Bastion

were famished too. Not surprising considering how fast and hard they had run.
    He took off his cloak, shook it out vigorously and tossed it over a storage chest to dry, then sank down on the rugs nearest the fire. Jakyr did the same opposite him, and he wondered if he looked as dull-tired as his mentor did. Amily brought him a warmed pie and a mug of hot tea, and he murmured thanks. Lita did the same for Jakyr, and to Mags’ shock, all Jakyr said was, “Bless you.”
    But he couldn’t dwell on that when he was ready to eat his own hand. He bit into the pie, and either it was the equal of those godly pies at that inn Jakyr had first taken him to, or else hunger made it seem so. He ate it down to the last crumb, just as Amily brought him another with an understanding grin. Only after he had finished a third did it feel as if the gnawing monster in his belly had been appeased, and he leaned back into the cushion and put an arm around Amily and let the heat from the fire soak into him.
    “I think we are going to be here for a while,” Lita said into the silence. “There was a weather-witch back at the town who said we were about to get snowed in hard, here in The Bastion, with several storms, one after the other. I wish I’d paid more attention to her.”
    “Well, why didn’t you?” Lena asked. Then proving it was a completely rhetorical question, continued, “You didn’t, because the mayor said she never predicted anything but terrible weather for The Bastion.”
    “I should have asked if, when she predicted terrible weather, the weather actually came,” Lita replied with a shrug. “But I suppose if they never came out to The Bastion, they’d never know for sure. If we can’t break through at the entrance, we’re going to have to slowly dig our way out or wait until we get a thaw.”
    “This might be the reason why this Circuit is so hard to run,” Jakyr observed wearily. “If Heralds get snowed in that often, they aren’t going to see the villages as often as they should, and we got what—” he waved a tired hand “—we got. Unruly, surly, and resentful.”
    “It’s as good a theory as any,” Lita agreed. “I’m thinking this Circuit should be divided into smaller ones. And I need to get more Bards out here. There’s nothing to persuade people that they need Heralds quite like flinging the Vanyel cycle at them until they are sick of hearing it.”
    Jakyr gave her an odd look. “What?” she asked, defensively. “I don’t hate Heralds. I like Mags. I like Caelen. I even like Marion.”
    Jakyr rolled his eyes a little, but he managed not to make a sharp retort. Instead, he turned to Mags. “This might give you an opportunity to see if there is any sign left at all of your parents,” he said. “Our friend Milles marked the two caves that had been the bandit treasury and the area where the captives were kept. They are quite clearly picked out on the map. You probably won’t find anything, but you never know.”
    They had had so many other things to worry about that the possibility of looking for some piece of his past had entirely slipped his mind. But if they were going to be snowed in here for a while, that was as good a task as any. “I think that’s a good idea, Mags,” Amily agreed, nodding slightly. “That’s why Caelen sent you out here in the first place. At least even if you don’t find anything, you won’t be tormented by wondering if you might have if you’d just looked.”
    He smiled, and hugged her. “Well then, reckon I will,” he said. “But not till the storm clears. We don’t need nobody lost in it.”
    “No, we don’t,” Lita agreed. “It was a near enough thing with you two as it was.”
    •   •   •
    Bear had kindly gone around to everyone’s bed and left a hot stone in each to warm them before sleep. Jakyr went to bed first, complaining about old bones and storms. Lita yawned hugely and left shortly after. Lena and Bear cleaned up the little there was to clean from a dinner of pocket pies, and slipped off to the caravan. That left Mags and Amily alone.
    “How come,” he said aloud, “it was Dallen doin’ all the work, but I feel like I was doin’ the running?”
    She groaned a little. “Because you were, sort of, you just don’t think about it anymore. Remember when you first learned to ride, how sore you were? Riding uses an awful lot of muscles, love, and just because you know how to ride and you don’t hurt anymore, that