On the wooden stage at the front of the audience, fanciful puppets in the garb of warriors and kings, mana beasts and mages, jerked and danced about under the guidance of hidden puppeteers. As a knight spun about and leaned over, his sword knocked a crowned puppet over, and laughter rippled through the audience. Wedged in between Liv and Keri, Rei laughed in glee and clapped his hands. A warm blanket of white fox fur had been wrapped around him like a shawl.

“I wonder what Benedict would think if he could see this?” Rose asked, from the other side. Liv turned her head just enough to see that her friend - her lover, Liv mentally corrected herself, though that was so new that it brought a blush to her cheeks - was grinning like a wolf.

“He would be furious,” Sidonie commented, from the row just behind where they were seated. She leaned forward in between Rose and Liv to be heard. “It’s obviously him, after all - even if they call the character ‘King Benny. ”

“Look, look!” Rei tugged on Liv’s sleeve to direct her attention back to the puppet stage, where ‘King Benny’ was now beating the knight with his sceptre. The puppet-king was so violent in his assaults that his crown slipped down over his eyes, blinding him and causing him to miss. The mixed crowd of Eld and humans laughed right along with the little boy - though Liv did catch a few Lucanian merchants who were frowning, shaking their heads, or slipping out through the crowd.

“It doesn’t look like everyone appreciates the humor,” Liv remarked to the other two women. “But I’m glad Rei is enjoying himself.”

“That’s part of the plan too, actually,” Sidonie explained. “Not the boy - well, yes, we want children to enjoy the puppet shows. But those merchants will be followed and identified. Their loyalty to Benedict marks them as potential spies or saboteurs. Elder Aira will have them watched for as long as they remain in Al’Fenthia.”

“She’s like a fencing master,” Rose concluded. “Except somehow things like this puppet show are her blade. Every feint conceals the true attack, every opening is to lure her opponent in. It’s an absolutely ridiculous way of thinking. I can’t wrap my head around it.”

The crowd erupted into applause as the puppeteers - two Elden men and a single woman - emerged from behind the stage and took their bows. As Liv and her friends hauled themselves up from the wooden stands, Wren and Ghveris pushed their way through the bustle, closing in around the group protectively. Keri lifted his son up onto his shoulders, Liv rearranged the fox fur to cover the boy snuggly, and together they all made their way back out from the theater to the street.

Having the Antrian juggernaut with them made the entire endeavor quite a bit easier. Not only did Ghveris’ immense, armored bulk tower above anyone else in the crowd, giving the ancient warrior a view of everything that happened around them, three days had not been sufficient time for the populace of Al’Fenthia to get used to having a living war machine in their presence. Liv couldn’t help but grin at the sight of merchants, off-duty guards, and other citizens of the Elden city jostling up against him, looking up, up, and up, and then backing away with wide eyes.

As they walked through the trading quarter toward the gates which led into the Elden neighborhoods of Al’Fenthia, Rose happily linked her arm with Liv’s. “Everyone’s already looking at us because of the big guy,” she teased. “You should have just worn the crown.”

“If people don’t already know who I am, there’s no need for me to make it even more obvious,” Liv countered. “I’m certain news will get back to Freeport eventually, but I’d rather put that off as long as I can.”

The crowd thinned out as they walked, as the audience turned off onto different streets to return to their homes, visit nearby shops, or go in search of a hot meal. A light snowfall drifted down from the gray winter sky, and the roads themselves were covered in a cold, wet sludge made up of equal parts mud and ice.

“When do you need to have Rei back at Mountain Home?” Liv asked, from where she walked between Keri and Rose. “This afternoon, or tonight?”

“We have agreed that he will remain for the evening meal,” Keri answered. “But then I will take him back in time to be put to bed.”

“No!” Rei declared, from the boy’s position atop his father’s shoulders. “I wanna go with you, Daddy. Keep you safe from the bad men.” He wrapped his arms around Keri’s head tightly.

“Your father has Ghveris to keep him safe,” Liv pointed out, jerking a thumb back in the direction of the juggernaut. “But someone needs to keep your mother safe at Mountain Home, Rei. Can you do that for us?”

The blonde-haired little boy glared down at Liv suspiciously, as if he suspected he was being manipulated but could not quite find fault in her argument. Rei had just opened his mouth to respond when Ghveris rushed forward, faster than anything that large had any right to move. A sharp clang echoed out across the street, and a crossbow bolt skittered off the Antrian’s armor, then whistled through the air on a wobbling course to stick into the wall of a nearby merchant stall.

All around Liv and her friends, passers-by screamed and ran, or dropped to the ground. Keri swung his son down from his shoulders, and Liv drew her wand, clicked the third button, and summoned a curved wall of ice to surround them.

“Archer on the roof,” Ghveris rumbled, and a panel on the war-machine’s shoulder popped up, revealing the six barrels - he’d been explaining the proper terms for his weaponry to Liv, while she and the others had begun teaching him Lucanian. The weapon spun into motion, barked out a succession of reports, and a scream sounded as a body tumbled down from the top of a bakery.

