![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Flying South Chapter 20 The End
Here's the end of Flying South: the management hopes that you have been entertained.
I'm pretty stressed at the moment after work this week. There's another new employee and believe me, there is barely room and not for somebody that hums and whistles while he's typing transcript. Words will be said, I think! I so want to leave this place. Being crammed in a too-small office with a lot of people is so not my thing. By the way,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
buoy_wonder do you know a Curtin Commerce studies student named Gus, recently arrived from Canberra? If you do, don't mention the whistling problem...we'll sort him out.
Percy, my surviving rat of the trio that formerly included Vincent and Esmond, is doing okay. He's a big white fluffy rat who's not all that interested in other ratty company except in that they can groom him. He's also still showing some signs of mites but hopefully the ivermectin will fix that! [chaosmanor
I've been trying to contact you about getting the ivermec into him; could you pleez let me know if you are too busy and I'll make other arrangements.] I ask only because I am very anxious about Percy's welfare at the moment and not to harass.
Not much is happening in the garden, which is about right for late summer, though it has been the weirdest summer I've seen. Rain. In January AND February. Weather so cool I haven't felt like getting out from under the doona in the morning. I've planted cherry tomato plants in the patch which will hopefully get me a decent crop without it being a glut. If we don't have a heat wave for a couple of days while they establish themselves, that would be good. And a couple of potato plants have tried to imitate the climbing beans, which I didn't realise they could do. Wild rocket is growing. I planted a neat hedge of it last year but the herb has made a bid for freedom all over the place now. And how do I tell when the spring onions are ready?
Read on through the last chapter...
Flying South
Chapter 20
I am
the growing storm
gathering strength
Giving life
breathing freedom
in the many colours
of my voices
From Sistersong by Shona Jackson
The return, at least for me, mirrored our departure. The moment the Eagle docked at Netone Port, I was taken back to the royal castle and locked into a room, where I slept for the rest of the day and most of the night, until I was woken by the door opening and the voice of a guard ordering me to wake up. I'd slept in my gown so I didn't even have to get dressed, which was useful since he didn't allow me any time. I was herded down the stone steps. And down. And down. A damp smell came from the walls around me and the floor, an unpleasant smell, but when I stopped the guard said, "Keep moving."
"Where are we going?"
"The dungeon."
I'd always been curious about what a dungeon really looked like but not to the extent of wanting to be locked up in one. The steps ended and we went along a passage with tiny windows set very high in the walls. Glancing up at them, I was startled to see someone walk by, fifteen feet up and realised we weren't really very far below the ground after all. We passed several shut doors, also with windows in them which I did not get a chance to look through, and then to an open one.
"Inside," the guard said. I trotted in, thinking about saying "Baaaa" but deciding not to, and found a larger room than I had expected, gray stone walls and floor and four people. It had no windows and was lit by a lantern slung on a wall-hook. One person was Vidar, the others were Star-Brother nuns, not ones I had ever seen before.
"It's time for you to keep your word," Vidar said. "Do not resist. Stand there by the wall and close your eyes." I did so and heard him say something, very quiet, beginning with the words, "Star Lord, Brother of Aradia, Hunt-Master . . . " and then fading into a murmur. I shivered, realising this was not precisely a spell but a prayer, a prayer loaded with power because Vidar was more than inquisitor, he was a priest in the Star-Brother's service and the God had no personal interest in me. I was his Sister's concern and She did not appear to be around at this time.
Laughter. Very faint, it tickled at the edge of my mind, but not through my ears. God-laughter; the scent of flowers, the musk of a stag, the tang of blood. When I would have opened my eyes and tried to see, I felt a warning sense, a touch, and I squeezed my eyes tighter shut as the Star-Brother's power crackled around me, like a hand closing on me. The hand grasped something and pulled back from me, but the power flowed out like sand through fingers. Again I heard Vidar's voice, this time anxious, demanding, but the resulting power-grab was even weaker and people were gasping around me as though they'd been running. He's using those nuns as an energy source, I thought, and they're letting him! I would have been angry if I'd had more strength.
