The Sleeping Life

Chapter Four

Going to see Rennyn be made a Duchess had never sounded like fun, but Kendall hadn’t expected to do more than lurk behind the crowd gawping at the things nobles thought it proper to wear. The problem was the outfits Rennyn had bought them. They were based on the Surclere crest, which was a twisty green and white dragon on a black background. The Black Queen’s crest had included the Montjuste phoenix as well, and technically Rennyn could use it as well, but she’d decided to stick with just Surclere. So as part of the revived Duchy they were all decked out in knee-length, moss-green coats fastened with a dozen ebony toggles, with a black under-layer which showed for a few inches at the hem and cuffs. The dragon was a tiny outline stitched in white on the right of their chests.

It wasn’t that they didn’t look good. Kendall hadn’t recognised herself, and she thought Sukata had never looked better. But nobles at a Court Occasion were more impressive than Kendall had ever imagined. It was as if an undecorated bit of cloth was against the rules. All the women were wearing what looked like four skirts, with the front of the outer layers cut away so that you could show off all four at once. Great big sleeves with pictures embroidered on them hung down over all that, and there were criss-crossing ribbons above the elbows, with gold net and whatnot across the bodice. If that wasn’t enough they’d added bracelets and necklaces and brooches, and things in their hair. The men were more top-heavy, with close-fitting jackets over crisp shirts: the shoulders so large they must be padded with something, and these funny little half-cloaks over the top which were all crests and battle-scenes, and better than tapestries.

Kendall had been around the palace for months, and hadn’t seen anyone wearing anything even close to this. When the snooty dressmakers had talked about Court Dress as if it was in a league of its own, maybe Rennyn should have listened a bit harder. You could buy entire houses with what these people were wearing.

The main result was that everyone belonging to Surclere looked totally out of place, like nicely-dressed servants, and there wasn’t even a chance Kendall could avoid being noticed—unless perhaps she hid behind the dark wood of the currently empty throne. At least Sebastian was a useful shield. He was about to become heir to a Duchy, and was all very romantic and interesting after helping defeat the Black Queen, so every second noble was keen to slime up to him. No matter where they went in the over-sized throne room, people would circle them and ask prying questions disguised as congratulations. Sebastian was never lost for an answer, though Kendall was willing to bet he found the whole thing boring just because there wasn’t any magic involved.

The buzz of chatter dropped abruptly as Captain Faille walked into the room. His coat was long and snug with no extra layers, all in black with mottled green panels at the front. In this crowd he looked like an executioner come to Court, especially given he was already the grimmest man in the world. Kendall would never understand why Rennyn had gone silly over him.

Talk started up again in hissed whispers, which was stupid since most of the people there had to know Kellian could hear better than a cat. Not that Captain Faille would react to what was being said. He scanned the area, like all Kellian did when they entered a room, then crossed to talk to the Grand Magister, Lady Weston.

There were a group of people over by the tall windows that marched up the left side of the room. Kendall hadn’t paid much attention before, but noticed them now because everyone else was looking at them like they were expecting something to happen. They weren’t dressed any more or less fancy than anyone else, but most of them seemed cross and impatient. Then one of them moved and Kendall spotted the smart-mouthed idiot from the practice ground, dressed in a tamer version of their colours. Anyone associated with him had to be rotten. Best bet was these were some of the nobles who said stupid things about Kellian, and Kendall wondered if they’d make a scene about Captain Faille being there. He’d be Lord Surclere after this ceremony, though it would be hard for Kendall to think of him as anything but Captain. The way some people acted, giving a title to a Kellian would be enough to make Fel rise from the shadows and turn the world upside down.

Horns sounded, loud enough to make anyone jump. Two boys in red and gold had planted themselves just inside the doors to the right of the room and were turning their faces cherry-plum puffing away. Everyone stopped milling about and backed away from the throne, leaving a big semi-circle. Handy of the Queen to give them all a warning that they were supposed to start bowing.

Queen Astranelle had had two sons, but they’d both died years back. Prince Justin and Princess Sera were her grandchildren, and it was really easy to see the shared blood when the three of them walked in together. A little golden family, very grand. The Montjustes had ruled Tyrland since forever, and though Kendall had seen all of these three before, this was the first time she’d really felt it. Royalty.

While everyone pointed noses to the ground the Queen sat herself on the throne, with Justin and Sera on either side. Then the tara-tara-ing changed and everyone straightened up in time for Rennyn to come in. She’d been given use of a little room not far from the throne room, and had been there half the morning, dozing most likely while Lieutenant Faral fixed her hair. Just as the ceremony had been redesigned to avoid Rennyn falling over in the middle, and the important thing about the dress was that it wasn’t heavy, they’d made sure she’d have plenty of rest while getting ready.

