She felt it as much as saw it, the moment when realization hit Ash and he felt the loss of something he should have had but was denied as a child.
Emil, oblivious to this, kept talking. “So we decided that when next he came, we’d all take him and teach him the basics of things. We can’t afford him overworking himself like that again and to my mind it’s not healthy either, using magic to solve all problems. Good hard work can do the trick more often than not. So if you don’t mind, Miss Riana, I’d like to borrow him for another hour until I’m sure he’s got a good grounding in woodworking.”
Ash was giving her a look that begged her to say no, she did mind, and for her to take him away. But Emil’s argument was a good one and she saw his point. Ash did rely a little too much on his magic because it was what he was comfortable using, and also because he didn’t think of doing it with his own hands instead. Oh, he was aware that people could and did build things with labor. But for some reason he acted as if doing it that way didn’t apply to him.
No, the settlers here had the right of it. If nothing else, it would be good experience for Ash. So she smiled at Emil and said cheerfully, “No, I do no’ mind. It be a good thought, Master Emil. By all means, teach him.”
Her wizard gave her the most betrayed look that ever graced the face of a man. She smiled at him, using it like a shield, and parked herself on the bench next to his.
Watching this exchange, Emil cleared his throat. “Miss Riana, by chance, do you know how to build crates?”
“As it happens, I do,” she admitted. And quite a few other things, to boot.
Ash pointed a hammer at her. “Prove it.”
Taking the hammer from his hand, she picked up three nails and a board. Then placing it on the frame, she gave the nail a quick tap to set it before hitting it hard, driving it completely home with a single blow. Picking up another board, she set it the same way, and within a minute had one side in place.
“How’d you do that?” Ash demanded, astonished. “It takes me at least four blows to get a nail in! And most of the time it goes crooked halfway in!”
“Practice,” she purred at him, beyond amused at his response.
His competitive spirit sparked. She felt it thrum along their bond and Ash promptly took the hammer back from her, grabbed nail and board, and set himself to try and copy what she had done. Emil gave a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. With his hand covering his lower face like that, he well could have been hiding a smile. Riana sent him a wink on the sly. Nothing like a little competition to focus an unwilling student.
Ash did not magically learn how to get a nail in with just two blows after watching her, and he had her demonstrate several times how to do it. His hammering skills did improve, though, so that he no longer bent the nails. Or was forced to take out nails because the board slid on him. It took the full hour, but he eventually got the crate together and was as proud of it as if he had given birth to a child.
“Good!” Emil approved. He lifted it in his hands and looked at it from every angle. “Yes, good. It’s sturdily built.”
Ash beamed at him.
Emil clapped his hands together. “Now. Next thing.”
Freezing in place, Ash gave him an unnerved look. “This wasn’t the only thing?”
“Of course not,” Emil chided. He had a very parental look on his face, the one that said a child had just asked a silly question. “We noticed Miss Riana always does the cooking for breakfast. So next you’ll go to the inn so Mistress Violet can teach you a few recipes.”
Riana was all for this as she thought it only fair that Ash cook at least some of the time. So she grabbed him by the elbow and pulled him off the bench. “Come along, Ash.”
Pointing an accusing finger at her, he grumped, “You’re enjoying this.”
Aye, as a matter of fact, she was.
It didn’t end at making a crate and a learning how to fry flat bread. No, of course not. Although seeing Ash try and fail to make the simplest version of bread four times in a row was vastly entertaining, the people here had a full list of things for him to learn, and didn’t let him dwell on any one thing for more than an hour or so. Riana followed him from one thing to another, internally snickering although she didn’t dare let it slip out onto her face. Ash would have strangled her.
He went from cooking to sewing—nothing more than a simple seam and buttons—and from there to leatherworking. Leatherworking, at least, he seemed to know something about. Riana had a notion this was similar to apprentice work he had done long ago and so it was not so foreign to him.
After that he went to the fields and helped with planting some of the potatoes that were gathered. Riana’s group of child-helpers had not been idle in her absence and had been racking in money by finding potatoes on their own. They had almost a full field planted now. It warmed Riana’s heart to see it, as this could feed a lot of people through most of the winter months. The strain of the uncertain future eased.
It was there that Ashlynn and Broden found them, elbow deep in soil and potato sprouts, with children and adults swarming about them. Ashlynn put her hands on hips, arms akimbo, and surveyed the scene. “Ash, I know that I said you shouldn’t use magic at all for this whole week, but planting by hand?”
Ash straightened and gave his twin a sour look. “The people here have gotten it in their heads that I collapsed because I overused my magic—”
“You did,” she pointed out.
Glaring, he continued as if she hadn’t interrupted, “—and that I overused my magic because I don’t know how to do anything by hand. Hence, I have been run all over this place learning how to cook, sew, do leatherworking, carpentry, masonry, and now planting.”
Ashlynn’s eyes went wide, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. “Really. Have they really? Oh, that’s marvelous. And hilarious! You’ve become an apprentice settler.”
