RA belongs to John Flanagan. The Treaty kids and their misadventures are all my fault.
No Time
Sometimes, all Alyss really wanted was a cup of coffee and honey, a novel, and some quiet. But with four children, that didn't happen often. Or at all.
"Mom, I can't find my slate," Arratay said. Alyss sighed. Arratay could seemingly never find his slate.
"It's on the school shelf, like it always is," Evanlyn replied.
"Who put it there?" Arratay asked.
"Daniel, probably," Nate said, entering the room.
"He erased my work!" Arratay said.
"Then put it away yourself next time," Alyss said. She looked at the sun. Mid-morning already, and she had to be to Castle Redmont by ten. It was Choosing Day for the ward children, and as the senior diplomat in Redmont, she had to represent her craft.
"Daniel!" she called. "Last call for breakfast! If you don't come now you wait for lunch!" There was a thump, and a couple moments later Daniel appeared. He was still in sleepclothes and his hair was ruffled, but he was at least upright.
"Porrige on the hearth," she said, picking up her bag. "I'll be home tonight. Love you!"
She left the house to a chorus of, "Love you too!"
Alyss hurried up the trail to Castle Redmont. There was the Choosing ceremony, and none of the three young people today were likely to choose the Couriers. Which was just as well, as a bad Courier could be worse than no Courier in a situation. And she had a report to go over for another Courier's mission, and some letters to write, and she was pretty sure that situation between the two southernmost villages of the Fief was going to need mediation.
As she reached Castle Redmont, she slowed. It wouldn't do to let everyone see the Senior Courier running late. Bad for the Corps image.
She was just in time for the Choosing Ceremony, and as she had guessed, none of them choose the Couriers.
The mission report was bad. The situation it described had gotten worse, through no fault of the Courier assigned. Mary was only a couple years younger than Alyss, and every bit as good at her job. But the parties involved didn't like women, and they were still on the brink of attacking each other. They would need to send one of the two male Couriers, except they were both on missions already. Alyss despretely hoped she wouldn't have to go herself.
Then, as she was eating lunch, a messenger rode up with the news that the two villages had started fighting. Just fistfights so far, but was there a Courier to come at once and sort it out?
Mary took pity on Alyss, and volunteered to go, since they were the only Couriers currently at the castle. Even Lady Pauline had temporarily come out of retirement to take a small mission.
After that, Baron Arald had a staff meeting. It was a simple, monthly affair to ensure that everybody knew what was going on. However, today Alyss had no patience for Arald's so-called jokes and puns. She hid her irritation perfectly, of course; she was Lady Pauline's student.
Then a member of the minor nobility was trying to get her to take on his daughter as a Courier. The girl was utterly unsuited to the job, and she knew it, but her father thought it would make him look good with Baron Arald if his daughter was a Courier. She knew he was trying to get Will to take his son on as a Ranger apprentice, with an equal amount of success.
That took about three hours, and then she had to punch several pillows before she regained her equilibrium.
Then she grabbed a bite to eat and hurried to one of the classrooms in the Scribeschool. They were learning about exceptions to the usual terms of holding that minor nobles agree to with Baron Arald, and she had agreed to give some real-world examples and the difficulties they had created or prevented.
By the time that was over, it was dark. Alyss hurried to her office, threw a couple things in her bag, then hurried home. She knew the path well in the dark; she had been working late a lot recently.
When she got home, the windows cascaded light, and she could hear laughter inside. Tug was in the paddock, and she took a moment to scratch his ears.
"It's been a tough day, Tug," she said. "I really just want to sleep."
Tug shook his mane and whuffed at her.
When she opened the door, her family were sitting at the table, and she could smell rabbit stew. The children ran to greet her, and almost knocked her over. She would have thought that they would have stopped as they entered their teens, but that hadn't happened.
Will was a little slower in coming over, but his kiss more than made up for that.
"I missed you today," he said.
Alyss smiled up at him. "I missed you too. I could have used you to knock some sense into a couple people." The two of them had made a pact not to speak poorly of individuals in front of their children, but on days like this, it was hard.
When Alyss sat down at her place at table, she noticed a package on her plate.
"What's this?" she asked. Her family merely grinned at her. She opened it to find a novel by one of her favorite authors. And it was the newest one, which she hadn't read yet.
"Love you, Mama," Evanlyn said, squeezing her hand.
"We aren't going to bother you tonight," Arratay said.
"You can read the whole thing," Daniel said.
"Do you like it?" Nate asked.
Alyss smiled. "I love it almost as much as I love all of you," she said.
