Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(64)

Seraph sat down next to him on the porch bench and rested her head against his arm. She sighed. "It has two eyes, but the right one is too big and a little lower than the other."

"That's the mouth," he said. He set the carving on his lap and ruffled her hair. "They should have been back by now - even if they were bringing the whole clan here."

"According to the map," she reminded him. "None of us have ever been that way. Maps are unreliable."

They'd had several variations of this conversation over the past week. This was the second one that morning, and it was her turn to point out the harmless things that might have delayed the boys - at least, she assumed Jes had gone off with Lehr.

At their feet, Gura lifted his head and turned his head to look at the trail that Lehr had taken away from the house. Seraph felt Tier's pulse speed up to match hers, but then Gura flopped over on his back to expose his belly to the late-morning sun.

Tier sighed. "At least Hennea took everyone else, so Phoran's not pacing the floor, too. For a man with a reputation as a lazy womanizer, he sure doesn't sit still for long. I thought the two of you were going to start colliding."

"When he's still, he manages to look as though he'll never move again," Seraph said.

Tier laughed. "I'll grant you - "

Gura rolled to his feet and gave a soft woof, staring at the trail. Seraph looked with him, but couldn't see very far down the trail because it curved back and forth up the forested hillside.

Tier set his carving aside and walked to the end of the porch. He put his hand up to shadow his eyes as if that would improve his chances of seeing around corners. Gura's tail began to wag.

"It's the boys," said Seraph.

"Or the others returning from fishing by a roundabout way." Despite the laconic words, Seraph heard the eagerness in her husband's voice.

Gura's tail wagging doubled in speed, and he let out a series of thunderous barks.

"Go get them," said Tier.

Gura didn't wait for a second invitation before he took off up the trail as fast as he could run. Tier gave Seraph a wide, relieved grin and waited for the boys to appear around the corner.

But they didn't.

"Too long," said Tier, echoing Seraph's thoughts.

"Go ahead," she said.

He leapt off the porch with much the same speed as Gura had exhibited, and ran up the trail with the wolfish gait that she'd seen him use to eat up miles in the woods. There was no sign of his limp, and she hoped he'd been truthful about how much better his knees were doing. Knees or no, he'd not stop running until he found them.

Seraph went into the house and got out the bread she'd baked last night and began to slice and butter it. The boys would be hungry; her boys were always hungry.

They would be fine. She repeated it to herself like a mantra.

The front door opened at last, and instead of the cool greeting she'd composed to cover her pleasure, Seraph said, "Lay him on the bed. Did you carry him all the way down the hill?"

She stripped Lehr's bedding down so her grim-faced, sweat-drenched husband could lay their son in his bed.

"No, the horse did that," Tier said as he helped her strip boots and dirty clothing off Lehr, who didn't even twitch. "Jes is out tending the mare."

When they were through, Tier helped Seraph tug the bedding around Lehr.

"I'll go out and finish taking care of the horse," Tier said. "Jes doesn't look much better than Lehr - though he's still on his feet - but he wouldn't leave that damned mare to wait on me."

"Someone taught him to be stubborn," Seraph said coolly.

Tier grinned at her tiredly and touched her cheek. "They're all right, Empress," he told her. "Worn-out, not hurt. Relax."

Seraph waited until Jes finished the stew and bread she'd warmed for him before she folded her arms, and said, "Tell me."

Jes smiled faintly in her direction, the expression making him look even more exhausted. It made her feel guilty for pushing him. Guilt always made her angry. Even when she had no cause. She raised her eyebrows.

"Don't know where to start," he said, the smile dying more quickly than it had come. "Rongier's clan is dead. So is the town of Colbern. Lehr sealed the walls so that no one will go in there until it's safe again."

Seraph sat down, careful to keep her back straight and her face controlled. Control was important.

"You found the entire city dead?" asked Tier. "Of plague? There aren't many diseases that will kill that many."

Lehr groaned from the bed, then sat up. "Gods take it," he swore - a common Rederni oath, though Seraph had never heard him use it. "If I let Jes tell it, you'll never figure out what happened - but when I'm finished I get to go back to sleep."

He sat up cross-legged, put his elbows on his knees, and rested his head on his hands as if it ached. "Jes showed up before I was a full day out. We followed the map, and it was a shortcut to Colbern."

In concise, tired sentences Lehr described what they had found. Seraph listened without interrupting as he told them about Brewydd and shadow plague.

"I think she thought she'd made us immune to it," Lehr mumbled. "But we caught it right enough, both Jes and I. I don't know why we didn't die like everyone else."