"Leave her," Vidar said then. "We'll try again in a few hours when she's weaker. Give her water but no food, that will make it easier."
Not long after, the door opened again. I heard a worried sounding comment from the guard and then a young, high voice speaking rather sharply, followed by a jingling sound. I sat up from where I was sprawled rather inelegantly on the floor, there being nowhere else to sit or lie. Erlina, with an anxious-looking Kieran behind her, stepped into my cell. The royal children were back in their finery and looked very out of place down here, but their faces were determined. I looked at Erlina's elegant silk gown, the colour of a summer sky.
"We've come to get you out," she said. "Can you stand all right?"
"Yes, yes, I haven't been tortured." Not exactly. "Erlina, that guard may have taken money to let you two in here, but I don't think he'll let me out with you."
"You still have your magic, don't you? You can make them look somewhere else."
"You pick the worst times to pay attention to what you're told."
"You saved my life," Erlina declared.
Her young brother nodded grimly.
"I can't leave," I said wearily, horrified to find my eyes beginning to water. "There's no use in me walking out of here. If I do that, I'm never going to be able to show my face anywhere again for fear of arrest. Not here, not in Skarrel, not even in Dampenrook." I couldn't believe that I was actually crying for my grotty little birthplace.
"But," Erlina pointed out, "if you stay here, even if you don't stop fighting them, they'll wear you down and take your magic away."
"So they will, but I'm going to make them work for it. Please go away, Maiden, Royal Brother. You're making me depressed."
Finally they did. I tried to sleep, lying on the stone floor, not surprisingly with little success as my mind insisted on running scenarios of my fate through my head.
Around dawn, which I could only mark by the bored talk of guards changing shift, Vidar, two new Inquisitors and the three nuns came back to pray my power away from me.
They told me to stand by the wall again and again recited the prayer, “Star Lord, Hunt Master . . .” Six of them packed more power and I felt a sudden weakness, as though I was losing blood. I leaned against the wall and pressed my palms against it, feeling the cold stone strike through me. Was this my magic, bleeding out of me into air and earth? I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at the emotionless just-doing-our-duty eyes of the three men and three women before me. “Why are you doing this?” I demanded silently, not of Vidar but of the Star-Brother himself. “Your Sister is a friend of mine and after all that I’ve done, I would say I’m a friend of hers! Help me here, or let her help me! Let me keep my power.”
Again the quiet laughter like a breeze blowing, the brief scent of field flowers. And then I felt hands over mine, a ghostly light touch not that of mortal flesh. A furry hide brushed against my legs and Something positioned itself between me and the onslaught of prayer. The sense of energy bleeding away stopped, but when I would have straightened away from the wall, there was another press against my hands. It felt like a warning. I sagged and let out a little gasp, then let myself slide fully to the floor without even trying to protect myself from impact.
“Check her,” Vidar said above me and two of the nuns, whispering worriedly to one another, did so.
“She’s not unconscious but she seems very weak,” one said.
Vidar came over then and I opened my eyes; better not push this too far. When he leaned close I tried to spit but the saliva only fell back on me. The story of Amber’s life. “I wouldn’t,” the Master Inquisitor said mildly. “It’s done. We are going to let you go now; we have no more interest in you. You have no magic now, dragon-given or Goddess-gift.”
I didn’t have to fake weakness. Hunger alone would have done it as they hadn’t fed me in obedience to Vidar’s directive. The guard did not speak to me on the way out and up a flight of stairs to a side door, wide enough for one person to pass through. He gave me an unnecessary push to set me outside. "What now?"
"You walk," said the guard. "If you're smart you'll leave Netone before you get picked up for vagrancy."
He shut the door. I turned, finding myself on a cobbled road, evidently the tradesmen's entrance to the castle, a good distance from the gardens and the wide road at the front where the carriages would drive up. It led down to a gate with guards who showed little interest in anyone coming from this side. I walked through and heard the gate clang shut behind me. I walked two miles, perhaps three, by the time the horses and carriage reached me from the other direction. "Get in," said Mariel. "Oh, no, turn the horses around first since you're there."
