Fortune and Fate (Twelve Houses) Read Online Free PDF Page A

offering.
     
     
    Karryn accepted it. “Yes, please.”
     
     
    They came to a halt long enough for Wen to scoop two pieces of fruit from her bag, then they were on the move again. The exercise actually felt good, though they’d need to ride again soon. Walking would take them too long to get anywhere.
     
     
    Wen remembered something that had been bothering her. After polishing off her apple, she asked, “Why did you think your uncle might have trouble rounding up soldiers to come after you?”
     
     
    Karryn loosed a sigh and tossed her own core to the side of the road. “Jasper—he isn’t the kind of person that soldiers listen to.”
     
     
    Wen digested that a moment in silence. “What kind of person is he?”
     
     
    “He’s a scholar. He reads books and he writes them. But he’s not very physical. I can’t imagine him holding a sword. Or fighting with anyone.” She gave Wen a sideways glance. “He’s much taller than you, but I’m sure you could knock him over without even trying.”
     
     
    Never having met the man, Wen was sure she could, too. “Well, even if he’s not a soldier himself, he could doubtless round up the House guard to come after you. Couldn’t he?”
     
     
    “I suppose so,” Karryn said doubtfully.
     
     
    “ Is there a House guard?”
     
     
    “Sort of. Many of my father’s soldiers were lost in the war.”
     
     
    Of course. And the queen would have had a vested interest in making sure Fortunalt didn’t build up a private army again anytime soon. Still. A House had to have its own soldiers or who knew what could happen?
     
     
    Well, the kidnapping of the serramarra, that’s what.
     
     
    “Let’s go on the assumption that this uncle was able to find a dozen or so men to accompany him on a search for you,” Wen said. “Would he have any reason for thinking the devvaser was the one who had run off with you?”
     
     
    “I never told him about Tover asking me to marry him.”
     
     
    “So he probably wouldn’t. And since he doesn’t know where you were when you were kidnapped—gods and goddesses, you really put yourself into a bind, didn’t you?”
     
     
    Karryn lifted her chin. “Well, maybe he figured it out anyway. He’s pretty smart.”
     
     
    “Who is he? How did he come to be named your guardian?”
     
     
    “He’s my mother’s cousin. His name is Jasper Paladar. He came to stay with us after my father died.”
     
     
    “Did your mother invite him, or did the queen select him to look after Fortunalt until you turn twenty-one?”
     
     
    Karryn shook his head. “Not my mother. Not the queen. It was the queen’s consort who chose Uncle Jasper.”
     
     
    That made Wen widen her eyes. Cammon had selected Jasper Paladar to shepherd this girl through the final years of adolescence? Then the bumbling scholar that she’d been envisioning couldn’t be so useless after all. Cammon never made mistakes about people. “Do you like him? Your uncle?” Wen asked abruptly.
     
     
    Karryn nodded enthusiastically. “ So much more than my own father! He’s very kind. And he explains things to me. And he understands things, even when you don’t tell him.”
     
     
    That endorsement kicked the scholar up a notch in Wen’s estimation as well. Cammon trusted him, and this wretched girl admired him. Still. He hadn’t provided adequate protection for someone in his charge, and Wen believed that was about the gravest error anyone could make.
     
     
    “Well. We’ll hope we encounter him very soon, headed our way, leading a mass of Fortunalt soldiers,” Wen said. “But I think our odds will improve if we ride for a while and start looking for a settlement of any size. And this time,” she added, “I’m sitting on the front of the saddle.”
     
     
    Karryn laughed, which made her look less like an obdurate and frightened child, and more like a privileged and carefree young lady. “If you want. I can’t imagine it’s too comfortable no