Excerpt: Croceus Tower

They arrived back at the Tower mid-morning and the children were told they would have the remainder of the day off to relax and sleep, but tomorrow they would be back on schedule with their lessons. Melisande went off for a ride on her mare while Geoffrey and Kaelinie spent the morning having a snowball fight before everyone came in for midday meal. A rich beef broth with sautéed vegetables and onions and leftover bread from before their trip, hard after three days but delicious dipped into the broth with a spicy apple cider in chilled mugs. After they had eaten, Geoffrey wanted to go back out to play in the snow, but Kaelinie begged off, saying she wanted to take a nap and then return to The Invasion from the Endless Sea, the first of the war treatises she planned to read.

This book detailed the war Notaro’s book had mentioned, but was written by one of the generals during the war, giving detailed accounts of battles and countermeasures, instead of discussing why the Magi joined the rest of society. She was fascinated to read how the soldiers thought of the Magi, some looking on them as just short of gods, others finding them to be pretentious and resenting their elevated status before they had even fought a single battle, but none seemed to look at them as just people.

Curled up in her favorite chair, she lost track of time until the room became dark enough that it was nearly impossible to make out the words on the vellum pages. “Sme’uil,” she whispered softly, index & middle fingers extended in a v, remaining fingers curled in to a loose fist and the tinder in the fireplace burst into flame. She looked at the logs laid out in front of the fireplace and placed her left palm on the inside of her right wrist, right hand curled up slightly, then fingers splay outwards, hand held horizontal to the body. “Choyg,” she said a little more firmly and two logs rose from the pile and drifted easily to the thick cast iron grate. When those logs caught fire, she lifted another one to rest on top of the first two, then tucked her legs back beneath her and went back to reading. There were a lot of words she didn’t understand and she made note of them on a scrap piece of parchment to ask the Duchess about later, but she was able to understand the general idea of what was written easily enough. There was a lot of grumbling about how all of their tactics needed to be changed now that there were Magi and many of the army’s scouts resented the Abilities that allowed the Magi to do their jobs easier and more accurately.

Kaelinie was rereading how the general was adjusting the troops to take their new allies into account when a knock on the door made her jump. “Come,” she called out, placing a bit of leather to mark her place as she closed her book.

“Kaelie, you in here?” Geoffrey poked his head into doorway, squinting into the darkened room, startling as Kaelinie suddenly stood up from her chair. “Oh, there you are! Mum said supper is ready, if you’re hungry. Like anyone wouldn’t be.”

Kaelinie almost begged off supper, so interested in her book was she, but her stomach took that moment to rumble loudly and she clapped a hand over her belly, hoping to silence it. “I’ll b’down shortly, thankee, Geoff.” Once he left, she threw back on the clothes she’d worn to play outside in and bounced down the stairs, her earlier melancholy all but forgotten. The smell of roasted pork made her stomach rumble again and she slid into her chair just as the meat was being served out. A mint jelly, steamed carrots and potatoes roasted in the same pan as the pork completed the meal. The adults drank mulled wine, the children sipped at their own watered down versions. Dinner was surprisingly quiet; given the Ball they’d all attended Kaelinie had expected everyone to still be talking about the things they had seen and the people they had met. It seemed everyone else was feeling as introspective as she was or were just outright exhausted. Geoffrey had refused to take a nap after the midday meal and was all but nodding off at the supper table.