[Kit]
After a few days of wandering the tent city, and listening to the good that the Church was doing, Kit began to hear the soft murmurings of another benefactor. A name she recognized - Allenel.
More than anything she wanted to go talk to him - the two most sensible friends she had were Allenel and Thomis. Yet she feared what they would think of her; that she had either sold out or was Blayne's slave. She knew she couldn't bear either their condemnation or their pity.
But after many hours of arguing with herself as she wandered in fox form, both through the woods and alleys, Kit made herself go past her fears. She knew she was doing both men a great disservice - neither of them would condemn her nor pity her.
So late one evening, after a day of listening for news of him, Kit found Allenel's tent. She waited till there were no more applicants and them came forward to ask his guards if he had time to see a friend.
[Allenel]
The attorney was, as usual, bent over the papers on the makeshift table before him, checking columns of figures, when one of the volunteer guards stuck his head through the tent flap and asked whether he had time to see a friend. John's wink told Allenel the middle-aged cartwright considered the "friend" to be excessively pretty. Allenel considered for a moment, then nodded and straightened the papers before him as he rose.
And froze when the woman ducked into the tent. The lamplight on her russet hair identified him to her immediately. Later, Allenel might have thought his heart had stopped in surprise, to see Kitrina Tvyvar -- who had saved him from a CRS death squad -- step so unexpectedly into the tent. If he had been a less restrained person, and if he had not known that she was bound to the Grand Inquisitor, Allenel might have yielded to the urge to embrace her quickly.
But he was so restrained, and she was so bound, so he did not move, merely stood by the table, the fingertips of one hand resting atop the stack of papers he had been examining. "Kit," Allenel said simply with a slight nod, his expression wary but not hostile. "It is good to see you whole."
[Kit]
Kit for one moment had the expression of a wild animal caught in a hunter's lamplight, but quickly recovered herself. "And you also...," she said. Her own expression was also wary, and she asked hesitantly, "Are you busy....?"
[Allenel]
"Not at the moment. Please, won't you take a seat?" The lawyer indicated that she should take one of the wooden chairs across the table. "I can ask for something to drink or some dinner if you would like." Allenel paused halfway to the tent flap, looking at her questioningly. "I haven't eaten yet myself this evening." After a few more moments, he lifted the flap and murmured something quiet to John, then turned to resume his own seat, pushing the papers aside. And waited for Kit to speak again.
[Kit/Brion]
Kit nodded; her expression was distracted. "Dinner would be good - I had breakfast, but never got around to lunch or dinner." She didn't think it would be polite to mention the mouse she caught in the alley around noon. Particularly with Allenel's dinner on the way. And it had been such a little mouse - it couldn't even satisfied a fox.
She looked up at Allenel and said, "I've been busy looking at the changes in Montfort. ...and have been hearing how the Church has been re-building Montfort." Kit smiled at her friend, and said, "And I've heard that you have also been a big part in the re-building - in a quiet way...."
"Allenel," a deep voice said, "Are ye busy? Your dinner's here."
Kit tensed at the sound of the new voice, and looked ready to bolt - her animal instincts still had the upper hand when it came to her reactions.
[Allenel]
Allenel turned his head casually as Brion entered the tent, his large form looming over the two seated at the makeshift table. "Not too busy," he said softly, watching both Kit and Brion as the latter set a laden tray down. The lawyer stayed seated, trying not to give Kit yet another reason to shift to fox form and dash away. "Brion, it is my pleasure to introduce you to the lady who saved my life quite some time ago, Kitrina Tvyvar. Kit, this is Brion, who has proven himself a friend to me and the Mime, and who has consented to watch my back."
Allenel deliberately left Brion's last name unspoken. Thomis had reported how Kit had almost snarled at Laurelyn Hillrover during the Grand Inquisitor's dinner party. Given Kit's obvious nervousness, it did not seem advisable to announce that Brion was the storyteller's uncle.
