Yuragwyn: Yours

---Chapter 10

∞Kaitra∞

My eyes fly open at a creak across the room, and I sit up, gasping a bit at the pain in my back. Calanthe is frozen by the door, her face apologetic. I close my eyes and lay back down as the hinges give way and she slips into the hall. I had forgotten what all had happened only hours ago. Briallen is curled up in the floor on the thick rug Calanthe had pulled out of the closet for her, still fast asleep—I vaguely remember her refusing to pile into the bed with us. Her hair, the same color as Calanthe's, covers her face and falls around her shoulders. The catch in her breath is not regular, as though she had cried herself to sleep.

Maybe she had. By the look of my own face in the small bedside mirror, I might have as well. The dried tracks fan out from my eyes and make my face feel tight.

My gnawing stomach captures my attention, and my hunger drives me off my still made bed and to the door. I tiptoe down the hall to the landing in order to go down to the kitchen but stop before my toes touch the first step. The atrium is not deserted, as it has been every other morning, but instead it holds Lord Cadfael, Lady Carys, Hiltraud, Erhard, Calanthe, Traugott, and most of the servants. I look down at my dirt-stained, wrinkly dress from the day before and blush furiously.

"Kaitra," Lord Cadfael says, "come here."

Something in his tone rules out any hope of escape to my room to change or brush my hair or even wash my face. I descend slowly, my bare feet striking each step with a thump clearly audible in the small, quiet room. I take the cup of oatmeal a servant hands me and stir it while Lord Cadfael begins his dawn address.

"Units have been mobilized in Agord, Gordo, Templar, and Port Town. Units from Dabon, Mupple, and Sipee are making their way here. Some small skirmishes have already begun on the coast in Bishat. Honorable Urien is already there, leading the front proudly. Calanthe and Briallen have been brought here, where they are most needed and can be most protected. My daughter, Kaitra has also returned to us in our time of need."

The color rises to my cheeks again as I close my mouth around the bite of oatmeal like an alligator snapping its prey. Naturally, Lord Cadfael would choose this morning, this moment, to make a household introduction of me. Why is he so convinced that I'm his daughter?

But he begins again, and I am left in peace. "For all these years, we have fought on the outskirts of our land; we have kept destruction to the outer plains alone. We have borne the whole burden of cleaning up and starting anew.

"Now, though, they dare to come closer. They are confident in victory. They are close, too close, to keep our treasured ones here. So, Lady Carys and I have spoken, and, well, we will send them there."

I don't even bother closing my mouth this time. It hangs open like a broken gate as I process this. I know I am one of these 'treasured ones'. Where is there?

Hiltraud steps forward, his tan coat bristled and face steeled. "Lord Cadfael, you can't possibly mean you would send your daughter, Urien's daughters, and your most trusted man into the house of the enemy."

"But that's where they will be least expected and most helpful. Here, they will be another soldier on the ground. There, they will be inconspicuous, stealth agents attacking the heart of the enemy."

I press my palm against my head as a searing headache begins its whine. My life has been flipped on its head so many times that I feel like one of those toddler toys that can never stay upright. They tease me with the promise of regularity and then fling me into another plane. Now, the man who claims to be my father is sending me away to a country I have no cause to hate or reason to believe exists.