Eye Spy

by Mercedes Lackey

  With trembling hands, Sussena worked the top of the bag open, the leather cracking more than a little, until finally she could pour the hot contents onto the apron, where ten round, flat objects gleamed in the candlelight.

  Gold.

  * * *

  • • •

  The first strongbox held bags of ten gold pieces each, the second bags of ten silver each, and the third and heaviest, bags of fifty copper each. Sussena held the contents of that first bag in her lap, half laughing, half crying, while Tobin sent his boy over for Wrenmarsh, who was the nearest neighbor with a horse and spare sons. Wrenmarsh himself arrived with Rafi and a crossbow. Larral stationed himself at the kitchen door, while Rafi stood guard at the front door.

  “You’ll be makin’ a account with Goldsmith’s Guild,” Wrenmarsh said, sensibly, which was just as well, since all of them, including Abi, were just sitting there like a lot of dunces, wanting to play with the still warm coins. “Termorrer, you an’ me, m’lady, an’ Abi an’ Perry an’ two on my biggest boys are takin’ this t’Haven and settin’ up account wi’ Goldsmith’s Guild.”

  “Phaugh!” Tobin objected. “Wut’s use-a them, I ast ye? We got perfec’ly good place for ’un!” He waved at the open hiding place.

  “Shet yer face, old fool,” said Hansa. “See where trustin’ t’ hidey holes got m’lady an all ’er kin? And it ain’t no hidey hole no more, now that eight of us know ’un! Two c’n keep a sekrit, iffen one’s daid. Goldsmith’s Guild! Nothin’ could be safer!”

  And so that was what they did. Wrenmarsh went home, leaving Rafi to help guard the hoard all night, and in the morning he returned with two huge young men and a small wagon, just big enough to carry all the people and Abi and Perry’s packs. One of the young men lifted Sussena up onto the board beside Wrenmarsh, lifted her chair into the back of the wagon with the packs, and off they all went.

  “I thought abaht sendin’ a lad on ahead,” Wrenmarsh said, as they rolled out onto the road. “But then, I thought that’d be sendin’ a signal on ahead thet we ’ad somethin’ worth takin’.”

  “Good thinking,” Perry agreed. “But we’re not without our own bag of tricks, are we, Larral?”

  “Righ!” Larral agreed, sounding smug. And sure enough, they had just about made the halfway mark back to Haven when four Guardsmen cantered up, much to the relief of Wrenmarsh’s two sons, who stopped clutching their cudgels so hard that their knuckles were white.

  After that, the rest of the trip was anticlimactic.

  * * *

  • • •

  “So how much was in there, anyway?” asked Kat, after Abi had finished her story.

  The two of them were lounging on Abi’s bed, which she was very glad to see once again. The cots had been all right at first, but the longer you lay on them, the more hard spots you seemed to find.

  “More than enough to completely rebuild and refurnish the manor and the outbuildings, hire more people, plow up all the arable land, get all the herb seeds Sussena could possibly plant, and enough left over for any emergency.” Abi felt very smug now that it was all over. And . . . maybe a little stupid, too. “Wrenmarsh has three Master Thatchers and their helpers on the manor and it should be finished before the snow falls. Sussena is finally going to get to sleep in a real bed in her own bedroom for the first winter in her life. In fact, she’s getting one of the bedrooms that has the chimney coming up through it, and her own fireplace. I just can’t believe I didn’t even consider the chimney as a hiding place.”

  “But you did. Just not in the kitchen,” Kat pointed out. “And why would the lord of the manor ever be found in the kitchen anyway?”

  “That’s a good point. It just proves how clever he was, I suppose.” She considered that.

  “Well, that’s the problem with being clever,” Kat replied with a laugh, lying back on Abi’s bed. “Being clever gets you in trouble. Being smart gets you out of trouble. You do know what this means for you, though, don’t you?”

  “That my Gift works really well?” she hazarded.

