A few miles to the south, the path from the farm joined to the main road. Though Willon's maps were useful, finding a road to Taela was no more difficult than finding a stream that would lead to the ocean.
"It's hard leaving Rinnie behind." Lehr patted Skew's neck. "I miss her already."
"I miss everything," said Jes happily.
Lehr lost his grim air and thumped Jes on his pack where it rested between his shoulders, "I see that you do."
"Do you know where your clan is?" Seraph ask Hennea, who walked beside her at the back of the small caravan.
"No," said Hennea. "But I can find them when I want to. I'll be of more use to you than I'll be to them."
"Hennea," said Seraph softly.
"Yes?"
"If you ever lie to me for your own ends again - as you did when I killed the priest for you - there will be a reckoning."
"I will bear that in mind," Hennea said.
"See that you do."
Seraph deliberately cut the first day's travel short. Hennea was looking pale and drawn; though her arm was healing nicely, it was still painful. The tent that they'd brought was the old one Seraph had used when she'd traveled with her brother. Seraph expected it would take a few days of practice before they could put it up in the dark.
After supper, she left the boys to clean up and took out Isolda the Silent's mermora.
"So you are the last survivor of your clan," said Hennea.
Seraph loosened the top of her bag so Hennea could see the assorted mermori she carried. "The last of any number of clans," she said.
"How many?" Hennea asked in a horrified whisper.
"Two hundred and twenty-four," replied Seraph.
Hennea frowned. "Why did they all come to you?"
"You mean as opposed to a clan leader who actually had a clan?" Seraph shrugged. "I don't know. I've given it a lot of thought over the years. The last eighty-three I found in one cache, presumably taken from one leader. That could mean that the mermori are being drawn by the other mermori. The more mermori someone has, the more likely it is that a lost clan's mermori will come to them. Or perhaps Shadow's Fall might have some influence on it."
"It's more than that," said Hennea slowly. "How did you find a solsenti who was Ordered? Why did the two of you have three Ordered children? It isn't like breeding horses; the Orders go where they will - though I really did think that the Order bearer had to at the least be of Traveler blood. I don't know many clans who can claim five Ordered people, nor have I heard of a family where every single person in the family was born to an Order."
"It frightens me," admitted Seraph, glancing at the boys, who were packing away the last of the dinnerware. "My father's favorite saying was, 'When you find a coin on the road and pick it up, it's certain that you'll need twice that ere you walk another mile.' He used to say that the Orders went where they were most necessary. I don't want to be in the middle of an event that needs a Raven, Owl, Eagle, Falcon, and Cormorant."
Hennea smiled a little. "Neither do I. Maybe I should go my own way."
She was joking, but Seraph nodded solemnly. "I would keep that in mind. Having you help us find Tier would be very helpful - but certainly dangerous. There is no need for you to risk your life for someone you've never even met."
Hennea laughed and shook her head. "That's the Raven's calling, you know that. Go out and risk your life for someone who'd just as soon that you burned as lived."
"Perverse," grinned Seraph. "It did always seem that the ones who most needed help were the ones who wanted it least. Anyway, I got the mermora out to call Isolda's house and see if someone in her time had managed something like the Ordered stones."
"They didn't have the Orders when Isolda's library was collected," said Hennea.
"No," agreed Seraph. "But they did a lot of evil in the search for knowledge. They might have come up with something that will help us. I don't want to destroy those stones without understanding what that will do to the Order trapped there."
Jes and Lehr, finished with their tasks, came to see what Seraph was doing. She pushed the mermora into the dirt and called Isolda's house into being.