Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3)

by Honor Raconteur

  “I think you more or less guessed why I’ve been gone, and where I went,” he admitted easily with a nonchalant shrug. “Trouble is, when I got there, I found out that the guildmaster was this kid.”

  “KID!” Alexander exclaimed, turning red in the face.

  Rune ignored him and continued the explanation. “I couldn’t kill him. Didn’t seem right. But I didn’t want to leave him there either. So I thought, I would bring him to you, and let you decide what to do.”

  Siobhan was fairly sure that she only got half the explanation. That must be the case, because she had no idea what Rune expected her to do. “Rune, brother dearest, that doesn’t really tell me why you brought him here.”

  His head cocked in question, as if he expected his reasoning to be obvious. “Siobhan, he’s not evil. Kid his age can’t be evil. He doesn’t know right from wrong, and no one around him was telling him, so he couldn’t be punished for the things he did. Didn’t seem right. But you know how to teach people right from wrong. So I brought him to you.”

  Siobhan stared at his face and the full realization of what he meant dawned. Rune too had very little sense of right from wrong when she had first met him. He still believed that Siobhan knew the answer to everything, and that there was no problem that she could not fix. He was just like a little child that still believed that his mother could do everything.

  Helplessly, she looked at the both of them and honestly did not know where to even start to unravel this particular knot.

  “Excuse me,” the little guildmaster said in a particularly frosty tone, “I do not need any instruction from the likes of you. You will return me to my guild.”

  Cocking her head at him, she asked, “How old are you?”

  His glare at her could’ve bore a hole through solid steel. “I do not see how my age has any bearing on this.”

  Conli stepped in close to her and whispered next to Siobhan’s ear, “Judging from his size I would think he is about nine.”

  She leaned her head a little closer to his and responded in a low murmur, “He does not sound like a nine-year-old.”

  Alexander stamped his foot. “The nine-year-old can hear you. And you are wrong, I am ten.”

  Rune, without a flicker of change in his expression, grabbed the kid’s head in the crook of his elbow and rubbed a knuckle hard into the top of his head.

  More surprised than hurt, Alexander gave him the most incredulous look and said, “What was that!”

  “It’s called a noogie, kid. You say stupid things, you get punished. That’s how the world works.”

  Wolf and Tran seemed to find this funny as they both chuckled behind her. Siobhan gave them a Look over her shoulder. “You two taught him that, didn’t you?”

  They attempted to look innocent. They were very bad at it.

  All of this bantering aside, it did not solve the problem. Siobhan still had no idea what to do about the situation. While she was glad that Rune had not assassinated anyone, she half wished he had simply gathered intel and come back. Without a child guildmaster in tow. But the damage was done now, and Siobhan was not quite sure how they would return the boy home, or when, but the one thing she was sure about was that there would not be anything simple about it.

  With her thoughts now semi-organized, Siobhan went to damage control. “Tran, go to Darrens and report what has gone on. Ask Cha Ji An to come back with you if possible. I feel like we need her skills for this.” Turning, she instructed, “Grae, go find Markl and Sylvie. They are supposed to be preparing to leave for Coravine but I think that the trip will now have to be either canceled or postponed. The city is surely a madhouse right now.”

  Both men took off at her bidding. “As for you two, you need clean clothes and a bath, not in that order.”

  “And breakfast?” Rune asked hopefully.

  Siobhan gave him a scathing look. “Do you really think I’m in the mood to feed you right now?”

  “I take this as a no.”

  She didn’t deign to answer him. Taking the young guildmaster by the arm, she towed him outside. There was an inn nearby that would let her borrow their bathing room for the space of an hour. “Conli?”

  “Find them clothes?” he guessed.

  “You’re a genius. Go.” Siobhan silently blessed him for playing along. Guildmaster and ex-assassin were dirty, yes, but really, giving them a bath was only a delaying tactic on her part. It was to give Tran time to notify Darrens and for him to respond. Siobhan was not above passing responsibility onto someone else.

