Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(69)

He shook his head firmly.

She leaned over him and put her arms around him as best she could, given the awkwardness of moving while he was still wrapped around her middle.

"Shh," she said. "It's all right."

"He remembers," said Jes hesitantly after a while. He'd relaxed somewhat, and she'd thought he was sleeping again.

"What does he remember?" she whispered.

Jes shook his head. "I don't know, but it frightens him."

Phoran watched Jes and Hennea leave the house. He knew that something had happened, but, not speaking the Traveler tongue himself, he wasn't certain what. Later he could ask Toarsen, who like quite a few of the former Passerines could speak a little Traveler.

For some reason, he thought, as he turned back to the map in front of him, he'd expected Tier to solve his problem overnight. Instead, he'd spent the better part of a week working on the farm. He suspected many of the tasks Tier had given him were merely to keep him busy - but not all of them. Survival, he'd discovered this week, took time and effort even when you weren't the Emperor. A farmer didn't have to worry about assassinations and political maneuvers, but Phoran found cutting wood, gardening, and washing required as much time and effort.

Toarsen hadn't been best pleased when Seraph sent them all to weed the kitchen garden - Phoran savored the memory of the expression on his captain's face - but since Phoran had gone out without a murmur, Toarsen had to do the same.

Now, he thought wryly, when Rinnie had had to show them all what to do - her eyes wide at the thought of someone who couldn't tell the difference between dill and reaverslace - that had stung Phoran's pride. But she hadn't laughed at them - at least not openly - and the memory of Toarsen's face had kept Phoran's sense of humor stronger than his sense of pride. Kissel hadn't needed supervision: he said his family's cook had taught him how to garden when he was a boy.

He'd learned a lot; but when Lehr and Jes returned, somewhere in his heart of hearts, Phoran had expected his trials to be over.

Lehr should have come back with the old healer in tow. She'd take one look at Phoran and give him a mysterious potion or tell him to turn around three times while wailing some unpronounceable word - like half the doctors in Taela. The Memory would leave him, and he could race home to rule in peace. He smiled to himself. At least until someone decided on a more effective method of assassination sometime when he wasn't guarded by his men. His men.

He cast a quick glance at Ielian. The man had surprised him with his passionate attack on Seraph as Phoran's advocate.

It seemed that the Emperor's total number of loyal followers was growing. At this rate, in ten years they might number over - say - twenty. Phoran was amused at himself for the pleasure he found in knowing that Ielian, at least, served him out of something more than desire for gainful employment.

He turned his attention back to the map, but it looked the same as it had earlier. Sighing, he gave up. "If you have a sheet of paper, I'll start making lists of places this might be. There's nothing unusual about the placement of the roads. Maybe Master Willon will have more maps we can use for comparison."

"I'll do it, Mother," said Rinnie as she wiped her hands clean on a rough cloth.

She rummaged around, then set a sheet of paper, an ink pot and a well-trimmed pen beside him with a smile - she'd been shy of him at first. That day in the garden, though, had robbed her of any awe she might once have felt.

"Good idea," agreed Tier. "We might see if Willon will take a look at these maps, himself, if we don't come up with anything. He's had more than half a century running all over the Empire. Maybe he'll see something that we've missed."

"Dinner will be done soon," Rinnie announced.

"As long as you used dill instead of reaverslace, we'll not flog the cook." Phoran started scratching out place names. He wished that at least one of the maps had some kind of scale so he knew whether he was looking at ten-leagues mapped in great detail or a hundred leagues.

"If it's reaverslace, it's because someone weeded out the dill," returned Rinnie complacently. "You can try it first. If you don't go into convulsions, the rest of us will eat."

"Threatening your emperor is treason." Phoran scratched out a place he'd written because it was too near the coast. If Colossae had been that near the sea, certainly one of the maps would have shown it. "Kissel, should we string this girl up?"

"Not until she finishes our dinner," rumbled Kissel. "I'll even eat reaperslace if it tastes as good as that fish smells."

Tier stood up and stretched. "I'll bring some water for washing to the porch," he said. He took a step away from the table, glanced back at his map - the one covered in fine lines that seemed to be meaningless - and he froze.

"Seraph, can you hold that map up?" he said.

Phoran looked at Tier's map as Seraph pulled it from the table, but it hadn't changed. It still looked as though someone had, very carefully, drawn hundreds of meaningless lines all over the parchment.

It was big and had been in a roll for a long time and kept trying to curl up. Phoran got up and helped Seraph hold it flat while Tier took slow steps away from it without taking his eyes off whatever had caught his attention.

"Lehr?" he said. "Son, I need you to get up and help me a minute."