"Go catch some fish for dinner, you two." Seraph made shooing motions at Lehr and Rinnie. "I'll take care of the breakfast dishes and getting the plowing equipment ready. There'll be work enough for us all in the coming weeks, and we've but little salt meat left. I for one will be glad of some river trout. You two pack a lunch and catch what you can."
"What about the stew we made with Jes's rabbit yesterday, Mother?" said Lehr. "There's plenty left. Checking the harness won't take all day; we should get started on the fields as soon as we can."
"Tomorrow is soon enough for plowing," Seraph replied firmly. "Gura ate the last of the stew this morning." Or he would as soon as she fed it to him. She needed time and quiet to think.
"Papa would not leave you unprotected," said Lehr, clearly torn between duty and pleasure.
Rinnie tugged at his sleeve. "I think Gura is enough to scare off anyone - you know how he is with strangers. And how often do people come here?"
Lehr clenched his jaw. "I haven't seen Jes this morning," he said.
"He spent the night in the woods," Seraph replied. "I expect he'll be back this evening. If you see him, you might tell him I'm baking bread today."
"He'll be home then for sure," said Rinnie. She'd already collected cheese and crackers in a cloth and was busy tying it together. "Come on, Lehr. If we don't get out soon, the fish won't bite."
His resolve broke. He kissed Seraph on the forehead, grabbed his sister's arm, and made for the barn, where they stored the fishing gear.
Seraph smiled after them and turned back to wash up after breakfast and begin mixing dough for bread.
"Aren't we going to the river?" asked Rinnie, lifting her skirts to scramble up a rise behind Lehr. It wasn't often that she got to join in on fishing expeditions. Usually it was just Lehr, or sometimes Lehr and Jes. When she went, she had to go with Papa and Mother.
"Not first. I thought we'd try the creek. Jes showed me a good place where he says the trout like to sun. I haven't tried it yet, but - "
"But if Jes says it's good, we're sure to catch something," replied Rinnie happily.
The soft leather sole of her shoe skidded on a rock, and Lehr turned and caught her shoulder to steady her before she fell.
"Be a little more careful," Lehr said sternly. "The rocks are still wet with snow runoff here. I don't want to bring you back with too much damage."
Rinnie made a face at him behind his back then paid strict attention to her feet so he wouldn't have to help her again. He wasn't a bad older brother - if he'd just quit trying to be Papa.
Rinnie watched her brother's back as he navigated the zigzag route through old downed trees. Hard muscle filled last year's shirt and stretched the shoulders taut. He'd need a new shirt soon. She sighed; she knew who would get to sew that shirt. Mother could sew, but she didn't like it.
She wondered when they'd meet up with Jes. She'd never gone out in the woods without him that he'd not come upon her sooner or later. Lehr liked to say it was the most dependable thing about Jes.
Jes worked hard, but he was as apt as not to leave the plow in the middle of the field, horse and all, if the whim took him. He was always worse in the springtime. Papa said it was because the winter snows kept him too confined. By midsummer Jes would cut down his treks to once a se'nnight or so, rather than every day. Last year at harvest he'd worked almost the whole time.
Ahead of her, Lehr turned off the deer trail they'd been following and started down the steep side into a ravine and began skidding downhill. About halfway down he had to slow and pick his way through the underbrush that lined most of the lower ground. The branches caught at Rinnie's skirts until she fell some distance behind Lehr, who was already off the slope and starting up the valley. She tried to hurry and ended up with her hair tangled around the thorns of a wild rose.
"Wait up," she called, and began working the errant strand free with impatient jerks that did as much to worsen the mess as to free her.
"Wait up?" said an interested male voice from the ridge opposite the one she and Lehr had traveled to get here.
She jerked her gaze up to see Storne, the miller's son, with a couple of the boys he ran with peering down at her. Papa always said that the miller gave Storne too little to do. Leave a young man without a task, and he'll make mischief instead, he'd said.
Then Papa'd looked at her and told her to stay away from Storne when he had other boys with him, no matter how polite he was when they met at the mill, for a boy out to impress his friends will do things he wouldn't do on his own. The boys Storne had with him today were no prizes: Olbeck, the steward's son, and Lukeeth, whose father was one of the wealthier merchants from town.
Rinnie drew the knife out of her belt sheath and cut her hair, stepping out of the bushes. She made no move to leave, because you never run from predators. The knife she kept in her hand as if she'd forgotten about it.
