The Magicians' Daughter, page 2
“Make one? Why would I want to do that?”
“For our children, of course.”
Reiffen scowled. “I know how, but it’s not a spell I ever want to practice. Or teach. Nothing comes free in magic. The life in the stone has to come from somewhere. And someone.”
Taking the gem from her, he cupped it in his hand, cradling the light. “No use wasting it, though, now we have it. What’s done is done.”
“But what about our children? I don’t want to live forever only to watch them grow old.”
“Giserre told me she’s going to give hers up the moment she gets a grandchild. She wants to look a proper grandmother as the child grows up.”
“And our other children? You don’t think we’re going to be happy with just one, do you?”
Reiffen rolled his eyes. “Let’s not get too far ahead ourselves, love.”
He still hadn’t told her what Fornoch had said to him in his dream. He wasn’t sure he would, either. There was always the chance their first child wouldn’t be a daughter at all.
***
Some months later, and many leagues to the south, Avender danced with Wellin in the Old Palace. Other couples swept around them in swirls of skirt and stockinged calf, but Avender saw only the woman in his arms, her laughing mouth and eyes, and felt only the grip of her fingers on his sleeve.
“So?” she asked, her voice gracing the air more merrily than the music. “Is it settled? Are you staying with Brizen in Malmoret?”
“Yes.”
“And the rumors are true as well? King Brannis has presented you with an estate in Wayland to help you make up your mind?”
“The estate had nothing to do with it. I tried to refuse, but the king insisted. He says no one will take me seriously at court unless I own land. It’s only a small place in East Wayland called Goose Rock.”
“A charming name. Have you seen it?”
“Not yet. Want to come with me when I do?”
“The king would never approve.”
She smiled, all promise and perfection, even as she glanced toward the dais at the end of the hall. Avender followed her gaze, though he had seen it all before. The garlanded columns, the musicians on the balcony above, King Brannis glowering at the dancers parading on the marble floor. Except that always before the king’s displeasure had been directed at Ferris and his son. This time it was Avender’s turn.
Before the dance flung them away, he saw the king gesture toward Brizen, who stood at the side of his father’s chair. The son bent amiably to listen to what Brannis said, but when the king was finished Brizen said one short, round word, and remained where he was. The king’s scowl deepened.
“You’re right,” said Avender. “If he doesn’t like our dancing together, your coming to Goose Rock with me would make him even angrier.”
“It would. But then, if you do not value the king’s gifts, I suspect you care little for his displeasure either. Unless you have been dissembling about the value of your acquisition.”
Had Avender’s hands not been so pleasantly occupied with Wellin’s, he would have snapped his fingers. “Your company is worth far more than a dozen Goose Rocks, and a duchy beside.”
She smiled. Her fair hair swirled around her shoulders as she spun in her partner’s hands. Avender’s heart rose. Happily he admired her throat and the ring of bare arm that showed between the tops of her long gloves and her gown’s puffed sleeves.
“If you flatter the king half so well as you flatter me,” she told him, “I have no doubt you will soon have that duchy to go with your farm.”
The music stopped. Wellin curtsied demurely; her partner answered with a bow. A dozen young men darted up from either side, all wanting to have the next dance with the most beautiful woman in Malmoret.
Brizen was not among them.
Wellin waved her prospective partners aside, though the warmth in her apologies enflamed them all the more. “Baron Lavinier, I know I promised you a second dance, but Avender has worn me out so completely, you must forgive me if I cannot fulfill my promise now. I really do need to catch my breath. Avender, if you would be so kind as to give me your arm. I think a pass through the garden is just what I need.”
“But the cold, my lady,” said Baron Lavinier. “It’s as bad as Rimwich.”
“At least let me fetch your shawl,” said another.
“I shan’t need my shawl, Dosset, but thank you all the same. This dancing has heated me enough for a snowstorm in the Bavadars.” Mustaches bristled as she rested her gloved fingers on Dosset’s arm, but the young men calmed back down when her hand returned to Avender. Everyone knew so beautiful and ambitious a young woman would never settle for the penniless master of Goose Rock, even if he was a hero.
