Deepwoods (Book 1) (33 page)

After spending the majority of the day in meetings, Siobhan
had to have a hot bath and a massage from Denney to get all the kinks out of
her back. Even then, she found it hard to sleep and ended up outside on the
back porch overlooking the garden. She sat down in what was fast becoming her
favorite spot, letting her feet hang over the side and in the cool pond water.
Ahhh, paradise. The night air was a bit too chilly to sit out here long, but her
cloak dispelled most of the cold, and sitting here cleared her head.

From behind her, the door opened and quietly shut. She
half-turned, and wasn’t really surprised to see Wolf coming toward her. In the
few days they’d been here, they’d both developed the habit of sitting for a
while, looking over the garden, before going to bed.

He sat next to her with a muted grunt, also letting his feet
dangle in the pond. For several moments they sat in companionable silence
before he asked in a quiet rumble, “Did you spend all day up in meetings?”

“Well, the majority of it,” she admitted. “I’d much rather
have joined Rune back in the rafters.”

“You’d rather have crawled around in dusty, spider-infested
rafters than sit through meetings,” Wolf repeated in bemusement.

She shrugged, grin stretching over her face. “It was
surprisingly fun.”

Wolf eyed her sideways. “Rune mentioned in passing that you gave
him your last name?”

“I rather felt I should. I mean, he needed a full name just
to be registered a guildmember, and to be able to book passage on the ship. I’d
started the job, after all, so I might as well finish it.” She cocked her head
at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

He shook his head in wry amusement. “Siobhan. Giving your
name to him like that is an astonishing gesture of trust and affection. Didn’t
you learn ten years ago? Trusting someone like that is powerful.”

She opened her mouth to retort, thought about that first
moment when Rune had realized she’d given him a family name, and the joy on his
face, and couldn’t find a way to argue. Intellectually, she’d known that naming
people in Wynngaardian culture was huge, but she hadn’t really
understood
it
until she’d seen that expression of Rune’s. Even after that, though, she hadn’t
thought of it as a gesture of trust. But in Wynngaard, where a name meant
everything to a man’s reputation, it would be a colossal offering on her part.

“Didn’t you realize how important it was to me, ten years
ago?” Wolf asked her softly. “Despite all my bad history, you trusted me
completely. That trust was healing to me. It’s your absolute trust in Rune
that’s healing him.”

“I didn’t think of it as a gesture of trust,” she responded,
feeling her way through the words as she said them. “He reminds me so strongly
of you, what you were like the first year in Deepwoods. You were so cautious,
so bewildered by kindness. The first time that you asked if I wanted to go
somewhere with you, I wanted to just hug you because I knew you’d finally
opened up to me a little. And when Rune asked to teach me how to skulk, I felt
the same then, too.”

“That’s trust, Siobhan,” he assured her patiently. “At that
point, I trusted you enough to ask.
He
trusts you enough to ask.”

She sat there and thought about it, but the whole situation
still didn’t make sense to her. “Giving him the Maley name really means that
much? I mean, it took a solid three months of working on you to get you to that
point!”

“Yes, Siobhan,” Wolf said patiently, “it really means that
much.”

“But that doesn’t explain why he’s bonded with everyone else
too,” she objected.

“I think it’s helped that the whole guild is working with
you as well. When I came in, Grae thought you were insane to take me on and
only Beirly was open to the idea. This time, it’s not just you trying to win
him over.”

Also a very good point. “Still, that’s a load off my mind.”

“He’s not completely won yet.” Wolf shrugged slightly.
“That’s just going to take more time. But he at least trusts that
you
trust him, and that makes all the difference.”

Her mouth curled up in a satisfied smile and she leaned her
head against his shoulder. Hearing all of that did her heart good and she just
let his words sink in so that she could bask in them for a while.

After a long moment of silence, he asked, “You have plans
for tomorrow?”

“I was going to check in with Jarnsmor, see if I could get a
more accurate head count of who we’re escorting, start making plans of our own.
Other than that, nothing. You?”

“Beirly hit upon the idea of teaching me how to build a
handcart. He said if all we need the cart for is pulling supplies along the
path from one city to the next, then we don’t need to bring Kit every time.
We’ll do a trial version up here, sell it, then make a better one when we’re
home again.”

Not a bad thought, that. Without the additional weight of
Kit, the load that Grae had to carry would be drastically reduced. “You think
you can pull a cart that has the whole guild on top?”

“If it’s designed right, two strong men can manage it.” Wolf
shrugged. “Besides, it won’t be the whole guild. Tran and I will probably be
pulling, and Grae walks in front. At that slow pace of his, I think we’d be
fine.”

Those two put together could move small mountain ranges. She
didn’t doubt that if they put their minds to it, they’d manage. “Keep me
updated on that. I’d like to know if it worked.”

“We’ll likely have to load everyone into the cart to test
it, so I think I can safely promise you that.” He grinned at her, a brief flash
of white in the darkness.

Struck by the image of Wolf with a tool in his hand, she
couldn’t help but ask, “Do you even know how to build something?”

“Not a bit. But Beirly informed me he gave me a natural
hammer,” Wolf held up his iron right hand in demonstration, “and it’s about
time I learned how to use it.”

She snorted. “He
does
rather have a point.”

“I certainly couldn’t think of a way to argue with him.”

“Well,” she shrugged, “I think that as long as you don’t
manage to accidentally cut off your other hand, you’ll be fine.”

