by Fran Jacobs
"Yes, --"
"So I wouldn't worry about that and just ask him about Mayrila, like you said you would. You've been putting this off long enough." I didn't answer and Tev tilted his head to study me. "Why have you been putting this off?"
I shrugged uncomfortably. "Because I'm afraid if I ask him about Mayrila he might wonder why, and it might come out that I'm the Seer, and I'm not sure I'm ready for him to know that."
"You don't have to tell him that if you don't want to," Teveriel said. "If you feel that you owe him an explanation then that's your choice. You never told Tival why you were asking about Mayrila, did you?"
"No," I said, hesitantly, "but that was because I didn't manage to actually say very much at all. He was too concerned with warning me to behave myself around Hazel."
"Yes," Teveriel grinned. He still found that amusing that Tival had lectured me about Hazel. It had happened a few days after my vision, when I'd gone to Tival with my letter for my grandfather. We had shared a glass of wine and I'd tried to ask him about Mayrila, what she had been like as a student, what she was like as a person, and how she had known that a scion of hers would be the Shadow Seer, but before I could, Tival had started to lecture me. I'd not expected anything of the sort to happen and the whole ordeal had been embarrassing and awkward. Teveriel found the whole thing amusing, but Trellany was offended for my honour, that I, a prince, should have been warned off a girl as if I were a randy young farm boy. I tried not to think about it that often, but whenever it did come up in conversation Teveriel would do an impersonation of Tival and make jokes about it all.
"So," Teveriel said, "just go and see Calran. You don't have to say anything you don't want to, but you should see him. He has a gift for you and has had cakes and biscuits brought up as well."
"Gods," I groaned. "All right. Are you going to come with me?"
"Gods, no," Teveriel said, flopping backwards on the couch. "I've been up since dawn! I'm going to have a little nap while all is peaceful and quiet."
"You've been up," Trellany interjected, "since just after the first bell rang this morning, a good few hours after dawn."
"It felt like dawn," Teveriel told her, closing his eyes. He waved his hands at us, indicating that we should leave and, with Trellany at my heels, we did just that.
As Teveriel had warned me, Calran had indeed got me a present, an old, leather-bound book of ghost stories, which I accepted with a smile. He had also spread platters of cakes and biscuits across one of the large library tables and had hung a pot of water over the main fireplace, so we could make some tea.
"Thank you for all of this," I said, cradling my book against my chest as I took a seat next to the old man. "You didn't have to."
"It's a great honour for me," Calran said, face bright red, "to entertain a prince of Carnia on the day when he becomes a full man, an adult."
With the air heavy with the strange mingled scent of sticky cakes, tea, dusty books and wax candles, Calran and I talked about nothing in particular. We discussed books, those that he had lent me after the Rose Prophecies, and his own collection of Seer legends, the gardens, politics, history, all sorts of normal things, before I finally brought myself to ask him about Mayrila.
Calran gave me a sad smile. "King Sorron told me that Mayrila is your mother and that you know it too. I guess that's why you're asking me about her?" I nodded. "I've known your grandfather a long time," he said. "And your father, too, but when Sorron told me this, I was in shock. I still am, really. I know that, even though he trusts me, he only told me this because he had to. I know the Shadow Seer prophecies, that he was said to be the son of a witch, and I know that Princess Silnia is no witch. King Sorron had to tell me the truth about you or I wouldn't have taken your fears, or his, seriously." I nodded, indicating for him to go on. "Anyway, Mayrila had told me her family legend when she was a student here, that a daughter of her line would give birth to the Shadow Seer. She knew that I was researching him myself, at the time, and told me that, because of the family connection, she would be able to help me with that, if I was willing to do something for her in return."
"That sounds familiar," I said, thinking of the way she had struck a similar bargain with Teveriel.