Helmi, nearby, overhead this. One eye squinted up in a judicious frown, she grabbed a sack of potatoes from nearby and thrust it at Ashlynn.
Blinking, Ashlynn looked down at her in confusion. “Yes?”
“You plant too,” Helmi ordered firmly.
Ash slapped a hand against his leg, roaring. “You just got apprenticed right alongside me, sister dear! Get planting.”
“No, sweets,” Ashlynn responded, trying to reason with the little girl, “I’m just here to check up on things, I don’t have time to plant anything—”
Helmi got a stubborn look on her face and pushed the sack right into Ashlynn’s stomach, forcing her to take them or have a bag dropped on her toes. The wizard grabbed them out of reflex more than anything else. Broden, chuckling, put a hand on her shoulder. “Lass, I think we can spare an hour or three. Planting will no’ kill ye.”
“But, Broden—”
“Green, leafy bit stays on top,” he instructed with a grin.
Chapter Fifteen
Finding each other through bond alone was not something that could be achieved in a day. In fact, even after three days of practice, Broden barely had the hang of it. Not that they could spend three full days on the exercise. The demand of their jobs was such they could spare a span of hours and no more. Broden was not sure if he was grateful for that or not. He wanted to catch on to this quickly, but he was not able to focus that intently for more than two hours at a time. A man’s mind could only stand so much before becoming a pile of goo.
Searching for Ashlynn through their link was akin to prodding at a sore tooth that was not actually in your own head. You knew it was there, could feel it, but did not have the ability to actually put a finger readily on it. No wonder it took three days before he could at least determine her general direction.
Ashlynn had an easier job of it simply because she was more in tune with magic than he. It took her two days to reliably find his location and three before she could walk directly to him every time. Broden’s competitive spirit was rankled by this. The next time they practiced, he would hide and
then see how easily she could find him.
The moment might be several weeks away. Unfortunately, their free time had come to an abrupt end this morning when Edvard summoned them. Ash and Riana were in the middle of preparations for the trip, but he and Ashlynn were able to respond promptly.
Broden sat at what had become the informal council table in Edvard’s study, a frown on his face and a throbbing in his temples. “What do ye mean, the old problems be coming back?”
“Old problems in a new way, I should say.” Edvard was rubbing at his eyes with the pads of his fingers, beyond tired. “We finally have an answer for why they haven’t made a move against us. Rather than sending another army, Zelman is using us to his advantage. The Iyshian king has finally found a way to pick a successor. We’re the proving ground. If a prince can solve the problem of Estole, then they get the crown.”
Broden did not like the sound of that at all.
Ashlynn let out a feral, disgusted sound. “Kind of us to provide him with a test.”
“Isn’t it though,” Edvard drawled sarcastically.
“The only thing that has given us a reprieve is that there’s been so much in-fighting they haven’t been able to focus on us.” Ashlynn thumped a fist against the table’s surface. “If that’s at an end, we’re in trouble.”
“I know it,” Edvard acknowledged grimly.
In a desire to know what to brace himself for, Broden asked, “There be three princes?”
“Yes,” Ashlynn confirmed. “The two oldest are twins, from the first wife. The third son is from the second marriage. The oldest, Maddox, is a brash, might-always-wins sort. He’s likely to gather up an army and march right over us.”
Edvard picked up the thread smoothly. “The second prince, Savir, is more thoughtful, more prone to other tactics. But he’s also used to following his older twin’s lead. I only met him a few times, but he struck me as the sort that doesn’t like to rock the boat. I’m not sure if he’s a very strong contender.”
“And then there’s the third prince, Hendrix.” Ashlyn pursed her lips, staring blankly up at the ceiling. “Not sure if he’s really a contender at all.”
“He’s from the second marriage and has never been a favorite of his father’s,” Edvard explained to Broden. “He doesn’t think like most of his family. His father more or less banished him from court by sending him on missions that take a full year or more to complete. I don’t think he’s been home longer than a month in six years. The court might not remember he exists.”
“So,” Broden summed up, “It truly be the first prince who be the only horse in the race.”
“More or less,” Ashlynn opined. “Edvard, I’ll start strengthening Ash’s wall around the city with more wards, shall I?”
“Please,” the Estolian king requested wearily. “And where I’m supposed to gather up an army is beyond me. Or how to equip one, for that matter.”
“I think we definitely need Ash to go recruit more wizards.” Ashlynn pushed the chair back and stood. “I’ll go talk to him about this directly. It won’t hurt him to spend two days in the saddle while his magic is recovering. I think he needs to leave tomorrow.”
Broden went hunting for Ash and Riana, knowing that the pair were in the castle somewhere, but not sure where. He had heard they had gone out shopping that morning to prepare for the trip. They were supposed to leave the day after tomorrow, after all. But now that the timeline had been moved up a day, Broden hoped that they had found all they wanted today, as they wouldn’t have time to really go back out in the city in the search for anything else.
