The Warrior Elf (18 page)

“As long as it takes to find what I’m looking for.”

Chapter 12

Plans Get Underway

Shortly after breakfast Monday morning, Kevin asked Rhianna to join him in his office. After he shut the door, he took out his key and they left for the island.

“So this is somewhere else, huh?” Rhianna asked when they emerged from the energy field on the ledge.

Kevin smiled. “Close. The other night Chris and I were trying to come up with a name for this island, one that wouldn’t give anything away, especially if Landis is going to live here. We’ve started calling it Elsewhere.”

“Not a bad name.” Rhianna nodded. “Elsewhere. I like it.”

“Then that settles it. Welcome to Elsewhere,” Kevin said with a nod. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all. “Shall we go inside?”

They uncovered the glowstone lamps in the sitting area and sat down opposite each other. For a few moments neither of them spoke and the silence began to get uncomfortable. Finally Rhianna said, “I’m so sorry,” at the same time Kevin said, “I hate what this is doing to you.”

With a nervous laugh, Kevin asked, “Do you feel as awkward about this as I do?”

Rhianna nodded. “Asking you to do this is such an imposition.”

“What about you? Last week you were in Willow Canyon coaching Landis. Now you’re stuck in a castle in the middle of Camden. What did Landis say when you told her about this?”

Rhianna rolled her eyes. “Typical Landis. She made a big joke out of it, but she’s blaming herself for the mess in North Amden, and it’s not her fault.”

“No, and it’s not yours either. Or mine, for that matter. It’s Rolan’s. None of us have anything to feel guilty about.”

“But if I hadn’t suggested...”

Kevin shook his head. “Don’t do that. I could say if only I hadn’t agreed, or if only I hadn’t brought you with her, and so on. We can’t play the ‘if only’ game. It’ll drive us nuts. This is Rolan’s doing. Pure and simple.” Kevin paused, but Rhianna didn’t say anything. “But we do have to deal with it, so we need to talk about the details, and we need to get our back story straight.”

“Back story?” Rhianna asked.

“How we met, how long we’ve known each other, when you first met Landis, how well you know her, why you know her, and so on. People are going to ask questions and we better have answers, and they need to be the same answers.”

Rhianna nodded. “I guess we should stick as close to the truth as we can to make it easier to remember. For example, as to where we met? We met at my parents’ house. You came to dinner. But if anyone asks, you were there because of Duane.”

“Actually, I did go to see Duane. Chris is the one who insisted I hang around and meet Landis. I hadn’t planned to do that. That was last spring, wasn’t it?”

Rhianna nodded. “All right. We’ve got that one. What’s next? How I met Landis? I guess that would have been through you, but how? Why?”

Kevin thought for a minute. “I agreed to take her on as an apprentice before my first council meeting and Rolan knows that.”

Rhianna frowned. “How?”

“I told him.”

Her eyebrows raised in question.

Kevin shrugged. “After the meeting he and I got into it, and I told him I’d agreed to take her on as an apprentice when she was ready, and that she and Taelor were under my protection.”

“Not the smartest move,” Rhianna said slowly.

“So Laryn and Chris told me at the time, in no uncertain terms. But that might give us an answer for how you and she met. I told Rolan she was under my protection, and since she wasn’t in Milhaven with me, it stands to reason I would have provided protection for her wherever she was, and who better to protect her than a warrior elf? And since Landis is a woman, I would naturally want a female, and I’d feel better if it was someone I knew and trusted.”

“I can go along with that. But when did I meet her? I can’t say I’ve known her most of my life.”

“No, but I imagine you see your life as before you went to Willow Canyon and then after you got there, almost like your life’s divided into sections.”

“I can see that. All I need to do is think of her as Landis the Sorcerer. We met last fall, when she began to study magic, and there’s a lot of truth in that too, because the Landis I knew in Crinsor Run is nothing like the Landis I dealt with last fall. She was a different person.” Rhianna paused for a moment, gave a quick nod, and said, “That covers how and when I met Landis, but how do we explain why I’m not with her now?”

Kevin paused. “Since I can’t bring her to Milhaven, it makes sense I would find another sorcerer to undertake the day-to-day training.”

