Page 12 of Keeper of the Word

“’Tis exactly what worries me.” Tolvar grimaced, ignoring the puzzled faces of his knights. “For once, Hux, could you douse out and keep that mouth of yours shut?”

Hux gave a mock salute.

Tolvar sighed, the road out of Aura Hall and Ashwin before them. “I suppose we shall simply pick a direction. Joss, south or north?”

But Joss’s answer was lost to Tolvar as someone came into the courtyard shouting, “Sir Tolvar, Sir Tolvar, you’re summoned! Miss Maristel has Seen something.”

The knights shrugged at one another. Tolvar dismounted and followed the servant back into Aura Hall.

“Go ahead, Maristel,”the StarSeer called Casta urged the toddler. The tiny child sitting on Casta’s lap barely reached Tolvar’s knee. She gazed at Tolvar with large brown eyes, her thumb halfway in her mouth.

Maristel shook her head and then buried it in Casta’s chest.

Casta, a woman shorter than Tara with brown-reddish hair and freckled cheeks, attempted to give Maristel a slight tug of the armbut ’twas not a strong effort—her brown eyes, intense and focused like Lady Tara, offered an apologetic gaze.

“We encourage Maristel to use her voice as it ishervision, but—” she stroked the child’s hair. “She is still learning.”

Kyrie, the shortest of the three women, stood next to Casta, her arms folded, her face in a stony expression. Her brown hair sat in a massive bun atop her head, unlike Casta and Tara, who wore theirs loose. It made her eyes all the more striking. She’d said naught to Tolvar.

The room felt warm, too warm for a crisp spring morning. Was it the presence of four StarSeers together that made it seem as though he stood near an open flame? Despite that, Tolvar did his best to focus on little Maristel.

She must weigh less than my sword.

“Where are her parents?” Tolvar wondered aloud, hopeful someone would be brought in soon. He was unfamiliar with children, but certainly the child’s mother could coax whatever she’d Seen out of her.

Casta’s eyes momentarily widened in surprise. “StarSeers forego their families for Ashwin. I thought even one such as yourself knew that.”

Tolvar ignored the barb about his faith and studied Maristel anew. He knew StarSeers as young as tiny babes like this child were brought to Ashwin. But he’d assumed that one so young would at least have a mother accompany her. Was she already forgetting her parents? Mayhap ’twas small wonder that StarSeers were solemn beings.

“She is not going to speak to the stranger,” Kyrie said to Casta, unfolding her arms. “Sir Tolvar, Maristel Saw the color green. A great deal of green.”

The three StarSeers stared at him meaningfully.

“And?” The Wolf was said to be excellent at surmising details from even the most minuscule clue, butgreen? What was Tolvar supposed to conclude from that?

“She is in a forest,” Lady Casta supplied, offering a pitying expression.

“How do you deduce that from Seeing the color green?” Tolvar asked, crossing his arms to mirror the stance Kyrie returned to.

“Trust us,” Casta said, gazing not at Tolvar, but at Maristel.

“Is that all? No ideawhatforest? There are at least three large forests that surround Ashwin.”

“Not in Ashwin,” Maristel’s tiny voice, muffled against Casta, said.

“Not in Ashwin?” Tolvar said, crouching.

“Nay,” Maristel said, facing him. She suddenly appeared determined and older. The child’s eyes were much too big for her face. They reminded him of Sloane’s, whose eyes had the same enormity.

“Can you See anything else in this forest?” Tolvar made his voice softer. “I wish to aid your friend, Elanna.”

“Lanna is in a tree,” Maristel said, pointing into the air.

If the air had not been taut with tension, Tolvar might have almost found the child’s words comical. A woman, who was revered as an almost heavenly being, in a tree?

“What kind of tree?” Tolvar asked. He had no hope that Maristel would be able to describe it, but who knew?

Maristel grew shy again and leaned back into Casta. After a moment’s hesitation, she stretched her arms wide. Well, that was certainly helpful—a big tree.