Arrows of Promise (Kingmakers Book 2) (19 page)

Riana’s initial assumption about older students turned out
to be wrong. Some of the students, having not been in the right ‘station’ in
life, or lacking the backing that Ash and Ashlynn had, were not able to find
work. So they stayed on at the academy and acted as teachers. In the course of helping,
Riana came to know the two women very well—Maree and Loraine.

Maree was as dark as she was fair, black hair wiry and
constantly up in braids, and had a very taut build that spoke of many hours of
training with weapons. Riana knew that she fought with a staff and was itching
to spar with the woman, but they simply didn’t have the time at the moment.
Loraine had hair nearly as dark but with extremely fair skin and a short,
petite build. Strangely enough, for a woman of her size, she was also the one
with the best lungpower and could shout down a whole room full of rowdy
students. The two women were radically different from her but Riana still felt
that at their cores, they were the same, and it was because of that she liked
them instantly.

Because Gerrard had done so much preparation beforehand, it
was more a matter of loading everything into carts than actually packing.
Within a day they had the academy empty and loaded, including twenty students, two
teachers, and the master himself. Riana felt like crowing. They had been sent
out to find a few wizards and were coming back with twenty-three.

Edvard was right. Sending Ash out was a good choice. The man
always came back with more than he was sent to find.

Riana climbed on her horse and rode out that morning with a
sense of giddy anticipation for their reaction when they reached Estole.
Everyone there would be certainly surprised and ecstatic. She also had a prayer
in her heart that they wouldn’t run into trouble trying to get everyone there.
Wizarding students they might be, but they were still young and she didn’t want
them to have to fight just yet.

Maree, on top of one of the wagons, braced a foot against
the sideboard and leaned over to speak to her more easily. “Riana. Tell me more
about this king of yours. Ash mentioned him to us while we were still studying
together but I never got much in the way of details.”

Student days? Ah, right, Maree and Ash and Ashlynn had all
been students at the same time. “Edvard be a fine man. A just one. He be like
Ash and takes too much upon himself and does no’ ask for help as he should. We
want to strangle him sometimes because of it. But he be a fine leader and one I
be glad to help.”

“Is that so.” Maree had a contemplative look on her face.
“We heard wildly conflicting reports on why he rebelled against Iysh. Master
said it was likely not the reason we were told, as Iysh has a habit of altering
the truth to suit their purposes. Do you know?”

“Oh aye, I know.” Riana launched into the story of how
Estole came to be its own country. It didn’t escape her notice that during this
telling, everyone that was within earshot came in closer, trying to hear her
better.

When the story came to an end, Maree and Loraine exchanged
knowing glances. “To protect family. Now that figures,” Loraine stated,
satisfied to have her curiosity quelled. “Especially with Gwen between them, of
course Ash and Ashlynn would be so supportive of the venture.”

“They might have re-thought it, if they’d had a notion of
what they be getting themselves into,” Riana said cheerfully.

Loraine laughed. “Yes, I’m sure Ash has wondered many times
just how he got caught up in all of this. But I’m curious as well to how Ash
met you.”

“Ah, that. It be a simple story. He came up to Cloud’s Rest,
looking for the right timber to build a protective wall around Estole. Me da
and me contracted out to watch his back from bandits as he worked. As the day
went on, bandits attacked, we fought back, and Ash discovered that the two of
us could stand within his magic.”

Loraine and Maree shared twin looks of surprise. “Both of
you?” they said in near unison.

“Aye. Feels good to us.” Although Gerrard’s magic, which had
been responsible for the ward around the academy, had not felt comfortable at
all. She could probably put up with it if she had to but she wouldn’t by choice
enter into his shields. “Ash badgered us into coming back with him—” not that
it had taken much “—and so we did. Me da be Ashlynn’s partner.”

Maree got a contemplative look on her face, eyes darting
between Riana and Ash, who was riding ahead with Gerrard. “I would think the
two girls would pair up, as would the men?”

