Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (20 page)

Conli seemed to realize that asking any further questions was useless. He might have suspected that the boy did not have control of the decisions coming out of Fallen Ward. But Alexander seemed to know exactly what was going on and even took credit for everything that happened. Conli switched tactics and asked instead, “Before being brought here, have you ever left Coravine before?”

“No.”

“But you ventured out into the city, correct?”

“No,” Alexander denied with a pout on his face. “Why should I? I had everything I needed in my rooms.”

In a low tone, Wolf said to her, “Now I get it. Boy’s got no experience with the world. It’s not a matter of choosing right from wrong, he doesn’t even know what wrong is.”

Siobhan’s head spun. “How can he be ten years old and never have left his guild compound?”

“As Beirly would put it, that’s a head scratching question. But it does give us a good starting point. He needs to know what the world looks like. Why don’t we show him Goldschmidt first?”

“And then show him a place that has been destroyed? Say, Stott or Channel Pass?”

Wolf bobbed his head in agreement. “Give him a clear black-and-white comparison.”

From the table, Alexander burst out, “I WON’T TALK TO YOU. TAKE ME HOME.”

Conli just gave a long sigh before he pushed away from the table and came to where they were standing. “I thought that he might be sheltered, but not to this extent. It’s a strange combination where he is very informed about the decisions he made, but at the same time he has no idea what he actually has done. Even now, he does not seem to realize that we are enemies. He seems to think that he can order us about like he would his own people.”

“Wolf thinks that we should show him Goldschmidt and then take him into one of the destroyed cities, like Stott or Channel Pass. Give him a clear comparison.”

“Siobhan, I’m not sure if that will be enough. He is unbelievably spoiled. Before you came into the room, he told me that today was the first time he had to feed himself.”

Siobhan’s eyes crossed. “What kind of life does he have that he doesn’t even have to feed himself? Isn’t that a basic skill?”

“I thought so until just now.” Conli’s face possessed the ruminative expression that meant he was analyzing things at high speeds in his head. “I think we need to take this one step further. I think we need to teach him what it would be like if he had absolutely no one to depend on. But we have to gauge this just right or we risk breaking his spirit.”

“Do you have a plan, then?” Wolf asked him.

“I do. But it will take Fei and Tran to pull it off.”

Conli was interrupted by the entrance of Hyun Woo. The man was sweating heavily at the temples, and there was a hard look in his eyes. Siobhan gathered the impression that he had heard the news of Rune’s return from somewhere and had run straight here without pause.

When he looked at her, she said without prompting, “He’s in the back of this inn. Feel free to punish him however you see fit. I punched him, but I don’t think what I did made much of a dent.”

Hyun Woo gave her a commiserating nod. “The very young are sometimes too cocky with their own beliefs. I will attend to him.”

“Please do.” Siobhan watched him go and smiled at his back. Denney had let her down, but she could trust Hyun Woo to do the job of scolding Rune properly.

Wolf gave her a look askance, as if surprised that she wouldn’t forewarn either Hyun Woo or Rune. She wasn’t about to do so. Being caught in an embarrassing situation by his master was just part of the punishment to her mind.

Conli watched him go with a resigned look. “Rune’s going to come back from some sort of diabolical training session covered in scrapes and bruises, isn’t he?”

“And probably with his ears ringing from hours of lecturing,” Siobhan confirmed cheerfully. “I am ever so glad that Hyun Woo took him on as a student. Saves me loads of trouble.”

Without glancing behind him, Conli requested, “Wolf, go fetch Alexander back in.”

“Oh, was he trying to sneak out? He was so terrible at it, it was hard to tell.”

“Yes, ten-year-olds aren’t known for their sneaking skills.”

Re-thinking this, Siobhan corrected, “Actually, let him run free for an hour or two. Just don’t lose track of him. This can be the first step of our plan with him.”

Wolf gave a pleased hum and went out the front door, cracking his knuckles on his iron hand as he went.

Conli rubbed at his forehead. “This…will be a long day.”

“We have all of our people back. That automatically makes it better than yesterday.” Still, she appreciated why he felt that way. Taking his elbow, she steered him back toward the table. “Let’s get a hot cup of tea and sit while we plan this out. I don’t know about you, but I could use the break.”

