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“There are cliffs,” the woman said, then fell into another bout of weeping and wincing.
I put my full focus into easing her pain, but even after I left the house, my thoughts stayed on the far side of the hill.
“Mara, what do you know about the other side of these hills?” I asked my friend quietly when she and I and Appius met up again late into the afternoon to be taken back to the college.
Mara immediately grasped what I’d been thinking about all afternoon. “The south side of the hill is too craggy to build on. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to climb down that way, though.”
“What about once you reach the countryside at the bottom of the hill?” Appius asked, also catching on, if I wasn’t mistaken.
“It’s all open territory, as I’m sure you saw,” Mara said. “You’d be exposed to anyone looking down from the hilltops.”
“What if we timed it so that we reached the bottom of the hill at dusk?” I asked, keeping my voice as low as I could.
It ended up being a little too low.
“No whispering,” the tall soldier snapped at us. “You’re walking too close. I’ll have no treasonous talk while I’m escorting you.”
The three of us moved apart as ordered. I didn’t mind, all things considered. What I wanted to talk about could wait until we made it back to the college.
Which we did without incident. We were let back in through the gates as the last rays of the afternoon sun cast a feeble light through the front courtyard, and the soldiers walked off without so much as saying goodbye.
“I trust all went well?” Magister Marcellus was there to meet us and escort us to the dining hall.
“As well as could be expected,” I said, glancing at him with as much scrutiny as he was looking at me. “Will we be sent out to treat nobles in the hills again, Magister?” I asked.
“Would you like that?” he asked in return, staring at me so hard I felt like he was boring holes through me.
I stopped when we were just on the other side of the main building and faced him fully. There was no time for us to dance around what was going on.
“Are you trying to help me figure out a way to go home?” I asked, glancing around with sudden fear that someone might have heard my blunt question. Someone who would get us all in trouble.
“I have heard that you wish to go home,” he said, cagily. “I have heard much about the frontier. Including the fact that it is ruled by King Julius’solderbrother.”
The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Magister Marcellus was surprisingly good at communicating so much more than he was saying. I guessed that he wanted Magnus to do something about the tyrant his brother had become, which was a sign of just how desperate the people of the Old Realm had gotten.
“King Magnus only rules one kingdom in the frontier,” I said honestly, keeping my voice low. “And his sole focus within the Wolf River Kingdom is to build it up into a peaceful and prosperous place. He has no ambitions beyond making a safe and comfortable life for himself, his husbands, and all of his subjects. He plans to hand over his crown as soon as he’s able. He might have already done so since I left the frontier.”
Magister Marcellus’s eyes went wide when I mentioned husbands plural, then wider when I said Magnus planned to step down as king.
And then he did something I never would have expected. He burst into loud laughter.
“What is that wily old whore up to now?” he asked, still laughing. “Has Rurik let him bring a third into their bed? And why am I not surprised?”
I gaped as if the ground had just opened under me. Magister Marcellus knew Magnus. And Rurik as well.
“I’m sorry, but Rurik died,” I said. “Ten years ago.”
Magister Marcellus’s laughter stopped abruptly, and a look of shock and grief replaced his amusement. “That poor man,” he said, running a hand through his hair. I thought he was talking about Rurik, but he went on to say, “Magnus worshiped the ground Rurik walked on. I’ve never seen a man more smitten in my life. He must have been devastated.”
My surprised continued to grow. “Were you friends with them?” I asked.
Magister Marcellus nodded. “Good friends. I…I helped them escape.”
There was no way I could have been more shocked.
“Then you must know Ludvig as well,” I said, remembering what Neil had told me about Magnus’s past and what it had taken for Magnus and Rurik to leave the Old Realm for the frontier.
Magister Marcellus blinked. “Ludvig is still…. I suppose he would be.” He seemed to answer his own question, staring off into nothing. “He knew he’d never be able to come back here after everything he did to help Magnus and Rurik.”
