Glasswrights' Test (11 page)

“Yes!”

“But they've never seen any need to take notice of you before.”

“There's been no reason to.” Rani sighed in exasperation. “Tovin, you aren't paying attention. This isn't about my being journeyman! This is about being declared a master!”

“This is about your traveling to Brianta.”

“And what is wrong with that?” He looked at her sharply, and she swallowed hard, softening the tone of her voice, explaining, pleading. “The guild is in Brianta, now. They were forced there because of me.”

Tovin sighed and rested his hands upon his thighs. “You still insist that you wronged them.”

“I did, Tovin. I've told you many times. The guild was destroyed because of me.”

“The guild was destroyed because of a mistake, a mistake made by your old King Shanoranvilli. The guild was destroyed because the Brotherhood murdered Prince Tuvashanoran. The guild was destroyed because Instructor Morada refused to come forward and confess her involvement.”

Rani started to argue, to remind him that she had been the one to summon Tuvashanoran to his death, but then she realized that she could use Tovin's words against him. “Yes,” she said. “All that is true. And Parion Glasswright must now recognize what truly happened. That must be why he has written to me. He wants to make amends for all the past mistakes, for all our former misunderstandings.”

“I wonder. …”

“You wonder what?”

“I wonder why he contacts you now. When Berylina plans to travel to Brianta.”

“What could a glasswright master thousands of leagues away possibly know about the plans of a fugitive princess in Morenia?”

“What indeed. …” Tovin twisted his question into a sigh. “Would you listen to me if I said this note holds danger?”

“How could it?”

“Would you listen if I begged you not to go to the guild?”

“Tovin, I—”

“What if I said that I'd come with you? That I'd enter the guildhall with you to keep you safe from harm?”

“Would you?” Surprising herself with the rush of relief that flooded her body, Rani realized that she had been denying her own fear. “You'd travel all the way to Brianta?”

Tovin reached out to the boiling pot, taking a long moment to stir his glue. “I might as well,” he sighed. “As long as I'm already pledged to accompany you and Berylina.”

Rani barely restrained herself until he had drawn back from the hot glue, and then she threw her arms around him. “Thank you! I'll be able to succeed now, knowing you'll be with me.”

He folded his arms around her and rested his chin atop her head for just an instant. Then, he pushed her back and cupped his palm against her jaw. “You understand that this will not be easy, don't you? They won't take kindly to the instruction you've gained from me. They'll treat every one of my glasswork lessons as suspect, challenge every method that I've taught you.”

“We must convince them.”

“They will not want to make you master in the guild.”

“When they see my work, they'll have no choice.”

“They will, though. Ranita, they have all the choices.”

She laughed, refusing to acknowledge the warning behind his words. “Do you doubt your own skills, Tovin Player? Are you questioning if you've taught me well?”

He shook his head, but smiled at her taunting. “I know just what I've taught you, girl. I know you'll pass any fair test that is set for you.”

“Any one?” She took a step closer to his work table.

“Any one at all.”

Rani's laugh was lost against the linen of his tunic.

 

* * *

 

“Ye think ye'll meet up wi' th' glasswright guild fer
what
?” Mair's shriek awakened Laranifarso, who had been sleeping comfortably in his mother's arms. The child began to wail, clutching his hands into tight fists and squeezing his eyes closed. Mair clucked to him apologetically, raising him to her shoulder. “Now look wha' ye've made me do!”

“I haven't made you do anything, Mair.” Rani shook her head, fighting the urge to laugh at her friend.

“At least this bairn 'as th' sense th' Thousand Gods gave 'im, t' stay safe 'n' warm i' th' city o' 'is birth.” Laranifarso seemed determined to prove his mother a liar; he continued to wail as if he had no sense at all, no concept of any world beyond his own sorrow.