“Sounds heavenly.”

Siobhan and Conli had an idea roughly drawn out, and they were working on the finer details, when Kaye Ruffner burst through the doors. A particularly short woman, she normally looked neat as a pin with her blonde hair curling just at her shoulders. Today she looked more windblown than anything, and her blue eyes snapped with indignation. When she spied Siobhan, she made a beeline straight for her, shaking a fist as she went. “Guildmaster Maley, that man of yours is at it again.”

There were so many possible things the woman could be referring to, and so many people that it could be, that Siobhan had to ask: “Who? Doing what?”

“Fei, of course! He’s been drinking, although heaven knows why he would do so during the middle of the day, and now he’s got a red paint can in his hand and he’s scrawling poetry on the front of my shop!”

Siobhan didn’t even try to look professional. She let her head thunk to the table and let out a loud groan. “On top of everything else, Fei has to get drunk?”

Conli let out a year’s worth of sighs. “I expected this to happen sooner or later. Food is somewhat scarce at the moment and it’s hard for him to find something to eat that does not have sugar in it. He must have eaten something by mistake.”

Kaye did not care about why, she wanted it fixed. “That’s all well and good, but who is going to stop him? I grant you the front of the shop needs a coat of paint, but I did not want it red!”

Siobhan and Conli shared a speaking look. “Which would you rather do, track down Wolf and Alexander, or deal with a drunken Fei?”

“Neither of those options have the least bit of appeal.”

“Do I look thrilled by either prospect to you?”

Conli actually took several seconds to debate the matter with himself before he said in a resigned tone, “I’ll go look for Wolf. Do you want me to get Tran or someone to go with you?”

“Naw, it’s fine. Fei isn’t a violent drunk, just a romantic, poetry-scrawling one.”

Not disagreeing, Conli left her to it. Siobhan pinned a smile on her face and turned to Kaye. “Lead me to him. We’ll work out how to fix this as we walk.”

Satisfied that Siobhan was moving, Kaye led off, her pace brisk. Kaye ran an advertising business in the city, mostly for job hunters, although she did have a corner for general information. Siobhan had visited her store a few times when she went in search of new members for her guild, but it had been several years since her last visit. She saw when she arrived that the store had survived the looting and the ransacking of Goldschmidt fairly well. One of the windows had been knocked out, and the door definitely needed to be replaced, but there was little other damage.

Aside from Fei scrawling poetry in large letters on the wall, that was.

When drunk, Fei always seemed to revert to his native tongue. After her stay in Saoleord, Siobhan could now identify the language and even knew a word or two. But the majority of it was lost on her. Fortunately, or unfortunately, Fei was providing a translation as he wrote in a singsong voice that was badly off tune. At the top of his lungs.

Without any hesitation, Siobhan grabbed the paintbrush from his hand and yanked it away. Fortunately, he was drunk enough that he did not fight back. In fact, he spun about as she pulled, and nearly did a face plant. It took some staggering on his part to keep his balance. He blinked at her several times, weaving where he stood, before squinting in an effort to focus. “You look remarkably like my guildmaster,” he informed her in a serious tone.

Siobhan had to struggle not to laugh. “That’s because I am your guildmaster.”

He nodded somberly. “That would explain it.”

“Fei, Mistress Ruffner does not want poetry on her wall.”

He blinked at her owlishly as if that statement did not compute.

Siobhan went for something that he could understand, drunk or not. “No more painting.”

That seemed incomprehensible to him as well, but he did hand the paint can over to her without any fuss. Siobhan handed the items over to Kaye, before she took a firm grip on Fei’s arm. Addressing the storekeeper, she promised, “When he’s sober, I will send him over here to paint the front of the shop for you.”

Kaye scowled at Fei. “He’d better.”

Deciding that staying would not benefit any of them, Siobhan gave her a friendly nod before towing Fei away from the area as fast as his stumbling feet could manage.

Sadly, she didn’t get far. She never did with Fei. He dug his heels in, drawing her to a stop and grabbed her sloppily by the shoulders.

“Siobhan-ajie,” he said seriously. The attempt was somewhat spoiled by the fact his eyes wouldn’t focus and kept crossing.

