The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) (34 page)

Thad—that was Greller’s son’s
name—introduced Vane to his fiancée, Carlina, and her three brothers.
Carlina was the Count of Fontferry’s daughter; her family owned a vacation home
in Podrar, and she was staying there to plan the wedding, which would take
place in the capital that summer. Thad even finagled to speak to Vane in
private toward the end of the night, to invite him on weeklong hunt he was
planning. Vane had to refuse, and used the ongoing operations at Oakdowns as an
excuse, but he appreciated the gesture and countered with an invitation to Thad
and his sisters to come to Oakdowns for tea. Though Carlina struck Vane as
shallow he said to bring her too, and any of her brothers who might be
interested. Solidifying ties with the younger generation seemed the way to
court acceptance among the nobility, and as supportive as Greller had proved
thus far, his family seemed a solid entry point. How much farther could Vane
progress before March and news of the Magic Council? That was the critical
question.

Vane would lose the next day as an
opportunity to make inroads, he knew that much. In the morning, he planned to
walk the market streets of Ingleton and familiarize himself with the district
entrusted to his charge. After that, he and Bendelof would be paying a visit to
Traigland, Teena too: she and Ilana Porteg had known each other as girls.

It was a visit sorely needed. The
excitement of Kora’s sons when Vane walked up, their tight grip when they
hugged his leg and would not let go, was therapeutic. Kansten was thrilled to
tell him all about the birthday picnic she had planned the next day for her
friends, and how she had caught a humungous trout fishing with her dad, and how
she had helped him and Grams clean up all the toys in the living room so the
house would look neat when Vane came over. She showed Vane the book about the
early settlement of Podrar she was reading, from Uncle Zac’s library. The duke
knew it as one of his.

“I’ve read that myself,” he told the
girl.

Kansten grabbed his sleeve at that.
“What’s Podrar like? Can you take me there one day? I know I can convince my
parents. If they’ll let me go, will you bring me to Herezoth?”

“Kansten, I....”

Kora’s daughter scowled. “Not soon,” she
said. “Not anytime soon, you know Mom’ll make me wait. But when I’m older, will
you take me there? If I have to put it off until I’m grown, I will, but Vane, I
have to see Herezoth. Will you take me?”

He was so relieved she kept from begging
to return with him that night that he readily consented, knowing full she would
hold him to his word. As well she should, he considered. Traigland had made
even him a restless soul. He could only imagine how it would eat at Kansten’s
peace as the years wore on.

Soon after Vane arrived, he watched Viola
stumble around and was able to congratulate Joslyn, who was now in her sixth
month and quite obviously with child. Kora took Bennie to the kitchen to bake
tarts, because Ilana was tucked away with Teena putting the finishing touches
on a dress that was to be Kansten’s birthday present. With so much going on, it
took a while for Vane to get Zacry alone to update him on conditions in Podrar.
They slipped out to the yard to talk. When Zacry seemed disconcerted to learn
of Amison’s veiled threats, Vane told him the pompous oaf was full of hot air.
Zac responded, “I know he isn’t, and so do you.”

“So do I?”

“Those circles under your eyes look like
mine did when Viola had colic and none of us slept for a week. Don’t tell me
you’re not concerned.”

“It’s under control,” Vane insisted.

“When will you see him next?”

“In three weeks.”

“How are plans for the council coming?”

“They’re coming. Rexson has specific
papers to give the story to. Others will pick it up, of course, but we need at
least one paper to print nothing but the king’s angle. The
Yangerton Gazette
will.”

Zacry blinked. “The
Gazette
wasn’t always so favorable to him.”

“Well, Zalski’s long gone, and the people
who run the
Gazette
are still happy
to give anyone powerful a voice. It keeps them in production. There’s a second
paper in Yangerton Rexson judges will be fair: the
Weekly
it’s called. They’ll publish the news too, so the story’s
not just propaganda from the Palace. And Podrar, of course, has the
Podrar Bugle
. We’ll release word about
the council and a call for applicants with those three outlets.”

