Rhianna stood back up. “I don’t think she’s interested in going for a walk this evening. She’s too tired.” The twinkle in Rhianna’s eyes belied her words.
Nikki understood the word “walk”. She perked right up and ran over to the door with her tail wagging so hard it was shaking her whole body. Then she looked back at Kevin as if to say, “Hurry up! Let’s go!”
Kevin laughed. “I think Nikki disagrees. Coming Xantha?”
“No, you go ahead. I spotted some new grass out on the river bank earlier. I’m going out there to see if it’s as tasty as it looked.”
“All right. I’ll see you later,” Kevin said as he and Rhianna followed Nikki down the road.
~ ~ ~ ~
Later that evening, after Rhianna and Duane had gone up to their rooms, Kevin and Chris took Nikki upstairs. Once they were in Kevin’s room with the door shut, Kevin said, “I’m going to find Xantha. Can you keep an eye on Nikki?”
“Sure,” Chris said. “But don’t be surprised if we’re both asleep when you get back. I think she’s as tired as I am.”
Kevin stepped out on the balcony and floated straight up until he cleared the banister. Then he drifted across the yard towards the river bank. He wasn’t sure where Xantha was, but since the pegasus was always in his head, Xantha would know where to meet him.
Kevin lowered himself to the ground and started walking along the river. He hadn’t gone fifty feet when he heard the gentle flap of Xantha’s wings. A moment later, the pegasus landed beside him.
“Do you want to fly tonight?”
“Maybe later,” Kevin said mentally. “We need to talk first.”
“All right. What’s up?”
“That’s what I want to know. What’s with this plan of yours?”
Xantha snorted. “It’s a simple way to handle a messy problem.”
“Is that all it is?”
“What else would it be?”
“You meddling in my life?”
Xantha shook his head. “I didn’t tell you to bring the girls here and put them in an assassin’s sights. And I’m not the one who let Rolan think Landis is with the elves. You did that when you let them be seen together.”
“I’ll admit I messed up there, but are you going to tell me you didn’t have any ulterior motives for suggesting I pretend to be courting her?”
“Can I help it if you’re in love with the woman?”
“I’m not in love with Rhianna.”
“You are, too.”
“No, I’m not. But you think if you throw us together I’ll end up falling in love with her.”
“You don’t need to fall in love with her. You’re already there. You just need to admit it. And you need a wife.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “In your opinion. I think I’m doing fine without one, but if I ever do want to get married, it’ll be up to me to find the woman I want to marry, not you.”
“Fine, but it’ll be better if you marry someone you’re in love with, and keep in mind I know what you’re feeling. When I say you’re in love with someone, you are.”
Kevin shook his head. “Have you considered the danger you’re putting her in?”
“She’s a warrior elf. She can take care of herself, but I found Corin this afternoon and asked him to keep an eye on her while she’s here. Not many people can get past a war unicorn.”
Kevin nodded. “Thanks.”
“Between her skills, your magic, and Corin, she should be fine.”
“But she’ll still be a target. And not just because of Rolan. If we pull this off and manage to convince people there’s something going on between us, the other sorcerers on the council are going to get involved. They’re not going to be happy with the idea of the Master Sorcerer being involved with an elf, especially since the House of Nordin already has elven blood in it.”
“Then it’s up to you to convince them they have nothing to worry about.”
“So I should let them know this whole thing is a ploy?”
“Of course not. You need to make them realize elven blood is not a threat to them.”
“That will take some doing.”
“Then you need to figure out how to do it.”
Kevin grunted but didn’t say anything.
“I’m serious. If it doesn’t come up now, it’ll come up when you announce your wedding.”
“I give up,” Kevin said.
“Might as well. You know I’m right. I always am.” Xantha pawed the ground and snorted. “Now, would you like to go for a ride? You seem a bit tense. It might help you relax before you head back inside.”
“Oh, why not?” Kevin swung up on Xantha’s back, and a moment later, Xantha took off across the sky.
Chapter 11
Franco Steps Up
As soon as Alastar walked into his office Monday morning, Franco asked for the key to Terah.
“Why? Where are you going?” Alastar asked as he reached for the chain he wore around his neck that had the key on it.
“Here.” Franco pointed to a desolate area near the border with Glyndal.
“Why?”
“You need to get ready to defend yourself in a duel.”
Alastar frowned. “Do you know something I don’t?”
Franco shook his head. “But you never know when you’ll get challenged. You need to be ready.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“I thought we’d work on some drills.”
“What kind of drills?”
“Well, from what you’ve said, dueling is mainly energy bolts flying back and forth, and the one who loses is the one who drops his shield at the wrong time, right?” When Alastar nodded, Franco continued. “But you can’t stand there with your shields up all the time because you can’t throw bolts with your shields in place.”
Alastar nodded again.
“So I thought we’d practice putting the shield up, dropping it, tossing an energy bolt, and putting the shield back up.”
“Toss a bolt at what?”
