The Silver Siren (Iron Butterfly, #3)(45)

My ears perked up and I gave Odin a questioning look. He waved at me, signaling that we would talk later. After a moment of consideration, Bearen stepped forth and began directing families to volunteer and house the Denai students. Hemi and I had expected a fuss among the clan members about the taint of the heathen Denai. We thought we would have to force them to shelter them. But without my Uncle Rayneld there, no one started trouble. Apparently his hatred had died with him.

“Where’s Siobhan?” I asked, craning my head to see her among the crowd. I was hoping to check in on her, to see how she was holding up.

“She’s gone,” Odin answered without any emotion. “She couldn’t handle the accusations that kept floating around about her involvement in the fire. She went to live with her aunt in the mountains. I don’t blame her. No one trusted her anymore.”

We continued to oversee the delegating of children to host families. My clan members surprised me when quite a few stepped forward and gladly offered up their homes, food, and shelter in the main barns for even the soldiers that were left. The few remaining servants immediately went to work at the cookhouse, helping with the main meal for the village.

Bearen stood looking around, his eyes furrowed over his hawk-like nose in apparent disappointment. “I really thought it would be more of an issue.”

I watched as young Karni attached herself to Eviir and grasped his hand, refusing to let him go. Eviir’s wife was laughing and talking animatedly to the younger girl. I had forgotten that Eviir and Lina couldn’t have children.

Hosting a young Denai child might lead them into a few surprises, Faraway chimed in, chuckling.

“I’m surprised there wasn’t more of a discussion either,” I agreed. But I remained hopeful.

“Maybe it was I who had problems accepting change. The clan is much more willing,” Bearen remarked.

“But these are children,” Odin spoke up. “The older one, that girl. I noticed that no one has come forward to offer her a place to stay.” He gestured toward Syrani.

Syrani stood off to the side, for once looking completely out of her element. Maybe it was because the men in my clan were giants. Or it could have been because Fenri was close by. She probably recognized him by the fox fur he wore, and realized he was the one who knocked her in the mud that fateful day at the Citadel when my father had come to retrieve me.

Maybe you should offer your home, before Fenri sees her and knocks her in the mud again, Faraway said.

I guess you’re right.

Course I’m right. I’m always right, he said.

And you’re always hungry. So it usually comes down to whether you’re thinking with your head or your stomach. You’re just not saying we should shelter Syrani, so I can get you back to the barn for feed are you?

No…Maybe...Now I’m hungry.

Figures.

I was about to approach Syrani, but Fenri saw her first.

Syrani’s eyes went wide and her face paled when Fenri came forth out of the crowd to stand in front of her. She took two steps back in fright, and her hand flew up in an attempt to keep him at a distance. He spoke softly, and I watched as her hand dropped, her face flushing pink. She looked around desperately, as if waiting for another offer from someone else—anyone else. When none came forward, I expected her to balk and lash out at Fenri with her viperous tongue. Instead, her shoulders slumped and she nodded her head, following him with her small bag of belongings.

She would be in for a bit of surprise when she met Fenri’s mother, Gentri, who was just as demanding as Syrani was. Gentri would keep her in line and may even teach her a thing or two about homemaking. Of course, I was also aware that if she couldn’t curb her spoiled ways, Syrani could very well be running for the hills by the end of the night.

When everyone was taken care of, my father sent off two messengers to Haven to tell them of the attack on the caravan and ask how they would like them to proceed. But now that our first duty was taken care of, all I could think about was Kael. What would happen if I went after him?

He said he would come back. But the waiting was torture.

It was strange, this new feeling of responsibility for someone else’s life. It also made my emotions swing like a pendulum from melancholy to anger. After a week among my clansmen, Kael still hadn’t returned. My mood became perpetually dark. I sat at the large table in my house poring over a map and guessing possible locations the Septori might have headed. Though I’d asked, Bearen had refused to let me leave to go looking for Kael. I was tempted to sneak off and go after him anyway, but I couldn’t leave the students. I was responsible for all of them, and I couldn’t leave until we had heard back from the Adept Council or the queen. All I could do was for answers.

I found Skyfell on the map, placing a coin over the city from which Tenya had been taken and where we had first encountered Talbot, Xiven, and Mona. I put another coin down to mark the spot our caravan of wagons had been attacked. I put a handful of coins on the city of Haven to represent all of the students disappearing. Last, I put a coin on the riverbed where Joss said he’d found me, downstream from where Kael and I had escaped. Queen Lilyana had said that the underground hideout was on the river that bordered Sinnendor and Calandry. She suspected Sinnendor.

Everything about this seemed to point to Sinnendor and King Tieren, but something just wasn’t feeling right.

Something nagged at me.