The Clocks

Rachel seated Raven on a stool in the middle of the room and bustled around her, collecting herbs from various containers. She placed them in a mortar and began to crush them. Lily came in through a door at the back of the room. "I have Johann in the big pool. These men! He should know by now that he'll be all over bruises from the training today if he doesn't get a good soak, not to mention how stiff his muscles will be. He's only been doing this for two years after all. There's no way he's good enough yet to manage a session with the Master without getting hurt."

She turned from her mother, seemingly just now seeing Raven. "Oh. Raven, I didn't notice you at first. I've seen you at The Residence, but I don't believe we've been introduced even though we're relatives. I'm your niece Lily. My fiancee in the back is Johann. Though, if I know my mother, you'll be meeting him sooner rather than later."

As Raven was attempting to comprehend what she'd just heard, Lily put her hands on her hips and leaned closer. "How interesting. You look all blurry around the edges. Are you some kind of magician?"

Rachel caught Raven's eye and nodded knowingly. Then she walked over and commanded, "Arms up child."

Raven responded instantly to Rachel's tone and raised her arms over her head. Before she could even blink, Rachel and Lily had pulled her tunic off. When she could see again, she found Rachel staring at her front. "My, my. You have bruises on bruises child! Whatever have you been doing?"

From behind her Lily's voice chimed in, "Here too Mother. If all we do is poultice her, it isn't going to work."

Rachel rocked back on her heels a bit and rested her chin on her fist. "Indeed. The baths it is. Stand up Raven."

Following the new command she soon found herself without her trousers too. Before she could react, she was being led to the rear of the house. Raven could be forgiven for forgetting part of what she'd heard earlier. Her mind was totally occupied by the realization that somehow these two small women had managed to completely overwhelm her innate resistance to being manipulated by others. Yet here she was being lead to what was obviously a private bath. She hoped that there was enough room for the two of them.

The two of them? Yes! Lily had said that her Johann was already there. After Duchess Carline's lecture when she was 12, Raven had continued skinny dipping with the boys, albeit in secret. The only reason she'd stopped at 15 was that she'd intensely disliked having the boys staring at her chest when she'd started to develop.

Her concern right now wasn't so much for herself as it was for Lily. She was sure that the girl wouldn't want her fiancee to be in a tub with a strange female, especially as Raven had continued to develop and was now rather shapely, as compared to Lily who still was almost completely flat. Maybe she should remind Lily that he was there.

As she was about to open her mouth, she found herself in a room with a faint haze of steam, where she was sat down on a low stool. Immediately afterwards a bucket of warm water was poured over her head. The next thing she knew, Lily was rubbing a fragrant lotion of some sort into her hair. She then proceeded to shampoo her, complaining all the while, "You're a girl Raven. Your hair is full of twigs and knots. You should take better care of yourself. Especially someone who's involved in arms practice all day.

"No, don't interrupt me. It's as obvious as the sun if you know what to look for. I may only be my mother's apprentice right now, but even I can see that there's a pattern to your bruises. My message to you is the same as it was to Johann over there...." Lily pointed off to her right. Raven turned that way and saw the boy. He was sitting in what was more of a pond than an ordinary bath. He waved, then slid down in the water until only his head was exposed. A blissful expression settled itself on his face and he closed his eyes.

Raven found two more buckets of water poured over her head, to rise out the lather. Rachel took her by the arm and hauled her over to the bath. "In you go child. I want you do to what Johann there is doing. Once you get used to the temperature, get yourself down just as far as he has."

Raven was still somewhat numb from how quickly things had happened, but then she had her feet in the water and it felt...lovely! She hurried to slide herself in the rest of the way, completely oblivious to the soft noises behind her. She did vaguely notice Rachel saying, "I'll be back when it's time."

She opened her eyes when she heard a splash off to her right, the side away from Johann. She turned that way and saw Lily in the bath next to her. "Johann and I haven't been able to bathe together for almost three years. We used to swim in the river, but that got a little, shall we say, 'dangerous' when we realized we were in love with each other, so we stopped doing that."