Kendall hadn’t seen Rennyn wearing the dress before. The bodice was white, covered with twisty dragons wrestling each other, but they were white too so it was hard to tell. A high tight collar went all the way to Rennyn’s chin, close-fitting sleeves hid her palms, and there was a row of green stone buttons up her back to the nape of her neck. The skirt started low, down past her hips, and fell in a straight line of dark green to the floor, longer at the back to make a little train. For possibly the first time ever, Rennyn was wearing her hair up, smoothed into a heavy knot high at the back of her head, with no attempt at the fancy braiding the Court ladies liked. There was maybe a hint of a green flash in the depths, a pin or two, but no other jewels.

It should have made her look plain and poor, since the whole room was dressed to show off how wealthy they were, but instead everyone else just seemed overdressed. Being Rennyn, she walked into the room like she owned it, didn’t even glance around, and crossed right to the centre where there was a pad of gold cloth on the floor a bit before the throne. There she stopped and curtsied, not even for a moment looking like bending down made black spots appear in front of her eyes.

The ceremony was simple and to the point. Rennyn knelt on the cloth and recited an oath to obey and protect the Queen. In return, Queen Astranelle produced a long strip of black cloth embroidered with red and gold phoenixes, which she laid around Rennyn’s shoulders like a scarf, then sounded off a whole bunch more titles than just Duchess of Surclere.

That was over quick enough, but then they decided to introduce her to everyone in the room, one by one, which was about the most boring thing imaginable. It got worse when Princess Sera, who was a horrible brat, had another go at dear cousin-ing Sebastian, trying to get one over on him. The only good part was that Rennyn had latched on to Captain Faille’s arm to help stay upright, and was making sure everyone was introduced to him as well. Even this wasn’t as entertaining as it could be, since the group of people who’d been with the snotty boy had snuck off rather than say hello to a Kellian.

"Shall we get out of here?" Sebastian asked Kendall and Sukata, as Rennyn was introduced to Noble Number Ten Thousand. "Ren won’t last much longer, and I think I’ve spoken to everyone I know."

"Finally!" Kendall wasted no time heading for the door. "Do you think Rennyn will still want to do this thing after lunch? She’s likely to fall asleep in the middle."

"That doesn’t really matter," Sebastian said, shrugging. "All she has to do is sit in a circle while I make sure Lieutenant Meniar can cast the divination."

Kendall glanced back as they reached the big doors at the back of the room, and saw that the receiving line had broken up exactly as Sebastian had predicted. But—

"Sukata, do you know who that is talking to Rennyn?"

Sukata looked, said: "Fallon DeVries," and paused to watch, which told Kendall a good deal more than the name.

"Him again?" Sebastian said, sounding surprised, probably because Rennyn was talking to the scut like she knew him. "Can you tell me anything more about him?"

"He is a solid theorist," Sukata replied, in the extra-neutral tone Kendall was coming to recognise as Sukata saying far less than she could. "Though considered a tentative caster. His father is a sculptor with a reputation for eccentricity. His uncle is Earl Harkness."

"Ah." Sebastian turned on his heel and strode off, forcing Kendall to double-step to keep up with him. Earl Harkness seemed to be the main person who wanted Kellian to not exist at all, and his money was the reason most of the newssheets had nothing but bad to say about them. Sebastian was even-tempered about most things, but the fact that Earl Harkness could do this drove him wild.

"Do you really not mind having to stay in Tyrland?" Kendall asked, to distract him before he really started brooding. "You’re going to just let her go without you?"

Sebastian gave her a suitably startled look. "Were you expecting me to have a tantrum and insist Ren took me along? I hate the idea of her chasing after our uncle without me—not only because I might never see her again, but because I know damn well I could help. But the risk to the Kellian is too great for me to argue against. It does annoy me rather a lot that she thinks it’s fine for you and Sukata to go."

"Just until they get a hint of where he is, from the sounds of it. I doubt they’re planning to let Rennyn anywhere near him either, and think Sukata and I make good babysitters."

"You could have taken the option of staying here and having me play tutor."

"I know why Rennyn finds that idea so funny, now."

"Pft."

"When you study you have no sense of time, Sebastian," Sukata said, sounding all grave, but with her eyes bright with the Kellian version of laughter. "We would spend our day making sure you are eating, and finding you the books you want."

"Well, at least you’d get to hear me rant about my latest theory," Sebastian said, with a quick look at Kendall, who had made a few pointed comments about said ranting. "Or you could help me look for this house I’m supposed to buy while everyone’s gone. Not to mention liaise with the people she’s sending up to Surclere to survey its condition. Do you know what room Rennyn wanted the divination set in?"