Riana knew very well what she was thinking. And the
possibility was certainly there. At least, Riana felt it was there on her side,
and was fervently hoping that Ash felt the same. But an open road was not a
place to share such tentative hopes and secrets so she responded instead, “Be a
matter more of convenience. At least to start. Ashlynn be Sheriff of Estole,
see, and me da’s the sort of man that can intimidate by standing there
breathing. He helps with her work in a way I can no’.”

“Ahhh,” Loraine said in a tone of understanding. “I hadn’t
considered that, but two women going around wouldn’t have quite the
intimidation factor that the job would need. It’s stupid, but people don’t look
at a pretty woman and think, ‘This person can probably cause me a world of hurt
if I step out of line’ even if they know that one of them is a fully trained wizard.
Or an archer, in your case.”

 Said archer shrugged because she couldn’t disagree.

“I heard this morning in passing Ash saying something to
Master about putting the academy across the channel?” Loraine trailed off in a
questioning tone.

“There be no room for it in Estole proper,” Riana explained.
“But we be expanding over the channel, making a settlement, so that people have
room to breathe. In time, I think it will be more an extension of the city.” It
already had the makings of that and the streets and buildings were barely in.

Maree looked worried by this, her teeth chewing uncertainly
on her bottom lip. “But isn’t The Land Northward Iyshian territory?”

“They had three hundred something years to do something with
it and did no’,” Riana said cheerfully. “It be ours now.”

There were several giggles behind her as some of the
students, listening in, found her rebellious attitude funny. She glanced back
and found five of them sitting on top of the boxes, their ears bent her
direction. Riana had not yet managed to put names to all the faces but she knew
two: Sarah and Violet.

Seeing they had caught her attention, Sarah was brave enough
to ask, “Will there be much fighting? Master said Iysh was probably going to
march an army against Estole.”

Riana looked at Sarah and saw a pretty little brunette that
couldn’t be more than fifteen. Those dark eyes, looking at her so innocently,
made her wonder what her life would have been like if she had grown up in some
other place but Cloud’s Rest. Riana didn’t remember a time when she could
indulge in the innocence of childhood. Yet there was a part of her that felt
she should preserve it. A bitter aftertaste filled her mouth as she said, “Aye,
lass. Odds are they will.”

It was Violet that shifted more upright, leaning against the
shoulder of her friend, brown eyes fierce with determination. “Then you’ll
teach us how to fight?”

This request took her by surprise and she looked to Maree and
Loraine for an explanation. In an undertone, Loraine explained, “They’re not
allowed to use magic in combat until their control is completely down. These
two came in later than usual so they’re not quite up to speed yet.”

Her imagination supplied what it would be like to put
half-trained wizards out in the field who only had semi-control of their
powers. Riana winced at the image. “Aye, I be teaching anyone that wishes to
know. Me da will do the same.”

The students gave little bounces and squeals of delight.
Riana watched the reaction with a half-smile on her face, remembering that same
sort of excitement when her da had finally deemed her old enough to be able to
use a bow. Come to think of it, her training them first might be for the better
benefit of all later. Most of fighting was about
timing
. Knowing when to
move, how to move, and keeping your enemy always within your reach but staying
out of his. If she could teach them that with archery then it would be so much
the better when they began to wield magic instead.

Maree caught her attention and mouthed, ‘Start now.’

Riana nodded to her, nothing more than a subtle dip of the
head to indicate she’d heard her, and pulled her horse in a little closer to
the back side of the wagon so she could talk with them directly instead of
having to twist. “Up for a first lesson?”

At least some of their words carried to the wagon ahead and
behind as students off-loaded from both with almost reckless speed before
coming directly to the wagon. None of the wagons moved very fast, a man at a
walk could keep up just fine, so it didn’t take much effort for them to catch
hold of a side and clamber up on top.

“Wait, wait,” Maree protested, “not all of you can ride!
Think of my poor mules. The older ones, get off and walk alongside.”

