Ilyenna desperately wanted to see what was going on. But then she heard his voice and instantly changed her mind. She cringed.
“Gen, one of my men saw my tiams,” Darrien growled. “I want them turned over. Now.”
There was a long pause before Gen answered, “They’re in my clanhouse. That makes them a Riesen concern now.”
Darrien swore. “You’ve no right to interfere with my tiams! The law demands that you hand them over!”
“I will,” Gen said calmly, “if the Council orders me to do so. Until then, your rudeness offends both me and my clan. Get out of my lands.”
“You dare throw me out? You dare insult my clan?” Darrien roared.
Ilyenna heard slow steps and imagined Gen moving forward. His voice dropped so low she could barely make out his words. “I know exactly how many clanmen you have in my lands. I have twenty times that, all of them ready to kill any Tyran in sight at the sound of the warning bell.” Gen chuckled. “You didn’t think I’d trust you after what you’ve done? No, my clan is fully prepared for war. And as stretched as the Tyrans are, you know as well as I that we’d win. Get out. We’ll see who the Council sides with.”
Darrien started to sputter a reply, but Ilyenna heard the door shut in his face. Gen spoke again. “Arm our clanmen and escort the Tyrans to the border. I want spies watching their every move. Bring in those foolish enough to stay on the outlying farms, by force if you have to. Every clanman is to be ready for war.” Footsteps confirmed that the clan chief’s orders were being obeyed.
Ressa sighed in relief. “Well, I’m glad he finally had cause to kick them out. Gen’s been sleeping with his axe for a week. I’m always afraid I’ll roll into it. Anything else hurt?”
Ilyenna pointed to her ankle. Ressa eased the boot from the foot, her lips pressed in a disapproving line. She retrieved a salve, coated Ilyenna’s ankle with it, and wrapped the ankle in clean cloths. Then Ressa helped her sit on a chair.
Ilyenna’s head still hurt something awful, and the room spun. She gripped the table to keep from swaying in her seat. Gen came into the room and set his shield on a chair. He knelt next to her and studied her head wound. “Ressa?”
“She’ll be all right, dear. I’ve whiskeyed her up a bit. Shortly, she’ll be feeling pretty good about things.”
With that, she handed Ilyenna a piece of buttered rye bread and a cup of willow bark tea that was half milk with a generous dash of whiskey. Ilyenna began eating carefully, but hungrily.
Rone came in, an anxious look on his face. “You all right?”
Not daring to nod, Ilyenna smiled softly. “We made it.”
He didn’t return her smile.
“What happened?” Gen asked.
As Rone related their story, leaving out the amorous parts, Gen’s face flooded with rage. “The Council will have Undon’s clan for this!” he roared just as Ilyenna polished off her second cup of tea. The whiskey was working wonders, and her aching head was nearly a distant memory.
“And you just had to kill a Tyran right in the middle of Reisenholm, did you?” Gen fumed at Rone.
Rone’s eyes flicked toward Ilyenna. “It couldn’t be helped.”
“Well, I suppose it couldn’t. I’ll send someone to deal with it. Anything else?”
Rone shook his head. “That’s all.”
“Rone, pick that girl up and follow me to my daughter’s old room,” Ressa ordered.
Ilyenna snuggled into Rone’s embrace, her arms around his neck. He smelled so wonderful.
“Lay her down there,” Ressa said as she pointed to a door.
He opened the door to the room and placed her on the bed, but she didn’t release him. “You know,” she teased, “you could stay with me.”
He gently pried her arms from around his neck. “You’re drunk, Ilyenna.”
She snorted. “And what do you care? I wasn’t drunk the other night.”
Pain crossed his face, pain that redoubled inside her.
“Get out,” she said flatly. Rolling away from him, she covered her head with the blankets. “You can join the dead and I won’t care.”
After a few moments she heard the door shut, and then she was asleep.
17. Regrets
“Up, child. You’ll be needing some more medicine.”
Ilyenna forced her eyelids open. She squinted at the light, her eyes smarting. She tried to roll over, but pain shot through her skull. “Oh,” she moaned.
Ressa plopped down on the side of the bed. “You’ll be wanting to drink two mugs of this tea and eat your breakfast. I’ll tend to your head.”
