Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(138)

She had given up her people's ways for twenty years, and he supposed that he could give up his farm for the next twenty or thirty.

"You have to come visit me," said Phoran, eating as though the rough stew was a gourmet dish from the palace's kitchen. "Give me five or six years to tame the Septs a little, then I want Lehr to map the palace for me. I don't want any more secret societies lurking in passages that no one remembers."

"We'll do that," said Seraph. "But you come to us, too." She nodded at Toarsen. "That one has ties in Redern. When Avar comes to visit his lands, come with him." It wasn't a suggestion, Tier noticed, watching Phoran's lips curl up. Rinnie wasn't the only one who'd grown comfortable commanding the Emperor.

"I'll have you help me weed," said Rinnie.

Phoran laughed. "I'll do that. Toarsen, Kissel, and I will ride back to Redern with you and see you safely home. Then I think we'll ride to Gerant and return to the palace with the Emperor's Own at my back."

"There will be more Ielians," Tier warned him.

"I know." Phoran's smile dimmed. "But as long as there are more like Kissel, Toarsen, and Rufort, who have been a priceless aid to me, I can take the bad with the good." He nodded at Tier. "You could come help me sift them out," he said. "I'd see to it that you would be well paid."

"No," Tier said. "I'm not a soldier anymore, I'm a farmer." He hesitated and glanced at Seraph. "Or I'll be out on the roads with my Traveler wife." He meant to sound casual, but his wife knew him too well.

She stiffened and put down her stew. "Is that what has been bothering you?" she said hotly. "You'll do no such thing. I tell you, I'm through paying for the sins of people long dead" - she glanced at Hennea - "or mostly long dead. I have no intention of being homeless ever again. If you want to wander around, you go right ahead. I'll keep a candle in the window so you can find your way back when you've had enough of nonsense."

Tier heard the truth in her words, lifting the weight of the world off his shoulders and smiled. "I guess, Phoran," he said, "we'll see you in Redern."

That night, in Hennea's temple, a Bard sang of heroic deeds, of lost loves, and mourning for the dead. Sometimes he sang alone, sometimes with his children, who were not Bards, but were children of Redern with voices that were true and pure. When the sun rose the dead departed.

They lingered a while, exploring the city, but before the first hint of autumn was in the air, they left the old city and closed its gates, trusting that it would guard its secrets for another age or so.

Tieragan of Redern took his family home.