“Three hours past noon,” Branwyn said, not closing the book, “more or less. Hallis wants to see all of us at five. I was going to wake you beforehand, if you hadn’t managed it on your own.”
“Hope it hasn’t been an inconvenience.”
“No.” Branwyn glanced down. “I wanted the chance to read this again, anyhow. It’ll be a good memory.”
“Hallis made the announcements, then?”
“Both of them. If I hadn’t known the hunt myself, I’d be surprised you managed to sleep through”—she raised her hands, fingers splayed slightly outwards, and then let them fall—“everything that followed.”
The fort wasn’t, as far as Darya could tell, on fire. That was a start. “Sorry I couldn’t tell you before.”
“You had orders.”
She wanted to apologize for more, as though bringing the news back had made it happen, but that wouldn’t have helped. She washed and dressed instead, pulling on her remaining clean clothes—her best on the road, since Sentinels rarely got invited to state dinners. “Desertions? Suicides?”
“I haven’t heard of any,” said Branwyn, “not that I necessarily would. All the pagesarebeing sent off with the other civilians today, but that was Hallis’s call, not theirs.”
More likely than not, it was Amris’s suggestion, said Gerant.We tried to send the young away from the front lines, when we knew where they’d be. He won’t yet be used to the way things are now.
“You could go your entire life not getting used to that,” Darya muttered. Because of Gerant, she didn’t say a word about how short the rest of that life could be, given the circumstances.
Heiswell, isn’t he? I assumed you’d have told me otherwise.
“I would’ve. He was fine when I saw him last night, so unless we’ve been ambushed and Branwyn’s not saying anything about it”—Branwyn smiled and shook her head—“or he choked on a lump of cheese, I’d say he’s fine, if tired. Got a nasty cut on his leg when we took out the twistedmen, but nothing that won’t heal.”
“If he died from cheese,” Branwyn put in, “it would have been within the last few hours. He was there this morning when Hallis broke the news to the town.”
“Now I just feel lazy.”
Not inappropriately.
Darya stuck her tongue out at her sword, getting a knowing laugh from Branwyn, but added, “We can go find him. He was worried about you, too, when you went quiet.”
“They knew each other?” Branwyn asked, gesturing to Darya’s hilt and then toward the door to stand for Amris. “Or simply got along very well on the journey?”
“Both, really,” said Darya. “It’s a long story. I’ll need more wine to tell it, and you’ll need more to hear it, I’m fairly sure.”
* * *
Secrecy isn’t important to me,Gerant said out in the hall.And I doubt it will be to Amris, though you can ask him yourself.
“No,” said Darya, and waited for a pair of men to pass by before she spoke again. Both looked gray, stunned. They walked silently. When they’d gone into one of the other rooms, she added quietly, “But ‘he went to sleep a hundred years ago and didn’t age until I woke him’ isn’t a simple conversation.”
You’re likely correct.
Hallis’s office was a hive of people. Darya glanced into the doorway, saw no trace of Amris, and decided not to add to the man’s problems. She passed onward, footsteps soft and regular on the stone floor.
We didn’t deliberately choose to keep you in the dark,Gerant said.Or I didn’t. Not you personally, or even—He stopped, and Darya got the feeling of a sigh.I suppose we didn’t want to think about it any more than we had to.
Darya stopped on the landing going down, turned right, and paced slowly over to the window. It wasn’t much more than a slit in the stonework, but it gave her a reason to face away from the hallway and spectators, and the journey let her delay answering. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, trying to sound normal around a large knot of guilt. “Honestly, now that I’ve slept—and now that I’ve talked to Hallis—” She broke off and shrugged. “You might have been right. Or not. But I know you thought it was the best call at the time. We should all do that well.”
You’re generous. Not to mention troubled.
The window glass was thick and greenish, bubbled in places. Through it, Darya could make out figures in the courtyard, distant and dreamlike. Wagons unloaded barrels of grain, fruit, wine, and water. Soldiers stacked wood in the corners and inspected the walls for weak points. Five youths passed through the gate and spoke to the sergeant on duty; they wore the plain clothes of peasants, and Darya could see, even through distance and cloudy glass, the way duty warred with fear in their bodies.
“There’s a lot to be troubled about, wouldn’t you say?”
I wish I could argue.
