Seventeen

The house was further out of town than he'd expected, even with all the land it resided on, at the end of a private road at the top of a gentle hill. An old stone wall, the kind held in place entirely by its own weight, marked the considerable property line.

He stared at the house in awe, because whatever he'd been expecting, it wasn't what stood before him. "It was supposed to be a modest house." This was not a modest house. This must have at least five bedrooms. The kitchen would be considerable, and there'd be at least one parlor, probably two, in a house of this size. "What in the world is going on?"

The sound of a throat clearing made them all turn around, to find an old, gray, wizened man in a beat-up straw hat. "Can I help you?" Ninos asked.

Eying him speculatively in silence for a moment, the man finally said, "Are you Master Ninos Smithy?"

"I am."

"Master Wintry wrote to me that you'd be arriving before winter set in, said you had plants growing out of your left arm. Mighty strange, that. Anyhow, I'm Karro, the groundskeeper of this estate."

"I appreciate all the hard work you've done in keeping it. Can I ask, though…I had the impression the house was much smaller."

"Was. Burned down about ten years ago after lightning struck it. Master Brandor wrote to me to have it rebuilt and included quite explicit blueprints on the matter and set me a budget. Got it done well under that mark with no sacrifice to quality. Said it would be needed by future generations and the small house it had been wouldn't do. Been the talk of the town, speculating on you."

"I see," Ninos said faintly. "Would you like to come in, have some tea, tell us everything we need to know about the place? Do you reside here?"

"I have a cabin at the edge of the property that I'd like to keep if you're willing."

"Of course."

"I'll take that tea, thank you."

Ninos let his parents take over then, going with Sinn and Genn to get the horses settled in what proved to be an excellent barn. There was another horse there, a large working horse used for plowing and hauling, and a couple of mules, likely also for hauling.

Once the horses were settled, they dealt with the cart, then gathered up everything that needed to go in the house and hauled it across the yard.

Stepping inside, the first thing he heard was chatting and laughter. Seemed his parents were already making a new friend. "Guess we should figure out bedrooms in this place. What am I supposed to do with this much house? I can't possibly take care of this on my own, I'll never do anything but keep it tidy."

"Hire staff," Sinn replied. "You can afford it, and it won't be long before your skills are highly in demand. Fix up those fruit trees in the public orchard we passed and you'll have more work than you can handle by the end of the week. Hire staff, or let your mother do it, she seems like she'd enjoy running a household."

"You'd never get rid of her," Genn added as they headed up a wide, gently winding staircase. "Wow, I feel like some noble. I've never been in a building that had multiple floors, except you know for the loft where I sleep, that kind of thing. Not like this."

"Enjoy, I suppose. I lost all interest in stairs after I fell down them the first time. Almost broke my stupid neck. Oh, this room is pretty." It was larger than the main room of his parents' house, which was absurd. His dorm room could fit in here, too. There was a beautiful four poster bed in pride of place, a large wardrobe, a dresser, a dressing table, and a door that was probably to the washroom. There were no rugs or curtains or anything, but that made sense when the house had been rebuilt and there were no occupants. Fabrics would just get dusty and eventually rot. "We've got a lot of work to do, but not nearly as much as I feared."

Sinn leaned against the footboard, which came up to the middle of his back. "Brandor really wanted you to have a good home."

"He didn't build all this with me in mind."

"Who else but his son?" Sinn asked.

Ninos wanted to cry. What else had Brandor done, or intended to do, for him that he would now never know about.

And Kina was just out there living his own life, somewhere he'd never be recognized, could go on like he'd never committed multiple murders and who even knew what other crimes.

"No, don't give him the satisfaction of brooding," Sinn said, drawing him and kissing him softly. "Come on, let's go see the others before your parents and the groundskeeper scamper off to his cottage for a little afternoon fun."

"You cannot be serious."

"Perfectly serious."

Ninos rolled his eyes. "I did not need to know that, thank you. Yes, let's go interrupt that, make them suffer a bit before they go spicing up their marriage. Ugh, I hate you. We've been here like an hour ."

Sinn's grin just widened, and Ninos put a hand on his face and shoved him away before striding off.

He found Genn in a bedroom with a beautiful set of windows overlooking the woods behind the house. He looked enthralled and in love as he wandered around it, occasionally pausing to enjoy the view. "Guess you've picked your room."

"Did you want this?" Genn asked anxiously. "I wasn't trying—"

"I like the one I found just fine. This is two hundred percent more house than I was expecting to find, believe me when I say I don't care who sleeps where. I was just amused at how attached you already looked. Those windows are beautiful."

Genn's face lit up. "Aren't they? Nothing at all like home, I've never seen such clear glass, it's almost like it's not there at all. I can really stay here during our visit? I wish we could stay forever; this place is magnificent."

