Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(82)

"Terrible," agreed Seraph. "When I think about that village where my brother was killed, I think of how helpless they would have been against my power. I think of the children who lived there, and the mothers and fathers. More death never solves a crime, no matter how regrettable." She tried to keep her tones conciliatory, but she could not agree with him.

Benroln met her gaze for a moment, then dropped his head in the respectful bow of a vanquished opponent. "And so I learn from your wisdom."

Lehr, who'd come upon them as Seraph had been giving her last speech, snorted and then grinned at Benroln. "She knows better than that. That's what she always said to Papa when she didn't want to agree with him but he was winning the argument."

Seraph smiled gently. "We can agree to disagree."

The Travelers were a highly organized people - just like a well-trained army, and for the same reasons. Every person had an assigned role.

Seraph hadn't realized, not really, how independent the life that they'd led in Redern had been. As long as the Sept's tithes made it to him, they were left largely alone to do as they wanted. If she'd been married to another Rederni man, that might have meant that she would have been at his mercy. But Tier was Tier. He'd sought her advice, and she'd worked shoulder to shoulder with him both in the fields and in the kitchen. She'd grown used to the freedom of making her own decisions.

When Isfain had pointed to a place and told her to make camp there, she'd nearly told him where to take his orders. If she hadn't caught Lehr watching her expectantly, Seraph would have done just that. Instead she'd just nodded and gotten to work.

At least they accorded Seraph some leeway for being Raven, and clan leader, if only just of her family plus Hennea. Lehr they treated like a green boy - Tier had never treated him so. She just hoped he was enough his father's son to hold his peace until she'd had time to learn more about this clan: they might be a great help in retrieving Tier.

Seraph pitched in to help prepare the evening meal. Some of the men tended horses and goats, some set out to fish, and a smaller group set out into the forest to see what game they could find. Jes and Lehr joined the latter group. She'd had time to talk with Lehr, and Seraph knew he wouldn't give himself away. He didn't care for Benroln much either.

"My Kors told me that you married a solsenti," said the woman on Seraph's left, while her clever fingers and sharp knife were making short work of deboning one of the rabbit carcasses that were the basis for tonight's meal.

There was such studied neutrality in the words that Seraph didn't reply, pretending that skinning her own rabbit took up all of her attention.

"What was it like?" said the woman on the other side of her with hushed interest. "I've heard that solsenti men - "

She was quickly hushed by several of the other women who were giggling as they chided her.

"Would you look at this!" exclaimed a woman in gravelly tones. Seraph turned and saw a tiny, ancient crone approaching the tables set up to prepare food. Her hair was pale yellow and thin; it hung in a braid from the crown of her head to her hips. Her shoulders were stooped and bent, and her hand as knobby as the staff she balanced herself with. "You'd think you'd never had a man before the way you act here! She is a guest. Ah, you embarrass the clan."

"Brewydd," said the woman who had begun the conversation. "What brings you here?"

"Brewydd?" said Seraph, setting down the naked rabbit carcass and wiping her hands on the apron someone had given her. "Are you the Healer?" Even twenty years ago, Brewydd the Healer had been ancient.

The old woman nodded. "That I be," she said. "I know you child - Isolda's Raven. The one who survived."

The woman on Seraph's right put aside the food she was working with and hurried over to tuck her hand under Brewydd's arm and lend support. "Come, grandmother. You need to get off your feet." Scolding gently and prodding, the woman took Brewydd away toward a wagon built up on all four sides and roofed like a small house on wheels - a karis it was called for the kari, the Elders, who were the only Travelers who rode in them.

"Raven," said the old woman, stopping for a moment to turn back and look at Seraph. "Not all shadows come from the evil one."

"People can be evil all on their own," agreed Seraph.

Satisfied with Seraph's reply, the old woman tottered back to her karis.

"She can still heal," said the woman on Seraph's left. "But she's a little touched. It's the years, you know. She won't tell anyone how old she is, but my Kors is her great-grandson."

Three days of travel with Rongier's clan taught Seraph a lot about them. Benroln and the old Healer were the only Ordered among them, though they had a few who could work magic in the solsenti fashion - with words and spell casting that hoped to gather enough stray magic to accomplish their task.

It was most remarkable, she thought, watching as a young man named Rilkin used a spell to light a damp log, that they got any results at all. Her father had been gifted that way, and they'd spent many a Traveling day exploring the differences between her magic and his. A solsenti spell cast out a blind net into the sea to haul in whatever stray magic might attach itself to the net; Ordered magic was more like putting a pail in a well.

She turned back to grooming Skew and to her current worries. Tier she could do nothing about until they reached Taela, so she tucked her fear for him away until it might be useful. Lehr and Jes were more immediate concerns. They were growing more and more unhappy with the continued association with the Traveling clan.