Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (21 page)

There was a long moment of silence. She frowned down at him, the first spark of concern growing. Had he hurt himself that time? “Are you hurt, dearling?”

“The ground is not as nice,” he proclaimed solemnly, his tone such that one would think he was imparting some great wisdom of the ages.

It was all she could do to just roll her eyes and not laugh or groan. “I agree. Let’s avoid the mean ground. Up we go.”

Fei accepted the arm she put around his waist, cooperating amiably as he got back to his feet. Of course, with them side by side like this, his nose was practically in her hair. “Your hair is
red
. Like an apple. Can I—”

“No. No, you cannot taste it. Don’t start that, Fei.”

“Just a lick.”

“No. Mercy, why did I think it was safe for me to get you by myself? You always want to eat my hair. Fei, get my hair out of your mouth. This instant. If you don’t, I’ll drop you, and let Mr. Ground deal with you.”

Reluctantly, he dropped the lock of hair, sulking. “I just want to see if it tastes like an apple.”

“It doesn’t. It tastes like hair and soap. Now, be good and walk.”

Since the guildhall was still under construction, Siobhan had no good place to put Fei so that he could sleep this off. She ended up taking him back to the Rose and Crown. As she laid him down on the bed, she murmured to Roskin, the innkeeper, “He’s had more sugar than normal, I think.”

“How bad?”

“I was getting declarations of love and he wanted to eat my hair again.”

She and Roskin had been neighbors for the past decade, so he was well aware of Fei’s bad habits. He winced. “He hasn’t tried that in years.”

“I really want to know what he ate,” she growled. “Anyway, keep an eye on him for me.”

From the bed, even with his eyes closed, Fei loudly proclaimed, “I’m not drunk!”

“Yes, dearling, but you’re tired. Take a nap.” Please take a nap, she internally prayed.

“Siobhan-ajie?”

“Yes, dearling, you love me, right?”

“I love you,” he declared, eyes still firmly closed. “Can I lick your hair? It’s really red.”

“You may not. Sleep.”

Sighing in defeat, he went limp against the mattress in a way that only the truly drunk could manage.

“I’ll keep a close watch on him,” Roskin promised in a whisper. Half the reason he did so was likely because he did not want poetry on his walls. And she did not blame him.

After she got Fei settled, she went back to the worksite, and found that Conli had remarkably beaten her there. Even with all of the trouble that Fei had caused, she still expected to get here first. After all, Conli had a whole city to search first. But Wolf and Alexander were already working on the hall. That was to say, Wolf was working steadily in putting the last of the shingles on the roof, and Alexander was very reluctantly fetching tools and such for the men. The boy moved so slowly, one would think that his feet were mired in quicksand.

Siobhan sidled up next to Conli and asked in a low tone, “How did you convince him to work?”

“I didn’t. Wolf told him that if he did not work we would not feed him.”

“And that worked? Just like that?”

Conli’s eyes crinkled up in amusement. “I don’t think it would have if not for the fact that Wolf brought some treats back with him. Someone in the city is selling doughnuts. Wolf brought back a bag full of them.”

“Let me guess. He gave everyone a doughnut except Alexander, because Alexander had not done any work?”

“Got it in one.” Conli glanced over his shoulder, looking where Wolf was working on the edge of the roof. “He might be better at manipulating children than I gave him credit for.”

He was certainly showing talent that Siobhan had not suspected he had.

“How was Fei?”

“My hair was red again and he was trying to eat it.”

Conli winced. “What did he eat?”

“I have no idea. But he needs to avoid it like the plague. Right now he’s sleeping it off. Roskin is watching him for me.”

“I’ll bring him a hangover cure later.”

“I’m sure he’ll need one. Did you speak with Tran at all about our plan?”

“Not yet. I haven’t been able to yet. And it might be better to wait for Rune anyway. Hyun Woo still has him.”

Siobhan asked uncertainly, “We are going to get him back today, right?”

“That is the question.”

Hyun Woo did finally give Rune back late that night. Siobhan, Conli, and Tran were all sitting up waiting for him. Because Fei was still sleeping off his drunken high, the guild had chosen to remain at the Rose and Crown that night. Rune looked, and smelled, as if he had rolled around in several mud puddles. He was covered in dirt, with new bruises and scratches visible on every patch of bare skin. That must’ve been quite the training session.

When he stopped in front of the table, the stench was overwhelming. Siobhan had to clamp her nose shut and breathe through her mouth to avoid gagging. “Bath. Now.”

Rune was tired and sore enough that he only gave her a grunt before shuffling towards the bathing room.

“I’ll get him some clothes,” Tran volunteered, standing from the table.

“It looks like Hyun Woo beat the lesson into him,” Conli observed.

“Let’s hope the lesson will stick better that way.” Siobhan, knowing full well that Rune probably did not get to eat anything, went to the kitchen and wrestled up a plate of leftovers.

Rune was not one for sitting in a tub and soaking, and he was usually in and out within a matter of minutes. But this time, he was slower to leave the bathing chambers. When he finally did make it back, he fell upon the plate of food like a ravenous wolf. Siobhan wisely did not try to speak with him until he had finished everything and looked up. “What did we learn today, Rune?”

“Never do anything to tick off either my guildmaster or my master.”

Tran let out a laugh. “Close enough.”

Pushing the plate away from him, Rune relaxed back into his chair and looked at all three of them. “So, do we know what to do with the pipsqueak?”