“Crossbowman,” Wren corrected, then dashed out around the icewall to go check the body.

Rei was crying, pressed against the ground with his father’s body covering him protectively. Liv couldn’t blame him: her own heart was pounding, she felt hot, and a bit dizzy. She was pretty confident that bolt had been meant for her. “Hey, it’s alright,” she murmured to the little boy, as much to comfort herself as him. “Everything is fine. We’re safe.”

Within moments, city guards had cleared the street, and Wren had jogged back over. “Human,” she said, which wasn’t much of a surprise. “I can’t find anything to identify him, but it seems pretty obvious who would want you dead, Liv.”

“Agreed,” Sidonie said, from where she crouched behind the icewall. “Benedict.”

“Is it safe to move?” Keri asked.

“Looks like House Keria’s guards have mostly cleared the street,” Wren said, peering around. She didn’t show any fear of another bolt, but then again, she could also dissolve into a mist of blood when threatened, Liv reminded herself. Something the rest of them were not capable of.

“I think I’d like to get Rei to the waystone now,” Keri said. “If Al’Fenthia isn’t safe any longer, I want him in Mountain Home.”

“We’ll come with you,” Liv offered. “The three of us can send you along, so that you don’t have to use your own mana.”

☙

They ended up accepting an escort of Elden guards, as well, though Liv doubted that a second assassin would make an attempt so close on the heels of the first. The entire city would be on the lookout, now; they’d lost their best chance.

Liv promised to take Rei sledding again the next time she was in Mountain Home, accepted a hug from the little boy, and then touched the white rock, her hand one of three, alongside Rose and Sidonie, to feed the mana-hungry waystone.

“I will return in time for the evening meal,” Keri promised, from where he stood in the center of the circular rock, his hands on his son’s shoulders. The light built around them while Liv and the other two women backed away.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“Stay long enough to put him to bed,” Liv suggested. “It’ll be the last time for a while.”

Before Keri could answer, the light erupting from the waystone flared, and by the time Liv had blinked away the glare, he and his son were both gone.

“Maybe they should both just stay there,” Rose suggested, quietly. “None of the rest of us have children.”

Liv shook her head. “He’s not the sort of person who can stand aside while others are doing the fighting,” she explained.

“I assume we’re headed for Varuna in the morning, then?” Wren asked, as the five of them turned aside from the waystone. The Elden guards recognized them all, by now, and simply saluted Liv as they passed. It felt odd to her, given that it was her father who’d been named to command the Elden soldiers in the field, not Liv herself. But since they’d returned from the Tomb of Celris - with Liv wearing a silver crown on her brow - the salutes and bows had come no matter how she tried to stop them.

“If Arjun’s patient is well enough that we can pry him away,” Liv confirmed. “I know everyone needed a rest, and I’m sorry it's only been three days. I know it isn’t really enough. But if we’re going to have assassins after us here, I think it's time to meet up with my father’s forces.”

Their escort of city guards accompanied them all the way back through the trading district, through the gates into the Elden portion of the city, and then to the treetop manor of House Keria, where the soldiers finally seemed confident leaving them.

It had been something of an open question, when Ghveris returned from the Tomb with them, whether the wooden floors and support beams would be able to withstand the Antrian’s immense weight. That question had only come after the first problem, of course, which was convincing the Elden warriors that this particular war-machine was not an enemy.

However, the construction of the Eld had proved sturdy, even if Ghveris was not willing to attempt the use of a chair or bed. His bulk was large enough that he had to turn sideways to get through most doorways, and so now he and Wren split off from the rest of the group to sit together with their backs against the broad trunk of the great tree which the platform was built to encircle. Liv, Rose and Sidonie continued on into the manor, and to the guest room where Taavetti ka Eliel, of the Unconquered House of Asuris, recovered from his wounds.

Liv knocked on the doorframe, even though the door itself was open, and Arjun’s voice called back in response. “He can have visitors for a short while, but not too long!”

“Too many people crowd the room,” Sidonie murmured. “I’ll see you both at dinner.” She adjusted her spectacles absently with a single finger, then turned and hurried off down the hall.

Liv entered the room, with Rose sliding in just behind her, and approached the bed. “How are you feeling today, Taavetti?”

The Elden man turned toward her, and though he put a smile on his face, Liv could see the pain in his eyes, and she knew the source of it. Taavetti’s lavender hair shifted on his pillows, and Liv did her best not to look at the blankets below his waist, where it was obvious only a single leg remained.

“Livara and Lady Rosamund,” Taavetti said. His voice was still weak, but stronger than it had been when he first regained consciousness. “Thank you for coming to visit me. Your friend here is a chirurgeon of surpassing diligence.”

“What he means by that,” Arjun said, from his chair next to the bed, “is that I’ve been forcing him to eat, despite his objections.” There was a plate of red meat, spinach, and beets resting on a tray table at the bedside.

“My stomach has been empty for forty years,” Taavetti grumbled. “I’ve had enough for now.”