"Rinnie?" Lehr called impatiently. He must not have heard Storne, who'd spoken no louder than he had to.
"Here," she called.
She didn't want to start trouble by implying that she was worried about Storne and the boys who watched her so she didn't say anything more, but something in her voice must have alerted Lehr because he came crashing through the trees at a run. His eyes roved over the strands of hair dangling from the rose bush and traveled uphill to Storne and his friends.
"Should have tied your hair up," he snapped.
Relief gave way to hurt that he would criticize her in front of such an audience.
"Well, if it ain't the little Traveler boy," said Lukeeth, sloe-eyed and slightly taller than Storne.
"Does your father know you walked out on your tutor again?" replied Lehr with such mildness that Rinnie's jaw wanted to drop, especially after the nasty way he'd blamed this on her. Lehr had Mother's quick temper and over the last couple of years, "boy" had become an epithet.
"My tutor wouldn't dare tell him," Lukeeth laughed. "Then I'd tell Father what the silly ass keeps in his water flask and he'd be out like the last one. That your little sister? Another Traveler's brat, just like you."
"Pretty thing," said Olbeck casually.
Rinnie began to get really worried. Lehr was tough; her father had taught him a few tricks, and her as well for that matter. But Olbeck was almost a foot taller than Storne - who was as big as Lehr - and he didn't have that soft look that most of the village boys had. She couldn't read his tone, but it sent the other boys off into laughter that sounded more predatory than happy.
"I'd heard you'd taken to running with scavengers, Storne," chided Lehr before turning to the ringleader. "Olbeck, I thought you'd decided to stay out of the woods after you ran into Jes that time last fall."
A flush rose in Olbeck's face. Lukeeth snickered but subsided when Olbeck glanced at him.
"Predators, not scavengers," said Olbeck. "You're just disappointed that Storne decided he'd rather hunt with the wolves than graze with sheep like you, Traveler's brat," he sneered. "As for your brother - if I'd realized he was crazy I'd have just slit his throat that day, a mercy killing, like I'd do to any other poor beast."
Until Olbeck's words reminded her, Rinnie'd almost forgotten that Storne and Lehr had once been best friends. But something had happened several years ago, Lehr wouldn't say what, and he'd even quit going with Papa to the mill.
"I'll tell Jes you'd like to meet him again," said Lehr pleasantly. "I'll relay your exact words to him. I'm sure he'll be impressed - since you've never so much as gutted a cow. Rinnie, why don't you go home and let us talk a bit."
"No, Rinnie," said Olbeck. He smiled at her, "I think you'd better just stay there. The two of us can have a conversation after we've finished... conversing with your brother."
Lehr turned to her and whispered, "Run, Rinnie, now. Don't stop until you get home."
Knowing that without her there, the other boys wouldn't be as interested in fighting, she fled back up the hill as fast as she could without looking back, the small knife cold in her fist. Home wasn't so far away. If she could get within hearing distance she could call Gura. Even a grown man would think twice before taking on the big dog.
She heard the dull thud of fist on flesh before she topped the ravine. But she couldn't worry about the fight now because at least one of them had gotten past Lehr and was trailing her up the side of the ridge. She could hear him crashing through the brush like an ox.
When she reached the trail and her footing was more certain she glanced back and saw that it was Olbeck who'd taken up the chase, and she stretched out to run as fast as she ever had.
With Olbeck following her, Lehr had a chance. Storne was the only one of the boys who had enough muscle to give Lehr a real fight. Her brother was tough as an old wolf; he'd use the rough terrain to his advantage.
The trail's upward slope robbed her legs of speed and her chest of breath, but she didn't dare slow down. Her eyes were focused firmly on the ground in front of her. When someone reached out and snagged her off her feet she thought it was Olbeck.
She kicked him once, before she realized it was Jes and stilled, gasping for breath. He set her down gently, the expression on his face different than she'd ever seen it. She didn't have time to understand what the difference was before he stepped in front of her and turned his attention to Olbeck.
"Thought I told you stay out of my woods," said Jes, only it didn't sound like Jes at all. Menace clung to his voice and promise. The familiar singsong softness was gone as if it had never been.
"These aren't your woods," said Olbeck, who'd stopped a few lengths down the trail, though he didn't sound intimidated. "My father is steward for the Sept. If these are anyone's woods, they are mine."
Safe behind Jes, she couldn't see the expression on his face, but Olbeck blanched.
