Kate Elliott - Cold Magic

She turned quite, quite pink, as with shame.

"Bee!" I said.

She jumped to her feet and strode to the window, her back to me. "I know nothing of what you have suffered, and yet here I am speaking only of my own mild difficulties. I'm terribly selfish."

Astonishingly, she burst into tears. Real, raw tears.

I ran to her and hugged her, and she pushed me away and cursed so frightfully that I laughed. She wiped her eyes and threw one killing look toward Rory, who had closed his eyes and was pretending to not be there.

"Bee! What happened?" I demanded.

"No, you tell me first," she cried. "Tell me what they did to you!

"I'll tell you everything, but I want to hear your story first so I can start making a plan."

She set a palm on the perfectly polished glass of one of the windowpanes. The garden, in winter, wore its green yew hedges as its brightest tone; leafless fruit trees lined a path toward several round graneries partially obscured by willow hurdles set around them like a stockade. Beyond lay stables and laundry. The high stone boundary walls were obscured by trimmed evergreen yew trees, guardian against magic. For a house in Adur-nam, they had a lot of land.

I waited, and she began.

"You can imagine what happened after the magister hauled you away that night. Mother and Father did not sleep. A few chests were packed with clothes, necessaries, and Father's private correspondence."

"What happened to the package Andevai-the magister- gave to Uncle?"

"They burned it first thing, all of it. They threw that book you found on the fire, too."

"Lies the Romans Told?."

"Yes. But when they weren't looking, I pulled it out and hid it behind Uncle Daniel's journals. Which they left behind."

"They left behind the journals? How could they?"

She shrugged. "We left the house before dawn and went straight to the harbor. A Kena'ani captain was obliged to offer us passage when Father invoked the old custom of motherhouse. While we waited in a cabin on the ship, Mama and Papa told me the truth. Thirteen years ago, a contract was forced onto the Hassi Barahal clan by Four Moons House. The magisters held evidence that the Barahals had spied for Camjiata during his campaigns while at the same time selling information to the princes and mage Houses allied against Camjiata. In exchange for keeping the evidence of this double-dealing a secret, the magisters had the right to take possession of the eldest Barahal daughter at any time before she reached her majority. Me, Cat. It was me they wanted, not you."

"1 know."

"How could Mama and Papa think I would ever forgive them, once I found out?" Bee…

"Let me finish. The tide turned and the ship sailed. I sweet-talked the harbor pilot into smuggling me on board the pilots skill when he returned to harbor. The ship could not turn

against the tide, so they went on to Gadir without me. I hope they think I cast myself overboard and drowned!"

"Bee!"

"I don't mean it! Not for the girls' sake. I left a note. I didn't want Hanan and Astraea worrying. They Were so scared, for I had to drag them from their beds and make them dress in the dark in the terrible cold. Shiffa and Evved and Cook went, too, but I knew Pompey and Callie remained behind. I walked home. But you know, Cat, there was almost no food left in the root cellar, and coal enough for only a week, and no money at all. I can't imagine how we were meant to survive the winter had we not been forced to flee!"

"But-"

"Pompey went back to his family in the country. I gave him some things he could sell, for I thought it only fair he should have a severance wage. Callie has nowhere to go, you know. She's got no kin. I couldn't turn her out on the street, so we sold off a few things Mama and Papa had left behind. Once I was certain we had sufficient coal to heat the kitchen and grain to keep two of us for some months-for Callie knows exactly where to find the cheapest victuals at the tradesmen's market- then I went to the academy and asked to speak to the headmaster. I asked him to contact Four Moons House for me so I could exchange myself for you."

"Bee!"

"But first he made me describe the ceremony to him, the one we witnessed, when the jelly was brought in."

"It's djeli," I said. Then: "But you were sent upstairs. You didn't witness it."

"I peeked! After I described it, he told me that the law allows the head of the house to dispose of any minor under his rule at his pleasure, which means Uncle had a perfect right to marry you off against your will while you were still underage. Worse, a marriage chained by magic cannot be severed under any circumstances except by the death of one of the people involved." She caught my wrist in a bruising grasp. "They tried to kill you, didn't they, Cat? Didn't they?"

My voice was a hoarse whisper. "Yes."

"But you escaped those hateful mages! You escaped, Cat, and you came back. I knew it was what you would do."

She was flushed and magnificent, refulgent with indignation and pride. As if the sorcery of beauty had called, the door opened and Amadou Barry, Roman legate, stepped into the chamber. Seeing her, he halted as if he had slammed into stone. The chamber could have erupted into a blazing storm of fiery flying pigs, and he would have had eyes for only Beatrice.

"You are not wanted," she said imperiously, with a flick of her hand.

He opened his mouth, closed it, and went out. The door closed with a snap behind him.

"Well, there's a change of heart," I said, reflecting that Andevai would have argued instead of retreating. "Once, you did little else but moon over his handsome eyes and pleasing manners."

"I do not see him. I do not recognize him."

"You're so flushed I think I am going to have to fan myself. What happened?"

"She loves him, she loves him," said Rory in exactly the tone thirteen-year-old Hanan would use to tease her older sister.

She crossed her arms and glowered at him. "Who do you think would win, dear cousin, if it came down to battle between you and me?"

He laughed without stirring in the least, entirely unaffected by a stare that would have obliterated any other man. "You're delectable when you're angry. I could just eat you up."

"You could just try," she retorted. "You remind me of that little beast Astraea, unrepentantly spoiled."

"And you remind me of my younger sister-not Cat, but the other one-the one who is tiresome and self-absorbed and who never shuts up, yowling day and night for attention."

I broke in before the duel got ugly. "Bee, he's not joking. He could eat you up. Now tell me what else the headmaster said."

"He told me that by no means should I return home. That Four Moons House would likely come after me. He sent his dog-"

"His dog?" asked Rory, licking his lips.

"His assistant, the albino from the east," she said impatiently. "Anyway, the dog went scouting and came back to report that soldiers wearing the livery of Four Moons House had stationed themselves outside our house. So the headmaster offered to protect me. You can imagine my surprise when he summoned Amadou Barry. Who is no student. He's an agent working for Rome."

"He's a legate."

"Yes, that's how the headmaster addressed him." Her lips quirked up in an ironic, even sarcastic, smile. "And because I am very clever, I discovered that Legate Amadou Barry is the one who brought that book to the academy."

"Lies the Romans Told?. Why would a Roman legate possess that book?" But I recalled Shiffa's words. "Unless it was a code-book. Written by a Barahal. You don't think-?"

"That he came to the academy to ingratiate himself with Barahal girls? Whose parents might know something of it?" She fluttered her lashes, all honey, and then smiled a cruel smile. "I told them Papa burned it."