White Road

role of her too-young protector. Seregil was very convincing as a woman, and had attracted the swarthy captain’s unwanted attention, much to Alec’s alarm and Seregil’s amusement. Seregil had previous experience with that sort of thing, but the ship was a small one and Rhal had been quite persistent, to his own chagrin. Later, when Seregil had funded a privateering vessel for Rhal with a pair of emeralds, the man had the joke back on him, christening the ship the
Green Lady
and fitting her with a carved figurehead of a green-clad woman who bore a remarkable resemblance to Seregil. Out of pique over Rhal’s joke, Seregil never spoke the ship’s real name.
    “It’s not far to Watermead from Silver Bay. We can stop there for supplies,” said Micum.
    “Are you sure you want Sebrahn there?” asked Seregil.
    “What safer place could there be, eh?”
    “Safe for Sebrahn, maybe,” Seregil reminded him.
    “That may be so, but we won’t stay long, and if we’re really headed for Plenimar then I want a chance to see my family.”
    Seregil made a quick sign against ill luck. “Don’t talk like that if you still want to go.”
    “I just meant we’d be away longer. Once we’re properly equipped, we’ll call for Rhal. He can meet us back at Silver Bay and take us across.”
    “You make it sound easy,” Seregil said with wry grin. “It would be easier if either of us knew how to find Yhakobin’s house. Neither Alec nor I was in any position to mark the way.”
    “There’s that farm, where the tunnel from the workshop ends,” Alec mused. “But I’m not sure I could find that again, either. We just sort of ran away and got lost.”
    “No, we’ll have to start at Riga, and ask the way however we can,” said Seregil.
    “Could we use that tunnel you told me about to get back into the place?” asked Micum. Seregil could tell his old friend was enjoying this. Micum had always liked the planning stage of a job.
    “I don’t think we could lift the trapdoor from underneath,” Alec told him. The door was hidden under a heavy anvil in Yhakobin’s workshop. Pulling it up with leverage from above had been hard enough; trying to balance on a rickety wooden ladder and push up from below was probably impossible.
    “We could get back out that way, though, if we have to,” Seregil said. “I think we’ll have to figure out the rest once we get there.”
    “And hope Illior’s on our side,” added Micum.
    “What about Sebrahn?” asked Alec. “It’s not like I can just leave him anywhere. And you’re
not
going without me!”
    “No, it’s probably going to be a two-man job, at least,” said Seregil. “And here we are, at the crux of the Sebrahn problem.”
    “Yhakobin is dead. As far as we know, he was the onlyone in Plenimar who knew what Sebrahn is, right?” Alec pointed out.
    Seregil shook his head, frowning. “We’re definitely going to need to talk to Thero about this. Let’s see what he can do for us and proceed from there.”

CHAPTER 12
Family
    S EREGIL went alone to tell his sister they would be departing soon. He found her in her sitting room.
    “Leaving?” She sank into a chair by the window. “But you only just got here!”
    Seregil knelt and took her hands in his. “I know, but Tyrus told us things that have decided our path.”
    “Where will you go?”
    Seregil hesitated. “I’m sorry, sister, but I can’t tell you that.”
    She looked down at him with sadness in her eyes. “Even here, you don’t feel safe?”
    “It’s not that. We have work to do.”
    “About Sebrahn?”
    “Yes.”
    Tears welled in her eyes. “When will you leave?”
    “We have to prepare for the journey, and there are a few things I need to do. The new moon festival is a week away. We’ll leave sometime after that.”
    “A few weeks. After all these years?”
    “It’s not what I want, either, Adzriel. But we have to go.”
    She sighed and wiped her eyes. “I see. Well, I’ll provide anything you need for your journey, but promise me that you’ll hunt with me at least once?”
    Seregil smiled as he rose to his feet. “I won’t leave until we do.”
    Seregil kept his word. By day he, Micum, and Alec went hunting, dancing, ice fishing, and on sleigh rides—whateverSeregil’s sisters asked. Alec and his newfound friends spent hours at their shooting and his quiver was already heavy with shattas, some made of silver and one of gold he’d won cleaving a birch wand at twenty paces. Kheeta