Valdemar Books

by Lackey, Mercedes

  "Dunno," Tuck replied, trying to look innocent and failing utterly.

  They passed the formal gardens and the kitchen gardens, where the vegetable and herb beds, protected under mounds of straw, now had a smooth, insulating blanket of undisturbed snow on them that brought them up to the boys' waists. No one would dare plunder the kitchen gardens for snow for snowballs, not even during the hottest battle. The cooks and their helpers would have served a fricassee of the culprits' ears for dinner afterward.

  A scraper pulled by a team of horses was clearing the road to the gate just as the boys got there, so the last part of their journey was on cleared paving. The Gate Guard was warming his feet at a brazier when they arrived, and greeted them cordially.

  "Sister, eh?" the Guard said, when they explained their errand. "Older or younger?" A young man, well-muscled and good-natured, not terribly handsome but not ugly either, he obviously was not averse to a bit of flirting with a Trainee's sister.

  "Younger," Lan replied, and the guard feigned disappointment, shaking his head so that snow that had accumulated on his fur cap fell around him in little clumps.

  "And you've none older?" he persisted, grinning hopefully. "No chance there might be two sisters coming instead of one?"

  "He doesn't, but I do," Tuck spoke up. "Two older sisters, very pretty, or so I'm told, and very friendly. And I might see my way clear to introducing them if you'd look the other way when I come in late some night—"

  The Guard laughed and shook his head reprovingly at Tuck. "No use asking me to do that," he chuckled. "The ones they pick for night-watch are all older fellows, with daughters of their own, probably daughters the same age as your sisters! They don't take kindly to lads who want to sneak out to town for a bit of fun and overstay their curfew."

  Tuck sighed gustily. "Just my luck!" he complained aloud. "I think I've finally got a use for the girls and it turns out they still don't do me any good!"

  Lan interrupted any further complaints. "There she is now!" he exclaimed, waving, as he recognized Macy in her brown wool cloak edged with fox fur, driving up the road in a hired pony cart painted red. She handled the reins quite neatly, but then back at Alderscroft she had done a great deal of the marketing in her own little two-wheeled cart when their mother was too busy or too deep in a project to go.

  She waved back, but didn't urge the pony to go any faster. Then again, she might already have discovered that it was difficult to get a hired beast out of a fast walk. Both pony and cart were plain and reliable, and exactly the sort of conveyance that Lan would have expected her to pick for herself.

  "You didn't tell me she was pretty!" Tuck exclaimed, his green eyes as round as gooseberries, just before she got within earshot. Lan didn't bother with the obvious answer that it hadn't occurred to him; it also hadn't occurred to him that Tuck might be smitten with his sister. He certainly hadn't had that reaction with any of Tuck's siblings! What a thought—Tuck taking a fancy to Macy! I wonder if she's likely to fancy him back? Wouldn't that be one in Mother's eye. I reckon she's got her mind set on wedding Macy off to some Guildmaster's son or even a highborn.

  Smitten or not, Tuck had recovered completely by the time Macy brought the cart to a halt in front of the gate and got out to let the Guard inspect her cart and its contents. Tuck introduced himself, jaunty as ever, without waiting for Lan to do the honors.

  "Oh, you're the Trainee he was visiting!" Macy said in recognition, tucking her dark auburn curls under her hood. "That was awfully nice of you. I wish I had someone to go stay with over the holidays. It got quite horrible at times with all the children getting into fights over toys, Granny complaining and passing judgment on everything and everybody, and Mother wanting me to run errands for everybody, and never mind what I was already doing." She sighed. "I want a holiday like we used to have, without cramming more relations into the house than it can hold."

  "Sounds right miserable," Tuck sympathized.

  Instead of getting back in the cart when the Guard finished his inspection and waved her inside the Palace walls, she led the pony forward. "Mother had another Guild meeting at the house, and Cook baked an indecent number of honey cakes for it," she said to both boys, as Tuck and Lan walked on either side of her. "There were piles of leftovers, so I thought you and your friends might as well get the benefit of Mother trying to impress the other Guild members."