"You can stay as long as you like. We'll go into town tomorrow to start getting whatever additional furniture we need, curtains, bedding, that sort of thing. Make a list."

"Not sure I'd know what to put on it," Genn said with a laugh, "but I'll try."

"Come on, let's go see how Mother and Father are doing. Sinn thinks they're flirting with the groundskeeper."

Genn rolled his eyes. "Yeah, they do that. Think I don't know they go to 'visit with' some of our neighbors.

"Oh, for crying out—" Ninos said, exasperated, as Sinn started laughing. "Apparently everyone knew this but me."

Genn grinned. "If I'd realized you didn't know, I'd have warned you. Didn't think about it, really. It's just what they do."

Ninos rolled his eyes as he led the way downstairs, where sure enough his parents weren't even subtle about their flirting with an equally shameless groundskeeper. Leaving them to it, he headed onward to the kitchen to take stock.

There was so much . He'd never seen a kitchen like this in his life. Why was so much necessary? Clearly this house had been built with the idea he'd be hosting dinner parties or something. Well, Sinn would probably love that, actually. All right, so he definitely needed staff, starting with a housekeeper, maids, a cook, and whatever assistants cooks needed. Scullery maids?

This was all giving him a headache. He'd thought he'd be fixing windows and redoing floors, something like that. Not hiring staff like he was some fancy, wealthy noble lording it over the local village.

Abandoning the kitchen, he fled outside, where he was immediately called to a vegetable garden that was in better shape than he expected to find. Karro must have maintained it. There was also a smaller herb garden, and beyond the fence in a clearing were several fruit trees. How useful. There was an orchard in town, too. He hadn't remembered Corlock caring so much about fruit. Most of the country imported it from their neighbors, devoting valuable land to other crops.

He really needed to be doing other things, but he couldn't resist spending at least a few minutes there, speaking with the different plants, seeing what they needed, what else could grow there that would complement and help the whole while also serving the house, other gardens he could plant as there was plenty of space, where he could put the mushr—

"I knew you'd go right for the plants."

The familiar voice had him whipping around, stabbing through him right before a knife did the same. Ninos collapsed, clutching at the wound in his gut, struggling to remain on his knees while also carefully watching where Kina loomed over him, clutching a knife dripping red. "What are you doing here?"

"Finishing the job," Kina hissed. "You ruined everything! Always so perfect and wonderful, and then you couldn't even die like a normal person, no, you had to survive and flourish . Fancy house, piles of money, surrounded by salivating sycophants, fancy familiar that's actually a spirit."

"How could you know that?"

Kina just smirked. "I'm not stupid, even if my grades were never good enough for everyone. That knife was coated in poison, by the way. Useful, having a venomous familiar. I thought you'd appreciate that little tidbit, given your love of poisonous plants. I'm going to watch—"

A series of furious caws filled the air, as loud as thunder, and then a raven crashed into Kina's face, talons tearing and shredding. Kina screamed, dropping the knife and reaching frantically to tear Sinn away, but then Sinn was in human form, grabbing his head—

There was a sickening crack, and Kina dropped lifelessly to the ground. Whipping around, Sinn rushed over to him. "Are you all right? What did he do?"

Ninos laughed shakily and let Sinn help him to his feet, carefully removing his hand from his wound. "He stabbed me. Took me by surprise, hearing his voice was a nasty shock." He looked down at the wound, which was not as bad as he'd feared. "It felt a lot worse than it looks." As he watched, it seemed to get even better. "Am I healing?"

"Yes," Sinn said. "I told you, if we'd been properly bonded back when you fell, the situation would not have been nearly so dire."

"He said he poisoned the knife."

"Well unless he made a special paste that ensured it would stay put and last, it probably wiped off on the inside of the sheath or evaporated. Venoms like that aren't meant to sit around in the air. Between the bond and your plants, I doubt it would have done much anyway."

Ninos laughed tiredly. "I always thought killers like him were supposed to be good at it. Smart, clever, all of that."

"Most killers are desperate, cocky, or stupid—more often, some combination of all three. They're only brilliant and smooth enough to get away with it in stories, barring rare exceptions. If he was half as clever as he thought, he would have been passing his classes and all of this would have been moot. I am sorry you had to see me kill him. I never wanted you to see such things."

"Better this than he get arrested, escapes again, kills more people," Ninos said. "I'm tired, take me up to bed, please."

"Of course, darling." Sinn swept him up into his arms, and Ninos held fast, content to simply drift as Sinn carried him up plain, narrow stairs that must be meant for staff. Upstairs in their new bedroom, he was more than happy to let Sinn fuss over him—getting him clean, changing his clothes, before kissing him softly and settling him in bed.

