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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ladybird" data-source="post: 2937923" data-attributes="member: 10689">“Ahem. Lady Katherine?”Kit poked her head out of her tent to see Sir Bernard standing outside, holding himself very straight and shifting nervously from foot to foot.I’m surprised he didn’t bring flowers, Kit thought amusedly. What she said was, “Come in, Sir Bernard. And it’s Dame Katherine.” Good gods, he’s younger than I am! “Would you like a drink?”“Yes!” Sir Bernard replied, a little too eagerly.Kit hesitated for a moment. Wine is always good for nobles, right? Sir Bernard seemed to think so, taking the goblet that Kit offered with puppyish gratitude. “Oh, thank you, my lady!”“You’re welcome. Have a seat?”Sir Bernard clanked – he was still wearing most of his armor – into a seat, and Kit (less clankily) did likewise. “So,” Kit began, “you’re here to fight the slavers, too?”Sir Bernard hemmed awkwardly for a moment before saying, “Yes! My liege – well, my father’s liege – the Duke of Snattercaz has always been very opposed to slavery.” The Hanalian took a deep drink of his wine, while Kit struggled to suppress a giggle. Snattercaz. Hanalian names had always been the hardest part of getting through Dame Esmeralda’s security briefings. “So – er – he had to come right down. He brought two vollers and 500 knights.”“Two vollers?” Kit stared at Sir Bernard. “He brought two vollers and 500 knights within four days of the border of Canberry? I mean, I appreciate the Duke’s zeal. In fighting slavers, of course,” she added hastily. Even though Twang had filled her in on the real reason for the Hanalians’ presence, she wasn’t about to let Sir Bernard know that she knew that their princess had gone missing. “But do you have any idea how that looks, bringing a military force of that size so close to the border of another nation?”“Er. Yes.” Sir Bernard’s face was getting redder by the second, and he reached hastily for the bottle of wine to pour himself more. “But with so many people, we’ve been able to cover a lot of ground. Er, in fighting the slavers.”It took a little more wine, a lot more flattery, and a few sweet smiles – not even any of her psionic powers – for Kit to get Sir Bernard talking. He was only too happy to impress the pretty, slightly-older girl with his knowledge of local events and the bravery of his exploits.“So…there are only eight of you in your group?” Kit asked, pouring him some more wine.“Well, there were ten, but two of them got – well, there’s this basilisk around, and it froze two of them.” “Oooh, that’s too bad.” Kit’s wince and sympathy were honest, even though she made a mental note to ask Honore more about basilisks when she had the chance.“Oh, it wasn’t that frightening,” Sir Bernard said, with a wave of his wine goblet that was probably intended to look brave and casual, but succeeded only in being messy. “We were surprised to see it that close to inhabited territory, though. There are nobles setting themselves up, you know. We saw at least one set of fortifications. There’s even a mage’s tower!”The flap of Kit’s tent opened, and she tensed – if it was Varya coming back to report, that could go very badly. But it was only Sir Toby. “Dame Katherine!” he declared, sweeping off his hat with a flourish. “This is for you! And this, sir, is for you!” With another elaborate flourish, Sir Toby handed each of them a bright green feather, then swooped out of the tent again. While Kit was still blinking after Toby in confusion, Sir Bernard continued, “We were near enough to Brightspan to find out some things about them, too.”Kit’s ears pricked up at that. “Oh, really? Like what?”“Well, they’ve brought in a lot of specialists from a long way away. As far away as Masque and Enclaves.”The mention of her hometown made Kit sit up even more. “Enclaves? What kind of specialists?”“Tieflings.”Oh, my, thought Kit. No wonder those troops in Brightspan didn’t look quite right. Tieflings. I really need to report this back to the capital.</blockquote>

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