Covenants Read Free

presence. We stood at attention, the candlelight highlighting my robe's vivid blues, reds and purples, and I wondered what the commander had heard about me, because his mustache stayed still.
    "At ease, men. Sit down," Commander Ebner said, as his aide shut the door. We waited for him to sit; then we seated ourselves in the chairs drawn up to his desk. I made sure that there were no gaps in my robe, as I didn't want to flash my superior officers.
    The commander fished out a piece of paper from a neat stack. 'Trooper Rabbit, no patronymic. Father, Lord Rafe ibn Chause, third brother of the current Lord Chause; mother, Lady Hilga eso Flavan, daughter of the current Lord Flavan—”
    "They've taken the names Two Trees and Lark, sir," I said.
    "—who thirty years ago renounced their Houses and moved to the Border to become farmers"—Commander Ebner read a little further—"and weavers." He sighed and set aside the paper.
    "Why did you leave the Border, Trooper Rabbit?”
    How does one rebel against rebels? My parents had cast off the privileges of position and rank to raise their family in the Border, unfettered by hypocrisy and oppressing conformity, to embrace earth, cottage goods, and the fae that lived wild and free, uncorrupted by the effluence of human governance. Fiat.
    So, how did I one-up that? I ran away to the city and became a horse soldier in the Royal Army of King Jusson Golden Eye.
    "I wanted to see the world, sir," I replied.
    Commander Ebner looked back down on the paper. "Thirty-two degrees to the throne with Chause, and forty degrees with Flavan." He looked up at me again. "You could have joined at Iversly and become an officer, perhaps even a royal guard."
    "I'm not an aristo, sir. I'm a farmer's son.”
    He looked at my robe. "Hmm. Yes." He shifted in his chair. "You met a Faena during this last patrol."
    "Yes, sir.”
    "Do you know the history of Iversterre?" Commander Ebner asked.
    "Yes, sir. Or at least a version of it."
    "Hmm, I'm sure," the commander said. "We have our own version too. The truth probably falls somewhere in the middle.” I silently disagreed, remembering the long-lived elves' tales of harryings, burnings and killings.
    "There were magicals here once," Commander Ebner said. "But as the kingdom expanded, the magicals withdrew—until Iversterre reached what is now the Border. Then all hell broke loose."
    "The Border War, Rabbit," Captain Suiden said.
    "Yes," Commander Ebner said, "with the Border army led by these Faenas." He smoothed his mustache.
    "We were spanked hard, trooper, and sent to bed without our supper. A most shocking and humiliating defeat. We were very fortunate that they allowed us to sue for peace, and now we ignore the Border, hoping very hard that it ignores us back.”
    It didn't. The Border was very much aware of its southern neighbor, like a pebble in the shoe or a grain of sand in the eye.
    "My grandfather was one of the lucky few to come home," Ebner said. "Grandpapa used to tell us stories of how even the trees—" He broke off. "Well, enough of that."
    "Yes, sir," I said.
    The commander leaned forward. "Now one of my units comes back a week late from what should've been a routine patrol saying that they were lost a half day's ride from and in plain view of home, that there was a magical—a Faena!—where there've been none since before my greatgrandfather's time, and that a trooper made a pact with it. After which this Faena showed said troop the way home. What do you think the Lord Commander will say to that?"
    "Uh," I said.
    "Right." Ebner sat back in his chair and I watched his mustache ruminate. Captain Suiden was staring at a candle. The garrison commander sighed again. "Well, there's no help for it. We have to find out what's going on."
    "Sir?”
    "And since you're the only one who has any knowledge of these Faena outside of old war stories and children's tales, I'm sending you.”
    "Me, sir?"
    "Captain."
    "Sir," Captain Suiden replied.
    "You and your