Collecting a cup of hot punch along the way, Avender escorted his prize out to the garden. Low shrubbery shadowed them like shrunken crones as they strolled along the paths. Above them the dark walls of the empty palace rose up against the night, unlit upper windows darker than the sky. Except for the occasional ball, the Old Palace was never used at all.
“Are you sure you don’t want a shawl?” Avender asked.
“Thank you, no. The cool will clear my head.”
“Baron Lavinier is right.” He rubbed his hands against the cold. “This weather does feel more like a Rimwich winter than Malmoret. When I came in, I heard a man say how, now Reiffen has renounced the throne and Brannis’s triumph is complete, he’s even brought Wayland’s weather with him to Banking.”
“Nonsense.” Wellin’s arm tugged on his as she lifted her punch glass to her lips. Pungent spices floated past his nose. “The weather is just unusual, nothing more. Have you seen them lately? Ferris and Reiffen, that is?”
“Not since we were all in Valing for the wedding, but that was months ago. I haven’t been to the castle they’re building in Grangore yet.” And was unlikely to go there any time soon, he thought. Let Ferris and Reiffen have Grangore; his life would be in Malmoret now. Malmoret had fewer regrets.
Wellin stopped and gazed up at the clear sky. The cold seemed to have chased away everything but the stars.
“They are very lucky,” she said with a trace of what Avender thought might be wistfulness. “Everything worked out perfectly. True love overcoming all obstacles, just as the poets describe. It is too bad not everyone can be so lucky.”
“It certainly is.”
Wellin laughed, her voice joyful enough to make the spying shrubbery nearly turn away in shame. When she turned to face him, her dark eyes burned. “As if you would ever have any trouble on that score. Do you have any idea how marvelous it is, dancing with you? You are the handsomest man in the room.”
Avender’s heart quickened. Ferris had once told him that Wellin thought him handsome, but he had hardly expected to hear it from the woman herself. Especially now Brizen was back on the marriage market. But Avender wasn’t someone who repeated his mistakes and, though he had never told Ferris how he felt, he had seen what had happened when Brizen had. How, despite Ferris’s hating the prince the first time they met, she had almost ended up marrying him. And would have married him, too, had it not turned out that Reiffen was on their side all along in the fight against the Wizards.
Given the look in her eyes, Avender guessed he had more going for him with Wellin than Brizen had ever had with Ferris. “If I’m the best-looking man in the room,” he said, “you’re easily the best-looking woman. In Malmoret. In Banking. In the entire world.”
She met his glance steadily, her face a pale oval in the darkness. He laid his hand on her shoulder as he bent to kiss her and found her skin smoother than Skimmer’s fur. And warmer, too, despite the courtyard’s cold.
Tapping him sharply with her fan, she twirled away. “I thought you understood,” she said.
“You mean I don’t?”
“My cap is set for Brizen. You know that.” She examined him straightforwardly with the same dark eyes that had smitten him a moment before, her fan now lying against the swell of her lower lip.
“But Brizen hasn’t been paying any attention to you at all. And you seemed to enjoy my compliments as much as I enjoy yours.”
“I have enjoyed your compliments. Very much. And Brizen has paid attention to no one. But that will change. He is only a man, after all, just like you. If you can get over Ferris, I am certain Prince Brizen can as well. When he does, I, for one, am certainly not going to let a second chance slip away.”
Avender’s hands suddenly felt cold. He pushed them into his pockets. “If you’ve been paying me compliments you don’t mean, it’s cruel.”
“Oh, I mean them.”
Wellin smiled again, a sly, honest smile that Avender felt as keenly as the kiss he would have preferred. “I mean them very much. But I am not in love with you and, if you try too hard to make me so, I shall have to throw you over entirely. The temptation would be too much. In the meantime, I see no reason not to go on flirting with you more than anyone else—it is much more pleasant. Not to mention the fact that Brizen would not be the first man to notice a woman only after she has been noticed by someone else.”