Beyond the palace environs the road was only earth and very potholey, so I led the horses carefully about. They were the same bay team who had been in the Order House stables when I first arrived. Then I went back to the carriage and hauled myself aboard. "Where's everyone?"
"Skarrel," Mariel said.
Conversation wasn't her big point but after the last few days, it wasn't mine either. I stretched out on a seat despite the bumpy ride and went to sleep. I slept for the entire journey and was roused only by Mariel's sharp voice telling me we were home and would I get up, please? I'd never heard anything that sounded so wonderful.
"Did they rape you?" Mariel asked as I clambered down, blinking in the mid-afternoon sunlight and wishing there were a few clouds about.
"What?"
"Audryn told me what Vidar was going to do."
"No," I said. "They didn't even strip me."
I went past Mariel to the porch and the front door of the Order House, turning the knob without knocking. I was home, wasn't I? Once inside I listened but the house sounded miserably quiet. Perhaps there were no trainees, perhaps no one else at all had managed to return? Mariel came in behind me and closed the door. "Where are they?" I asked.
"Out and about," she said with that infuriating air of wondering what my problem was. "Joanna is coming back in a few days from South Seway, protected by friends there."
"Where is Catri?"
"Probably outside." Mariel grinned suddenly, startling me. "But first, go on up to Mother's study, she wants a word with you."
After all I'd been through, those words still struck ice into my heart. I went upward slowly, hoping my legs would start working properly soon, and hesitated before I knocked on Audryn's door. "Yes?" came from within.
"It's Amber."
"Come in."
I did, finding the place wintry as ever, with Audryn seated behind her desk writing in a large leatherbound book. She looked tired but much better than when I had last seen her, though her hair was still startlingly gray. Evidently she wasn't bothered about colouring it by magic or any other means. A slight frown crossed her face as she regarded me and I grinned.
"It's cold in here, don't you think, Mother?"
I looked at the fireplace. Flames sprouted with a sudden banging sound, hungrily devouring the wood placed there for use much later that evening. Audryn stared at it in utter shock and I relished that expression for all I was worth. I thought about the three dolphins, the three gulls, and wondered again who or what they had been, but somehow my throat tightened on the words and I could not ask that question.
"Goddess, how did you . . . " Audryn whispered.
"Mother Audryn, do you think Vidar would ever believe he'd taken my magic if it was easy?"
"But those tame witches he's got working for him must know it didn't work," she said slowly, wonderingly. We looked at one another and I couldn't stop grinning. "I may have misjudged them," Audryn acknowledged.
I would have told her the truth, honestly, but something or Someone seemed to be holding my throat closed against the words. Eventually I gave up the idea of telling her and the pressure slackened.
"It'll be difficult for a while," I agreed, "but Vidar won't be around forever. Erlina's already promised to give Nicholas his job."
Audryn shook her head slowly and it took me a heartstopping moment to realise she was only wondering, not angry. "You have come out of this with the future Queen as your ally and friend," she said. "That may truly be your victory and ours."
"She's a bit of a brat," I said, grinning.
"Perhaps kindred spirit is the better term?" The Witch-mother was still studying me. "We will have to be careful. You have kept your power but remember this, you must not shapechange. I know that will be difficult, but if you do so, you may never return to us."
"I know," I said, aware of a dryness in my throat.
She nodded. "Perhaps you do. Now, outside with you, there are others who wish to greet you."
"Mother," I blurted at the door and she raised brows. "Are the others all right?"
"The Chief Inquisitor brought Mariel and Kieran safely back to Skarrel from Gartree once you had sailed," Audryn told me. "Lord Matthew guaranteed safe conduct for all, and was here with the Royal Guard to escort Kieran home. He announced in the town square that Lord Geofrey would take up his duties here once more and that he had the Queen's gratitude." She smiled slightly. "I noticed that he did not state exactly for what."
"Saving Erlina's life," I grumbled.
"But the Queen will never admit that her daughter was in danger and you would be wise never to suggest it. There are many years before Erlina will rule. Now, go away and leave me to work, there is a great deal to do."
