Robin Hobb - Renegade's Magic

While she was off doing that, I was left in charge of the children, including Solina. The baby was supposed to take another nap while Epiny was gone. Instead, she woke the moment the door closed and began to cry lustily. I was pathetically grateful when a gingerly check of her napkin revealed that it was still clean and dry. I picked the babe up, put her on my shoulder and walked about the room as I had seen Epiny do. The three children had gathered to witness my incompetence. Solina’s wails only grew louder.

“You’re supposed to bounce her a little while you walk,” Sem offered helpfully.

“No!” Kara said disdainfully. “That’s what women do. He’s supposed to sit in the rocker and rocker her and sing her a song.”

As neither the walking nor the bouncing had helped, this seemed a good idea. Once I was seated with Solina, they all gathered round me so closely that I feared I would rock on small toes. “Rock her!” Sem commanded me impatiently.

“And sing her a nursery song,” Kara added imperiously. Obviously they had gauged Epiny’s attitude toward me and based their own upon it. And so I laboriously rocked and sang the nursery songs that I knew. Dia made so bold as to climb up on my lap and join the baby. When I had worked through my nursery songs, and Solina had quieted but not fallen asleep, Kara asked me thoughtfully, “Do you know any counting songs?”

“Oh, one or two,” I admitted, and her theory proved correct, for before we had counted backward from the ten little lambs for the second time, the baby was sleeping. It was tricky to get Dia off my lap and then stand without waking Solina, and trickier still to put her back in her little bed without waking her. I shooed the other children out of the room. Sem and Dia had readily scampered off down the hall, but Kara waited for me. As I shut the door of the room, she reached up in the dimness and took my hand. She looked up at me, her small face pale in the darkened corridor.

“You’re him, aren’t you? The man that gave us food that winter.”

“Kara, I—”

“I know it’s you, so don’t lie. You sang the same songs before. Don’t you remember? And I heard the Lieutenant call you Nevare. And Mum said you would come back someday. Maybe.” She didn’t give me a chance to confirm or deny her words. She took a sharp breath. “And my mother’s in trouble, isn’t she? That’s why she hasn’t come home.”

“She’s in a little bit of trouble. But we think that it will be sorted out soon and—”

“Because there’s a plan.” She interrupted me. “If my mother is ever in trouble, there’s a plan. She made it and she told it to me.” Her head came up and she added gravely, “I’m in charge of it. I have to remember it.”

She kept my hand in a small firm grip and led me to the little room that they all shared. She knelt beside the bedstead to pull up the loosened floorboard. The “plan” proved to be a small sack of coins hidden there. In with the coins was a simple silver ring with a rose engraved on it. “I’m to give this bag to the missus and ask her to keep taking care of us. She’s to have it all, except the ring. She has to keep that safe in case Sem ever wants to grow up and marry a girl, so he’ll have a ring to give her. It was our grandma’s.”

“That’s a good plan,” I told her. “But I hope we won’t need it. I’m going to try to get your mother out of trouble. Then we’ll come for you. If the missus can arrange it, you and Dia and Sem will be in a house at the edge of town. Your mum and I will come there, load you in the cart, and go. But you can’t tell Sem or Dia about the plan yet. You have to keep it secret and remember it, and help them to be good until I come for you tonight. Can you do that?”

“Of course. But where is our mother? And where have you been and why were you gone so long?”

“Those are all questions that I’m going to have to answer later, Kara. For now, you’ll have to trust me.”

At that, she looked at me doubtfully, but finally nodded gravely.

When Epiny returned, she was not pleased to discover how much Kara knew. “That’s a big burden to put on very small shoulders,” she scolded me.

“You’re the one who keeps telling me not to lie to people,” I replied, and she sighed in exasperation.

There was no time for us to have doubts about it. Epiny loaded the children into the cart and took them off to her friend’s house. By the time she returned, on foot, Solina had awakened. Epiny took the baby from me and bowed her head over her child. “It struck me as I was leaving them there that I might never see them again. I wanted to say good-bye, but could not, for fear of alarming them or making Agna wonder what was going on. It was so hard to leave them there. Kara was so calm about all of it, but Sem demanded to know why they had to stay there for the night. Dia was busy looking at Agna’s two goats. I don’t think she even noticed I’d gone.”

I took my cousin in my arms and held her and her child close for a moment. “It won’t be the last time you’ll see them, I promise. I’ll get Amzil out of her cell, and she and the children and I will get cleanly away. And when we can, I’ll send word to you. And someday you’ll see all of us again.”

There was a knock at the door and I let her go. It was the neighbor’s housemaid, Rasalle, with Lieutenant Gerry’s carefully bundled clothing. Our time to hesitate was over. All was as ready as we could make it. I retreated to Spink’s room to dress for my charade.

Ican’t just stay here while he goes,” Epiny protested to Spink. Her husband had just come in the door, and she had practically run to him to try to sway him from my cruel order.

“What are you talking about?”

I stepped around the corner into the hall, tugging at my collar. Had clothing always been this uncomfortable? Spink’s second pair of boots were, despite his small size, a bit too large on me. The old workaday sword belt that held my mediocre weapon looked out of place with my fine new clothes, but I refused to set out completely unarmed. I’d have given a great deal to have Sergeant Duril’s little “pepper pot” gun. Epiny had Spink’s back to the door and was looking at him with rebuke. I rescued him.

“Epiny, it’s not up to Spink. It’s my decision. You’re not going.” To Spink I said, “I’ve told her that she must stay here while I call on the Captain. One way or another, I’ll have that key. One way or another, I’ll have Amzil tonight. The children and the cart are already waiting for us on the edge of town. If I must do violence, I don’t want either of you involved.” I rounded on Epiny and spoke as severely as I could to her. “If you go, you’ll only rouse suspicion. I know it’s hard. But what you must do right now is stay here and wait.”

She turned to Spink. “Couldn’t we go to the prison and be there, in case he needs our help?”

“And take Solina and put her in danger? Or risk alerting the guards that we are up to something? No, dear. Hard as it is, you will both have to stay here and keep the candles lit and preserve the illusion that you are enjoying a quiet supper together.”

“I can’t do it!” Epiny wailed, even as Spink looked at me aghast and said, “Surely you don’t mean for me to stay here like a tethered dog while you face all the danger?”

“I do mean it. And, Epiny, you will. For Solina’s sake. And, quite bluntly, for the sake of Spink’s career. It cannot look like he had anything to do with this. It’s bad enough that it will be known that your cousin was involved. But I think you can make me out to be extremely eccentric or the black sheep of the family. Or simply say you have no idea why I did it.”