Lily's eyes were smoldering. "It's not really very nice of me, but I'm taking advantage of your being here today Raven. This way Johann can see how I've been developing without there being any risk of us getting too, ah, shall we say, 'involved'."

Lily stood and pointed to herself. "What do you think Johann? Am I starting to look at least a little bit like something other than a beanpole?"

Raven heard what sounded very like a hurriedly suppressed snicker coming from her left, then, "Indeed. Yes. Your hips are beginning to widen out a bit. As for your top, well, you still have time."

A minor tidal wave shot across the pool. When it reached Johann, it resolved itself into Lily who bent forward and bit him on the nose. "You beast!"

Then she moved her mouth downward and gave him a long kiss, after which she stalked back across the bath and once again settled herself to Raven's right. Then she said, "I'm going to be serious Raven. I'm no powerful mage, but I have a bit of ability in that direction, and so does my mother. That's why we can see you when you're trying not to be seen, which you aren't now. For that I'm grateful. When you have it 'on' and are trying to hide like that, it gives me a headache to look at you."

Raven did a quick inventory of herself. Lily was right, which was passing odd. The only time her avoidance field was "off" was when she felt completely safe, which was rarely.

"There's something else you should probably know Raven, and that's about why the three of us are here together. I'm sure you were wondering why I'm not frothing at the mouth with jealousy, right?"

Raven nodded. "Yes, but, I have a question too. What made you think that I'd be willing to get in a bath with a strange man?"

Lily laughed. Raven was surprised to see how deep her voice was. "I think most everyone in town knows that you used to swim with the boys all the time when you were younger. I had the feeling that you wouldn't mind particularly, as long as Johann didn't get fixated on, um, let's call them your 'assets'."

Raven blushed, probably for the first time in her life and started to cover her breasts with her arms. Realizing that it was a little, no, a lot too late, she let her arms drop and turned to glare at Lily who now had an evil smirk on her face.

"OK, OK. I give. I give! I'll tell you. Like I said, I have a small bit of an ability myself. It's not much, but I can tell how someone is feeling. Mama has helped me figure out what the emotions I didn't know meant, so now I can tell if someone is angry, embarrassed, happy...or horny."

She grinned at Raven's blush and continued, "That's why I'm probably more matter of fact about such things than most people. No matter what people say, I always know what they really feel, and I have since I was about five. That makes it seven years now that I've been exposed to what Mama calls 'raging hormones'. I got over being embarrassed about it years ago, and I guess it's rubbed off some on Johann too."

Raven turned to her left to see Johann nodding at her. Then he closed his eyes again and went back to vigorous inactivity.

Lily went on, "So I KNOW that while Johann admires your beauty, it's the same feeling he has when he sees the sun come up over the mountains in spring, or when he sees a pretty painting. He likes looking at you, what man wouldn't? But he doesn't lust after you. How could I be jealous and possessive when I absolutely know that the only woman he looks at that way is me, even though I still look like a child?"

She looked down at her body then raised her head. "Well, I guess I am a child. I'm only 12."

Lily smiled at Raven. "And that's the reason you're in between the two of us and why we NEVER let ourselves be alone together. Just as I know how he feels about you, I know very well how he feels about me."

She fixed Raven with a piercing gaze and held it as Raven processed all the ramifications of what Lily had just said. By the time she'd finished, Raven's color approximated that of a boiled lobster and she mumbled, "Oh. I, ah, I see. Yes, of course."

Leaning back and gazing across the bath, Lily added, "Just as I know that, I know how you're feeling right now. You're conflicted. There's something you want to do, and at the same time you don't. You're excited and scared, both. Do you want to talk about it? Before you answer, let me say that Johann and I would never betray a confidence. I can feel it, but you'd have to believe us. It's up to you." Lily closed her eyes and slid down until her chin just touched the surface of the water.

