The Magic Council (The Herezoth Trilogy) (51 page)

“This school’s why you came back, isn’t
it?” said the king.

“This is worth attempting, Your Majesty.
Bringing magicked and non-magicked children together, openly…. If nothing else,
the potential makes it worth attempting, please tell me you see that. If I
could make this happen for my own sons or daughters and others like them….”

“It’s worth the attempt,” the king
agreed. “As long as you don’t expect my children….”

“I would never expect or entreat them to
set foot in that building again.”

“Then you can tell your council they have
the crown’s approval.”

“Thank you,” Vane told the king. He shook
the monarch’s hand in earnest and fell back into their usual, comfortable
informality. “Rexson, you have no idea what this means to me.”

“Why do you care so much about this
school, Vane?”

Vane cared because he had killed to
preserve a life for himself and August. He had killed, at least in part, for
the chance to work for a better Herezoth. August herself had made him see that,
and he never would have thought someone other than his wife could understand
the mandate under which he now labored, but as he returned Rexson’s questioning
gaze, he realized he was not alone in having taken human life.

“How many men did you kill? To claim your
throne?”

Rexson nodded in comprehension. “Too
many. I lost count. I killed at least two or three the day of the coup when I
fled this building.”

“Did you really?”

“There’s a difference between killing and
murder, son. You’re not a murderer. You never will be. You were publicly
exonerated.”

“I know I was. I still feel sullied.”

“Bloodshed’s an awful act, one not to be
taken lightly, and one you never would treat as something trivial.” Rexson
patted Vane’s shoulder. “You resemble your father more each day, you know. This
was one similarity I’d been hoping you’d avoid.”

Vane’s throat turned scratchy. “My father
killed?”

“A guard who attacked him, when Zalski
was taking the Palace. Defense, like your killing. He came to find me right
after.”

“I knew he’d alerted you. I had no idea
he had to….”

“That’s exactly the point: he had to, as
did you. You’re guiltless in Amison’s death.”

“I could have bound the man, or frozen
him, like Zac did his accomplice. I had multiple spells at my disposal to keep
him away from August. I wasn’t forced to kill, and I couldn’t help but think
before your boys found those record books it would serve me right if we never
learned his motive, if my name was never cleared and I couldn’t come back.”

“You didn’t hunt the man, Vane. He hunted
your wife.”

Vane continued as though the king had not
interrupted. “If I’d frozen him and he’d lived, you could have questioned him,
see? He might have revealed what spurred him to bleed Bennie like a hog.”

“You’re being too severe with yourself.”

“I killed him out of hatred, Rexson. For
revenge. It was a conscious choice.”

“The fiend knew August was pregnant and
deliberately tried to stab her in the stomach.”

“That’s why I killed him, myself. No
judge was going to do it. That man wasn’t going to die by someone else’s hand,
not with the satisfaction of knowing he’d slain me.”

“Valkin Heathdon, there’s not a husband
or father alive who would not have acted precisely as you did.”

“Perhaps. Either way, I’m learning to
live with the choice I made, and the school’s become a part of that. When
August told me what Amison said about forcing me off the council, out of
Herezoth…. I need to make my presence here count for something, considering I
killed over it. Considering Bennie died too. You of all people can understand
that.”

The king clapped Vane on the back. “I, of
all people, could not understand more.”

And Vane realized that, quite possibly,
he knew of one other person who could empathize with his decision to kill, with
his justifications and even with the guilt that now plagued him, had she lived
to confront her own. Something he had read:

The
Giver pardon me, I abhor that woman. Every fiber of my being detests the mere
thought of her, her besmirching those walls….

The Palace walls. A reference to Zalski’s wife.

Laskenay’s son held Rexson’s gaze while he said,
“I know Malzin Forzythe killed my mother. They killed each other. Kora told me
that much, and I didn’t want to ask more details, not of her. Rexson, who
struck the first hit? Do you know?”

“Malzin fought dirty, as Bennie once described
it. She stabbed Laskenay first, and Laskenay, well, she wasn’t going to let her
sister-in-law die by someone else’s hand after that.” Vane nodded, and Rexson
assured him, “You are no more a murderer than Laskenay was.”

“I
know that, Rexson. I do know that. One day, I imagine, I might even believe
it.”

* * *

Vane took August to Partsvale’s prison
the next morning, following some brief investigations into the work schedule of
the director who, back in March, had gone for a reporter. This was August’s
first visit since that day—the day after her wedding—and she told
Vane she preferred to see her sister alone this time.

