Mirena smiled and shook her head. "Oh, I'm not worried about that. Alei won't be able to destroy it any time soon, no matter how many mud puddles he jumps into."
"Oh, no," Larisa groaned, glancing at her son, "I just went to the laundry this morning." Then louder, "Alei, stop that! Your father will be home soon, and you can't come to dinner in such muddy clothes." The tow-headed boy laughed and swished his sword a few more times, but he let the battle veer away from the muddier parts of the street.
If only things could stay this way, Mirena thought. Beautiful weather, the country at peace with its neighbors, and her sister radiantly happy with her small family. Mirena could visit here every day for a lifetime and never weary of it. She sighed. "Larisa," she said, trying to keep her tone light, "I know it's Alei's birthday, but I got presents for you and Dan, as well."
"'Ren, you shouldn't have," Larisa protested, but Mirena was already digging in her basket. She came up with a second belt to match Alei's, but wider and longer, suited for a grown man. "For Dan," she said, handing it to Larisa. "And this is for you." She pulled out a midnight blue shawl of fine-woven linen, embroidered about the edges in a complex pattern of constellations and symbols that matched the belts in some ways, but had flowing, graceful lines where the belts had blocky shapes.
Larisa gasped quietly, setting Dan's belt aside so she could take the shawl with both hands. She spread it to catch the light. "I lied," she murmured. "I thought the belts were beautiful. But this . . ." She ran her fingers over the designs. "And of course they're all simply riddled with spells. Health and wellness, of course. Protection,hmmm. Concealment?" She glanced at Mirena, a suspicious glint in her eye. "What are you planning, Mirena?"
"Nothing," Mirena protested, feeling a little guilty for the lie, "I just want to help. Alei is a little adventurer, after all. I just want to save him a few bruises. And Dan is a soldier, of course. And you, well, you're my sister. Why shouldn't I want to keep you safe?" She shrugged a little, doing her best to meet Larisa's eye without giving away her guilt.
Larisa looked skeptical, but Mirena was saved from any more questions by sudden gleeful shouting from Alei. Both women looked at the boy, who had become thoroughly covered with mud from head to toe while his mother and aunt had been deep in conversation.
"Look, mama, look!" he cried excitedly, pointing up the street at three figures in uniforms striding quickly toward them. Mirena squinted against the lowering sun and was just able to pick out Dan's square build and cheerful features on the middle figure.Firey red hair and eternally gangly limbs made the man on the right Nikandr, which meant the man on the left must be Alex. Loyal, mischievous and somber, respectively, the three friends were as different from one another as it was possible to be, and yet they'd been friends since long before Mirena knew them. they did everything together. They'd even courted Larisa together, once upon a time, and had come dangerously close to destroying their hard-won friendship. But all had worked out for the best, and the friends were as inseparable as ever.
"How is it, sister," Mirena asked jokingly, "being wedded to three men?" She laughed at Larisa's scandalized expression, then dodged the swipe Larisa aimed at her head.
"They do go to their own homes occasionally," Larisa protested, but she was smiling. "And who knows, maybe they'll even get married someday." She shot a meaningful glance at Mirena, then folded the shawl carefully and handed it and the belt back so that she could stand to greet the men.
Mirena rolled her eyes, but even the old and tired discussion of when she would get married herself was an improvement over the questions Larisa had been asking a moment ago.
"Good evening, beautiful," Dan greeted his wife, swinging her into a hug, then bending to scoop up Alei, mud and all, despite Larisa's noisy protests. "Mirena, good to see you," he nodded to her, then turned his attention back to his chattering son. "Oh really? Monsters? How many were there?"
Alex and Nik, apparently not as content as she was to just watch the familial scene play out before them, basking in the reflected contentment, broke from the trio to come talk to her under the eaves of the house. Nik plopped himself down in Larisa's chair, while Alex took a seat on the short brick wall that separated Larisa's small garden from the street.
"How are you doing, Mirena?" Nik asked, his green eyes characteristically sparkling with delight. "We haven't seen you around much lately. Where have you been hiding?"
"Just at home," she answered simply, shrugging one shoulder.
"You mean at that shack?" Nik teased, making a sour face. "That thing's barely big enough for a dog to live in, let alone a beautiful woman like yourself." He winked. "Not to mention how far away it is. Surely you can't feel safe so deep in the forest, without any company or protection . . ."
Mirena smiled and shook her head, well accustomed to Nik's less-than-subtle flirting. "I'm quite content there, thank you. I need the quiet the forest gives, for my work."
Alex shifted slightly. "Besides," he said in a voice that was surprisingly deep, no matter how used to it Mirena got, "She's not exactly lacking in protection." A strange kind of significance seemed to lace his words, and Mirena studied his face, wondering if the expression that flitted across it was merely one of discomfort, or something closer to suspicion . . . . Pushing down the hurt that tried to rise, she told herself she was seeing things when nothing was there. Alex was her friend, as much as he was Larisa's Perhaps she would never be as close to him as Nik and Dan were, but she knew him. And he wasn't the type to believe in idle rumors . . .
"I suppose that's true," Nik continued, oblivious to the tension Mirena felt should be almost palpable. Proving further that she was just on edge and imagining things. "No one would dare bother a stitch witch as capable as yourself, Mirena. Anyone who tried would likely be caught in quite a web of spells. I am every day astonished that the Duke still hasn't enlisted your spells in protecting his own borders. No doubt a simple charm from you would keep the spies and sneak thieves out better than all of us soldiers combined." He tugged gently on one of her curls, pulling her gaze back to himself. She'd still been mostly watching Alex through this speech, but his face betrayed nothing but its usual calm friendliness.