Ilyenna squinted up at her, her mind hazily trying to put yesterday’s events in order. “Can I have more whiskey?”
The clan mistress chuckled. “Whiskey’s powerful medicine. But a little willow bark will work wonders.”
“Darrien?” Ilyenna said hesitantly.
“Gone, along with the other Tyrans. Gen’s making sure they don’t double back.” She filled the mug half full of tea and topped it with cream. “This will settle your stomach.”
Ilyenna took the drink gratefully. Ressa had sweetened it with sugar and powdered raspberries to mask the bitter willow bark. She drank more as Ressa pulled the cloth away from her wound. Determined to be a good patient, Ilyenna stayed still, refusing to flinch while Ressa wiped off the excess ointment with the back of the cloth.
“I’m having my tiams bring up the bath. I’ll be helping you scrub yourself and then we’ll redress this, hmm?”
Ilyenna had a hazy recollection of Rone bringing her to bed earlier, and judging by the pit in her stomach, she’d said something bad. She took a bite of a biscuit and froze as the memory worked free. “By the Balance,” she breathed.
Ressa leaned forward. “What’s the matter?”
Ilyenna turned her wide eyes to the woman. “Where’s Rone?”
She patted Ilyenna’s arm consolingly. “He went with Gen.”
Ilyenna wasn’t sure how her heart could keep beating through the pain. “No.”
Ressa smiled understandingly. “The drink often loosens our tongues.”
“He told you what I said?”
The clan mistress shook her head. “No, but I’ve five children. It wasn’t hard to guess that you two had a fight.”
“How could you let him go? He needed rest and food and . . .”
Ressa cocked an eyebrow. “It’s best that men keep busy when they’ve a lot to think on. And Rone had many things on his mind. He wanted to speak with my husband about a good deal of them. Rone is a strong man. He’s fared better than you, but of course men are more used to traipsing over half the clan lands. I sent him with enough food to put the meat back on his bones. Don’t you worry.”
Ilyenna’s hands fell helplessly to her sides. “I said things to him. Awful things.”
Ressa lifted the biscuit and raised a warning eyebrow. “No more talking unless you’re eating.”
Ilyenna took a grudging bite.
Ressa gave a satisfied little nod. “Well, there are two weeks before the Council meets. That should be plenty of time to make it right.” She stood and headed for the door.“Two weeks?” Ilyenna managed around her mouthful of biscuit. “I thought it was three.”
“They moved it up in order to deal with the situation with Undon.”
Ilyenna began counting the nights since she’d escaped with Rone and realized it had been almost a week. “Where is it this time?”
“We’ll be leaving for Cardell in nine days,” Ressa said from the doorway.
“Cardell,” Ilyenna repeated. Just below the Riesen. Lost in thought, she started when she reached for another biscuit only to realize she’d eaten them all.
Two women came in, bearing a beaten copper tub between them. It was as high as Ilyenna’s thighs and probably twice as long. More tiams appeared—two young boys carrying a steaming pot between them. The women and boys kept reappearing until the tub was filled with hot water.
As soon as they shut the door behind them, Ilyenna sank into the water up to her chin and let the heat draw the soreness from her muscles. Ressa came in shortly thereafter and washed her hair, carefully avoiding her swollen bruise. Then the older woman worked over Ilyenna’s back with a woven horsehair rag. Her skin was still peeling from the lye-soaked strap.
When every inch of her was scrubbed white and the water had lost its heat, Ressa produced a nearly new underdress and overdress. “I couldn’t scrub all the stains out of your old one, and really, the thing was hardly worth saving. I made it into rags. This belonged to one of my daughters, Varris. She’s around the same size.”
Ilyenna sighed. Material was expensive, but the time it took to sew each miniscule stitch was just as costly. “I haven’t the money to pay for it.”
Ressa waved her protest away. “Bah. Nothing lost. Varris just married the richest rye farmer in the Riesen. And she has two tiams for a month because they got drunk and broke a couple barrels of her husband’s whiskey.”
Ressa helped Ilyenna out of the tub and started scrubbing her dry. She paused when she noticed Ilyenna’s missing toes. “What happened to your feet?”