I looked over at the men who shouted each time they thrust forward their pikes while father talked more about the fief and the weather with the old steward and the tax collector.

The group of pikemen seemed to have all sorts. There were older men with hunched backs and teenagers with clumsy swings. Some of them seemed big of build like Crion, perhaps also helping in the smithy or tilling the land, while others seemed slight of build.

There were a few in particular to whom Byl had to give extra encouragement. They looked like they would much rather be anywhere but waving around a pike.

"Tilvrade," father brought me away from the rhythm of militia training. "Crion's here. You should go have your spar. I have other business afterwards, so come home with Saul and Jom, alright?"

I looked up and sure enough, Crion was standing behind me, dwarfed by the ripped man beside him.

"Hi Crion," I said, but my eyes were drawn to the man behind him that had hams for arms. It was like he was flexing while relaxed.

"This is my dad," Crion said, introducing him.

The man had a mean look to his mouth that only looked meaner with his receding hair like that made an 'M' shape on his forehead. Hair all over his arms and his ridiculously wide shoulders made him even more intimidating.

... Until the man smiled.

"Hey there. You're Crion's friend, huh? You guys take good care of each other, wontcha?"

The blacksmith almost reminded me of a bulldog, all gruff on the exterior but with a personality that seemed to light up when he spoke to his son and his friend.

There were people here who I felt like I wanted to work for. My life had been a bit of a jumble so far, between Sam's weird illusions and thoughts encroaching on me, the kidnapping when I wasn't even 1 and spending the last few months in 'safety' of my grandfather's palace.

I wanted something like this, here. I could see myself living in Olwick, learning blacksmithing with Crion, or helping out with the harvest. I liked training with the sword too. I could become a swordsman and protect my family and friends here from shriekers.

I would protect Olwick after father as the next lord. I would not be weak or helpless again.

I felt ready when Crion lunged at me with his wooden sword.

He shouted while his sword accelerated forwards, but I had seen him do that before.

I stepped to the side, keeping my sword up and when Crion tried to change his thrust into a sweep at me, I used the momentum to spin and lash at his legs.

I knew I couldn't beat him if I simply fought with the movements from the drills. He was bigger and stronger than a boy his age, let alone me. But if I wanted to protect the fief, I couldn't just squash the resistance and put down all my foes.

I had to think. I had to be wily. I had to use the tricks and tools at my disposal to be better, stronger and be victorious.

Just as I was getting back up to step back from any counter attack Crion could come up with, I felt someone running at me.

"Cuuutte!"

I think my face was a mirror of Crion's as I was hugged from behind by a girl with two pigtails.

"How can you hit him? He's just a baby!" She admonished Crion, wagging a finger at him.

"Smiri?" Crion said, apparently already acquainted with the girl.

"What's his name? He's so small, but he's already playing with a sword?"

"Uh, I'm Tilly, err, Tilvrade." I said, a bit bewildered at my interrupted duel.

"Tilly! That's a nice name." she said, and took my sword. "Don't worry Tilly, I'll protect you!"

She couldn't have been more than a year or two older than Crion, but she seemed very confident she could beat him up, even though she held the wooden sword upside down.

I guess the cross guard made it like a mace, kind of.

"Wait, Smiri," Crion shouted desperately, "I'm not bullying him. We're practising. Tilvrade is the lord's son."

"What do you mean? He's so small. You were hitting him with that stick!"

"No really. He's really good too. Just let us spar and you'll see."

You tell her, Crion.

"Hmm."

She really didn't seem convinced, but she stopped threatening Crion with the sword at least.

"Smiri?" I said trying to gently remove her hand from my head. For all her good intentions, she was kind of pulling on my hair. I think I had some way to go before I could protect anyone... Even a 10 year old girl could smother me unintentionally. "It's fine. Crion was just-"

"Tilly?"

I looked around when I heard another girl's voice interrupt my explanation.

"Eve?" I asked. She wasn't as tall as Smiri, but she walked right up to her and pushed between us.

"Get away from her, Tilly."

I was starting to feel embarrassed. Why were the girls bullying me now?

I mean, sure, Smiri was shouting at Crion too, but why did Eve have to push me, and Smiri was still holding onto my hair.

"Is that the young master?" Eve's father appeared behind her. He was wearing a long white apron, probably what he wore in the bakery during the day. "Eve, you should let him work whatever it is out with his friends here."

"No! Tilly is my friend. Let's go outside and make a snowman!"

I sighed. "Sorry Crion, maybe we should just stop for today."

My father was silly for having us spar in the middle of an audience. Of course there would be misunderstandings.

And anyway, I couldn't let down Eve who was trying so hard to protect me and wanted to make a snowman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some things just never changed. Even Sam had memories of flinging snowballs and rolling them into boulders with sticks for arms and stones for eyes. The only difference is that he did it in the shadows of skyborne buildings floating overhead.

