“Lord Westfall wants to see you.”

Kiri finished wiping off the table before she turned around. There was no sense in rewarding a person who snuck up on her like that with immediate attention. “A good day to you, too, Gilliam.”

“Sorry for leaving aside the courtesies, sweet Lady Kiri,” Gilliam said. “I’m in a hurry, I have to attend to the lord in less than an hour. You know he’s not a patient man.”

“All right, he wants to see me,” Kiri said. “Am I to attend to him within the hour as well?”

“Not so soon as that,” Gilliam said. “He asked, and by that I mean commanded, if I must be plain about it, that you should come to speak with him at sundown. That’s...let’s see...three hours from now.”

“Sundown?” Kiri said, trying to keep her breathing from speeding up. She swallowed against the sudden tightness in her throat. “I have an appointment then. Some other time would be better. Now would be better, in fact.”

“The plans to change, Kiri,” Gilliam said. “Are not the ones with your lord.”

Normally Kiri would agree with him. But with the Untouchables threat’s loud in her mind, she hesitated. Who was it riskier to stand up, the Untouchable or Lord Westfall?

“With whom do you have these plans?” Gilliam said. “Let me make your excuses for you.”

“The cooper,” Kiri said. “Tell his boy Feugh, he’s the one with curly black hair.”

Gilliam laughed. “The cooper? There is no need to worry then, Kiri. He will be glad to bow to Lord Westfall’s wishes. I will make your excuses, and your reputation as well, as a lady connected to court.” Bowing, and still smiling, he swept out of the inn.

Kiri dug her toe into the rug, cursing her high-heeled shoes. Her shoes and Gilliam both. He had actually made her change when he came to pick her up at the inn. An audience with Lord Westfall demanded proper dress, he said. Kiri wanted to stick her tongue out at him. He hadn’t made such a fuss the first time he took her to meet Lord Westfall. Of course, she hadn’t had clothes this nice until the lady of the manor gave them to her. He’d probably been embarrassed at her appearance then but too kind to say anything about it.

Lord Westfall eyed her over his flagon as he downed his mead. His other hand was clutching a hefty turkey leg, crispy and delicious looking. He’d offered Kiri some, and she’d been about to accept until Gilliam stomped on her toe and gave a minute shake of his head. It was humiliating to be scolded like a little child, which made her more angry at Gilliam. She peeked at him out the corner of her eye while still trying to appear to be focused on Lord Westfall. The scribe looked completely at ease, his hands clasped lightly behind his back and a faint smile on his face.

The flagon went down and the turkey leg came up. Lord Westfall tore off a chunk with his teeth. “Lord Useph’s taken with your friend.” He spoke through the food, unbothered at the half-chewed bits that escaped to the table below.

“I suppose so, my lord,” Kiri said, looking down more to avoid watching him chew his food than out of deference. “He has invited her to the falls tomorrow.”

“My wife’s going,” Lord Westfall wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “They’re not hunting. She said something about admiring nature.” He shook his head. “We’ve got gardens here! Best flowers in the valley. Beautiful!”

“They’re very lovely, my lord,” Kiri agreed.

Lord Westfall took another long drink of mead. When he slammed it down his finger whipped out to point at Kiri. She jumped.

“You. You’re a woman.” He looked her up and down and shrugged one shoulder. “Near enough. Why does a woman want to do a fool thing like go on a nature walk when she has the best gardens in a hundred miles?”

“I don’t know, my lord,” Kiri said. “Romance?”

He guffawed at that, threw back his head and laughed. He took another bite of turkey, muttering “romance” through the mouthful of food. He pointed the turkey leg at Kiri. “I’ve been married twenty-five years. I don’t need romance. Useph, he’s got no wife, but he’s got romance. Your friend Mala. She hasn’t got bloodlines, but she’s got something better.”

He paused, so Kiri decided she was supposed to ask, “what’s that, my lord?”

“Best figure in the kingdom,” Lord Westfall said. “You’re going to make this work out. I don’t need romance, but I need alliances. Understood?”

Kiri nodded and murmured. “Yes, my lord.” She wasn’t sure why he thought she had any power in the situation, but since Mala wanted Useph, any influence she might have had was moot anyway. Mala usually got what she wanted, so Kiri was lucky in this case it aligned with her orders.

Lord Westfall turned back to his flagon. “Get out of here. Do my taxes.”

Gilliam hurried along the hall to the kitchens, and Kiri stuck right behind him. Lord Westfall had told them to go do his taxes, and apparently that’s what Gilliam intended to do.