The first printing presses and
newsletters had erupted in Podrar shortly before Zalski Forzythe’s coup. Even
now, production was small. Some two hundred copies or so of a given paper were
printed on a daily basis, mostly bought by nobles and well-to-do merchants, but
the stories spread far and wide by word of mouth. Most reporters were aspiring
scribes, hoping to be hired by the counts or dukes who read their reports, and
held other jobs, generally as a schoolteacher. Taxes subsidized the running of
the presses, making up for what costs their sales failed to cover.

Zacry repeated, “Call for applicants? The
king won’t mention you in his interviews, will he?”

“If he’s asked, he’ll have to.”

Zacry said dryly, “He’ll be asked.”

“And he’ll say I’m welcome to apply like
any other magicked individual, and that as the man who saw to my upbringing,
he’s aware of my character and would not deny me a seat if I prove interested
in taking one.”

Perhaps it was the moonlight, but Zacry
looked paler than normal. He said, “No good can come from those papers
mentioning you in the first articles, you understand?”

“There’s no way to avoid it, Zac. I’m a
noble and a sorcerer who just appeared from out of nowhere. They’re already
printing stories about how I took up residence at my family estate. There are
small throngs at the front gate of my property all the time, trying to see if
reports are true, to get a glimpse of me. I’ve taken to sending my carriage out
empty when I need to leave and transporting, just in case someone tries an
ambush. Nothing as of yet,” he assured Zacry. “But I’m being cautious. My point
is, the news is out I’ve arrived, and when the papers learn the king’s forming
a Magic Council so shortly afterward…. I’m going to be mentioned.”

“How large are those crowds?” demanded
Zacry.

“I told you I’m taking precautions.”

“Vane Unsten, how large?”

“Between twenty and fifty people. On a
rare day up to sixty or so, at any given time. It’s not a problem. No one’s
tried to demolish the fences, but five times the numbers there couldn’t bring
them down. They’re magically reinforced.” Vane did not want to discuss this
further, and changed the subject. “What about you? Have you found a job?”

Zacry’s expression made clear he knew
Vane was dodging an uncomfortable topic, but he said, “At the schoolhouse here
in Triflag. I start in two weeks. Joslyn’s relieved we won’t have to move, to
say the least.”

“Mm-hmm. And Kora?”

“I haven’t told her yet.”

“You can’t keep this hidden, Zac. She’ll
find out you’ve stopped writing. She’ll notice you haven’t moved to Herezoth.”

“I have some time.”

“Well, there’s no time like the present.
She’s just baking right now, isn’t she?”

“It might be useful to have Bennie around
for this,” Zacry mused. Vane rolled his eyes, mostly to disguise how glad he
was to see Zacry wasn’t letting Dorane’s spite eat away at him. Zacry’s speed
in finding work and his preoccupation about Vane proved his bitterness had
ebbed, and of course, the baby on the way went far to explain the sorcerer’s
contentment. That timing had been significant, to say the least.

Zacry went inside and wove his way
through his nieces and nephews, past where his brother-in-law was speaking with
Joslyn, to the kitchen. Kora and Bennie were just sliding a tray of tarts into
the wood-burning stove.

“I’m not moving to Herezoth,” said Zacry.
The women glanced up; they had hardly marked his entry. Bennie wore a confused
frown, and Kora said, “Oh? You talked to Joslyn? I figured you wouldn’t leave
this year, not with a second baby.”

“I can’t move back until Dorane’s dead,”
he specified. “And that might be a while.”

Now Kora looked as confused as the
redhead. “What does that mean?”

“I told you Dorane agreed to keep silent
about Rexson’s magic and about you, for the council. That wasn’t the whole
story, Kora. He wants me to stay here and stop publishing, or he’ll talk.”

Comprehension washed over Zacry’s sister.
Her bottom lip shook in waves of guilt. “He’ll reveal the king’s powers?” she
asked. “Or my little excursion?”

“Both.”

