Glasswrights' Apprentice (41 page)

“Well, I certainly wouldn't want to do that!” Her words were hot, despite her resolution to stay in the good graces of the king of all Morenia. “We can't have children disturbed by nightmares, not when they live in a world so free of treachery and murder and lies.” Hal did not react to her bitter words, and she forced herself to take a deep breath. “I can be out of here this afternoon, Your Majesty. If you'll just let me by -”

“What is it that you see, Rani? Why do you scream in your sleep?”

She stared at him as if he were mad, and it took her a moment to find incredulous words. “Can you truly ask me that, after all that has happened? Not three months ago, we watched four people executed in the courtyard below!”

“The nurses say you never call out the names of the dead. You never name my brother or your own, or even Dalarati.” Out of habit, the prince made a holy sign, and Rani impatiently followed suit. “They say you speak other names - Mair and Borin.”

Rani's eyes filled at the quiet compassion in Hal's voice. “You'll never understand,” she sighed.

“Try, Rani. You've made me understand much in the past. Tell me.”

She shuddered and forced herself to meet his grey eyes. “I grew up in a family, Hal, a large family. I was surrounded by brothers and sisters, and we all made and broke our alliances, every day and every night. But throughout all that, I always thought that Bardo was true. I always thought that Bardo was good.”

Drawing strength from Hal's silence, Rani continued. “When I learned of the Brotherhood of Justice, I still believed Bardo. When I heard of the Fellowship of Jair, I still believed Bardo. No matter what evidence I was given, what truth I was shown, I still found a way for Bardo to be good and true.”

Hal started to speak, but Rani hushed him with a curt shake of her head. “No. That last day, that last terrible day.… When I saw Jair's Watchers in the black robes that
I
had given them, the black robes that
I
took from the merchants' tithes.… Mair and Borin and the others -
that
was the moment that I fully realized that I had made a choice. Surrounded by the Fellowship of Jair, I betrayed Bardo. I gave up my perfect brother.” Rani sighed and dashed the unwanted tears from her cheeks, steeling herself to say the last bit, the worst words. “I don't deserve a family. I don't deserve to belong to any group. And so, I don't speak the names of the dead. They have no power over me; they had no power, even in the audience chamber. It is the living who torment me, who remind me that I'm alone now and forever.”

Rani's silence stretched out until Hal finally asked, “May I speak now?” She nodded, directing her gaze at the cobalt glass, willing her eyes to stop welling up.

“You've lost one family, Rani, and nothing I can say or do will change that. But just as you found other names, other castes for yourself, so you can find other families. You can join us, join the Fellowship of Jair.”

Foolish hope kindled in Rani's breast, but she doused it with the thought of all that
she had done. Hal must have read her mind, because he continued: “We have an open space, you know.
The one that belonged to Dalarati.”

Familiar guilt twisted through Rani, and she repeated the soldier's name. “Dalarati.”

Hal nodded. “Although, it's not fair of me to phrase our invitation like that. We were already waiting for you, before Dalarati died. We'd been watching you.”

“Me! Why would you watch me?”

“Because you were where we needed eyes and ears. You came to our attention after you joined the guild. You were close to Salina; you maintained a link to Bardo. You were our ideal agent. That's when the Fellowship first spotted you, when we came to believe that you might be one of us.” It was Hal's turn to cut off Rani's protest as he continued, “After Tuvashanoran was murdered, when we knew that the soldiers were looking high and low for you in the City, we feared that we would lose you. Mair made direct contact. You were brought before Borin, and he managed to keep you in the marketplace, to keep you safe from harm. Even so, after you served that egg-woman, the soldiers almost found you. Only Mair's early warning saved you.”

Rani blinked and could see the Touched girl slipping from Borin's portico, just before the Councilor sent Rani off to the cathedral. “But she sent me
into
danger. The Brotherhood attacked the cathedral!”

“We had no way of knowing they would do that, that they were so desperate to retrieve Morada's body. Mair arranged with Borin that you would bear the tithes, and then she went on ahead, to the cathedral. She was working with others in the Fellowship to make good your escape from the City. My father's guards had just come too close.”