I clattered downstairs, wistfully remembering how a squirrel leapt over the steps, and went out into the vegetable garden at the back of the house. There, looking over the garden, was Catri, who looked alarmingly grown up in a new green gown. I hugged her gratefully, then shook her, seeing how she couldn't stop
grinning. "How come they've promoted you to full sorceress and not me yet? Who's senior around here?"
"I get into less trouble."
"Hah. Who got snagged by the Inquisition?”
"Giving you a chance to get away!”
"Well, all right." I sobered up; it wasn’t fair to joke about that. “Thanks, Cat. For everything.”
“I thought Nicholas would call and ask about you,” she said, “but he didn’t.” Her brows raised inquiringly. I sighed; for a while Catri was definitely going to have a hold over me.
“Nick and I – we aren’t going to be seeing one another for awhile.”
“I’m sorry,” Catri said. “Let him sweat for awhile; I think he’ll be back.”
“Sweating? I think he’s sulking,” I told her.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
It was a woman's voice, strained and anxious. Catri and I were still really nervous, I think; we both jumped and then hurried around the side of the Order House without saying anything to one another. Outside the gate a young woman stood, cloaked and hooded in gray so that I couldn't see her face. She seemed scared of me until I got close enough for her to recognise me. "Amber?"
Then I knew her. "Dana! I wondered whether you were all right. What are you doing here?"
"I want to join you," she said. "The Aradians."
"Vidar will hate that."
She let the hood fall, revealing her shy grin. "Yes."
I reached for the latch. "Come inside. I'll get Mother Audryn and she'll talk to you, but don't let that bother you. Oh, this is Catri, she saved me from the Inquisition but don't worry about that either." Still talking, I led our rather dazed newest recruit into the shadowy recesses of the Order House.
THE END
I'm pretty stressed at the moment after work this week. There's another new employee and believe me, there is barely room and not for somebody that hums and whistles while he's typing transcript. Words will be said, I think! I so want to leave this place. Being crammed in a too-small office with a lot of people is so not my thing. By the way,
buoy_wonder do you know a Curtin Commerce studies student named Gus, recently arrived from Canberra? If you do, don't mention the whistling problem...we'll sort him out.Percy, my surviving rat of the trio that formerly included Vincent and Esmond, is doing okay. He's a big white fluffy rat who's not all that interested in other ratty company except in that they can groom him. He's also still showing some signs of mites but hopefully the ivermectin will fix that! [
chaosmanor I've been trying to contact you about getting the ivermec into him; could you pleez let me know if you are too busy and I'll make other arrangements.] I ask only because I am very anxious about Percy's welfare at the moment and not to harass.
Not much is happening in the garden, which is about right for late summer, though it has been the weirdest summer I've seen. Rain. In January AND February. Weather so cool I haven't felt like getting out from under the doona in the morning. I've planted cherry tomato plants in the patch which will hopefully get me a decent crop without it being a glut. If we don't have a heat wave for a couple of days while they establish themselves, that would be good. And a couple of potato plants have tried to imitate the climbing beans, which I didn't realise they could do. Wild rocket is growing. I planted a neat hedge of it last year but the herb has made a bid for freedom all over the place now. And how do I tell when the spring onions are ready?
Read on through the last chapter...
Flying South
Chapter 20
I am
the growing storm
gathering strength
Giving life
breathing freedom
in the many colours
of my voices
From Sistersong by Shona Jackson
The return, at least for me, mirrored our departure. The moment the Eagle docked at Netone Port, I was taken back to the royal castle and locked into a room, where I slept for the rest of the day and most of the night, until I was woken by the door opening and the voice of a guard ordering me to wake up. I'd slept in my gown so I didn't even have to get dressed, which was useful since he didn't allow me any time. I was herded down the stone steps. And down. And down. A damp smell came from the walls around me and the floor, an unpleasant smell, but when I stopped the guard said, "Keep moving."
"Where are we going?"
"The dungeon."
