Chapter 8

"Kel'nar, where's Guenhwyvar?" Zaknafein ventured after following his father for some distance without either of them saying anything. If Zak could distract Kel'nar, perhaps he could avoid being in trouble.

"I met her and sent her home." Kel'nar stopped walking and turned to look at Zak. His expression was still stern.

Zak swallowed again. "Am I … uh … Are you gonna … Am I in trouble?" His voice squeaked on the last word.

Kel'nar pressed his lips together and crossed his arms. "Would you like it if Violet spied on you when you were receiving a correction?" He raised one eyebrow.

Zaknafein's face burned, and he looked away. "I—I guess not."

"I should think not."

In his peripheral vision, Zak saw his father shake his head.

"You know better than that, Zak."

The disappointment in his quiet tone hurt, but Zak gritted his teeth. "It's just … it's so unfair! Violet was being so naughty, and the worst thing is, we have to go home today because of her!" Zak's eyes stung.

Kel'nar set a hand on his shoulder. "It isn't fair," he said quietly.

Zak looked up with wide eyes. "You agree?"

Kel'nar nodded. "It's not what we had planned, and it's not enjoyable, but we need to make the best of it."

Zak's shoulders slumped. "So we're going home now?" The question came out rough around the lump in his throat.

Kel'nar looked up above the treetops. He shook his head. "No. We won't make it home today. It's going to rain."

Zak looked up too. With all the smoke from the burning trolls, he hadn't even noticed the dark clouds gathering. "So we're gonna stay here tonight?"

Kel'nar shook his head. "We'll still move farther from the moors, but there's no sense traveling four hours home in the rain. We'll go partway and then camp."

Maybe Mielikki was answering Zak's prayer somehow. He smiled.

Kel'nar smiled too, but then he sighed. "Zaknafein, Violet may be like a two-year-old again for now, and that means she's going to need more teaching and attention. Probably more corrections, unfortunately. If Mum and I are going to keep her safe until she's back to normal, we need to make sure she obeys us. And you need to be respectful and give her privacy during such situations even when she's little."

Zak looked down and nodded. He licked his dry lips and found his voice. "Are you going to give me a switching?"

Kel'nar shook his head. "You're too old for that, Zak. And switchings are for disobedience, anyway."

Zak looked up. "But earlier today, you said …" He let the words trail off.

Kel'nar nodded and squeezed his shoulder. "I was just frustrated, Zak. I expected more of you and Violet today, but once you turned eight, your mother and I agreed that you were old enough to be reasoned with."

Zak's eyes lit up. "So now I only get talked to no matter what I do? Forever?"

Kel'nar chuckled. "Well, I didn't say that. We'll still use different methods if we need to. For example, this evening you will wash and dry the dishes. An extra chore as a consequence for spying. Kampi'un?"

Zaknafein nodded. "Yes, Kel'nar."

"Good." Kel'nar put an arm around his shoulders. "Let's go back to camp. As soon as the trolls are finished burning, we'll go."

Violet fell asleep on the long afternoon wagon ride while clouds massed thicker overhead. Mum held her on her lap, cozy in the nest of bedrolls in the back of the wagon.

Zak got to sit on the front seat beside Kel'nar for almost the whole trip, and Kel'nar pointed out interesting things like a family of deer in a little valley, evergreen trees with strange, clumpy growths at the top, and sandhill cranes circling so high above them that Zak had to squint for a long time to see them wheeling there.

At one bend in the trail, Zak spied a huge glob of hardened yellow-gold sap on a tree with a spruce beetle perfectly preserved inside. Kel'nar even stopped the wagon and let him pry off the souvenir with his knife. It rode in his pocket now. Maybe he could scare Violet with the encased bug later. Zak grinned.

At last, Kel'nar guided the old cart horse off to the side of the trail. "We'll make camp here before we get soaked," he said. One or two early raindrops had already landed.

They worked quickly. It was easy to get things done while little Violet napped in the wagon box.

A quarter-hour later, they huddled in the shelter, watching the rain pour down in sheets.

Violet had woken up while Kel'nar was chopping wood. She bounced up and down on Mum's lap now. "I wanna go out 'n play!"

Mum tucked a strand of wispy white hair behind Violet's ear. "No, sweetie. You're not going out in that."

Violet pouted. "But I wanna!"

"It's cold, Violet," Kel'nar said. "Your clothes would get wet and cold."

"And take ages to dry," Mum muttered.

Violet's pout turned into a scowl, and she crossed her arms.

Zak rolled his eyes. Hadn't Mum said it was hard to reason with a two-year-old? She needed something more interesting to do than sit and watch rain fall. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. "Kel'nar, can you tell us more of the story about Vance the Brave?"

Violet sat up straighter. "Vance the Bwave!" she said. She grinned and stuck two fingers in her mouth.

Kel'nar chuckled. "I suppose I could."

"Yay!" the two-year-old declared.

Zak smiled too.

Kel'nar leaned back on one elbow and stretched his legs out in front of him. "Let me see. When we last left Vance the Brave, he had just killed a troll with an arrow in the eye."

"Eeeeh!" Violet squealed, clapping one pudgy hand over her own eye.

Mum looked at Kel'nar over the top of her head. "Maybe you'd better tone it down now that she's two and all."

"No!" Zak objected. "Don't tone it down. It won't be as good."

"Hmm." Kel'nar looked at him and then at Violet. "Vi, is the story too scary?"

Violet wriggled on Mum's lap. "Not sca-wy. More! More!"

Kel'nar chuckled and looked at Mum. "I think it'll be all right."

Mum raised an eyebrow. "Well, then I'll say what I said last night. If you get them all riled up, you're the one who's calming them down."

Kel'nar smiled. "Agreed." He looked back at Zak and Violet. "So, anyway, Vance had … ahem … dispatched the troll."

"What's dispatched?" Zak asked.

Kel'nar glanced at Mum again. "Sent off. In this case, the troll was sent off to its death."

Zak frowned. "You're toning it down! You just don't want to say killed. But you already said killed before."

Mum fixed Zak with a look. "And now you've said it twice more. Violet's probably too young to hear about—"

"Kel'nar and Mummy kill twolls," Violet piped up. "I not too little. Twolls bad. A twoll hurted my fingers." She held up her bandaged fingers for them to see.

"You know what doesn't make sense?" Zak blurted suddenly. "How her clothes and boots and even those bandages shrank along with her. The potion should've just affected Violet, not what she was wearing."

Kel'nar raised his eyebrows. "You're quite a thinker, Zaknafein."

Mum nodded. "And you should be right, but magic is as magic does."

Zak's eyebrows drew together. "What does that mean?"

"It means that magic doesn't always follow sensible rules," Mum said.

Kel'nar nodded too. "Let's just hope her clothes and boots return to normal size when she does." He chuckled and tousled Violet's hair.

Violet looked up at him. "Sto-wy."

He smiled. "Sto-ry," he emphasized.

Violet nodded emphatically. "Yes! That!"

Kel'nar's smile widened. "All right, I'll tell you more."

Kampi'un? = Understand?