Chapter 144: A Quiet Day (Part 2).

He waited. He asked no questions, and simply waited. We watched Sere and Estovan for a time. Sere was getting much better with her strange style. It was a style of only thrusts. Or rather, of only one thrust. She would be invisible, wait for her opponent's guard to drop, and go in for the kill. She struck at Estovan's back. His sides. His throat. It might have been dangerous, had she been holding a real sword, and had Estovan not been Estovan.

It was almost devilishly effective, for the Gift she had. I could think of no better way to fight, if one were training to be an assa- I paused. Perhaps I needed to have a word with Estovan about just what he had been teaching Sere while I was busy with other things.

I sighed and looked across at my father. There was no easy way to say it. He would either believe me or he wouldn't. "There is going to be an attack on the walls soon. A great attack, one that will likely breach the section surrounding our District." My father said nothing, though he raised an eyebrow. "There will be another one too, at the wall around the Greenward District. He plans for a breach there as well, but a small one. One his mercenaries can conveniently repel, while we struggle with ours. I don't know every detail of how. From what I've learned, the monsters will be driven out of the dungeons that sit within a few miles of the walls, on some kind of signal. But I do know when. It will happen on the day we move to reopen the Council."

My father nodded slowly. He idly tapped a finger against his walking stick. "Did his daughter tell you this?"

"Yes."

He nodded again, and was quiet for some time. It must have been hard to believe, but I needed him to believe it, and to take it seriously besides. My father might have had his shortcomings, but he had done his most important duty well. He had held these walls, and never once let anything of the Wastes past them.

"I see now why you were so insistent on meeting Duke Wardell," he murmured. "Very well then. Let us prepare. The fact that we know when it will happen is fortunate. It makes things much, much easier."

I blinked. Surely I had misheard him. "That's it?" I asked.

He looked at me, and for some reason he looked genuinely confused. Then he smiled. "Well, you are my daughter. What father doesn't trust what his little girl tells him? If you tell me we need to prepare, then we prepare."

Suddenly, I felt very, very silly about all of this. I had been prepared to answer a dozen questions at the very least. I had prepared two dozen different ways of explaining the situation. That was what I had done until the late hours of the night, because I needed him to believe it. Apparently, I could have just gotten a good night's rest instead.

"We will need to talk to Sterling," my father said. "And Vance. If these beasts are to be driven out of the dungeons, then his men know those pits better than anyone in this city. If someone means to stir them up, there may be signs of it beforehand. And I suppose Calloway too. He knows every street in our District better than any map. You say only two sections of the wall will come under attack, but it's best not to leave any stretch of it unmanned. To bolster it quickly, then…." He idly tilted his head to the side, just a fraction. It was an expression I had made too, so very often. Strange, to see it in him. "The Adventurer's Guild. Though I believe you want to keep the fact that we know a secret, yes?" He looked at me. When I slowly nodded, he continued. "A private quest, then. One made personally to the elite parties. We can manage that much easily enough."

It was hard not to smile. He had said we, and he had brought up something I hadn't thought of at all. The Adventurer's Guild. Honestly, with everything else, I had completely forgotten they existed. If we could bring in some elite adventurers, like the ones who had come for me at Indri Manor, then that would be a tremendous help.

It was also, I realized, the first time I was seeing it. Not my father, but the Duke. The man who had held this city's shield for longer than I had been alive, in either life.

Well, it wasn't like I was entirely in the clear yet. My father was understanding. I had known that before, and I saw it now. But there were limits to how understanding any parent could be, and what I meant to tell him next would stretch those limits too far for anyone. "Father."

He looked at me. I held my hand out to the side and pulled. In one moment, my hand was empty. In the next, there was a crimson blade. Its light was bright, though I kept it from being blinding. "I am a Hero. We are talking about bolstering the wall's defense. I can think of no better way to do that than for me to be there."

Vaelin let out a hum from somewhere in the back of my mind. I chose to interpret that as the Godblade agreeing with me.

My father looked at the Godblade for a very long time. I could see the objection forming in his eyes. What father wanted to watch his daughter charge headfirst into monsters? It didn't matter that she was a Hero. It didn't even matter that she had charged headfirst into a Dragon and lived. There were limits.