"Run, boy," purred Jes. "See if you can outrun your nightmares."
Rinnie tried to step around Jes's shoulder, but he stepped sideways, keeping her behind him. Showing the whites of his eyes like a spooked horse, Olbeck turned and ran.
"There're still two fighting Lehr," Rinnie rasped and then threw up.
It was messy and nasty, as she had to gasp for air between convulsions. Jes gathered her hair out of the way and waited for her to finish.
"Ran too fast," he said. "Lehr's down that way?"
She spat to clear the taste out of her mouth. "Yes. Toward the fishing hole you showed him in the creek," she said. "It's Storne and Lukeeth."
Jes looked at her, and the oddness was still there - a sharpness she wasn't used to seeing. "All right, now?"
"Yes," she said.
He nodded and took off at a jog. It took her a moment to recover her breath. As soon as she knew she wasn't going to be sick again, she scrambled to her feet and headed down after Jes. Somehow with Jes there she wasn't afraid of the village-boys anymore. She wouldn't have thought that Jes, of all people, could make her feel safe.
Going down the trail was less demanding than her run up it had been. She made it to the place where Lehr had originally left the trail just as Jes was finishing a controlled slide to the bottom.
Rinnie looked down, half-afraid of what she'd see. But Lehr was safe. He held Storne in some sort of mysterious wrestling hold, and Lukeeth was lying unconscious nearby with blood running from his nose.
"Is Rinnie all right, Jes?" said Lehr.
"Fine," answered Rinnie for herself. "Jes scared Olbeck. From the expression I saw on Olbeck's face I bet he won't leave his house for a week."
"Good," grunted Lehr as he held on while Storne struggled with renewed energy. He waited until the other boy was still. "You drink too much," Lehr said calmly, "and you think too little. Just because Olbeck's father is the steward doesn't make him invulnerable or someone you should listen to - you're smarter than that. And to try and" - he paused and looked at Rinnie for an instant before changing what he was going to say. "You heard Olbeck. He likes to 'have conversations' with children now? My sister is ten years old, Storne. You are better than that."
It was strange hearing Lehr lecture someone else besides her or Jes. She could see that Storne felt that quiet voice cut through his skin, too.
Lehr stepped back and let Storne up. The miller's son brushed off his clothes and, with a wary look at Jes, turned to leave.
"Aren't you forgetting Lukeeth? If you leave him here he might never find his way out of the forest," Lehr said.
Storne hefted the other boy across his shoulders without a word, and started up the hill.
"You take care of your friends, I remember that," said Lehr softly. "But the question is, would they have taken care of you? Olbeck left you to us."
Storne spun around, almost overbalancing. "At least they can keep their tongues from wagging too freely. Unlike some I know."
"You idiots were going to get yourselves killed," said Lehr explosively, as if it was something he'd kept bottled for too long. "Swimming at night is a fool's game - and there are things in the river - "
"Things." Storne spat on the ground. "So you went whining to your father who ran to tell mine. Let me tell you something, Traveler's brat. You don't know half what you think you do. You'd better just stay out of my way."
Jes put his hand on Lehr's shoulder, but no one said anything until Storne was at the top of the ridge.
"Is that why you aren't friends anymore?" asked Rinnie. "You told Papa they were going to go swimming in the river at night?"
Lehr shrugged. "That was the excuse. But Storne's friends didn't like that he ran around with a Traveler's brat. He would have dropped me sooner or later."
"Storne traded you for Olbeck?" she said, knowing how much it hurt him. She knew exactly how much it hurt; there were girls in town who wouldn't talk to her because Mother was a Traveler. "He is stupider than I thought."
"They are dangerous in a pack," said Jes. "If Rinnie had been alone..."
Lehr gave a jerky nod. "When Papa gets back, I'll talk to him about this. He'll know what to do to see that they don't hurt anyone." He reached up to pat Jes's hand, which was still on his shoulder. "Let's go home," he said.
Jes released his hold and picked up the fishing rods that lay scattered about on the ground where Lehr had dropped them. "Fishing's still good," he said.
Rinnie looked at him, but the air of danger that had surrounded him was gone, and he looked and sounded as he always did except for a certain lingering crispness to his voice.
Lehr touched his reddened cheekbone tenderly. "I suppose they'll not bother us anymore. Mother will be safe enough with Gura." He took a close look at Rinnie. "You look pale."