“That’s hardly fair to me.”
“No. But you cannot accuse me of leading you on, as I have stated my intentions plainly. If you still wish to dance with me, and promenade in moonlit gardens—”
Raising his hands in frustration, Avender gestured at the empty sky. “What moon?”
Wellin laughed, accepting his small joke as a sign he had finished his sulk. “There will be other nights, I assure you, before Brizen gets over his broken heart. He is a good man, and loves truly. I doubt I could bring myself to marry him were he not. But, as I was saying, if you continue to flirt with me, which I would like very much, what happens to you is your responsibility, not mine. And who knows? I might even fail to catch Prince Brizen’s eye a second time, at which point I will require a great deal of consoling. Though by then I should not be at all surprised if you had moved on to someone less cruel.”
“At least you’re aware of the damage you’re doing.”
“Oh, I am quite aware.” She gave him another cool glance, more intense than the first. “And of the damage to myself as well. I have meant every compliment I have given you as much as you have meant yours. I hope you will forgive me if I do not permit myself to go further.”
She smiled again, a different sort of smile that revealed more of conspiratorial friendship than private desire. Then she laid her hand sweetly on his chest. “Now that we have that straightened out, I think it might be time to return to the ballroom. Even if Brizen fails to notice we went outside, Brannis and the rest of the room will not. I think they would all appreciate the sight of us dancing together again, now we have both cooled.”
Bold as ever, Wellin swept her skirts loudly across the floor as she led Avender back into the Kings Hall. Every dowager turned to scowl at them, and Brannis showed his annoyance as well. But if Prince Brizen noticed the couple’s return, he didn’t show it.
For the rest of that season Wellin offered Avender as much attention as she dared. Once she went so far as to share several quick, deep, kisses with him behind a willow on a spring afternoon when the Duchess of Winkling thought an outing with boats would be fun. Perhaps it was the kissing that did it, though Avender was certain no one had seen them, but it wasn’t much later that Wellin had no time for anyone but the prince. And even though Avender had thought himself prepared, the loss still hurt.
Wellin, however, had no regrets. Her wedding was even grander than Ferris’s had almost been the summer before: this time the king approved of the match as much as his son. Ferris and Reiffen were unable to attend as Ferris was due that fall, but everyone else was present, from Valing to Issinlough. Avender watched it all from Brizen’s side, though he would much rather have been banished to the top of White Tooth in the Bavadars. For the last month he had been seriously considering throwing off his allegiance to the prince and seeking his fortune with the Dwarves. To have lost a second woman to a second friend seemed more than sufficient reason to vanish from the human portion of the world. But he soon discovered other advantages to serving at the royal court, especially once the other unmarried ladies understood Wellin no longer blocked their way to the handsomest man in Malmoret. And some of the married ones as well.
Chapter 2
Pant and Purr
“Not that one, Mother. The blue.”
Following her daughter’s orders, Ferris obediently caused the blue dress to pop back into view. Now there were three—blue, red, and green—hovering in the air at the center of the workroom.
“See?” said the child. “The blue has nicer sleeves.”
“Can we at least get rid of the red?” asked Ferris.
“Yes,” echoed Giserre. “Hubley, the red is much too brazen for a child your age. You are not even ten.”
“I will be the month after Wellin’s and Brizen’s ball. Can’t I wear it then?”
“That would mean getting two new dresses.”
“Please, Mother? Please, please, please?”
Giserre held up her hands. “Do not look at me, Ferris. I already think she is too spoiled. The blue and green, perhaps—”
The door to the workroom burst open and Plum, the youngest of Ferris’s and Reiffen’s apprentices, rushed in.
“They’re here!” he shouted, breathless from the long dash up the tower stair. “Tar’s had her kittens!”
Hubley, who had been waiting days for this to happen, raced for the door. Remembering to ask permission at the last second, she skidded to a stop on the landing outside.