Arjun sighed. “You were preserved in a block of ice, in a pocket of slowed time, with your belly full of whatever you’d last eaten before being wounded,” he corrected. “But maybe Liv can do better. If you’re going to visit, try to make him eat.”

“Fine. You go and take a break,” Liv told her friend. “And get yourself ready to leave. We’re heading to Varuna in the morning.”

“I thought -” Arjun frowned, half-risen from his chair, but Rose interrupted him.

“There was an assassin on our way back from the puppet-show,” the dark-haired woman explained. “We’re moving on before the next one can find us.”

“I understand.” Arjun made his way to the door, allowing Liv to take his seat. “I’ll see you both at the evening meal, then. I have a bit of packing to do.”

“An assassin coming for you?” Taavetti asked.

Liv speared a piece of steak with the fork that Arjun had left on the platter. “When I first met Airis ka Reimis,” she said, “he played a game with me. A game of questions. I’ll answer a question for you after every bite you eat.”

Taavetti groaned. “You’re as wicked as your aunt,” he complained. “Fine then. Give me the rusting steak.”

Liv passed him the fork, and waited until the Elden man was chewing until she spoke. “Yes, an assassin coming for me, I think,” she confirmed. “It was difficult to tell, as Ghveris deflected the bolt, but I’m the one Benedict’s men have been chasing, so it seems a reasonable assumption.”

Rose dragged over another chair next to Liv’s, turned it around, and mounted it like a horse’s saddle, with her arms crossed over the back of the chair to provide a place for her to rest her chin.

“And Benedict is the human king, correct?” Taavetti asked.

Liv nodded toward his plate, and only answered when he took a bit of spinach. “Yes, though that seems a bit of a waste of a question,” she told him. “What did you mean when you said my aunt was wicked?”

“Livara -” Taavetti’s voice broke. “She was the most stubborn, headstrong woman I ever knew. She could be absolutely infuriating, especially when she got an idea in her head. Nothing that anyone else said mattered, she was going to do what she was going to do. And she was so brave -”

The Elden man turned away from Liv, so that he was facing the opposite wall. Though he tried to remain still, she could see his shoulders shake. She felt as if she was intruding on his grief, and turned to look at Rose, instead.

“The six-winged Antrian,” Liv said, after a moment. “He said you were my aunt’s - well, he used the word ‘mate.”

“We were going to make the announcement after we returned from the rift,” Taavetti said, still facing away from the two women.

“You would have been my uncle, then,” Liv said. “I know - I know I look a lot like her. And I understand if it’s too painful to spend much time around me. But if you’d like - I mean, if you’d be willing - I’d like to consider you that, anyway. An uncle. I don’t have any, you know.”

The man in the bed reached over and groped around with his hand until he found Liv’s. “I think I would like that,” Taavetti said. “Not that I will be much good to you, now.”

“I can actually think of a few things that might help you,” Liv said. “They make wheeled chairs, in Freeport, that you could use to get around. Baron Henry, in Whitehill, bought several at once after he was crippled in the Bald Peak rift. I think we could send one of his spares back here for you. And then -” she glanced over to Rose.

“You’re going to need someone with the right words of power,” the other woman warned. “Because I buried the place real good. But Ractia’s people used the machines at the Foundry Rift to make an entire new lower body for one of their people. If it can be repaired, I’m certain it could make you a leg.”

“Well. That’s a bit more hope than I expected,” Taavetti said. He wiped at his face before turning back to the two women. “Though still likely not soon enough for me to give you the sort of aid you need. You said you’re going to Varuna?”

“We are,” Liv confirmed. “We need to meet with my father, and help him to secure a rift.”

“Give Valtteri my greetings, please,” Taavetti asked her, and Liv nodded. “And perhaps you can do something else while you’re there.”

“What?” Liv asked.

“Elder Aira has been kind enough to speak to me, and answer a few of my questions about my family,” Taavetti explained. “So much has happened in forty years that I feel like I’ve been caught in a storm at sea and blown to some strange land. But she was able to tell me one thing that may be useful to you. If you go to that settlement on the Varunan coast -”

“Calder’s Landing,” Rose broke in.

“Yes,” Taavetti said. “That’s the name. I have a sister - Taika - who apparently left the north and lives there now. She might be able to help you in my place. But even if she cannot, I hope you will carry word to her that I am alive. You would be faster than any ship.”

“I’m not certain we’ll make it to the coast,” Liv said. “I’ve only been inland. But if we can, we will.”

“Good luck.” Taavetti sighed. “I’m suddenly quite tired.”

“We’ll let you sleep then,” Liv said. She and Rose stood up, made their way to the door, and then shut it behind them.

“Are you certain about this?” Rose asked. “There’s plenty of places we could flee to to get ahead of a few assassins.”

“I don’t want to run away from them,” Liv told her. She reached out and took the other woman’s hand in her own. “I want to settle what needs to be done in Varuna, and then get back to Whitehill so we can end this. Benedict is a distraction from the real fight. One way or another, we need to put him behind us so we can deal with Ractia.”

“Even if it takes a war?” Rose asked.

Liv nodded.