ya promised not ta tell Blackstone who attacked them.”
Oh? Come to think of it, he was right. Siobhan gave him an admiring glance. “Rune, you crafty rascal. You’re quite right, I did promise them only that, didn’t I? In that case…Guildmaster, it was Silent Order that did the attack. In all fairness, however, they were hired to do so and did not know the identity of their victims.”
“Silent Order,” he hissed between clenched teeth. “Hired or not, they should have known better. Who hired them?”
“Now that’s a question I don’t have a whole answer to. The only thing that my informant could tell me was that it was a guild from Coravine.”
Jarnsmor blinked at her blankly. “Coravine? Coravine, Orin?”
“You know, that’s exactly what my reaction was.” Siobhan rubbed at the bridge of her nose briefly. “It still doesn’t make an ounce of sense to me. I hope that once you, and the guildmaster of Silver Moon, put your heads together with Lirah, you can come up with a good explanation. I’d even take a good theory at this point.”
He rubbed at his chin in deep contemplation. “Of all the ideas I entertained, this wasn’t among them. How very mysterious. But theorizing can wait, I think, until they are safely here. How many are injured?”
“Thirteen heavily injured, two lightly so,” Wolf supplied behind her.
“I’ll make preparations.”
“Sir, I haven’t found a moment yet to send word back to Blackstone reassuring Darrens that we found them,” Siobhan offered.
“I’ll notify him as well,” Jarnsmor promised.
“Also, can you tell me if Guildmaster Hammon has arrived safely?”
“Indeed he has, two weeks ago.” Jarnsmor tapped a fist against his lips. “I wonder why he wasn’t attacked as well?”
Also a question she wanted an answer to. Siobhan had quite a stack of things that didn’t make sense to her at the moment and she didn’t like it. “I’m just as grateful he wasn’t, sir, as his son is in my guild.”
Jarnsmor’s brows shot up. “Is he now? Then should I inform Hammon he’s coming?”
“It wouldn’t hurt.” She’d certainly tell Markl his father was safe and sound. “But for now, I’d like to go back to Vakkiod and help Lirah get everyone ready for transport. I have a Pathfinder standing by, ready to bring people here. If you can have your escort wait for us at the path’s end? We only need them for escort through the city and to here.”
“Certainly. No one can attack while you’re on the path, after all.”
True. An open path was impenetrable to anyone outside of it. It was one of the benefits of traveling that Siobhan enjoyed. That and skipping over hundreds of spans within minutes.
“Then with your leave, we’ll return shortly.”
It was no mean feat moving all of Lirah’s party to Iron Dragain’s main compound. Her people were willing, but hurting, and everyone took care to move them as painlessly as possible. Even with dedicated help, it took most of the day to make the trip and get them settled again.
At least they were in better quarters now. Jarnsmor gave them a whole wing of rooms that were right in the main building, each room a near copy of its neighbor. The rooms all had two mid-sized poster beds, a small table and chairs in the center of the room, with a window that looked out over a manicured garden. It had an airiness that the cramped storage room in Vakkiod had not, and Siobhan fancied that a person couldn’t help but feel a little better staying in rooms these nice.
Because of her preoccupation with Blackstone’s people, Siobhan missed it when Hammon Senior came and found his eldest son. In fact, she hadn’t even known the man was in the building until she went into the common room that linked all the rooms together.
Markl, who sat facing her direction, caught her eye and waved her forward. She did so without hesitation, openly studying the man sitting on the couch next to him. Superficially, he didn’t look in the least like Markl. His hair was a dark chestnut, skin pale from lack of sun, with a paunch that suggested he preferred sitting at a desk over being out and about. But then he turned to look at her, smiling in greeting, and she saw the similarity. He had the same smile and easy charm as his son.
He rose to his feet at her approach, Markl rising with him and offering the introductions, “Father, this is Siobhan Maley, Guildmaster of Deepwoods. Siobhan, my father,