“Yes, dearling,” she responded patiently. She knew, as surely as the sun rose in the east, what was coming next.

“I love you.”

“I know, dearling. I love you too,” she said with all of the patience she could muster. “Can we go to a nice place where you can lay down?”

“I’m not drunk,” he assured her earnestly. Then hiccupped. His whole balance became upset by the hiccup, and he had to grab her hard to keep from falling straight to the street. “And I love you. And your hair is
red
. Amazing. Are you an apple?”

“I am not an apple, and if you try to taste me like you did last time, I will punch you.” Grabbing him by the waist, she spun him back around and frog-marched him forward. “One of these days, you’ll have to explain to me why you are so fascinated by my hair.”

“Siobhan-ajie. I love you,” he said over his shoulder. Because his face wasn’t facing forward, he started going sideways.

“Love you too, dearling, walk please.”

“I love you so much. You shouldn’t walk. It’s wrong.”

She blinked, trying to process this. This tangent was a new one. And it didn’t bode well. None of his tangents panned out well. The apple one especially.

Fei stopped dead in the middle of the street. “I know! I’ll carry you home.” He beamed, pleased at this conclusion.

Despite the fact he was drunk, she couldn’t budge him. Frustrated, Siobhan seriously regretted in that moment going off to fetch Fei alone. Wolf or Tran or Beirly would have come in very handy right in that moment. They had a knack for handling drunken behavior. “Fei.
Walk
.”

“I’ll carry you,” he insisted, openly pouting. “You’ve got red hair, so I must carry you.”

How that connected, she had no idea. “Fei, you’ve got bad balance right now, you’ll fall. Walk now, you can carry me later?” And by later, she meant never.

Unfortunately, she underestimated his cunning and determination. She was still behind him, trying to push him along, and was in the perfect position for him to bend, scoop his arms under her legs, and heft her onto his back. Spluttering, Siobhan’s arms wind milled in the air for a moment before she latched onto his neck for support.

“Got you!” he crowed. Straightening, he staggered forward.

Normally, Fei could carry Tran around without being winded. It wasn’t her weight that was making him struggle, just his lack of balance. He managed all of three steps before he sent them right into a wall.

“Oops,” he said, as if he hadn’t the faintest idea how that happened.

Siobhan felt her face flush as the people passing by laughed. Some of them were doing it behind their hands, others were more open about it. She, for one, knew that it would take years to live this down.

“Sorry,” Fei apologized sincerely to the wall. “You’re a nice wall. Very sturdy.”

“All of the walls are nice, dearling,” Siobhan sighed, resigned to the embarrassment. “Let’s not run into them, shall we?”

“Right.” With renewed determination, he started off again, weaving as he went.

Siobhan was just waiting for the right timing to get off his back. Being piggy-backed like this was more than embarrassing considering she was fine and
he
was the one that was drunk.

Out of nowhere, he started up his poetry sing-song voice again. “The sun has come to our lands once again, touching the head of my fair love’s hair—”

Oh
no
. Not this one. Siobhan recognized it, it was a favorite of Fei’s, and he always slaughtered it by making up parts of it to fit her description when he was drunk.

“—Bathed in the sun I go, as if walking in a dream, walking through the streets where blue sky and green grass meet, I do not feel as if I have come here on my own; some other force has guided me. I am mesmerized by the sunset hair framing my fair love’s face.”

Fei was mercifully stopped as he tripped over the edge of a stair and smacked his forehead against a post. He kept his balance enough to where they avoided tumbling straight to the ground. Dizzy, he gave a bow to the post. “My apologies, good post.”

The bow was low enough that he almost sent her straight off his back and headfirst toward the cobblestones. Siobhan wanted off his back, yes, but not desperately enough to do so
that
way. She tightened her grip on him until he sprang back up.

As if he hadn’t even broken his stride, he picked right back up. “The breeze whispers in my ears and sings across my cheeks, the birds behind the clouds are caroling, all a sweet melody to the cataracts of your hair. I feel refreshed and light in the head.”

That last part she had no trouble believing.

This time, he tripped over thin air and landed flat on his face. Siobhan hopped off before she completely flattened him to the ground. “Fei?”