Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) (27 page)

Turning to Fei, she asked, “How was he?”

“Stubborn. Slow to work. This will take more than three days, Siobhan-ajie.”

She let out a long, drawn out sigh. “I know it.”

No, Rune did not pity her the job one bit.

The work progressed steadily over the next few days. Rune heard people talking back and forth and gathered the impression that Cha Ji An would be coming to meet with Alexander soon, for whatever reason. He was sure that it had something to do with the plan that Siobhan and Darrens had put together, but no one had explained why to him. As long as it resolved the problems with Fallen Ward then he didn’t care, either.

Ever since they had returned from Stott, Alexander had been neck deep in the rebuilding of Goldschmidt. If he wasn’t working on the guildhall, then he was helping out one of their neighbors by running errands. No one talked about it openly, but it was understood in the guild that they were to find things that Alexander could do that would give him as much exposure as possible to the city. Rune knew that the experiences were doing him good as Alexander came back with questions every night. At first he only felt comfortable asking Siobhan, but she often passed the question over to someone else, forcing the boy to interact with everyone in the guild.

Despite being enemies, Alexander formed a connection with them. Rune did not realize how strong the connection was until after lunch, nearly two full weeks after he had brought the boy guildmaster to Goldschmidt.

It was a wickedly hot day, so Siobhan ordered that everyone take a break after lunch and wait until the heat of the day had passed. Most had chosen to go upstairs and take a nap. Rune went into the rafters out of sheer habit as that was the place he could relax the most.

Only Alexander and Markl lingered at the lunch table. Rune wasn’t paying much attention to their conversation, as Markl was more or less filling in the history of everyone in Deepwoods for a curious Alexander. At least, he wasn’t paying any attention until Alexander exclaimed, “You’re the first born son of a guildmaster?”

“I am,” Markl confirmed without a trace of arrogance.

Alexander’s lips were parted in surprise and confusion. “Then you’re the next guildmaster?”

“No, I’m not.” Markl shook his head in denial, tone gentle.

“But—” Alexander stopped, thinking, head drawn back in confusion. “But you’re his son. Why wouldn’t you be?”

“Because the worst possible thing I could be is a guildmaster.” Markl’s eyes crinkled up in a silent laugh of amusement. “I don’t have the skills for it.”

Rune wasn’t convinced of that. He’d seen this man make good trade agreements, talk people into doing things he wanted done, and open doors where none were to be found. If anyone had the skills to be a guildmaster it would be Markl. But he wasn’t about to say anything at this point. In fact, he stayed as still and quiet as possible. Markl was connecting to Alexander, and getting a point across where they had all failed. No way was he interrupting them.

“The worst belief about leadership is that someone can be born into the position,” Markl continued factually. “It’s nonsense. The opposite is true. Leaders are made, not born. Look at Siobhan—she was the youngest child, and wasn’t from a guildmaster’s family, and yet she’s an amazing guildmaster. Why? Because she needed to be. Circumstances called for her to step up to that position, and she answered it.”

“She’s not…from a guildmaster’s family?” Alexander kept jerking his head from side to side as if he were internally struggling with this idea and failing to make sense of it.

“She’s not.” Markl said nothing else for several moments, waiting for the moment when Alexander could mentally digest this. When Alexander stopped shaking his head, Markl continued, “She came into this position because someone needed to be guildmaster, and neither Beirly nor Grae had the right temperament for it. Now she’s guildmaster because we all want her to be that and not one of us wants her place.”

Alexander grabbed his hair with both hands, fisting as if his head was hurting him. “How can you not want to be guildmaster?”

“Easily. I don’t want that kind of responsibility.”

Rune snorted to himself. That was the truth of the matter, right there. Markl wanted to be able to escape to his books instead of having to deal with personality clashes.

Markl leaned forward, putting his head at eye level with Alexander. “To lead is to serve. It means to be available to every person in your guild, and accountable for them. It’s a hard job and a thankless one. A true leader, a good leader, not only knows the way to go, but is willing to show the way. He or she must be willing to do the work they are commanding you to do. They are able to influence the people around them without even trying to.”

“How?”

“By being the kind of person that you would follow even if they had no title or position. Look at the way you respond to Siobhan. Even when she’s not giving you orders, or asking you to do something, you want to stay near her, right? Why?”

Alexander opened his mouth, paused, and slowly closed it. His eyes turned internally as he cast his mind over the past several days. “She’s…safe. Funny.”

“Exactly. She inspires confidence just by standing there and breathing. Why? Because we know, that whatever may come our way, she’ll stand by us and do everything she can to solve the problem. You know why Rune brought you to her?”

“Because I was too young. He couldn’t kill me.”

“That’s part of it. He couldn’t kill you, and he didn’t know what to do, so instead he brought you to the one person that
would
know what to do. He was confident that if he took you to Siobhan, she would be able to fix the problem.” Markl puffed out his cheeks before blowing out a breath. “Although she didn’t know what to do either, at first. But that’s alright. Being a leader doesn’t mean always having the answers. We just trust her to come to the right decisions, after she’s learned everything she needs to.”

Alexander’s shoulders hunched in so that he shrunk in his chair. “You want me to be like her.”

“Is that daunting?” Markl asked gently. “You feel like you can’t?”

“I can’t be her.”

“No, that would be a waste of who
you
are. I’m using Siobhan as an example only. I’ve met other good guildmasters in my time. She’s just one of them. But I do think you can be a good guildmaster, as you’re honestly trying to learn how to become one now.”

For the first time, Alexander looked hopeful. “I can become a good one?”

“Certainly.” Markl ticked points off on his fingers. “There’s several traits that you’re missing as a guildmaster. First, you had no vision. You were blindly firing off commands without considering what effect they would have. Sometimes you gave orders that conflicted with other orders. You’ve got to come up with a single plan, a firm vision of where you want to go, and stick with it. Don’t be inflexible, change if you need to, but don’t lose track of what actually needs to be done.”

