Way of No Return (Champions of the Crystal Book 8)

Chapter 13.1

Anxious to dissect her brief communication with her staff, Sabrina excused herself from the sewing bee early, and she and Kendara hurried back to Uphill Farm. They found Ranja and Cynthia working in the kitchen, eager for news.

"Who are Bennie and Trixie?" Cynthia asked, once Sabrina had related her conversation with Ford.

"My cats," Sabrina replied.

"How did you come up with those names?"

"They're short for Benedick and Beatrice. From Much Ado About Nothing," Sabrina explained.

"Ah. Shakespeare. That's not pretentious at all, is it?" Cynthia teased, turning back to the stewpot.

"I'm a princess. I can be pretentious if I want to," Sabrina retorted. "Anyway, you're the only person on this planet who'd think so. If I wanted to be pretentious here, I'd have named them Miah and Corweign. Or Lizzila and Nallan."

"Scotty doesn't remember his Shakespeare?"

"That assumes he ever knew any," Sabrina grinned.

"True," Cynthia admitted. "How long did it take you to assimilate here? Did you do a lot of studying to get the cultural references down?"

Sabrina shook her head. "I never had time. I learned a lot of high-level protocol and governmental stuff on the fly during the regency, but I never had time to get the cultural stuff down. And of the what, twelve years I've been back, I've been offworld for nearly two-thirds of that time. Fortunately, I have Ford, who's a walking encyclopedia. And he loves to tell stories. Anytime I can't sleep, I can always rely on him to dredge up some fairy tale he read in his youth. He's going to be a fantastic father." Her expression became wistful. "I wish the link would clear for good. I miss being able to check in with him whenever I want to."

"At least you were able to hear him for a moment," Kendara said. "That must mean things are getting better."

"Yes. The fleet will be here tomorrow, so Mara must be getting close to finishing up," Sabrina agreed.

They all jumped as the door was flung open, but it was only Merith, looking out of breath. "I just heard—they're saying the people two villages over managed to kill some Kyan with a rockslide."

"They're that close?" Sabrina exclaimed, jumping to her feet. "Where's Seuréa?"

Ranja said, "She and Pinsi are out playing. I'll find them." She hurried out the door.

Merith said, "Two villages over isn't as close as it sounds. That distance includes at least one mountain ridge. The townspeople are very excited; they are talking about which pass is most suitable for setting up a similar trap."

"No one in this village is to have contact with a Kyan!" Sabrina exclaimed. "Ford should have made that clear to them."

"I am certain he did," Merith said, "but it's instinctive to want to defend your home. If the Kyan come here, people will fight, at least some of them."

"We will have to run," Sabrina said grimly.

"Where?" Kendara asked. "Without good intelligence, we'd risk walking right into them."

"Then we need to find out more. Kendara, go down and see what you can find out. Try to talk them into setting a perimeter guard or something. Use my authority if you need to."

"Yes, ma'am." Kendara nodded to Merith as she passed; the doctor patted her pocket to show she was armed and nodded back.

"Calm down," Cynthia advised as Sabrina lowered herself back into her chair. "We aren't going anywhere tonight, that's for sure. It's nearly dark now."