Nik's smile seemed to shine at her, and as usual, she couldn't resist the pull of his perpetual cheerful charm. Relaxing, she allowed herself to forget the moment's tension. "And how has life been here in town, without my spells to keep you all out of trouble?"
Here even Nik's eternal smile turned down a little. "It's been well enough . . ."
"We still haven't found Kane," Alex said plainly, frowning and clenching one fist in obvious frustration.
"Well, yes, there is that," Nik allowed, glancing with concern at his friend.
"Kane? Is he a friend of yours?" Mirena asked. Both men looked at her as if she were crazy. She looked from one face to the other and back, then lifted her hands. "What?"
"Well, I wasn't going to tell you," said Nik, shooting a glare at Alex, "but I suppose you should at least know the basics. Who knows, maybe it will convince you to move into town, at least for a while." He looked around, as if afraid of prying ears. Larisa, Dan and Alei had gone inside, and Mirena remembered her sister saying something about dinner over her shoulder as she'd passed on the way through the door. Judging by the smells, dinner would be ready in only a few minutes.
"You just want me nearby so you can work your charms on me more often," Mirena accused, but Nik's serious expression---he could be serious, after all, apparently---was all genuine concern, and not a hint of flirtatious manipulation. Mirena felt a sudden chill go up her spine.
Leaning forward, Nik explained quietly, "Kane is the name of a criminal we've been chasing for a few weeks, now. We don't know much about him, except for what he looks like, and that he came here from Alatyr perhaps two months ago, trailing soldiers from Alatyr and a few more places. No one's been able to catch him, though the best trackers have been after him for . . . a long time."
A strange anticipation crackled along Mirena's limbs. "What crime is he wanted for?"
Nik's usually laughing mouth was a grim line, and he looked at Alex for a moment. A secret communication seemed to pass between them. Nik nodded, but it was Alex who spoke, even softer than before. "Kane is wanted for murder. In several cities. As of three days ago, in ours."
Mirena heard a sharp gasp, a realized a moment later that it had been hers. "Murder?" and then the rest of what he'd said sank in. "Murder here? In Elets? But . . . who?"
"No," Nik broke back in, "you don't need to know more than that. Only that this man---this Kane---is dangerous. We almost had him last night. We were so close, but . . ."
"Someone used magic," Alex said, looking at her but then quickly away.
"Not your kind of magic," Nik assured her quickly. "Not runes. Something else. It was like nothing I've ever . . . it was so strange . . ."
Mirena stared at him, alarmed. he gazed at a spot over her left shoulder, his eyes glazed, as if her were experiencing it again.
"It was just so . . . so quiet. Almost crushing. And then the dogs lost his scent, and the trackers couldn't find anything, and here we are." He looked at her again, his eyes focusing once more as he returned to the present. He must have seen the alarm on Mirena's face, because he appeared to make an effort to return to his normal self. "In any case," he said almost jovially, but not quite, "chances are good that he's moved on again. We were chasing him well outside of town, westward, toward Orel. I hate to think that he's still out there, somewhere . . . but at least he is no longer here. We'll send some of our men to continue the hunt, of course, and warn the next town, but we no longer have to worry about him here."
He put a comforting hand on Mirena's shoulder, and it was only then that she noticed she'd started shaking. Not at the news of the murderer . . . that was horrible, of course, but if he were gone as Nik said, there was nothing she had to fear from him now. And even if he hadn't gone, she could, in fact, take care of herself. Hadn't she been doing so for the past five years and more? No, it was the other thing Nik had said. About the magic. So quiet. Almost crushing.
So she hadn't been imagining things last night, when she'd pricked her finger . . .
But what did it mean?
"Um, Mirena?" Nik was looking at her now with perhaps as much alarm as she'd looked at him, and she realized he'd been gently shaking her for several moments. "Really, now, your sister is going to murder me if she sees you like this. What's wrong? I told you, Kane is gone. And he was never that serious of a threat to you . . . we never should have told you. I'm sorry . . ."
"No," Mirena cut him off, shaking herself and mentally casting off once more the sense of foreboding that had struck her last night. "No, I'm all right. It's just . . . you're a very good story teller, Nik." She smiled at him, hoping her expression was quicker to recover than her heart. "I'm not worried, really." Then, getting back into the spirit of things, she let her smile turn coy and gave him a wink. "After all, who could worry with so many close friends in the Duke's own guard?"
Nik relaxed, visibly more than willing to engage again in his usual mode of communication. "There, you see? You agree with me. You need someone to look after you." He waggled one eyebrow suggestively.
"Oh, here we go again," groaned Alex, but he, too, had regained his customary composure.
Moments later, to everyone's relief, the last of the tension was dispelled by Larisa's sudden appearance in the door frame, calling them to dinner. Nik jumped up, as eager as Alei, and kissed Larisa noisily on both cheeks before rushing inside, casting loud praises over the food, the household, and everything else in this world.
Alex and Mirena exchanged a glance, Alex rolling his eyes at the antics of his friend. Larisa shook her head and exclaimed, "I swear, that man never grew out of boyhood."
Mirena took up her basket, with the shawl and belt replaced carefully in it, and thought briefly that it was a good thing, especially after what she had just heard, that she had chosen now to create thebespelled garments for her loved ones. Now, more than ever, they would need the protection she could provide, even if she were not around to provide it personally.
But just as she had with Larisa, she pushed that topic from her own mind, determined to enjoy the evening, and Alei's birthday. So with that goal in mind, Mirena followed Alex and Larisa inside to dinner.