[Brion/Kit]
Brion held out a massive hand and said, "It's a pleasure to meet ye, Miss Tvyvar. I've heard many a good thing about ye."
Kit placed her slender hand in his. A quick tremor ran through her body - she had not been in physical contact with anyone in many days. She gave him a quick, wary smile and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you .......I'm glad to know someone is watching out for Allenel...."
She glanced at both men but did not bolt; she seemed satisfied that if the lawyer trusted Brion she could.
The fox woman looked back at Allenel and softly, hesitantly, asked, "What is your opinion of the re-building of Montfort?"
Brion looked at Allenel, as if asking "should I go or stay?"
[Allenel]
Answering the other man's question with a slight movement of his hand indicating that Brion should stay, Allenel took several moments to weigh his response to Kit's question. "My opinion of the rebuilding?" he repeated. "I think the Grand Inquisitor, having declared the city free of witches, is doing a thorough job of consolidating the Redeemer's hold on the city." Even tones, only, and a neutral expression as he divided the dinner and pushed a plate towards her. "Fortunately, believer and non-believer alike benefit from the reconstruction."
Allenel was inclined to leave his answer at that, without commenting on how non-believers had been treated in the months leading up to the Cleansing. But he knew enough of what Barnabas had seen among the Politi, and Thomis had seen during his sojourn at the Church, to know that Kitrina Tvyvar and Linnell Seris had formed some alliance during their time in Blayne's Coterie. "Linnell lives," he said simply, and knew that Kit had been unaware of his contacts with the Politi.
[Kit]
Kit had just reached for the plate Allenel had offered her when she froze. "Linnell," she whispered, as if the name was strange and dangerous. The fox woman's hazel eyes were wide as she looked up at Allenel. "How is she.......?" she asked tremulously; all thoughts of Montfort forgotten.
[Brion]
Brion found a stool and sat by the tent's entrance; stretching his long legs out before him.
[Allenel]
The lawyer took several bites of food before answering, using the time to try to phrase his response appropriately. But there seemed to be no way to tell Kit gently. "She lives," he repeated, "and the Politi feed her." Not just blood, he knew, but whatever it was in their magic which she needed for sustenance. "But it is a bare living." In short sentences, he told her what little he knew about Linnell's condition -- the cost she had paid for Blayne's Embrace. And left unspoken how heartsick the girl was upon learning what the Grand Inquisitor had done to those she loved.
[Kit]
Kit seemed to shrink in her chair as she heard of Linnell's condition. She was strongly tempted to turn to fox form and flee the realms of humankind forever. In the deep woods there was only silence and the rhythms of the forest. Here words hurt, and tore at the wounds that bled on the inside. But here she felt some reassurance from Allenel, and his friend, Brion, was a man of grounded strength. So she huddled on her chair, not looking at either of them. "So many mistakes... so many," she whispered onto her knees.
[Brion]
Brion looked over at Allenel. Hillrover's eyes seemed to say, "Here's another of the shattered." He could hear the guilt in her voice, and it reminded him of the weight that his niece carried with her. And when he saw such pain he was torn between two desires; one was to give a war cry and find the enemy, and the other was to wring from his pipes the most mournful sounds - and give voice to the grief that wracked this town. But neither was possible - yet. So he waited.
[Allenel]
Allenel Gilford looked down at his plate rather than at Kit, registering almost idly how his hand clenched his fork. Brother, father, sister -- all lost. Grief, and anger, that had subsided to, at best, a low ache. With a slight sigh, he pushed his chair back and stepped to the other side of the table to sink down onto his heels before Kit's chair and touch her hair lightly. "Kitrina Tvyvar," he said softly. The strong, self-confident reporter of the Montfort Mime was gone, only remnants of her bright personality remained.
Brother, father, sister ...
Before he could stop himself, before his carefully learned self-control could hold him back, Allenel slipped on arm around Kit's shoulders.
