Danello smiled. “Nya’s exaggerating, but there are some sainters out there talking about the flash in Baseer like it’s a sign from the Saints.”
Ouea tucked a greying strand of hair behind an ear. “People turn to faith when they’re frightened. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.”
“Probably not.” Especially when there was enough in my worry bowl already. “Maybe Jeatar knows where they came from.”
“Could be.” Ouea nodded.
“Can you ask him tomorrow?” Danello said. “I was hoping we could spend the day together. Fun, remember? You’ve been working so hard lately.”
With nothing to show for it. Three times we’d sneaked out to Baseer – or as close as we could get – to search for Tali. But the rumours had been false, and the leads had led nowhere.
Ouea cleared her throat. “Danello? Where’s my picnic basket?”
“Um.” He winced. “In the garden.”
“You weren’t going to leave it there, were you?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Then go get it.”
Danello looked at me, then at the door. Ouea kept staring at him over the basket of mangoes. Her two young helpers kept their eyes on the peppers, but both girls were trying hard not to giggle.
“Wait for me in the kitchen garden?” he asked. “We still have a picnic to finish.”
I smiled. “Definitely.”
Danello dashed out, and Ouea went back to peeling mangoes. “He’s a good boy, that one is. Even if he is a bit forgetful at times.”
“Yeah, he’s great.” I glanced towards the door to the rest of the farmhouse. It would take Danello a while to run all the way out to the pond and back. Surely I had time to see if there was any news about Tali or those sainters. I’d be in the kitchen garden before him. “Jeatar in the library?”
“Last I checked.”
Hope and dread tugged at my heart. Maybe today I’d find out where Tali was. Or maybe I’d learn there was no reason to look for her any more.
And Saints help me, I wasn’t sure which would be worse.
The library door was open but I knocked anyway. Onderaan and Jeatar looked up in unison. One smiled, one didn’t.
I frowned. “What happened?”
“Forget about going to Baseer,” Jeatar said, stone-faced as always.
“Why?” Please don’t say Tali’s dead. Please don’t.
“There’s massive troop movement along the river, and transport ships are being moved into the harbour. Looks like the Duke is mobilising his army.”
“Do you know where?”
“Not yet, but from the number of ships, it looks like an invasion.”
My chest tightened. “Geveg?”
“Or Verlatta, the mining towns, any of the river provinces.”
“If not all of them.” Onderaan shook his head and sighed deeply, for a moment looking so much like Papa I had to look away. It was still hard to believe he was my uncle. That I even had an uncle, let alone a Baseeri one. “This could be the start of a major campaign.”
I’d seen one of those before, five years ago when the Duke invaded Geveg and killed my parents. My Grannyma. When he burned the city of Sorille to the ground to kill his brothers – rivals for the throne.
“Any news from Geveg?” Last we’d heard, there were still riots, though it hadn’t turned into a full uprising yet. Information was sparse, since Jeatar had sent most of his spies and scouts to Baseer, but he had a few Gevegian contacts left.
Jeatar hesitated, glancing at Onderaan. Not a good sign. “Unconfirmed rumours say the Governor-General is dead.”
“Seriously?” A surprise, but it didn’t bother me none if he was. He’d been appointed by the Duke and treated Gevegians like we were trash. “Who’s in charge now? Another Baseeri or a Gevegian?”
“I’m waiting to hear from my contacts there, but so far, nothing.”
“If Geveg’s in full rebellion,” Onderaan said, “then the Duke would certainly want to end it before it inspired anyone else to fight back.”
I nodded. “Like the mining towns.” The Duke invaded us the first time for our pynvium, and he had to need more of it. I’d destroyed his foundry, stolen some, and ruined the rest of his supply of the raw metal. When Baseer revolted, he would have needed more weapons to subdue his own people, more healing bricks for his troops, using up the little pynvium he’d had left. He had to be running low by now.
Was he also running low on Healers?
He’d been kidnapping and experimenting on them for months, but with all the fighting, he had to be using them to heal his troops.
“Do you think Tali is with him?”
Jeatar didn’t hesitate this time. “Yes.”
“Can we—”
“No, you can’t go after her. The Healers will be heavily protected, probably at the centre of the army. Most likely guarded by Undying.”
The Undying didn’t scare me all that much, but the Duke’s Healer-soldiers were deadly to everyone else. How could you stop someone who could heal their own wounds, push the pain into their pynvium armour, and keep on fighting? They cut through regular soldiers like farmers cut through wheat.
“Nya, we’ll find her,” Onderaan said softly. “I owe it to Peleven to keep his girls safe.”
Papa.
He had also been Baseeri, though I hadn’t known that until a few months ago. I didn’t like to think about what that made me. Baseer had always been the enemy, but I had Baseeri friends now, Baseeri family. Baseeri blood.
“What do we do?”
“About Tali?” Jeatar said. “Nothing until we know something solid. Same with Geveg. As for the Duke, we’ll keep watching and wait to see what his plans are.”
I’d never been good at waiting. In Geveg, doing nothing got you killed. You had to find food, find work, find shelter from the soldiers. Keep your eyes open, your wits sharp. You had to move and keep moving, or trouble found you.
But I wasn’t in Geveg any more.
“Perhaps you should stay close to the house for the next few days,” Onderaan said. “Just in case people are looking for you.”
“I can’t. I have food duty.” Besides, lots of folks knew me around here anyway. A spy wouldn’t need to see me to learn I was here.
“I’m sure Jeatar can find someone to fill in for you.” He glanced at Jeatar, who paused and looked at me as if unsure whether or not to agree to that.
I bristled. I liked helping out. At least I was doing something useful and not just waiting for news. “There is no one to fill in for me. People are spread thin enough as it is. If I’m not there, everyone else has to work harder, and that’s not fair.”
“Not everyone else is in danger.”
I folded my arms. “We’re all in danger – mine’s just more personal.”
Jeatar’s