“Oh, lord.” Lena detached Jasper’s arms, sat down on the floor, and put her arms around him as he crawled into her lap. She looked up at the Kennelmaster. “Are you planning to obey her right away?”
“I’m hoping she’ll calm down and rescind the order.”
“Even if she doesn’t,” Lena pointed out, “does she have the legal authority to give that order? The dogs may belong to Jasper; nobody knows until Lord Kristion’s will is read. If they are Jasper’s, it’s pretty clear that he doesn’t want them killed. Also, the dogs are valuable, aren’t they?”
“Yes,” the Kennelmaster said. “There are people willing to pay large sums for the puppies, and the trained dogs are worth even more.”
“So even if Lady Shantell is Jasper’s guardian, and we don’t know that she is, killing the dogs would not be in his best interests from a financial standpoint, let alone an emotional one.” I’m glad I was paying attention during those classes on Kingdom law. “So, if I were you, I’d keep stalling. Maybe we can get a ruling from the local Magistrate—who is that, anyway?”
“Lord Teren,” Jasper mumbled into her shoulder.
“I don’t think your mother is listening to him right now,” Lena said ruefully. She looked around innocently. “Where are the rest of the dogs?”
The Kennelmaster frowned. “I don’t know. Someone came in and let them out during the night.”
“I let them out,” Lena said. No point in lying about that, even if I wanted to—Shantell saw them with me. “They were restless, so I took them with me when I went to the chapel for my share of the vigil. Then Lady Shantell came in and yelled because they were there, so I sent them outside. But if you can’t find them, you can’t kill them.”
“Good,” the Kennelmaster said. “Just as long as they stay safe wherever they are.” He sighed. “Where’s a Herald when you need one?”
That’s a really good question. Lena looked down at the child in her lap. “Jasper, have you had breakfast?” He shook his head. “Let’s go to the kitchens and see if we can find something to eat. Things probably won’t seem quite so bad when we’re not facing them with an empty stomach.”
After making sure that Jasper ate and escorting him back to the nursery, Lena slipped out of the house, avoiding both Shantell and the servants, and made her way unseen into the forested portion of the estate. I should be safe enough; I’m pretty sure that nobody is going to be hunting here today. She sat down on what passed for a comfortable boulder and cautiously opened her mind to the animals in the vicinity.
The dogs were the first to respond. In moments she was surrounded by the entire pack.: Home?: they asked.
:Too dangerous.: She sent an image of Shantell’s raging and the Kennelmaster looking sick at the thought of killing them. :Can you find enough food here?:
:Lots of rabbits. And deer.: With the discipline she had learned at the Temple, Lena ignored the images that accompanied the replies. Fortunately she had never kept rabbits as pets, and Maia, a fellow Novice who also had Animal Mindspeech and had taught Lena much of what she knew, had grown up next to the Forest of Sorrows, so Lena had some experience with how animals who were not being fed by humans regarded meals. Thinking of Maia reminded her of the crows. Maia had brought a group of them (“a storytelling of crows,” she had called them) to the Temple with her—or, more accurately, they had chosen to accompany her. If they liked you, they would do you favors, like following someone and reporting back on what they did. Maia had taught Lena how to talk to them, and Lena was pretty sure that at least a few of them had followed her on her journey. She reached out with her mind . . .There!
The crows were not nearby, and she didn’t want to consider what they were eating, so she sent a mental picture of a Herald and Companion, along with :where?: and the emotion of needing help. Several crows lifted up above the treetops to scan the surrounding countryside, and Lena settled down to wait, petting the dogs as they leaned against her legs.
Between using her Gift and stroking canine fur, Lena was half in a trance, so she wasn’t surprised when, some unknown amount of time later, a Herald appeared in her vision. The Herald looked startled, as anyone would be when a crow flew directly toward her face, but even through the crow’s eyes Lena recognized her. Samira was one of the Heralds Lena knew well, and her Companion, Clyton, even deigned to speak to Maia on rare occasions, so it was possible that he might be able to hear her. Lena tried to reach his mind, but apparently they were too far away. Samira, however, was a friend of Maia’s, so it didn’t take her long to realize what a crow behaving unusually in this area must mean.
“Lena? If you can hear me, you’ll know that we’re on our way.” Then Clyton moved so fast that he was a white streak passing the crows who perched in the trees above him. Lena looked through their eyes as they rose to fly back long enough to figure out what route Samira and Clyton were taking. Then she pulled her concentration back into her body, rose to her feet, and headed through the forest toward the road so that she could intercept Samira before she rode into the chaos of the household unprepared.
Clyton almost charged right past her despite the fact that Lena was standing alone in the middle of the road. She had persuaded the dogs to stay out of sight in the woods.
“What’s going on, Lena?” Samira asked. “Are you all right?”
“Pretty much,” Lena replied, “but Lord Kristion is dead, and things are not going well.”
“What happened to him?” This was Samira’s current Circuit, so she knew that Lord Kristion had been young and healthy.
“He went out hunting with his best friend a couple of days ago . . .” Lena took a deep breath and blurted out the rest: “Lord Teren shot him by accident, and Lady Shantell called Lord Teren a murderer, and now she’s ordered the Kennelmaster to kill all of the dogs, and Jasper’s really upset about that.”
Samira pinched the spot where her nose met her forehead as if the muscle had gone into spasm and shook her head. “Are you sure it was an accident?”
“Lord Teren says it was, the servants who were with him say it was, and the dogs say it was. I believe them.”
“What does the Magistrate say?”
“Apparently Lord Teren is the Magistrate.”
“Yes, that’s right; he is.” Samira sighed. “Why does Lady Shantell want to kill the dogs?”
“I don’t know. Maybe because she can’t kill Lord Teren?” Lena shrugged. “It’s too bad her religion isn’t one of the ones that teaches forgiveness of one’s enemies.”
Samira looked at her oddly. “It does teach that.”
“Are you sure? She certainly isn’t acting like it, and she scolded me for worshiping Thenoth. And her own son seems to believe she’ll kill the dogs; he was out in the kennels crying over them this morning.”
“The dogs are still in the kennels?” Samira raised her eyebrows. “Knowing you, I’m surprised there’s a dog on the estate she can still find.”
“Minda just had puppies; they can’t be moved. The rest aren’t there. The Kennelmaster doesn’t want to follow Shantell’s orders, and if he can’t find the dogs, he can’t kill them.”
“I’m sure he appreciates your help,” Samira said dryly.
“He seems to, actually. I also pointed out that there may be legal questions—the dogs may belong to Jasper instead of Shantell, and her husband may have named someone else as Jasper’s guardian.”
“That’s a good argument,” Samira admitted. “How likely is it?”