[Kit]
The fox woman leaned against her friend's support, trembling like any wild animal caught out in the world of humankind. "I should have told her.....," she whimpered against Allenel's shoulder, "She was so fragile then it would have broken her...."
[Allenel]
"And what of you, Kitrina?" Allenel asked, for he could tell by her trembling that she herself was more fragile than she realized. "Linnell has Kallin to lend her strength. Who will strengthen you?" He held himself motionless, afraid that even the slightest movement would startle her. "I could take a message to her for you if you would like."
[Kit]
"You could....?" she whispered against his shoulder, ".......No,.... she wouldn't want to hear from me.... I betrayed her trust....Though I would willingly feed her to see her stronger."
She held on to Allenel. Softly Kit spoke again, "The woods....the roots...the wind....and time will strengthen me....." But her words were not filled with complete conviction. For days she had run the woods, but neither her Fox kin nor the spirits were able to fill the emptiness she felt; now that she had entered Allenel's tent she realized how much she missed human companionship. "Can I stay - in fox form? I won't be in the way," she promised in a small voice.
[Allenel]
For the briefest moment, Allenel wondered -- he could not help but wonder -- at what it would mean to have one Blood-bonded to Blayne free to enter and leave the tent as she wished. But that instant of internal hesitation did not delay his response. "Stay as you wish, Kitrina." It wasn't as if he and Brion, or Geiren on the occasions when he entered the tent city, discussed anything of the Politi or the Mime while there. "Stay, or go, as you wish."
[Kit]
"Thank you," she whispered.
[Allenel]
And so it was in the days that followed, those who sought out Allenel Gilford
for financial assistance in re-establishing their
businesses often were surprised to find
a russet-colored fox curled in the corners of the tent. And those
who watched Allenel's back became accustomed to seeing the small vixen
slip into and out of the tent at all hours of the day and night.
[Others long unseen in Montfort also re-appear. Shan L'Arain, a strange man with a rather twisted history, a Refuser of the Church of the Redeemer, once was a member of the City Watch. The Republica framed him for the murder of Judge Gilford, a respected jurist of Montfort who had been a bit troublesome for the Republica. Shan fled Montfort, taking with him Judge Gilford's daughter, Irellia. Due to a difficult-to-explain plot twist, years pass for Shan while only months pass in Montfort. Shan eventually returns to Montfort, and goes to visit Allenel Gilford in the tent city erected by Blayne following the Cleansing and riots.]
[Shan]
Shan didn't want to stay long in any one spot. It was nice to see old Ersatz again, though. They traded a little info, getting Shan up to date, and Shan told him about the little Mushroom men he'd saved (along with a lot of other creatures that had noticed the safe spot.
Shan buckled in pain.
"Child!" Ersatz came to his side, "It there anything the matter you haven't told me about?"
He just gave Ersatz a smile as the pain subsided again. "I am a king.." He said, letting Ersatz know in their old way that he didn't want to talk about it. "I'm glad your little friend will enjoy the news.. it was all just luck I happened to be there." Mostly true. Like so many others he had gone to that area that night to catch up on Refuser action.
"You take care of yourself now and that will make _me_ happy." He pressed into his hand a couple of leaved of anfalang, a pain supresant. Shan nodded his thanks. He pointed out the flap of the tent, "Allenel is in the big one there. You can't miss it. Do be careful."
Shan nodded his thanks again, pulled his cowl over his face, and left Ersatz behind to watch the 'old man' cross the ruined scape of Montfort.
Shan paused only once on his trip to the tent to look at the skies above the church for someone he knew was coming... _had_ to be. When someone saw him staring, he made the symbol of the church with his hands, and continued on his way.. swallowing some bile and pressing the anfalang leaf under his tongue.
PJ didn't just have to be destroyed.. he had to pay, but that was not his job now.
|
- * -
/ \
"Knock and I'll come flying." Shan read the sign in front of the tent. One of Ersatz works. He took the little wooden hammer off of its holder and knocked on the wooden sign.
