Crown of Renewal(15)

Arcolin looked at Kolya. “Would you rather stay here or be with a family for a few days?”

Kolya looked at the girl, then her mother. “It’s very kind of you,” she said to Seri, “but I’d rather stay here. If you’ll allow—”

It was all settled in a half-glass. Arcolin made sure the girl knew enough about nursing; her mother promised to come by once a day as well except in the worst weather. Arcolin insisted on the duke’s duty to pay for a veteran’s care. “Tomorrow I must visit the gnomes’ hall—an envoy from the Aldonfulk prince came today—and Duke’s West if I can. But I will be back the day after—or perhaps another day, but not more than three.”

He rode away, still worried about Kolya, but not as much—the girl, Caelin, seemed delighted to have her first job outside the home, and Kolya had plenty of supplies in the house. Still, when the roads cleared, he would send for a Kuakgan for her.

When he reached the stronghold, Arneson told him that they had lighted a fire in the cellar chamber before the gnome arrived, and the gnome seemed satisfied to be under stone. Arcolin went through into the inner courtyard, where he found a narrow, slightly crooked—but complete—path from the door to the well. One of the kitchen helpers hoisting a bucket grinned at him.

“Your lad begged us to leave the path as he’d dug it until you arrived, my lord. Says he’ll widen it this afternoon.”

“I think Calla will want him indoors this afternoon,” Arcolin said. “But I’m impressed. That’s quite a job for a lad his size.” He went on in, stripping off his cloak, scarf, and gloves. Jamis and Calla were in the dining room, near the fireplace; the boy turned quickly to look at him.

“Da?”

“A fine job you did,” Arcolin said.

“I can work more—” Jamis began; Calla gave Arcolin a look.

“No,” Arcolin said. “There’s others would like to get some exercise outside. I’m proud of you, working so hard, but there’s more than one kind of work, and the weather’s holding, so you can go out again tomorrow.”

Jamis nodded. “Yes, Da. Did you know there’s a gnome, Da? And not one of yours?”

“Yes. An envoy from the Aldonfulk prince. I must meet with him. I don’t know if he will eat with us or not—if he does, we must all be very careful not to stare or chatter.” He looked at Calla then. “Kolya Ministiera’s been sick during the storm and isn’t well yet. I’ve hired Fontaine’s daughter to stay with her for a few days. When the road’s clearer—”

“Of course I’ll go,” Calla said. “Sick and alone in the storm—and with only one arm—and of course she misses Stammel—”

“She told you?”

Calla smiled. “People do tell me things, you know. She hoped he’d settle down and retire here eventually. When he left so suddenly, she was afraid he’d never return. And then—he was gone.” She shook her head. “I can hardly believe it is really spring where he was, and here we have snow drifted halfway up the north wall of the stronghold.”

Arcolin thought back to springs in Valdaire. “The dragon said so … he was far south of where I’ve ever been.” He sighed, thinking of Stammel’s death. “But I must go meet with the prince’s envoy.” He made his way down to the cellars, now bright with the decoration the gnomes had added during their stay.

Faksutterk answered to his knock on the door of the cellar chamber. He bowed, and Arcolin inclined his own head in return. In gnomish, he said, “It is my wish that the envoy of your prince be comfortable.”

“It is comfortable,” Faksutterk said. “Will the prince enter?”

“It is the guest’s choice, to go upstairs to my office or to speak here. This is guest space.” Arcolin’s tribe had all preferred to meet humans out of their own space once they were settled into it.

“The prince’s office,” Faksutterk said. He closed the door behind him, and Arcolin led the way upstairs.

In the office, Arcolin sat first, as gnome protocol demanded, and then waved Faksutterk to a chair. The gnome did not sit immediately but pulled out of his tunic a gray leather tube and handed it over, then climbed into a chair. “My prince has word beyond writing,” he said. “When the prince has read it.”

Unlike the stone-etched invitation he had received the previous summer, this was written on a cream-colored material—coated fabric, he thought—in Common, not gnomish. The first section, in fact, was in Selfer’s familiar hand and revealed that the situation in Aarenis had worsened faster than he had imagined possible.