"Well, I accepted her help and, for a while, we worked alongside each other, although she wouldn't answer any of my questions about how she knew that a son of her line would be this prophet. I never did find any evidence to confirm that story during my research either. I can only assume that, if she was telling the truth, one of her ancestors was a seer and had visions about it, but they never recorded their prophecies or if they did, they kept them within the family so that historians and scholars, like myself, didn't have access to them.
"Anyway, she soon grew bored and demanded that I repay her by getting her access to some of the more advanced magical books that are forbidden to students. I'd known that she wasn't really interested in the Seer story, despite her possible connection to it, but I'd had no idea that that had been her motive behind agreeing to help me. I refused and that was the end of her help. She was thrown out a few weeks later."
"Thrown out?" I asked, in surprise.
"Yes," Calran said, taking a noisy sip of tea, "for trying to gain access to the same books she had asked me to get for her. The books are banned for a reason."
"She's a megalomaniac," I said slowly, "thrown out for trying to read books that she was forbidden to read."
Calran looked a little uncomfortable. "Yes," he said. "I wouldn't go as far as to say 'megalomaniac', but she does have a strong interest in her own power and in furthering it, yes."
"And she's in love with my father." I didn't phrase it as a question. I knew that there had to be more to the relationship between my parents than either of them was saying, and that they'd been lovers seemed to make the most sense to me. Their hatred seemed so deep and petty that it reminded me of many of the loving relationships I'd watched deteriorate at Court. But there had been other factors that had led me to this conclusion. Mayrila had chosen Carnia Town as the place to settle and set up her shop, yet had never approached Sorron to become Court Healer. My father had approached her to be my mother and I knew him well enough to know that he wouldn't have done that just because she was a witch who happened to be in vicinity while he was desperate for a child. And my grandfather hadn't asked her to swear on a Truth Stone, at the time, to keep her loyal about the situation. There had to have been some reason that Gerian and Sorron would have believed they could trust her and for my father to have approached her to begin with. And that he and Mayrila had been lovers made more sense to me than the idea that they'd just been good friends.
Trellany gave me a hard look, but I pretended not to have seen it. Calran only nodded, sadly. "Yes," he said. "Your father came here, for a while, when he was younger. Your grandfather thought it would be good for him to experience a bit more of life, to be less protected and be brought down to earth somewhat. No special favours for nobles, or princes here."
I nodded. I'd seen that for myself when a couple of lords, and one lady, had to wait tables with four farmers' children, after they'd all been caught drinking, and gambling, when they were supposed to be in a mage class.
"He met Mayrila here and they formed a relationship but when she was thrown out he put an end to it. Not long after that he went home and met Silnia."
"My father and Mayrila hate each other now," I said.
"Yes," Calran said. "Mayrila is a passionate woman and she was very passionate about your father. I don't think she would have taken kindly to him rejecting her in favour of Princess Silnia." He shook his head. "I'm not comfortable discussing this, Prince Candale. Not only because I don't know all the details, but because it's for Prince Gerian to tell you these things, should he want you to know."
"Yes," I said reluctantly. "Of course. Thank you. You've been a great help to me. I do appreciate it." Calran tilted his head to study me with his gentle eyes, but didn't say anything and his silence
made me feel uncomfortable, almost guilty. He had done a lot for me, was clearly interested in the Seer myths, and here I sat, as the Shadow Seer, and he didn't know it. I didn't have to tell him, but a part of me suddenly wanted to. "I am the Shadow Seer," I said.
"Do you think it strange of me that I'm not surprised?" Calran said. "You resemble the boy in the pictures and with all the signs and ..." He paused. "I'm sorry," he said finally. "I know what the prophets have seen for you. I know that it won't be easy and I'm sorry for that."
I swallowed back a tight lump and set down the honey cake I'd been munching on. "No," I said, "it won't, and, for the moment, I don't want to think about any of it, not until I have to. I don't think that anyone can blame me for that."
"No," Calran said. "No one can blame you for that at all."
