Her uncle’s hand. Reva grunted in grim amusement. They thought Uncle Sentes would kill me. Vaelin’s arrival made the Ally’s creature change his plans. How much do they fear him?
“Thank you.” She took the sketch from the girl’s hand and returned it to its case then rose, gathering up her things and strapping on her sword. “If there’s anything you want to take, fetch it now.”
The girl’s head came up, eyes wide and fearful once more. “Where are you taking me?”
“To Alltor. Unless you’d rather stay here.”
? ? ?
“What happened to the walls?” Ellese asked three days later as they crested the hill east of Alltor. She sat atop the mare’s back, Reva leading her by the reins. The girl’s legs were too weak to allow her to walk any distance and the mare not strong enough to bear the weight of two. However, regular meals had done much to brighten her spirits, and provoke an unending torrent of questions.
“They were broken,” Reva told her.
“By what?”
“Big stones launched by great engines.”
“Where are they now?”
“They were burned.”
“By who?”
“One by me, the other two by a load of pirates.”
“Why?”
“They were very angry.” Reva’s eyes went to the river, swelled by winter rains, the dark waters concealing the boats that bore the dread engines along with the Father knew how many corpses. “And the queen asked them to.”
“Is she very beautiful? Mother went to Varinshold once. She said Princess Lyrna was the most beautiful woman she ever saw.”
At Warnsclave she had seen the queen with the orphans, the smile she showed them so different to the one she showed all others, a smile of real warmth and depthless compassion. Later the same day she received word of a band of outlaws preying on refugees to the west and ordered Lord Adal to hunt them down, sparing one in every three captured and these were to be flogged before being pressed into service as porters. She sent the North Guard commander off with a smile that day too.
“Yes,” she told Ellese. “She is very beautiful.”
She saw scaffolding on the walls as they progressed along the causeway to the main gate, clustered around the breaches where men could be seen at work hauling stone.
“Blessed Lady Reva!” the House Guard sergeant on the gate fell to one knee before her, his men following suit. “Thank the Father for your safe return.”
“Just Lady will do,” Reva told him, her eyes taking in the sight of the city. Rubble all gone but still so many ruined houses. “Or just Reva if it suits you.”
The sergeant gave an appalled laugh as he backed away, head still lowered.
Ellese leaned forward in the saddle, speaking in a covert whisper, “Who are you?”
“I told you who I am.” Reva’s eyes lit on a burgeoning cluster of people in the streets beyond the gate, downing tools and starting in her direction, voices already raised in joyous welcome. “Sergeant, I believe I will require escort to the mansion.”
? ? ?
Veliss greeted her with a formal bow and a chaste embrace. “I’ve been away too long,” Reva murmured, feeling the flush build on her cheeks.
“I heartily agree, my lady.” Veliss turned to Ellese standing nearby and squirming a little under the scrutiny. The crowd beyond the mansion gate was large and loud with acclaim. News of Varinshold’s liberation and the extinction of the Volarian army had spread swiftly to all corners of the Realm and Reva’s arrival seemed to serve as a spark for a general victory celebration.
“This is Lady Ellese,” Reva said, beckoning the girl forward. “Heir to Lord Brahdor’s estate and now Ward of the Lady Governess. Find suitable rooms for her, if you would.”
“Of course.” Veliss extended a hand to Ellese, who came forward to take it after a moment’s hesitation.
“I thought Lord Sentes ruled here,” the girl said.
“He died.” Reva glanced back at the still-cheering crowd. “Declare a holiday,” she told Veliss. “Forever more this will be the Day of Victory. And hand out that hidden stock of wine you think I didn’t know about.”
? ? ?
“The walls,” she said later when they were alone in the library and Ellese tucked into a voluminous bed upstairs.
“To be repaired first by virtue of popular demand,” Veliss explained. “The people don’t feel safe without them. I’ve seen to the reconstruction of the larger dwellings when I can, but they wanted the walls repaired and who am I to deny them?”
“The treasury?”
“Surprisingly healthy. Volarian soldiers were rich in loot and I had Arentes set his men to gather up as much as they could before the Nilsaelins or sundry outlaws got to it. Even so, rebuilding a city is a costly business, and when that’s done we have a half-ravaged fief to see to.”