into the cellar and bring me a little sack of flour? I need to bake some bread for supper tonight.”
Nicholas nods and runs into the back room, where I assume there must be a trapdoor into the cellar.
Before she begins crying again she stands and repeats one word: “How?”
“He took an arrow,” I say. “But the arrow didn’t kill him. The wound got infected and he struggled with it for days. His passing was peaceful. He was able to give us each a few words before he… left.”
She chokes, “Where is he buried?”
“Above the falls in the Living Vale. Jarl Hralfar was willing to have a small tomb built in the cavern. Nothing will disturb him there.”
She nods briskly. As Nicholas comes back in with a little bag of flour, she manages to compose herself and takes it when he hands it to her. “Thank you,” she says.
“Know that I will avenge him,” I say bitterly. “All servants of those who dared take his life. They will die under me.”
My mother looks at me, alarmed. She has no words to describe her feeling, but she does say, “You’re going back out there?”
I nod.
Her face falls even further. She can barely say one word. “Why?”
“Because it’s my duty,” I respond. “I must not allow this destruction to advance.”
Nathaniel looks up guiltily. “I’m going with him,” he says.
She only says, “I have already lost your father. Do I have to lose you too?”
“You will not lose me,” I respond. “I will return.”
There’s an awkward silence.
“I’m in need of a very long nap,” mutters Gunther. “But first I shall have a large breakfast, I think.”
“And a bath,” I say enthusiastically.
“Agreed,” pipes Nathaniel.
“Where will you stay?” asks Mother.
“Well, this is my house,” answers Gunther as he pulls a little barrel of dried apricots from the small pantry. “Kadmus and Nathaniel may stay if they want.”
“We have no bed,” I say. “But the barracks in the Keep has plenty. I’ll stay there.”
“And I’ll go with you,” says Nathaniel.
“First stay and eat,” says Gunther.
And so we do, taking turns napping on Gunther’s bed. Each of us takes a long well-deserved bath in the little bathroom off to the side, using water heated up over the fire. I have just lain down in pristinely clean clothes when there’s a frantic sudden knock at the door.
The door opens and I hear a scream, but it is a scream of joy rather than a scream of terror.
I roll out of the bed and walk to the main room where Gunther and Rachel are making their engagement very apparent by attempting to eat each other’s faces. Suppressing a laugh I walk back to the bed before Nathaniel steals it from me.
For the night Nathaniel and I go back to the Keep and sleep in the barracks.
That’s where I see James, Percival, and Jericho again. We’re all so tired, however, that we simply acknowledge each others’ presence and go to sleep.
The next morning, during breakfast, is when we catch up. I hug James and congratulate him on living.
“Living’s nothing,” he says. “What’d you do this time?”
“I led us through the Keep,” I say. “Nothing too big.”
“That’s a load of dingflies,” Percival butts in. “He killed another troll and took on the enemy commander.”
James raises an eyebrow at me. “I told you you were Trollslayer,” he says. “The commander? What was his name? Tyranny or something?”
“Tyrannus,” I correct.
“You kill him?”
I nod. “With his own sword,” I say darkly.
“Oh I didn’t know that,” says Percival, intrigued.
Both of James’s eyebrows go up. “How’d you manage that?” he asks me.
“Same way I manage anything anymore,” I say.
Jarl Hralfar enters the room and walks to me. He rests his hand on my shoulder and says, “When did you want to take the oath?”
“The oath?” questions James.
“To become a true soldier,” explains the Jarl, “You must take the oath. Have you not?” Every one of us shakes our head.
“Well then we’ll have some hardy additions to the army today, won’t we? Whenever you are finished you can come find me and we will take care of it.”
“I thought you said it needed to be done in the throne room,” I question.
“This is the throne room,” he replies. “Or was. Once upon a time.”
It’s not so much a throne room as it is a dining room. The ceiling is high and arched. Two rows of pillars stand on each side of the room, almost splitting it into three separate halls. In the middle sits a large decorated chair,