Free Redoubt by Mercedes Lackey Page A

your pa was gonna marry you off regardless. They’re gonna say how can Lena go off
     on ’er Journeyman round, and
you’ll
say you’ll go with ’er an’ teach people how t’ use your kit. Or you’ll say, why can’t
     she do her Journeyman round in Haven, an’ you can stay here an’ teach and show the
     midwives and all down in Haven how t’ use yer kit.” Bear had developed a kit of herbs
     and instructions that people who had some medical knowledge, like midwives and herbalists,
     could use if there was no true Healer nearby. The Healers’ Collegium and Healers’
     Circle were, for the most part, excited and supportive of this idea. There were never
     enough Healers, and always people who
could
have been saved by such knowledge.
    Bear’s father and brothers, however, who were the Senior Healers at their local House,
     were adamantly against it. Then again, Mags had the suspicion that if Bear said the
     sky was blue, his father and siblings would insist it was some other color.
    “I hadn’t thought of that argument!” Bear said, looking a little more cheerful. Cheerful
     enough to stuff the rest of the roll into his mouth.
    “Aye, but . . . Bear, are you
sure?”
Mags chewed his lower lip. “I mean both of you . . . ’tis easy enough t’
get
married, but once in, harder out . . .”
    “I . . . if it was anyone other than you saying that, Mags, I’d be mad,” Bear replied
     after a moment. “And I know what you’re saying. But people younger than us get married
     all the time, all over the Kingdom.
Most
people get married as young as we are, if they aren’t wealthy or highborn. The earlier
     you can start on a family, if you’ve got a farm, the better. Even the highborn marry
     off their youngsters if there’s a political advantage. I can’t imagine living my life
     with anyone but Lena, and she feels the same way. And if we don’t do this,” he continued,
     in tones of desperation, “my father is just going to
keep
trying to get me married off to go breed ‘proper’ Healers with a Gift, and . . .”
     he waved his hands around a little in a gesture of despair. “What if some day the
     Collegium says he’s right? Right now, there’s no reason to give in to his bullying,
     but you never know what is going to happen with power and politics, and my father
     is damned good at getting his own way. He’s just as good at figuring out advantages.
     But if I’m married, he can’t keep playing that game.”
    “He’ll prolly disown you,” Mags observed thoughtfully, and salted and ate a hard-boiled
     egg. “That wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
    “There’s only one thing I would regret about that, and it’s that it would make my
     mother very unhappy. I’d hate to upset my mother that way, but . . .” Bear sighed.
     “I figured, with the Prince’s marriage and all, and how my father hired Cuburn to
     mess things up and Cuburn ended up helping those assassins because he was an idiot
     real fresh in everyone’s mind, if we asked now, we’d be more likely to get a ‘yes.’
     I just can’t keep waiting for my father to drop some other rock on me. If I were married,
     legally, he’d have no more say in what I do. Lena looked that up. Once people are
     married, no matter how young they are, they can’t be pushed around by parents unless
     they choose to be. They become an independent household, and if they choose to reject
     parental support, they have no obligation to obey anything a parent says.”
    Mags stared at the river. A flock of ducks just below them kept glancing up hopefully
     at them. They weren’t bold enough to come right up and beg, but up here at the Collegia,
     ducks associated people with food, rather than
becoming
food. “I still dunno, Bear,” Mags said doubtfully. “Seems to me it’d be better to
     just stay quiet.”
    “Can’t do that.” Bear shook his head. “Can’t keep standing around waiting to see what
     my father’ll try next. You