“I don’t know yet. That’s why I need the key. I want to go look around and find a spot where you’ll have plenty of targets. We can’t hurt anything out there, it’s just a bunch of rocks. It’s been deserted since before the great magic war from what I’ve heard. ”
“All right.” Alastar handed Franco the key. “How long will you be gone?”
“As long as it takes to find what I’m looking for.”
Chapter 12
Plans Get Underway
Shortly after breakfast Monday morning, Kevin asked Rhianna to join him in his office. After he shut the door, he took out his key and they left for the island.
“So this is somewhere else, huh?” Rhianna asked when they emerged from the energy field on the ledge.
Kevin smiled. “Close. The other night Chris and I were trying to come up with a name for this island, one that wouldn’t give anything away, especially if Landis is going to live here. We’ve started calling it Elsewhere.”
“Not a bad name.” Rhianna nodded. “Elsewhere. I like it.”
“Then that settles it. Welcome to Elsewhere,” Kevin said with a nod. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Shall we go inside?”
They uncovered the glowstone lamps in the sitting area and sat down opposite each other. For a few moments neither of them spoke and the silence began to get uncomfortable. Finally Rhianna said, “I’m so sorry,” at the same time Kevin said, “I hate what this is doing to you.”
With a nervous laugh, Kevin asked, “Do you feel as awkward about this as I do?”
Rhianna nodded. “Asking you to do this is such an imposition.”
“What about you? Last week you were in Willow Canyon coaching Landis. Now you’re stuck in a castle in the middle of Camden. What did Landis say when you told her about this?”
Rhianna rolled her eyes. “Typical Landis. She made a big joke out of it, but she’s blaming herself for the mess in North Amden, and it’s not her fault.”
/> “No, and it’s not yours either. Or mine, for that matter. It’s Rolan’s. None of us have anything to feel guilty about.”
“But if I hadn’t suggested...”
Kevin shook his head. “Don’t do that. I could say if only I hadn’t agreed, or if only I hadn’t brought you with her, and so on. We can’t play the ‘if only’ game. It’ll drive us nuts. This is Rolan’s doing. Pure and simple.” Kevin paused, but Rhianna didn’t say anything. “But we do have to deal with it, so we need to talk about the details, and we need to get our back story straight.”
“Back story?” Rhianna asked.
“How we met, how long we’ve known each other, when you first met Landis, how well you know her, why you know her, and so on. People are going to ask questions and we better have answers, and they need to be the same answers.”
Rhianna nodded. “I guess we should stick as close to the truth as we can to make it easier to remember. For example, as to where we met? We met at my parents’ house. You came to dinner. But if anyone asks, you were there because of Duane.”
“Actually, I did go to see Duane. Chris is the one who insisted I hang around and meet Landis. I hadn’t planned to do that. That was last spring, wasn’t it?”
Rhianna nodded. “All right. We’ve got that one. What’s next? How I met Landis? I guess that would have been through you, but how? Why?”
Kevin thought for a minute. “I agreed to take her on as an apprentice before my first council meeting and Rolan knows that.”
Rhianna frowned. “How?”
“I told him.”
Her eyebrows raised in question.
Kevin shrugged. “After the meeting he and I got into it, and I told him I’d agreed to take her on as an apprentice when she was ready, and that she and Taelor were under my protection.”
“Not the smartest move,” Rhianna said slowly.
“So Laryn and Chris told me at the time, in no uncertain terms. But that might give us an answer for how you and she met. I told Rolan she was under my protection, and since she wasn’t in Milhaven with me, it stands to reason I would have provided protection for her wherever she was, and who better to protect her than a warrior elf? And since Landis is a woman, I would naturally want a female, and I’d feel better if it was someone I knew and trusted.”
“I can go along with that. But when did I meet her? I can’t say I’ve known her most of my life.”
“No, but I imagine you see your life as before you went to Willow Canyon and then after you got there, almost like your life’s divided into sections.”
“I can see that. All I need to do is think of her as Landis the Sorcerer. We met last fall, when she began to study magic, and there’s a lot of truth in that too, because the Landis I knew in Crinsor Run is nothing like the Landis I dealt with last fall. She was a different person.” Rhianna paused for a moment, gave a quick nod, and said, “That covers how and when I met Landis, but how do we explain why I’m not with her now?”
Kevin paused. “Since I can’t bring her to Milhaven, it makes sense I would find another sorcerer to undertake the day-to-day training.”
“True, but since no one knows she’s with Glendymere, wouldn’t they assume that’s been the case all along? Why is it all right for me to leave now?”
“Because I’ve moved her. We can say I asked you to stay with her until I could make other arrangements, but everything’s set up now and she’s been moved someplace where no one on Terah can find her.”
Rhianna nodded. “And if anyone asks me any questions, I can say since I’m no longer involved I have no idea where she is.”
“If anyone asks where she is now, be sure you get their name so we can check them out.”
Rhianna nodded. “Is there anything else we need to cover in this back story?”
“I can’t think of anything. You?”
Rhianna shook her head. After a moment, she asked, “Do you think this is going to work?”
“I don’t know. It might,” Kevin said slowly. “But I do know who’s going to get the blame if it doesn’t.”
