Ch. 198 Third Birthday as King

Chapter 198: Third Birthday as King

A wagon had overturned near the river road.

The people with it were safe on the bank. One horse was still caught between the traces and the wagon, with water rising around its legs.

Eliza sent a mounted party with rope.

I went with them.

By the time we arrived, two travelers had freed the horse’s head. They needed help lifting the shaft.

I held the wagon while Eliza and her people cut the tangled traces.

The horse pulled free.

Someone led it to dry ground.

I lowered the wagon carefully and drew back what strength I could.

The woman who had called for help sat beneath a tree with wet skirts and a blanket around her shoulders.

“I heard you,” I told her.

She looked at the road.

“From Greykeep?”

I nodded.

“That’s farther than I thought a voice would go.”

“So did I.”

On the ride home, Eliza asked me what would have happened if I had followed the call myself.

“I don’t know.”

“Could you have moved the wagon?”

“Perhaps.”

“Could you have known where the horse was caught?”

“No.”

She adjusted her reins.

“We arrived with rope and people who knew horses.”

“I know.”

“You helped when you reached them.”

I looked back toward the bend in the road.

The river was hidden by trees.

“Next time I might be too late.”

“Yes,” she said. “That may happen.”

I had expected her to argue.

Instead, she rode beside me until I was ready to face forward.

Mary and the Castellan had chosen the old dry rise for the first part of the city expansion.

They invited me to see the plans when I returned.

The papers covered an entire table.

There were plots for houses, space for workshops, two routes wide enough for carts, and a place reserved for a second public well. The drains were drawn in a different color.

“The millers agree this route leaves their water undisturbed,” Mary said.

“And the farmer?”

“He walked the proposed road with us. We moved it clear of the planting ground.”

The Castellan pointed to the edge of the map.

“The old culvert can be opened. Eleanor has examined it.”

“Can we begin?”

“Once the land agreements are signed,” Mary said.

I looked at her.

“You were waiting for me to ask.”

“I knew you would.”

Outside, Eleanor, Aldren and Perrin had placed markers along the rise.

No walls stood there yet.

Children had already begun walking between the markers as though the proposed road belonged to them.

One of them asked Aldren which marker would be a house.

“We haven’t decided,” he said.

“Could mine be here?”

“Does your family live here?”

“No.”

“Then you’ll have to ask them first.”

The child considered this, then ran off to do so.

Aldren watched him go.

“I’m learning from Mary.”

“So am I,” I said.

The watch training continued while the surveys were made.

Melody took the volunteers beyond the lower gate and showed them where a message could be sent from the new road. Eliza worked with the permanent guards on changing posts without leaving a gap.

The Castellan tested the restored bells.

On the second test, they rang in the wrong order.

He spent the afternoon finding out why.

A loose fitting at the southern post had caused its bell to answer late.

“I thought someone had made a mistake,” the young guard told him.

“Someone did,” the Castellan replied. “A long time ago, when this was fitted.”

Eleanor repaired it.

The next test sounded through the whole city.

Garrick shouted back from the nursery.

Two days before my birthday, Mary asked me to sign the first land agreements.

I read each one.

She sat across from me and waited.

“You could have put these in the birthday pile,” I said.

“They are ready today.”

“That has never stopped you from giving me work on a holiday.”

“Your birthday is in two days.”

“I noticed.”

Mary looked at me over her book.

“Last year, you did not.”

“I did notice. I was busy.”

“So were we.”

She passed me the final agreement.

“When you finish, I will take them to the families involved.”

I signed.

She left before I could ask what else she had planned.

That evening, Aurelia found me standing outside the chapel.

Evelyn was inside with Ilyen and the healers. They were practicing how to clean and bind a wound without using magic.

“She is happy,” Aurelia said.

“Yes.”

“I think she was afraid I would believe she was taking something from me.”

“Did you?”

“No. I spent a long time answering people alone. There is much I can teach her, and much she already knows that I do not.”

We watched Evelyn demonstrate a bandage.

Thesra handed her another length of cloth. Evelyn thanked her without breaking the explanation she was giving.

“Thesra called her a saintess,” I said.

“She asked what the word would mean.”

“She did.”

Aurelia leaned against the doorframe.

“I would like to see what answer she makes.”

On the morning of my birthday, Garrick woke us before the bell.

Evelyn did not tell me to get him.

She was already sitting up.

“Twenty-two,” she said.

“Is that meant to encourage me to rise?”

“Yes.”

I fetched our son.

Carol was awake too, standing against the side of her cradle. She reached for me until I picked her up.

I carried both children back to the bed.

Evelyn made room.

For several minutes, nobody required a signature, a shield, or an answer from the high court.

Then Garrick took my hair in one hand.

“Happy birthday,” my wife said.

I kissed her.

Breakfast was small.

There were more people than I expected, though not so many that the children had to stay in anyone’s lap.

Beatrice had made warm rolls. On the table stood a cake with plain white icing and twenty-two little marks around its edge.

“Did you make each of those?” I asked.

“Perrin offered to measure them,” she said. “I declined.”

Perrin looked offended.

“They’re evenly spaced.”

“By eye.”

Eleanor examined the cake.

“She’s right.”

Melody pulled out a chair for me.

“That was the chair you discovered.”

“I knew it.”

“You knew very little,” Evelyn replied.

Mary gave me a new book.

The first pages held the city plan, copied small enough to carry. After them were blank pages.

“For your own notes,” she said.

“Will you inspect them?”

“Only if you ask.”

Eliza brought a map of the watch routes with the river road added. She had marked the place where we had helped the travelers.

“So I remember where to send people?” I asked.

“So anyone can.”

Aurelia gave me a smooth stone from the lower training chamber.

“You have dropped this one many times,” she said.

“I thought you might have lost count.”

“I did not.”

I turned it over in my hand.

We ate cake before midday.

Carol preferred the icing. Garrick wanted Evelyn’s piece despite holding one of his own.

Helena moved their plates apart.

Some methods remained reliable.

Caldris told a story about a birthday he had once spent arguing over the proper number of candles. Maelin disputed his account. Thesra supported neither of them.

I looked around the table.

There were more people here than there had been a year ago. Some had only just found their way to us.

I had wanted a quiet afternoon last year and never asked anyone to keep it.

This year they had.

After the children slept, Evelyn and I went to the balcony above the inner court.

The new building markers showed faintly beyond the lower wall.

Farther away, the road crossed the fields.

“Was it enough?” she asked.

I held Mary’s book against my side.

“Yes.”

“You’re certain? Melody wanted music.”

“We had music at the twins’ birthday.”

“That did not answer the question.”

“I’m certain.”

She rested her head against my shoulder.

I listened.

The courtyard below.

A bell at the western post.

The river road, too distant for ordinary hearing.

I could feel the edge of it if I reached.

I stayed with Evelyn.

“There is something else,” she said.

“I was afraid of that.”

“It is a question.”

“That can be worse.”

“When you heard the woman by the river, you came to me before you went.”

“Yes.”

“Will you keep doing that?”

“When I can.”

She lifted her head.

“That is the answer I hoped for.”

I looked at her.

“I thought you might ask me not to reach so far.”

“I want you to come back when you do.”

I put my arm around her.

Below us, someone called for Aldren. He answered from the workshop.

The sound of his voice remained exactly where it belonged.