Bloodkin (Jaseth of Jaelshead) (38 page)

I stopped talking to pack the pipe again, and realised with horror that I was talking the ears off the Queen – the
Queen!
– and that, apart from her interested questions, she had barely had a chance to get a word in edgeways.

“I’m sorry your majesty, my tongue seems to have gotten away on me. I’m not usually like this, you know.”

She smiled that half-dimpled smile and accepted the sparked pipe. “Oh, I’m sure, Lord Jaseth.”

Wait, what? Was she doing it on purpose? In response to my accusing look she laughed and threw her hands up, mock-defensively.

“Why, you’re fascinating, Jaseth, and it is a Queen’s duty to learn as much about her subjects as she can.”

Gosh, she thought I was fascinating! I had poured out my life story and she had found it fascinating. Thaelique really was a remarkable woman.

“Anyone can be fascinating, Jaseth, you just have to ask the right questions.” My face must have fallen, of course I wasn’t unique in my fascination for the Queen, I was just one idiot who happened to have some moss and a pipe.

She saw this and smiled gently. “There are of course those who are more interesting than others.” My insides clenched again as she looked at me with that clear, slate-blue gaze. “I do hope in the coming year there will be more occasions for us to continue this conversation.” She handed the pipe back to me and went to stand. I almost knocked over my chair in my haste to assist her. “For now, I am afraid I must return to my people. The countdown to midnight will begin soon.”

I suddenly dreaded going back inside, where she would return to being the focus of everyone’s attention, but she took my extended arm as we walked back through the antechamber and the door to the banquet hall. She smelled like vanilla and musk and the sweet tang of moss-smoke, delicate, delicious, beside me.

“Thank you, Jaseth, this has been most entertaining.” She reached up and kissed me gently on the cheek and I watched her go, swallowed up by her adoring crowd while I stood, rooted to the spot, my cheek tingling where her lips had touched it, but otherwise quite unable to move.

“Hey Jas, there you are! Everyone’s been looking for you!”

I dragged my eyes away from the direction the Queen had gone to see Dunkerle, his face flushed with wine and his hair slightly more messy than usual. Telgeth came up beside him and poked me in the shoulder.

“Oi! Where have you been?”

I shook my head in amazement. “You seriously would not believe if I told you.”

He shrugged. “Yeah, yeah, come on, it’s almost time for the countdown. Charlie’s looking for you.”

Telgeth pulled me into the crowd as the musicians announced that it was one minute to midnight.

“Jas! Where’ve you been?” Charlie grabbed me and hugged me round the shoulders.

“I’ve been, um, hanging out with the Queen.”

He grinned in surprise. “No way! Huh, cool, what’s she like?”

Before I could answer, the crowd started the countdown. “Ten! Nine! Eight!” With every second, more lights dimmed until it was almost dark, a trick of Hầұeӣ, I figured. “Two! One! Happy New Year!” The room suddenly blazed with light and sprinkles of glittering white paper fell from the ceiling like a confetti of snow. The crowd cheered wildly and applauded, people hugged their friends. Lolitha jumped at me and gave me a huge hug and a kiss full on the lips. “Happy New Year Jas!” she yelled as she was grabbed by Jimmy, who picked her up and spun her around.

The musicians launched into a rendition of Auld Lang Syne, the traditional New Year’s song that had been sung since before the Leaving, even though the meaning of the words had long been forgotten. I linked arms with Charlie on one side and Telgeth on the other and we sung loudly along,

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind?

Should auld acquaintance be forgot

And auld lang syne?

595 A.L.

ot long after midnight the party began to wind down. We gathered up the Hall crew and made for the exit, where the Queen and Myr Serbastient were positioned to thank and farewell their guests.

“Ah, Lord Jaseth, a happy New Year to you.” I ignored Telgeth’s jabbing elbow as the Queen spoke to me.

“Thank you, your majesty, happy New Year to you too. I hope it’s, um, peaceful and, er, prosperous.” Yeah, not my best work, but Telgeth was distracting me ever so slightly. The Queen gave me an enigmatic smile.

“I’m sure it will be. Goodnight.”

“What? She knows your name?” Telgeth demanded as I hurried outside.

“Yeah, we… We hung out.”

“Bollocks.
You
hung out with the
Queen
? I don’t believe it!”

“I told you you wouldn’t!”

“Hmph, so what’s she like then?”

I laughed and told him about my conversation with Thaelique as we hurried home, through streets thronged with revellers, celebrating the New Year under the light of the cold winter moon.

Soon, the others returned from their holidays and we resumed the business of the Academy. Telgeth took great delight in telling them of our invitation to the royal banquet, especially the part about my “date” with the Queen. Predictably, Sallagh was furious as having been excluded.

“So you mean that if I had stayed here I could have gone?” she demanded. “My bloody parents went and they said I wasn’t allowed to!” She was quiet on the subject of Thaelique though, and I couldn’t work out whether I should be worried by this or not.