Rinnie smiled at him and tried to look less pale. "I'm fine. Ma's counting on a fish for dinner. You always bring one back; she won't have anything else ready."
So they went down to the creek and fished.
Seraph heaved a sigh of relief. The harness collar that fit Skew had been neglected, but the leather was only very dry, not cracked. If it had cracked they'd have had to wait until Tier got back with Frost before starting the plowing.
She oiled the collar carefully until the leather was butter-supple under her fingers. Then she turned her attention to the harness. She untied the leather strings that kept it together and oiled each piece as she went, carefully organizing the straps on the freshly swept floor of the tack room so she could put the harness back together when she finished. Broken down, the harness looked like random scraps of leather.
The first time she and Tier had taken it apart and oiled it, she thought they'd never get it back together correctly. Even Tier had been all but stumped. A grin pulled at the corners of her mouth when she remembered the look on his face when she'd called him in for help. Maybe if he had been the one who'd taken it apart he'd have stood a better chance. They'd finally taken Skew out and put the harness back together on him one strap at a time.
From his loose box in the stable, Skew snorted at her. He was frustrated that one of his people was near enough to see, but not near enough to give him the attention that was his due.
"Do you remember the look on the steward's face that first year when he came and saw the furrows we'd plowed?" Not the current steward, but his uncle, who had been a kind man. "No two lines anywhere near straight. None of us had ever plowed a field before."
The steward had come by the next morning and worked side by side with Tier for the whole day. He'd made a point of stopping by now and again throughout the season to lend a hand and dispense a bit of advice.
Skew wickered a soft entreaty at her, so Seraph set down the cropper and wiped her hands off on her skirts before rubbing Skew's face. The dark oil would clean off of her skirts better than it came off of Skew's white patches.
"How the old steward hated seeing you in that plow harness," she told the old gelding. "He offered to buy you from us, did you know? Offered two horses trained for farm work because he thought it disgraceful that a gentleman of your breeding should pull a plow. Tier said that a good soldier hates war, and you were a good soldier so farming would be all right with you."
She rubbed the ridge just in front of Skew's ear and smiled when he tilted his head sideways and closed his eye in pleasure. "You didn't mind the plow anymore than you minded pulling my wagon, did you?" She smiled again. "Tier says the best warhorse is one who'll do what he's asked."
Skew rubbed his head against her, knocking her back a step.
"So what do you think?" Seraph asked softly. "Am I seeing problems that don't exist? How much of a threat is one misguided priest? If I tell my children what they are, it'll change them forever."
"I should have told them a long time ago," she whispered. "Tier told me to. But they deserved a chance at... innocence."
She closed her eyes and rested her face against the old horse's neck, breathing in the sweat-straw scent of his skin. "I think it's time, though, old friend."
She stepped away. "They need to know what they are. I have no right to keep it from them, and the priest is a good excuse." She nodded her head briskly. "Thank you. Your advice is always correct."
She finished the harness, inspected the plow and found no significant damage from its winter in the barn, then returned to the cabin and started shaping her risen dough for loaves, putting some aside for fry bread as an after-dinner treat. She'd just taken the loaf of bread out to cool when Jes, Lehr, and Rinnie came in the door with three fat trout, cleaned and ready to cook.
Seraph took a good long look at the bruise on Lehr's face, the rips in Rinnie's clothing and the place where her hair had been hacked short. Only then did she take the fish Lehr held out to her.
"Jes and I'll set up the smoker and we'll smoke these two," Lehr said hastily and retreated outside with his brother.
With hard-won forbearance, Seraph set the trout on a baking tile, salted it, and filled the body cavity with onions and herbs. After wrapping it tightly in leaves, she used the peel to set the tile on the coals of the fire below the oven. She put the tool where it belonged, dusted off her hands, and turned to her daughter.
"Now," she said. "Just what happened today?"
Rinnie took a washing rag and began to clean the table. "We ran into a little trouble with Storne and his friends - Olbeck, the steward's son, and Lukeeth. I got caught up in some thorns and I had to cut my hair to get untangled. But Jes showed up and the other boys took off.
"Mother," Rinnie said, staring unnecessarily hard at the surface she was cleaning. "There was something odd about Jes. I mean, he didn't do anything and Olbeck took off like a startled foolhen. Has Jes ever hurt anyone?"
Seraph took off her apron and rubbed her cheeks, hot from the work with the ovens. It was indeed time for a few truths, she thought, but not right now.
