Page 7 of Keeper of the Word (The Unsung and the Wolf Duology #2)

Chapter

Seven

TOLVAR

“ H ow 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 but why Elanna 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 of moon 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 we have been 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.

“’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 arm but ’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 is her vision, 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, but green ? 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 idea what forest? 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.

“Also See black,” Maristel said, before placing her thumb in her mouth again.

“Is it moving?” Lady Tara asked gently.

Maristel first nodded, then vigorously shook her head. Then, she withdrew her thumb from her mouth, held up her index finger, and made a shushing noise.

The hairs on the back of Tolvar’s neck stood. Something black, unmoving—for now. Elanna’s location was clear to him now. But was he correct? Was that why he had experienced unease on his journey through the Greenwood Forest? He had to make certain.

He leaned closer to Maristel, ignoring how enormous her innocent eyes were.

“Is it an animal, Maristel? ”

If possible, her eyes widened more, then she gave a deliberate nod.

Tolvar let out an exhale and stood. “How far into the future does she usually See?” He scanned the three women’s faces.

They gave each other quiet, pointed expressions. What was there to decide? Tolvar grew impatient as only the Wolf could when he knew impending danger was nigh.

“How long do I have?” Tolvar half-yelled.

“She usually Sees no more than a few days in front of her,” Casta finally stated. “But she is growing stronger. There is no way to be certain.”

“Then I must leave immediately. Shadow cats are hunting Lady Elanna in the Greenwood Forest.”