“Everyone’s on the move,” Senneth said, letting the curtain fall. “Let’s go see if there’s any news.”
She almost screamed as she opened the door, for Cammon stood just outside, hand raised to knock. “You’ve been up for an hour,” he complained. “What’s taking you so long?”
Senneth brushed by him and spoke over her shoulder to Kirra and Donnal, laughing behind her. “Someone turn into a wild animal and kill him for me.”
They intersected with Tayse while Wen went off to join the others. “Cold night?” Kirra asked him brightly. “Nice and warm inside your little cabin.”
He gave her a lurking half-smile. “A Rider never notices the weather,” he said.
“Well, a mystic does.” Kirra rubbed her hands briskly over her upper arms and then frowned at Cammon. “So? When are they going to get here?”
Senneth thought Cammon looked the slightest bit uneasy-the expression Cammon always wore when he was trying to keep silent about something. “Well-”
Just then the door to the cottage opened, and Justin stepped outside.
He was dressed in a loose shirt and a pair of breeches that he might have pulled on as he rolled out of bed, and his sandy hair was tousled with sleep. He stretched his arms overhead, manufacturing a big yawn, and then gave a mock start as he noticed the welcoming party. “Oh! Company! I don’t know that we’re actually ready to receive guests yet, but-”
That was all the further he got. Kirra shrieked, and the whole contingent descended on him in a fury of noise and shouting. The Riders shoved each other aside, one after the other, to beat him on the back or take him in a rough embrace. Kirra actually kissed him and then pushed past him to enter the cottage, calling, “Ellynor? Are you in here?”
Senneth was left staring at Cammon. Who stared back, a stupid grin on his face.
“You told him,” she said in an ominous voice.
He nodded happily. “Had to. I told you he was coming. Only fair I told him you were waiting.”
“You told him!” she shouted, and pounced on him, grabbing him in a headlock and then wrestling him to the ground. He yelped and flailed around, trying to get free, but Cammon was no fighter, and she landed a few hard blows just to teach him a lesson. “I ought to roast your heart in your chest!”
“Ow! Ow! Donnal! Help! Tayse! Help!”
Tayse actually came to his rescue, putting a hand under Senneth’s arm and pulling them both to their feet. She kept her arm locked around Cammon’s throat, though, and another around his waist, but now the grip was more affectionate than punishing. He left off trying to get free and stood tamely in her arms.
Tayse watched Cammon with his eyebrows lifted. “So? What information did you give him? And how?”
“I met them outside the palace gates yesterday afternoon. He knew to wait for me but he didn’t know why.” He grinned and elbowed Senneth in the ribs, so she briefly squeezed his throat again. When he could speak once more, he said, “He’d guessed, though.”
Tayse glanced at the cabin, where Riders were spilling in and out of the door, and a great deal of commotion was being created on the copper-bottomed drums. “And they managed to elude us how? Through Lirren magic?”
Senneth nodded. “That would be my guess. Ellynor snuck them inside the gate-and past a whole gauntlet of Riders. Both of them.”
He met her eyes, a certain disquiet in his own. “I find this extremely disturbing.”
“Oh, but you can trust Ellynor!” Cammon exclaimed.
Senneth released him and gave him a little shove. “You half-wit, what about her brothers and her cousins and the members of feuding clans?” she demanded. “What about Lirrenfolk who might be siding with Halchon Gisseltess? What if they decide to come sneaking into the palace grounds at night? You can’t sense Ellynor, you’ve said that before. Riders can’t see them or hear them. Not Riders guarding the gate, not Riders stationed along a pathway where they know one of them is going to come. I find it disturbing myself.”
Cammon looked horrified, but Tayse’s dark eyes glittered. “And yet, if this is a magic we can harness, I find it very valuable indeed,” he said.
“Well,” Senneth said. “They’ve ruined our surprise and scared us to death, but let’s go say hello to them anyway.”
“Yes,” said Tayse, turning to lead the way. “It will be good to have Justin back.”
IT was maybe two hours before all of the other Riders cleared out. Senneth was not much for playing hostess, but Kirra had hissed at her and grabbed her arm, dragging her to the small kitchen, where Ellynor was standing in some bemusement. The Lirren girl was delicate and pretty, with exceedingly long black hair that just now was piled on top of her head in a hasty knot. She was scarcely more dressed than Justin, though he’d obviously given her time to wash her face and pull on a gown before he went out to taunt the welcoming party.
“Am I supposed to feed everybody?” she whispered when the other two joined her. “Is there food? What am I supposed to do?”
“They’re Riders. You don’t have to take care of them,” Senneth said, but Kirra had been raised more politely than that.
“We’ll go to the barracks and lift some bread and fruit,” Kirra said. “I’m not going to cook or anything, but maybe it would be nice to offer them something to eat. Oh, but do you like the plates? Do you like the pans? We picked them out for you, but if you don’t like them-”
Ellynor still looked overwhelmed, but now gratitude crossed her fine features. “That was so kind! I’ve never been to such a big city! I thought Neft was an intimidating place, but I’ll never be able to find my way around Ghosenhall!”
Senneth laughed. “I don’t believe you. If you can track your brothers through the Lirren wilds, you can make your way through the royal city.”
Ellynor smiled. “Fewer dangers in the Lirren wilds,” she said.
“That’s probably true,” Kirra said. “But come with us, then, if you want to see the city. Senneth and I can protect anybody.”
They made a foray to the barracks and returned with an assortment of food and drinks, Donnal assisting them. Senneth noticed that Ellynor was pleased to see Donnal and reflected that the shy Lirren girl probably found Donnal the least frightening of Justin’s friends. But she, at least, was not fooled by Ellynor’s soft voice and kind expression. The woman was unyielding if called upon to protect someone she loved; she had literally hauled Justin back from the abyss of death. And she was dense with magic. No, Ellynor was no helpless child dependent on the strength of her husband or her friends.
Although even a mystic might quail at the thought of navigating Ghosenhall on her own.
Eventually the Riders had had their fill of purloined breakfast goods and ribald jokes. Tayse practically pushed Hammond out the door, and Wen was still talking to Justin through the front window. But finally everyone else was gone. Kirra and Cammon flopped onto two of the chairs, Senneth coaxed the hearth fire higher, and Tayse turned the lock on the door.
Cammon looked swiftly around the room, an oddly sweet smile on his face. That was when Senneth realized it: For the first time in more than six weeks, the six of them were together again.
Seven. The seven of them. For Ellynor sat curled next to Justin, who had sprawled on the floor before the fire. Not one of them and yet somehow belonging, somehow seeming to fit right there under the crook of Justin’s arm.
Tayse dropped easily to the floor near Justin, while Senneth took one of the other chairs. At some point, Donnal had melted into his familiar shape of a shaggy black dog, and lay with his head across Kirra’s dainty feet.