“But why so much effort to save
me
?”

Hal was quiet for a long moment, and when he did speak, he chose his words carefully. “You were valuable to us, Rani. Once things quieted down in the City, we hoped to call you back from your refuge. We hoped that we could bring about the plan we'd hatched long ago. We wanted you to go to Bardo and be our agent within the Brotherhood.”

“You wanted to use me.”

“We wanted you to join us. We still do, Rani.”

“Join you! But I killed one of your number!”

“All unknowing. You reacted to the lies you were told, to the evil you were fed. I am still authorized to invite you to join us.”

“‘Authorized'? Who gives orders to the king of all Morenia?”

“You know our leader - Glair. The wise old woman who watched over you at the beginning of your quest, who kept guard over you in the dungeons.”

“The Touched crone!”

“Aye, or so she appears.” Hal nodded respectfully. Rani turned away from the king, questions boiling in her mind. Mechanically, she opened the shutters, stared out at the winter scene below. In the snow-blown courtyard, she could not make out the chopping block, could not see where the executioner's axe had forever changed her life. After a long minute, Hal spoke, so softly that she almost missed his words. “Will you join the Fellowship? Will you join us, Rani? Ranita? Ranimara? Rai?”

Rani - the name belonging to her family, the relatives who were executed at the royal command. Ranita - the name belonging to her lost guild, to the glasswrights who were scattered or dead. Ranimara - a soldier's name, like the soldier she had murdered. Rai - the name belonging to the Touched, the City's anonymous chaff.

She had no caste; she had no name; she had nowhere to go in all the City.

“We need you with us,” Hal whispered. “The Brotherhood may be vanquished, but Jair's way must still be tended.”

“I know nothing of Jair's way. I've got blood on my hands.”

“These are bloody times. The Fellowship will teach you about Jair.”

“I'm a thirteen-year-old orphan, without a caste.”

“You're one of us, if you desire.”

He took the fragment of blue glass from her reluctant fingers and set it on the bench before enfolding her hands between his own, like a liege recognizing a vassal. “Rani, when I saw you in the guard's hut, when I knew that you were going alone, to face the worst the Brotherhood could offer, I knew I had to take some action. I had to save you, in any way I could. Even as I issued the orders, I knew that it would not be easy for you, being arrested, submitting to the Defender's Judgment. I could not let you go, though, could not set you loose in the City streets, to face what the Brotherhood had in store for you.”

“But I'd been alone since the guild was destroyed.” She sighed, tasting yet again the bitter realization that the glasswrights had been ruined for nothing, all for a grand mistake. “That was a crime, Hal. The guild did nothing wrong; they knew nothing of Salina's plots.”

“It was wrong,” he agreed.

“Sometimes, I dream of rebuilding the guild, of gathering together the glasswrights who are still out there.…”

“I'll issue the orders today.”

“That's it? Just issue the orders and gather them in?”

“That's only the beginning of the work. But they can start over again, and you can help them.” Rani read the seriousness in his eyes, knew that he would send out the royal proclamation that afternoon.

“Just like that,” she shook her head, a little dazed. “Command the forces of the kingdom with a snap of your fingers. Just like when you sent the soldiers after me in the cathedral.”

He nodded seriously, not taking his eyes from her, not shirking from his role in bringing the Brotherhood to justice. “It was all that I could think to do.”

“So that doesn't leave me much of a choice now, does it?” A growing smile softened her words. “If I leave the Palace, I won't get as far as the cathedral close before you'll send soldiers after me?”

“Maybe a little farther,” he admitted. “The snow wreaks havoc with their armor.”

“We couldn't have that - rusty armor for the king's crack troops.”

Silence for a moment, and then Hal asked, “You'll stay?”

Rani nodded and spoke her words as solemnly as a vow. “I'll stay.”

Hal smiled as he released her hands, and then he reached behind her, closing the wooden shutters on the snow-filled courtyard, the City beyond, and the kingdom of all Morenia.