Raven looked at Lily, then Johann, then back to Lily again. She was absolutely amazed at what they were showing her. Considering what she'd just heard, she knew that if they didn't have self-control that equaled that of the saints, Lily would likely be pregnant the instant she hit puberty and became fertile. No wonder Lily kissed him in public. If she did it in private, there would eventually be unwanted, and highly unpleasant, consequences.

It was that realization that decided her. If these two promised her that they wouldn't talk, they wouldn't, and that was the end of it.

"Lily, Johann. I want you to listen to me please. I need some help." She looked back and forth between them and saw two small nods. Other than that neither of them moved.

"It's like this...."

----------------------

The next day Raven sought out the Duke and Abigail. "I've thought it over, and I've decided. I'll serve you, and the town, as you have asked."

The Duke nodded. Abigail asked, "What made you decide to help us?"

"Well My Lady, I met a rather extraordinary couple in town. They're quite young, but they're also unexpectedly wise. After talking to them, I realized that people like them need to be protected. If we can do that, maybe someday people won't want to go around killing each other for no reason other than that one wanted something the other had.

"But for that to happen, people like those two need to live long enough to have children and to teach their children to be like them and not like those trying to take it all away from us."

Raven dropped her head and whispered, "I'm sorry, I can't say it any better than that."

Abigail stood and walked over to where Raven was kneeling. She bent to take Raven's hands and gently pulled her to her feet. "Raise your head you silly goose. You're my sister as much as you would have been were your born in the family and not adopted. You don't need to say it 'better than that'. It's exactly how father, Pasquale, and I feel too."

Then she whispered, "And so did our mother, gods rest her soul."

Abigail's voice hardened, "And if you ever, EVER call me 'My Lady' again, I'll have Delilah hold you down while I paddle your bottom! To you I'm 'Abby' or 'Sis' -- just as you called me when we were younger, capice?"

Abigail nodded firmly then moved on. "Now that you understand that, there's the matter at hand. You said that this couple were wise. That would imply that you told them of what we have planned for you. Do you think that YOU were wise to discuss something like that when you knew that we here had taken great pains to keep it secret?"

"Yes My Lady, I mean NO Abby. It's that I KNOW that they won't ever tell anyone a single word. I'll put my life on it!"

Abigail crossed her arms and tapped her right forefinger on the left forearm, over and over. "I see. So without consulting with us, you...."

She was interrupted by the Duke's laughter, "That's enough daughter. If you go on our little Raven is probably going to faint from fear."

His voice became more serious, "You need to learn better how to temper your humor. Sometimes you go too far."

Abigail turned to her father and curtseyed deeply. "Aplogies father." Then, turning back she added, "and my apologies to you too dear Raven. Our father is correct."

Raven looked up with a very confused and somewhat wild-eyed expression. Whatever was going on?

The Duke resumed, "First of all, I want to tell you how pleased I am that you decided to accept. However, you're very young yet, thus I'll start you with some very simple missions. As with weapons work, you can't expect a novice to do as well as an expert. You'll need seasoning, and a great deal of practice, exactly as you did when you first started working with the armsmaster.

"Now, getting back to what we were discussing...it was immediately clear who you were talking about."

He admonished Raven, "Don't stare at me like that, it makes you look like an idiot. You youngsters always seem to think that the rest of us are too old to think clearly. You need to disabuse yourself of that attitude, and fast, else you won't long survive. You said a 'young couple' and 'wise'. You wouldn't call people older than yourself 'young', nor are you prone to think of ANYONE as wise. You're still too cocky for that. Specifically you used the word 'couple'. I don't know about elsewhere, but that means either married or engaged here."

Raven blushed with embarrassment, he was absolutely right, unfortunately.

"As it happens, all of us, at least those of us who use our brains now and then, could figure out who you were talking about. Johann Kastner is most promising with a staff. Even though he's only 14 there is enough potential there that the Staff Master is bringing him along with his training as fast as possible. That boy is also helping the younger ones, and not only with their training problems.

