“Too cold,” Cammon repeated.
Senneth joined them. “I could ring the whole yard with flame,” she offered. “Make it nice and comfortable.”
Tayse shook his head. “Riders need to know how to fight in all kinds of weather,” he said. “Don’t want to make them soft.”
“I can’t think a few degrees of extra warmth will turn any of that lot soft,” she observed.
Tayse was still waiting, eyebrows lifted. Are you sure you won’t join me? You can never work too hard or be too good. Tayse was not the sort of man who believed in taking advantage of a quiet moment to let his bones go completely idle. A quiet moment was when you cleaned your sword or practiced a new way of throwing your knife. Cammon said, “Maybe later.”
Tayse nodded and ducked out the door. Whoever had designed these cottages had not allowed for a Rider as big as Tayse. Then he ducked back in. “Any news of Justin?” he asked.
Cammon nodded vigorously. “They’re on the move. Heading home.”
That pleased Tayse so much he came all the way back inside. “Where are they, can you tell? How soon will they be back?”
Cammon scrunched up his face and concentrated. He wasn’t good with actual physical locations, just general directions. He had the advantage of knowing where Justin had started out, though, and that made it a little easier. “They’re traveling pretty fast and going-north, I think. But they’re still in the Lirrens. He still feels sort of fuzzy to me. I’ll have a much better idea once they cross the mountains.”
Tayse glanced at Senneth, a faint smile on his face. “We should find a way to welcome them home.”
She laughed. “What, you missed having the Riders throw you a charivari on your own wedding night?”
“Charivari?” Cammon repeated. “What’s that?”
Tayse’s smile deepened. “When Riders marry. It is traditional to celebrate the event-”
“Since it is so rare,” Senneth interjected.
“With a party that sometimes becomes quite boisterous and continues through the night.”
“A drunken rout is what it is, and I don’t think Ellynor would enjoy it,” Senneth said. “Though I do think it would be nice to plan some kind of celebration for the day they arrive. If Cammon could tell us when that is going to be.”
“When they get closer, I will,” he said.
“Justin will suspect something,” Tayse said. “He’ll sneak them in during the middle of the night.”
“Easy enough for Riders to stay up and wait for them,” Senneth said, trying not to laugh. “Riders never need to sleep.”
“Well, we ought to mark the occasion in some fashion.”
“Kirra and Donnal ought to be here,” Senneth said. “We should send them word. Are they still in Danalustrous?”
Cammon nodded. “I’ll let them know,” he said.
“That will be nice,” Senneth said. “The six of us back together again. For a little while, anyway.”
“Seven now,” Cammon said.
“Seven,” Senneth repeated. “I wonder how well I’ll like Ellynor once I get to know her.”
Tayse shrugged. “She makes Justin happy. That’s all I need to know.”
Senneth looked at Cammon with a question on her face. Does she indeed make Justin happy? He grinned and nodded. “Almost as happy as you make Tayse,” he said. That made her laugh and shove him out the door. So, after all, despite the cold, pretty soon he was out on the training field with a weapon in his hand.
Nothing else to do if he was not going to have a chance to see Amalie.
CHAPTER 5
THE princess didn’t need him the following morning, either, but Cammon was not going to make the mistake of seeking out the Riders again. He was still sore from yesterday’s workout. Instead he bundled himself up in a heavy new coat-provided by Milo -and went in search of the raelynx.
The six of them had come across the wild cat a year ago when they were traveling through Gillengaria on a mission for King Baryn. Most raelynxes could only be found across the Lireth Mountains in the Lirrenlands, and they possessed their own kind of feral magic. They could not be caught-they could not be killed-they eluded every hunter’s trap, every householder’s poison. With their red fur, spiky ears, and great tufted toes, they were beautiful and lawless and terrifying.
The folk of the Lirrens had learned to control them, or at least keep the great cats from ravaging their communities. Senneth said it was because the Lirrenfolk were protected by the Dark Watcher, and the night goddess had claimed the raelynx as her own. During the long years when Senneth was estranged from her own family, she had lived among the Lirrenfolk and learned some of their customs, and she too had acquired the trick of controlling a raelynx’s appetite and rage.
Or at least, she had figured out how to keep this particular beast in check, but she admitted it was only because they had found it when it was just a few months old. A full-grown cat would have been more than even Senneth could handle. She had meant to return it to the Lirrens once they were safely done with their travels-and yet their adventures had never delivered them back to the Lireth Mountains. Strangely, once they returned to Ghosenhall, Queen Valri had been quite taken with the notion of keeping a raelynx on the property, and she had begged the king to allow her to keep it.
Madness. Even Cammon knew that. But he loved the raelynx, and he had been secretly glad to learn it would be staying in Ghosenhall, where he could visit it whenever he wished.
It was quite a trek through the palace grounds to the walled garden where the raelynx was kept. Several hundred acres surrounded the palace proper, and they were divided into a broad diversity of terrain with a handful of attractions-wooded areas, streams, gardens, living quarters, stables, gazebos, and follies. The garden holding the wild creature was about as far distant from the palace and the barracks as it could be. It was surrounded by a high stone wall and closed with a wrought-iron gate. Winter-bare trees poked their heads above the fencing; dead vines clung to the stone and mortar. Through the open grillwork of the gate, Cammon could see more of the same inside-brown grasses, nude shrubs, the bent and colorless stalks of tall flowers patiently enduring the indignities of winter.
He stepped close enough to set his hands on the rods and peered inside. It should be easy to spot the cat’s red fur in such a bleak environment, but at first he could see no sign of the raelynx at all. He could sense it, though, a great vortex of curiosity and hunger and violence. And awareness. The big cat knew Cammon was there just as surely as Cammon could tell the raelynx was near.
Suddenly, as if materializing from empty space, the raelynx stood before the gate, watching Cammon with its huge dark eyes. Its tufted tail twitched slowly back and forth; the peaks of fur along its spine stood taut with interest. Some of its readiness to fight faded; in its place came something Cammon could not identify. Recognition, maybe. This is someone I have seen before. He is human but he means me no harm. Nowhere near as clear as that, of course.
“So. You’re starting to know me, are you?” Cammon murmured. He was tempted to thrust his hands through the bars and stroke that watchful face, offer a friendly pat on top of the russet head. He knew better, naturally. This was not an animal that could be tamed. Oh, he had seen Senneth actually put her hand out and caress the bright fur, but only once, and the raelynx had been much younger then. Now, more than a year old and almost up to its full weight and strength, the big cat was too fearsome to tempt. “Are you lonely? Do you miss visiting with your wild friends-having your raelynx neighbors over for tea?”
He couldn’t help but smile at his own nonsense, but the creature seemed to enjoy the sound of his voice. Its mood mellowed even more. It dropped to its haunches and watched Cammon with sleepy eyes. Cammon could pick up no urgent sense of hunger, so he guessed the animal had fed earlier in the day. Raelynxes were notorious for their ravenous appetites. Shortly after this one had been penned up in the garden-which was much too small to accommodate it-the queen had had a run built for it, accessed through the back wall. She also made sure live game was introduced to the garden every few weeks. Now and then, a watcher with a quick eye could catch a flash of red as the raelynx bounded down the run in pursuit of an unlucky rabbit.