As usual, Sukata had paid far more attention to their instructions than anyone else, and at her direction they returned to their rooms to change to more everyday clothes, and then met in the rarely-used Sentene dining hall. Kendall had spent some time carefully putting away her fancy Court clothes, but still found only Sebastian when she arrived.

"Sukata’s gone to find out about the meal," he said, hefting one end of a bench. Kendall pulled a face, but helped him move some of the furniture aside so there was room enough to chalk a circle on the floor. Thinking it would have been more sensible to have the Kellian-strong Sukata move the furniture while Kendall annoyed people in the kitchen, she sat down to watch Sebastian marking out sigils.

"Has Rennyn had an argument with Captain Faille?"

The glance he gave her wasn’t pleased. Sebastian acted very easy-going, but as soon as you touched something he didn’t want to talk about you’d hit a wall bigger than a mountain. This time, though, he went on to sigh and shake his head.

"Not Illidian. The Kellian as a group have asked her to visit the place they used to live before they returned to Tyrland. Aurai’s Rest. She’s not happy about something they’ve asked her to do there."

The set of his jaw told Kendall that he didn’t want to talk about it, so she altered course. "You’ve gotten used to calling him Illidian."

"More or less. He is my brother by law, after all. It was a real adjustment at first, since it’s been just Ren and me for so long, and we actively discouraged people from getting near us. It was like, as soon as we stopped hiding, Ren, ah—"

"Started collecting people?"

"Well, that too. But I was thinking in terms of her priorities changing. All of a sudden there was someone more important to her than me." He shrugged, and glanced over the last sigil he’d drawn. "I suppose you picked up on how subdued she’s been the last couple of days?"

Kendall hid a smirk. The best way to get Sebastian to come across was to change the subject. That gave him the chance to think things over, and maybe decide to spill some more.

"She stopped noticing stuff," Kendall said. "When your sister’s upset, the first thing she does is try to hide it. She sometimes manages that, but she broods, and pays less attention to what everyone else is doing. She stopped reading the newssheets. And though she still acts the same whenever Captain Faille comes into the room, sometimes she doesn’t notice when he leaves."

"Hard to believe you’ve only been with us a couple of months." Sebastian tapped the chalk he was using on the floor. "Did you know she has nightmares about killing them? Not from the spell we cast, but accidentally. She has to watch everything she says, because a few careless words—she could tell Sukata wait here and Sukata would. Forever. And they’ve asked her to give them an order, to—" He paused. "Well, she’ll tell you soon enough. Will you do something for me?"

"What?" Kendall asked, warily. Sebastian didn’t ask for anything, as a rule.

"Look after her."

He didn’t say anything else, and Kendall didn’t really need more. They’d have a whole bunch of dangerous people with them to keep monsters away, but it was herself that Rennyn needed protection from.

"Am I supposed to call him Lord Faille now?" she asked, disliking the whole mess about Rennyn’s health.

"My lord. Or Lord Surclere if you’re talking about him."

"Is Herself Duchess Rennyn, Duchess Surclere, or Duchess Claire?"

"Not the last one. Technically, if you’re talking about her it’s Rennyn, Duchess of Surclere, but that’s old-fashioned usage, so Duchess Surclere is what most people will use. Are you really planning on using her titles?"

"No," Kendall said firmly. "And if you think I’m my lording you, try for another answer."

Sebastian just laughed, then looked up at an arrival.

"Here they are. Ah, and lunch." Lieutenant Meniar, tall, naturally tan and disturbingly cheerful, poked his nose in the door, his big, black Sentene cloak hanging open. All enthusiasm and energy, he crossed to meet Sukata as she arrived with an oversized platter. "There’s more?" He disappeared toward the kitchens, followed by his Kellian partner, Lieutenant Faral. Lieutenant Meniar was always like that, enjoying everything unnecessarily, but it was hard to be annoyed with him.

Other people started arriving, Sentene and Hand mages who could never resist news that one of the Claires was going to talk about magic. The quiet room filled with people chatting and eating and asking Sebastian questions. Eavesdropping on a conversation between two Hand mages snarking about Lieutenant Meniar being a no more than average mage, Kendall almost didn’t notice when Rennyn finally arrived.

She was in her sneaky bed clothes. Back when Rennyn had been stuck in the infirmary, with people constantly visiting her, Captain Faille had produced a collection of what he called Verisian lounging suits. They were knee-length fancy shirts paired with matching light trousers, comfortable enough to sleep in, but making Rennyn look like she was dressed for visits. It was the first thing that had made Kendall feel maybe Rennyn wasn’t so wrong marrying Captain Faille, that he’d seen she didn’t like talking to people while in a nightgown, and figured out how to fix it.