She gave Rinnie part of the truth. "For all that our Jes is different, he's strong and accurate with his fists - your Papa saw to that. Olbeck came out poorly in an encounter with Jes not too long ago."
After dinner, thought Seraph. We'll talk after dinner.
"This is as good as anything you'd find on the Emperor's table," declared Rinnie, finishing the last of her fish.
"Thanks to the fearless fishing folk," agreed Seraph, already up and tidying.
She'd tried so long to let her children fit in with the life of the village, and had hoped they'd be happy here, free of the never-ending quest to protect people who feared and hated the Travelers more than the things the Travelers fought. Tonight that innocence would be over - but it wasn't fair to keep their truths as her secrets either.
"Rinnie," Seraph said, abruptly impatient to talk. "Get the basket of fry bread with a jar of honey. I think we'll take a walk and find a good place to talk."
"It'll be dark soon," said Jes, sounding subdued.
Seraph gave him a straight look. "I think that might be just what is needed. I have some things to discuss with you all that will be easier to do in the meadow above the farm - and a few of those things will be more believable in the darkness of the forest than they will here."
"Mother - " began Lehr, but Seraph shook her head at him. "Not now. Let's take a walk."
Jes was right; by the time they got to the meadow the sun had sunk behind the mountains. There was still plenty of light, but Seraph was glad of her warm cloak in the evening chill.
At her direction, her children sat in a rough semicircle and divided the fry bread, consuming it like voracious wolves, even Lehr. Sweets were not a common treat for any of them.
"I haven't told you much about my family," Seraph began abruptly.
"They were Travelers," said Rinnie. "Everyone but your youngest brother, Ushireh, died of plague brought by a Traveler they took in for the night. And when Ushireh was killed, Papa rescued you when you were a little younger than Lehr and Jes. And you blew up the bakery and Papa said you were married to each other before you really were to save you again. And I know about the Wizard Ancestors, too. They called up the Stalker and then killed everyone who lived in the city to contain it. But it didn't work as well as they'd hoped. So from that time until this the Travelers have had to fight the evil that leaks from the city."
Seraph laughed. "Right. But there is more to tell you." She looked at each of her children in turn. "Understand that this was my decision, not Tier's. I didn't want you to know about my folk. I wanted you to fit in with your father's people, but... there are things that you need to know."
She took a deep breath. "You know I am a mage."
"But you don't do any magic, Ma," said Rinnie suddenly in tones of complaint. "Aunt Alinath says that there are no such things as mages, just people who are good at making others see magic in ordinary sleight of hand."
Jes began to laugh. It wasn't his usual full-throated, joyful laugh, but something low and unamused.
Rinnie looked up at him and shifted a little away from him.
"Jes, it's not her fault," Seraph chided gently before looking at Rinnie. "I'm afraid your aunt is wrong - and she knows better, too. She was there when I blew up the bakery - your father was there as well. And despite what you've heard, not all Travelers are mages, nor are all mages Travelers."
"Remember the stories Papa told us sometimes, Rinnie," said Lehr, "about the mages in the army?"
"Right," agreed Seraph. "But I am a special kind of mage - a Raven."
The cool power slid over Seraph's skin like a lover's caress as she lit a mage fire in the palm of her hand. When the magic stabilized she took Lehr's hand and put the light in his palm where it flickered cheerfully.
"Let me tell the story from the beginning," Seraph said. "There once was a great city of wizards who were arrogant in their power. In the blindness of pride, they called into being the Stalker, a great evil. To contain that evil they sacrificed the entire city, all of the non-wizard residents of the city, man, woman, and child - including their own wives, husbands, and children."
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to hear the cadence of her father's voice so that she didn't leave anything out. "When the wizards sacrificed their city to bind the Stalker, the cost of the magic they wrought killed all but a few of the most powerful mages and most of the very weakest. The survivors had virtually nothing but the clothes on their back. At first, they thought that would be enough, but the world is not kind to a people who have no place. As the years passed and the people dwindled, the remnants of the wizards of Colossae discussed what could be done."
She smiled a bit grimly. "Arrogant in their knowledge and power, even with their city sealed in death behind them, the wizards still meddled where they would. The Stalker was caged, but as time passed the bars of that cage would loosen. The wizards decided that their descendants, not having Colossae to nourish and educate them, would not be able to stand against the thing they had created, so it was decided to change their children and give them powers less dependent upon learning. They created the Orders."