***
I could barely touch my supper, full as I was from eating cakes and biscuits, but I did manage to make some room for the toffees and chestnuts that Hazel produced back in the safety of my room that evening. Teveriel poured us each a glass of wine from his precious supply and proposed a toast to me, for coming of age, giving me one of his bright grins. It brought a flush to my face, as everyone echoed him, and I sat in my chair, squirming, hoping Tev wouldn't then demand that I give a speech of my own. He did have that twinkle in his eyes that usually implied he would do something unpredictable and embarrassing, but he didn't. He just helped himself to a cake and settled back in his chair.
"We have something to show you," Silver said, when he had finished his own glass of wine.
"Oh?" I said, fiddling to peel the skin off one of the chestnuts. It was still hot. I knew I should wait for it to cool down, but even as a child I'd never had the patience for that. Burnt lips and fingers were just part of the process of eating roasted chestnuts, in my opinion.
"It's a gift, well, not exactly a gift, but we have been working on it for you," Belyisia said, shyly.
I settled back in my chair and watched as she, Hazel and Silver cleared some space by pushing chairs and the table back out of the way. Then they took up position, standing opposite each other in a triangle. I watched them, hooking my legs over the arm of the chair, waiting to see what was going to happen and I was rewarded when balls of light appeared in each of their fingers. "Oh," I whispered, and heard Teveriel make a similar gasp of surprise. Even Trellany seemed interested and she turned herself around in her chair so that she could watch the three mages better.
And then my friends started to juggle those small, glowing balls of light.
Red, blue, white and green balls of colour, twinkling like little stars, were sent spinning through the air, arching and swirling, as they were passed back and forth between the three of them. I had seen jugglers before, at balls and banquets, and it always looked so complicated. I couldn't believe that my three friends could do this so effortlessly. Although there was a look of deep concentration in their eyes, and on their faces, they still seemed more relaxed and at ease than any of the jugglers I'd seen before.
"Catch!" Silver said suddenly, and before I knew what was happening he had thrown a ball of white light towards me, without breaking his concentration. I watched it arch through the air and reached out to grab it, dropping my chestnut onto the floor, only to have my fingers pass right through it as though it wasn't there.
"What the --" I gasped.
Hazel started to giggle, as my jaw dropped, and I stared at my hands where the ball should have been. Silver just shook his head and made a disapproving clicking sound with his tongue. "Did you drop the ball, Candale?" he asked.
"My fingers passed right through it," I said, feeling a little confused by all this.
"So clumsy," Silver said, shaking his head again. "Check under the chair. You must have dropped it."
I gave him a suspicious look, there was something not quite right about this, but I started to slide from my chair to look underneath it anyway. Hazel hurried toward me and caught my arm, stopping me. Then she grabbed a cushion and threw it at her brother. Silver grunted as the cushion hit him, but he managed to catch it before it hit the floor. "There is no ball," Hazel said. "There never was. It's just an illusion, Dale."
"We can't juggle," Belyisia said, grinning at me. "We just tried to make it look as though we were. The lights dance the pattern that we told them to, the rest was just us pretending."
"Oh," I said, feeling my face flush with embarrassment.
"You should have seen your face!" Silver exclaimed, returning to his chair, "When you couldn't find the ball!"
"I can imagine," I said. And then I started to laugh, too.
We had more cake and biscuits and then Hazel produced a small package from the folds of her cloak. "Happy birthday, Dale," she told me, leaning over to kiss me. I turned my cheek towards her, only she cupped my chin with her fingers and turned my head so she could kiss me square on the mouth. I blushed again and everyone laughed at me, for the second time in the space of an hour.
"You didn't have to get me anything," I said, bowing my head to unwrap the parcel and hide my red cheeks.
"I know. I wanted to."
"Thank you." I released the last fold of cloth around the gift and lifted out a picture of a series of standing stones, set in a delicate, handmade frame made of sticks, leaves and white acorns, obviously from the garden.
"Do you like it?" Hazel asked me anxiously.
