Page 11 of Keeper of the Word

She gave Tolvar a sideways glance.

Something twinged in Tolvar’s chest. ’Twas too soon. Aye, he was bored if he allowed himself to admit it, but it was too soon to play hero to someone else’s cause again.

“I have Seen Elanna return to Ashwin by your side.” Lady Tara’s voice was little more than a whisper. “That is why I have summoned you here. Elanna must return to the Five; she must return to Ashwin, where she belongs. And you are the one who will deliver her.”

Chapter

Seven

TOLVAR

“How are we to know where to search for Lady Elanna?” This rushed question was posed, surprisingly, not by Hux but by Joss. She picked at something on her sleeve as she spoke. Embarrassed to question, but her flared nostrils showed honest frustration.

In the background, Hux half-smiled while Gus and Barrett gaped at Joss.

“I have nary an idea, Joss,” Tolvar simply returned. He could give her a tongue-wagging, but she spoke his own mind.

Eighteen days gone. She could be all the way to the country of Orla by now.

What bothered him more was not where the fourth StarSeer was butwhyElanna had fled in the first place.

Tolvar eyed Aura Hall, a silent giant behind them this morning. ’Twas early enough that few of the castle retainers were out and about.

His mind replayed last night after he met with Lady Tara. He’d been escorted to a small dining hall, where his knights awaited, given more food as if they hadn’t already been offered a feast, and then taken to their sleeping quarters.

The sun had not yet even set.

When Tolvar opened the corridor door, two guards stood there.

“May I be of assistance, Lord Tolvar?” one of the guards queried.

Mayhap if Tolvar had been in Cheval or Blagdon or some other nonsense city, he would have told the guard precisely what he could do with his “assistance.” But Tolvar was in Ashwin, and if the priestesses wanted him and the others sequestered in these rooms, he supposed there was naught he would do about it.

He had closed the door and spent a great deal of the remaining daylight hours at his window monitoring the castle’s comings and goings, memorizing the faces and movements of four dozen servants and guards. The Wolf could make observation a pleasant pastime.

As dusk finally began to unfold, a choir of voices chanting from Ashwin’s Delara, no doubt, filled the darkening air. Delaras were the temples of the stars. Every city had one—even Thorindale. But Ashwin’s was, of course, the most magnificent. When the gloaming had melded into the fresh darkness of evening, the song of night drifted away, leaving a lovely silence in its wake. Tolvar’s palm caught something wet on his cheek. He gritted his teeth and wiped it away.

Bah.

He was simply tired.

But when the glimmer of the first stars flecked the sky, Tolvar fished out Sloane’s moon cuff from his pocket and surrendered to the new tears.

This time, though, he didn’t speak to the stars or even to Sloane, as he was oft to do. This time, Tolvar concentrated on his own strength. In prayer? Certainly not. But he urged, craved within himself—for he was a knight in command of his own destiny—the strength to do Lady Tara’s bidding. It seemed a fool’s errand to find Lady Elanna with no lead to go upon.

Mayhap it would have been better to stay at Dara Keep with Ghlee back in Deogol.

The thought had brought anger and a desire for a nip ofmoon mead. He was the Wolf, but damn it, Sloane had changed him. Left him far removed from who he’d been. Confounded all?—

“Sir?” Gus’s voice suddenly brought Tolvar back to the present, back to where they stood outside Aura Hall in the morning light.

Gus and the others stared at Tolvar with brows lifted in concern.

Tolvar glanced at Aura Hall. “I have no idea where we shall go or how to carry out this task, but wehavebeen tasked, and as knights, we’ll fulfill our errand.”

“Well, I am not a knight,” Hux said, concentrating on his fingernails. “Mayhap I might return to Thorin Court or, better yet, find the next town in which to find some mischief.”

Joss exchanged a glance of bemusement with Barrett.