  Lan caught the not-so-faint hint of exasperation in Macy's voice with surprise; evidently his sister was getting tired of their mother's obvious attempts at social climbing.

  "I wish she'd go back to designing and stitching, and spend less time—or should I say, waste less time—toadying to anyone with any influence," Macy concluded. "I'm tired of having to dress up and interrupt my work to help hand around trays. I'm tired of interrupting my work to go run errands."

  "I can understand that," Lan said soothingly. "Maybe what you ought to do is spend more time at the Guild Hall with the other apprentices instead. If you aren't there at hand in the house, if you're actually in a lesson with another Guild member, she can't drag you into helping when you should be learning. It would be dreadfully bad manners to take you away from a lesson with someone that might be her peer or superior, and if there's one thing Mother won't do, it's display bad manners."

  "That's a good idea," Macy mused, brushing aside her hair with one hand as she led the placid pony with the other. "I mean, when we were back at Alderscroft, there wasn't anyone else to learn from but her, and nowhere else to work but at home, but that's not the case here."

  Lan smiled. "You might even learn something she can't teach you. She doesn't know every technique, after all. I've never seen her knit a great deal, for instance."

  Macy laughed and changed the subject. "She doesn't know fancy braiding. I learned that all by myself—which reminds me; here—"

  Macy reached into a pocket of her coat, and pulled out a shining white, seamless band. "Here, this is for you," she said. "I made it from Kalira's hair, that's what I wanted it for."

  Lan took it; the intricate braiding amazed him, and he literally could not see where the ends of each horsehair were. It looked to be about the size for a bracelet and he slipped it on over his wrist, smiling to feel Kalira's hair lying smoothly against his skin.

  "See? Mother doesn't know how to do that." Macy was quite pleased with herself. "I made a set for myself, and everyone who sees it wants one."

  Lan laughed. "Don't think you can make a business out of this!" he warned. "We can't have you denuding our Companions of hair just so silly women can wear jewelry made from it!"

  Macy laughed, too. "I don't intend to make it from Companion hair; I'm going to see if I can't braid it from horsehair and silk yarn. I don't think everyone should have Companion hair, it's too special for that."

  "Maybe fine silver wire," Tuck suggested speculatively. "Wire that fine would cost you, though."

  "True, but it's a good suggestion." Macy beamed on him, and Tuck basked in her approval. "I could practice on copper at first; the maids would probably appreciate my practice pieces."

  "How much of the Collegium do you want to see?" Lan asked, as they neared the stables for the ordinary horses. "We can leave the pony and cart here and come get them when you're ready to go home."

  "All of it!" was Macy's reply.

  So show her all of it, they did, from one end to the other, stopping at Lan's room to leave the laundry basket of honey cakes she'd brought him, for she really had not exaggerated the amount of leftovers. There would certainly be a merry little party in their section of the students' quarters tonight!

  Macy was suitably impressed, and their friends were in turn quite taken with her. Lan lost no opportunity to display her handiwork, and she left with several skeins of Companion hair, each neatly labeled, and the commission to make more bracelets like Lan's. The Companions were just as taken with the notion as their Chosen, and quite insisted that she get more than she needed, even though it meant pulling perfect hairs af
resh.

  "Can I see Healer's and Bardic, too?" Macy asked when their tour was over. Lan scratched his head.

  "I don't know anyone in Bardic, but there's someone in Healer's who could probably show us around, if she isn't busy," he said. "Let's go find out."

  Tuck was not willing to let Macy do without his escort as well, so he came along as a willing third as they hiked across the grounds to Healer's Collegium. When they reached the building and stepped inside, Macy looked around with great interest. In the interest of cleanliness over anything else, the floors and walls were tiled in pale green ceramic, and the lighting was all accomplished with glass-chimneyed oil lamps. Healer's was a bit different from Herald's Collegium in that there were not as many structured classes as such. Instead, the Trainees did a great deal of study on their own, and worked directly with the teachers, one at a time, in each specialty, until they found the one they were best suited to.