“Can I go, Mother? You said I could have one.”
“What about the dresses?”
“You decide. But I really, really, like the blue and red best.”
Hoping Queen Wellin would give her the other if her mother wouldn’t let her have both, Hubley bounded away. Plum, several years her senior, caught up quickly.
“Where?” she demanded.
“The stable. I haven’t seen them myself. Soon as the grooms told me it happened, I came looking for you.”
Charging out of the Magicians’ Tower, they dashed down the polished marble of the main gallery and onto the central stair. Shafts of morning sunlight reached out after them from the high windows on either side. Too old to climb much anymore, Sandy joined them when they reached the front hall, his paws clacking on the cobblestones outside.
They discovered a much larger crowd in the stable than they’d expected. Nearly a dozen people had gathered inside one of the stalls. Hubley pushed at everyone’s backs in her haste to get through.
“Mother said I could have one, so I get first pick!”
The crowd parted. Sandy settled in the straw by the door as his mistress strained forward. Seeing Hubley coming, Trier flipped a blanket over the manger to hide what was underneath.
She was surprised to find Trier standing guard. Of all her parents’ apprentices, Trier had always been the least interested in anything that didn’t help her magic. Even Ahne, who had been senior apprentice until he’d gone out on his own two years before, had been known to enjoy a song and a glass of beer. Trier, however, spent all her time studying, or scolding the juniors for not following her example. What use could she have for kittens?
Hands on hips, Hubley raised her voice insistently. “Why can’t I see them?” she demanded.
“Because I said so.” Her father’s voice jabbed like a pitchfork from the front of the stall. “Please, everyone. Step aside. I wish to see what has happened.”
Hubley saw that her father’s eyes were puffy as he joined them. Thin beard sprinkled his chin too, another sign of another long night spent in the workshops.
“Is it what we expected?” he asked.
Trier nodded. Hubley couldn’t read a thing from the senior apprentice’s face, but her father’s eyes gleamed.
He waved a commanding arm. Hubley and Plum leaned forward as Trier reached for a corner of the blanket.
“Reiffen! What is going on here? Do you really think this is appropriate?”
With great impatience, the crowd stepped back once more. Ferris joined her husband and daughter beside the manger. Though Hubley knew perfectly well that both her parents had swallowed Living Stones, she was always struck by the way they looked no older than Trier.
Reiffen met his wife’s glare with the gleam in his own eyes still intact. “Another such chance might never come again,” he answered. “Do you really wish to deprive Hubley of this opportunity?”
The sides of Ferris’s mouth curled down. “You’ll just horrify her. What can possibly be the benefit?”
“There may be many benefits, if my suspicions are correct. The White Wizard used to breed such creatures to use in spells. We should be thankful such a rare occurrence has come our way naturally. Hubley and the apprentices will be able to learn a great deal about binding, which I otherwise might not have been able to teach them.”
Ferris seemed about to say something more, then decided against it. On some things she stood firm but, if this really was a rare event, she was likely to make an exception. Especially if it had to do with magic.
“All right.” Ferris nodded to Trier. “Let’s take a look at what Tar’s brought into the world.”
The apprentice lifted the blanket. Ferris and Reiffen stooped, but Hubley went down on her hands and knees for a closer look. Tar stared back at her, yellow eyes bright in the shadow beneath the manger. Two of the tiny piles of fur lying in the straw beside the cat moved, their heads nuzzling up against their mother to nurse. The other lumps stayed still.
“Only two?” she asked in dismay.
“Look more closely,” said her father.
The child pushed forward. Tar raised a forepaw as if to fend her off, which gave Hubley a clearer look at the cat’s belly. With a shock, she saw the two nursing kittens shared a single body between them.
“Oh, that’s gross,” said Plum, squatting back on the straw beside her.
Hubley agreed. Then she noticed her stomach wasn’t flip-flopping, and her breakfast needed no help staying down. The two-headed cat might be gross, but it was also fascinating.