“I have sense, Mair. I have sense enough to know that this is the chance I've been waiting for.” Rani paced beside the garden bench, oblivious to the roses that bloomed behind her friend. She watched as Mair stroked her son's cheek, saw that the baby was beginning to calm. She took advantage of the quieter moment to fumble for words. “It was one thing for Hal to declare me a journeyman, in Liantine. The technical knowledge for that rank is important, but everyone knows that journeyman is truly a financial status. I made my donation to the crown, as expected, and so Hal had the authority to raise me in the guild.”

“And if you give the crown enough gold now, he'll raise you up again. There's no reason for you to see the guild in Brianta.” Mair had calmed down enough that she abandoned the Touched patois of her youth. Her relative peace seemed to extend to her son, who snuffled for a few more breaths and then stuffed one fat fist into his mouth, sucking industriously on his knuckles.

Rani closed her fingers in her skirts, clenching them tight as she tried to form her argument. “I don't expect you to understand. I don't expect you to place the same value on the guild that I do. I know that you grew up as a Touched girl. You think that our rankings and status are absurd.”

“You were raised as a merchant girl, Rai.”

“But my merchant family paid to see me enter the guild. My parents hoarded their silver to see me advance. My own brother passed up the opportunity to make his pilgrimage so that I could join the guild. I have to make that sacrifice worthwhile. I have to give it meaning.”

“So that's what this is all about! You plan to make the pilgrimage that Bardo never made!”

Rani started to protest. She had never thought that at all! It had never occurred to her that she might redeem her brother so directly.

And yet had it not? Had she not envisioned her cavalcade, from nearly the first instant that she promised Hal that she'd accompany Berylina. She would already be in Brianta, after all. She would be at the shrines. How could she visit Brianta and
not
make an offering to Hern, the god of merchants? How could she ignore Bote, the god of silver, San, the god of iron? Her family had planted their roots in those deities. No one could begrudge her offering up her faith to the gods.

She swallowed hard. “There's nothing I can do for Bardo now. He made his choices. I cannot redeem him.”

“If I thought for one moment that you actually
believed
yourself, I would not be half so worried.”

“There's nothing to worry about, Mair.”

“Except for why a master glasswright has contacted you for the first time in eleven years. Why he has offered to let you compete for the title you crave most in all the world. Why he is willing to overlook the death and destruction that he attributes to you, justly or no.”

“Even mountains are worn away by time,” Rani quoted.

“Not in eight years.”

“What else am I supposed to do, Mair? I've already promised Hal that I'll go with Berylina. There's no reason for me to rush home. You've heard Hal's proclamation. There are to be no celebrations for an entire year, in honor of the dead princes. No commitments for the players. No commissions for my glasswork.”

“The king intends to appease the Thousand Gods for any wrong he might have committed. He hopes to stop his stream of misfortune.”

“I know
why
he does it! I just don't know how I am supposed to respond. I cannot sit and watch the seasons change, doing nothing. I don't have a household of my own to keep me busy!”

Mair gazed at her shrewdly. “Then accept your Tovin's offer and wed the man. Create your ‘household,' if that's what you desire.”

“That's not it!” Rani's answer was immediate, hot, and she was horrified to feel tears gather at the back of her throat. She swallowed hard and looked across the garden, focusing on the pond amid the grass, the birds that twittered in the oak tree to her right. She took a deep breath and forced herself to explain, “That's not enough, Mair. I had a mission before Tovin came to Moren, and I've got a mission now.”

“A mission to achieve master status in the glasswrights' guild.”

“Or to fail trying.”

Mair settled more comfortably on the bench, letting Rani's oath drift across the garden. Laranifarso had fallen back to sleep, his wet eyelashes dark upon his cheeks. “Farso had thought that I would travel with him, when he rides home to supervise the harvest. He won't be pleased to have me traveling to Brianta.”

“Oh, Mair, I couldn't ask you to come!”

“You couldn't ask, but I can choose.”

“With the baby?”

“He's too small to leave behind with his father.”

“But it would be madness to take him to Brianta!”