  ӜӜӜ

  Bathing a reluctant child was akin to bathing a cat. Or at least, Siobhan felt so by the end of the ordeal. She had somehow become soaking wet during the process, had scratches on her arms where her victim had fought back, and, even though the bath was complete, he was still snarling at her. Yes, just like a cat.

  Conli had found clothes from somewhere that would fit the boy. Rune, of course, had his own clothes to change into. Siobhan was relieved that offering dry clothes was an easier process than giving the boy a bath. However, her plan to get Darrens here before the bath ended failed. Tran had not even sent word back by the time that she got both of them into dry clothes again.

  Because she did not know what else to do while waiting, Siobhan fell back to Rune’s suggestion and ordered breakfast for them. Even the snobby little guildmaster’s eyes lit up when a plate of steaming food was set in front of him, and he dug in with gusto. The way that he and Rune consumed their late breakfast indicated that Rune had not stopped to eat at any point. When Siobhan thought about it, it made perfect sense for him not to. After all, he was traveling in between cities without an escort or any of his guildmates with him. Even with his pathmaking ability making the trip easier, it did not necessarily make the whole journey safer. Of course he would limit how much time he would spend in between paths.

  It was while they were eating that Wolf silently came in and joined them. Siobhan took him aside several feet away from the table so that she could speak with him without being overheard. Rune’s ears were sharp, so she kept her voice as low as possible. To Wolf only, she allowed her uncertainty to show.

  “Wolf, I understand why Rune brought this problem to me. But what I don’t understand is what he expects me to do with the boy.”

  Wolf cocked a brow at her, sardonic amusement on his face. “Siobhan, he expects you to fix it.”

  “Yes, I got that. But how?” She almost threw her hands up in the air in a gesture of frustration before she curbed the impulse. After all, Rune would be watching her and she did not want him to realize how lost she felt at the moment. “This is not like the situation with Rune. He wanted to learn, grow, and become a better man. But this child has no such inclinations. Aside from that, he is the guildmaster to a city. It’s not like we can just keep him without there being repercussions.”

  “No one knows where he went or who took him,” Wolf pointed out. “I say that buys us some breathing room.”

  “That’s only if Darrens is willing to leave him here. He might not want to.”

  “Well, what else is he going to do with him? Rune went about it all wrong, but the answer he reached was the right one. There is no sense in killing a child just because they were not taught correctly. The boy has no understanding of what he has done. We can’t kill him, we can’t send him back home. That won’t solve the problem either.”

  Siobhan nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, that is all obvious. So what do we do with him?”

  Wolf got a funny little quirk to his mouth as if she was missing the obvious and he was too kind to point it out. “I think Rune’s suggestion earlier was dead on.”

  For a moment, her mind went blank and she could not understand what he meant. Then, in a flash, she had it. “You mean that someone needs to teach him right from wrong?”

  “Exactly.”

  This time, she did throw up her hands. “Wolf, that only works if the other person is receptive to being taught! That has to be the most
unwilling student ever.”

  Wolf did not seem to think that this was a true problem. “We’ll need to tenderize him some.”

  Tenderize? He made the kid sound like a piece of steak. But she took his meaning. “And how in mercy’s name do you intend to do that?”

  “I think it will take everyone’s help to manage it. But the first step is to show him the consequences of his actions. If he doesn’t see the consequences of the choices he’s made, then no amount of words will get through to him.”

  Siobhan had to admit that he had a good point. “So, how should we go about doing that?”

  “I have a notion or two. But I think we should speak to Conli before we make any firm plans. After all, we don’t want to break him. Some of the wreckage is pretty rough to stomach. Even someone hardened to such scenes has been known to be queasy after walking through a street.”

  While this all sounded logical, it all hinged upon one assumption: that they would get permission to keep the guildmaster with them. “Aren’t you assuming too much? Perhaps Darrens will think of a different plan.”