Rune would swear that Alexander was actually taking notes on this in his head. His gaze was that intense.

“You had too tight of a rein on your people, too. You wouldn’t let them make any decisions on their own. You’ve got to trust them, if they are to trust you. Give them tasks to do and then let them go and find their own way of managing things. Often, you don’t know enough to tell them the proper way of doing things anyway. Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what you want done. They’ll surprise you with their creativity.”

“But what if they do things in a way I don’t want done?”

“As long as the task is done, and it doesn’t hurt your overall plan, why should that matter?” Markl chided with a wagging finger. “Don’t be controlling. Bad leaders do that and things always fall apart because of it.”

“Is that all?”

“One last thing I noticed. You tend to try to please everyone. That’s a sure recipe for failure. You can’t please everyone. Even in a guild as small as this one, Siobhan will make decisions that get some people irritated. A good guildmaster focuses on making decisions that will keep people safe, that will leave them the ability to dream about tomorrow. As long as you can do that, the decision is a good one.”

The ability to dream about tomorrow, huh. Rune lost track of their conversation for a moment as he thought on that. Odd, he would never have put it in those words, but when Markl said it, it became obvious. The reason he had been willing to help Siobhan at first was because she gave him an immediate sense of safety. But the reason why he wanted to stay with her forever was because with her, he could dream about tomorrow. No, more like, he suddenly had a tomorrow to dream
about
. And he’d never had that before he met her.

Maybe Markl knew more than Rune had realized about this whole leadership business.

Alexander suddenly looked up at the rafters, where Rune was perched, and asked, “Is he right?”

“Yes.” Rune gave him a lopsided smile. “The reason I chose Siobhan as my guildmaster was because she gave me hope for tomorrow. I never had that before her.”

“You didn’t like your guildmaster before her?”

“The man ordered my execution,” Rune answered flatly.

Alexander’s eyes went round. “Oh.”

Markl coughed into his hand. “Rune’s story is something you should hear about another day. For now, think about what I said? And if you have questions, come back and ask me. Or ask Siobhan. She’ll have better answers than I will, as she’s got leadership experience. I’m speaking strictly as an observer.”

Alexander gave an inarticulate hum of agreement before hopping off his chair and scampering off.

Craning his head around, Markl looked up. “And how long have you been sitting there?”

“A while.”

“What did you think about what I said?”

“I’d have taken notes, if I was thinking of being a guildmaster.”

“Not tempted by that position, eh?” Markl grinned up at him.

Rune snorted. “Not even remotely. Siobhan’s cursed me already.”

“Curse? What curse?”

“The guildmaster’s curse.” Mimicking her voice, he quoted, “Rune, when you become a guildmaster, I hope you have a dozen guild members just like you.”

Markl burst out laughing. “Isn’t that like the mother’s curse?”

“I wouldn’t know. I just don’t want a dozen people like me to deal with.” Even he had to admit that one former dark assassin was too much some days. “No, Deepwoods is home to me. I’ll never leave it.”

“It’s highly irregular to have two Pathmakers in a guild this small,” Markl pointed out. His tone was reasonable but his eyes were laughing. “There will be people that’ll come along and convince you to leave.”

“Over their cold, rotting corpse.”

“I sense that you’re adamant on this point.” Markl gained his feet, pushing the chair back under the table. “Well, I won’t argue. I prefer having you here as well.”

This unsolicited admission warmed Rune. “Is that right.”

“What can I say? You’re a good man to have at my back.”

 “You’re making me blush, Markl.”

He just laughed, voice rich with humor and affection.

ӜӜӜ

“Will you stand still?! You’re shaking the board!”

“It was your half-witted idea to use me as a weight, lackhead!”

Siobhan was concerned enough by this heated exchange that she stopped hammering a board in place and ducked outside. Standing on a scaffold far above her head were Wolf and Tran, only they weren’t properly inside the scaffold as they should be, but Tran was balanced on a board that extended several feet over thin air. Wolf apparently acted as a counter-weight, standing on the opposite end of the board to keep Tran from falling.

Why…how…who…? Her thoughts were so scattered about the stupidity of this set up that she couldn’t formulate a complete sentence. Afraid of startling them, she cleared her throat to get their attention. “Ahem. Gentlemen?”

Wolf, hearing her voice, leaned over the edge of the scaffold to see her. Doing that shifted his weight enough that Tran dipped two inches and yelped when the plank unexpectedly shifted. “WOLF!”

“Oops.” Wolf abruptly straightened, grabbing the scaffolding’s bars to steady everything.

Tran turned a murderous look at his friend. “You so much as turn your head again, I will come after you, I swear I will.”

“Tran, Wolf?” Siobhan called up with strained patience. “Please, please, don’t do stupid things like that? Tran, get back inside the scaffold.”

Despite almost being dropped twice in two minutes, Tran waved her worry away as if it were nothing to be concerned about. “It’s fine. We’re almost done with this last edging. It’s too much of a hassle to shift the whole scaffold over just to finish this section of the roof.”

“I will help you move the scaffold,” she said, praying for patience. “I’d rather do that. Please, get off that board?”

“We’re fine,” Wolf assured her. “He’s yelping about nothing, he’s steady enough.”

The look on Tran’s face was priceless. He clearly didn’t agree. But he couldn’t argue the point and reassure Siobhan at the same time, so he kept his mouth clamped shut.

The men went back to working, ignoring her protests, but Siobhan couldn’t make herself return to her own work. She might not do any good just standing there watching, but she had this eerie feeling that as soon as her back was turned, Tran would fall straight to the ground. The premonition kept her rooted to the spot.