[Allenel]
In the middle of the afternoon, in the heart of the tent city, Allenel Gilford had decided to take a break. He had ushered out the last set of people to visit him that morning, assuring them he would have a partnership agreement drawn up for them no more than two days hence. Now he sat behind his makeshift desk discussing the merits of various brands of tobacco with Brion Hillrover. Or, more aptly, listening to Brion discuss them, since as a non-smoker Allenel knew nothing about the joys of pipes -- despite Barnabas Portnoy's past efforts to convert him to the pastime.
At the sound of the knock outside, he glanced to Brion in surprise, then
called out to the visitor to enter. A cowled figure,
moving like one advanced in years, ducked
inside the tent, and the lawyer rose to greet him. "Welcome, sir,"
Allenel said carefully, for the man was unknown to him (and most, if not
all, who had taken refuge in the tent city were familiar to him).
"How can we assist you today?"
[Brion]
Brion stayed relaxed - his only activity was to imperceptably shift his grip on his blackthorn stick, which lay across his lap.
[Shan]
Shan glanced around the room to see who else might be there. Seeing it was only the two, he lumbered into the room and stood before Allenel. It had been so long ago. He knew though that it had been mere months for Allenel since he'd lost his father, sister and brother. He recognized the face though, and he could see that Allenel was fair.
"I was wondering if I might have a little of your time." He said, looking briefly into his eyes then to a seat. "I was an acquaintence of your fathers. I have been meaning for a long time to offer my condolences." He took an offered seat and breathed a sigh of relief. He honestly didn't know how long he could wait.
"It was truly a sad occurrence." He paused for a moment putting aside his doubts of the situation. "Someone very dear to you made me promise to give this to you." He hesitantly handed the old letter to Allenel. It was so old in fact that hardly anything was legible except that scrawled at the bottom was Irellia's signature.
[Allenel]
The lawyer's eyes dropped to the letter as the stranger handed it to him. The expression of slight curiosity turned to one of frozen emotionlessness when he saw it. Paul Rustin had warned him, that the night before the Cleansing of the Weavers' House, one had come to the Politi with news of his sister's death. With a strange story of a place where years had passed for her, while only months had crept by in Montfort.
Shan L'Arain.
[Shan]
Shan knew that Allenel would be unable to read it, but he had long ago memorized it in case he lost it all together. By this time, Brion had tactfully excused himself from the tent, so as Allenel's eyes scanned over the page trying to decipher what was written, Shan began to recite:
Dearest Allenel,
Since the death of our mother, I have known no greater
pain than the murder
of our father. I know you must not
believe the Republic
blaming Shan and I for his death.
Shan was there trying to help us find Aparnel who had
gone missing the night
before. Had he not been there, the
ones who killed father
would certainly have gotten to me as
well.
It is a cruel joke then, I suppose, that after escaping
an illness comes over
me. Several kind people care for me,
but I have grown weak
for days of not eating.
I just wanted you to know how deeply I care about you.
Take good care of Aparnel
for me. Sometimes you took better
care of us than father,
through no fault of his busy self.
If you could, ask Aparnel
to play Tulith's Lullaby in our
memory. "I will
be with you always in all ways."
Loving regards,
Irellia
[Allenel]
"She didn't know," Allenel whispered as he sank back down into his chair to spread the sheet of paper flat on the table-top. He ran the fingertips of one hand lightly over the surface, as if by that motion he could call back the faded letters. "She didn't know about Aparnel. Killed by the Republica. Like our father." He stopped speaking, but continued to stare down at the worn sheet of paper; only a muscle in his jaw, clenching and unclenching, betrayed any emotion.
How long had she lived, alone in a place of strangers? -Seven years,- he thought, suddenly aching for the long, empty days that Irellia had spent away from her home, away from those who loved her. As empty as his own days, those he tried to fill up with paperwork and rebuilding and carefully avoiding thought of his own grief.
