Chapter Thirteen

  “You didn’t have to be so mean to Rosie,” Adripined while walking with one arm around Harmony’s waist to fort her as they made their way to the inn’s training yard.

  Harmony should have guessed the princess would run off to her brother after that disastrous visit. He was ranked moderate in authority oep below her. The first thing she did was check. Adric didn’t have an iion style skill, so that was his excuse for fetting about it, and it was one of the reasons he’d had more leeway than his siblings or cousins in associating with people.

  While Harmony didn't feel Princess Rosaline would poison or order Adric's poisoning, she hadn’t put a stop to it either. It was too much like the princess was the servant to the handmaiden and not the other way around.

  “I disagree.”

  The training grounds at the back of the Dragonfly Inn made the dungeon lodges look quaint. An expensive area with a dozen bat rings, advanced dummies for practice, and even golem oppos avaible. Instructors fuests had a little pavilion if you purchased their services. The extras weren’t part of the package deal Ambrosia had iated for their stay. Adric was always happy to spar like an eager puppy showing off while Harmony panted after him. Even having Hyath help didn’t do much since he’d learo expect the tricky toad.

  The rge open square sat ected to a private city park, cared for and shared by several simir establishments, allowing spaore wild pets and familiars to roam. [Familiar Bond] showed Hyath prowling there now, practig jumping from shadows to scare, , other beasts in the forest. Mistaking a pet for a meal in the capital was not reeo the point where Harmony spent an hour lecturing him prior to the trip to get the point across. He’ll easily get his fill in the dungeon as it was.

  The pn was a short warm-up before heading to Nae’s Garden. Sir Maxwell sat kneeling honorifically in the yard close to the entrance. While she’d told him to arrive at dawn, Harmony hadn’t been sorous with her schedule, and the man must have waited a while for her. She’d half hoped the knight wouldn’t show, or leave during the wait.

  “My Lady.” He intoned.

  This time Harmony repared. This wasn’t a surprise at an Inn she hadn’t known she was going to, in a lobby where eyes would be uporaining grounds were a rgely informal shared space sihey were designed for bouts h and tumble. Hard to require aristocrats to always be proper when they might get covered in grime while being tossed about.

  “Oh, get up, Max. You expin what all this is about as we head to the ring that’s been reserved for us.” Internally she found the e his oath to her had created, time and distance had weake some, but not that much because of how she’d twisted it tightly when the man stupidly made it, and she tweaked it to make sure he’d be ho, the hint of authority she now had knitting into it tighter.

  Max shot up to his feet as if yanked by a rope, his hand massaging his chest. “It’s my duty…”

  “No, I want your selfish reasons. You didn’t o e find me and have been happy to stay away until now. Then you talk about duty, honor, and knightly things your skill is trying to filter for you.” Harmony sidered pushing the paake him jog a little as he expined, but she’d have to run to do that while Max and Adric would simply o leheir strides. Sometimes she wished she was big.

  “My family has pns for me and I ’t evolve into a det css without time in noble servitude. One of the horrible things about trying to evolve as a knight. All those tales of glory sucker boys into it. That was why my aunt got me into Little Lord’s team, and I tried for Hemlock’s favor and took that gamble on you. I’d hoped the capitol would be rife with opportunity, but there are a lot of people in my situation.”

  “So you wish to use me to find a patron.”

  “What? No. I want you to be my patron.”

  Only long practice of incorporating [Style and Grace] at a low but stant level kept Harmony from stumbling. “I don’t have any money.”

  “Not expeg any. I have my own funds. A proper knight serves by shouldering the weight of some of their patron’s authority and w in their tinued adva. I already have an oath to you. I merely need you to plete the process. Despite my ck of success at finding a patron, my experiend es will be valuable in handling many social situations before they bee problems.” There was something more there, enough that Harmony found his oath again and pressed ever so slightly. “And it would piss off little lord Tyler.” Max blurted out.