"And then there's Lily Ashanti. You obviously haven't noticed, but she's frequently here acting as her mother's apprentice. She's going to be a fine herbalist someday, and she always seems to know what to say to calm down those who are injured. And, I'm not saying that because she's my granddaughter. We also know that neither one of them has ever let a single word slip about what they've been told or have seen when they've been here."

The Duke looked at Raven sharply. "So, putting all the pieces together, and adding in the fact that the both of us," he pointed to himself and Abigail, "know you as well as we know anyone, and that you are one of the most mistrustful people we've ever met, Lily and Johann are the only possible answer."

Raven was astonished, but Abigail wasn't finished yet. "Now that we've both impressed you with our brilliant powers of observation, I suppose we should tell you the truth. Rachel sought us out yesterday afternoon and laid into the both of us with that formidible temper of hers. Fortunately she had the decency to insist that she needed to speak to us privately before she did.

"She chewed us up one side and down the other about how we were abusing you and not getting you proper healing and about how she couldn't imagine how someone as 'beat up and worn down as that child is could still be functioning'. She also said that you, Johann, and Lily spent over an hour in their bath and that the children wouldn't say anything about what you talked about."

She affected an expression of affronted dignity and shook her head. "That Rachel. My little sister never has shown proper respect toward her elders."

Then Abigail outright leered at Raven. "What did you three do in the bath for over an hour? I must admit that he's shaping up to be quite the handsome young man."

Raven blushed to her toes and stammered, "Nothing. Nothing at all. That is, we talked. We talked about what you'd asked me to do, and, and they helped me. That's all. Besides, Johann would never, ever look at any woman other than Lily."

The Duke stroked his head with his left hand. "Interesting. That's pretty much exactly what Rachel told us. It seems that she's no mage as we understand magery, but she can tell what people are feeling, sense their emotions somehow. We've both seen her do it. Sometimes we've had her hiding in a corner when we need to talk to people we don't fully trust yet. Her 'reading' of how they were feeling has been most instructive at times. Wouldn't you say Abigail?"

"Indeed yes father. Most instructive. I imagine that some of those whose proposals we've turned down are still wondering how it was that they didn't fool us. So are a few others who are now chained to oars on His Majesty's warships."

Duke Alphonse straightened into the posture he assumed when he was about to make a decree. "Very well Raven, this is what we'll do. Word will get around that you are going to be an apprentice to Rachel. In particular she's going to teach you about hard-to-find herbs and seeds and such that are found far enough away that she can't take the time to go get them and Lily is clearly too small to go after alone. Some of these will be found only in places that are days away, or that will require you to journey to various seaports to buy them from traders.

"That will explain why you're going to be living there from now on and also why you'll be leaving town towing a donkey or on a mule and heading all directions of the compass on a regular basis. For what we have planned, you're going to need an intimate familiarity with every single road and footpath you can manage to discover. Going out to harvest plants will be an excellent cover for your later journeys where you're gathering not only herbs but information for us as well.

"Since you're going to be at Rachel's house, you'll also be getting a good, daily soak."

Alphonse aborted Raven's attempt to protest with a glance. "No, you're not going to get away with objecting that you don't have enough time. You need it. Rachel says so, and I for one have absolutely no intention of crossing her. She can make her herbal draughts taste vile as easily as she can good, and I know that the next time I'm ill or injured which one I'd rather have. Capice?"

What else could Raven do but say, "Yes My Lord."

The Duke looked down at her with a very self-satisfied expression. "Very good. Oh, and welcome to Our service. We promise you that the work you do for Us will be used to improve the lot of the town and its residents. I so swear."

Then he grinned at her again. "Now get your things down to Rachel and Nico's. You might as well move in tonight. That might normally surprise people, what with it being so sudden, but, seeing as how she's also your elder sister, folks won't think it all that strange. While your primary work will eventually be for me, what you do for her will likely mean more in the day-to-day lives of Our people. So study hard. When I need you up here, I'll send Stockholder down for a 'treatment'. Besides, you and Delilah are much too much alike. I think I also want Rachel to tell me what injuries Delilah has been hiding from me."