Wherever I Am

Chapter 18 - Part 3

Once the sun was fully above the horizon, I headed back down to ground level and was let back inside the heavily guarded back gate. I looked at but didn't stop at the Golden Scroll. I wanted to talk to Ellie if she was awake.

I started up the Realm steps and saw someone sitting most of the way up to the landing. Dark red hair, a torn, stained chemise, and one thigh wrapped with a broad bandage. When she spotted me on the stairs, she blushed and tried to struggle back to standing.

"Stop," I said, trying not to raise my voice. "Just stop."

"I thought I could make it," Zoe said. "With nobody seeing me this early. Maid Sorina was coming with me, but she got called back."

"Then I guess I need to get you back to your rooms. Where are you hurt?"

"My thigh and my back." She turned her back to me, and I could see the bandage through the rip under her shoulder blade that had been made larger to work on it. The dressing was only slightly spotted through. I'd seen the thigh bandage and wasn't going to ask further. I was wearing Sorina's favor, supposedly raped Mara, and was now unchaperoned with an injured and barely clothed fifteen-year-old. I didn't need any of this...except Sorina.

"Okay, put your arms around my neck. Don't pull up. It's just to keep you from falling. I'll do the lifting."

I bent down, catching my arm under her knees, hoping it didn't pull on her thigh too much, and did the same, going lower on her back than her wound, then lifted.

I'd made it to the landing when I heard footsteps pounding up the stairs and saw Sorina running up them.

"I can take her, Lord Kevin. I was delayed."

I shook my head. "I have her, so go get her bed ready and see if Ellie is up."

Sorina nodded and hurried ahead while I carried her a few more steps before hearing my name called.

I groaned. Lord Calin was not my favorite person this morning.

"I'll be down in a few minutes, Lord Calin," I called.

"I can come up, Milord. It's absolutely no problem," came the reply, and I could hear his steps echoing on the stairway.

I shifted on the wide staircase so at least he'd have to come up to my side where Zoe's head was since she was showing way too much leg already for company.

"Good morning, Lord Kevin," he said when he came abreast of me, panting from the exertion. I had a feeling he'd run all the way from his rooms once it'd been reported that I'd come back. Elvis may have left the building, but I'd returned.

"We are beginning preparations for Crown Lord John and Lady Lauretti and their respective retinues."

"I would expect nothing less, Lord Calin, but surely this isn't what you came up here in such a hurry to tell me." I sounded like a pompous ass, but I was feeling that way.

"The Lords want to know what type of attack to expect and when."

"From the idiots yesterday?" I asked as I reached the landing.

"Yes, Milord. But idiots?"

I snorted. "They didn't know the Realm was here. They didn't know you were protected. They expected to ride in, destroy all of the Lords and ride away unscathed. They didn't think they'd be killed."

"But they did kill—"

"You, Emil, and Tiber still live. Many of the Primors who were here still live. If they were going to attack, they would've done it yesterday, and they didn't. If Ellie hadn't dropped the other two where they stood so they understood that we knew who and what they were, they would've been coming up these stairs this morning picking out tile and wallpaper."

"I beg your pardon, Lord Kevin?"

"Excuse me," I said. We'd come even with Ellie's chambers. I carried Zoe in and laid her on her pallet. "You get help if you have to get up for any reason. If you rip your stitches, I'll be upset, and that'll be nothing compared to Ellie. Understand?"

"Yes, Milord," Zoe said meekly.

Mara was sitting up in the corner. I nodded to her and the boys, who were standing, pulling on their shirts.

"Your pages were in there?" Calin asked when I emerged.

"I was in Ellie's bed last night, so they stayed there to serve me."

"I see. You do have everything lined up nicely here with the Maids."

"I'm not following you, Lord Calin."

"Whose favor do you wear, Lord Kevin?"

"That would be mine, Lord Calin." Sorina gave us a deep curtsey and pulled her shawl to her front so Calin could see the design.

"Then congratulations are in order, Maid Sorina. You do know that he carried Maid Zoe from the infirmary, do you not?"

"No, Milord. Only from the staircase. Lord Kevin sent me ahead to prepare her bed for her, and" she turned to me. "Maid Elexus is still asleep."

The way she said that was concerning, but it could wait.

"If Lord Kevin has other dalliances, Lord Calin," she continued, focusing on Calin again, "then he'd best remember he wears my favor."

"I see," he said with a smirk.

"Sorina," I said, purposefully leaving off Maid while looking down the long promenade to the far chambers, "get the boys and take my kit to the end chambers. Do the same for Ellie with the one to the left once she awakens."

"Lord Kevin," Calin said, shocked. "You're moving?"

"To the far one on this floor, with Maid Elexus on one side and Lady Lauretti on the other."

"What about Crown Lord John?"

"He can take the room below me. You should see that those are prepared for his arrival sometime next week and the rest up here for Lauretti's retinue. At this point, that would be tomorrow or the next day. Have breakfast brought to my new chambers for me, my sister, and our retinues. I will meet with the Burgraves after we have all eaten."

Calin was clearly taken aback by all of this, but did manage a "Yes, Milord."

"That's all," I continued, cutting off anything he might try to say. "I will see you and the other Burgraves an hour after breakfast is served," then turned and strode down the wide hallway, my ducklings scrambling to follow.