Servants and Followers (The Legends of Arria, Volume 2) by Courtney Bowen

right. Perhaps I should not blame
myself.” She said, changing to another topic.
    He stared at her. “Are you okay?” He
asked.
    “ I’m fine,” She lied,
nodding her head. “Just fine.” She could not tell him the truth of
what she had suspected, of what she had allowed to happen in the
past with Brigga, Smidge, and
even the Old Man . Perhaps it was her fault
that she had not curtailed this situation sooner, and that she had
allowed it to go on for so long. She had trusted them too much, and
now her sons would have to pay the price.
     
    Morton entered the
inn, glancing around the common room before he headed up to the
bar, stepping around Brigga in the process without really noticing .
“Have you seen my cousin?” He asked Smidge.
    “ She just came back
from the barber-surgeon,” Smidge told him, pointing towards the
private quarters, “However, I suggest that you don’t disturb her
right now. My brother and your cousin, they’re having a bit of a
row back there.”
    “ Oh. Right,” Morton
sighed, and leaned back against the bar. “I should have been there
for her when the boys left, but then I was so upset
about … ” He glanced down and
realized that the mother of the woman he
once had loved not that long
ago was scrubbing the floor at his feet.
“Uh, do you need any help with that?” He asked Brigga. He did not feel comfortable talking
about Nisa in front of her mother, when the pain was too fresh, and
he half wondered if he might eventually reconcile with Nisa, so
treating her mother with kindness might be the right step to take
in that process.
    “ Oh, no, thank you,
I’ve got it. Carry on.” Brigga said willfully, attacking the floor now .
    “ Right, Brigga,”
Morton said, reluctantly turning away from her.
“As I was saying, Smidge, I was so upset that I wasn’t
even … were you there when the boys said good-bye?”
    “ I was there, Morton,
of course I was, I said good-bye to them all.” Smidge told him.
“Gave them a pat on the back and all that, wished them good luck
and told them that I loved them . I am their uncle, after all. I
helped raise them, along with my brother and his wife. They are my
brother’s sons, and you didn’t even say
good-bye to them?”
    “ I was upset!” Morton
cried.
    “ That’s no excuse,
Morton, even Hermer was there! Everyone was there, all of their
friends and family members, even friends of the
family . Y ou should have been there, Morton, it was a sight to see even
if you weren’t emotionally involved in it. ” Smidge remarked, wiping the bar down. “ Just about
the only people who didn’t make an appearance there were the mayor,
the baron, and Lapo the merchant, but they were on the side of not
letting Basha go on his quest, weren’t they? They didn’t want him
to get his hands on Jawen, make a claim on her with Tau’s Cup. Ha!
He proved them wrong with the Oracle’s consent. He got that consent easily enough, I suppose thanks to the Old Man’s help, and
now all he needs is just the Cup.” Smidge muttered. “Then he will show them who he
really is.”
    “ Huh? What are you
talking about?” Morton asked, staring at Smidge in
puzzlement.
    “ Morton, do you mean
to tell me that you don’t even pay attention to what is going on
here?” Smidge asked, staring at Morton in astonishment and gasping.
“I mean, that is what the whole thing is about,
the … what do you know about the boys leaving?”
    “ I remember that
Basha had to go see the Oracle, and then he had to go on a quest
for Tau’s Cup after that,” Morton said, “But I don’t remember much
about … I know it had something to do with the Courtship ritual, and
the girl Jawen, but I wasn’t paying much attention and then I was a
little drunk … ”
    “ Morton, Morton,”
Smidge shook his head, slamming his hand against his face. “You’re
embarrassing me. ” He
said. “ You’re an embarrassment to this whole family, do you know
that? You and your love-sick ways,