The girl was delighted with herself, though she covered it with a theatrical sigh. "You're older than me by a lot, how can I take a student that old?"
"Knowledge has no age," Evan said. He had no pride to defend on the subject. He genuinely didn't know how to use a sword, he was pretending to be a wandering swordsman, and the girl had just given him more in ten minutes than he'd worked out in six weeks.
"Angie, stop bothering him," Reuben said. "Come eat."
Over breakfast, Evan asked the question he'd been holding: "I know it's not really my business. But I can't help it. Why did you come three hundred miles from the Yingji Woods? Surely not just to kidnap Felix Aymon."
"Kidnapping him was secondary — someone in his family paid for that, someone who finds him inconvenient." Reuben was watching Felix across the clearing as he said it, his tone perfectly ordinary. "We came here because the Fangs Mercenary Company had something that belongs to us. They disappeared into the Lia Fellwood with it."
"The Fangs Mercenary Company," Evan said. He hadn't connected the name.
"They worked for Earl Eward. Their mage was apparently some kind of low-level Arcanist — Boniface, I think the name was. Solid fighter by all accounts. Then Eward lost to Count Rein, the Fangs went deep into enemy territory, and nobody's seen them since."
Felix, twenty feet away, was listening to every word. Reuben knew it. Evan watched Reuben watch Felix, and revised his read of the situation.
After breakfast, Evan drew his blade and worked on what Angie had taught him. The footwork felt wrong at first, his body having ingrained one set of habits already — but the stances clicked into the thrusting motion after a few dozen passes in a way that made the whole thing feel more solid. Angie wandered over and started correcting his form without being asked, and he let her, because she was right.
Three days passed like that. The camp had its own rhythms. Felix was polite and watchful. Bess was warm toward everyone and sharp in ways she didn't advertise. Rein was exactly what he looked like. Evan trained, reviewed the day in the hours he didn't sleep, and waited.
On the third afternoon, the camp broke without announcement. Everything packed onto horses, everyone moving with the ease of people who had done this many times. They traveled back through the same careful winding path and arrived, toward evening, at the site of the original encounter.
A rider came in fast and spoke quietly to Angie. She turned to the group. "You're free to go." She produced the four horses — Felix's, from where they'd been stabled — and grinned at Evan. "I'll miss my student, big uncle."
She wheeled and the whole group vanished into the trees.
Four people stood in the clearing with horses.
Evan mounted, awkwardly — Ashton's body remembered horses better than his eighteen-year-old mind did, and the combination was ungainly. Felix looked at his horse with an expression of surprise that he didn't quite conceal. His family had paid the ransom. That wasn't what he'd expected of them.
"Mr. Evan. Would you come to my family's territory for a while? You've been a companion through this, and I'd welcome the company."
Evan had no particular place to be and much to learn about the world. He agreed.
They hadn't ridden a mile when they came across a body of soldiers — Rein's sharp eyes found the banner and he was shouting before anyone else had processed it. The soldiers surged toward them. Baron Aymon's men, still searching.
At that moment, an arrow came out of the trees. The angle put the shot from Evan's direction but past him, targeting Felix. Evan's hand came around on reflex and the sword-cane deflected it — he hadn't decided to do it, the decision had been made before he was aware of making it.
Then Rein was shouting, "Assassin — protect the young master!" and Bess had her wand up and was casting, "Wind-Binding Spell!" and a figure in the trees froze as the wind took hold.
The figure dropped from the branch and ran. Bess's Wind Blades cut into the tree trunk behind him. A cavalry rider burst from the group, sword blazing with fire-red light — too fast, too committed.
"Leave him alive!" Rein shouted.
Too late. The blade came down in a single arc. The man came apart and the two halves fell.
Felix's expression went tight. "Cousin. You were too quick."
The man who had cut the assassin down turned to Evan with a look that was calculating on the surface and something older underneath. Tall, lean, sharp eyes. "I'm Federik — Felix's cousin, a Knight. And you're the wanderer who's been with him?"
"Evan. A wandering swordsman."
"Brave of you, spending time in the Lia Fellwood. These peasants who try to take a swing at their betters—" He glanced at the two halves of the assassin. "—always need to be dealt with firmly." His eyes moved to Bess and stayed there.
Bess turned her face away.
Felix, neutrally: "How did you find us? Did Father pay the ransom?"
"Thirty thousand gold coins? Your father wouldn't. We were preparing to come in force. These are the advance riders." Federik shrugged. "How did you get out?"
Felix didn't answer immediately. He was thinking about something. Bess and Rein exchanged a glance. Evan watched Federik's eyes settle on Bess again and filed that observation away.
"It doesn't matter," Federik said, after a moment. "Your father is coming up behind us with the main force. He wants to put these bandits down once and for all."
Evan said, without emphasis: "So the town's garrison is empty."
One beat of silence.
Felix's face changed.