  Inwardly Harmony smiled. “Your personal veas are not a great reason to e as a patron.” The trio slowed to a stop at their reserved ring as Ambrosia waited with refreshments, and Bates stood at attention if needed.

  “You’re my st hope,” Max said pleadingly.

  The phrase beggars ’t refuse scraps, pyed painfully in her mind, reminding the neancer about her mother. While Max was begging, she khat she could use the help. Servants could only inquire so much outside of their social circle. Sir Maxwell, however, could hahe task of keeping her informed about Ma Bell’s nightly guests. Less things to worry about while she focused on the dungeon. Eveer was that he wouldn’t take her ent funds.

  “I don’t know how to plete the process of being your patron, though.”

  “Oh. I know!” Adriterrupted, clearly excited that he did remember something from his education. “You reach out with your authority to the worker pledging to you and annouh vi that they may support your burden as you support them.”

  Sir Maxwell dropped to his knee a his head. “My Lady White.”

  Harmony held back a growl. She hadn’t agreed to this yet. What were the sequences of doing something like this? Adric didn’t seem worried, but Adric got distracted by colorful, shiny objects.

  Hyath nudged her through their [Familiar Bond]. “I’ll Share.”

  Now that was someone she could rely on. If he asked her to jump she’d jump. With her authority, she reached out toward Sir Maxwell, both through the air and the bond he had formed with her. eade sure to pull from Hyath and the toad’s share of her burden, giving her a clearer look at what he’d been doing for her. So much strain. “Sir Maxwell, oathbound, support my burden as I support you.”

  Authority shifted into the oath he’d made her months ago while she was still only a maid, tying it up in strings making the one-sided oath, more something she would o support as well. Authority flowed from her familiar and through her, onto the knight. Then it snapped into pbsp;

  Maxwell colpsed face-first onto the ground. Struggling to move. “Ooog.” He groaned.

  “Heh, heh, heh.” Hyath chuckled only to her.

  A look at Adrid he returned a perplexed shrug. Ign the knight, Harmony took one of the drinks from Ambrosia’s tray and started sipping it. “Bates, do help Max up if he isn’t able tht himself in a few minutes. I don’t have all day, and it will be good to get his input before I head to the Nae’s Garden.”

  “Adriy new information about the dungeon or how tourists progress so fast in it?”

  “The guides for the floors are the same, first floor woozes, sed floor virictor and twiggys, It’s all based oactics. Evolved kingdom tourists don’t like to i with didates for the . It’s a weird mix of looking down on us or worshiping the aristocracy. Polite or rude, their lips are sealed oopibsp;

  I know.” Max croaked from his hands and knees.

  A nod towards Bates and he moved to help the knight up.

  “Sorry, I wasn’t expeg that to kiuch.” Standing on his own now, he spit out the dirt that got in his mouth and brushed his cheeks.

  Removing that dirt didn’t help the rest of him, as he was covered from head to toe after filing on the ground. If he was going to be Harmony’s knight, she couldn’t let him look that grimy without at least earning it in the practice ring. [Dust] synergized with [Beauti] as she pulled a little bit of help from her other skills to strip the man . His roots were showing too. [Manipute Dead] pulsed on his hair turning it all a uniform shade of pink as she also un-snaggled bits of tangles from his beard.

  “Expin.”

  “It’s not the biggest secret in the world, and why locals don’t mess with the tourists. They go into the dungeon as a team, but each takes a different path alohat’s why it is rare to see them with a pet even, splits progression they say. It is also one of the reasons why familiars are twice as popur in the evolved kingdoms, here they’ll curse the loss of a skill when you could simply get a pet instead. Not the safest thing, but it gets them where they o be.”

  Not the biggest secret? Harmony turned her attention to her pet prince. Oside, he has the calm, immacute, if a little empty-headed look of a person using a social skill. Through the pet bond, she could feel him squirm a little. The pn they’d sketched together had him, with his experience shadowing her, keeping her safe if needed. A full party took years to evolve in the capitol dungeon, there was no time, no time to risk him being there.

  “Guess you’ll have to be a good boy and stay.”