Redoubt Read Free Page B

the edge of the loft door, practically quivering with concentration.
     When Amily came into view, Finny waved at her.
    “I can . . . I . . . I can give you a little push . . . if you want,” Finny said hesitantly.
     “If that would help . . .”
    “Oh, would you?” Amily begged. “It looks a
lot
higher from here than I thought!”
    On hearing that, Finny did a lot more than give Amily a “little push.” With her face
     set in a grimace of concentration, Finny stared at Amily, and without Amily having
     to move her legs at all, she began swinging in a gentle, highly controlled arc, until
     she was close enough for Mags to catch. And as he reached for her, he could
feel
Finny helping to steady her, so bringing her into the loft was no more difficult,
     and no more dangerous, than lifting her down from Dallen’s back.
    She felt it too, and she beamed as she thanked the Trainee. Finny went an even deeper
     pink but managed to accept the thanks graciously.
    Another girl was already coming up, though, and Finny quickly turned her attention
     back to making sure she did so safely. Mags and Amily moved out of the way and scanned
     the hayloft.
    There were dozens of lanterns hanging from the rafters, and since the loft was meant
     to store hay and straw through the winter for a great many Companions, these upper
     walls with their black timbers and white-plastered noggin between were a full story
     tall, with the roof and rafters above that. Without the hay, it looked like a rustic
     hall, and not part of a stable. There was plenty of room for whatever anyone wanted
     to do, even though there must have been more than fifty people up here. Mags had been
     part of the contingent helping to get food up during the day, so he had a pretty good
     idea of what was on the crowded tables down at the north end of the loft. “Are you
     hungry?” he asked.
    He certainly was. There had been an awful lot of running around today and not a lot
     of time to eat.
    “Starving,” Amily replied, her eyes warming with her smile.
    The south half of the loft was where the gathering of musicians had set up, so it
     wasn’t too hard to weave their way through the crowd to get to the food. It was every
     bit as good as a Midwinter spread at Master Soren’s. There were pocket pies, both
     meat and fruit, and tiny egg pies and fruit tarts. There were cheeses—sharp and yellow,
     mild and white, pungent with veins of blue running through them. There was white and
     rye and barley bread and even an oat bread that Mags was rather partial to. There
     were hard-boiled eggs and everything pickled that could be pickled. There was thin-sliced
     hard sausage and sausage in pastry. There were cookies, candied nuts, hard-boiled
     sweets, and plenty of fruit, but for once, there was only one sort of cake—the wedding
     cake, which Mags expected would be good enough that no one would miss any other sort.
     Mags was pleased to see that his favorites and Amily’s were still available. There
     weren’t any plates, probably because everything that even
looked
like a plate was in service up at the Palace, but knowing that this was coming, some
     enterprising soul had bought up the entire output of Haven’s apprentice basket-weavers
     to use instead. The work was terrible and would ordinarily have been burned, but it
     was certainly good enough to hold food for the night. Mags secured something that
     looked as if it had been intended as a sieve and something else that might have been
     a lid, and he filled them with little meat and fruit pies, cheese chunks, bread, grapes,
     and slices of the wedding cake, which was a rich, dark creation scented with spice
     and honey, bursting with chopped nuts. There was quite a crowd at the food tables
     and not so much at the drink tables, so with unspoken accord, Amily had gone to get
     drink for both of them.
    Although there was a light spiced honey wine available, Amily had gotten them both
     cups cleverly