“True, but since no one knows she’s with Glendymere, wouldn’t they assume that’s been the case all along? Why is it all right for me to leave now?”

“Because I’ve moved her. We can say I asked you to stay with her until I could make other arrangements, but everything’s set up now and she’s been moved someplace where no one on Terah can find her.”

Rhianna nodded. “And if anyone asks me any questions, I can say since I’m no longer involved I have no idea where she is.”

“If anyone asks where she is now, be sure you get their name so we can check them out.”

Rhianna nodded. “Is there anything else we need to cover in this back story?”

“I can’t think of anything. You?”

Rhianna shook her head. After a moment, she asked, “Do you think this is going to work?”

“I don’t know. It might,” Kevin said slowly. “But I do know who’s going to get the blame if it doesn’t.”

Rhianna nodded. “Us.”

“And speaking of blame, how much trouble are those rumors about Saryn going to cause you?”

Rhianna shrugged. “I have no idea. I’m sure my father told Uncle Weldon what happened, but since he’s my uncle, he might insist on a full investigation into the charges.”

“So no one will think he’s covering for you.”

“I doubt they would, but if he thinks someone might, he won’t risk it.”

“If there is an investigation, what would they do? I mean how do they investigate?”

“I’m not sure. They may call me in to be questioned before the council, or they might ask you to check into it since Saryn was human. But if they hear the two of us are interested in each other, they’ll want to talk to someone else. Maybe Marcus since Saryn shot him. Or maybe Alek since he witnessed the whole thing.”

“I can get anyone they want. Theresa can describe his injuries if that’ll help. Would they accept the word of a Sister of Healing?”

“They’d probably prefer hers to Marcus’s. At least she could tell them the knife wound wasn’t life-threatening. That, combined with Marcus’s statement about having been shot, might take care of it.” Rhianna paused for a moment. “Provided they bother to check it out. I guess it depends on how widespread that particular rumor is.”

“And we have no way of knowing until they either send for you or they don’t.”

Rhianna nodded. “Are you concerned about the federation?”

Kevin shook his head. “They’ll expect me to do something about the humans in North Amden, but if it’s not taken care of by next fall, it might be a different story. I’m not sure what’ll happen then.”

“So Rolan needs to call them back by the end of summer.”

Kevin nodded. “But even if we convince everyone you were with her because of me, I doubt he’ll act that quickly unless he comes up with somewhere else to send them.”

“How long do you think this is going to take, realistically?”

“I have no idea.”

“I can’t stay at the castle until Rolan pulls his men out and then just leave. How are we going to do this?”

“I think you should stay at least until the federation meeting. Then, if you want to, leave for a week or so, come back for a week or two, leave again, come back, and so on. I think it would make sense for you to come and go. What do you think?”

“I like that better than hanging around doing nothing for weeks on end. And I do need to check in with Landis fairly often.”

“Getting away for a day will be easy. Chris or I can run you out there anytime you want to go. As long as one of us picks you up before dinner, everyone at the castle will assume you’ve been around all day.”

Neither of them said anything for several minutes. Then Kevin shrugged. “I guess the best we can do is play our roles and hope it works. Hope you’re up for meeting people, a lot of people.”

Rhianna nodded. “I figured we’d have to spend a bit of time in and around Milhaven. I hope I can keep everyone straight.”

Kevin chuckled. “That’s just the tip of the iceberg. You’re going to have to meet my family, and that’s going to be interesting.”

“I already know Laryn.”

“By the way, Laryn and Steve know about the plan.” Kevin paused, but Rhianna didn’t say anything. “Laryn requested Shana as a housekeeper after we discovered she’s one of Rolan’s spies, so Laryn wants us to come to dinner. She’ll make sure Shana’s under the impression she thinks we’re getting serious. Hopefully Shana will pass it on to Rolan.”

“I still have trouble believing anyone would spy for him.”

“It may not be her choice, Rhianna. Until we find out why, hold off on judgment.”

Rhianna shook her head. “I can’t believe you didn’t lock them up. Spying is spying, and there’s no justification for it.”

