"I'm tired of making nice," Ellie said in a fierce whisper as we rode along the morning of the fourth day. "I just want to go home."

I felt her pain. Everyone wanted to meet us, to be our friends, to suck up to us. It was having the opposite effect. I was beginning to hate all these people. The older ones sounded condescending every time they said 'Lord Kevin of the Realm.' Lauretti's word of "trust nobody" came easy now. Her "respect everyone" was becoming more difficult with each hour.

Our entourage had grown by at least another fifty people. A Primor and his contingents and entourage from the central Burgraviate. That Burgraviate, of course, was named Baemardis just like the capitol, the Realm's keep, and the granite dome it was beside. Was Uncle John this unimaginative, or was it this way before he came here?

Riding through the countryside, you wouldn't think there were that many people living here, let alone this much in just nobility and servants. And each one seemed to need to introduce themselves and their offspring, especially those spawn of marriageable age. Ellie had it worse since it seemed to be the custom for the men and would-be men to kiss the Maid of the Realm's hand.

"I gave up on washing it," she griped. "I hope they catch each other's cooties and die. They all look at me like I'm some sort of trophy to be won."

Every lunch stop and camp, girls from fourteen to thirty-four would parade by so they could be seen by me, and the would-be suitors would do the same for Ellie. They'd keep their distance, but it was like a bunch of preening birds looking for mates, and it was too hot to hide out in the tents that were set up for lunch. The potentially good part of this was that perhaps at least some of them would spot one another and give up on us in favor of one of their own. A bad way to put it, but that's how I felt.

At lunch, I went over to Ellie's area with Adrian and Stefan. We had finally gotten a cold front through a couple of hours earlier, so the temps were in the seventies, though the stiff north wind promised a much cooler night. That seemed wonderful to me. I was sure I'd be complaining about the cold by December, but right now I'd welcome something frigid.

A dozen curtsies as we entered. It wasn't no-man's-land, but you generally needed a purpose, at least if you weren't Realm material. I was, so I took advantage of it.

"To what do I owe the pleasure," Ellie asked, smiling at me and my two ducklings.

"I wished to check on your patients-in-waiting and see how they were doing."

Sorina and Mara turned from their tasks at my voice, then stood and curtsied. I returned it with a slight bow.

"Maid Sorina, your color is better today. Maid Elexus says you are healing properly, and I'm glad to see it with my own eyes." I smiled, and she went pink, then looked off to the right where a gaggle of potential brides 'wandered' about, some fifty feet away.

"I...I am much better, Milord."

I let my smile broaden as I took a step closer. Some understanding showed in her eyes as the pink went to crimson.

I lowered my voice. "I've seen you in battle. Those flowers over there would wilt before a Sobeck even came near. I have no idea what the future holds, even for this evening when we finally get to Baemardis. I did want you to know that you're worth more than that gaggle of simpering girls."

For a moment, I thought she might pass out or run away, but the moment passed, and she curtsied. "Thank you, Milord."

Mara made goo-goo eyes at Sorina, so I turned her way.

"Maid Mara, how is your head?"

"The headaches...they are gone, Milord," she responded timidly, "and my vision is fine, too."

"That's excellent, so fully recovered?"

"I am, Milord," her voice firmer now.

"Then help Maid Sorina to continue her progress."

"Master Adrian, roll up your sleeve if you would," Ellie said. I think she figured out why I brought at least one of my ducklings.

"Yes, Maid Elexus," he replied, and I stepped next to Sorina so I could watch.

He pulled up the sleeve covering his right arm, and Ellie pushed it up past the badly bruised bicep. It was healing but had spread almost from shoulder to elbow and looked worse now than at the start.

"You've got some interesting shades of green and purple here as it's been spreading. Oh, and a bit of yellow starting to show. I'm glad to see that. You should be over the worst of it."

Adrian had gone pink from the interest and Ellie's light touching. Stefan grinned at Adrian's discomfort.

Ellie smiled sweetly at Stefan while still holding Adrian's elbow. "You're healing nicely, too, Stefan?"

"Ye-ye-ye-ye-yes, mi-mi-mi...." He trailed off and bowed deeply instead.

"That's alright, Stefan," Ellie said with a laugh. "If you hadn't noticed, I seem to have that effect on a lot of the men around here." She patted Adrian's elbow lightly before facing me. "And brother, how are your ribs?"

"They only hurt when I move or laugh, or cough," I replied, "but they seem to be doing better, or maybe it's whatever Filip soaked the inner wrap in before they bound me up this morning."

"I gave Sir Filip tincture of comfrey, Milord," Sorina said, "so it can help your bones to set and knit back together. It was the least I could do."

That gave me the lead I wanted. I took her hand and kissed it. I hoped this would look more impressive from a distance than from what was actually happening.

"Thank you," I said, then brought her hand back to her side. "We shouldn't take up any more of your time." I directed that to Ellie, but glanced at Sorina, before finishing with, "See everyone at Baemardis."

We weren't on horseback after lunch for very long before Ellie rode up and motioned me to join her away from the main group.

"What the hell was that all about?" she hissed.

"You know what that was all about," I countered. "Let the brides-to-be know they had competition and not to lock up their hope chests yet. You did the same with Adrian."

"I didn't kiss his hand."

"I think I'm the only one who hasn't kissed your hand this week."

That got a glare from her. "You have her thinking she's the frontrunner in becoming your wife."

"If I was planning on getting married, she would be, but I'm not, and yes, I do like her, if that matters."

"And she'd let you do anything to her if you could get her alone."

"And why is that?"

"Well...let's see. You finished the Sobeck off, and you saw—"

"I did what?"

"She thinks you gave the killing blow to the Sobeck that savaged her. If she killed it, how did it do what it did to her?"

"I didn't touch it."

"I know. I saw it all, too, but try convincing her of it. Ladies aren't supposed to do things like kill Sobecks, so you had to have finished it off for her."

"Arrgh," I growled under my breath.

"And then there's you seeing her in all her bloody glory."

"Say what?"

"Her dress was half-ripped off of her, and pretty much everything of importance to a man was exposed."

"I saw the blood, but the rest didn't even register, but she did say that I saw it."

"When you were out on your little soiree with her," she snipped.

"She did show me everything that wasn't bandaged up after I found her. She doesn't do your Brazilian sugar wax, but we were interrupted before I could tell her to cover up."

"Either way, you've seen her, so it's up to you to keep her virtuous. And now you've publicly shown her as your favorite. Even if the others don't buy it, she's so excited she probably pissed herself when you kissed her hand. If you wanted a girlfriend, you've definitely got that. You're the Realm dude, you saved her life twice, and her head's so messed up by everything right now, she pretty well worships you, and with this stupid society, you could probably turn her into your sex slave or something."

"Whoa, whoa," I said. "You know I wouldn't do anything like that."

Ellie slumped a bit. "I know you wouldn't...but be careful with all this power you have...we have. Either of us could turn into something we wouldn't intend to little by little. You have this cute little girlfriend who will do anything you want her to, then find other girls who will do the same because of what you are. Same here. Your buddy Adrian could be my bitch."

"I have the power, and so do you," she continued. "The shit is that you're the calm one. You're the one who reins me in, and the only reason I'm even saying this is that these last few days have me totally freaked out. I might go after Adrian simply to stay away from the others. I originally thought Sorina might be a girlfriend for me, but she's so gaga over you right now that I wouldn't even try. Adrian on the other hand...we swap out him and Sorina for a couple of hours in the middle of the night and...shit. You see what I mean. Please make sure I don't do anything so stupid it's not repairable. We could start a civil war with our ignorance."