“For our children, of course.”
Reiffen scowled. “I know how, but it’s not a spell I ever want to practice. Or teach. Nothing comes free in magic. The life in the stone has to come from somewhere. And someone.”
Taking the gem from her, he cupped it in his hand, cradling the light. “No use wasting it, though, now we have it. What’s done is done.”
“But what about our children? I don’t want to live forever only to watch them grow old.”
“Giserre told me she’s going to give hers up the moment she gets a grandchild. She wants to look a proper grandmother as the child grows up.”
“And our other children? You don’t think we’re going to be happy with just one, do you?”
Reiffen rolled his eyes. “Let’s not get too far ahead ourselves, love.”
He still hadn’t told her what Fornoch had said to him in his dream. He wasn’t sure he would, either. There was always the chance their first child wouldn’t be a daughter at all.
***
Some months later, and many leagues to the south, Avender danced with Wellin in the Old Palace. Other couples swept around them in swirls of skirt and stockinged calf, but Avender saw only the woman in his arms, her laughing mouth and eyes, and felt only the grip of her fingers on his sleeve.
“So?” she asked, her voice gracing the air more merrily than the music. “Is it settled? Are you staying with Brizen in Malmoret?”
“Yes.”
“And the rumors are true as well? King Brannis has presented you with an estate in Wayland to help you make up your mind?”
“The estate had nothing to do with it. I tried to refuse, but the king insisted. He says no one will take me seriously at court unless I own land. It’s only a small place in East Wayland called Goose Rock.”
“A charming name. Have you seen it?”
“Not yet. Want to come with me when I do?”
“The king would never approve.”
She smiled, all promise and perfection, even as she glanced toward the dais at the end of the hall. Avender followed her gaze, though he had seen it all before. The garlanded columns, the musicians on the balcony above, King Brannis glowering at the dancers parading on the marble floor. Except that always before the king’s displeasure had been directed at Ferris and his son. This time it was Avender’s turn.
Before the dance flung them away, he saw the king gesture toward Brizen, who stood at the side of his father’s chair. The son bent amiably to listen to what Brannis said, but when the king was finished Brizen said one short, round word, and remained where he was. The king’s scowl deepened.
“You’re right,” said Avender. “If he doesn’t like our dancing together, your coming to Goose Rock with me would make him even angrier.”
“It would. But then, if you do not value the king’s gifts, I suspect you care little for his displeasure either. Unless you have been dissembling about the value of your acquisition.”
Had Avender’s hands not been so pleasantly occupied with Wellin’s, he would have snapped his fingers. “Your company is worth far more than a dozen Goose Rocks, and a duchy beside.”
She smiled. Her fair hair swirled around her shoulders as she spun in her partner’s hands. Avender’s heart rose. Happily he admired her throat and the ring of bare arm that showed between the tops of her long gloves and her gown’s puffed sleeves.
“If you flatter the king half so well as you flatter me,” she told him, “I have no doubt you will soon have that duchy to go with your farm.”
The music stopped. Wellin curtsied demurely; her partner answered with a bow. A dozen young men darted up from either side, all wanting to have the next dance with the most beautiful woman in Malmoret.
Brizen was not among them.
Wellin waved her prospective partners aside, though the warmth in her apologies enflamed them all the more. “Baron Lavinier, I know I promised you a second dance, but Avender has worn me out so completely, you must forgive me if I cannot fulfill my promise now. I really do need to catch my breath. Avender, if you would be so kind as to give me your arm. I think a pass through the garden is just what I need.”
“But the cold, my lady,” said Baron Lavinier. “It’s as bad as Rimwich.”
“At least let me fetch your shawl,” said another.
“I shan’t need my shawl, Dosset, but thank you all the same. This dancing has heated me enough for a snowstorm in the Bavadars.” Mustaches bristled as she rested her gloved fingers on Dosset’s arm, but the young men calmed back down when her hand returned to Avender. Everyone knew so beautiful and ambitious a young woman would never settle for the penniless master of Goose Rock, even if he was a hero.