After several more moments of silence, he carefully refolded the letter and rested his hands atop it. When Allenel looked up, his eyes were dry. "Thank you," he said calmly, "for taking her from our father's house. For protecting her."
[Brion/Kit]
Brion had just settled on a canvas seat outside of Allenel's tent when he saw Kit, in fox form, come trotting towards him - with a pine cone in her mouth. A brief smile touched his lips and he signaled her over. "Allenel's got company," he told her - as she slipped under the canvas stool he was sitting on. "But," the big man said quietly, "He may need your company soon."
Kit peeked out and looked up with both questions and understanding in her black eyes.
[Shan]
"I am sorry. After we escaped, it was your sister who helped me find my people. Then the way home was destroyed and while I was off searching for a new one, I got caught up in this wretched town. One thing led to another and it was a year before I returned with knowlege of how to get home, but only to discover that she had not survived the winter. For six years I have held on to that letter - I'm sorry if it looks that way. Really, they did not have much in the way of fine writing materials..." his voice dropped away.
"For a long time, I did not want to return. I did not know the fate of Aparnel at the time, but I knew that the two of you would want some word from your sister... I tried once before.. lost, I returned to my people and led them to freedom in a new land that was crowding them out. After a respite, I have returned to give you this, and to bring an end to someone that needs it." At the possibility that Shan might be here to fight the Dark One, or at least PJ, Shan shook his head.
"My days of fighting that particular fiend are in my past. I have tested fate too many times against him.. even lost a little. The one I fight now I know will come looking for me. And I know Montfort will be the place, church or no church, where we meet for the last time."
[Allenel]
The lawyer blinked once at the sudden and unexpected change in topic. He had been told that Shan L'Arain could, at times, veer off on odd tangents in his conversation. Under other circumstances, Allenel might have tried to follow the twist, but right now all he wanted was time to himself. Not to think of Irellia, but to find work to do, to find something to occupy his mind with rebuilding, not with what had already been destroyed in the past. "I wish you a resolution of your conflict," -whatever it is,- he thought to himself. Then with an ironic twist to his lips as he rose to his feet, "I hope it doesn't result in further destruction of Montfort. The dwarves and gnomes have been hard at work reconstructing it."
[Shan]
He knew that visage well. He knew the voices that had to be calling in Allenel's head, taunting him at every corner. The tragedy of Montfort had to be ripping him apart. -It is all he has left,- Shan thought. "He has done his damage to me and mine already. Now I just seek to stop him before he goes on to bigger game. I doubt it has anything to do with Montfort, but I'll let you know now that I too care what becomes of this city and its people."
[Allenel]
He led the way out of the tent, nodding shortly in acknowledgment as Brion
looked up, eyes catching a glimpse of russet fur under the big man's canvas
seat. Kit. Allenel turned to Shan, who by now had his cloak
pulled up again over his face. "Thank you again for -- for your aid
to my sister and for bringing me her letter." It was the briefest
of pauses, an almost undetectable break in his voice. With that,
he left Shan to go about his own business, and ducked back into the tent.
[Kit/Brion]
While the two men were talking Kit slipped on into the tent. She had heard that minute break in Allenel's voice and was worried - too many friends were hurting. But she was good at being warm and fuzzy; she remembered Linnell crying into her fur. So, if Allenel wanted to be alone he could send her back out, but if he needed company she would stay near.
Meanwhile, Brion looked questioningly over at Allenel. He too was concerned for the younger man.
[Allenel]
After Shan L'Arain departed, to continue whatever strange solo battle it was that he waged alone, Allenel Gilford ducked back into the tent that constituted his "office." He found Kit waiting there, still in fox-form, perched in his chair with a pinecone in her mouth; he could tell by the way her ears were laid back against her head that she was worried for him. Brion was, too, he knew, and the big man was unusually silent as he made his own way into the tent.
