Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (18 page)

It was while they were eating that Wolf silently came in and joined them. Siobhan took him aside several feet away from the table so that she could speak with him without being overheard. Rune’s ears were sharp, so she kept her voice as low as possible. To Wolf only, she allowed her uncertainty to show.

“Wolf, I understand why Rune brought this problem to me. But what I don’t understand is what he expects me to
do
with the boy.”

Wolf cocked a brow at her, sardonic amusement on his face. “Siobhan, he expects you to fix it.”

“Yes, I got that.
But how
?” She almost threw her hands up in the air in a gesture of frustration before she curbed the impulse. After all, Rune would be watching her and she did not want him to realize how lost she felt at the moment. “This is not like the situation with Rune. He wanted to learn, grow, and become a better man. But this child has no such inclinations. Aside from that, he is the guildmaster to a city. It’s not like we can just keep him without there being repercussions.”

“No one knows where he went or who took him,” Wolf pointed out. “I say that buys us some breathing room.”

“That’s only if Darrens is willing to leave him here. He might not want to.”

“Well, what else is he going to do with him? Rune went about it all wrong, but the answer he reached was the right one. There is no sense in killing a child just because they were not taught correctly. The boy has no understanding of what he has done. We can’t kill him, we can’t send him back home. That won’t solve the problem either.”

Siobhan nodded impatiently. “Yes, yes, that is all obvious.
So what do we
do
with him?”

Wolf got a funny little quirk to his mouth as if she was missing the obvious and he was too kind to point it out. “I think Rune’s suggestion earlier was dead on.”

For a moment, her mind went blank and she could not understand what he meant. Then, in a flash, she had it. “You mean that someone needs to teach him right from wrong?”

“Exactly.”

This time, she did throw up her hands. “Wolf, that only works if the other person is receptive to being taught! That has to be the most unwilling student ever.”

Wolf did not seem to think that this was a true problem. “We’ll need to tenderize him some.”

Tenderize? He made the kid sound like a piece of steak. But she took his meaning. “And how in mercy’s name do you intend to do that?”

“I think it will take everyone’s help to manage it. But the first step is to show him the consequences of his actions. If he doesn’t see the consequences of the choices he’s made, then no amount of words will get through to him.”

Siobhan had to admit that he had a good point. “So, how should we go about doing that?”

“I have a notion or two. But I think we should speak to Conli before we make any firm plans. After all, we don’t want to break him. Some of the wreckage is pretty rough to stomach. Even someone hardened to such scenes has been known to be queasy after walking through a street.”

While this all sounded logical, it all hinged upon one assumption: that they would get permission to keep the guildmaster with them. “Aren’t you assuming too much? Perhaps Darrens will think of a different plan.”

Wolf’s mouth kicked up to the side again as if she had said something amusing. “You are the only person in Goldschmidt who has tamed two dark guildsmen. Just who do you think can top your experience? No, I bet you that Darrens will task you with this and you’ll be stuck with reeducating the brat.”

“Usual bet?”

“Usual bet.”

“You’re on.”

“We’re not giving him back,” Darrens said as if that was perfectly obvious.

Siobhan stared at her own guildmaster in open dismay. When he had come back with Tran, she had hopes that Darrens would take on the child guildmaster himself. But so far, even though he had been in the room for a good fifteen minutes, he had done nothing more than stare at Alexander for a long moment before promptly turning to Siobhan and focusing on her.

“I understand that simply giving him back would cause more trouble for us.” Siobhan felt like her grasp on her patience was tenuous at best. “But we cannot keep him here indefinitely.”

“No, that will cause trouble as well. What we need right now are solutions, not more complications. That said, I do not completely disapprove of what your young man did. Assassinating a child, aside from being morally wrong, would have opened up the situation to any power-hungry loon that thought he had a chance of becoming the next guildmaster. Political infighting is the last thing we need from Coravine.”

Just the idea made her wince.

“What we need to do is reeducate the boy, and then somehow appoint a guardian over him until he is of the age where he can take on the guildmaster’s responsibilities. I bet if we speak with Cha Ji An she will have an idea of someone who can help us in that regard. But our first priority is straightening out that boy’s moral code. Right now I’m not sure if he has one.” Darrens gave her a particularly blinding smile while putting a hand on her shoulder.

Siobhan eyed the hand and then gave him a dismayed, “Uhhhh?”

He did not seem to need a translator for that wordless protest. “You are the only person I know that has taken not one, but
two
dark guildsmen and made them into good men. I think this task is right up your alley.”

Wolf, standing at her elbow, tried to disguise a laugh behind his hand. Siobhan, without looking, threw an elbow into his ribs.

Darrens caught the exchange and asked Wolf, “I take it you said something similar?”

“Almost those exact words.”

“Ah, I see.” Not having any mercy, he patted Siobhan’s shoulder twice before he let his hand drop. “I trust your judgment on this. I leave it to you to fix the boy.”

Siobhan started muttering under her breath about how a child was not a machine, and there was no fixing people, and neither of them had any idea of what changing a person’s mind entailed. Both men stoutly ignored her.

Darrens seemed to think that this vague instruction was enough on his part, because he half turned toward the door to go. “When your man took him out of the city, I assume that Rune was as careful as always? No one has any idea of where their guildmaster has disappeared to?”

“None,” Wolf confirmed.

“Good.” Satisfied, Darrens headed for the door, saying as he went, “Good luck. For the time being, this will be your only task.”

If Siobhan had had something handy, she would have thrown it at the back of his head.

Pouting about this, or being angry, or protesting, obviously would not help her. Siobhan had tried all of that in the past two hours but everyone seemed to think that she had the right skills to fix this problem. (More likely, they didn’t want the responsibility of it.) It took a moment of internally wrestling with the situation, but eventually she resigned herself to it. Whether she liked it or not, Alexander was her responsibility now.