Sure, he might have had more light from the city haze after the sun had set and a heat pack, one of those wonders of alchemy, to warm his feet, but it was still pretty nice to be able to relive one of Sam's fond memories.

"Sorry Tilly, we have to go," Smiri said, dragging Crion towards their parents, the blacksmith with another man and woman who were waving at us from in front of the longhouse.

They had both followed us outside when Eve decided we were going to make a snowman.

"Ah," the baker, Eve's father exclaimed, seeing Veredith with Crion and Smiri's parents, "give me one moment. My wife is here, with the coppers to pay our dues."

Eve and I waved at our new friends, left outside just a moment longer to enjoy the snow.

It felt nice.

My throat was raw from breathing heavily in the cold and my back was maybe sweating from running around. My hands were numb and I felt tired from the whole day.

Still, it felt nice.

I never knew what Crion's laugh sounded like before. We had always just stared each other down in sparring matches.

Squnch

Eve plopped down into the snow beside me. It was falling again from the sky. Flakes of wet frost that billowed about in the wind.

Squnch, squnch

It wasn't the sound of crunchy snow in the peak of winter, but the squelching and packing sound of fresh snow.

"We should make a snowman ourselves. We don't need Smiri and Crion to do it."

She waved her arms and legs up and down.

"Isn't it more fun with Crion and Smiri? They were able to lift the second ball of snow on top of the first too. You fell down trying to do that," I laughed.

"Hmph."

Squnch, squnch, squnch

The sound of boots stepping on the snow stopped nearby.

The melting, sticky snow was really perfect for packing together, though I had to admit there was some mud and grass staining our snowman's face and chest. It was just a thin layer on the ground from the first snow.

"Are you there?"

I looked up towards where I heard the man speak.

I had thought Eve's father was making the crunching noises as he walked back towards us, but it was the tax collector who was going behind the longhouse.

He didn't seem to be talking to us, he was still too far away.

I looked around for whoever he was speaking to but I could only see Eve, me and the snowman. Even the queue that used to stretch out in front of the longhouse had disappeared and the houses nearby just seemed to have flickering light on the edges of the closed shutters.

What was the tax collector doing over there?

"Hello? Tell me if you're there."

It was getting quite dark now, the sun probably setting behind the snow and clouds. I didn't miss Saul and Mr. Barker when they left, did I?

I didn't respond to the tax collector's call though. I think he was meeting someone near the edge of the forest.

"Who's that?" I winced as Eve asked me in her loud innocent voice.

I shook my head and put a finger to my lips. The tax collector must have heard that.

"Vis?"

I let out a breath of relief when I realised he didn't hear us. And then drew it in again.

"Lord Jemson? I'm right here."

Another man responded and walked out from the other side of the longhouse.

It was Vis, father's personal valet who had come back from the capital with father and this man recently.

"Do you have it?"

I felt Eve push against me, her head next to mine. Her breathing seemed so loud. She must have been even more nervous than I was but I just put a hand on her arm to reassure her.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reassure myself so easily. I just hoped Eve didn't realise...

The snow turned to rain around us, a grey noise falling over Olwick.

"My lord, Nistan's ring and other things are in the bag."

I froze. Nistan? Why would a tax collector be interested in Nistan after two years?

"Good. Lady Miladona will be pleased. Bring that to the carriage and then head back. Just a few more years..." the tax collector let some kind of implication hang and looked around, "Oh rubbish. Why did it have to rain?"

He looked around at the rain. Then his eyes fell on me.

"Who goes there?!" He shouted as he saw the two of us huddled together.

I could see his face, filled with murderous intent, even through the rain.

The pitter patter sounded muted, as if my ears were filled with cotton wadding.

It was the same sound as the rain on the roof of the manor. A sound that was all around me as I lay behind the wooden bars, Grita rocking back and forth in a chair beside me.

I heard the rasp of a knife as Lord Jemson drew it from his belt.

No, no...

I tried to take a deeper breath.

Eve was saying something, her mouth moving open and closed. I could feel my arm plop down limp beside me.

Plip, plop, plip, plop

All I heard were the drops of blood, falling all around us, from the dark red sky. Grita, the stable hand and the elk all lay dead in front of me.

I shook my head. Grita was dead. She wasn't here anymore. I had to do something now. I had trained for the past year in the sword so that I wouldn't be so helpless again.

Eve was in danger.

"... a shadow." Vis finished saying.

"I'm sure there was something there. We can't let anyone know about Lady Miladona."

I focused and looked up, my head slowly clearing.

Is it possible they didn't see us? But how? They were so close by.

A third figure blurred into existence behind the lodge, as if proving that I couldn't see so well after all.

A glint of light and a whisper of steel and then again.

It seemed like merely a flick of her hand and two corpses lay in the snow, a pool of red beneath them.

I flinched as Simila walked towards us, the dripping knife still in her hand.

"Young master Tilvrade," she said calmly, the same dry smile on her face as when she laid out clothes on my bed. "You should go in now. You are shivering from the cold."