"By the time he can tell whom to loose and whom to bind, you will be home and feasting by your own fire. And Grimsoar One-eye will stand strongly by your lad, if I remember rightly. A young wife will make an old man a lad again."
Sirbones looked eloquently at the cabin beams. "Doubtless you know better than I," he said.
Tarothin smiled, then continued with his old briskness: "I said we have little time, and here I am wasting it. The first and last message for you is that neither you nor Haimya nor Gildas Aurhinius should go aboard an Istaran ship, or ashore. Lady Eskaia might be safe aboard ship, but I would not wager for the shore."
"Eskaia remains behind in Vuinlod," Pirvan said. "She oversees the affairs of the town, and if need be its defense."
Everyone made gestures of aversion at the last words. Tarothin nodded. "A pity," he said. "We were hoping she would be here to bring her influence to bear on sending us aboard her son Torvik's Red Elf. It is hardly a secret that he is likely to be sailing in the vanguard of the fleet."
"Such a post of honor, for one not friendly to the kingpriest?" Haimya asked. "How so?"
"The captains?" Pirvan asked, and wizard and priest nodded.
"They are all for virtue," Tarothin added, "but in unknown waters, prudence and experience are the virtues they prize most. Torvik has these, plus Jemar's blood. Perhaps you can speak in Eskaia's place, even if they do not listen as well to you as they would to her."
"As you wish," Pirvan said, as he and Haimya exchanged looks. Both plainly wished that their magicworking friends were not so intent on rushing into danger, and thought that it was as much curiosity as duty driving them. Just as plainly, they would be deaf to even old comrades' counsels of prudence.
"We will do what we can," Pirvan said. "And Gildas Aurhinius had Torvik's respect even before wedding his mother. Now he might even have the man's ear."
They went on deck after that, ducking under a netload of kegs thundering down the after hatch into some storeroom far below. Then Pirvan and Haimya strode to the railing and hailed the boat waiting a half-bowshot to leeward.
Unknown to Pirvan, his son was also enduring a meeting at Tirabot Manor with too many people in too little space. The warded tower chamber was cozy for three; it was definitely cramped for more than five. When there were seven and one of them was Grimsoar One-Eye, stout and sleek on his lady's cooking and potions, it grew positively stifling.
The weather did not help, for it had blown up a gale of wind, bringing rain that was rapidly turning to sleet. The temperature had dropped so fast that Gerik privately wondered if they faced weather magic or one of Chislev's bad moods interrupting the advance of spring. The closed shutter and door kept out chill drafts and spattering icy water, as well as every breath of fresh air.
"You ought to shrink down to normal size," Horimpsot Elderdrake told Grimsoar. "Then I might not have to worry about my ribs every time you took a deep breath."
Grimsoar snorted. "When I shrink down to common size, little one, it will be from decay after I die. Or from starvation after Serafina passes on. Starvation and grief," he added, squeezing her hand.
"We may none of us leave this chamber alive if we do not speak quickly and to the point," Gerik said. "Now, how do we stand if it comes to a fight?"
Bertsa Wylum shrugged. "No worse than yesterday," she said simply, "maybe better, but I don't know whose side time is on. We have forty men and women fit to fight, although we've weapons for more."
"Start training as many more as we can arm," Gerik said. "Take volunteers from the villages, as well."
"Some might be spies."
"They won't be inside the manor unless we stand a siege," Gerik said. "Riding the roads to halt bandits and chicken thieves taking advantage of troubled times will tell them none of our secrets. And make no mistake: our enemies will be counting on such penny-a-handful allies to wear us down."
Bertsa Wylum nodded. "There's sense in that."
"Forin?" Gerik said, looking at the steward.
"Forin" was short for an appallingly long name in the elven style, for all that the steward seemed to have more human than elven blood. But what a man chose to call himself was between him, his ancestors, and the gods.
"We do well enough, and would do better if we could hope this were settled before there's green forage around about," Forin said. "When they can feed their beasts, then they'll come. We're not worth spending stored fodder over, I wager."
Gerik hoped that was true. But it seemed unlikely that peace, if it came, would come so quickly. At least there was hope that the men Sir Niebar was sending would come before the campaigning season opened.
Gerik now read the letter from Pirvan. He did not mention that it had been in one of the Solamnic's secret languages; what they did not know would not weaken their trust in him.
"Once the knights are here, I doubt we'll have much to fear. The weight of law, custom, tradition, and good sense are already on our side, simply because we hold a manor granted to a Knight of the Rose. With the weight of men actually sworn to the Orders on our walls, I think we are the masters.
"But they may take longer to come than our enemies take to gather. So Ellysta has suggested that we fight a war of laws and words, until we can take up the sword."
Form's eyebrows rose. "How came she by this knowledge?" Gerik heard in the question the further query, "How came she to a place here, other than through sharing your bed?" But Form grumbled much about women.
"My father was a law counselor, and my mother his clerk until they wed," Ellysta said. "I know the common law of Istar, and much merchant law."
Serafina nodded. "I begin to understand," she said. "Grimsoar knows more merchant law, and I know much of what governs the healers."
"I know the laws and customs governing sell-swords," Bertsa Wylum said. "And I know that if I say to Floria Desbarres that someone should be banned from her service, it carries weight."
"Good," Gerik said. "I think we can raise points of law in the path of any move against us, save by main force. It will be like digging ditches across roads an enemy may use to approach."
He looked at Ellysta and said, "Is there any chance of finding evidence that your friend was innocent of the accusation against her? If we do that, you become a valiant friend and a victim of injustice, and your questing here is no crime."
Ellysta shook her head. "That asks too much. Even if we could find it-"
"Does 'we' mean just humans, or are kender-?" Elderdrake began.
Shumeen elbowed him in the ribs, then put her hand back on his knee. The kender healer seemed to have laid claim to Elderdrake, rather as Ellysta had to Gerik. This did not keep her from backhanding him thrice a week or as more often as she thought his tongue wagged too freely.
"If you want to go spying again, once you heal, I doubt we could stop you," Gerik said. "But you could put all the kender hereabouts in danger, whether they are with us or not. Also, you would have to hold your tongue with those kender, and do you have that in you?"
"I can't not talk, but it isn't always important what I talk about. I mean, I can't be rude, but if I can be polite without telling them anything they shouldn't know…"
Shumeen looked ready to stamp on her friend's foot before he subsided. By then Gerik was satisfied that he could trust Elderdrake and the five fugitive Spillgather kender. He noted in his mind the need to keep watch on the rest of the clan, lest the fugitives' befriending Ellysta bring vengeance on their kin.