 

 

A SNEAK PEAK AT THE GLASSWRIGHTS' PROGRESS

Volume 2 of the Glasswrights Series

 

 

Rani Trader swung down from her tall bay stallion, taking a moment to pat the animal's muscled neck and catch her breath. The wind had torn at her lungs as she raced to the top of the rise, and she gasped for air, more than a little surprised that the past two years had given her the skill to ride so wildly. Behind her, several riders were strung out, flung across the tall grass like discarded chessmen. At the distant edge of the long, long plain, Rani could just make out the top of the City's tallest tower, already flecked with gold in the late afternoon light.

Rani's thoughts were not on Moren's towers, though. Instead, all of her attention was focused on Gry, the master falconer of Morenia. Rani's heart pounded as she stepped closer to the cadge that the falcon-master had set on the hilltop. Gry had left Moren early that morning, transporting by cart the sturdy birch enclosure and two prize falcons.

When Rani saw her kestrel's red and brown feathers, stark against the weathered supports of the cadge, she caught her breath. She was so pleased by Kalindramina that she scarcely spared a glance for the other raptor perched inside the enclosure. That bird was a peregrine, a falcon that merchant-born Rani would never be permitted to fly.

“Is she all right?” the girl asked the master falconer as she leaned over the kestrel. “Did the trip hurt Kalindramina?”

Gry snorted his gruff laugh and pulled at his right ear out of long habit. “Nothing will hurt that little falcon, my lady. She's too mean to be hurt. It's no wonder the king doesn't fly kestrels!
I
expected you to get here earlier in the day, though.” He weakened the implied criticism with another laugh.

“I wanted to.” Rani frowned. This was the first day in ages that she had managed to break free from her obligations in King Halaravilli's court, free from the endless parade of ambassadors and nobles, guildsmen and soldiers, all intent on bringing the greatest glory to the kingdom of Morenia. Rani could barely remember the time, only a couple of years before, when she'd been afraid to leave the City walls, when she'd feared bandits and plague and all manner of disaster outside Moren. Now, scarcely a morning passed that she didn't dream of escaping the palace and all her courtly obligations. She took a deep breath, filling her lungs with the sweet aroma of autumn grass.

And she wasn't even supposed to be free this afternoon. Rani had promised to work on her embroidery. Nurse frequently assured her that she'd never find a husband if she did not master neat, even stitches in her handwork. Bristling against the injustice that made her old enough to waste her days entertaining visiting nobles but young enough to be subject to Nurse's jurisdiction, Rani had nodded in reluctant agreement and promised to try harder. Promised, that was, until Nurse had bustled out of sight.

Of course, Rani justified, Nurse
might
have relaxed her vigil if she'd known that Kalindramina was ready to fly. Even though the old woman knew nothing of falconing, Rani might have convinced her that the small raptor was a needy creature in the world of the Thousand Gods, a poor soul that required human contact. Besides, Rani could have explained, she herself must learn to watch over man
and
beast if she were eventually to count herself a good guildmistress.

For Rani held the future of the glasswrights in her hands, as surely as she had recently gripped her stallion's reins. It would likely take decades, but the former apprentice intended to rebuild the guild that had been destroyed two years before. The stained-glass makers had fallen victim to rumors and lies, to the king's mistaken belief that the artisans had been responsible for the Crown Prince's assassination. The new king, Halaravilli, had held true to his word, though, and he had sent a notice throughout his lands that the glasswrights had been forgiven, that they could return to Moren. Unfortunately, few of the guildsmen had trusted the royal proclamation. They remembered bloodshed and torture; they remembered betrayal and death.

Rani was determined, though. Even if she had to temporarily leave the comfort of Morenia, even if she had to travel to some distant land to learn her craft, she
would
see the glaziers return to Hal's court. And years from now, Rani would be responsible for her own master craftsmen, for the journeymen and apprentices. Of course, she'd also need to watch over their horses, over the cats that she would keep in the granary to chase the mice, over the caged birds that would inspire the masters with their song. A kestrel would fit well into the menagerie.