Bastion

camping at Waystations.”
    “And . . . where will we be goin’, sir?” Mags asked, unable to think of anything else to ask.
    The Dean rubbed his hands together, looking satisfied. “Well, now, this is the beauty of it. The Circuit we’re sending you to cover is out in the hills not desperately far from that mine you came from. Once you get to the hard winter part of it, you’ll actually be able to make a sort of headquarters in a part of the hills known as The Bastion. From there, it is an easy ride to each of the villages you are to visit.”
    There was something here Mags was missing. “So . . . there’s somethin’ special about The Bastion?”
    “There certainly is.” The Dean smiled knowingly. “It’s the place where the bandit horde that captured your parents was laired up. If there is anything left that can tell you anything about them, you’ll have plenty of time to look for it over the winter.”
    •   •   •
    Mags left the Dean’s office with feelings so mixed he was having trouble sorting them out. His room at the stable seemed a good, quiet place to try to get a grasp on everything that was about to happen to him, so that was where he went, sitting quietly on his bed, back to the wall, staring blankly at the opposite wall.
    He couldn’t exactly argue with this plan. It was a good one. He could, quite literally, vanish. No one would be looking for him when he was declared dead, and yet not one of his real friends was going to suffer a moment of grief. Even those who weren’t Heralds or Trainees would be quietly put in the know by those who were.
    He’d be with his friends and be able to protect his friends. Everyone who was truly at risk would all be in the same place, and they could watch each others’ backs.
    He’d be with Amily—and finally away from all those all-too-watchful eyes that seemed to think they needed to keep him and Amily under supervision. Not that they’d be unsupervised, obviously, but at least there wouldn’t be the feeling that every single person—and Companion!—on the Hill was reporting back to Nikolas on everything they did.
    This was not going to be easy, though. He had no real experience of wilderness living in the hard conditions of winter. Not to mention everything else that was going to be expected of him.
    And just which Herald was going to be his mentor? Not Nikolas, of course; the King’s Own couldn’t be spared. Mags dreaded going off for months with a stranger; what if whoever it was didn’t much like him?
    But . . . they were going to be spending time, and a lot of time, in the last place his parents had been alive. What chance was there he’d find some clue as to who they had been? Now that he had the benefit of those memories dumped into his head, he knew he could infer quite a bit from very little, if he could find some belongings of theirs. Even fragments would help!
    He couldn’t help but also feel some panic at the idea that suddenly, with very little warning, he was going to be thrown out on Circuit. No matter what Dean Caelen said about him “not needing” to learn how to stand in judgment on people, that was exactly what Heralds on Circuit were often required to do! What if he made mistakes? What if those mistakes hurt people? Heralds were often the only recourse people in these remote villages had to an impartial judge—what if he made the wrong decisions?
    What if he—
    :That’s why you go out with a senior Herald, dunce,: Dallen chuckled, making those concerns, at least, evaporate. :What, you think the idea is to throw you into these situations and make you flounder? You do nothing but watch and learn for a while. Then the senior will ask your opinion before he makes a decision, then he will let you make a decision, but has the option to override you if he thinks it’s a bad one. And that is just assuming that your senior even bothers to go through the motions of the usual Circuit with you. Most likely, what you will be doing is to make his job easier—spying. Using and honing the skills you already have. Finding out the stories behind the story they are giving him.:
    Oh. Well. Now he certainly felt foolish. :Good thing I didn’t go blurtin’ all that out, then, I guess. And the wilderness survival? I guess that’ll be part and parcel of being out in the dead of winter.:
    :Personally, I think you did very well at that. You’ll just be picking up a few more tricks and skills, I expect. You should