  As a consequence, there were not many classrooms, but there were a number of rooms in which animals suffering from various injuries and illnesses were housed. In the earliest stages of their training, Trainee Healers were rarely allowed to work on human patients, instead tending to animals brought to the Collegium by their owners. This aspect of the Collegium made it very popular with farmers and pet owners, and there was never a lack of subjects for them to learn their craft on. Even wild animals were sometimes brought here for tending.

  Somehow, instead of resembling a crazed blend of barnyard and zoo, there was very little evidence of what these rooms were for out in the hallway. Peace and quiet reigned, with only the occasional call, bark, or whistle to show that the place was full of birds and animals. And as far as scent went, the stalls and cages were kept so scrupulously clean, as were the patients, that the only aroma was that of the clean straw used for their bedding, overlaid with the scent of herbs used to repel vermin.

  Lan motioned for Tuck and Macy to stay near the entrance, while he asked several teachers or Trainees if any of them knew where Elenor was. As luck would have it, she was not far off at that very moment, and since the teacher in question was going in her direction anyway, he promised to tell her of Lan's arrival. Lan thanked him profusely as he bustled off.

  They didn't wait long. Lan spotted Elenor at the end of the hallway hurrying toward them with a bright and expectant expression, and he waved at her. As she neared and saw he wasn't alone, for some reason she faltered, and her face lost some of its brightness.

  "Elenor!" Lan called. "You know my friend Tuck, and this is my sister Macy. Macy wanted to get a tour of Healer's. Do you have time to give us one, or could you find us someone who can?"

  "Your sister?" was Elenor's reply. "Not Tuck's? I thought Tuck was the one with all the sisters."

  It was a curious question, or so it seemed to Lan, but since it didn't seem to signify anything, he assumed it was just curiosity. "No," he answered, grinning. "Macy's mine. She just looks more like Mother than I do."

  "Which is a blessing," Macy retorted, poking him in the arm teasingly, "since you'd make an ugly girl!"

  Elenor brightened back up again, and Lan decided that it was only shyness that had made her expression change. "As it happens, I have just enough time to show you about, and I would be happy to!" she said, and proceeded to give them a whirlwind tour.

  Macy was fascinated, although she blanched a bit at the room where people were actually cutting into a dog to remove a growth, and backed out of the one where a wound that had gone bad was being cleaned out. Lan didn't blame her; it was a wonder to him how gentle Elenor managed to observe all of this with equanimity.

  "I can't show you where the older Trainees treat people, of course," she said apologetically. "That would be rude to the people; they aren't on display, after all!"

  "Well, I wouldn't want strangers who weren't even Healers parading into my room if I were ill either," Macy smiled. "Thank you very much for showing us around!"

  "You are quite welcome!" Elenor said, gracing them with a dazzling smile of her own. "It's nice to meet some of Lan's family."

  Lan traded a glance with Macy; she grimaced.

  "Some of Lan's family who don't want to treat him like a freak, that is," Macy replied. "I can't believe how well he kept his temper at the Feast."

  Elenor raised her eyebrows in a way that suggested she agreed with Macy, but didn't say anything.

  Elenor had to be about her own duties, so she left them at the door and hurried back to whatever she had to do. Macy walked between Lan and Tuck into a garden so quiet that every tiny creak of a snow-laden branch was clearly audible. Snow was still falling, and the fading light warned that Macy would have to start back soon if she wanted to be home by dark.

  She kept giving Lan the oddest looks out of the corner of her eyes as they walked toward the stables to get her pony and cart.

  "How long have you known Elenor?" she asked finally.

  "She was one of the first people I met, while I was still hurt," he said, wondering why she asked. "Her father is Herald Pol, the one who's my—I guess you'd call him a mentor."

  "Ah," she said, as if that explained far more than just the content of his words. Then she turned to Tuck, and began plying him with questions, until Lan completely forgot her curious behavior by the time they had reached the stables.