“Rai, the babe is traveling one place or another. Either he goes with his father and me to the Oaken Hall, or he goes with you and me to Brianta. It's not like we're off to join the Little Army.”

“Would Farso ever agree?”

“I can convince him.” Mair smiled archly. “He'll come to see my way of thinking. Do you think he could stop me, once I've made up my mind?”

 

* * *

 

Rani resisted the temptation to tug at the hood that hid her face. She had not had time to gather her silk mask—the Fellowship would have to accept her well-intentioned effort to disguise her identity. After all, when she had first learned of the shadowy organization's structure, they had only worn black robes, hiding their faces in deep, peaked hoods. The masks were a new trapping, one that was not vital.

A message from the Fellowship had been waiting for Rani when she returned to her tower room after supper, a small scrap of parchment curling in the middle of her work table. “Speak to Jair at midnight.” Now that the night approached that hour, the Pilgrims' Bell tolled, its steady call muffled by the walls surrounding Rani. She shivered as she thought of other midnight assignations, other secret meetings that had resulted in death and chaos.

Nevertheless, a longstanding sense of obligation to the Fellowship drove her to the group's newest meeting place. Rani had made her way from the palace without divulging her destination, accomplishing her escape by ostentatiously displaying a pair of candles and whispering Nome's name. No one, not even the most zealous of the King's Men, would challenge a worshiper who seemed intent on saluting the lost princes.

Rani had kept her steps even as she headed toward the cathedral. It was only after the street curved and she was out of sight of the guards' hut that she picked up her pace and hurried to the Merchants' Quarter.

That part of Moren had been rebuilt in the last three years. Broad streets cut through the ancient section of town, taking advantage of the fire that had razed the former tumble of narrow passages. Rani missed the twisting byways of her childhood, the winding lanes that she had memorized even as she learned to walk.

The new quarter, though, boasted one of Davin's greatest innovations. The ancient inventor had suggested a system of alleys laid out behind each row of merchants' shops. The plan permitted private entrances for the families that lived above their stores. Deliveries could be made in secret, deterring both thieves and competitors. Slops could be thrown into the alleys, leaving the main streets cleaner, more inviting for the customers who supported the merchants.

Davin had argued with the city planners for days, insisting that his system was worth the extra space, worth the land lost to alleys. The Merchant Council was divided; no one wanted to pay a premium for land that was not directly traversed by customers, but everyone agreed that merchants must keep potential buyers content. Ultimately, Hal himself had sanctioned the plan.

Rani wondered if the Fellowship had had a hand in the creation of the alleys. Three of their last meeting places had debouched onto one of the dark passages. Tonight's destination was no different—as she'd woven deeper and deeper into the Quarter, Rani had heard families at work and play around her. Nevertheless, she had been sheltered from witnesses who might have noted her passage if she'd been on the main streets.

She wondered how her own family would have reacted to the new design. Her mother would have loved the privacy of the back entrance, the ability to keep mud and muck from the rooms where goods were sold. Her father, though, would have grumbled about the lost land. Jotham Trader would have calculated just how many shops could have stood on all the alleyways combined. He would have reminded his wife precisely what her scrubbed floors cost. Rani's mother would have laughed at the teasing, would have told Jotham that cleanliness was worth three times the price. …

“Speak, Fellow.”

Rani jumped. She had lost herself so completely in her memories, in her dreams, that she had not heard anyone approach. Nevertheless, she choked out her response: “The sparrow hides its heart within the clouds.” Sparrow. Heart. Clouds. Not as grim as many of the Fellowship's passwords.

“Very well. Follow me.” The command was whispered in a voice so soft that Rani was not certain if her guide was a man or a woman. The figure held a lantern that was nearly completely shuttered; only one narrow beam of light fell upon the floor, guiding Rani's feet down a narrow flight of stairs. She shuffled along a close corridor, ducking to pass through several low doorways.

Where were they going? How could this extensive system of tunnels exist beneath the new shops in the Merchants' Quarter?