"I'm a mage," she said. "There are other Traveler mages who are much like the Emperor's mages who helped Tier fight against the Fahlar. But I bear the Raven's Order. I don't need complex spells, I don't need to steal power as other mages do. I can do things that have not been written in a book and memorized. But the Raven is only one of six Orders bestowed upon Travelers."
Jes had withdrawn from the family until his face was hidden from the light of magefire. Seraph rose to her knees and stretched until she could touch his arm lightly.
"Peace, Jes," she said. "It's not just you - and I'm sorry I let you think it was. Your gift is just more difficult to hide."
Jes's gift was so terrible that there had been nothing she could do to shield him as she had the other children.
When he settled reluctantly where he was, she sat back down and said, "I am Raven. But there are also Bard, Healer, Hunter, Weather Witch, and Guardian. But, like Mage, we call the Orders by the birds who are symbolic to each Order because it is less confusing. Ordinary wizards are also called mages, but Raven always means the Order of Mage. The other five Orders are thus: Bard is Owl; Healer is Lark; Hunter is Falcon; Weather Witch is Cormorant; and Guardian is Eagle."
She watched them closely, but they seemed to be following her words so she continued. "My father told me that once the Orders were far more common. Among my clan, in my generation only three of us were Order-bound, Raven, Eagle, and Falcon. Other clans fared less well - and I knew of only one Lark still living when I left the clans, and she was very old."
Seraph drew a breath and wondered how to say this next part. "Imagine my surprise, then, when all of you were born into Orders."
Lehr passed the light across the basket of fry bread to Rinnie and rubbed his hands on his thighs. "But there's nothing different about any of us," he said. "Except Jes. And his oddities are surely nothing that would have served the purposes of the Travelers."
"Nothing different about you? Isn't there?" asked Seraph softly. "Have you ever come back from a hunt without game, Lehr? Have you ever been lost, my Falcon?"
He stared at her scarcely breathing. "Father taught me how to track, and to remember things so I wouldn't get lost," he said tightly.
"Did he?" she said. "That's not what he told me."
"What am I, Mother?" asked Rinnie eagerly, staring into the light she held. "Can I make a light like this?"
Seraph smiled. "No. You are Cormorant - Weather Witch. Not everyone knows when a storm is coming, Rinnie."
"What about Jes and Papa... and Aunt Alinath?" asked Rinnie eagerly. "Lehr is Falcon, and that makes him a hunter, right? What do Falcons and Cormorants get to do if they can't build fires?"
"Papa and Aunt Alinath aren't Travelers," said Lehr.
"We're only half, and we have Orders," Rinnie defended herself hotly.
Seraph held up her hand. "Hold a moment. Let's see. Uhm. Yes. Lehr is right, the Orders belong only to Travelers. Or that's what I always thought until I met your Papa. Tier is Owl - that means Bard. I've thought about it a lot over the years, but the only explanation I have is this: the old Raven who was my teacher told me that the Orders cannot be bred for as we breed for certain traits in horses. They attach to someone suitable to their purposes at the moment of birth." She smiled to herself. Her old teacher, Arvage, would have been outraged at the mere suggestion that an Order would attach itself to someone outside the Traveler clans.
She cleared her throat and continued, "In the Traveling clans, the Owl is responsible for keeping the history of the clans because one of their talents is for memory. But the Owl holds music, too - and music has always been a part of Tier.
"You had some more questions." Seraph clucked her tongue to her teeth as she checked her memory. "Falcons track and have some affinity for weaponry. Cormorants can predict - and, if they are careful, control the weather. There are more things, but I don't know them all. Some things vary from person to person; these things you will have to discover for yourself. Others" - she shrugged - "we might eventually have to find someone to teach you."
"What about Aunt Alinath?" Rinnie asked again.
"Your aunt is exactly what she appears - a solsenti baker."
"What does solsenti mean?" asked Jes abruptly.
"Stupid people," said Rinnie with smug wisdom. "Especially Aunt Alinath."
Seraph said, "Quit snickering, Lehr. In Traveler's speech solsenti means someone who's blind or crippled, but most of us use it to refer to anyone who is not of Traveler blood. Now, what else did you ask, Rinnie?"
"Jes," said Rinnie.
"Jes is Guardian."
"And Guardian is furthest from human," Jes broke in bitterly. "They took the spirit of a demon and bound it to their will. In the night I am this." He stood up and let his cloak fall so he stood before them all, revealed in the light Rinnie held. For a moment he was as human seeming as any of them, but then his shape flowed and darkened. A panther the size of Gura stood before them, his eyes gold flecked with an eldritch light.
