Sword-Maker(106)

“So, you didn’t go on with Adara and her children after all.” It surprised me a little. Garrod had sworn he’d take them to Kisiri, but a man can change his mind.

Garrod grinned. “Oh, I went with them … by then I had no choice. The girl didn’t give me any.” And he shouted for Cipriana.

She came. So did Adara, her mother. And so did her brother, Massou.

I blinked in dull surprise, surrounded on the instant. They were clearly as startled, and certainly more pleased. I felt a little awkward: the last time I’d spent any time with them, they’d been hosting hostile demons.

Bronze-haired, green-eyed Adara was flushed with color, which didn’t quite agree with her hair, but set her eyes aglint. She was oddly reserved, almost shy; I recalled, with a twinge of discomfort, she had hoped for affection from me. But it was Del who had it all; Adara had surrendered the field, but obviously recalled it.

Massou, blond and blue-eyed like his sister, was taller than I remembered. Now eleven, in place of ten; Cipriana was sixteen.

Cipriana was also pregnant.

Now I knew what Garrod meant about not having any choice. Women can do that to you.

Like her mother, she was red-faced, but for a different reason. It didn’t take much to figure it out, either; she stepped up next to Garrod and twined fingers into his belt. Pale hair was tied back from a face delicately rounded from pregnancy. I saw again the Northern features that had reminded me of Del. A younger, softer Del. The Del before Ajani.

Garrod dropped an arm around her shoulder. “We’re kinfolk now.”

“So I can see,” I said dryly.

“Is Del here?” Massou demanded.

“Del’s here,” I agreed. “We’re a couple of streets over.”

The boy’s eyes lighted. “You could come here,” he asserted.

Adara nodded. “You could. We have enough room. See?” She gestured toward the building.

“We’re with friends,” I explained.

Garrod shrugged. “Bring them.”

“They have three small girls, and another on the way.”

The horse-speaker grinned again. “We have one on the way.” Which made Cipriana blush.

“There is room,” Adara said quietly. “I understand if you have no wish to share, but there is room for you all.”

Her manner was a mixture of emotions. Clearly she recalled how I had proved uninterested in her availability: a widow whose husband had been unable because of bad health. It had taken courage for her to speak at all; I’d let her down gently, but no doubt it had been difficult. And then the loki had invaded her body, and her children, forcing them all into bizarre behavior.

She recalled it all, was embarrassed, and yet wanted my company, which embarrassed her yet again.

I looked past her at the building, thinking of the others. “Do you have a roof?”

Garrod shook his head. “The tanzeers have all the buildings with proper roofs.”

“So I keep hearing.” I glanced up at the graying sky. “I think there’s a storm brewing.”

“But it’s warm,” Cipriana protested.

Massou disagreed. “Cool.”

Garrod sniffed the wind, and frowned. “It smells almost like snow.”

“Snow!” Adara was astonished. “Are you forgetting we come from a place not far from here? We know the weather. It never snows on the border.”

“It smells like something,” I said. But nothing like the hounds.

Garrod still frowned. “I think I will see to the horses.”

Cipriana lingered. “Do you still have the stud?”

“Of course.”

“Oh.” Her expression changed. The stud hadn’t liked her much. Hadn’t liked any of them, once the loki had climbed inside.

“He’d be different, now,” I told her.

“He bit me,” Massou said.

“Yes, well, he had his reasons. He’s bitten me, too, and I was never a loki.”

Adara’s color deepened. “I wish we could forget that.”

“It wasn’t you,” I told her. “I know that, and so does Del. We don’t blame you for any of it.”

“We could have killed you.”

Or worse. But I didn’t say it. “Let it go,” I said quietly. “Don’t let it eat at you.”

“Can I see Del?” Massou asked.

As always, I looked to Adara. There had been a time when she’d wanted her children to avoid us.

Adara, comprehending my hesitation, nodded at once, as if to dispel any hint of her former reluctance. “Of course you may go, but only if invited.”

“Del won’t mind,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll be glad to see him.”