I'd always been curious about what a dungeon really looked like but not to the extent of wanting to be locked up in one. The steps ended and we went along a passage with tiny windows set very high in the walls. Glancing up at them, I was startled to see someone walk by, fifteen feet up and realised we weren't really very far below the ground after all. We passed several shut doors, also with windows in them which I did not get a chance to look through, and then to an open one.
"Inside," the guard said. I trotted in, thinking about saying "Baaaa" but deciding not to, and found a larger room than I had expected, gray stone walls and floor and four people. It had no windows and was lit by a lantern slung on a wall-hook. One person was Vidar, the others were Star-Brother nuns, not ones I had ever seen before.
"It's time for you to keep your word," Vidar said. "Do not resist. Stand there by the wall and close your eyes." I did so and heard him say something, very quiet, beginning with the words, "Star Lord, Brother of Aradia, Hunt-Master . . . " and then fading into a murmur. I shivered, realising this was not precisely a spell but a prayer, a prayer loaded with power because Vidar was more than inquisitor, he was a priest in the Star-Brother's service and the God had no personal interest in me. I was his Sister's concern and She did not appear to be around at this time.
Laughter. Very faint, it tickled at the edge of my mind, but not through my ears. God-laughter; the scent of flowers, the musk of a stag, the tang of blood. When I would have opened my eyes and tried to see, I felt a warning sense, a touch, and I squeezed my eyes tighter shut as the Star-Brother's power crackled around me, like a hand closing on me. The hand grasped something and pulled back from me, but the power flowed out like sand through fingers. Again I heard Vidar's voice, this time anxious, demanding, but the resulting power-grab was even weaker and people were gasping around me as though they'd been running. He's using those nuns as an energy source, I thought, and they're letting him! I would have been angry if I'd had more strength.
"Leave her," Vidar said then. "We'll try again in a few hours when she's weaker. Give her water but no food, that will make it easier."
Not long after, the door opened again. I heard a worried sounding comment from the guard and then a young, high voice speaking rather sharply, followed by a jingling sound. I sat up from where I was sprawled rather inelegantly on the floor, there being nowhere else to sit or lie. Erlina, with an anxious-looking Kieran behind her, stepped into my cell. The royal children were back in their finery and looked very out of place down here, but their faces were determined. I looked at Erlina's elegant silk gown, the colour of a summer sky.
"We've come to get you out," she said. "Can you stand all right?"
"Yes, yes, I haven't been tortured." Not exactly. "Erlina, that guard may have taken money to let you two in here, but I don't think he'll let me out with you."
"You still have your magic, don't you? You can make them look somewhere else."
"You pick the worst times to pay attention to what you're told."
"You saved my life," Erlina declared.
Her young brother nodded grimly.
"I can't leave," I said wearily, horrified to find my eyes beginning to water. "There's no use in me walking out of here. If I do that, I'm never going to be able to show my face anywhere again for fear of arrest. Not here, not in Skarrel, not even in Dampenrook." I couldn't believe that I was actually crying for my grotty little birthplace.
"But," Erlina pointed out, "if you stay here, even if you don't stop fighting them, they'll wear you down and take your magic away."
"So they will, but I'm going to make them work for it. Please go away, Maiden, Royal Brother. You're making me depressed."
Finally they did. I tried to sleep, lying on the stone floor, not surprisingly with little success as my mind insisted on running scenarios of my fate through my head.
Around dawn, which I could only mark by the bored talk of guards changing shift, Vidar, two new Inquisitors and the three nuns came back to pray my power away from me.
They told me to stand by the wall again and again recited the prayer, “Star Lord, Hunt Master . . .” Six of them packed more power and I felt a sudden weakness, as though I was losing blood. I leaned against the wall and pressed my palms against it, feeling the cold stone strike through me. Was this my magic, bleeding out of me into air and earth? I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at the emotionless just-doing-our-duty eyes of the three men and three women before me. “Why are you doing this?” I demanded silently, not of Vidar but of the Star-Brother himself. “Your Sister is a friend of mine and after all that I’ve done, I would say I’m a friend of hers! Help me here, or let her help me! Let me keep my power.”
