blurted it out. ‘We get along with each other fairly well, don’t we,
Killane?’ I asked him directly.
‘Yer a reasonable sort of employer – fer a woman – an’ y’ seldom
ask th’ impossible. I kin more or less stand bein’ around y’.’
‘Don’t strain yourself trying to flatter me, Killane.’
He laughed. ‘Come t’ th’ point, Lady-O,’ he told me. ‘Don’t beat
around th’ bush.’
‘How would you like to work for me?’ I put it to him.
‘I thought I was.’
‘I don’t mean just fixing up the house. I mean permanently. This
is quite a large house. I can take care of it myself, if I have to, but
there’ll be times when I’ll have to be away for extended periods,
and I’d rather not have the house fall back into the condition she was
in when I first saw her. To get right to the point, I need somebody to
manage the place for me. Would you be interested?’
‘I’m no servant, Lady-o. Me manners ain’t always too polished,
don’t y’ know.’
‘You haven’t managed to offend me yet.’
‘Give me some time, Lady-o. We’ve only hardly just met.’
‘Would you consider it?’
‘I guess we kin try it fer a year or so, me Lady.’
‘Why so formal, Killane?’
‘It ain’t hardly proper fer me t’ be callin’ me employer “Lady-O”,’
he replied.
‘I don’t mind in the slightest, Killane.’ I looked around. Now that
all the clutter and debris had been removed, the house was almost
alarmingly large. ‘We’re probably going to need servants, aren’t
we?’ I suggested a bit tentatively.
‘That we are, Lady-O,’ he said, grinning. ‘I ain’t exactly th’ world’s
greatest w’ a mop or a broom, an’ me cookin’ leaves worlds to be
desired.’
I laughed, fondly laying one hand on his wrist. ‘You’re the one
who’ll be in charge of them, Killane, so hire some people you can
get along with.’
He bowed with a surprising grace. ‘As y’ wish, Lady-o. I’ll be
after bringin’ in a wagon first thing in th’ mornin’.’
‘What for?’
‘Did Y’ plan to’ sleep on th’ floor? A bit o’ furniture might be in
order, wouldn’t y’ say?’ Then he pulled a bundle of paper out of
his tunic pocket. ‘Now, then, shall we git down t’ th’ unpleasant
business o’ all these bills?’ he suggested.
It took Killane and me a couple of weeks to shop around and buy
furniture, drapes, carpeting, and assorted decorations to break up
the starkness of those bare white walls. And then the servants
mostly Killane’s relatives – began to arrive. Nepotism offends some
people, but my own peculiar situation made it seem the most natural
thing in the world. It took us all a while to get used to each other,
and it took me even longer to get used to being waited upon hand
and foot. About the only really serious problem I had was with my
cook, one of Killane’s numerous cousins, who really didn’t like the
way I frequently invaded her kitchen to either lend a hand or make
suggestions. In time we worked that out, and all in all, I was happy
and content.
The summer after I’d taken up residence in my house, Duke
Kathandrion and I went on down to the Great Fair for the annual
meeting of what was coming to be known as ‘the Arendish Council’.
That name wasn’t particularly original, but it was modeled,
after all, on the ‘alorn Council’ held at Riva, and Arends are
fond of traditions – even those that aren’t their own. There were
some frictions that needed to be smoothed over, but nothing
major.
What interested me far more than politics that summer was the
fact that Baroness Asrana was with child.
‘Is it always this awkward and cumbersome, Polly?’ she asked
me one evening after the day’s business meeting was over.
‘Usually,’ I replied. ‘When are you due?’
‘Early this coming winter ~ about forever and six days.’
‘I’ll come down to Vo Mandor and lend you a hand.’
‘Oh, you don’t have to do that, Polly.’
‘Yes, as a matter of fact I do. Strange as it may seem, I’m very
fond of you, Asrana, and I’m not going to leave you in the hands
of strangers.’
‘But – I
‘Hush, Asrana. It’s settled.’
‘Yes, ma’am.’ It sounded submissive, but I knew Asrana well
enough to know that submission and humility were not part of her
nature.
