“I don’t think the two of them could be more different,” Silence whispered to me.
I had to agree.
We were bustled into a regular carriage, with Crane sitting opposite the two of us, and she spoke again once we were underway. “The trip to Grovner’s Green will take two days, and Hedgewild Manor — your new home — is another few hours out from the town. We will rest tonight in Elisford, then take a ferry across the river tomorrow and continue southward.” She paused and looked intently at us, perhaps expecting questions, but we remained silent. She nodded. “You were given a small sum with which to purchase items while in the capital. I noticed you arrived with some bags and chests. Did you find what you needed?”
We nodded.
She smiled. “Quiet ones, are we? Good. I like the quiet ones. Listen to me and not any of the other gadabouts at the House, and you’ll do well enough.” Another pause, then, “Neither of you are the children of Nobles, are you?”
“No, miss,” Silence said. “I… lived on the streets before I was Chosen.”
Crane corrected him. “Please address me as ‘Lady Crane.’”
“Yes, Lady Crane,” Silence said.
She nodded to that. Oddly there wasn’t any of the cynical repulsion other Nobles had had to Silence’s low-born upbringing. If anything, I thought I saw just a hint of solace and sympathy in those cold blue eyes. Interesting. She was proper and stern, but not… superior.
She looked at me.
“I was the daughter of…” I trailed off. I shrugged. Might as well tell her everything. “Of merchants, but they died when I was young and I went to live with friends, scribes at the Library of Miraline, Lady Crane.”
She raised her brows. “Are you educated then?”
I nodded. “Yes, Lady Crane.”
“Good.” She passed an assessing look over both of us again, then proceeded. “You will find those at House Maverick come from… a wide variety of backgrounds. All are accepted and welcome. Remember you are now Lord Silence and Lady Legs.” She pursed her lips after saying my name, I could almost read her thoughts:Lady Legs? How vulgar a name. Still, she forced a smile. “It will be up to you how formal you wish to be with your title. Some are less concerned with it than others.”
“Like Maverick.”
She grimaced. “LikeLordMaverick, yes.” She shook her head. “The day I get him to fully accept his nobility and role as leader of our House will be the day I can finally rest.” She seemed to realize she’d said too much and pursed her lips again, a habit.
“What questions do you have?” she asked.
“What… do we do… as Nobles?” Silence asked.
I could see the unasked questions on her lips:You became a Noble without knowing what they did? Still, she took the question in stride. “Nobles are the rulers and protectors of our fair nation of Elista.” Her tone was very much the formal teacher tone I’d heard so often from my parents. “You will need to be educated, in case called upon to adjudicate civil disputes. You will also need to be able to fight in defense of the kingdom. House Maverick is tasked with protecting the south of the nation, which… is one of the easier assignments of all the Noble Houses since there are no southern neighbor nations, only the ocean. So, we fight off the occasional pirate, help towns hit by raiders, and otherwise keep the peace in the south. Occasionally the Royal House or the Council of Nobles will give us a special mission to complete. That… hasn’t happened in a while.”
Silence nodded.
I added, “The Council is made up of the leaders of all the Noble Houses, with the queen or king at their head.”
“That is correct,” Crane said. “Though some House Leaders defer their seat on the Council and rarely show up… Like Lord Maverick.”
My turn for a question. “What is it like at House Maverick?” The name of the manor had been mentioned a couple of times, but it hadn’t stuck in my mind yet. “Hedgemaze Keep, was it?”
“Hedgewild Manor.” She drew in a long breath and actually seemed to relax a little. “The grounds are amazing. Rolling fields and hills in all directions, with scattered woods and the Greyling Forest to the west. To the east — about a day’s walk — is Dyrens Bay, with glistening clear blue waters. There are tenant farmers who work the lands around the estate, so we have a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables depending on the season. And separating the fields from each other and the estate grounds are many hedges of varying heights, which gave the manor its name. The manor itself is much less of a fortification than the northern keeps you may know or have seen.” That comment must have been for me, since I was from Miraline in the North. “The house has two wings, a central hall, and five towers. It’s… in a bit of disrepair at the moment, though I’m doing my best to keep it up. There is only a small staff who tends to the place, since our funds are somewhat… limited. We are not as important a House as those in the capital or guarding the north and west.” She sighed at that. “But we do what we can. Life is… interesting. I am hoping you two will not be a burden on the House as some of the other Nobles are.” Another heavy sigh. “Lord Maverick takes in… all sorts.”
I was beginning to wonder what our new Noble family was going to be like. It sounded like they were a wild bunch, barely kept in check by our current hostess. Which led me to my next question. “Who are the other Nobles in the House?”
Lady Crane nodded. “You’ll meet them all soon enough.” Still, she listed them off: “There is Lord Ant, Lord Jack, Lords Fennec and Foggy, who are brothers, then Lord Fin, and of course Lord Maverick. For the ladies, there is Lady Amber, Lady Tusk, Lady Sparrow, and Lady Princess. Please note, ‘Princess’ is her name not her title. She is not actually a princess. There is also Lady Midnight, but you won’t meet her. She’s on an extended mission, something even I don’t know about.”
I would like to have said I couldn’t wait to meet them, but given how Lady Crane spoke, I didn’t quite know what I thought of the eclectic-sounding group.
The rest of the day, as we traveled, Lady Crane informed us of the various duties we’d have around the manor and gave a bit of a summary of the usual missions we might be called out upon.
The road had followed the Elis River for most of the day, and we stayed at Elisford, a village near a spot on the river where it widened out into a small lake and was fairly calm most of the time. It was a fishing village for the most part, but being on the main road, it had a respectable inn, in which we stayed for the night. Silence and I went for a walk along the river, to stretch our legs after the long ride that day. We held hands and talked freely. I felt a deep bond forming between us.
The next morning we and the carriage were carefully loaded onto a wide barge and ferried across the river.