Ursa’s skin had turned leathery from a summer
in the quarry, and she had gained back any weight lost at her arrest. Her arms
were toned, her air vibrant.

“You’ve been gone a while,” Ursa accused
when August took a seat on one of the visiting room’s benches.

“Yes, well, some things have been going
on.”

Ursa glanced at her sister’s stomach. “I
can see that.”

“They’re twins, I think, but that’s not
all.”

“Samson sent me the papers, August. They
printed the trial here, the whole transcript, even if it wasn’t the next day
like down in Podrar. Amison happened back in June, though. You had two months
before then to get your butt here. What happened? Hubby refuse to bring you?”

“He asked me every week if I wanted to
come. Every week. I’m the one who refused. I didn’t know if I could face you,
after what I called you and what you did for me in spite of that.”

“You talkin’ ‘bout calling me a classless
lout? I wasn’t far off, so don’t feel bad. Listen, I’m glad you’re all right.
And I’m glad hubby-boy took the bastard out for you. If that maniac got away,
I’d have had to break outta here to kill him myself, an’ that would have caused
me a slew o’ problems.”

“I’d really just like to forget it.”

“Can’t, though, is that it? I won’t tell
you I told you so, but….”

“You did tell me so.
From the very start.”

“So why did you take up with that boy, of
all people? Was it to get back at me?”

“No offense, Ursa, but you’re not a
motivating factor in my life. He found me alone and frightened, and took the
trouble to reach out to me, that’s all it was. He was a friend from the start.”
And August smiled. “Well, after he realized I wasn’t you, he was.”

“And you’re happy with him? Don’t you
lie.”

“As happy as a frolicking puppy. It
hasn’t been all fun and games, and I won’t deny we rushed things a bit, but I
love him. I wouldn’t risk what I went through for just anyone. He’s worth it.
What I have with him is worth it, all right?”

“He did save you, didn’t he? An’ he don’t
mind bringin’ you to see me, when he knows you couldn’t come otherwise. I ain’t
no admirer of his, mind you, but he can’t be all bad. As long as you’re happy,
that’s all. I want you to be happy.”

“I appreciate that. And I understand how
you might think my marriage was a slap in your face, but I swear to you, it
wasn’t. That was never my intention. You’re the only sister I’ve got.”

“The only real one,” Ursa clarified.
“Were you as close to that Esper woman as you let on? I knew her, you know.”

“You knew that seer charade she put on,
and weren’t fond of it. The real Bennie, you’d have liked her even less than
the fake one, but yes, we were close. She was quiet, and she lived simply,
and….”

“Why didn’t you tell me you paid her
visits?”

“After what she did to rescue the boys?
You hated the woman, Ursa. It was best I didn’t mention her. Don’t pretend you
wouldn’t have stormed at me.”

“Prob’ly would have. But I’m sorry you
lost her.”

August was not convinced of that, but she
acknowledged Ursa’s rare tact in showing support. She told her sister, “I came
to let you know I have plans for the mansion. The king just approved them.”

Ursa seemed pleased enough to learn about
the school. Talk of improvements and renovations was less to her liking, as
August knew it would be, but Ursa had given her the building with no conditions.
She said not a word against August’s decisions, and when August had laid
everything out she offered, “I hope all that goes to plan.”

“It does sound a bit ambitious of a
project. Well, if a school like that can work anywhere, Carphead’s the place.”
August sighed. “I’m trusting you to keep this quiet, Ursa. I told you because
the mansion came from you and you have the right to know what I do with it, but
it’s too early for news to get out, much too early.”

“I’ll keep my mouth sealed then.”

“You certainly earned my trust in that
department. It’s good to see you, I mean that. I should probably have come
sooner, but…. Are the women giving you problems at all? Because of Val?”

“Are you kiddin’? They treat me like a
queen. Terrified if they spurn me he’ll show up an’ do to them what he did to
Yangerton there.”

“You know he wouldn’t.”

“Well, I prefer them thinkin’ he just might.
He told me I could throw his name around, didn’t he?”

“He said he would get the troublemakers
transferred, Ursa. That’s different.”

“You try livin’ in a place like this. You
wouldn’t last two days.”

“I know I wouldn’t,” August agreed. “And
I don’t claim otherwise.”

“Listen, I don’t make no open threats in
his name. I know better than that. I just don’t correct their little
misperceptions about how close you an’ me are.”

“Well, we’re closer than we were, aren’t
we? And I do want the babies to meet you, though that will have to wait a
while. I can’t bring them here before they’re two or three years old.”