  *

  THE tack room of the Companions' stable was perhaps not the best place for Lan's first lesson in using his Gift, but it was the only one that would work at all. It was absolutely too cold to try to teach Lan outside, for Pol didn't have the strength to teach him and keep them both warm at the same time. The first consideration in this set of lessons was that Kalira had to be with him, which ruled out most of the rooms in the Collegium. He'd asked for a tiled room in Healers, but there wasn't one available. That left the tack room, the only heated place in the stables that wasn't also too near stored straw and other flammable substances. Pol wished that it was spring, when these lessons could have been held safely outdoors, but this was too urgent to wait until spring. Just to be on the safe side, though, he had a pail of water nearby.

  Not that a pail of water is going to make much difference if he really loses control... Pol told himself sternly to dismiss the idea. Kalira had already demonstrated she could control Lan's power. If he let himself doubt that she could, he could undermine her ability to continue to do so.

  So he sat down at a small table, across from his pupil, and put himself in the calmest and most confident state of mind he could conjure. Lan looked up at him and smiled, faintly, and reached out to touch Kalira who stood at his elbow.

  "This is the usual first step for a Firestarter," Pol said, placing a small piece of oil-soaked lint in the middle of a saucer in front of Lan. "Needless to say, in your case, the reason we're starting small is not because you need to increase your power—" here he raised an ironic eyebrow at Lan, who flushed, "—but because you need to increase your control. Or rather, you and Kalira need to work together so that you two can accomplish something besides blasting. So. Light this gently. You'll probably get a reaction-headache, Lan, unless Kalira has managed to work out how to keep that from happening too."

  Kalira gave Pol a distinctly superior look, which made Pol wonder just what she had been concocting. Companions had this addiction to secrecy sometimes... and took a distinct delight in coming out of nowhere with a surprise for their Chosen.

  :What is she up to?: he asked Satiran, who stood just behind him, watching the proceedings.

  :I have no idea,: his Companion replied. :You know children. When they're planning something, the last person they tell is a parent:

  Lan bit his lip and stared at the bit of lint apprehensively.

  "I expect you're going to have to get worked up about something," Pol told him. "It's going to be a while before you can access the power of your Gift without getting emotionally—"

  "Overwrought," Lan supplied, unhappily.

  "Well, yes. But just remember that when you two do get
it under control, it's going to be easier to access, reliable, and very useful." Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing that Lan was unhappy about his Gift, seeing that it was so linked with emotions....

  "Try it," he urged. "The only way things are going to get better for you is to get everything under control."

  "And the only way to get control is to practice." The boy sighed, but nodded. "Right." He closed his eyes.

  Pol was enough of an Empath to feel the unhappiness that Lan was conjuring out of his memories. The tension increased moment by moment, and Pol's stomach tightened in response.

  Time crawled by, and Pol's shoulders and neck began to knot up as well. He felt sweat trickling down his back, nervous sweat, since it certainly wasn't that warm in the tack room. Soon it was at the point where he began to worry that Kalira's confidence was overconfidence, that the plate would explode in his face in a moment. Lan's face reflected anger, fear, and unhappiness, and Pol had to force himself to remain where he was, looking calm and confident in case Lan looked up.

  He felt as if his head was about to burst.

  Then it happened. With a tiny sigh, the bit of fluff in front of him blossomed into a lovely flame that unfolded like a flower to feed on the lint and the oil.

  Lan's shoulders slumped and his eyes opened; the anger drained from his face, then the fear, and he looked at the little flame with wonder.

  "I—we did it!" he said, with great surprise. "And my head doesn't hurt!"

  :I should hope not,: Kalira said smugly, for the benefit of both the Heralds. :I've been working on that. If I hadn't been, you'd have been waking up with a reaction-headache every time you had a bad dream.: She tossed her head proudly and arched her neck, waiting for Pol to congratulate her.

  "Aha! You clever girl, you! You've found the key, it's to take care of the problem before it's a problem!" Although Lan still looked baffled, Pol understood immediately. "You're draining off energy as he produces it!"