It was the speed of the change that Seraph used to gauge whether what she saw was illusion or real. This time she was pretty certain the panther was solid and not created of her fears.
"The Guardian is the caretaker of the clan," said Seraph calmly. "Where danger threatens, in the forests, in the darkness, he adapts to protect us. No magic works on him except his own. In the daytime - and I'm not talking about just when the sun is up, but in safety - the Guardian sleeps, taking part of Jes with him."
Rinnie gave the light back to Lehr and walked all the way around Jes with wide eyes. Seraph could see her son cringe under that steady gaze, though he moved not a hair - but she had more confidence in Rinnie than Jes did.
"You're beautiful," said her daughter in awe, reaching out to touch the grey-black coat.
Lehr watched the cat narrowly, then laughed. "What, did you expect us all to shriek and run away, Jes? No one raised around Aunt Alinath could be afraid of a mere demon."
"I don't get to turn into a panther either?" asked Rinnie plaintively as she sat down next to Jes.
"No, only Jes," replied Seraph.
Lehr frowned. "If I'd known about this, I wouldn't have gotten so mad at you when you took off for the forest all the time," he said to Jes. "I suspect it'll take a few days for all of us to understand what Mother's told us tonight." He paused, then said the important thing. "I think you need to know that I'm glad you are my brother, day or night."
"Don't I even get fangs?" asked Rinnie.
The cat let out a huff of laughter and shifted back into a more familiar form. "No, Rinnie. No fangs for you." He reached over and ruffled her hair. "But don't worry. If you want me to bite someone for you, I will."
Jes settled back on his heels, though he didn't relax enough to sit. "Papa told me I should tell all of you, but I didn't want to. I didn't want you to be afraid of me."
Seraph frowned at him, "You know better than that," she said. "No matter what they really think, they're going to be a little afraid." Turning to the rest of them she explained, "Dread is one of the gifts of the Guardian. If he wants to, he can panic horses or wild game. But just his very presence will make people nervous. It's not that you are afraid of him, but that he triggers your fears."
Seraph smiled at a sudden clear memory. "My oldest brother was Guardian," she said. "He had a wicked sense of humor. He used to stalk people through the forest. They'd arrive at our camp panting in fear and trying not to show it, because there had been nothing to be afraid of. My grandfather used to scold him so." She shook her head in amusement at the memory of the bent old man shaking his finger at her brother, so fierce and large. He could have broken the old man with a single blow, but instead he'd stand there, head bowed as his grandfather chastised him - and a few weeks later another terrified wanderer would approach their camp.
"That's why Olbeck ran," said Rinnie. "Jes really did frighten him away."
Seraph nodded. "If it was only the dread, he'll remember that he ran, but not why he was afraid. It'll make him angry. He'll have to prove himself. Be careful."
"Mother," said Lehr. "Why are you telling us about the Orders, now?"
"It's that priest the new Sept brought back from Taela," Seraph said.
"I don't like him," said Jes abruptly.
"Have you met him?" asked Seraph, surprised; Jes hardly ever went into the city.
"I saw him once riding with the new Sept's hunting party," he answered. "I don't like him."
"Good," she said. "I'd like you all to avoid him if you can. There's something... odd about him."
"What?" asked Lehr with a sudden grin. "Does he turn into panthers or call light out of nothing?"
She smiled back, but shook her head. "He worries me." She explained what the priest had told her about his beliefs.
Lehr shook his head when she was done. "You mean a whole bunch of solsenti - possibly solsenti wizards, from the magic they've used to light their temple - have started a religion based on the Travelers' Orders?"
She nodded. "I thought you ought to know the truth of what you are before he managed somehow to corner you and feed you the muddle he and his religion have been brewing." She hesitated. "I should have told you sooner - and there's one other thing. I've never worried over it before because Travelers don't believe in fate the way those who live here do." And because Tier had always made her feel as if no evil could ever befall them. "For generations the Orders have been fading from the Travelers. Yet, from the marriage of Traveler and an Ordered solsenti, the first Ordered solsenti I've ever heard of, comes three Ordered children? My grandfather said, 'Where great gifts are given great evils come.' I want you all to be careful."
Jes flowed to his feet, all of his attention toward home. "Mother, there's someone riding into the farm."