Ninos yawned. "Thank you for saving my life."

"You didn't need my help," Sinn said with a scoff. "You'd have handled him like you do every other problem that threatens us—with52 plants eager to defend you. But I'm glad I could finally rid the world of the bastard."

"I wish he hadn't been such an awful person," Ninos said, "but I'm not wasting further time on him. Wake me for dinner?"

"Of course." Sinn kissed him again, soft and sweet, then left him to sleep, closing the door quietly behind him.

Ninos was out mere moment later and didn't stir again until he heard Sinn calling his name, felt a gentle shaking. "Hmm?"

"Dinner is ready. I told your family that you wore yourself out by playing too much in the garden after all our traveling. I disposed of the body."

Sitting up, Ninos rubbed his eyes and then shoved his hair out of his face. He really needed to remember to put it up properly before sleeping, honestly, he was old enough to know better. Whatever, problem for later. "Thank you. I'll write to Wintry later and tell him what happened. I'm sure he'll find a discreet way to inform authorities he's no longer a threat and the search efforts can be halted."

"No doubt."

He could just barely hear voices downstairs, his parents, Genn, and probably Karro. "What's for dinner?"

"Your father went into town to have a look around, get to know people, came back with stew and other things from a local tavern."

"Already making friends, that doesn't surprise me." He smiled and climbed out of bed, went to get dressed in the fresh clothes Sinn had laid out for him. "Thank you again, for taking care of Kina. And me, afterward. I don't know why I was suddenly so tired."

Sinn gave him a look. "You were severely injured, expended significant injury healing the immediate wound and more energy over time cleansing the poison, and you watched me kill the man you once called your best friend. I would have been astonished if you'd done anything other than go to bed. You had enough sense not to fight it, and that is admirable." He captured Ninos's hands and reeled him in, left hand settling at his waist, the right sliding up his arm to the back of his neck, holding him in place for a shiver-inducing kiss.

Kissing Sinn really was his favorite thing in the world. "Don't suppose we can just stay up here and forget all about dinner?"

"You need food, much as I like that idea. Anyway, they'd know exactly why we abandoned them, and you'd be teased mercilessly at breakfast."

Ninos wrinkled his nose. "Your argument is sound." He took one last kiss before stepping away. On his left arm, his plants seemed to thrum and shuffled, clearly excited to be up and about again. They liked it, in this house, in this area. That was as promising a sign as he could hope for, after how much his family loved it and, above all, that Brandor had built it for him. So much faith, so much love, and he would never get to say thank you. He hadn't even gotten to say goodbye. "We had dinner that night, probably just hours before he was murdered. We talked about my project, and graduation, and Brandor had said I shouldn't be in a hurry to go home. He would have been happy I followed his advice, however unintentionally."

"I have every faith he knows you're happy now and can rest in peace for the knowledge. Come on, let's go have dinner with your family."

"Our family, Sinn. You're one of us now."

Sinn looked like he might cry for the blink of an eye, before lifting Ninos's left hand to kiss the back of it right between where leaves fell down over it from the ending vine at his wrist. Letting go, he turned and offered the arm that Ninos always held when they walked together. "Your mother took over all the list making."

"I figured she would," Ninos said with a laugh.

They headed down the winding stairs at the front of the house, following the sound of voices to a small, handsome dining room lit with candlelight and filled with the scents of good food. "Smells amazing," Ninos said. "Sorry I slept so long."

"Shouldn't go fussing about with your plants after all that hard travel," his mother said with a sniff. "Sit, sit. Your father has already befriended half the town as he likes to do, and tomorrow he and Karro will go round to order what we need for the house while you, I, and Genn get to fixing this place up proper. You haven't seen the whole place, have you?"

Ninos laughed sheepishly. "No, I haven't. I saw most of the upstairs, the kitchen, then got distracted by the gardens in the back."

"Lots to do to outfit this place properly," his mother said briskly as she and Genn served dinner to everyone, Ovander pouring them wine. Where had he gotten wine? "Thought once the house is ready in a month or two, you could host a dinner party, introduce yourself properly to the town, get established."

"You were supposed to help me get settled, not plan dinner parties," Ninos said with a laugh. "Whatever you think is best, Mother. It's not like there's much else to do in winter. People will probably enjoy being able to come gawk and eat food and be nosy."

"Just so."

Dinner parties, him. But as he'd expected, Sinn looked delighted at the idea, because he was at the end of the day very much a people-loving spirit. So Ninos ate, shared looks with his father and Genn, and let their partners happily plan out all that they would be doing the next several months.

He had the feeling that come spring, his family wouldn't be going anywhere, except briefly back to Goldfell to collect their things.

Ninos could not find it in himself to complain.

End