Magnus

A New Beginning


“Please Father, just let me try,” A small dark haired girl pleaded clinging to the frail hand of an old man who reclined in the bed under her.

He chuckled deep and low. “And what good would it be when you are found out?”

Her long dark hair shook back as she looked at him with tremulous hope, “I’ll be careful. What harm would it be? At worst they send me home with a good education and a fine sword arm.”

He chuckled again closing his eyes as the dreaded crease appeared between his brows. “I won’t lie to my king and tell him that you are my son.”

She shrugged again, not noticing the thin veil of his lids closing her actions from view, “So say that you are sending your child and leave out my name.”

He reached out for my hand, “Oh my Hayleigh, you should have been my son, cunning child that you are. You would have been a fine Baron.”

She laughed a warm ringing note that was deeper than most girls her age, but not so deep as to be manly. She softly patted the hand in hers, looking down at it with loving consternation, “No Father I would be miserable at sitting in audience all day.”

He chuckled again, “Then stay away from that prince.”

Her eyes went round and the sound of her breathing, which was the loudest in the room up until that point, stopped. She was not willing to move even a single muscle to upset the possibility of what had just passed from her Father’s mouth.

“I’ll send the letter, but don’t dishonor your family, and still look for a good husband that I would have liked.”

She swallowed hard, but no longer argued the point of the dwindling length of her Father’s lifespan. Finally she nodded, “I’ll see what I can do,” she replied, but there was a sarcastic turn of her full lips.

The not so old, but extremely frail man, closed his eyes again, “I love you little girl. Now go back pack and send in the scribe. I’ll never create a legible note on my own.”

With an audible swish of her heavy silken skirts, she rose from the bed and curtseyed to the old man, “Thank you.” With quiet dignity she minced out as was expected of a Lady of her station, but as soon as the door closed, she grabbed up her skirts in both hands and ran down the halls all breathless and thrilled at the prospect of eight years of trousers and tunic, of sweaty men and the tang of polished swords.

Once the heavy door to her room was closed behind her she stood panting, gazing about her room. None of the little pretty things that she had been given but visiting nobility or family seeking to be named the next in line would go with her, all of them gave her away as a young, not yet betrothed daughter of a Baron. She glanced at the little wooden practice sword and shrugged, they would have nicer ones at school as well. Finally, she came to her closet and the clothes she was going to need. She smiled hugely with a wicked kind of glee as she shoved the dresses aside. She was going to trade her corset for a sword belt and never think twice.

When after a moment or two she was done it occurred to her that there was so little that she could take with her, abandoning all the trinkets of femininity. There in the middle of the bed was a pair of packed saddlebags, but none of them reasonable clothing. It occurred to her that as she took on the role of her Father’s son, she might need to invade the sanctum of a real son to take with her all the things that would make her convincing.

When the door opened with a creak, she shirked back, but the hall was empty. They room across the open landing was locked, with a heavy bolt that had not been pulled back in far too long. Leland’s door creaked it’s protest as her picks threw the latch open without the oil a cast iron piece should have to keep it in normal working order. Inside the room was thick with dust, but otherwise just the same as she remembered it. The bed’s thick linens had not been smoothed down as they should have been and things were piled on top of every available surface. Hayleigh pulled the door closed behind her and tried to think of the things that defined her brother in her recollection. She went to his closet thinking that his things would have to be taken in to fit her, but it had been a long enough time that they pulled appropriately across her shoulders and did not hang badly over her hands.

She carefully picked through the clothes and set some aside near the door. She gathered a few of the things Father had given him for his birthdays. It hurt a little to look at them, but they had their place, a set of sleeve knives, a brass compass, a hunting dagger, and a book with basic code breaking. Father had hoped that Leland would be his heir in all ways, including the intellegencia. Leland had been nice, but purposefully forgetful of his tasks in that area. Eventually Father had given up. Now, Hayleigh would play the part of the dutiful son and have a useful avenue for all the things she was not supposed to have learned in her brother’s stead.