Collecting a cup of hot punch along the way, Avender escorted his prize out to the garden. Low shrubbery shadowed them like shrunken crones as they strolled along the paths. Above them the dark walls of the empty palace rose up against the night, unlit upper windows darker than the sky. Except for the occasional ball, the Old Palace was never used at all.
“Are you sure you don’t want a shawl?” Avender asked.
“Thank you, no. The cool will clear my head.”
“Baron Lavinier is right.” He rubbed his hands against the cold. “This weather does feel more like a Rimwich winter than Malmoret. When I came in, I heard a man say how, now Reiffen has renounced the throne and Brannis’s triumph is complete, he’s even brought Wayland’s weather with him to Banking.”
“Nonsense.” Wellin’s arm tugged on his as she lifted her punch glass to her lips. Pungent spices floated past his nose. “The weather is just unusual, nothing more. Have you seen them lately? Ferris and Reiffen, that is?”
“Not since we were all in Valing for the wedding, but that was months ago. I haven’t been to the castle they’re building in Grangore yet.” And was unlikely to go there any time soon, he thought. Let Ferris and Reiffen have Grangore; his life would be in Malmoret now. Malmoret had fewer regrets.
Wellin stopped and gazed up at the clear sky. The cold seemed to have chased away everything but the stars.
“They are very lucky,” she said with a trace of what Avender thought might be wistfulness. “Everything worked out perfectly. True love overcoming all obstacles, just as the poets describe. It is too bad not everyone can be so lucky.”
“It certainly is.”
Wellin laughed, her voice joyful enough to make the spying shrubbery nearly turn away in shame. When she turned to face him, her dark eyes burned. “As if you would ever have any trouble on that score. Do you have any idea how marvelous it is, dancing with you? You are the handsomest man in the room.”
Avender’s heart quickened. Ferris had once told him that Wellin thought him handsome, but he had hardly expected to hear it from the woman herself. Especially now Brizen was back on the marriage market. But Avender wasn’t someone who repeated his mistakes and, though he had never told Ferris how he felt, he had seen what had happened when Brizen had. How, despite Ferris’s hating the prince the first time they met, she had almost ended up marrying him. And would have married him, too, had it not turned out that Reiffen was on their side all along in the fight against the Wizards.
Given the look in her eyes, Avender guessed he had more going for him with Wellin than Brizen had ever had with Ferris. “If I’m the best-looking man in the room,” he said, “you’re easily the best-looking woman. In Malmoret. In Banking. In the entire world.”
She met his glance steadily, her face a pale oval in the darkness. He laid his hand on her shoulder as he bent to kiss her and found her skin smoother than Skimmer’s fur. And warmer, too, despite the courtyard’s cold.
Tapping him sharply with her fan, she twirled away. “I thought you understood,” she said.
“You mean I don’t?”
“My cap is set for Brizen. You know that.” She examined him straightforwardly with the same dark eyes that had smitten him a moment before, her fan now lying against the swell of her lower lip.
“But Brizen hasn’t been paying any attention to you at all. And you seemed to enjoy my compliments as much as I enjoy yours.”
“I have enjoyed your compliments. Very much. And Brizen has paid attention to no one. But that will change. He is only a man, after all, just like you. If you can get over Ferris, I am certain Prince Brizen can as well. When he does, I, for one, am certainly not going to let a second chance slip away.”
Avender’s hands suddenly felt cold. He pushed them into his pockets. “If you’ve been paying me compliments you don’t mean, it’s cruel.”
“Oh, I mean them.”
Wellin smiled again, a sly, honest smile that Avender felt as keenly as the kiss he would have preferred. “I mean them very much. But I am not in love with you and, if you try too hard to make me so, I shall have to throw you over entirely. The temptation would be too much. In the meantime, I see no reason not to go on flirting with you more than anyone else—it is much more pleasant. Not to mention the fact that Brizen would not be the first man to notice a woman only after she has been noticed by someone else.”