"And are you sure," my father said slowly, "that fighting yourself is the best use of your talents?"

I blinked. That was not what I had expected to hear. "Pardon?"

He gestured at my Godblade first, and then at my face. "I have talked to some of the men who were with you on the expedition. I've talked to Simone, and he told me you did more than swing your sword. He told me you gave critical information. There were losses, yes. But there would have been far more of them if you hadn't been there." He smiled. "And that had nothing to do with being a Hero. I understand that your Gift is…." He searched for the word. "Irregular. But it seems to me the perfect Gift to lead with."

He did not say I wasn't allowed to. He made none of the objections I had both expected and feared from him. Instead, he had given me… something I did not know what to do with. I had not given it much thought, not really. I had helped with the Dragon, but that had been me feeding information to Vance, and Vance making all of the actual decisions.

I dismissed Vaelin. "Do you truly think I can help like that?" I eventually asked.

"In time, yes," my father said. "There is no reason you cannot. To lead men from the rear is a different skill than leading them at the head of a charge. But it is no less important." He reached out and rested a hand on my head. It should have felt heavy, but after everything, the touch was light. "I will not tell you not to fight. But I am telling you to only fight when that is the best thing you can do to help."

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There was a sharp crack from the ring, and then a thud. We both turned. Sere lay sprawled in the dirt a good few feet outside the ring's edge, her practice sword lying farther still. Estovan stood at the center, his rapier already lowered.

I was half-risen before I had decided to rise. Then Sere pushed herself up on her own. She stood, wiped the dust from her tunic in two efficient swipes, and walked over to collect her sword. She stepped back into the ring without looking at either of us. Estovan gave her a small nod, and settled back into his stance.

I sat back down in the grass.

I watched them for a time. Sere winked out again. Estovan stood with one hand on his rapier, the other folded behind his back. "I think you're right," I said eventually. "Maybe I'd be more help feeding information to Count Vance or Sterling."

"Well, that's a relief," my father said with a heavy sigh. He sat back in the grass. A cool breeze blew in from somewhere to the east. The sun was warm, but not scalding. "I'm glad I convinced you."

"You… were trying to convince me?" I asked.

My father smiled, though he did not look at me. A flock of birds passed somewhere overhead. "What father wants to see his daughter put herself in danger, Hero or not?" I stared at him. That had been the exact thing I had thought myself, only seconds ago. "I simply believed you wouldn't listen to me if I said you had to keep yourself safe."

"That's not-" I opened my mouth, and then I shut it, because a part of me knew that he was right.

"You are a Hero," my father said, "but you are also the future Duchess of House Veyne. You will be a leader, whether you wish to be one or not. I have led many a battle from the rear, when I could have been saving men at the front. Experience has taught me which of the two saves more lives in the end." He shrugged. "Of course, sometimes one must fight themself. That is why a leader must be strong, and not just wise. So that men have somewhere to look when all hope seems lost. Though I suppose you have that part well in hand already."

It was wisdom. The kind of wisdom that only came to a person over a lifetime of experience, and I would be the biggest fool in the world not to listen to it. My father had given me his permission, in perhaps the only way a father could give it. How strange, that it almost felt normal. And natural. He was not truly my father, but I would not have minded if he had been, I think.

"But this information. The information we are basing everything on," my father said. "Do you trust it? Completely?"

"Yes," I said at once. "I would trust it with my life."

My father's head turned in the grass. He looked at me, and his eyes were searching. As searching as they had been on that first day he had woken. As searching as a Goddess's had been, once, in a cave. "Because you trust this Cordelia?"

"Yes."

He was quiet for a moment. "Don't suppose there's any use in taking this to the King, then."

"No."

"No," he agreed.

There was only one name at the end of that road. It seemed we both knew that much.

He nodded slowly. "I see. She sounds like a remarkable woman. I would like to meet her someday. I have already met the other one. That… Violet is quite the character."

There was no reason for me to feel embarrassed, but I felt it anyway. "Violet is just very spirited," I said. "She doesn't mean anything by it. Err," I corrected, "most of the time."

My father laughed. It was a full laugh, one that shook all of him. "Oh, I know. Her mother was the same way." He laughed, but there was something sad in it.