Rennyn usually didn’t wander around in the lounging things, but often wore them during days when she wasn’t going outside so she could comfortably go to bed without changing clothes. She’d probably not been expecting the horde crowding the dining hall, or that they would start applauding her once they saw her, but she just smiled and shrugged, said thank you, and went back to talking to the blond-haired scut, who was following her like he’d been invited.

"What’s she thinking?" Kendall hissed to Sukata, who shook her head, eyes confused. But that was Rennyn all over—full of inexplicable whims.

Sebastian looked up and caught sight of the boy, but he wasn’t one for scenes, so he just looked down again and finished the last few sigils. Like most complicated castings, it had been chalked in a big circle to strengthen and confine the purpose. The sigils were in a language called Efanian, which mages had made up so that their spells didn’t get confused over words that had more than one meaning.

It was no surprise, since words were so important to them, that mages loved to talk about them. They could all read the spell, but by the time they’d done asking Sebastian why this word, why that word, how much power it would take to cast, what kind of range it could potentially reach, Kendall had managed to finish off two helpings of lunch, and had had to poke Rennyn awake when she started to fall asleep over her own plate. But that did give her the opportunity to point her chin to the blond boy in the crowd around the Lieutenant and say: "You know who his uncle is?"

Rennyn, of course, found the question funny. "He told me. Said it was one of the three good reasons I’d have to not take him on as a student. The second was that he’d made himself objectionable to my other students, and couldn’t guarantee he wouldn’t do so again since sometimes he means to be polite but simply forgets and asks about things he wants to know."

"A complete and total prat, in other words. What was the third reason?"

"He likes magic too much."

"That’s a bad thing?"

"It could be."

"Tell me you didn’t agree to teach him."

"I told him I’d think about it, but that I’m not looking for more students. Still, we had an interesting discussion on circle-turning and how magic was re-learnt after the Elder Mages had killed themselves off and left everyone else to deal with creatures spilling out of the Eferum. How was he objectionable?"

"He asked me if I could read."

"Oh? And which do you think he was being? Deliberately rude, or forgetful?"

Kendall gave her a sour look. "You like him."

"He reminds me of Seb. I don’t know if the differences are positive ones, though." She paused, then smiled at someone over Kendall’s shoulder, and there was no need to turn around to know it was Captain Faille. There was only one person who made Rennyn look like that.

He had the double-sized Sentene mage called Medan with him, and stopped to say something to Lieutenant Meniar that made Meniar’s excited smile fade. Too much talking, not enough business.

Captain Medan came on toward Rennyn, and put something into her hand with a murmur of "Mission accomplished," but Kendall didn’t get to see what that was about because Captain Faille was close on Medan’s heels, helping Rennyn to her feet and giving her a hand into the centre of the circle.

"Like most spells of this sort, the aim here is to not kill the caster," she said, settling down cross-legged. "Since it’s likely that my focus is a considerable distance away, we modified a standard location spell to give only the briefest and vaguest response. It’s still a very tiring spell. Are you ready, Lieutenant?"

"As I’ll ever be." Meniar began walking around Rennyn, pushing power into the sigils so that they glowed. Sigillic magic was totally different from the kind Kendall had been learning. There was no effort in controlling what was happening: you wrote down what you wanted, you put power into the words, and that was it.

Of course, if you’d worded the spell badly, or if you didn’t have enough power, it could all turn out very nasty. People said Thought Magic was dangerous, but at least it didn’t make your heart stop if you over-committed yourself.

Kendall had seen Sebastian cast this spell before, so wasn’t particularly surprised when the sigils on the western side flushed blue, just for a moment. That was the direction of Rennyn’s focus, which is something she would really like to get back even if she wasn’t looking for her monster uncle.

Most really good mages tried going into the Eferum—the place outside the world where magic and monsters came from—and using all their strength to make a thing called a focus, which was almost as much a part of you as a finger and made you a lot more powerful. You weren’t supposed to try until you were at least nineteen, and a lot of mages never did at all. Rennyn’s had been really special, and had been stolen by her horrid many-greats-uncle.

This wasn’t a spell where Kendall could sort out what the magic was doing, unlike some that people cast where she could now tell what the spell was meant to do. It made it dull to watch, other than for the pasty grey shade Lieutenant Meniar turned.

"It’s not even specific to variations like north-west or south-west," Sebastian said. "And until you get closer—in fact, until you’re starting to return an indication of east instead of west, I wouldn’t risk altering to a more specific casting."

"We leave in three days," Captain Faille said. "Split in Port Enara and re-join in Koletor."

And then chase all over the western kingdoms for a monster who would probably like nothing more than to have Rennyn delivered to him. Sebastian wasn’t the only one worried how things would turn out.