“That’s hardly fair to me.”
“No. But you cannot accuse me of leading you on, as I have stated my intentions plainly. If you still wish to dance with me, and promenade in moonlit gardens—”
Raising his hands in frustration, Avender gestured at the empty sky. “What moon?”
Wellin laughed, accepting his small joke as a sign he had finished his sulk. “There will be other nights, I assure you, before Brizen gets over his broken heart. He is a good man, and loves truly. I doubt I could bring myself to marry him were he not. But, as I was saying, if you continue to flirt with me, which I would like very much, what happens to you is your responsibility, not mine. And who knows? I might even fail to catch Prince Brizen’s eye a second time, at which point I will require a great deal of consoling. Though by then I should not be at all surprised if you had moved on to someone less cruel.”
“At least you’re aware of the damage you’re doing.”
“Oh, I am quite aware.” She gave him another cool glance, more intense than the first. “And of the damage to myself as well. I have meant every compliment I have given you as much as you have meant yours. I hope you will forgive me if I do not permit myself to go further.”
She smiled again, a different sort of smile that revealed more of conspiratorial friendship than private desire. Then she laid her hand sweetly on his chest. “Now that we have that straightened out, I think it might be time to return to the ballroom. Even if Brizen fails to notice we went outside, Brannis and the rest of the room will not. I think they would all appreciate the sight of us dancing together again, now we have both cooled.”
Bold as ever, Wellin swept her skirts loudly across the floor as she led Avender back into the Kings Hall. Every dowager turned to scowl at them, and Brannis showed his annoyance as well. But if Prince Brizen noticed the couple’s return, he didn’t show it.
For the rest of that season Wellin offered Avender as much attention as she dared. Once she went so far as to share several quick, deep, kisses with him behind a willow on a spring afternoon when the Duchess of Winkling thought an outing with boats would be fun. Perhaps it was the kissing that did it, though Avender was certain no one had seen them, but it wasn’t much later that Wellin had no time for anyone but the prince. And even though Avender had thought himself prepared, the loss still hurt.
Wellin, however, had no regrets. Her wedding was even grander than Ferris’s had almost been the summer before: this time the king approved of the match as much as his son. Ferris and Reiffen were unable to attend as Ferris was due that fall, but everyone else was present, from Valing to Issinlough. Avender watched it all from Brizen’s side, though he would much rather have been banished to the top of White Tooth in the Bavadars. For the last month he had been seriously considering throwing off his allegiance to the prince and seeking his fortune with the Dwarves. To have lost a second woman to a second friend seemed more than sufficient reason to vanish from the human portion of the world. But he soon discovered other advantages to serving at the royal court, especially once the other unmarried ladies understood Wellin no longer blocked their way to the handsomest man in Malmoret. And some of the married ones as well.
Chapter 2
Pant and Purr
“Not that one, Mother. The blue.”
Following her daughter’s orders, Ferris obediently caused the blue dress to pop back into view. Now there were three—blue, red, and green—hovering in the air at the center of the workroom.
“See?” said the child. “The blue has nicer sleeves.”
“Can we at least get rid of the red?” asked Ferris.
“Yes,” echoed Giserre. “Hubley, the red is much too brazen for a child your age. You are not even ten.”
“I will be the month after Wellin’s and Brizen’s ball. Can’t I wear it then?”
“That would mean getting two new dresses.”
“Please, Mother? Please, please, please?”
Giserre held up her hands. “Do not look at me, Ferris. I already think she is too spoiled. The blue and green, perhaps—”
The door to the workroom burst open and Plum, the youngest of Ferris’s and Reiffen’s apprentices, rushed in.
“They’re here!” he shouted, breathless from the long dash up the tower stair. “Tar’s had her kittens!”
Hubley, who had been waiting days for this to happen, raced for the door. Remembering to ask permission at the last second, she skidded to a stop on the landing outside.