Duke Indri and his wife had been my father's close friends. How close, I did not know. I only knew that there was a portrait in Indri Manor. A portrait of my mother. Or my supposed mother. The only portrait of her I had ever seen, and it hung in another man's house. They must have been close indeed.

Now wasn't the time to ask. Or perhaps it was exactly the right time. "Father." He looked at me. "When I was in his manor… he told me that you weren't there. When Scarlet Indri fought the Sword God, I mean. I've been wondering why."

That wasn't the question I had meant to ask. I had meant to ask about my mother. Or rather, this body's mother. But I had hesitated, though I could not have said why.

My father looked at me for a long time. He was silent for so long that I feared he might not answer me at all. When he finally spoke, his voice was quiet. "I couldn't be there," he said. "I vowed that I would be, and I broke that vow. It is…" He shook his head. "It is one of my greatest shames. Had I been there, perhaps things would be different. Perhaps Scarlet would still be alive, and her husband would never have lost himself to his madness. Much might be different. Yes… much might be." His eyes were looking past me now. At what, only the Gods could say.

Vaelin stirred somewhere in my mind, but he said nothing. He gave me no impressions at all.

It was clear this was something my father did not want to talk about. It was not even what I'd meant to ask. I still wanted to know. "Did… did you have a good reason?"

"I did," my father said. He reached out and brushed a strand of hair from my right eye. "I had a good reason. It doesn't make anything better. I will tell you of it, someday."

It was a promise. It was also, I was fairly sure, the extent of what he would tell me today. It would have to be enough.

"Thank you," I said, and sat back in the grass beside him.

Somewhere ahead of us, Estovan and Sere were still dueling. The occasional clack of their swords blended in with the birds above, and the breeze that stirred the grass.

"We will go to Duke Wardell's manor tomorrow," my father said.

"Tomorrow?" When Duke Wardell had said sometime this week, I had assumed it would be later than a single day.

My father slowly nodded. "There is something wrong with him. Something he would not say in front of so many people. He has always been the quiet type."

I nodded slowly at that. "Tomorrow, then," I agreed. My father knew the man far better than I did. It would have to be tomorrow.

There were footsteps. Fast footsteps on the grass. A shadow fell across me, and I looked up to see a maidservant panting. Her name was… Suma, I think? I sat up quickly. As did my father.

"What is it?" my father asked.

The maid made a curtsy. It was an impressively proper curtsy for someone so clearly out of breath. "It's-" She looked at my father, then at me. "Duchess Indri has arrived. And- and she is displeased not to find you at the manor. She is- she is taking that displeasure out on… on some of the finery."

"Oh." Well, compared to all of the things it could have been, that was downright mild. "It's fine. Just tell her to come here. After yesterday, I'd bet she has a lot of pent-up anger. She won't hurt anyone. Just tell her I'm here."

The maid looked at me with wide eyes, as if I had just asked her to walk to her own execution. Maybe… maybe I should go myself.

I sighed and rose, dusting the grass off of myself. There was a lot of it. "I'll see to her." The maid curtsied again, even as she looked relieved. She turned and began to walk away, and I watched her go. Violet, don't scare my maids!

"Esra," my father said. I looked at him. "I did hear about a certain… challenge made yesterday." He was looking at me with a smile that felt like a great deal more than a smile. "Is there anything more you need to tell me?"

"Hmm?" I looked at him. My head tilted, just slightly. "Oh, that. I have no idea what that was about. I plan to ask her."

My father blinked, slowly. "You have… no idea?"

"None. I'll ask her about it soon, but I have no clue what that was about," I said. I did not like the way he'd said it. As if he could not believe that I didn't know.

"I… see," my father said slowly. "Well. I had always wondered how you'd turn out…." he murmured under his breath, barely loud enough for me to hear. And just what was that supposed to mean?!

"Go," my father said. "It seems your friend misses you."

I nodded, and followed after the maid, who had already crossed a surprising amount of distance. More and more lately, it felt like everyone else was in on a joke they had all agreed not to share with me. Even Vaelin, apparently. You can still tell me, you know.

I swear I thought I heard the Godblade sigh.