“Zac, I’m so sorry.
I’m responsible for this. Good Giver, I never would have gone. I never meant….”

“It’s not your doing,” her brother told
her. “Look, I’ll be fine here. I’ll be teaching downtown. And I don’t want you
blaming yourself, Kora. That’s the only reason I didn’t tell you before now.
God knows I owed you this, even had it been your fault, which it wasn’t. You
got that?”

Bennie shook her head with a smile. “I
guess you two are even now, aren’t you? Kora giving up that chain when Zalski
demanded, Zac agreeing to stay here…. So now, neither one of you needs to feel
bad about anything the other did for you.”

Zacry explained, “I’ve known the truth
about your chain for a while. Rexson talked.”

“So he told me.”

“I didn’t know how to thank you.”

“You’ve more than thanked me. I’d have
had to leave my kids, Zac. Parker would have kept them here, without me. At
first I was thinking, I can hide in the capital, but that would only have been
possible so long. I’d have had to leave Traigland, stowaway on some boat to God
knows where before….” She took him in a tight hug. “Thank you. Zacry, thank
you. I would rather have died in the Crimson League than lose my family now.
I’d have ended up….” Kora trembled. “I’d have ended up in Esclavay.”

Esclavay was an island nation larger than
Traigland, a week’s journey to the east, known for allowing and even promoting
slavery. It was large enough for its internal economy to remain strong through
regionalization. Though both Traigland and Herezoth refused any kind of trade
with the kingdom, smuggling was far from uncommon.

Zacry said, “It was the least I could do.
What you risked for my sake…. Kora, my living in Traigland pales in
comparison.”

“Pales? You went through hell all those
years ago because of me, and now this.”

Bennie was still smiling. “Do you have
any idea how lucky you two are to have the sibling you do? Neither of you did a
blasted thing wrong, so stop beating yourselves up. Man alive, I’ve been
jealous of you two for years!”

“Oh hush,” said Kora. She slung an arm
around Bennie’s shoulder. “You know you’ve always been one of the family. If
we’d known Zac’s magic was strong enough, we would have had him transporting
you for visits all these years.”

“We kept in touch all the same,” said
Bennie. She asked Zacry, “Had you really never gone back before the king wrote
you?”

“I figured I could, but I never tried.
Knew the transport wouldn’t be pleasant. The distance across that sea, it’s
twice what you cover on the roads from the fishing villages all the way to
Partsvale. When Rexson’s boys disappeared I had to give it a shot, and things
worked out, though the spell took a lot out of me.”

“It takes a lot out of me as well,”
Bennie admitted, “but it’s worth it. I’m glad we made this a regular thing.
It’s been amazing to meet Parker and Joslyn, and those kids I’ve read so much
about. I feel as though I’ve known them all their lives. And you two, I’d love
you to give Gratton a second chance, to get to know him outside of all the
tension of the rescue mission. He’s not crazy about magic, though. It makes him
uneasy, and I don’t think he’d come, not meaning any insult to you two, or to
Vane. I feel quite awful about it, and Kora, he really would like to meet you.
He just, he hates transporting. It makes him feel sick.”

Kora said, “Don’t worry, Bennie, I won’t
think any less of him. My father was the same way. He distrusted magic at its
core, the very idea of it, and he was a good man.”

Zacry looked as though he would not say
the same of Bennie’s husband as his father, but had the grace to keep his
opinion to himself. Instead of commenting he asked, “Is Gratton working
tonight? At the Palace?”

“He is,” said Bennie. “Why?”

“I need to see Rexson.”

“Rexson?” said Kora. “What for?”

That evening, as Rexson entered his
antechamber to disrobe, he thought his heart might give out on him. A
dark-haired youth materialized out of nowhere in front of his best armchair, as
though the man had been waiting for him.

“Zacry! What…?”

“Gratton let me in. Bennie mentioned he
had duty.” The sorcerer waved his hand, as though how he had snuck inside the
Palace was a matter of small concern. “Rexson, we can’t let those newspapers
connect Vane with the council. Not right away.”