'Saemara.’

'Timoth,' I replied with a smile.

'Yes. Before the bells rang… what were we to discuss?'

'...I would like to be of service,' I found myself saying. It was out of character for me, but I was seized by the odd patriotism that had been swelling within my breast in recent weeks, especially that night after the destruction of the Tokuan longboat.

I realised that I felt comfortable speaking to Timoth. He was not going to judge me for my attitude towards the soldiery, nor rebuke me for some imagined slight. He was going to talk to me, and we were going to make a plan together. I didn’t feel vulnerable putting myself out there despite the possibility of rejection.

'My duties are more than I can handle alone,' Timoth admitted. 'I would be glad of your assistance.'

At that moment I saw in him not just my brother. I saw in him a man whose passion lay in the art of warfare yet had found himself in command of a nation. He was burdened by economics and politics. I pitied him.

'I was thinking,' I began, pausing briefly to consider what I was about to offer. I decided to continue anyway. 'I was thinking that I could pass judgment on the petty civil disputes that come before the Crown. No doubt there are numerous complaints which have gone unheard since the raid, and Father always said that I was a skilled-'

Timoth cut me off. 'While I would be glad to utilise your talent for passing binding judgments at any other time, you must realise that the passage of the Tokuans from Halivaara has changed things. There are new duties to which we must attend, duties which cannot wait as civil disputes can.'

'There are?' I asked. We had known that the longboats would leave eventually. Raiders liked to hit hard and fast, and escape with their plunder before an effective defensive force could oppose them. It had happened exactly as Timoth had predicted it would.

Timoth seemed to pause in response to my question. I recognised the look: he was considering his options. Eventually he spoke, but slowly, as if he was assessing the veracity of his words as they emanated from his lips.

'I need to stay in Haelling Cove to oversee the repairs to the city. I want to build a palisade on the western and southern faces of the town, to delay coastal raiders long enough for the townsfolk to flee into the castle. I need to manage the expenses of such an undertaking.' I could sense where his line of conversation headed and I took a deep breath, bracing myself for his next sentence. 'One of us has to go to Trackford.'

The thought of having to face Baron Steib without Timoth to rely upon made me less than pleased. 'Why? Do we know that they were attacked by the raiders? What of the men you sent there?'

'We do not know whether the Tokuans raided them, or merely passed them by as they passed by Haelling Cove. No doubt a messenger will reach us tomorrow, but the current of the Haelling will have carried the Tokuans ahead of even the fastest horseman. Nevertheless, one of us must go to Trackford to pass judgement upon Baron Steib,' Timoth replied.

My jaw dropped. I quickly closed it, but the damage was done.

Timoth said to me, 'You know he must be punished. He financed the enemy with the Crown's money. It is treason.'

'He saved the city,' I protested, not in Steib's defence but in protest at my having to travel the road again so soon. Even the thought of it made my back hurt.

'I saved the city,' Timoth said. 'I have little doubt that when the messenger arrives in the morning, he will tell of how the raiders were deterred by the sheer number of defenders that stood guard at the docks. Steib thought only to save his own skin, and the money he used to do it did not belong to him: it belonged to me. To Ebonreach.'

'I do not think this is a task suited to me,' I claimed. 'What if Steib does not come quietly? It would be better if you went, or if you sent Fraedwin. He won't listen to me.'

'A chance to assert your authority then, sister. Besides, I think it unlikely. The folk of Trackford think well of you. They talk of your generosity even to beggars, and I saw only days ago how impressed they were by your stoicism.' I went to interrupt, but he raised a hand to stop me. 'Besides, were not you just saying that Father thought you a skilled judge? By Cha, pass judgement upon Baron Steib. He has committed treason, not only against the Crown of Ebonreach, but against that of Halivaara. Even if we were to spare him, the King would render judgment in the coming months. '

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'You want me to kill him?' I asked. Treason was a capital offence, after all. I didn't know if I could sentence him to such a fate. The death of Gentleman Wargwa still weighed on my mind and the last thing I wanted was to be responsible for another man's life. I knew that such responsibility was the province of nobility, and though I was willing to shoulder such a burden when defined more generally, in this case Timoth seemed to be tasking me with an execution.

'If necessary,' he admitted. 'However, you will act as his judge. Listen to his defence, if you will. Hear the pleadings of the townsfolk. If you think his decision justified, you may lighten his sentence.'