Since Leland had never made it to his twelfth birthday, there was no baronial sword to take with her, but his childhood blade would have to do. It still had the coat of arms on it, but it was small and a bit bent with misuse. Hayleigh looked over her small pile of treasures with satisfaction; she might be able to pull this off after all.

She glanced up at the ceiling and sent a small prayer of thanks heavenward. ‘I hope you are not too angry with me for taking your things. All the same, thank you for giving me this chance. I always wanted a way to become that something more that I feel I can be. So, thank you.’

In the morning, the lean dark haired girl would be Lee heir of Sonjan Keep and no longer Lady Hayleigh. She was grateful that her Father had not bothered to submit the official documentation to give Baronial rule, at his death, to cousin Herrin, thus letting the kingdom officially know that Leland had died with his mother. Sonjan was a small enough backwater that no one bothered enough to check the blood lines that closely. For that Hayleigh was pleased as well. Her barony was prominent enough to merit a place in the Knights’ college, but not so well known as to not be able to get away with a little deceit. Which was probably why her Father had so readily accepted the holding.

She snuck all the pirated things back into her room and tucked them into bags on her bed. As soon as that was done, a knock rang out on the door making her heart race and her shoulders straiten involuntarily. She smoothed her dress front and swallowed before opening to let in the pinched faced Scribe, Landrall, who looked more than a little irritated. “His Excellency has asked that I bring this to you myself and give you care of his signet.”

There was a moment of tension filled silence as she waited to take the parchment and ring. The pulse had again quickened in her chest and her stomach had filled with the fluttering sensation of anxiety. Once her fingers closed around the two gifts, and she had whispered, “Thank you,” the scribe bowed very stiffly still looking pinched and disapproving.

Hayleigh stared at the ring and all it implied. Father was going to die and Hayleigh was to stand as his son. He had accepted his demise and her choice to seek for an unfeminine life of glory and honor, whatever that was supposed to mean or encompass.

She turned the thing in her hand a few times, thinking, before she was willing to try it on. The ring was too big. She bit into the side of her bottom lip, then ducked and pulled a long loose string from the bottom of her full skirt. She sat on the edge of her bed and began winding it around the inside of her ring. Long moments drew out as she worked to make it fit snugly around her finger.

She sighed, turning it on her hand, and lay back. This was the jumping off point and Hayleigh was going to jump. She stripped down to only fine underwear and climbed under the thick covers of her plush bed, having left the window open to let in the night air. Tomorrow was a new day and tomorrow Hayleigh would become a new person.

In the middle of the night, when no one bothered to roam the hold hallways, I snuck into the dust covered room that had been my brothers. He had a wardrobe full of clothes that were a bit out of date, but would serve fine until I could manage Most of all I took his coveted leather vest. Right now I could wear it pulled in tight, but in the future it would be too revealing. But it felt like a hug from – and I was glad of his ghostly company as I slipped back into my room.

‘May tomorrow bring with it adventure and excitement,’ She prayed for herself drifting off to sleep to dream of all the challenges Sir Lee would face.



A Painful Reality

The hills wove constantly and magnificently down from the mountain valleys that stood between Sonjan and the Capital, but the ride was long and hard especially since Hayleigh had never ridden like a boy. The first night she stopped at a hotel and with a stiff upper lip faced the innkeeper, who noticed, but did not comment on the tears standing in her eyes. He, in his compassion sent up a crock of salve. Hayleigh smiled politely at the maid and closed the door, limping to the bed. She cried in bitter discouragement as she rubbed in the numbing concoction.

She was disappointed that she had not even gotten as far a she had hoped to ride. If she had been riding her sidesaddle as she was used to doing, she would be miles ahead of herself. Worse than that, she was beginning to feel badly for herself that she was going to get back up on that wide horse in the morning. With that thought, she flopped back onto the lush pillows, tears creating streams down the sides of her face and tried to rest. But her churning thoughts would not let her alone.