  Wolf’s mouth kicked up to the side again as if she had said something amusing. “You are the only person in Goldschmidt who has tamed two dark guildsmen. Just who do you think can top your experience? No, I bet you that Darrens will task you with this and you’ll be stuck with reeducating the brat.”

  “Usual bet?”

  “Usual bet.”

  “You’re on.”

  “We’re not giving him back,” Darrens said as if that was perfectly obvious.

  Siobhan stared at her own guildmaster in open dismay. When he had come back with Tran, she had hopes that Darrens would take on the child guildmaster himself. But so far, even though he had been in the room for a good fifteen minutes, he had done nothing more than stare at Alexander for a long moment before promptly turning to Siobhan and focusing on her.

  “I understand that simply giving him back would cause more trouble for us.” Siobhan felt like her grasp on her patience was tenuous at best. “But we cannot keep him here indefinitely.”

  “No, that will cause trouble as well. What we need right now are solutions, not more complications. That said, I do not completely disapprove of what your young man did. Assassinating a child, aside from being morally wrong, would have opened up the situation to any power-hungry loon that thought he had a chance of becoming the next guildmaster. Political infighting is the last thing we need from Coravine.”

  Just the idea made her wince.

  “What we need to do is reeducate the boy, and then somehow appoint a guardian over him until he is of the age where he can take on the guildmaster’s responsibilities. I bet if we speak with Cha Ji An she will have an idea of someone who can help us in that regard. But our first priority is straightening out that boy’s moral code. Right now I’m not sure if he has one.” Darrens gave her a particularly blinding smile while putting a hand on her shoulder.

  Siobhan eyed the hand and then gave him a dismayed, “Uhhhh?”

  He did not seem to need a translator for that wordless protest. “You are the only person I know that has taken not one, but two dark guildsmen and made them into good men. I think this task is right up your alley.”

  Wolf, standing at her elbow, tried to disguise a laugh behind his hand. Siobhan, without looking, threw an elbow into his ribs.

  Darrens caught the exchange and asked Wolf, “I take it you said something similar?”

  “Almost those exact words.”

  “Ah, I see.” Not having any mercy, he patted Siobhan’s shoulder twice before he let his hand drop. “I trust your judgment on this. I leave it to you to fix the boy.”

  Siobhan started muttering under her breath about how a child was not a machine, and there was no fixing people, and neither of them had any idea of what changing a person’s mind entailed. Both men stoutly ignored her.

  Darrens seemed to think that this vague instruction was enough on his part, because he half turned toward the door to go. “When your man took him out of the city, I assume that Rune was as careful as always? No one has any idea of where their guildmaster has disappeared to?”

  “None,” Wolf confirmed.

  “Good.” Satisfied, Darrens headed for the door, saying as he went, “Good luck. For the time being, this will be your only task.”

  If Siobhan had had something handy, she would have thrown it at the back of his head.

  Pouting about this, or being angry, or protesting, obviously would not help her. Siobhan had tried all of that in the past two hours but everyone seemed to think that she had the right skills to fix this problem. (More likely, they didn’t want the responsibility of it.) It took a moment of internally wrestling with the situation, but eventually she resigned herself to it. Whether she liked it or not, Alexander was her responsibility now.

  She would leave Rune to Denney.

  “Wolf, keep an eye on the kid. I need to go talk to Conli.”

  “What about Rune? Shouldn’t we do something about him?”

  Siobhan gave him a saccharine smile. “Denney.”

  Wolf asked no other questions. “Understood. I’ll keep an eye on things here, then.”

  Satisfied, Siobhan left the inn and returned to the new guildhall. First, she found Denney. The girl was fetching tools and supplies for the men up on the scaffolding, but at Siobhan’s hail, she stopped and responded by meeting Siobhan halfway.

  “How is Rune?”

  Knowing full well that she was adding fuel to the fire, Siobhan answered bluntly, “Unapologetic.”

  Denney’s mouth went flat. “I need to talk to him.”