'You would trust me with such a task?' I asked him. It was incredible that mere weeks ago I'd been on the other side of the nation living in the centre of a mountain. I had been seen as a child, and many basic adult pleasures were forbidden to me. Suddenly, I was the heir to Ebonreach, a woman, and entrusted with the most important criminal trial in the recent history of the Reach.

'I would,' Timoth replied, and I heard the truth in his words. He had no misgivings, and the thought heartened me. His confidence in me gave me self-confidence, as it had always done.

Another comfortable silence descended upon us. I broke it. 'I'm not sure that I belong here anymore,' I confessed.

Timoth frowned at me. 'While I feel that the circlet does not yet sit well atop my brow, I cannot say that I share your sentiment regarding our hometown, sister. Perhaps it is because I was already a man when we left for Hollowhold, and I left no part of me in the mountain.'

Clearly, he referred to Prince Alum. 'When do you think I might return?'

Timoth broke my gaze, and I immediately knew that it did not bode well. 'You recall my saying that my duties are more than I can handle alone? Dealing with Baron Steib is but the first of them. There is much work to be done in the Reach, and I must balance my priorities. Your assistance is invaluable, and I will let you seek the Prince as soon as such a thing is possible, or desirable.'

I bowed my head, knowing that he was right, but feeling crushed nonetheless. I’d been foolish to hope that I could simply come of age and then get married. A girl's hope. Now I was a woman, and I realised that everything was more complicated that I could ever have imagined.

No longer was I the youngest in a family of five. I was the second in command of the entire County, with the third in command so far below me in stature that I didn’t even know who held the title. Clearly my duties had to come before my own desires, as they always had. I hoped that I would be able to return to Hollowhold before my youthful vitality faded. Or the Prince saw it in someone else.

'When must I leave?' I asked him, implicitly accepting his mission.

'At dawn's first light,' Timoth said. 'The skies are clear. I expect you to reach Trackford after only one night. Once there, you will send all soldiers not bound to Trackford by oath back to Haelling Cove to assist in rebuilding the city. Then you will devote yourself to the case against Baron Steib.'

'Just like that?' I asked.

'Take all the time you need. I imagine that following the course of justice may require some days. Yet do not linger overlong. My burdens are many and I will struggle under their collective weight in your absence.'

'I shan't take any servants,' I said, already thinking of the logistics of my journey. 'I have yet to claim any as my own. I’ll just have to acquire some in Trackford. I do not wish to travel alone, however.'

'You will, of course, be escorted by men of the Reach,' Timoth said. “Men of the Reach” he referred to them as, as many did. It was the shorthand for the soldiers loyal to the ruling Count of Ebonreach. It meant dirty, drinking, swearing swordsmen. Yet I knew that the roads would be less safe than they had been prior to the Tokuan raids so there was little choice. 'You are heir to the County throne now, you must never travel unescorted,' he added.

I agreed with him, though it pained me that I would be travelling without him, which I had never done previously. I doubted that I would know anyone with whom I travelled. Nonetheless, I resigned myself to the journey and began to mentally brace myself for the matter of Baron Steib's trial.

All sorrow at the death of my kin passed into memory, just like that. I was of course weighed by sadness for some weeks beyond that, yet it was with the assignment of Timoth's task that I realised that life would move on regardless. Life would slowly slide back into normalcy and the trauma of the past would be concealed within the broader fabric of my being.

As a lady, I was entitled to ride in a carriage rather than on horseback. However, Timoth did not see fit to arrange a carriage, no doubt due to the expense of such an endeavour. I saw no point in complaining: if I hadn't even been able to wear new shoes for my coming of age ceremony, there was certainly no way that I'd win an argument over the correct degree of luxury to which I was entitled during travel within my own County. At the very least, the journey to Trackford would force me to spend time in Lilac's saddle. I felt guilty for not riding her very often during the years she'd spent stabled at Hollowhold, and despite the weeks I'd recently endured on her back I still felt that I had some making up to do. At least Timoth had found some coin to give me to pay for my food and accommodation, as well as any bribes that I might need to offer to Steib's associates. I harboured no illusions that Steib would come willingly or easily.

We set out early the next morning, myself and four soldiers on horseback. Passing through Haelling Cove, I was saddened to see that much was as it had been when I had first arrived in the city some days earlier. Homes were still in ruin, tradehouses still burned, and I suddenly grasped the immensity of the task ahead of us. Timoth and I had to find the money to rebuild the city, and then find the money to defend it against future raids. I shivered to think that there could be another raid involving twenty or more ships. With that many men, they would put in danger even the castle at Haelling Cove.