‘I am soft and pampered and nothing like a knight should be.’

She flopped over on her side trying to avoid the self-doubt.

‘One day of riding has told me that I am soft… How am I going to manage the next eight years?’

She flopped again.

‘Am I ready? Can I ever be?’

With such unhappy thoughts, she drifted off to sleep, but fought her doubts through the night as they invaded her dreams in all available forms.

When she finally awoke, it was with great relief that she saw the dawn. She skulked down to the bathroom, dark hair falling into her face and scrubbed, groaning as the hot water touched her sore skin, and resigning herself to sit on the side of the tub and wash from there. That was not Hayleigh’s idea of a nice morning. She was a clean kind of person who liked sitting in warm water and scrubbing every last inch of her skin until it tingled with clean. That was not easily accomplished with blistered thighs. Not that a page would get that kind of luxury. In the next few years, Lee could only expect to bathe in the public baths, which meant no long baths and trying to avoid the other students. She hadn’t exactly figured on how she was going to deal with that. The ride to the city was hard enough as it was. As she got back into her clothes she was grateful got a loose tunic and breaches, which at least kept her walking unencumbered.

With determined steps, Lee went out to the courtyard where the big warhorse was standing impatiently by the Stable master. She rolled her eyes, shook her head, and decided that this was not going to be very much fun. Her breath began to tear out of her lungs more quickly, and her hands began to shake as she grabbed for the reigns. With a great wince, she swung her leg up over his thick back and tried to breathe as she just sat there.

‘I am going to have to toughen up in more ways than one,’ she informed herself and turned his head out for the duration of the long day.

The day was long and hot with many stops to walk out my cramping muscles. Lee should have been there by noon, but it was almost dinnertime when she finally crested the hill to see the sprawling mess of a city and the near frothy filthy waters that were the capital. Father had given her documents for king and court as well as less reputable people in the city. He was a noble man for sure, but in his day father had known more than the king himself about the inner workings of the kingdom and outlands. He had friends in all places, many of which would have been considered unacceptable for a man of his rank, but father had never cared about rank, only usefulness. Maybe that was why he had decided to allow Hayleigh to stretch the rules as she was. He was more amused by the laws than obedient to them although fiercely loyal to his King.

Until his recent sickness, he had been the hand with which the king had moved when official channels or methods were unavailable. Now the king was bound to tradition and propriety. Neither man was better for the lack of a replacement. Father’s sickness had killed Mother and Leland, Hayleigh’s brother. Maybe Father was counting on the King’s lack of credible information to get her over that hump. Or maybe he was counting on the King desiring a replacement enough that he would not look too closely at the child that had been sent.

The new recruit slipped off her saddle with a groan and walked the length of the valley. With every step she bit into her bottom lip more to keep from complaining. Knights did not complain and Hayleigh was not planning to start now. Once inside the city, she was amazed by the number of eyes on her. Lee tried to walk as she imagined a knight would, with spine strait and chin tilted up, but felt silly so gave up and just kept putting one painful foot in front of the other until she came to the gate into the palace compound. The guard held out a hand for Lee’s documents and scanned them over carefully. He nodded and pointed inside.

“Your horse, you can leave with the stable master who will care for your tack, but the rest of these documents need to be given to the king directly. Once you’re done at the stable go to that big white building and ask one of the other pages to lead you to the king.”

Lee nodded, wanting to curtsey, but bowed stiffly. She took the time to brush Machiavelli down carefully and checked his hoofs. Once satisfied with the shinning coat of my horse, Lee was filthy. This was no way to meet a page let alone the King. She sighed, it was time to change her thoughts, and they were far too female to suit a boy her age. Lee had never known a boy to care what his clothes looked like, or the amount of mud caked on his shirt, no matter the situation. She shook her head and made her way over to the white building, still trying not to limp. It was late, but probably not late enough that court was over. The doors, to which she had been directed, erupted with a herd of boys, of varying heights and breadths. They stopped in their tracks and looked at Lee, all colors of eyes appraising me.