Again the quiet laughter like a breeze blowing, the brief scent of field flowers. And then I felt hands over mine, a ghostly light touch not that of mortal flesh. A furry hide brushed against my legs and Something positioned itself between me and the onslaught of prayer. The sense of energy bleeding away stopped, but when I would have straightened away from the wall, there was another press against my hands. It felt like a warning. I sagged and let out a little gasp, then let myself slide fully to the floor without even trying to protect myself from impact.
“Check her,” Vidar said above me and two of the nuns, whispering worriedly to one another, did so.
“She’s not unconscious but she seems very weak,” one said.
Vidar came over then and I opened my eyes; better not push this too far. When he leaned close I tried to spit but the saliva only fell back on me. The story of Amber’s life. “I wouldn’t,” the Master Inquisitor said mildly. “It’s done. We are going to let you go now; we have no more interest in you. You have no magic now, dragon-given or Goddess-gift.”
I didn’t have to fake weakness. Hunger alone would have done it as they hadn’t fed me in obedience to Vidar’s directive. The guard did not speak to me on the way out and up a flight of stairs to a side door, wide enough for one person to pass through. He gave me an unnecessary push to set me outside. "What now?"
"You walk," said the guard. "If you're smart you'll leave Netone before you get picked up for vagrancy."
He shut the door. I turned, finding myself on a cobbled road, evidently the tradesmen's entrance to the castle, a good distance from the gardens and the wide road at the front where the carriages would drive up. It led down to a gate with guards who showed little interest in anyone coming from this side. I walked through and heard the gate clang shut behind me. I walked two miles, perhaps three, by the time the horses and carriage reached me from the other direction. "Get in," said Mariel. "Oh, no, turn the horses around first since you're there."
Beyond the palace environs the road was only earth and very potholey, so I led the horses carefully about. They were the same bay team who had been in the Order House stables when I first arrived. Then I went back to the carriage and hauled myself aboard. "Where's everyone?"
"Skarrel," Mariel said.
Conversation wasn't her big point but after the last few days, it wasn't mine either. I stretched out on a seat despite the bumpy ride and went to sleep. I slept for the entire journey and was roused only by Mariel's sharp voice telling me we were home and would I get up, please? I'd never heard anything that sounded so wonderful.
"Did they rape you?" Mariel asked as I clambered down, blinking in the mid-afternoon sunlight and wishing there were a few clouds about.
"What?"
"Audryn told me what Vidar was going to do."
"No," I said. "They didn't even strip me."
I went past Mariel to the porch and the front door of the Order House, turning the knob without knocking. I was home, wasn't I? Once inside I listened but the house sounded miserably quiet. Perhaps there were no trainees, perhaps no one else at all had managed to return? Mariel came in behind me and closed the door. "Where are they?" I asked.
"Out and about," she said with that infuriating air of wondering what my problem was. "Joanna is coming back in a few days from South Seway, protected by friends there."
"Where is Catri?"
"Probably outside." Mariel grinned suddenly, startling me. "But first, go on up to Mother's study, she wants a word with you."
After all I'd been through, those words still struck ice into my heart. I went upward slowly, hoping my legs would start working properly soon, and hesitated before I knocked on Audryn's door. "Yes?" came from within.
"It's Amber."
"Come in."
I did, finding the place wintry as ever, with Audryn seated behind her desk writing in a large leatherbound book. She looked tired but much better than when I had last seen her, though her hair was still startlingly gray. Evidently she wasn't bothered about colouring it by magic or any other means. A slight frown crossed her face as she regarded me and I grinned.
"It's cold in here, don't you think, Mother?"
I looked at the fireplace. Flames sprouted with a sudden banging sound, hungrily devouring the wood placed there for use much later that evening. Audryn stared at it in utter shock and I relished that expression for all I was worth. I thought about the three dolphins, the three gulls, and wondered again who or what they had been, but somehow my throat tightened on the words and I could not ask that question.
"Goddess, how did you . . . " Audryn whispered.