“We do,” Conli confirmed. “But we will need you and Tran to do something special. In the day that we have had the boy, he has proven to be very stubborn and he does not learn quickly. This arrogance of his is very well ingrained.”

Tran snorted. “You’re telling me. Even with noogies and correcting him, he didn’t seem to learn a thing.”

Rune had that expression on his face that seemed to say ‘
Well, why do you think I brought him to you
?’ “So what is the plan?”

“First,” Conli outlined, “We will take him to Stott and show him how much damage his decisions have made. We plan to do this tomorrow, and leave him there overnight.”

“He’ll think that we have left him there alone,” Siobhan added.

Making a noise of confusion, Rune asked, “Won’t he try to escape if he thinks he is alone?”

Tran had an evil smirk on his face. “That’s where we come in.”

An unholy grin blossomed on Rune’s face to match Tran’s expression. “This will be fun, won’t it.”

“You better believe it.”

Conli cleared his throat and said dryly, “Yes, well, I’ll let you two plan that part out. But after he has spent the night in Stott, we will take him to various places that have been damaged because of his men, and make him help in the reconstruction. We believe that by working alongside the people that he has hurt, and getting to know them, he will eventually understand just how wrong his decisions were. But that part will likely take some time.”

“In fact, this whole process will take so much time, that I can’t justify having the whole guild work on it when our guildhall still needs to be built. So, I am dividing us up. You, everyone at the table, and Wolf will be over reeducating the guildmaster. Everyone else will be working on the guildhall.”

As if just remembering this, Rune asked, “Aren’t work crews supposed to be in Stott right now?”

“They haven’t left yet,” Siobhan said. “I checked with Darrens. They’re still putting together supplies. We have a narrow window, though; they’re supposed to leave for Stott the day after tomorrow.”

Rune twitched his shoulders into a shrug, accepting this, and then asked, “What about Sylvie and Markl going to Coravine?”

“Obviously the situation has changed. We don’t know exactly what Coravine is like right now, but it is sure to be absolute chaos. I doubt that anyone can get into the city at the moment. They probably have it locked up tight. So for now, Sylvie and Markl stay.”

“Good,” Rune responded, relieved.

Siobhan noted this reaction with interest. Whatever state Coravine was in when Rune was there must have been bad. He did not want his guildmates to go into that city.

Clapping her hands together, Siobhan said, “Well, that’s our plan as it stands. Conli and I will go shopping for supplies in the morning. Tran, Rune, you two put your heads together and plan for tomorrow night.” She would have Wolf keep an eye on Alexander while they made the preparations. “We leave after lunch tomorrow so be prepared.”

ӜӜӜ

For the first time in many years, Rune actually slept more than four hours. When dawn broke, he was very tempted to keep on sleeping, too. It felt like Tran and Wolf had used him as a punching bag throughout the night. There were muscles throbbing that he didn’t know he had. Master Hyun Woo had not gone easy on him.

Rune did not really regret the decision he’d made to go to Coravine, as he still expected this to turn out well. But it had been ground into his head yesterday that he was to never, ever,
ever
take off alone without telling someone first. It did not matter how justified the reason was, it was not worth the punishment when he came back. If it wasn’t for that nasty concoction that Conli had made him drink the night before, Rune was sure that he would not be able to get out of bed this morning. As it was, it took self-bribery to roll his body off the mattress.

It was simple, really. He wanted to see Denney before he left, and in order to do that, he had to get out of bed. One limb at a time, like he was being controlled by an amateur puppetmaster, he managed to crawl out from underneath the covers. It took more effort to get clothes on but he managed that too.

He opened the door at the same time that Fei did. He hadn’t seen the other man the whole of yesterday and was shocked by his friend’s appearance. Fei’s eyes were red-rimmed, skin pale, hair sticking up every direction, and he moved as if his head was in danger of falling off. Seeing Rune, he gave a grunt that might have translated to, “Morning.”

“Good morning?” Rune ventured. “What happened to you?”

“Someone gave me some water to drink yesterday.” Fei made a face. “It was sugar water, and I realized it too late.”

“Ohhh,” Rune said in complete understanding. “You mean you were drunk yesterday and I missed it?”

Fei gave him a bleary eyed Look.

“Hey, you can’t blame me for being curious. Ever since I joined the guild, I’ve heard stories about your drunken habits. But you’ve been so careful, I haven’t gotten to see it for myself.”

“Rune, so help me, if you try to slip sugar into my food so you can see me ‘drunk’, I will murder you.”

“Now how did you know that was what I was planning?”

“I’m a genius at reading minds.” Fei winced and put a hand up to his head. “Where’s Conli?”

“No idea,” Rune admitted, a touch more sympathetic now. “Working on the guildhall maybe?”

Fei stumbled toward the stairs, muttering promises to himself about getting medicine of some sort.

Rune followed him down. By the time he made it down the stairs and to the breakfast table in the main room of the Rose and Crown, half the guild was already back at work. Only Alexander, Denney, and Wolf remained at the table. Alexander had that anxious look on his face, his body crammed into the side of the chair, as if putting as much distance between him and Wolf as possible. Rune had no idea what Wolf had done to the kid, but he was terrified of him now.

He noticed this in passing, because as soon as he saw Denney, he developed tunnel vision. She lit up when she saw him with that delighted smile that was reserved solely for him. There wasn’t a man in the world that could resist a woman that smiled like that at him. Rune certainly wasn’t immune. He landed in the chair next to her more out of feel than anything as he was not willing to take his eyes off of her.