She swallowed hard, “Are you pages?” Lee finally managed to say.

A few of them looked over each other and laughed. “Don’t we wish!” guffawed the short dark skinned boy slapping his leg with amusement.

“Are you here to present your papers to the king?” A taller, more serious faced blond asked.

Lee nodded, “That is where I was sent.”

A few of them laughed as little boys often do, for unknown reasons to girls. They turned back to the heavy mahogany doors and swung them wide, which seemed a feat from their sheer size and resplendent decoration. As the chattering mob walked down magnificently tapestried corridors, each work of art covering deep reddish grey stone, Lee listened, trying to place where she was within the palace and where these boys ranked to one another. It was more challenging for her to just walk with them than she had expected, seeing as how walking was a challenge at a plodding pace, but the excited gallop of young boys was by far harder to manage. At odd intervals, there were guards standing in the hall, dressed in bright blue or green or orange, not matching uniforms. Not a single one of them seemed to notice, or care about the boys milling down the passages. These must be the chambers of visiting Lords, or merchant meetings, nothing to bother a bunch of trainees. When finally they twisted their way into larger, higher ceilinged, halls a pair of far more intimidating doors loomed up ahead of them.

These doors were of the same mahogany, but they carried a massive set of pulls. If put in their proper place, they would have been far more suitable on the entrance to a giant’s house. They were burnished until they shone with gold and silver gilt. Almost a whole detachment of guards lounged about the outside of these doors, dressed exactly in the deep purple of the king’s house. Hayleigh’s heart seemed to flutter to a stop as she stood there only for a slit second. After this, there was no turning back. Once she was presented, she had committed herself, no matter what the outcome. The papers Father had given her crumpled a bit as she fussed with them and the boys announced they needed the doors opened.

Hayleigh followed her mob into a room full of chattering, brilliantly dressed creatures. The high walls hung with house banners, shields, swords, maces, and pole axes- all too far up to be of risk to the monarch- and at the front of the hall a dais with throne and waiting king.

An old man and his smiling mischievous son stood at the front of the room looking amused at the appearance of a crew of young men.

“Is the mob here for a reason?” The Monarch called out to Lee and the boys.

“We found another straggler!” Called one of a pair of similar looking boys.

Lee swallowed as the Kings eyes dropped to her. She strode as fluidly as possible up a few steps and bowed. Unfortunately, it was obviously stiff, which made his eyes sparkle all the more with hidden glee.

“A long day in the saddle?” He asked pleasantly.

Lee tried to hold in the Lady-like blush that threatened, and simply nodded, handing over the documents that Father had drawn up.

He looked them over and his eyebrows rose with amusement “Sonjan's child huh? Are you as enterprising as your father?”

Lee shook her head, “I would not presume to think I am as capable as my father,” she replied, automatically demurring.

He laughed, “Humility was not a quality I expected out of you.”

Lee smiled and tilted her head to accept his complement, “I thank you for that Majesty.”

“I accept you to the page program and leave you to the care of the other students, who are to get you settled in a room, with your uniforms. You think you can manage that?” He asked the others.

“Anything you ask Majesty,” the short dark haired one with a big grin replied with a mocking bow.

“You will learn manners, Marcum, before you make squire.” He replied.

The boy bowed, “I wait on training from my king.”

Their unseen force tugged me out of the hall, followed out by the rolling chuckle of an amused King.

Once the cavalcade made their way out into the halls, they clapped Lee on the shoulder and greeted her, pummeling her with far too many questions, and almost knocking her to the ground more than once.

“Hold on men, the man must be starving, he’s been in saddle all day,” the lighter haired twin interrupted.

Lee nodded, grateful for the reprieve.

“To Cookie!” he informed the others, with the gusto of a commanding field general.

