They settled into the patterns of journeying that Seraph remembered. Hennea and Jes in front, Seraph and Lehr bringing up the rear with Skew. Gura scouted about, taking anxious trips back to make certain they were all still walking as he'd left them. After a week's travel, Seraph felt as if she were slowly sloughing off the skin of the Redern farmer's wife she had been.
Every evening she took out Isolda's mermora and searched through her library to find out what to do with the Ordered stones.
"Why don't you use them?" asked Lehr, one evening. He was seated on the other side of the little table from Seraph, playing with the game pieces to a game no one knew how to play. "We almost lost all to Volis - and there will be more wizards with Papa. Wouldn't the extra power be useful?"
"Travelers don't like to deal with the dead," said Jes. He was curled up on the floor with as much of Gura on his lap as he could get, grooming the dog with a silver comb that Isolda had kept by her bed.
"It's not that exactly," said Hennea, looking up from a book. "But we understand that it can be dangerous to play with dark magics."
"Especially when doing so leaves you vulnerable to the Stalker," agreed Seraph. "Since we have seen that he is already concerned in these matters, we'd be foolish to allow him an invitation to one of us."
"I like walking," said Jes contentedly.
Hennea looked over at him. His eyes were half-shut and his face raised toward the sun. Seraph and Lehr had dropped behind them a while back; Jes's usual pace was faster than Skew liked. Seraph didn't want to push the old horse, so Hennea and Jes would walk ahead and then sit and wait for the others to catch up.
"What do you like about it?" she asked him.
"The Guardian is happy, because we're going to get Papa," he said. "And Rinnie is safe with Aunt Alinath. I don't like Aunt Alinath, but I know that Rinnie does. I know that Aunt Alinath will keep her safe. Mother and Lehr are safe, too, because they are with me and with Skew and Gura. I am outside and the sun is shining and making my face warm."
"I like walking, too," Hennea admitted.
"Why?" He bounced once on his heels and then turned his head to look at her with a bright smile that lit his eyes and summoned the deep dimple in his cheek.
She smiled back; she'd found that it was impossible not to respond to Jes when he was happy. "For the same reasons you have. Walking means that right this moment, nothing bad is happening. There are interesting things to look at. My feet like to feel the road under them."
"Yes," he said contentedly. "It's just like that."
After a minute he said, "Lehr is not happy."
"He doesn't like walking?" she asked.
He frowned, "I don't think that's it. I think he worries too much. He is like the Guardian, you know. He thinks that he needs to take care of everyone. He doesn't know about walking. He finds things that are bad and tries to solve them before they happen."
Hennea said, "You know your brother pretty well, don't you?"
Jes nodded. "He is my brother and I love him. He is not afraid of the Guardian; he loves the Guardian, too. I like that. Rinnie loves us, too. But she doesn't want to be a Guardian anymore because she can play with the wind."
"I like your family, Jes," Hennea said softly.
He smiled again. "I do too."
A week's travel from Korhadan, the first of the large cities that lay between them and Taela, they stopped to eat lunch a little distance from another, larger party that they'd been trailing for a few days.
"We could eat on the road, Mother," said Lehr to Seraph as she sat down beside him. "We could make another mile in the time it takes for Jes to finish eating."
She shook her head. "And lose more miles in a few days when Skew is too tired to go on. It's all right to push hard if your journey's end is in a day or two, but we have to strike a speed that we can hold on to for a month or more. How is that blister you had?"
"Fine."
"Traveler whore!"
Seraph was on her feet before the young man's bellow had finished; her eyes found Hennea