“There may be, especially if someone you love is at risk, which may or may not be the case. And if I had locked them up, Rolan would have replaced them by now. This way at least we know who the spies are. Anyway, back to the family. Laryn’s the one who pointed out we’re going to have to go see all of them, but none of them will know what’s going on, so we’ll have to pretend we’re involved while we’re there.”

“Does anyone else know what we’re doing?”

“Chris, but that’s it for now. At some point I’ll have to explain it to Theresa. She knows you’re Landis’s assistant, and since she and Taelor are friends, I’d be willing to bet she knows you and Landis are more like sisters than anything else.”

Rhianna nodded. “But she’ll keep it to herself, right?”

“You have no idea how many secrets she’s keeping. We can trust her completely.”

“Anyone else?”

Kevin shook his head. “I have a question, but I’m hesitant to ask it.” A faint blush crept up Kevin’s cheeks.

Rhianna nearly laughed. “What?”

“I’m going to have to hold your hand, put my arm around you, maybe put my hand on your arm or your back, things like that. Is that going to bother you?”

Rhianna laughed and shook her head. “If you do anything I’m not comfortable with, I’ll let you know.”

Kevin nodded.

“By the way, you need to stop blushing every time you ask me a question. It’s cute, but it’ll give us away if you keep doing it.”

Kevin’s blush deepened. “And how am I supposed to stop it? Believe me, if I knew how, I would. It’s embarrassing.”

“It’ll get better as we spend more time together. I bet you don’t blush when you ask Laryn a question.”

Kevin laughed. “You’d lose that bet, or at least you would have in the past. I don’t as often now, but I’ve blushed plenty of times when I’ve asked her questions, and it’s as embarrassing with her as it is with you.”

“But you don’t do it as often now as you used to, which is my point. It’ll get better, but until it does, I’ll pretend to like it. People will notice that more than the blush.”

“I’d rather they didn’t notice it at all,” Kevin mumbled as he stood up. “Unless you know of something else we need to talk about, we’d better get back to the office. Things have a tendency to pile up while I’m gone.”

~ ~ ~ ~

When Kevin and Rhianna returned to his office, there was a new pile of messages on his desk. Rhianna glanced at the stack and said, “Guess you need to get a little work done. Why don’t I find Duane and see what he’s up to and let you get to it?”

Kevin nodded and opened the door to the reception area. “Do you know where Duane is?” he asked Chris.

“He’s sparring with Darrell and a few of the guards.”

“Elin, would you show Rhianna where the practice field is?”

Elin jumped up. “Can I stay and watch for a little while?”

Kevin looked over at Ariel, who nodded. “Sure, but don’t get in the way.”

As Rhianna left with Elin, Chris followed Kevin back into his office. “Most of those messages are standard stuff, but this one’s personal.” He handed Kevin a message on a higher quality paper than most people used. The wax seal had a fancy “N” pressed into it. “It’s from Dara.”

Kevin raised his eyebrows and opened the letter.

Myron,

I have corresponded with Laryn several times in an effort to set up a time when you could fit lunch with your uncle and his family into your schedule, but apparently your calendar was already full on the dates I suggested. Therefore I am writing directly to you so you can select a time and date when it would be convenient for you to join us for a meal. Consult your calendar and let me know when to expect you.

I look forward to hearing from you by return mail.

Dara

House of Nordin

With a sigh, Kevin sank in his chair. “Guess I’m going to lunch. Oh well, at least it’ll get the most awkward one over with. And get her off Laryn’s back.”

“When do you want to go? I’ll need to put it on the calendar.”

“Saturday?”

“It’s clear right now. You do realize she’s going to have some woman lined up for you to meet, don’t you?”

Kevin grinned. “And I’m going to have one for her to meet, too.”

“Be sure you let her know Rhianna’s coming.”

“I’m going to tell her I have a guest staying here this weekend and I’ll be bringing my guest with me.”

“Is that all you’re going to say?” Chris asked.

“That’s it.”

“I’d almost like to be there to watch this.”

With a laugh, Kevin set Dara’s letter to the side. “Anything else before I tackle these?”

“Marcus dropped by this morning and asked if it would be all right for him to go home for the day Saturday.”

“What did you tell him?”

“I’d check with you and get back to him.”

“I don’t see a problem with it, do you?”