“Maybe not,” the oldest of the group disagreed putting his hand on the other boy’s chest. “Luken and Marlon, you go get uniforms. I’ll go down to Cookie’s to get food. Ophir you go talk the maid’s into a bath in Lee’s room. I think if we parade Lee around any longer he’ll fall flat on his face in exhaustion.”

Lee nodded her thanks. Glad that tonight she would be clean without all the difficulties of figuring out how to keep all these friendly boys out of the way. She liked them for the most part. They seemed like nice enough creatures. All bluster and a herd of fun, and yet she was afraid of them for the thing they did not know about her and how she was going to keep those things a secret for such a long time. They were far too smart to be easily fooled.

The last of the group left with Lee was ordinarily brown haired and thick in build. I turned to go back down the hall and ran into him. He chuckled, “Wrong way my friend. I’m Marcus. Let me get you pointed in the direction of bed.”

Lee nodded and he walked down the halls to the quiet corridors with closely spaced doors. He pushed one open for Lee, without another word. The room was small, no, very small, but Lee’s packs were set on the bed. Lee grinned guardedly at Marcus and began to hang all the things in the small wardrobe and unwrapping things to place them on the dresser and desk. When Lee took off her sword, she slung it over the bedpost with a shrug.

“Good enough. I’m Magnus by the way,” The blond who had taken charge earlier appraised the small space. In his hands was a tray of food that’s smells wafted up to Lee’s nose, making her swallow involuntarily. Lee had not realized just how famished she was until the food had come within smelling distance. He plopped the tray down on the desk and Lee sunk down, eating as quickly as her female upbringing would allow. She licked all her fingers and mopped the plate with her bread.

“You’ll have to eat more meat as you grow,” Magnus informed me as Lee as she stood up and began looking blearily at the plate.

Lee nodded, maybe she would. But right now, she was having a hard time thinking strait.

“Sit Lee, before you fall over,” Magnus ordered. Lee obeyed, glad for the chair that was near to her. “We’ll leave you to it,” he continued as a knock rang out on the door.

The door pushed open and a heavy tub and a herd of servants began to parade in with steaming water. The last in and therefore out of the room, was a very pretty maid. The guys laughed at her and teased her that she was to go back to her chores immediately and not dally with a tired noble. Lee managed to get up enough energy to glare at them as they guffawed out the door. To the maid’s surprise, Lee waited until she left before bolting the door and undressing. The water was warm, but not too hot to soak sore legs. Lee scrubbed every inch, the warm water giving her energy, and making her gleefully happy. Not only had she made it to the city, but she had also gotten through the first day with her classmates, and her meeting with the King. It must have been the maid who had slipped a letter onto Lee’s bed while she was distracted by the bath, but she frowned at it when she wrapped up in a towel. It was from Father, detailing the palace and grounds. Lee all but propped her eye lids open to be able to read it all before re-dressing. When she was covered in her brother’s nightclothes, she tucked it into a special lock box that Father had gifted her on her fifth birthday. She knew he could open it, but the series of locks were hard to pick and it was extremely secure.

Once the box was locked, Lee had nothing left, but the energy to climb into bed and fall deeply asleep. Only vaguely did she notice the servants come in to take away the bathwater while she slumbered.

When Lee later woke to find this, she berated herself that she needed to be more on her toes. Considering the web of lies she was already weaving, Lee was going to need to be alert to survive here.



Day One

Someone pounded on Lee’s door. She rolled over ignoring them.

“Get up!” someone yelled from the other side of the door, “We’re hungry!”

She grinned, ‘I loved men’s natural attraction to food.’ Lee yawned and opened the door. Today already felt like a better day. Her legs were still raw, but not as bad as they had been with a good cleaning and lots of sleep. Lee ripped on pants, hissing as they pulled over her thighs, and a shirt.

“It wasn’t locked,” Lee informed the band of boys outside. She must have been the last guy there. They were all in different stages of wakefulness, hair still tousled from the night. Yet there they were, accepting Lee as a boy and one of their comrades. For the first time, Lee thought this might be a workable plan. At least for a time. With those ideas in her head, she quickly brushed hair and teeth then joined the all male cavalcade moving down the hallway.

