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She found the Rider wing quiet Many of her Riders were out on errands, several paired with new Riders-in-training The e desolate, but she walked on

A blur of white fur streaked past her feet She ju in her chest The creature—a cat?—darted through a doorway standing ajar and into the rooan’s Two globes of gold-blue gazed back at her She opened the door all the way and the corridor’s laan’s bed It watched her every move, tensed to leap away if she came too close

“Huh” Laren left the door cracked open, and headed on to the common roo of tea cupped in his hands

“Captain!” He stood in surprise and she gestured he should sit She pulled up a rocking chair to sit next to him

“Since when did Karigan take in a cat?” she asked him

Connly snorted “I don’t think she knows she has It sleeps there on her bed most every day Sometimes we find it here at the hearth We leave it scraps and water We think it lives in the abandoned corridors It’s not bothering anyone”

“I suppose” Laren’s thoughts were already plunging back into the real as Connly updated her on the doings of the Riders

She had approved of Lady Estora confronting Zachary yesterday She had approved of her spirit, and had thought Zachary was being overprotective It surprised her, really, for he had done little else to recognize her status Giving over his study to her had been a compassionate atory appearances at state and social events, but otherwise he had reached out very little to her

Should this crisis pass and Lady Estora return unhar talk with him no matter how unhappy it made hi her in onpublic audiences She needed to hear the voices of the common folk and their troubles, to see the mechanics of her country at work

Then there was the conversation Laren intended to have with Lady Estora herself, the one about revealing the secret She had not yet approached the young noblewo there was plenty of time, and she’d had so s to sit through, probleotten a chance to speak with her

Until Lady Estora returned to them healthy and unharmed, it was all moot anyway

“—and I don’t see us ress with Ben and the horses,” Connly said

She shifted in her chair becoain “Ben,” she said

Connly glanced sideways at her “You haven’t heard a word I’ve said, have you?”

“You were talking about Ben and horses”

Connly laughed “Yes, at the very end Don’t worry, there wasn’t anything terribly important Not like the other news of the day”