He started with their rooms and knew he was right once he reached the hallway. He could hear a lot of laughter and yelling coming from Ash’s room. The two of them were in a fine humor, it sounded like. The door was wide open, so he just stepped inside, taking in the scene with a quick glance.
Riana stood behind one of the chairs, weight on her toes as if ready to take off in either direction. In her hands was a nicely crafted saddlebag made of dark leather and pretty stitch work. Ash was on the other side of the chair, also on the tip of his toes, ready to give chase. He was pointing an outraged finger at her although there was a grin on his face. “You give that back.”
“But Ash, it be the perfect size,” she responded in all innocence, eyes as wide as an unblushed maiden. “A lass always be needing more luggage space, ye know that.”
“You are a mountain girl who has packing the bare essentials down to an art form,” he shot back. “Don’t pull that innocent act with me, I know better. I am not used to traveling and I want my bag back.”
“Ye be a wizard, ye can make do with less,” she riposted still in that innocent, sweet tone. Broden knew that tone. She was teasing for the sake of it and couldn’t give two hoots about the bag.
“I am not allowed to use magic for another two days and that is so not the point. You can fit everything you want into just one side of that thing, there’s no way you need another bag.” Ash thrust out a demanding hand. “Give.”
Riana gave him a sunny, reassuring smile. “No mind that, Ash. I can find things to fill the other side.”
“That is so not the point.” When words had failed him, he darted sideways in a feint.
Not fooled, Riana stood right there, eyebrow arched in challenge.
Growling, he gave up and began the chase, which was what Riana had been waiting for this whole time. Giggling all the way, she skipped around the side of the chair, using the placement of the furniture to her advantage to block him from actually catching hold of her. The way she so deftly moved, without a second of hesitation, made a man wonder if she had been planning this.
Ash chased after her at first, but he soon caught on to the pattern of her movements. Broden often forgot that Ash had been a lead general in Edvard’s army, capable of strategizing and analyzing an enemy army’s movements. So often he was the builder, the creator, the voice of reason that it escaped Broden’s mind from time to time that he possessed a keen tactical mind. In a flash, he saw that mind at work as Ash abruptly reversed directions, spinning on his heel, and instead of giving chase to Riana, he put a hand on the back of the chair and flipped himself neatly over it, catching her around the shoulders.
Not in the least upset by this, Riana laughed out loud and tried to wiggle free. Well, she acted as if she were trying. Her father knew quite well that if she had really been trying, Ash would already be on the ground and nursing a broken bone or three. No, this was play-acting at its finest as Ash pretended he really wanted his saddlebag and Riana pretended she had no intention of giving it back. What had started the game was anyone’s guess, but Broden was of a mind that the two of them were in a mischievous mood and anything would do. The saddlebag had been handy as a prop and nothing more.
He did not think that either of them had really noticed him, wrapped up in each other as they were, but he was proven wrong. Ash, still holding firmly onto Riana, and Riana with her arms outstretched as much as possible to keep him from actually getting the saddlebag, both asked in unison, “Need something?”
“Entertaining as this be, and loathe I am to interrupt it, but there be a development.”
That finally caught their attention and they both dropped their hands, turning to him. Broden hated to see it, as the joy and teasing of the moment before fell away from their faces entirely and they became adults again, expressions filled with a mix of resignation and determination. But what he had said needed to be said, so he pushed his own feelings aside and continued, “Our favorite king of Iysh has declared that whichever prince can solve the riddle of Estole be the one that gets the crown.”
Ash gave a slow blink, and in those two seconds, understood the full repercussions. “The first prince, Maddox, is the strongest contender. He’s most likely to gather up an army and march straight for us. If he does, we’ll be slaughtered. It won’t be like the previous times where they sent a small force at us. This time, they’ll be prepared to face Ashlynn
and me.”
“We need to leave tomorrow morning,” Riana said the obvious aloud. “We have no more time.”
“We have some,” Ash corrected. “Just not much. Maddox can hardly put together an army and march them toward us right now. It takes time to make all the preparations, gather the supplies, set up the army’s command before he can march. We still have spies in Iysh that can tell us when they’re actually ready to leave. If he takes his time putting an army together, we might be able to avoid a conflict this year altogether. He must strike within the next three months otherwise he’ll be waging a battle in winter, and no fool does that by choice.”
Riana had a look of open worry on her face. “We have time to fetch help, then. Question stands, how much help?”
“Every single person we can find.” Ash took the saddlebag from her, this time without so much as an acknowledgement he had done so, and turned for Ashlynn’s room. “We need a brace of healing charms, I think. Riana, how close are you to being packed?”
“I have no notion how to pack for a trip like this,” she admitted. Nor would she, as she had never done it before. Even coming here, she had simply packed everything she had. “Ye best check me.”
It was obvious to Broden that the two of them knew what needed to be done. He called to them, “I will tell Edvard and Ashlynn ye be off in the morning.”
“Do that,” Ash called back from inside the room. “Oh, and Broden?”
“Aye?”
“Tell Ashlynn to write a letter to our master. I might need it.”
Chapter Sixteen
Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) Page 13