Breakfast smells wafted down the corridors as we neared the mess hall. The normal raucous noises that usually emanated from such rooms were obviously missing, and were replace the quiet shuffle of servants and soft crash of platters as they were placed on the long table in the middle of a cavernous room. There was a head table, but it looked strange considering the little troop were the only boys their age in the room, but what were they to expect being the first year of a new royal knight’s school. Lee smiled thinking of all the testosterone around, knowing that all the other females within any distance were serving food.

Ophir clapped Lee on the back, “It’s okay little man, they’ll bring food to you still.”

Lee nodded, letting him think that food was what she was interested in. Lee was elbowed out of the way as a platter was placed in front of her. She rubbed her arm and looked with irritation at the woman who had jammed into her. The maid glared back and Lee was tempted to stick her tongue out at her.

“Relax scrapper, you need to make nice with the ladies that work in the kitchen, not make them hate you in particular,” Markus waived a knife at Lee, holding utensils at the ready

Lee shrugged, “I don’t mind annoying women, even if they have food.”

Nicolau laughed, “I like most women when they have food.”

“Spoken like the true stomach that you are,” Lee teased back, raising her glass to him in a mock toast.

He shrugged and we sat waiting for the signal to allow us to begin our meal.

After food, Lee was assigned to help bring dishes down to the kitchen. There in the middle of the melee of cleaning stood a man who could only be Cookie, with sweat pouring down his face, shouting orders to everyone there and directing with corrective slaps from his wooden spoon. Lee grinned at him, knowing exactly who this was from my father’s detailed accounts of the palace staff. She was glad to see the happy grin under the roar of his orders.

“Come on Trainee move,” another woman pushed Lee from behind. She growled at her and went to the sink to drop off her dishes to the washers for the day.

Lee thought with great irritation, ‘It will be good when I am a page and excused from these kinds of mundane things.’

“You!” Called Cookie from the midst of the tornado.

Lee looked at the man and grinned.

“Lee?”

She laughed, throwing her head back, “In the flesh!” He knew as much as my Father had said he would and Lee didn’t need to remind him of her name.

He nodded, “Come see me when all these,” he motioned to the staff, “Go to bed.”

Lee nodded to him and went out to find her class mates who waited impatiently in the middle of the hard packed dirt yard. They looked at each other and wondered who was going to kill them, at least Lee did, and who they could manage to kill. There were not so many of the latter in Lee’s calculations. Lee was the shortest of the boys and thin, but most of them were relatively thin. A few of the guys had significantly harder muscles than Lee did and they made her swallow hard with anxiety. The teacher was even more terrifying. He was older and lean in the way that only the best of athletes can be lean. He had the permanent frown lines in his mouth, which bespoke the number of grim looks that would fill the rest of her days. He demanded that the students stand in a line as he walked before and behind them detailing all the things that they lacked.

Lee wanted to be brave and glare back like a few of the others did, but he was the meanest looking man that she had ever known and looked down at her feet as would be expected of a proper girl. He was not impressed. Lee felt stupid, and sure she would make an even bigger mess of this before it was done. Orders were yelled and Lee really did try her best to keep up with everything, but kept tripping over her feet or someone else’s. Gone was the happy carefree feeling of the morning. She was miserable in swordplay and slow at running exercises. In general, Lee was a total failure when it came to arms class. She dragged off the field, feeling useless and altogether as though she was not possibly going to succeed. The tall blond, skinny guy clapped her on the shoulder.

“No worries little man. I’m Nico? Anyway, you’ll catch on, most of us have been being pummeled by our fathers just like this since we could walk. You have just had the luck of escaping that kind of Father’s love for awhile.”

Lee smiled, “Not me. Father stuck knives in my hands and taught me to pick pockets.”

His look brightened, “Really, now that is something that I could use a hand with.”