 There was some grumbling, but children shifted about and
six off-loaded so that only eight were riding along on top. Riana shifted as
well, putting a little more distance between her and the cart so that she only
had an audience in one direction and she wouldn’t have to look back and forth.
“Right, then. Here be the first rule of combat: if ye stand still, ye lose.
Move. Be always on the move. Unless ye be ambushing someone, ye have to move.
The tides of a fight change and shift and if ye stand still in one spot for
long, ye will get caught in a bad situation.”

A hand uncertainly went up.

“Aye, lad. What’s yer name?”

“Jayla.” His skin was very dark, like Maree’s, wiry hair cut
so short it was nearly bald. “Um, what do you mean when you say tides?”

Riana had to take a second to think. How to explain this?
“There be a cadence to everything in life. Like a dance or a song, it all have
a rhythm to it. Ye ken?” When she got a nod from everyone in the group, she
tried to use that as her example. “A fight be like that. People move in waves,
they come and go depending what be happening. There be lulls in a battle when a
man has to retreat, take a breath, grab more arrows. There be a time when he
has fought too long and has to go back afore he be caught out in the open with
no energy. It be hard to explain without actually being in a battle firsthand.”

From ahead, Gerrard turned to call over his shoulder, “We’ll
stage mock battles when we get to Estole to help train them!”

Riana’s eyebrows arched. How could he possibly have heard
her? He was a good twenty feet ahead. “Does the man having the hearing of a
bat?” When all of the children laughed, she flushed. Oops. Had she said that
out loud? Clearing her throat, Riana tried to recover and keep going. “As me da
explained it, a good fighter be fast and efficient. He will be vigilant to his
surroundings, be able to read the energy around him, know how to energize the
situation, and know the limits of things. If ye can get a grasp on that, then
ye have better odds of making it through without falling.”

They were attentive, strictly so, which didn’t surprise
Riana one bit. Their very lives depended on what she was teaching them. They
gave her good questions, proving they were thinking things through, and
although she gave them only the basics of strategy to ponder, they were quick
on the uptake.

It was perhaps inevitable that eventually the lesson would
come to a semi-close and then the topic would shift entirely to what it was
like being a partner with a wizard. Riana was first indulgent (it was only
natural they were curious) and then increasingly amused as they tried to get
her to explain exactly what it felt like to stand in a wizard’s magic.

Then, of course, they were curious as to how she would fare
with their magic. Riana tied her horse to the back of the cart and let them
cast shields up around her to see how she would react. Surprisingly, a third of
them were fine. She didn’t quite enjoy it like she did Ash or Ashlynn’s magic,
but it wasn’t intolerable in any way. The rest varied in degrees of unpleasant
to almost painful.

They made camp that evening well off the road with more
magical wards up than Riana could keep track of. The squiggles of the wards
overlapping each other were so thick that it looked like someone had painted a
canvas over the stars. As the children sorted out who would sleep where, and
the adults went about actually making camp, Riana went out a ways and hunted
down four rabbits. They’d brought food with them, of course, but it was
difficult to bring enough food to feed that many people and she wanted to
offset their supplies as much as she could.

Gerrard met her at the edge of the ward, standing in
silhouette with the fire at his back. “Riana. I was just about to try my hand
at hunting but it seems you beat me to it.”

“Ye can help me clean them, if ye like,” she suggested
hopefully. Cleaning game was not her favorite thing to do.

“Certainly, I’ll give you a hand.” Gerrard reached out and
took two from her before leading the way to a small brook that babbled nearby.
They stopped short of the brook, taking off the fur with small hunting knives
before Riana came in closer and washed the meat itself.

She was almost through with one rabbit when Gerrard spoke in
a low tone. “Thank you. For today. You’re teaching them something that I
can’t.”

Sinking back on her heels, she turned to really look at him.
His carefree attitude in coming to Estole…was it a mask? Or perhaps he truly
felt that way when he was only thinking of himself. It did not apply when he
thought of the innocents he was bringing along with him.

It was a sticky situation. Granted, Estole was a dangerous
place to be at the moment. But if he did not come, if he did not bring them,
then a good majority of his students would have no real future. He couldn’t
take care of them forever. As their master, he had to find a brighter place for
them to stand.