That was more than Ursa expected, and
though she tried to conceal how touched she was by the gesture, a smile gave
her away. “Well, that’s right nice o’ you, August. I don’t get much to look
forward to nowadays.”

“They should know their Aunt Ursa. They
wouldn’t be here without you, after all. I’d never have met their father.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

New Beginnings

New Year’s Eve that year was white. Snow
started to fall late in the morning and picked up in the afternoon, so that by
early evening, Thad and Carlina’s carriage got stuck in a drift. They took half
an hour longer than usual to get to Oakdowns. When they found themselves at
last inside the manor, Vane’s butler offered to show them to the parlor.

Carlina said, “We know where it is, in
the Giver’s name! How’s the duchess?”

“Resting, madam, and thus indisposed at
the moment. She’s in perfect health.”

Carlina repented of her tartness after
the butler delivered good news, and she asked more calmly, “Would you please
inform Ingleton we’re waiting in the parlor?”

“I believe he’s already there,” said the
servant. With that, Carlina ran down the wide, carpeted corridor at the end of
the entrance hall, her husband right behind, nearly tripping her. They came to
an abrupt halt before the parlor’s double doors, for they assumed they should
not jar them open. Sure enough, when they stepped inside they found Vane on a
settee with two newborns in his arms, one baby asleep, both wrapped in blankets
and wearing knitted hats.

“It’s about time you got here.”

Thad defended himself, “We aren’t all
sorcerers, Ingleton. Some of us must actually brave the winter. The carriage
got stuck.”

“Guess I should teach my girls to
transport early, then. Then
they
at
least can be punctual.”

Thad tried to send Vane an annoyed look,
and failed dismally. Vane told him, “This is Esper Lynn. She came first, a
whole five minutes older.”

Carlina pushed Thad aside to take the
sleeping baby.

“And her sister, Luce Laskenay.” Thad
took the yawning, stretching one, while her father explained, “Luce was
August’s grandmother’s name. The one who raised her.”

“Identical?” Carlina asked, looking back
and forth between the newborns.

Vane told her, “Down to the mark on their
right ankles. But that’s no surprise.”

Luce stared at Thad through heavy but
startlingly clear eyes, eyes so purely blue he could almost see his face
reflected in them, as off the surface of the frozen lake out back. “Where did
she get those?” he asked.

Carlina said, “Her grandmother.”

“Laskenay?”

“Yes, Laskenay. I swear, even for an ogre
you are the most unobservant….”

“I was four when I last saw the woman!”

“Her portrait is in front of your face.”

And so it was: Vane’s one portrait of his
parents. Thad looked up from Laskenay’s granddaughter to her son. “Didn’t
Zalski have eyes like…?”

“We’re going to say they came from her.”

“Good call,” Thad approved.

Carlina began, “The butler said August….”

“August is wonderful, no scares at all.
She’s sleeping while she has the chance. The queen was here for everything,
only left fifteen minutes ago. My aunt’s here too, sewing quilts she didn’t
quite finish in time.”

“They’re beautiful girls,” said Carlina.
“They’re so beautiful, Valkin.”

“Somehow they are, Ingleton, despite
having you for a father. Good Giver, now my wife’ll want one. Have you any idea
the havoc an ogre-hag cross would wreak?”

Vane laughed. “Can’t say I do.”

“Well, my problems aside, it’s been quite
a year for you, hasn’t it?”

“Not exactly the language I’d use to
describe it,” said Vane.

Thad replied, “It’s ending on a high
note, you can’t deny that. So, how are we feeling this evening?”

“Overwhelmed,” Vane admitted. Thad shifted
Luce, who had shut her ice blue eyes, to one arm and clapped Vane on the back.

“You’ll be fine. You’ve got it easy:
they’ll keep each other occupied as kids. When they’re older, if they start
arguing over some gallant lad or other, you’ll just have to warn him to stop
coming around. Something tells me the suitors who would want to anger Papa Bear
will be few and far between.”

Carlina pleaded, “Oh, Valkin, can I keep
this one? You do have a spare.”

“I’m afraid Esper’s mother might
protest,” Vane told her. She slid the child back into his arms.

Thad argued, “Now that’s right selfish,
that is.”

“Let me hold Luce,” Carlina told her
husband.

“You just had Esper.”

“Yes, I had
Esper.
That one’s Luce.”

“They don’t look any different, woman!”

Carlina took Luce, and Thad and Vane sat
on the settee.

“Any plans for the new year?” Vane asked.