Lee chuckled back, the warmth of acceptance spreading through her again like spring sunlight, “If you teach me how to use that long pointy thing, I will teach you how to pick pockets.”

“What about locks?” He looked shrewdly down his two inch advantage.

She shook her head, “No I think I will save that lesson for another trade. Besides, I hear there are new kinds of locks I need to learn on here in the palace.”

Nico shook his head, short blond hair flopping as he did so. “Alright, but I hold you to your promise. You have to teach me.”

”Nothing of value, promise? And nothing from the poor?”

Nico nodded, “I think this will be the best lesson of them all.”

She put her hand on his shoulder, “I think you may be right.”

Dinner had been amazing and Lee wanted to curl up into a ball and sleep it off, but she had a meeting to attend. Once the evening bell tolled, she hauled herself up from her place at the desk and motated down the unending stairs to the kitchen. There in the empty room sat the big cook.

He pushed a steaming mug and plate of cookies at Lee. She sat quietly across the counter from him and smiled.

“Hello Tanamair,” Lee greeted him using his birth name.

He grinned wrinkling the corners of his eyes, “Hello Hayleigh,” he replied equally amused.

“Are you planning on sharing that little bit with the court?” She inquired.

He chuckled, “What good’ll tha’ do me? ‘Sides you’ll need a few of us on ye’re side to keep tha’ secret for ye. There’ll be days when ye canna contain it. Like I said to yer pa, I owe him a lot an’ have no problem caring for ye to fill tha debt.”

Lee smiled back with a little bow of her head, “I am sure that he would accept that.”

“How is ‘e? ‘E says no worse far the weir, but I know ‘im.”

“He’s doing badly. Tired often and weak regularly. He’ll probably never get better. Whether that is from the sickness or the deaths of Mom and Leland, I’ll never know. I hazard to think the second did the most damage.” She continued to relax in the comfort of his company.

He nodded. “You expect him to live long?” He picked up a snack in his massive hand, dwarfing the sweet.

Lee shook her head and quietly sipped her drink. It was warm and sweet and heated that part of her heart that had begun to chill with the conversation.

“Who’s running the place, really?”

Lee shrugged, “The house keeper and the spymaster.”

He grinned with unsuppressed mirth, “Darren ruling a barony is actually funny.”

Lee smiled and nodded. The skinny rat faced spy frequently balked at the domesticity of the job, but he kept on because father had loved him as his son. Darren had stopped frequent attempts on Lee’s life when she was little. He had given Lee her first set of knives and taught her how to use them. (Have Darren come when Magnus chooses Keelin) “He doesn’t do the job because it’s fun.”

“No,” agreed Cookie, “He counts ye and yer da as Kin.”

Lee nodded, “And we love him for it.”

Cookie chuckled, “Had you known him when he was young you’d find this conversation amusing too.”

Lee shrugged and quoted her mother, “What do I know when I stand here at the beginning.”

He nodded to Lee, “Ye have much of yer mother in ye. Humility an’ quiet wisdom are things your father never acquired.”

“Oh Father is quiet with what he knows regularly.”

Cookie smiled, “Maybe, but I am certain that he was never humble.”

Lee snickered at her cookies.

“Little one you can always come to me. I will always stand with you so long as you stand in places where your father would be proud.”

She smiled sheepishly, as the heat rose in her face, “My father doesn’t always obey laws.”

Cookie’s eyes twinkled, “Aye, but h’ was always careful to only break silly laws an’ hurt no one accidentally.”

Lee understood, “Thank you.”

“Now get to bed little pup. Ye’ll need lotsa sleep to outgrow these lads shortly.”

I stood and bowed to him deeply, “Thank you and good night.” The silence of the night clung to me as Lee made her way back to her room, attempting to imagine a younger father and Darren. She bolted the door, pulled off clothes and snuggled into bed. Glad of a strong ally. Somehow having someone to guard her secret made her feel all the more safe.