Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(28)

He shook his head. "No, she just said it very firmly. But she can touch me. I told her so."

"In front of everyone?" asked Rinnie, horrified.

Seraph was hard put not to laugh.

Lehr and Gura stepped up on the porch on the tail end of Jes's story.

"Hennea blushed and walked off," Lehr said. "Papa laughed and told Jes it wasn't polite to tell a woman she could touch him while other folk were listening in. Everyone congratulated Jes on finding such a pretty girl."

"Poor Hennea." Seraph tried to suppress her smile.

"Papa told us to tell you he was staying in town tonight to help Aunt Alinath and Uncle Bandor. He'll be back after baking tomorrow morning. The bakery was in pretty rough shape. It looks as though something besides the troll took a run through town."

"Is everything all right?"

Lehr nodded. "The bakery looked like a pair of kids went through and tried to make the worst mess they could. One of the pots of breadmother was tipped over, but Papa says he thinks they can save it. If not, it's a local one, and Alinath can bargain with the beermaster for more."

"What about Hennea?"

Lehr grinned again. "I expect she'll be along. I don't know where she went, but she'll be over her embarrassment by now."

"Where is she going to sleep?" asked Jes.

"You and I can go get a couple of poles from the barn," Lehr said after a moment. "We can frame off Rinnie's alcove and put up sheeting. Rinnie and Hennea can sleep behind it. Papa was talking about doing that this year for Rinnie anyway."

"That's a good idea," said Seraph. "There's an old mattress out in the barn, I think. All it needs is stuffing. You might as well put your boots back on, Jes."

Jes heaved a sigh and shoved his foot back in his boot. "Off shoes, Jes, you'll dirty the floors. Then on shoes, Jes, I've work for you."

"It's for Hennea," Lehr reminded him.

Jes sighed again and retied his boot.

Chapter 4

Hennea came back a while later, a slender book in her hand. Warned by Gura's happy barks, Seraph met her on the porch.

"We didn't do a very good job looking through the temple," Hennea said, staggering a little as the big, black dog welcomed her home. "Down boy, good boy. Yes, I'm here. Now go lie down."

"You went to the temple looking for some way to find the Shadowed." The disapproval Seraph felt spilled into her voice, though she had no real authority to disapprove. Hennea was an adult, and a Raven. There was no reason she should feel obligated to talk to Seraph before she explored the temple. It should have been safe enough.

She cleared her throat, and said, "I know we didn't find the rune that summoned the tainted creatures. Did we miss something else that was dangerous? There weren't any Order-bound gems left, nor any shadow-touched items."

"The rune was my fault," said Hennea. "I should have thought to check for it." She wiggled the book she held. "And I certainly should have thought of the library. It just didn't occur to me that the books were dangerous."

A wizard would never have left the temple without taking every book in sight. Hennea was no wizard; she was Raven. All the Shadowed were wizards, so she wasn't the Shadowed either. Not that Seraph really believed the Shadowed could live so near Lehr and Jes without alerting one or the other of them.

Seraph hadn't realized that she had still been worried by Tier's observations - but she wouldn't have felt such relief otherwise. If Hennea was old, as Tier felt, there would have to be another explanation for it.

"What did you find?"

Instead of answering, Hennea handed her the book.

Sitting on the porch bench, Seraph opened the slender volume at random. On the left page was a drawing of a meadowlark. On the right was a page of closely written script in a language that looked vaguely familiar. The solsenti of the Empire spoke a little over thirty dialects in four languages - though Common was spoken by most of them. She spoke a smattering of them, some better than others, and read more than she spoke.

"I don't know this language," she said.

Hennea took the book from her and began reading. "Unto the Lark it is given to Heal all things and to make right the heart and head. First are fourteen things that all Lark are blessed to bear. Sweet breath for he who has breathed in water. Blood sealing - "

"The Song of Orders?" Seraph interrupted. "But it's forbidden... sorry, I'm being stupid. Obviously someone did write it down. But if he had the Song of Orders, why didn't Volis understand what the Orders were?"

"Maybe he couldn't read it either?" suggested Hennea. "Or maybe he thought it was wrong - as he thought we were wrong. It is incomplete - only the Lark, Cormorant, and Raven are here, and only in partial form. The rest of it is a hodgepodge of Traveler legends."

"Do we destroy it?" Seraph found herself curiously reluctant to do so; it was a beautifully bound book.

"Not until I read the legends to the Bard," Hennea conceded. "Let him hold the stories and pass them on to the next generation. What we need to do - you, I, and your Ordered family - is go through that temple from top to bottom. We can look for the Shadowed and search for less obvious dangers than shadow taint."

They headed out early the next morning, leaving Gura to guard the farm. Jes didn't want to go back, and grumbled to himself all the way to Redern. He did not like cities. But when Seraph told him he could stay home, he'd liked that even less. She kept a close eye on him, but the Guardian stayed safely asleep. Rinnie skipped next to her glowering oldest brother and tried to tease him into a better mood.