Page 19 of The Mage’s Rake (Catkin Trilogy #2)
“Bad news, Ser,” she said with a half-hearted salute.
“What is it, Tam? Lay it on me,” I said with a mildly joking tone, hoping to lighten the atmosphere a bit. “I’ve survived a moldy salmon sandwich and two pints of foul beer already. Not to mention Alan’s slave-driving ways. I can take it.”
Tam glanced at Alan and grinned then. Alan, dismounting as well, drew close to hear Tam’s news.
The dogs had found a body. An elderly molly.
It was being brought in for inspection. Tam had already dispatched a messenger to the castle, calling for Aileen and another field medic for analysis of the body.
“But if High Mage Carwick is here, beggin’ your pardon, your Mageness,”
“Just Carwick is fine,” Alan said.
“Carwick. If Carwick don’t mind, he can take a gander if he pleases.”
At the news, Alan’s face had sobered instantly.
His worst fears had come true, but I could tell that he was glad to be there for the inspection.
Tam escorted us to a nearby hut that the group had commandeered.
Before the relative warmth of a blazing hearth, Alan and I downed soup and waited for the arrival of the body and the others.
An hour later, we were all grouped around a table, where an elderly crone had been laid out.
She was quite dead. Had been dead for days, I guessed.
Judging by the cuts on her cloak and the deep red stains…
violently stabbed. I shook my head. No doubt the elderly molly had proved to be a liability, and the scoundrels had simply decided to dispose of her.
A terrible end for someone caught up in a plot they probably barely comprehended.
Alan, Aileen, and the field medics came to similar conclusions—death by stabbing. The molly had died almost instantly. Other items taken from the scene included two daggers encrusted with blood iced over, a tattered pack filled with herbs and damp scrolls, and a small, silver hand sickle.
“The hand sickle suggests that this one is a potion maker. That and the pack,” Aileen noted.
“Aye, but they may have simply been placed by her to give us the assumption,” the field medic pointed out.
“Ah, true.” Alan nodded, but then he lifted one hand and gestured to what he’d noticed. “We can see here, staining about the cuticles. And if you smell…”
“Not that I can smell much here beyond dead molly,” grunted Captain Tam.
“If you smell, you can scent a variety of herbs. Whoever this molly was, she worked with herbs. The nick on her thumb there, suggests the use of cutting objects… and here…” Alan carefully turned back the high collar of the dark dress beneath her cloak.
“If she made potions… ah. We have a silver necklace with Tala’s sigil.
Another clue, potential clue, pointing to herbalist, hedge witch… And at her belt…”
“Yes, yes.” Aileen’s fingers were already unclasping the belt and revealing the runes carved into the hard dark brown leather. “Yes. I would say we found our missing potion maker. Poor soul. May the Lady of the Night grant her rest.”
“Any eyewitnesses?” Alan mused aloud. “Perhaps that is too much to ask.”
“I spoke with the scouts and the others,” Captain Tam said.
“There was one young lad we found who was out chasing down a missing sheep.” She raised an eyebrow, clearly skeptical about the reason for the young lad’s foray.
“At any rate,” she continued, “he said he passed by four rogues along a path in the forest. Four rogues, he said, all kitted out for some no-good business. He just ducked his head and kept moving in their opposite direction, which was north.”
“Any details of what they looked like?” I asked.
“I have a list.” Captain Tam handed over a rather crumpled, folded set of papers. “You can see for yourself, but I imagine His Grace, Duke Wright, will want to know.”
“I will send a report promptly,” I promised her.
I scanned through the details that had been written down.
Most of them are the usual types—older toms with scars, dark tans…
I raised an eyebrow over that. From the south then.
And the fourth was a red-headed young tom.
A slender tom with red hair, pale skin, and green eyes.
That reminded me of the servant from before.
The one that had gone missing. I pursed my lips and made a mental note to highlight that for Gareth, just in case.
“Well, good work the lot of you,” I said, smiling at Captain Tam. “I think we have confirmation about a few things. Withdraw our troops and take your ease tonight. You all earned it.”
Leaving Captain Tam to share the good news, I escorted Alan, Aileen, the field medic, and the body of the unfortunate hedge witch back to the castle.
I could see that Alan was excited about investigating the hedge witch’s pack.
Sure enough, as soon as we passed into the castle courtyard, Alan was dismounting, commandeering the pack, and conferring with Aileen about the “autopsy,’ which would be held by the field medic.
An hour later, after finishing my lengthy report to Gareth and sending yet another messenger to the Wright estate, I discovered Alan drooping over his books.
More precisely, his head was buried in his arms as he napped soundly on top of a pile of scattered parchment and paper.
His favorite raven’s quill had dropped forward out of his long, lax fingers.
I leaned forward to set it carefully back in its wood slot.
For a second, I stood there, reveling in the silence.
Alan’s laboratory was no longer a foreign land.
It felt like home. For the first time, I truly felt as though I had found a place that I had truly embraced as my home, right here in the castle.
Who would have guessed that Hugh Starr, extravagant knight and gentlecat would harbor such sentimental thoughts?
Something warm sparked in the cold depths of my heart.
After all the years I have spent at Landis’s side, working with Gareth and the others, I had never thought about making a home.
One might say I had avoided the idea, deluding myself that I was content with a life of wandering and whimsy.
But there was something here. Something precious that I wished to keep.
I placed a hand on Alan’s shoulder and then allowed my fingers to ghost across the now frazzled line of his braided white hair. A smile crossed my face as Alan mumbled something like, “Not now, Hu…”
“Time for bed, I think, young tom,” I said with a dry chuckle. I leaned forward to whisper in his ear, “Time to go to bed, Alan.”
Alan jerked a bit, nearly banging his head on my nose, but I dodged him easily as he stretched and yawned. I gently resettled his crooked glasses on the tip of his reddened nose. He flicked his tail lazily and growled a little.
“Supper first,” he said.
“I have a plate for you keeping warm in the kitchens,” I told him. “We can have it delivered to your rooms.”
“Hmmm…”
Alan let me guide him out of the laboratory as I gently coaxed him along the halls to his suite. Hopefully, he wouldn’t notice or protest if I decided to stay. I didn’t want to leave Alan’s side. If I could, I’d want to stay forever.
Forever… Now, that sounded quite nice.