"Mother Audryn, do you think Vidar would ever believe he'd taken my magic if it was easy?"
"But those tame witches he's got working for him must know it didn't work," she said slowly, wonderingly. We looked at one another and I couldn't stop grinning. "I may have misjudged them," Audryn acknowledged.
I would have told her the truth, honestly, but something or Someone seemed to be holding my throat closed against the words. Eventually I gave up the idea of telling her and the pressure slackened.
"It'll be difficult for a while," I agreed, "but Vidar won't be around forever. Erlina's already promised to give Nicholas his job."
Audryn shook her head slowly and it took me a heartstopping moment to realise she was only wondering, not angry. "You have come out of this with the future Queen as your ally and friend," she said. "That may truly be your victory and ours."
"She's a bit of a brat," I said, grinning.
"Perhaps kindred spirit is the better term?" The Witch-mother was still studying me. "We will have to be careful. You have kept your power but remember this, you must not shapechange. I know that will be difficult, but if you do so, you may never return to us."
"I know," I said, aware of a dryness in my throat.
She nodded. "Perhaps you do. Now, outside with you, there are others who wish to greet you."
"Mother," I blurted at the door and she raised brows. "Are the others all right?"
"The Chief Inquisitor brought Mariel and Kieran safely back to Skarrel from Gartree once you had sailed," Audryn told me. "Lord Matthew guaranteed safe conduct for all, and was here with the Royal Guard to escort Kieran home. He announced in the town square that Lord Geofrey would take up his duties here once more and that he had the Queen's gratitude." She smiled slightly. "I noticed that he did not state exactly for what."
"Saving Erlina's life," I grumbled.
"But the Queen will never admit that her daughter was in danger and you would be wise never to suggest it. There are many years before Erlina will rule. Now, go away and leave me to work, there is a great deal to do."
I clattered downstairs, wistfully remembering how a squirrel leapt over the steps, and went out into the vegetable garden at the back of the house. There, looking over the garden, was Catri, who looked alarmingly grown up in a new green gown. I hugged her gratefully, then shook her, seeing how she couldn't stop
grinning. "How come they've promoted you to full sorceress and not me yet? Who's senior around here?"
"I get into less trouble."
"Hah. Who got snagged by the Inquisition?”
"Giving you a chance to get away!”
"Well, all right." I sobered up; it wasn’t fair to joke about that. “Thanks, Cat. For everything.”
“I thought Nicholas would call and ask about you,” she said, “but he didn’t.” Her brows raised inquiringly. I sighed; for a while Catri was definitely going to have a hold over me.
“Nick and I – we aren’t going to be seeing one another for awhile.”
“I’m sorry,” Catri said. “Let him sweat for awhile; I think he’ll be back.”
“Sweating? I think he’s sulking,” I told her.
"Hello? Is anyone there?"
It was a woman's voice, strained and anxious. Catri and I were still really nervous, I think; we both jumped and then hurried around the side of the Order House without saying anything to one another. Outside the gate a young woman stood, cloaked and hooded in gray so that I couldn't see her face. She seemed scared of me until I got close enough for her to recognise me. "Amber?"
Then I knew her. "Dana! I wondered whether you were all right. What are you doing here?"
"I want to join you," she said. "The Aradians."
"Vidar will hate that."
She let the hood fall, revealing her shy grin. "Yes."
I reached for the latch. "Come inside. I'll get Mother Audryn and she'll talk to you, but don't let that bother you. Oh, this is Catri, she saved me from the Inquisition but don't worry about that either." Still talking, I led our rather dazed newest recruit into the shadowy recesses of the Order House.
THE END
no subject
no subject
Absolutely. I was thinking of trying it myself but Percy is a complete little sod about these things.
I may be out for awhile tomorrow evening; not sure when but probably from around 6pm. If you can tell me when, I'll make sure I'm here (not going far, only over to Whitfield St).
Not sure what you mean by late - if it's 7ish, I'll wait to do the shot before I go. If you mean 8 or 8.30pm, I'll come back for it.
think that covers everything!
thanks
Sue