"It's lovely," I said.
"It's an old temple to Karn, a ring of standing stones, set out around an altar. It's situated near the school, but as you're not allowed to leave the grounds, I thought that you would never get to see it. Then Silver pointed out that I had drawn several pictures of it, so I thought I would give you my best one. He helped me make the frame, wood from the garden, and leaves and we glued it all together, and --"
"You're rambling," Silver told her.
"I know," she replied, and gave a nervous laugh. "You do like it, don't you, Dale?"
"Yes," I whispered. I touched it carefully, trying not to smudge the charcoal. "Standing stones, set i-in a ring?"
"Yes," Hazel said.
The song started to echo through my mind:
'Five rings of silver,
Five rings of gold,
Five rings of stone,
For a secret to be told
Six rings of silver,
Six rings of gold,
The rings of stone have fallen
Ellenessia comes.'
This old temple to Karn was unlikely to be the ring of stones I'd heard in the song, or seen in my vision and, even if it was, there was unlikely to be anything there waiting for me, or anything for me to see, but at the same time, I couldn't just ignore it. "I need to see it," I said.
"You can't leave the school," Silver said. "That's why she gave you the picture. Didn't you hear that part of her rambled explanation?"
Hazel scowled at him and punched him in the arm but I paid that no attention. "I need to see it," I repeated. "Perhaps if I go at night no one will see me sneaking out."
"Out at night, in the snow? You have to be mad to even suggest that, Candale," Silver told me.
"I'm not mad," I said. "I just need to see the stone circle."
"Need to?" Silver said.
"Can't you wait?" Belyisia asked me. "Until the spring, when you leave for home? You could visit it then."
"Candale has as much patience, and curiosity, as a cat," Teveriel said, "and much less sense." He grinned at me as I pulled a face at him. "If he says he needs to see this stone circle, for whatever fantastical reason, then what he really means is, he is going to see this stone circle and would like it if we would come with to keep him out of trouble."
"Yes," I agreed, playfully hitting Teveriel with a pillow. "That's exactly what I mean. I am going, or try to, at least. What's the worst that can happen if I'm caught? I spend the rest of the winter waiting on everyone at meal times? Gods, I can see myself doing that for a day and, after I trip over my own boot laces and spill food ev
erywhere, I'm sure Tival will change his mind."
"Why do you need to see it so badly?" Hazel asked me curiously. "It's just a bunch of stones set out into a circle."
"It looks interesting," I replied, in what I hoped was a careless tone of voice. "And I'm bored of sitting around here all the time."
"You want to ride out into all that snow and wind, just because you're bored?" Silver asked, incredulously. "Gods, you must be really bored!"
I merely shrugged.
"How long until the weather eases up?" Hazel asked Belyisia.
The mousy haired girl sat silent for a minute, her eyes closed and when she spoke, her voice was a whisper. "About three weeks," she said. "The wind will die down and the snowfall will have stopped permanently."
"How do you know that?" I asked, leaning forward in my chair.
Her brown eyes opened and focused on me. "Magic," she replied.
"Belyisia has strong elemental magic. More so than Silver or I," Hazel explained. "It means she's very close to nature, to the weather and the seasons and so forth."
"Oh," I said, in a hushed awed voice. What a useful gift that would be, to always know the weather in advance, to never get caught out in a sudden rainstorm or blizzard. "Three weeks?" I said. "Then three weeks it is."
"And how do you think that you're going to get out of the school?" Teveriel asked me. "Or even get your horse? I'm sure Tival has told the stable-boy that you're not to take your mount. Although I already know the answer to this, I have to ask it anyway, can you really not wait until the spring? Just once, can't you try and wait?"
"As you said, Tev, you already know the answer to that." I looked at Hazel, and she flushed under my gaze. "Hazel," I said very softly, "you can help me with that, can't you? I'm sure that you can think of a way for me to leave the school and get my horse, without being caught."