She would leave Rune to Denney.

“Wolf, keep an eye on the kid. I need to go talk to Conli.”

“What about Rune? Shouldn’t we do something about him?”

Siobhan gave him a saccharine smile. “Denney.”

Wolf asked no other questions. “Understood. I’ll keep an eye on things here, then.”

Satisfied, Siobhan left the inn and returned to the new guildhall. First, she found Denney. The girl was fetching tools and supplies for the men up on the scaffolding, but at Siobhan’s hail, she stopped and responded by meeting Siobhan halfway.

“How is Rune?”

Knowing full well that she was adding fuel to the fire, Siobhan answered bluntly, “Unapologetic.”

Denney’s mouth went flat. “I need to talk to him.”

“Please do.” It was not nice of Siobhan at all, to send an angry and hurt woman to Rune, but he really had brought this upon himself. She regretted nothing.

“Where is he?”

“The Rose’s taproom.”

In a clipped tone, Denney responded, “Thank you,” as she made a beeline for The Rose and Crown.

Chortling evilly under her breath, Siobhan called up to the second story, “Conli! Come down here, please.”

It took a minute, as he was somewhat involved in what he was doing, but she waited patiently for him to reach the ground floor. Wiping his hands with a dust cloth, Conli asked her, “What is it? Has something been decided?”

“If by decided you mean that Darrens shoved all responsibility for the kid into my lap, then yes, something has been decided.”

“I detect a note of irritation and sarcasm in your tone, Siobhan.”

“That’s because you’re an observant man, Conli.”

Being wise, Conli did not delve into that any further. “You say that all responsibility has been shoved onto you, but what exactly did Darrens decide to do?”

“In essence, he will pretend that he has no knowledge of our guest’s whereabouts nor have any idea of who took him. While he is playing innocent, it is our job to reeducate the child, and find someone that can act as a guardian and advisor to him when he returns home. The last part I think Darrens is more involved in. He said he would speak with Cha Ji An and get her advice. Our main task is the reeducation.”

Conli folded his arms across his chest and just studied her for a moment. When he spoke again, it was not a question, but more a statement. “You want me to help you.”

“Despite what everyone believes, I am not an expert on the human heart. Wolf and Rune accepted my help because they wanted to change and I was willing to help them. That is not the same as trying to change someone who does not want to change in the first place.”

“I agree.” Conli lifted one hand up enough to where he could rub the point of his chin thoughtfully. “Before I sit down with you and organize a strategy, I would like to sit and talk with the boy for at least an hour. If I know what his personality is like and I have a better understanding of his background, it will make it easier to form plans.”

Siobhan thought that a splendid notion. And not just because it halved her responsibility with someone else. “You might want to speak with Wolf as well. He seems to have a notion or three about how to approach this. He said something about tenderizing the kid first.”

Conli’s brows shot to his hairline. “The idea of Wolf tenderizing anyone terrifies me.”

“Me too. Which is why you really need to have a word with him.”

“I will do that first, I think.” The firm way that he said the words gave her the reassurance she needed. “And what will you do about Rune?”

“I’ve already dealt with Rune. I sicced Denney on him.” Siobhan held her breath to see how well this was taken.

The expression on his face made her think that Conli was well aware of how those two felt for each other but was quite happy to live in the land of denial. “I’ll pretend I did not hear that.”

Biting back a smile, she did not try to press the point. “That’s fine. Although you might want to try adjusting to the idea soon. I’m frankly surprised that nothing has developed already.”

“I will pretend that I did not hear
that
either.”

“Yes, yes.” Siobhan well understood his insecurities and fears. But that did not mean that ignoring things would make it go away. “Well, for now, let’s go speak to a certain young guildmaster. The sooner he is dealt with, the sooner that we can return to normal life.”

ӜӜӜ

Rune realized while he was taking a much-needed bath that he had probably handed Siobhan more of a challenge than she was immediately ready to handle. He didn’t doubt that she could handle it. But it would likely take her some time to figure out how to. That was fine by him, because he never expected her to have immediate answers, just that she would know what the right thing to do would be.

So it didn’t worry him that she did not immediately tackle the problem. He kept herd on the boy while they got dressed and ate a wonderful breakfast. He also kept his ears open as Siobhan talked to first Wolf, and then Darrens, before she left the inn altogether.

During this whole time, the bratty guildmaster made demands on an almost constant basis. The only time they got relief from his mouth was when it was full of food. The adults basically tuned him out, which seemed to infuriate him all the more. When Siobhan and Darrens left, leaving only Wolf behind, the boy’s patience seemed to evaporate.

Slamming both hands against the table, making the dishes and cutlery shake, he screeched at the top of his lungs, “YOU WILL TAKE ME HOME NOW.”

Without thinking about it, Rune caught his head and gave him a noogie.

Far from shutting him up, this made him screech even louder. “AND STOP DOING THAT.”

Wolf leaned a hip against the table, settling his iron hand comfortably across his thigh. “He doesn’t seem to learn very quickly,” he observed to Rune.

“You’re telling me? I’ve been giving him noogies almost constantly for the past day.”

Alexander-the-brat turned so red in the face that Rune was sure he would pass out and hit the floor soon.

Leaning across the table, Wolf gave the particular smile that was known to scare even minor demons. The boy went from red and outraged to white and afraid in a split second. “You are the reason why my home has been burned to the ground. If you expect mercy in this city, then you are a fool. My guildmaster is of the opinion that we can do something with you. I’m not as convinced. So if you make too much of a ruckus, then you will wake up the next morning in a shallow grave.”