The color had drained from Franklin's face. Friedrich gave a contemptuous smile. "A pack of bandits. You think they'd dare attack the town itself?"
"It's Robin," Evan said, keeping his voice mild. He wasn't certain, but he was certain enough — a man who had outmaneuvered the Duchy of Taemir repeatedly for years wasn't going to do something simple.
Franklin kicked his horse forward. "It doesn't matter. We ride back now. Move!"
The column accelerated. This was the advance party — twelve cavalry, no more. Friedrich shrugged with visible irritation and followed.
Two hours later they met Baron Edmund coming up with the main force: five or six riders and roughly a hundred infantry on foot. The Baron rode in full plate, visor raised, with two attendants carrying his lance on either side, the foot-long head of it cold and bright. A sword hung at his hip, and the armor carried a hexagram array of gemstones and mithril across the chest. He looked at Franklin with genuine relief.
"Franklin. Thank the Maker you're safe."
"Father — you've brought every soldier. The town has almost no one left. What if the bandits —"
"They wouldn't dare. These are common brigands. They raid villages, not walled estates. You're being overly cautious." Edmund waved it away.
Becky and Raymond came forward to present themselves. Raymond managed the acknowledgment of failure carefully, keeping his head down while making clear he had remained with Franklin by choice. Edmund was pleased with both of them, said as much, and turned to Evan. His eyes made a quick, sharp assessment before his expression settled into polite distance. "A wandering adventurer, you say? You're welcome in my territory, Wang."
The warmth was formal. Evan noted it and didn't mind.
Franklin started to speak. From somewhere behind the column came a single rider at full gallop, shouting before he'd arrived: "Bandits in the town! The castle's been taken!"
The column erupted. Edmund rocked in his saddle, then went very still. When he spoke his voice was controlled.
"Settle down. Tell me exactly what happened."
"They were inside before anyone knew it, my lord. After you left. The castle fell quickly."
"The castle —" Something came and went in Edmund's face. "My wife. My daughter. The boy."
He didn't let it stay. His voice dropped to something cold and flat. "Full speed. Back to the estate. Now."
Franklin was already moving. "Father — let me take the cavalry ahead. You follow with the infantry."
"Go."
Franklin raised his hand and the riders surged forward. Evan went with them, catching with his peripheral vision the brief flash of something on Friedrich's face — anger, quickly suppressed — as the command of the cavalry passed to Franklin the moment he returned. Someone's arrangements had just been disrupted.
Evan brought his horse alongside Franklin. "Don't push the pace too hard. The baroness is fine."
Franklin glanced at him without slowing. "How can you know that?"
"Think about what Robin actually wants. They asked for thirty thousand gold and your father refused. So Robin made a show of wanting a fight, pulled your father out of the estate with his entire force, and walked into an undefended castle. They took everything portable and left. The people aren't what he's after. He'll be long gone by now."
It took just over an hour to get back. The estate was as Evan had described it — Robin's people were gone, the inhabitants unharmed, and the loss was considerable. Evan estimated roughly a hundred thousand gold coins' worth of portable valuables, and that was with Robin operating quickly.
The Baroness received them in the hall with a composed expression. Franklin's younger sister Eveline looked at her brother with undisguised hostility, said nothing, and walked inside. A boy of eleven or twelve stood near the Baroness with a pale face — badly frightened, clearly. The Baroness herself showed nothing.
"My lady — I'm relieved you weren't hurt," Franklin said.
Evan registered the title. Not
mother
. He filed it away.
"We're fine. Where is your father?"
"Coming with the infantry. They'll be slower. The bandits didn't harm anyone?"
"Two servants were injured. The steward was hurt as well. The financial losses are significant."
Franklin caught Evan's eye afterward and gave a rueful smile. "You called it."
"Robin took you, asked for thirty thousand, got refused, and took ten times that instead. Draws the tiger from the mountain — the phrase fits well enough." Evan said it without judgment. "You can't even really be angry at him."
Franklin started to say something, hesitated, and thought better of it. He gave instructions for Evan's accommodations and turned to the dozens of things that needed his attention.
Evan followed a servant to his room, closed the door, and settled into his practice, running through the new footwork with the blade drawn. He was still at it when he heard Baron Edmund arrive. No one came to find him. He was a wandering adventurer, which in this world's reckoning made him a commoner, and commoners waited.
He thought about Franklin while he practiced. The boy was in a genuinely difficult position — away for years, returned to find his influence hollowed out, most of his people gone, left with only Becky and Raymond who were actually loyal. Intelligent, with some political instincts, but still young. He wanted to recruit Evan and was doing it clumsily because he had nothing to offer except need.
A knock at the door. Franklin and Becky, together. Becky closed the door behind her.
"I was too blunt before," Franklin said. "But I had no choice. I've been away studying, and when I came back everything had changed. The people I trusted are gone — it's really just Becky and Raymond now. I look like the heir but I have no actual ground to stand on. You're clearly someone who understands things. Will you help me?"
"If you can't solve it yourself, I'm not sure what I could do." Evan kept his tone easy. He had no interest in being drawn into a baronial succession dispute, and said so without quite saying it.
"You read the situation here before you'd ever seen it. You have to help me." Franklin leaned forward slightly. Becky added, more quietly, "Please, sir. His mother died young."
"I know."
"How?"
"When he greeted the Baroness, he called her
my lady
rather than
mother
. That told me."
Becky blinked, then: "Since you noticed that, and since you've been through all of this with him — doesn't that make you friends? And friends help each other."
Evan laughed despite himself. "You're sharper than you look. All right. I'll help — once, and I won't stay permanently. Tell me the situation."
Franklin laid it out, and Evan listened, asking a question here and there. Baron Edmund held his lands under Count Laine's banner, in a small market town south of the Liya Demon Forest, with surrounding farmland and a small iron mine to the west. He was prosperous by baronial standards — the demon forest was dangerous but the extraction rights were valuable — and he paid higher taxes than neighboring barons, which had made him a favorite of Count Laine. In the recent war between Laine and Earl Edward, Edmund's side had won, leaving him in a better position than before.
Franklin was Edmund's firstborn, his mother dead for years. Her family had been minor nobility themselves, but their lands were close to Earl Edward's territory and had been raided repeatedly — they had no resources left to back Franklin's claim. The current Baroness was from a viscountess's family, considerably more powerful, and there were younger siblings behind Franklin who had people working on their behalf. The succession was not guaranteed. Franklin knew it and was running out of time.
He finished. Evan hadn't spoken in a while.
"That's everything," Franklin said, and stopped