Allenel explained in brief words what had passed between himself and Shan, and scooped Kit up so that he could sit and still hold her in his lap. She had worn fox-form almost constantly since the riots, another sign that the self-confident woman he had known was at least temporarily, if not permanently, gone. "Thank you for the gift," he said softly, taking the pinecone from her mouth and then stroking one hand over the soft fur of her head. She might have felt, and Brion might have seen, the slight tremor in his fingers.
[Kit/Brion]
She felt the minute tremor in Allenel's fingers and reached over to lick his other hand with her small, rough tongue. Then she curled up, and nestled in the young lawyer's lap.
Brion had taken his customary chair and had sat listening to Allenel's tale. Hillrover's customarily twinkling blue eyes had deepened to a more serious hue, and as the silence began to hang, filled with too many memories, he said, "Allenel, one day ye'r going to have to let yerself grieve - keeping it in will cut yerself apart from the inside out."
Before the younger man could say anything, or protest, Brion continued, "I know ye've been trying to keep moving, keep the nightmares barred by the good works ye've been doing, but they'll catch up one day." His forehead wrinkled with his own memories, and he added, "I've not spoken of the hill clans - there's been too many stories of bloodshed in Montfort already. But the hills of my birth have not known peace for more years that the bards can count - war and lambing is what we do in the summer months. So we know the Lady Death better than we know our own wives and we know of grieving. Our women wail - much like the banshee that has cried for the dead of Montfort - and the men drink toasts to the passage of our dead. To strangers it might seem a bit mad and more than a bit wild, but it is a release for the living - a giving voice to grief's sharp pain. And if the spirits are listening it does them no harm to hear their praises sung and the well-wishes of their loved ones."
He studied Allenel, and quietly said, "That might not be ye'r way, Allenel, but if ye wish - one day we could arrange a tribute to ye're kin. I'm sure there be others that would wish to come." His blue eyes twinkled for a moment, "Though ye might wish a slightly quieter tribute - ours are heard several hills over, and perhaps a bit shorter than a week."
[Allenel]
A faint smile passed over Allenel's face as he continued to run one hand over Kit's fur; he could feel the faint pulse of her heart where his other hand was pressed against her side. "There might be others," he agreed softly. -And we could play Tulith's Lullaby,- he thought with a sharp pang.
"There would be," another, gruffer, older voice interjected, as Barnabas Portnoy's grey head, complete with long mustaches, ducked under the tent flap. The rest of the man's stout form followed soon after, surprising Allenel with the sight of a small, blonde-haired girl cradled, sleeping, in his arms. "Many others to honor your family. And you.." Barnabas stood for a moment in the entrance, but did not ask about what had instigated the rather melancholy conversation between Hillrover and the lawyer.
"Perhaps," Allenel almost agreed after a moment's pause, and tried to think of how to explain Barnabas' presence to Kit. Then he realized *he* didn't understand what had brought the older man there. Especially bearing a child -- who could only be Francine Larson, the devout follower of Church and Republica whom Brion's niece had brought to Barnabas' from the destruction of the Bank. He nodded towards the sleeping girl. "Problems?"
Barnabas located one of the remaining two free chairs and lowered himself into the seat, gently cradling Fran in his arms; she had been wrapped in a white wool blanket, and slept on undisturbed. "Some," the old cleric acknowledged with an uncertain glance in Kit's direction. "The child's mother showed up." In a carefully shielded mental send, he explained to Brion and Allenel the circumstances of Ursula's appearance, in the company of the young man named Zephyr. "She wants the girl taken to the Church; she cannot care for the girl and is concerned for her safety during these troubled times."