Rhianna nodded. “Us.”
“And speaking of blame, how much trouble are those rumors about Saryn going to cause you?”
Rhianna shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m sure my father told Uncle Weldon what happened, but since he’s my uncle, he might insist on a full investigation into the charges.”
“So no one will think he’s covering for you.”
“I doubt they would, but if he thinks someone might, he won’t risk it.”
“If there is an investigation, what would they do? I mean how do they investigate?”
“I’m not sure. They may call me in to be questioned before the council, or they might ask you to check into it since Saryn was human. But if they hear the two of us are interested in each other, they’ll want to talk to someone else. Maybe Marcus since Saryn shot him. Or maybe Alek since he witnessed the whole thing.”
“I can get anyone they want. Theresa can describe his injuries if that’ll help. Would they accept the word of a Sister of Healing?”
“They’d probably prefer hers to Marcus’s. At least she could tell them the knife wound wasn’t life-threatening. That, combined with Marcus’s statement about having been shot, might take care of it.” Rhianna paused for a moment. “Provided they bother to check it out. I guess it depends on how widespread that particular rumor is.”
“And we have no way of knowing until they either send for you or they don’t.”
Rhianna nodded. “Are you concerned about the federation?”
Kevin shook his head. “They’ll expect me to do something about the humans in North Amden, but if it’s not taken care of by next fall, it might be a different story. I’m not sure what’ll happen then.”
“So Rolan needs to call them back by the end of summer.”
Kevin nodded. “But even if we convince everyone you were with her because of me, I doubt he’ll act that quickly unless he comes up with somewhere else to send them.”
“How long do you think this is going to take, realistically?”
“I have no idea.”
“I can’t stay at the castle until Rolan pulls his men out and then just leave. How are we going to do this?”
“I think you should stay at least until the federation meeting. Then, if you want to, leave for a week or so, come back for a week or two, leave again, come back, and so on. I think it would make sense for you to come and go. What do you think?”
“I like that better than hanging around doing nothing for weeks on end. And I do need to check in with Landis fairly often.”
“Getting away for a day will be easy. Chris or I can run you out there anytime you want to go. As long as one of us picks you up before dinner, everyone at the castle will assume you’ve been around all day.”
Neither of them said anything for several minutes. Then Kevin shrugged. “I guess the best we can do is play our roles and hope it works. Hope you’re up for meeting people, a lot of people.”
Rhianna nodded. “I figured we’d have to spend a bit of time in and around Milhaven. I hope I can keep everyone straight.”
Kevin chuckled. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’re going to have to meet my family, and that’s going to be interesting.”
“I already know Laryn.”
“By the way, Laryn and Steve know about the plan.” Kevin paused, but Rhianna didn’t say anything. “Laryn requested Shana as a housekeeper after we discovered she’s one of Rolan’s spies, so Laryn wants us to come to dinner. She’ll make sure Shana’s under the impression she thinks we’re getting serious. Hopefully Shana will pass it on to Rolan.”
“I still have trouble believing anyone would spy for him.”
“It may not be her choice, Rhianna. Until we find out why, hold off on judgment.”
Rhianna shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t lock them up. Spying is spying, and there’s no justification for it.”
“Th
ere may be, especially if someone you love is at risk, which may or may not be the case. And if I had locked them up, Rolan would have replaced them by now. This way at least we know who the spies are. Anyway, back to the family. Laryn’s the one who pointed out we’re going to have to go see all of them, but none of them will know what’s going on, so we’ll have to pretend we’re involved while we’re there.”
“Does anyone else know what we’re doing?”
“Chris, but that’s it for now. At some point I’ll have to explain it to Theresa. She knows you’re Landis’s assistant, and since she and Taelor are friends, I’d be willing to bet she knows you and Landis are more like sisters than anything else.”
Rhianna nodded. “But she’ll keep it to herself, right?”
“You have no idea how many secrets she’s keeping. We can trust her completely.”
“Anyone else?”
Kevin shook his head. “I have a question, but I’m hesitant to ask it.” A faint blush crept up Kevin’s cheeks.
Rhianna nearly laughed. “What?”
“I’m going to have to hold your hand, put my arm around you, maybe put my hand on your arm or your back, things like that. Is that going to bother you?”
Rhianna laughed and shook her head. “If you do anything I’m not comfortable with, I’ll let you know.”
Kevin nodded.
“By the way, you need to stop blushing every time you ask me a question. It’s cute, but it’ll give us away if you keep doing it.”
Kevin’s blush deepened. “And how am I supposed to stop it? Believe me, if I knew how, I would. It’s embarrassing.”
“It’ll get better as we spend more time together. I bet you don’t blush when you ask Laryn a question.”
Kevin laughed. “You’d lose that bet, or at least you would have in the past. I don’t as often now, but I’ve blushed plenty of times when I’ve asked her questions, and it’s as embarrassing with her as it is with you.”
“But you don’t do it as often now as you used to, which is my point. It’ll get better, but until it does, I’ll pretend to like it. People will notice that more than the blush.”
The Warrior Elf Page 14