After the council meetings were over, Kathandrion and I rode
on back to Vo Wacune. ‘Somehow this all seems very strange,’
Kathandrion mused on the last day of our journey.
‘What does?’
‘Meeting and sitting down with hereditary enemies.’
‘You might as well get used to it, Kathandrion. So long as I’m
around – and I’ll be around for a long, long time – this annual
get-together’s going to be a fixture in Arendia. Talking with people
is far better than fighting with them.’
‘What an unnatural thing to suggest.’
I rolled my eyes upward with a theatrical look of long-suffering
resignation. ‘Arends,’ I sighed.
Kathandrion laughed. ‘I just love it when you do that, Polgara,’
he said. ‘It makes everything we do seem so childish.’
‘It is, Kathandrion. Believe me, it is.’
The rest of the summer passed without incident, but the autumn
was filled with social events. Evidently that’s an Arendish custom:
‘Rest all summer, and then have parties until the snow flies.’
Killane accompanied me on down to Vo Mandor when I calculated
that Asrana’s time was approaching. He didn’t ask; he didn’t
suggest; he just did it. ‘I’ll not be after lettin’ y’ travel alone, Lady-O,’
he told me when I protested. ‘Settin aside th’ dangers, yer social
standin’ would suffer were it t’ become known that y’ can’t afford
a proper escort, don’t y’ know.’
I didn’t make an issue of it, since I rather enjoyed his company,
and I was amused at the way servants frequently bully their
employers. Killane took what he believed to be his duties quite
seriously.
It was snowing when we reached Vo Mandor, a thick, swirling
snow that blotted out everything more than a few yards away with
a seething cloud of white. Mandorin greeted me very warmly, and
he had that worried expression on his face that seems to mark the
visage of every expectant father.
I turned the Baron of Vo Mandor over to Killane with instructions
to keep him out of my hair and proceeded to tend the grossly
expectant baroness. There were narcotic compounds I knew of to
moderate her labor pains, and if it came right down to it, I could
put her to sleep with a single thought. It didn’t get down to that,
though, because Asrana’s delivery of her son was a fairly easy one.
Mandorin was so proud that he nearly burst. New fathers are like
that, I’ve noticed.
There was nothing really pressing to draw me immediately back
to Vo Wacune. My house was in the care of Killane’s capable
relatives, and traveling in the winter isn’t very pleasant, so I gave in to
the urgings of Mandorin and Asrana to stay over until the bad
weather was past.
It was pleasant to spend time with old friends, and then too, I
got to play with the baby quite a bit. But spring inevitably arrived,
and Killane and I started making preparations for our return to Vo
Wacune.
AS it turned out, however, another old friend came by on the
afternoon of the day before we’d planned to depart. Earl Mangaran,
the de facto Duke of Asturia, had been conferring with Corrolin
in Vo Mimbre, and, accompanied by his heavily armed troop of
bodyguards, he came riding up the long causeway to Vo Mandor.
Mangaran hadn’t noticeably aged since the coup that had elevated
him to the throne, but his eyes looked very tired. After all the
greetings in the courtyard, Mandorin led us to a secure room high
in one of the towers to discuss certain state matters. Given the nature
of Vo Mandor, I didn’t really think those precautions were necessary,
but this was still Arendia, after all.
‘Well, Mangaran,’ Asrana asked after we’d all seated ourselves,
‘did some emergency send you off to Vo Mimbre, or did you just
yearn for Duke Corrolin’s company?’
Mangaran passed a weary hand across his face. ‘I sometimes think
I might have been wiser to have left town when you ladies were
plotting our little revolution, he said. ‘Now I think I know why
Oldoran spent all his time up to his eyebrows in drink. There are
so many details.’ He sighed mournfully. ‘I went on down to Vo
Mimbre to advise Duke Corrolin that there’s serious trouble in Vo
Astur. Now I’m on my way to Vo Wacune to talk with Duke
Kathandrion about the same matter. I’m advising the both of them that
they’d better form a strong alliance. Asturia’s right on the verge of