Mearsies Heili Bounces Back Read Online Free Page B

North.” When I finished explaining that, I thought, wow, I sound like I
actually know this stuff.
    “Wow, you really know this stuff,” Dhana said, walking
backwards as she stared at me.
    I had to snicker, but I also had to be honest. “That’s about
as much as I do know.” When I caught Seshe looking at me, I said in a kind of
protest, “Hey, I can’t do anything at those interviews. Clair says if we girls keep
an eye out for the Chwahir down here in the forest, we’re helping much more
than if I sat there trying not to snore during morning boredom, because none of
the grownups would listen to me anyway.”
    “Snore!” Faline repeated, and of course had to make snoring
noises. That started off a snorting contest so it sounded like a herd of wild
boars surrounded me.
    Seshe said, “I wasn’t giving you a fish eye, CJ. In fact, I
was thinking, you’ve learned a lot. So has Clair. I think—I think you’re where
she was last year.”
    Diana gave a short nod. “Good thing.”
    “Let’s split up and get this patrol over.” Irene thumped her
fists on her hips. “I want to get back to rehearsing the play—if Clair is in a
sour mood, it seems to me the best thing we can do is make her laugh.”
    No one had any argument against that, so we did.
    o0o
    For a while, as the season warmed up, things stayed pretty
much the same.
    We were increasingly curious to get a glimpse of Kwenz’s
heir—though none of us wanted to meet a new villain face to face. But we knew
it was going to happen, as there were more signs of the Chwahir snouting around
in our woods. We were either just missing them, or else they were snouting
around in the middle of the night.
    That plus the trade stuff made Clair worry enough to study
magic long into the night. After all, how could we resist if Kwenz did send his
Black-eyes against our traders? Clair didn’t have any guards and wasn’t about
to hire any. So we had to be watchful, and she worked on magical plans.
    Meanwhile, regular life went on.
    Like the time that we really didn’t come out looking so
good. Though of course we thought we were perfectly in the right at the
time, and when I first wrote it up, wow, talk about gloating and spackling all
over the place!
    But really, what do you expect we’re going to do if some
snotty aristo clod rides into our forest just to—
    Argh. I hate it when I start in the middle.
    So okay. Here’s what happened. The girls patrolling the
northern road saw a guy in super fancy clothes riding a horse down the road.
Because of the fancy clothes and the direction he came in, they assumed he was
from Fobo, which meant he was up to nothing good. They ran to get me.
    We picked a spot to confront the clod, but I felt we should
take a look first before doing anything.
    So up into the trees we climbed. I sat on a branch, mentally
reviewing my nasty pie spell, when the sound of horse hooves became distinct.
Riding along the road below us came a guy maybe in his early twenties or so,
wearing a riding coat with a lot of gold-work along the broad collar and down
the frogs attaching the front, and on the big rolled-back sleeves and the hem.
The buckles across the tops of his tasseled, two-toned fineweave riding boots
were made up of diamonds. Visible at wrist and collar was expensive linen, and
the horse’s trappings were all fancy.
    The fellow himself was tall, blond, and rode with an air
that made it plain he was certainly no enemy to his mirror, no sirree Bob.
    Irene was wearing sturdy patrol clothes, but with
embroidered flowers along the sleeves and neckline of her top, and ribbons in
all her hems. She felt immediate challenge at somebody daring to enter the
forest dressed more fancy than she was. She swung down from the tree and
planted herself squarely in the pathway, hands on her hips.
    The clod seemed to pay no attention, but you know how you
can just tell when someone is really very aware of you, but for some reason
wants to pretend you aren’t there?