?"
"We will see one another again." Doroga turned to go.
"What?" Tavi said again. "Her mother what? Doroga, wait!"
Doroga didn't slow, rumbling out a low laugh as he left the room. "Remember what I said, Tavi. We will speak again."
Tavi settled back on the bed, scowling, folding his arms, pensive. He had the definite impression that he had gotten in over his head, somewhere along the way.
Tavi frowned, pondering. "Finish what I started."
There was a gentle knock at the doorway, and Tavi looked up to see Fade's scarred, homely face smiling in at him from the hall. "Tavi," Fade said, his tone happy.
Tavi smiled. "Hello, Fade. Come in?"
Fade shuffled inside, eyes vacant, carrying a long package of red cloth.
"What's this?" Tavi asked.
"Present," Fade said. "Present, Tavi." He offered the cloth bundle to him.
Tavi reached out to take it and found it heavier than he expected. He lay it on his lap and unwrapped the cloth from around it. The cloth turned out to be one of the scarlet capes from the Princeps' Memorium, and wrapped within it, in an old and travel worn scabbard, was the battered old blade Amara had carried from the Memorium, and that Fade had used upon the wall.
Tavi looked up at Fade, who smiled witlessly at him. "For you."
Tavi frowned. "You don't have to keep up the act, Fade," he said quietly.
For a moment, something glittered in Fade's eyes, above the coward's brand on his cheek. He regarded Tavi in silence for a moment and then gave him a deliberate wink. "For you," he repeated in that same voice, and then turned to go.
Tavi looked up to see a man standing in the doorway. He was tall, broad of shoulder and long of limb. His face did not look much older than his uncle's, but there was something about his faded green eyes that spoke of more years than were evident. Silver streaked his hair, and a heavy cloak of plain, grey fabric covered him except for what his hood revealed of his face.
Fade drew in a sharp breath.
"A princely gift," the man murmured. "Are you sure it is yours to give, slave?"
Fade lifted his chin, and Tavi saw the slave's shoulders straighten. "For Tavi."
The man in the doorway narrowed his eyes, then shrugged his shoulders. "Leave us. I would speak to him alone."
Fade glanced warily back at Tavi and then nodded his head deeply to the stranger. He shuffled out the door after giving Tavi another witless smile, and vanished into the hall.
The stranger shut the door quietly behind Fade and moved to sit down on the bed beside Tavi's, his green eyes never leaving the boy. "Do you know me?"
Tavi shook his head.
The stranger smiled. "My name is Gaius Sextus."
Tavi felt his mouth drop open. He sat up straight, stammering. "Oh. Sir. Sire, I didn't recognize you, I'm sorry."
Gaius held up a gloved hand in a soothing gesture. "No, stay in bed. You need your rest."
"I thought you were coming tomorrow, sire."
"Yes. But I came here incognito this evening."
"Why?"
"I wanted to speak with you, Tavi. It would seem that I am in your debt."
Tavi swallowed. "I was just trying to get my sheep home, sir. That's all I meant to happen, I mean. After that, everything just sort of…"
"Got complicated?" Gaius suggested.
Tavi flushed and nodded. "Exactly."
"That's how these things happen. I don't want to keep you up long, so I'll come to the point. I owe you. Name your reward, and you'll have it."
Tavi blinked at the First Lord, his mouth falling open again. "Anything?" he asked.
"Within reason."
"Then I want you to help the holders who got hurt, and the families of those who were killed. Winter's coming on, and it's going to be hard for all of us."
Gaius lifted both eyebrows and tilted his head to one side. "Truly? Given anything to choose from, that is your choice of rewards?"
Tavi felt his jaw set, stubbornly. He met Gaius's eyes with his own, and nodded.
Gaius murmured, "Amazing." The First Lord shook his head. "Very well. I'll have Crown aid dispensed to those who suffered loss on a case-by-case basis by the local Count. Fair enough?"
"Yes, sire. Thank you."
"Let me add one thing more to that, Tavi. My Cursor tells me that you wish to attend the Academy."
Tavi's heart thudded abruptly in his chest. "Yes, sire. More than anything."
"It might be difficult for someone with your… limitations, shall we say? You will be in the company of the sons and daughters of merchants and nobles and wealthy houses from all over Alera. Many of them strong crafters. It may provide you with a great many challenges."