  “Please do.” It was not nice of Siobhan at all, to send an angry and hurt woman to Rune, but he really had brought this upon himself. She regretted nothing.

  “Where is he?”

  “The Rose’s taproom.”

  In a clipped tone, Denney responded, “Thank you,” as she made a beeline for The Rose and Crown.

  Chortling evilly under her breath, Siobhan called up to the second story, “Conli! Come down here, please.”

  It took a minute, as he was somewhat involved in what he was doing, but she waited patiently for him to reach the ground floor. Wiping his hands with a dust cloth, Conli asked her, “What is it? Has something been decided?”

  “If by decided you mean that Darrens shoved all responsibility for the kid into my lap, then yes, something has been decided.”

  “I detect a note of irritation and sarcasm in your tone, Siobhan.”

  “That’s because you’re an observant man, Conli.”

  Being wise, Conli did not delve into that any further. “You say that all responsibility has been shoved onto you, but what exactly did Darrens decide to do?”

  “In essence, he will pretend that he has no knowledge of our guest’s whereabouts nor have any idea of who took him. While he is playing innocent, it is our job to reeducate the child, and find someone that can act as a guardian and advisor to him when he returns home. The last part I think Darrens is more involved in. He said he would speak with Cha Ji An and get her advice. Our main task is the reeducation.”

  Conli folded his arms across his chest and just studied her for a moment. When he spoke again, it was not a question, but more a statement. “You want me to help you.”

  “Despite what everyone believes, I am not an expert on the human heart. Wolf and Rune accepted my help because they wanted to change and I was willing to help them. That is not the same as trying to change someone who does not want to change in the first place.”

  “I agree.” Conli lifted one hand up enough to where he could rub the point of his chin thoughtfully. “Before I sit down with you and organize a strategy, I would like to sit and talk with the boy for at least an hour. If I know what his personality is like and I have a better understanding of his background, it will make it easier to form plans.”

  Siobhan thought that a splendid notion. And not just because it halved her responsibility with som
eone else. “You might want to speak with Wolf as well. He seems to have a notion or three about how to approach this. He said something about tenderizing the kid first.”

  Conli’s brows shot to his hairline. “The idea of Wolf tenderizing anyone terrifies me.”

  “Me too. Which is why you really need to have a word with him.”

  “I will do that first, I think.” The firm way that he said the words gave her the reassurance she needed. “And what will you do about Rune?”

  “I’ve already dealt with Rune. I sicced Denney on him.” Siobhan held her breath to see how well this was taken.

  The expression on his face made her think that Conli was well aware of how those two felt for each other but was quite happy to live in the land of denial. “I’ll pretend I did not hear that.”

  Biting back a smile, she did not try to press the point. “That’s fine. Although you might want to try adjusting to the idea soon. I’m frankly surprised that nothing has developed already.”

  “I will pretend that I did not hear that either.”

  “Yes, yes.” Siobhan well understood his insecurities and fears. But that did not mean that ignoring things would make it go away. “Well, for now, let’s go speak to a certain young guildmaster. The sooner he is dealt with, the sooner that we can return to normal life.”

  ӜӜӜ

  Rune realized while he was taking a much-needed bath that he had probably handed Siobhan more of a challenge than she was immediately ready to handle. He didn’t doubt that she could handle it. But it would likely take her some time to figure out how to. That was fine by him, because he never expected her to have immediate answers, just that she would know what the right thing to do would be.

  So it didn’t worry him that she did not immediately tackle the problem. He kept herd on the boy while they got dressed and ate a wonderful breakfast. He also kept his ears open as Siobhan talked to first Wolf, and then Darrens, before she left the inn altogether.

  During this whole time, the bratty guildmaster made demands on an almost constant basis. The only time they got relief from his mouth was when it was full of food. The adults basically tuned him out, which seemed to infuriate him all the more. When Siobhan and Darrens left, leaving only Wolf behind, the boy’s patience seemed to evaporate.