  “That you’re going to be very much feared by anyone with a hidden chamber or secret passage, because you can reliably find it,” Kat corrected. “On the other hand, anyone that actually has such a thing is probably going to be on his best behavior from now on so you won’t go looking for it.” She sucked on her lower lip. “I wonder if you can find hidden compartments in ships and wagons?” But before Abi could answer that question, Kat suddenly sat straight up again. “Oh! I just had a tremendous idea for Sussena! She hasn’t committed to anything past mending the roof and refurbishing the manor yet has she?”

  “I don’t think so,” Abi replied. “It’s the wrong time of year to be doing any building, anyway. The only reason there are thatchers crawling all over the roof now is because Wrenmarsh is a very influential man among the farmers thereabouts.”

  “Excellent. Let me get a map from your father and then we’ll go see mine.” Before Abi could object to disturbing the King so close to dinner, Kat had already left her room and gone to Mags’ workshop room. By the time Abi was out of her room, Kat had a rolled-up map under her arm and was heading out the door. Abi could only follow.

  The guards at the Royal Suite seemed a bit nonplussed to see the Princess moving so quickly. So was Abi, for that matter. Kat generally presented herself as a little bit lazy and it wasn’t often she bestirred herself. Maybe being Chosen has had an enlivening effect on her . . .

  Abi had just reached the doors when Kat called out from inside. “Papa! Are you busy?”

  Abi heard the King answering, though too far away for her to make out what he had said. But she assumed the answer was in the negative because Kat was not in the public rooms of the suite. Logically, then she must be in the King’s private study.

  When she finally got to the (surprisingly small) room, Kat had spread out the map on her father’s desk, and they were both bending over it. “So you see!” Kat crowed. “It’s just a little off of center for the—oh, there’s Abi now.”

  “Kat seems to have worked out a plan that will save Lady Susenna a great deal of money, and be quite beneficial for the Crown as well,” the King said, looking at his daughter with a bemused expression, as if this was the last thing he would have expected of her.

  “Well, I just remembered something from the Logistics class I’m taking—that currently we—the Crown that is—are running a little short of both horse farms for the Guard and Guard training posts. And when I asked the teacher what the Guard looks for in a place, he said that right now they were looking for properties within a two candlemark cart distance of Haven. Lady Sussena’s manor farm is three candlemarks, which is not too far, and it’s got just enough land still attached to it to serve as either, at least according to this map.”

  “What—” Abi began, then “Oh!” she said. “So if she was willing to rent the place out to the Crown, the Crown would be putting in all the improvements on anything other than the manor itself, at no expense to her!”

  “And she’d be getting regular rent regardless of how harvests in that area are,” Kat replied, nodding vigorously. “So she gets the best of both situations, she can stay in her family home and get a regular income without actually having to do any additional labor.”

  “I am going to send a note to the Lord Marshal and the Seneschal right now and arrange for them to meet with you, Kat, before your first class tomorrow,” King Sedric replied, as seriously as he would have to an adult making the recommendations. “I’m pleased that you’re taking the welfare of our subjects so much to heart, and I’m equally pleased you’ve thought of something that benefits the Crown as well as milady.” Then he smiled broadly. “Well done, my love!”

  Kat made a little bow to her father. “Thank you!” she beamed.

  This was clearly a dismissal, and Kat took her map and left the King to whatever business she had in
terrupted. Abi went with her. Kat was back to her usual leisurely pace as they returned to Mags’ suite. Kat returned the map to its labeled cubby and curled up on a cushion on the floor of the central room, looking unspeakably pleased with herself.

  Well, she should be!

  “I think I just figured out what I want to do with myself,” Kat said as Abi joined her on the floor. “I want to go all over the Kingdom looking for problems like Lady Sussena’s and fixing them.”

  “Don’t Heralds do that anyway?” Abi asked.

  “Well, they do, but people have to wait for their Herald to get to them on his Circuit, and they don’t always want their problems made public,” Kat pointed out. “The only reason we knew about this one was because Wrenmarsh has a connection to your father and decided to say something. You know what I like best about this solution?”