ӜӜӜ

Siobhan awoke slowly, not quite sure why she felt the need
to awaken. Something seemed out of place, or more like, she sensed something
that she shouldn’t have. Puzzled, she raised her head from its pillow and
looked around the room. Her roommate was still dead asleep in the other bed, only
her dark hair visible. Soft moonlight and shadows flickered through the window,
indicating the sun wasn’t anywhere close to rising. It felt like the wee hours
of the morning.

Her ears perked at a foreign sound. Aside from her and
Sylvie’s breathing, another sound rose and fell. Cautiously, she shifted to
look over the edge of the bed and at the floor.

There, curled up on his side, lay Rune. He was fully
dressed, sans boots, eyes closed as if fast asleep. Now when did he get there?
For that matter,
why
was he asleep there? She knew for a fact that he
had a perfectly good bed to sleep in, not two doors down.

An old memory flashed through her mind. Wolf used to do
something like this, the first year he’d been in the guild. He’d never entered
her room, but he’d propped himself against her doorway many a time, dozing. It
had taken her years to finally get him to confess why he’d done so. Wolf
admitted that on the nights he had the darkest dreams, it comforted him to know
that she was there. Just being able to hear her breathe, peacefully sleeping,
gave him a sense of well-being.

She stared at Rune’s sleeping face for a long moment. Was it
the same? Had Rune felt compelled to sleep near her for a similar reason? Or
was there something else going on that she didn’t know about?

Siobhan still found it strange that Rune had attached
himself to her so quickly and with such devotion. Conli hadn’t thought it so.
Neither had Wolf. Rune had tested her several times, done things to irritate
her or make her uncomfortable, but she’d never rejected him because of it.
Conli said that once Rune felt sure of her, he hadn’t needed anything else.

The proof of that could be seen right in front of her eyes.

Had she adopted an assassin, or had he adopted her? It was
hard to tell.

Either way, it wasn’t something she wanted to stay up all
night debating with herself. She grasped the extra quilt laying at the foot of
the bed and leaned up on her knees long enough to shake it out and lay it
carefully over Rune’s sleeping form.

Of course, he awoke the second that the blanket touched him.
He didn’t start awake, just opened one eye and looked up at her.

“Everything alright?” she asked him softly, barely more than
a whisper.

“There’s no danger,” he whispered back.

That didn’t quite answer my question
. Shaking her
head slightly, she decided not to push it any further. “You’re not cold down
there?”

He dragged the quilt up around his shoulders a little more.
“I’m fine.”

Shrugging, she let him be. He was the one that would wake up
with a crick in his neck, not her. Instead she rolled back into her bed and let
her eyes fall closed. If he wanted to sleep down there, she’d let him.

“Siobhan.”

Her eyes flew open. He’d never called her by her name
before. “Yes?” she responded carefully.

“Did ya really take in Wolf knowi’n he was from a dark
guild?”

“I did,” she admitted. Now, where had he heard about that?

“Ya trust him in spite of that.”

“I trust him because of it.”

Rune twisted about to look up at her. “What?”

“I trust him because of it,” she repeated. “Because I know
that he hated living in that darkness. He’ll do everything he can to avoid it.
He’ll never let us fall into it, either.”

His brows furrowed together as he turned that over in his
mind. “Did ya…did ya take me on thinki’n I’d be like him?”

“No.” She had to be careful how she answered this. “At
first, I honestly only wanted you to help me. I was desperate for help. But I
hoped you’d be like him. I see the same potential in you as I did in him.”

A strangely content expression settled over his face. He
almost looked like he was smiling, although the faint light of the room made it
hard to be sure. With a nod, he rolled back over to his side and curled up
again, as if going back to sleep.

Siobhan rolled onto her back and let out a low breath. Phew,
why did she feel as if she’d just passed some sort of test? That conversation
had been vitally important. How, she still wasn’t quite sure. Perhaps Rune
wanted to know if he really could become like Wolf, an accepted member of a
good guild? Come to think of it, she hadn’t yet made it clear to him that he
was welcome to stay in Deepwoods if he wanted to. She’d discussed it with every
other member of the guild, but never when he was within earshot. Did he even
know that he could stay if he wanted to?

She rolled over and stole a peek over the side of the bed.
This time he truly did seem sound asleep, as his breathing had deepened to an
almost snore. Considering how little rest he normally got at night, she was
loath to wake him up. Besides, there should be a certain timing in telling him
such an important thing. Some wee hour of the morning while he was asleep on
her bedroom floor didn’t seem like the right moment. She’d have to either find
the right moment or create it later.

Sighing, she flopped onto her back with a slight squeak of
springs.

Now how in the world was she supposed to go back to sleep? 

ӜӜӜ

Siobhan studied the list in her hands as she walked back
toward the main building of Iron Dragain. Nortin had thoughtfully written one
out for her, as well as the predicted schedule of when they were expected to be
ready to leave, all in neat penmanship. It looked like they’d be ready to go by
the end of next week, which was faster than she’d anticipated. Siobhan silently
sent a prayer of thanks to the gods. She didn’t know how much longer she could
keep Wolf and Tran out of trouble in this city. They tended to stay near the
compound in case trouble arose. Which led to a different sort of trouble
occurring on a regular basis. She’d argue against it, but their concerns
weren’t exactly groundless. They weren’t sure of Fallen Ward’s tactics. Would
they attack again? Do something else entirely? So far no one had been able to
predict what that guild would do.

She shook the worries away and focused on the list again. For
now, she needed to find Grae. Now that they had a list of people and equipment,
they could estimate how much weight it would be and he could start building a
path to Quigg. Siobhan really, truly wanted to get those architects to Island
Pass before winter really hit Wynngaard. They were a good month and a half away
from season’s change, but it was already getting colder by the day and she
wanted to be safely home before she got buried under twenty feet of snow.