I truthfully didn’t know how I felt about Sallagh anymore. Frankly, I hadn’t exactly missed her in the week and a half she had been staying with her parents, and since meeting the Queen… Well, she had kind of occupied my thoughts in the way that Sallagh used to, only much,
much
more intensely. I considered breaking up with Sallagh, but she thought she loved me, and I really didn’t think I had the balls to break her heart. Anyway, it wasn’t like anything had happened with Thaelique, and I knew I was kidding myself if I thought anything else was going to. Besides, Sallagh gave good cuddles and she really was an excellent kisser, so I couldn’t really complain.

Winter muddled along drearily. When it wasn’t raining or sleeting or snowing, there were a few rare stretches of bright, bitter sunshine, but more often a chilly fog would roll off the lake, obscuring the view from my second-storey window and clinging to our robes and hair whenever we went outside.

Anna had obviously considered Lolitha’s rather off-hand remark after she had saved us that last Samhain, and Odette’s death had prompted her to action, because one Saturday morning in late January, Charlie woke me early.

“Ugh, go away Charlie, it’s
early
,” I grumbled, and tried to hide under my blankets. Not only was it early but it was also seriously cold.

“Get up! You have to do your meditation – Anna has invited you lot for some, uh, special tutoring.”

“Oh really? More lessons. Good. Just what I always wanted.”

Despite my protestations, Charlie had his way and an hour later I was dressed and ready to go. We met Lolitha and Telgeth in the common room with their Mentors and together we left the Hall to go and see what Anna had in mind for our extra tutoring. I thought maybe Charlie would take us to Anna’s house, but when we passed the Shivering Thistle, Charlie nodded to the doorman and led us inside. O’Malley was, as usual, perched behind the bar, reading the big weekend edition of the paper and directing one of the Journeymen who was up a ladder, feeding the glowbes that hung from the ceiling. “Bit early for it, eh kids?” But his eyes twinkled. “Go on up, she’s expecting you.”

Upstairs in the private lounge Anna was tending to the fires, while stretched out on a couch, yawning loudly, was Lux. Anna turned and greeted us as we walked through the archway.

“Ah, good, is this everyone for now?” Charlie nodded.“Excellent, we’ll start with a small group, it’s been a while since I’ve done any teaching, so please bear with me.” She chuckled self-deprecatingly and motioned for us to sit. Reluctantly, Lux sat up and glared at us all as if
we
were the reason she was awake at this ungodly hour.

“Now, in the light of certain recent events, I think it would be prudent for you Bloodkin to learn a few… shall we say, defensive measures you can take if you find yourselves in danger of any kind.” Lux snorted and rolled her eyes but was silenced by a cold look from her Aunt.

“Our friend Lolitha here asked me once if I could teach her about visibility cloaking.” Lolitha just shrugged as Telgeth gave her a questioning look. “So today we will begin with that. Now, I understand you have worked on light reflecting Ћieл at the Academy?” Anna looked around and we nodded. “Good, well an invisibility cloak works on the same principle.”

Anna spent the morning explaining to us how we could construct the shields. The quality of the air around us had to be changed, not to reflect light, but to refract it in a particular way.
This meant that anyone looking at the shield would see what was behind it, as if they were looking straight through, whereas actually they were looking at the light that had been bent and angled off the shield. O’Malley had come up with a pitcher of coffee and a plate of pastries around mid-morning, and after our break Anna had us practise this new technique. It was infinitely harder than it sounded. We started with holding our left hands over our laps and constructing the light shield around it with Hầұeӣ. It was easy enough to make my hand go black, as my first shield absorbed all the light and reflected none. Then I got the opposite to happen, as the shield reflected all the light and my hand became like a little mirror. The trick was getting the air to refract the light, so the light bouncing off my lap would hit the shield, angle around it and then bounce off again. Tricky stuff.

I wasn’t having much luck when Lolitha yelped “Ooh! It’s gone!” I looked over, breaking my concentration. Lolitha was sitting with her hand extended, but fully visible from where I sat.

“It’s still there, ‘Litha,” Telgeth told her a bit crossly – it seemed he was having as tough a time as I was.

“Not from here it’s not, come look!”

We got up and went and stood behind her, looking down over her shoulder and sure enough, where her hand should be was nothing. We could see straight through to her green pinstriped robe, although if I looked really closely I could see a light, hand-shaped break in the pattern.

“Very good Lolitha, can you others explore her shield with your Hầұeӣ to see how’s she’s done it? Good.” I concentrated on where Lolitha’s hand should be and saw immediately what she had done to make the light bend so. Lux ignored us, concentrating on her own hand. I supposed she had been using her Hầұeӣ for a good few years down in the Enclave, and it was clear she had little time for Bloodkin with barely six months’ experience.

I sat down and got my hand to vanish straight away, which was actually pretty creepy. I mean, I knew it was still there, and I knew it was only a trick of the light, but still, seeing the sleeve of my robe open onto nothing was a pretty weird sight. I suppose Anna could have created a shield herself and let us view it
from the beginning, but this was how Hầұeӣ lessons went at the Academy as well – we had to muddle through and try and work it out for ourselves first.