  “That you came up with it?” Abi teased.

  “No, silly. Well . . . yes . . . but—this would have worked even if you hadn’t found the missing inheritance. We could have paid her the first year’s rent in advance and done the repairs with Crown money, and she’d have had enough money to furnish the private rooms and some left over for winter provisions.” Kat flopped over onto her stomach. “What do you think she’ll prefer, breeding horses or training Guardsmen?”

  “Breeding horses,” Abi replied promptly. “I don’t think she’d care for having hordes of strangers all over her property. And Tobin would be a nonstop grumble mill.”

  “He sounded like a grumpy old goat,” Kat agreed. Then she frowned. “I wonder if the only reason he stayed was because he hoped to find the inheritance himself?”

  That had occurred to Abi as well, although she hadn’t voiced her suspicions. “That’s not why his wife stayed,” she said, slowly. “But he did seem eager to persuade Lady Sussena to leave the treasure where we found it instead of making an account with the Goldsmith’s Guild. I don’t know if that just means he hates change—which he does—or because he wanted a chance to steal some of it.”

  “Well, if that was the main reason, we’ll soon be hearing from Wrenmarsh that the entire family abandoned milady,” Kat said, after a moment of thought. “And if he’s nothing but a cantankerous old goat, then he’ll certainly stick with her, expecting some reward out of all that service for next to nothing all these years.”

  “That’s a perfectly reasonable expectation,” Abi agreed. Secretly she hoped that Tobin was just a chronic complainer who had served because of loyalty and feeling sorry for Lady Sussena. Lady Sussena would probably be heartbroken if he and his family ran off on her.

  “Well, no point in trying to solve problems that haven’t even happened yet,” Kat said cheerfully. “Or that people really ought to be able to solve for themselves. I’ll make sure to suggest to the Seneschal if he likes my idea that the farm should be given over to breeding horses and mules for the Guard. It’s in the middle of a lot of other farms, after all, and I’m sure the other farmers would have some objections to a lot of people tramping around and fighting and making noise.”

  “Not to mention having fruit filched from their trees,” Abi pointed out. “Guard Trainees are at a prime fruit-snatching age and probably would look on it as a clever adventure to outwit the farmers.”

  “Havens, you’re right. Even the Trainees up here aren’t immune to that,” Kat groaned.

  “Says the Princess who found out that the ornamental apple trees in the garden produce fruit that tastes like sour wood,” Abi teased.

  “Don’t know why we can’t have trees that have nice fruit instead of ornamental ones. . . .” Kat grumbled. “And that makes me hungry.”

  You didn’t have to be a Mindspeaker to know what was going to come next. Abi jumped up and offered Kat a hand up, and they both went down to the Collegium dining hall, where it was pocket pie night.

  They collected their shares—helpfully marked on the crust so you could tell which kind was which—and went outside, where several Trainees had built a bonfire of windfall just inside Companion’s field. It was already quite dark, and there was just enough of a chill in the air that Abi was glad of the thicker wool of the tunic she’d put on this morning.

  It was not the first time that Abi had experienced a feeling of disconnection when sitting down among the Trainees. Here the topics of most passionate discussion were the Kirball teams, who was paired up with whom, and examination results. It all seemed a little unreal, compared to Lady Sussena’s very real troubles, and the excitement of hunting for actual treasure.

  Then again . . . who else here has the parents I do? Who else here trained to be Kat’s bodyguard from the time I was old enough to hold a knife?

  Kat seemed unusually contented tonight, as she bantered with the others and munched her pocket pies. Then again, as she’d said, she’d finally figured out what she wanted to do—aside from being a Herald, that is. Trey and Niko had always known what they wanted to do, although Abi suspected that either of them would have been just as happy had their roles been reversed. But Kat hadn’t really had a concrete goal in mind. “Problem solver” seemed to suit her.

  “So where have you been all this time, Abi?” someone asked from across the fire.

