The Chocolatier's Wife (3 page)

“Mamma,”
she
said,
“what
exactly
am
I
to
do
about
this?
He
is
my chosen,
and
I
think
it
is
good
that
we
get
to
like
each
other
before...
”
she changed “before we start making
children” to “…we begin living
together.”

“I
know.”
Her
mother
sighed.
“But
they
are
such
awful
people.
Nothing
like us.
Du
r
ing
the war...
”

“Five hundred years ago,”
Tasmin
interjected.

“They
took any
prisoners
they
found
with
the
gift
and
murdered
them outright.
It
didn’t
matter
if
they
were
Finders
or
Healers
or
Beast-Charmers or
those
with real power, they were all slain
before you
could pray for
their souls. And
you know
what happened to them after that.”

“Aye,
the
Lord
in
His
wisdom
made
it
so
that
any
born
in
the
South
lost most,
if
not
all,
of
their
Talents.
You’d
be
hard
pressed
to
find
a
Fire-Starter among
the
lot.”
She
took
the
cloth
off
her
mother
and
started
rinsing
off the
bleach.
“I
wonder
if
William
has
any
talents?
He
never
told
me
if
he
was tested. I
think
all of their Wise Women
come from
Tericia,
from
the East.”

Her
mother
sighed
a
great
martyr’s
sigh,
and
helped
Tasmin
rinse
her skin.
“If
you
put
in
for
the
Circle,
you
will
be
exempt
from
having
to
wed. Alcide
herself
says
that
you
are
gifted
with
herbs.
Think
of
the
life
you
could have
at
the
university,
teaching
the
craft
until
finally
Alcide
passes
on
and
her seat is left open. She will certainly r
e
quest that you fill
it.”

The
words
were
filled
with
their
own
sort
of
magic.
The
University
Circle
ruled
the
town,
and
all
the
Circles
in
Tarnia
ruled
together.
Their
town
was small, and
her
type
of
talent
would
mean that
she
wouldn’t
have
a
part
in any
major governmental
dec
i
sions,
but
she
would
be
part
of
the
body
that created
hospices
and
researched
new
ways
of
using
magic
to
improve
lives, and then
implemented
the
changes.
The
King
of
Berengeny,
who
ruled
all the
quarters
of
the
continent,
was
said
to
listen
very
closely
to
the
councils. It
was
his
ancestor
who,
three
hundred
years
ago,
had
approved
the
Mating Spell,
which
(though
most
had
forgotten,
whether
by
choice
or because
of propaganda)
had
been
first
discovered
by
a
council
in
the
North.
In
any
case,
it
was
a
life
of
comfortable
beds
and
exotic
meals,
velvet
and
silk, and
more
parchments
and
books
than
Tasmin
would
be
able
to
read
in three
lifetimes,
plus
access
to
the
best
quality
herbs, stones,
and
working materials.

“I
will think
about it,”
she said
to her mother as they washed her hair.

“That
is what you always say.”

“But
I
will.
I
am
nothing
if
not
obedient.”
Then
their
conversation
ended because her mother had dumped the rinse
water over
her head.

When
her
mother
was
gone,
after
pinning
Tasmin’s
hair
up
to
keep it
out
of
the
water,
Tasmin leaned
back
against
the
edge
of
the
bath
and thought
of
William. She
had
calculated
his
course,
using
his
last
letter
to find
out
heading
and
rough
position,
and
thought
that
it
was
likely
that
he was
in
the
Sea
of
Disea
by
now.
She
wished
she
could
picture
him,
but
it
was impossible.
If
the
persons
lived
in
different
locations, it
was
decreed
that they
should
never see
each
other
before
the
bride
was
sent
for,
to
prevent expectations
from
forming.
Her
mother
had
seen
him
during
the
spell
and was
not
very
tactful
about
his
looks:
“A
sturdy,
round-faced
boy.
Doubtless a chubby man.” Tasmin did not mind; she was not, herself, much to gaze upon
and
it
would
be
better
if
her
husband
was
not
desirable.
Well, too desirable, at any
rate.

She
thought
his
life
quite
exciting.
He
was
most
fortunate,
for he
was able
to
travel
the
world, going
from
port
to
port,
trading
for
goods
to
be shipped
back
to
his
fa
m
ily’s
warehouses,
where
merchants
looked
over the
shipments
and bought
what
they
liked
best.
They
were
a
merchanting family, had
been
for
years,
transporting
and
trading
all
over
the
world. William
had
told
her
once
that
he
had
lists
of
what
pe
o
ple
wanted,
and he
went
and
found
the
best
places
to
fulfill them.
He
told
her
that
he
was doing
as
much
of
the
shipping
work
now
as
possible,
so
that
when
they were
married, if
it
seemed
right,
he
could
spend
more
time
on
land.
Her letter
back had
approved
greatly
of
this
plan, for
she
had
not
wished
for herself a
life of widow’s walks and
worry.

Maybe he
likes
me,
then,
she
thought,
looking at
her
toes,
which
were propped on
the edge of the small tub.