“Can I go, Mother? You said I could have one.”
“What about the dresses?”
“You decide. But I really, really, like the blue and red best.”
Hoping Queen Wellin would give her the other if her mother wouldn’t let her have both, Hubley bounded away. Plum, several years her senior, caught up quickly.
“Where?” she demanded.
“The stable. I haven’t seen them myself. Soon as the grooms told me it happened, I came looking for you.”
Charging out of the Magicians’ Tower, they dashed down the polished marble of the main gallery and onto the central stair. Shafts of morning sunlight reached out after them from the high windows on either side. Too old to climb much anymore, Sandy joined them when they reached the front hall, his paws clacking on the cobblestones outside.
They discovered a much larger crowd in the stable than they’d expected. Nearly a dozen people had gathered inside one of the stalls. Hubley pushed at everyone’s backs in her haste to get through.
“Mother said I could have one, so I get first pick!”
The crowd parted. Sandy settled in the straw by the door as his mistress strained forward. Seeing Hubley coming, Trier flipped a blanket over the manger to hide what was underneath.
She was surprised to find Trier standing guard. Of all her parents’ apprentices, Trier had always been the least interested in anything that didn’t help her magic. Even Ahne, who had been senior apprentice until he’d gone out on his own two years before, had been known to enjoy a song and a glass of beer. Trier, however, spent all her time studying, or scolding the juniors for not following her example. What use could she have for kittens?
Hands on hips, Hubley raised her voice insistently. “Why can’t I see them?” she demanded.
“Because I said so.” Her father’s voice jabbed like a pitchfork from the front of the stall. “Please, everyone. Step aside. I wish to see what has happened.”
Hubley saw that her father’s eyes were puffy as he joined them. Thin beard sprinkled his chin too, another sign of another long night spent in the workshops.
“Is it what we expected?” he asked.
Trier nodded. Hubley couldn’t read a thing from the senior apprentice’s face, but her father’s eyes gleamed.
He waved a commanding arm. Hubley and Plum leaned forward as Trier reached for a corner of the blanket.
“Reiffen! What is going on here? Do you really think this is appropriate?”
With great impatience, the crowd stepped back once more. Ferris joined her husband and daughter beside the manger. Though Hubley knew perfectly well that both her parents had swallowed Living Stones, she was always struck by the way they looked no older than Trier.
Reiffen met his wife’s glare with the gleam in his own eyes still intact. “Another such chance might never come again,” he answered. “Do you really wish to deprive Hubley of this opportunity?”
The sides of Ferris’s mouth curled down. “You’ll just horrify her. What can possibly be the benefit?”
“There may be many benefits, if my suspicions are correct. The White Wizard used to breed such creatures to use in spells. We should be thankful such a rare occurrence has come our way naturally. Hubley and the apprentices will be able to learn a great deal about binding, which I otherwise might not have been able to teach them.”
Ferris seemed about to say something more, then decided against it. On some things she stood firm but, if this really was a rare event, she was likely to make an exception. Especially if it had to do with magic.
“All right.” Ferris nodded to Trier. “Let’s take a look at what Tar’s brought into the world.”
The apprentice lifted the blanket. Ferris and Reiffen stooped, but Hubley went down on her hands and knees for a closer look. Tar stared back at her, yellow eyes bright in the shadow beneath the manger. Two of the tiny piles of fur lying in the straw beside the cat moved, their heads nuzzling up against their mother to nurse. The other lumps stayed still.
“Only two?” she asked in dismay.
“Look more closely,” said her father.
The child pushed forward. Tar raised a forepaw as if to fend her off, which gave Hubley a clearer look at the cat’s belly. With a shock, she saw the two nursing kittens shared a single body between them.
“Oh, that’s gross,” said Plum, squatting back on the straw beside her.
Hubley agreed. Then she noticed her stomach wasn’t flip-flopping, and her breakfast needed no help staying down. The two-headed cat might be gross, but it was also fascinating.