Surely it hadn’t been a serious order to immediately go right now, but Kiri trailed behind Gilliam anyway, silent. She shouldn’t be here; she needed to speak up and go to the Standing Stones. The Untouchable must be furious by now that she hadn’t shown up, but surely late was better than never. Maybe even better than on time would have been if it meant that they were less prepared for her arrival, less likely to be laying in ambush. But she said nothing. Just like the old Kiri, the one who had worked at her family’s shop. She had been following then, too, doing the tasks laid out for her in the shop, never her own choices, not questioning that she must walk the path that her sisters had. It was only because she had failed so miserably at a crucial hurdle on the path, getting married, that she had left at all. It was infuriating to find herself falling so easily back into someone else’s idea of what she was supposed to be doing. What good was being the Firebrand if she couldn’t even speak up to excuse herself from work with Gilliam? What was she afraid of? Yet here she was, sitting down at Gilliam’s cramped work table in the store room, mounds of paperwork between them as he seated himself on the other side.

“What are you thinking about?” Gilliam asked. He held out a quill pen.

Kiri twirled the pen between her fingers. “How nothing ever changes.”

“How odd,” Gilliam commented, but didn’t explain any further. Instead he pushed a stack of paper and ledger to Kiri. “We need to get through these tonight.”

Kiri nodded and opened the book. For a little while there was no noise but the scritching of their pens.

“That is not what I was thinking at all,” Gilliam said.

“What?”

“I was not thinking that nothing ever changes,” Gilliam said. “I was in fact marveling at how much has changed since I have come to Westfall Valley.”

“It has been a busy few months,” Kiri allowed.

“I came here expecting to spend a season in the quiet countryside,” Gilliam said. “I was not as eager as I might have been, thinking that it would be a dull job, doing a country lord’s accounts with only a small town and village nearby. I expected few diversions. It has not been as I expected.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You mean the Firebrand,” Kiri said.

“Yes, she is impressive, to say the least. The vengeful spirit of an angry maiden, perhaps, or so I have heard said.” Gilliam spoke lightly, but Kiri couldn’t help being offended at the description which made her sound like an evil spirit.

“Vengeful maiden?” Kiri said. “Really? Who says that?”

Gilliam shrugged. “Some folk. She didn’t seem vengeful when I met her. Mysterious, certainly. But she is not the only diversion in this valley.”

“The mill exploded,” Kiri said. “That was…not normal at all. People will be talking about that for years. It was so loud!”

Gilliam laughed, warmly. Too warmly. Kiri found herself wishing the room wasn’t so private, that they were not sitting so close and the light was not so soft. “Loud, it was indeed. I’ve never seen such a fire. There was nothing left.”

“I haven’t been,” Kiri said. “I’ve been busy at the inn, of course, and I didn’t think I could be of help, anyway.”

“I’m sure I wasn’t,” Gilliam said. “It was impressive, like the Firebrand. But those diversions lasted a day, or two. They were not the reason that my quiet time in the country has been full of life, that now that my work is near an end I find myself reluctant to return home.”

Kiri sat back in her chair. She caught herself chewing her lip and carefully forced a smile. Her mind jumped back to the conversation with Lord Westfall, his scoffing at romance. “Is it something to do with nature?”

“That is, I must admit, one way to look at it,” Gilliam said. “It’s you, naturally, Kiri, and surely you know it. You have lit up my time in this dull town, brought interest to this dreary room, and warmth to my cold heart. If I leave without you, I’m afraid I’ll find the gleaming walls of Laed have lost their luster.”

“Oh,” Kiri said. She looked down at the table and scratched at its splintering edge.

“Come with me, Kiri,” Gilliam said. “You do not need to be a barmaid. In the city a woman with your head for figures and fine hand will not lack for work. We can even work together. I will likely return to the royal library. They have such books there, Kiri! Books to answer questions you never even knew to ask.”

Kiri looked up at him, shaking her head. “It sounds...really, just wonderful. But I...”

“Garon spoke first, I know,” Gilliam said. “But you have made no promises. You can still come with me.”

“It’s not that I’ve promised,” Kiri said. “And it’s not that I don’t want to go to Laed. But...it’s like you said. The ‘gleaming walls will have lost their luster’....without him.”

Gilliam’s smile only broke for a moment, and the one that replaced it was a little tighter, a little sadder. But it was still kind, and warm enough. Gilliam was always charming. “Ah, well,” he said, squaring his shoulders. “No one can say I didn’t try. And if you should change your mind, the offer stands.” He pulled his work back to him and set his pen to scritching away.

Kiri knew her own expression was not so charming. She wanted to cry. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Gilliam raised her chin with a fingertip. He was still smiling. “Don’t be sorry,” he said. “Let’s make the most of our last few days before I have to leave. There’s work to do yet.”

As Kiri went back to her own set of papers fear suddenly came rushing back, a crushing tightness in her chest. She thought of the Untouchable and their appointment on the hill by the Standing Stones. If blowing up the granary had been a warning, what would he do now?

~

Kiri learned the answer to that when she was washing off tables after the lunch rush. Feugh stomped into the inn, knocking the mud from his boots. It had been raining all day, reducing most of the ground in town to soggy puddles. Kiri approached him with a forced smile on her face.

