The camp was stowed and secured in chests and bags. The prince stood watching while activity swirled around him, with him at its center. By the door to the prince’s carriage, the concubines had a heated discussion, which ended with multiple bows before the prince, after which he was offered different footgear. Obedient to their wishes and clearly intrigued by the new boots, he sat on a footstool brought for him and allowed them to take off the carriage shoes he was wearing and replace them with walking boots.

The byplay distracted Elen for too long. The carriages were closed up and pulled into a column, and the beasts woken and harnessed. It was time to go. What of Kem? She’d lost track of Kem!

She jumped to her feet, craning her neck. At first, she didn’t see him among the people making ready to leave with the carriages, nor with the smaller group gathered around the prince. Then she realized Kem had already headed out. He was walking with Ipis down toward the holystone post, as scouts sent ahead. She hadn’t noticed him pass because he was wearing a warden’s uniform instead of the long jacket she’d patched so many times that she could have identified it with her eyes closed, simply by feeling out the pattern of mending.

Ipis halted every few paces and drew patterns onto the ground with the tip of her shrive-steel saber, a glow burning brightly where the tip touched the ground before fading to nothing. Besides the uniform, Kem had also been given a shrive-steel saber, as if the wardens kept extra of these most precious implements. Probably they did. They used them to kill Spore.

As Ipis made comments to Kem, too distant for Elen to hear, Kem copied the pattern the warden had drawn, although his sword tip did not spark as hers had. He was careful and precise, as he always was. When he finished, the young woman patted him on the shoulder with a big grin. They spoke together with easy camaraderie. He laughed. Ipis waved toward the sky as if that explained something she was telling him.

The two young people had hit it off, Elen thought. To the other wardens, Kem was Manor-born and thus worthy of being in their company. He wouldn’t be treated with contempt.

Yet she was aware of a sour bite to her relief, the fear that Kem might find a warden’s life appealing. That he was walking away from his life with her. Had her hope that he would find a way to stay in Orledder Halt been concern for his safety in a harsh world, or just her own desire to keep him close?