  “Oh,” she said, with a little smile. All righty; you aren’t Mags’ daughter without being able to come up with a plausible story that is also actually true in a matter of moments. “An emergency building inspection.”

  * * *

  • • •

  A very proud Kat rode out with two Guards and Abi three days later to present her solution to Lady Sussena Asterleigh. A sudden frost had turned all the leaves on the trees to brilliant colors overnight, and both of them wore thick wool cloaks against the chill morning air, although by the time they arrived at Asterleigh Manor, they’d been able to roll them up and tie them behind their saddles.

  The Manor looked very different this morning; there were men crawling all over the roof now; three Master Thatchers and their helpers made quite a crowd. The entire end had been rethatched, and there were three separate crews of men working—one stripping the old thatch, one replacing the lathes that underlay it, and one laying new thatch. They would certainly be done by the end of the month and long before the autumn rains. The new thatch, gleaming golden in the sun, made the old, gray, disintegrating thatch look even sadder than it had when she’d first seen it.

  Hob was out in the front of the building, helping the thatchers by tying a rope to each bundle of new thatch so they could haul it up, when he turned and spotted them. He ran into the house and came back out with Tobin in tow.

  So the whole family is still here, Abi thought with relief, he wasn’t just a treasure hunter.

  “’Ere naow—” Tobin began, but warned by Abi, Kat was prepared for him.

  “I am Princess Katiana,” she said, in a voice that reminded Abi strongly of her father’s Command Voice. “I am here to see Lady Asterleigh.”

  That literally staggered Tobin, who stepped back a couple of paces. Then he began bowing awkwardly—probably the presence of two Guards as well as Kat’s Companion was enough to keep him from questioning her identity, “Aye, ’Ighness,” he croaked. “Right this way, Majesty.”

  Abi tried not to giggle.

  At least Tobin led them in the front door into the dining hall, where Sussena was seated in her chair, working on what looked like a new gown of brand new fabric—a nice, thick brown wool. She smiled at Abi in recognition, but she looked bewildered at Kat, who was dressed in very fine Dress Grays. Now Abi stepped in.

  “Lady Sussena, this is Princess Katiana. She comes from the King with an offer for you.”

  Sussena dropped the gown and it slid to the floor, where Lori retrieved it and backed out of the way, clearly not sure of what else to do.

  Kat stepped forward, reaching into a belt pocket and removing a folded map that was an expanded view of all the farms a
round and including Asterleigh Manor, as up-to-date as she could manage on such short notice. Abi fetched a small table from beside the hearth and Kat spread the map out on it and detailed her proposition. At this point, she’d had a couple of days to elaborate on it with the help of the Guard Herdmaster, so she proceeded with confidence.

  “. . . we’d leave your kitchen garden, the chicken coop, and even expand the kitchen garden to allow for more produce for the new workers we’d bring on. Your old cow barn would become the broodmare barn, the dairy would become quarters for the Master of Horses, and your old stable quarters for his helpers. These fields, here, here, and here would all be allowed to go fallow, your existing meadows would remain meadows. We reckon to add about ten workers to the property: the Horse Master, the Farrier, and eight hands.”

  “You wouldn’t be putting anyone in the manor house?” Sussena asked.

  “Not unless you wanted them there. The Crown is prepared to start paying you rent and start work fixing and renovating the buildings immediately. We think we might have them done in time to bring the mares here in early summer, and the first crop of foals will be the spring after next,” Kat told her. “That is, if you are prepared to accept the Crown’s offer.”

  By this time Tobin had gotten over his awe and had crept into the room to listen. “Be a mort less work nor raisin’ her-ubs,” he pointed out. “An’ steady income. Nobbut so much’s hevin’ a damn good year, but a sight better’n hevin’ a wet one where ever’thin’ rots i’ field,” he finished, with a decisive nod.

  “Would we be expected to feed all these people?” she asked.

  Kat nodded. “The Crown would supply the provisions, plus produce from your kitchen garden, as the Crown would supply all provender for the horses other than grass, but your staff would be expected to cook and clean for the new workers.”