“A late lunch, young master?” she asked.

“You know why I’m here,” Feugh said, his tone harsh with contempt. “You insulted my master. Only a coward...”

Kiri held up a hand, still holding a rag, to silence him. She jerked her head towards Halden and raised her eyebrows. Halden was wiping down the bar, and with no one else in the room, he was likely to hear every word they said. “A table by the window?” she asked.

“Fine,” Feugh grumbled. He took his seat and for a while they pretended he was a regular patron. Kiri brought him bread and wine, and he ate begrudgingly.

When Halden finally retreated into the kitchen Kiri hurried over to Feugh.

“Look,” she said. “I meant to be at the meeting, but Lord Westfall summoned me. What was I supposed to tell him?”

“You expect me to sympathize?” Feugh’s scorn was strange to hear. He was just an ordinary boy from town, one of many that Kiri had seen grow up from infancy. Where did he get this air of superiority?

“I don’t know what to expect from you,” Kiri said. “You came to me.”

“Don’t act like you didn’t cause this,” Feugh said. “I know who you are.”

Kiri took a deep breath, pushing down a rising wave of panic. She should not have been surprised, really wasn’t surprised, but somehow knowing that he knew was still terrifying.

“My master is angry that you did not come,” Feugh said. “You were warned. Your friend Gilliam is with the master now. If you want to see him alive again, you will come to the next meeting.”

The door from the kitchen banged open. Halden came into the room, carrying a tray of newly-washed dishes to the bar. Kiri wanted to yell at him to get out. Instead she leaned forward to speak quietly to Feugh. “When is the meeting?”

“After I leave here, meet me at the fountain in the village,” he said. “I will take you there.”

Kiri put on her best barmaid smile and swept away from his table. She was proud of herself that she managed to nod politely to Halden before running up to cry in her room.

There were at least two people following them. Kiri had spotted the first quickly, before she and Feugh even left the village square. The second was much better, she hadn’t seen him until they left the village. He was skilled at blending in with people, but not as adept at hiding among trees.

They took the road past the mill, but shortly after that they left the path and made for the river. Surprise, surprise; they were not going towards Standing Stone Hill. Why would they go into the woods here? There was no path nearer the river, and neither was there any bridge for miles. Did they plan to ambush her here in the woods? It was hard to imagine the meeting place with the Untouchable being here, in the narrow stretch of trees between road and river. She went forward cautiously, mindful of the flitting figures in the trees around her, hoping there were no more than the two she had already spotted. Her fist clenched tight beside her, already ungloved even though she wasn’t dressed as the Firebrand. It had seemed worth the possibility that someone might see her strange palm to have it uncovered and ready to use. The heat built, but she had learned to keep it in check. It would be uncomfortable if she did not use it, but not dangerous.

They came out of the trees into the reeds beside the river. The soft mud stuck to Kiri’s boots, which grew heavier with each step. She noticed that the stalkers were staying behind in the trees.The back of her neck tingled as the path Feugh led her on now made it impossible for her to keep a constant eye on the tailing men.

“There’s a boat just up here, you see?” Feugh said. He moved away from her towards the water. Kiri didn’t look for the boat, instead glancing back to the stalkers. One of the figures among the trees was stirring. She realized what he was doing an instant before the arrow flew.

Kiri dropped into the mud. Her hair flew in the rush of the arrow whooshing past her. At the same time as she threw herself down she opened her hand, unleashing the pent-up lightning at the stalker in the wood. Blinking past the afterimage, and ignoring Feugh behind her, Kiri unleashed a second bolt at the other hiding figure before he had a chance to run.

She heard the sounds of Feugh slogging through the mud and cursing behind her. Kiri scrambled to her feet while her hands and feet kept slipping in the mud. Feugh had drawn a knife, a dangerous thing to do considering the way he was sliding around. He kept getting closer and Kiri couldn’t find her footing. Her hand got stuck in the mud. That was when he reached her, yanking on her hair, wrenching her head back to expose her neck. Kiri threw her weight to the side, freeing her hand with a great sucking noise, and grabbed his wrist as he stumbled to regain his balance, a handful of her hair tore off in his fingers. She held on to him as tight as she could, and she knew from the way his eyes widened that he could feel the heat building in her palm. Going still, he dropped the knife.

“Well,” Kiri said between gasping breaths. “How do we handle this? Your master told you to kill me, am I right?”

“Yes,” Feugh whispered.

“Does he really have Gilliam?” Kiri asked.

Feugh looked at her hand, still clamped on his wrist. It was hot enough Kiri half-expected to see smoke rising. “Yes.”

“Are you scared of him?”

Feugh gave a barely perceptible nod.

“You’re more scared of me,” Kiri said. “Take me to him. Is there really a boat?”

He pointed. “Right over there.”

“Let’s go.”