“We’ll be in Fontferry March through May,
it turns out, with Carlina’s parents. Just made arrangements yesterday.”

“Fontferry? I could transport you, no
need to travel all that way by carriage. I wouldn’t mind.”

“I appreciate the offer. Don’t think the
in-laws would be too keen, is the thing, though you’re right, that trip is
long. That’s why we’re staying three
months. Why, we’ll be gone as great a part of next year as you were this one.”
He paused. “Where did you take August, by the way? You’ve never said.”

Vane looked from Thad’s curious
expression to where Carlina, who had heard her husband’s question, waited with
bated breath for a response. He and August had passed more time with them since
September than he could ever remember spending with friends over a four-month
span—except perhaps Francie.

“I can trust you both?”

Thad said, “With your life, you know
that.”

Carlina swore, “We’d never tell a soul.”

“We were in Traigland.”

Vane told them how he had studied for
years with Zacry Porteg; how Kora, like Teena, was a second mother to him; how
Amison had nearly killed him when he cast that switching spell to save August
and what he thought at the time was their one unborn child; how Zacry had
transported him back to Triflag, and he nearly had chosen to stay there.

“I probably would have,” Thad assured
him.

Soon the girls woke up crying. They were
hungry, it seemed, so Thad and Carlina said a quick goodnight as Vane made them
promise they would sleep in one of Oakdowns’s numerous bedrooms rather than
face the snow. Vane took the twins to their mother to nurse, and by the time
the babies had fallen asleep in her arms, he could just hear the chimes of the
clock in Ingleton’s market square. August counted twelve aloud.

“It’s the new year,” she whispered to
Vane. “A new beginning. We could use one of those, I think.”

He kissed her cheek and stroked Esper’s
with a finger. “It’s lucky we have one, then.”

“I can’t believe we have these angels. It
doesn’t seem real somehow. I’d swear I was dreaming if I didn’t ache all over.”

“Three hundred and sixty-five days ago, I
was in this room when that clock went off. I was trying to sleep, but I kept
worrying about that first appearance at court, kept trying to envision the
future. I never once imagined the next time a year ended you would be here with
me, let alone that we’d have two daughters. August, there are two
of them.”

“There’s two all right.”

“How are we going to handle this?”

“Hand in hand and arm in arm. That’s how
Bennie described the Crimson League once. It worked for them, and it’s worked
for us this far.

“Do you know where I was three hundred
and sixty-five days ago? I was in my parlor at the Palace, praying, I didn’t
know what for. I didn’t know whether to ask for grit or patience, for the
strength to stand by you or the strength to just stand by. Finally, I started
praying that when and if the time should come to make a definite choice, I’d
know what to do. I said that prayer morning and evening each day for the next
three months, and when you came by that night in March, when you suggested we
elope, I knew we’d reached a crossroads.

“Well, all that praying made a
difference. I looked out at the paths I could take, and they both looked dark.
What I saw was that, down one, you at least would be with me, while the other
I’d walk alone. That was the difference, and to view it that way made my choice
as clear as whether to go out in a coat or a sundress in the middle of January.

“We’ve been walking arm in arm ever since
in the blackness, feeling our way with our free hands. And we’ve stumbled a
couple times, and even fallen, but we never once let go. When I thought I would
lose you to Amison I just clung to your fingers. I couldn’t do anything more,
and you clung back. The Giver be praised, you clung back. Well, at this point I
honestly feel like I’m starting to see in the dark. My vision’s adjusting, and
if you open your eyes, you’ll find yours is too. We’ve seen Thad and Carlina
will be wonderful companions. We’ve seen where we’re meant to be and even why,
perhaps: that school. The school’s just a new destination to grope along to,
which is fine. We’ve never done anything
but
grope our way. Val, we’ll do our best for the girls, and that will be
enough. If our best is just to keep on tripping together, well, Bennie died so
we could keep on like two blind idiots, and man alive, in honor of her that’s
exactly what we’ll do.”

Vane smiled, and said, “I guess we can
expect a year of muddy hands and knees. Scrapes and bruises.”

“From the falls? I guess we can.” August
kissed Luce’s head.

“Two babies,” Vane repeated. “Not a thing
about this will be simple.”

“More complicated than you recovering
from that stab wound? Than tracking me to Bennie’s when I needed you so fast?”

“Well,” said Vane, “when you put it that
way....”

Vane took Esper from her mother and
cradled the infant gently in one arm, the arm farther from August, so that he
and his wife could interlock their fingers.