And in another send, Barnabas added, ::The others will be coming after whatever skirmish this Zephyr will involve them in. The house is no longer safe.::
"Hide in plain sight," Allenel murmured aloud, unable to respond directly to the mental communication. He continued to pet Kit, and tried not to think of her divided loyalties. What would she do if she were to find that he and Barnabas had sheltered the Politi? And that Kallin So and the others would soon be arriving in the tent city itself.
[Kit]
Kit felt the subtle tension in Allenel's fingers and sensed the worry that had entered the room with the arrival of the elder gentleman and the child. And the way they spoke only a few words and left vast quantities of silence told her that there were things they feared to say near her. This - sadly - she understood - she knew her bond to Blayne marked her as something uncertain.
And the fox woman knew that her explanations and reasons were a vast tangle, and many were based on her instincts that others would question. Kit couldn't think of a way to make them understand she wouldn't betray them - particularly not Allenel, who was a friend. Just as Blayne was a friend, and she knew none would believe her if she told them that there had been no deceit when he declared Montfort free of witches. None of them had seen the pain in his eyes the night Linnell, Selene, and she had left; true he had been the one to cause Linnell's anguish, but Kit suspected that the regret would last centuries. And the young fox woman was aware enough of vampires to know that Blayne was old and had more than sufficient ways to have claimed and kept them, which he had never used.
She had also spent many restless days in the woods trying to sort out what were her true feelings and what Blayne might have installed in her mind. All she could find was her hatred of the Republic - that he might have emphasized to keep her near. But then again - maybe not; she had sufficient reasons to hate the Republic and fear them. Though in hindsight Kit could see where Linnell's fear of Drywen had been created and together, she and Linnell, had tied it into their fear of the Republic. What she suspected was any manipulation had occurred early on, but waned later, and obviously never bound them to the Church as worshippers.
She had seen both sides of the Church; the effort Blayne was making to restore Montfort, and the harsh cruelty that left husks like Uralia and Wyland. So she could understand why people fought, and yet could pray that Blayne would not come to harm. In the end, what was most important to Kit were the people she cared about.
Kit nuzzled Allenel's hand and looked up with understanding in her black eyes; then she sent, the first time she had spoken - in any form- in many days, ::I don't betray my friends.:: There was no anger or subterfuge in her sending. And with those words, and one last lick on Allenel's fingers, Kit slipped from his lap and out of the tent.
[Allenel]
The lawyer felt Kit slip from his hands and watched as she slid silently out of the tent to resume her wanderings through the homeless of Montfort. Under other circumstances, her soft comment might have hurt him, might have elicited an apology for their doubts. But he and the others -- and Kit herself -- knew that they could not take such risks. Blayne knew already that Allenel Gilford had ties to the Politi, and whatever Kit's faith in the Grand Inquisitor, Allenel had none. 'Til now, Blayne had been content to ignore Gilford's activities in the tent city; but Allenel would not risk drawing his attention by letting him know Kallin So and Linnell Seris -- much less Morrighu and Geiren -- would soon be making a visit.
[Brion]
Brion stood up and watched Kit slip past him. "Poor, torn little lass," he murmured.
[Allenel]
First things first, though, and that was to deal with the six-year-old dilemma sleeping peacefully in Barnabas' arms. "The Church has established relief services here," Allenel said to Barnabas, "with Church healers and civilians tending to the sick and injured." He stood and stepped outside the tent to summon John, the wainwright, to take the girl. Quick instructions to leave her, and John carried the child off. When next she awakened, she would find herself among a mix of Church and non-Church personnel; if she wished to stay in the tent city, those allied with Allenel could watch her. If she wished to retreat behind the walls of the Church, then her mother could find her there, also.
Next, preparations had to be made for the expected arrival of the others. One wall of Allenel's tent was lifted and another set up next to it, so that inside the canvas a fairly large chamber was established -- large enough to hold the numbers that Barnabas told them they could expect. After a long, tense wait, a cold grey line shimmered into existence and opened
<out>
and spun loose nearly a dozen people fresh
from an attack on a squad of Church Inquisitors.