Brightly Burning (37 page)

Not only did he have it, but Tuck did as well, and his friend volunteered to wait with him at the gate for Macy's arrival.

So the two of them waded through fresh snow up to their knees on the appointed afternoon, with more snow gently falling all around them. It was a particularly pretty, fluffy snow, falling through air that felt deceptively warm, covering bushes and coating the limbs of the trees. Daylight, filtered through clouds and falling snow, seemed to come from everywhere, gentle, soft, and pure. As they passed the Palace proper, courtiers and highborn were spread throughout the gardens, with the more high-spirited engaging in snow fights while the rest admired the scenery. Their handsome cloaks and coats of every possible hue, ornamented with fur and embroidery, made a fine show in the falling snow. The younger women, the Queen's handmaidens, dressed in various shades of blue ornamented with white fur and silver embroidery, watched and whispered among themselves as their suitors and would-be suitors showed off by pitching snowballs at targets and, occasionally, each other.

“Huh,” Tuck said, amused. “They wouldn't think it was such fun if they couldn't duck back into the nice, warm Palace and have servants rush up to them with dry clothes.”

“Probably not,” Lan agreed. “But d'you know, there's no harm in them enjoying it either. Nothing better than a good snowstorm when you've got a nice fire in front of you—and who was it wanted us to get snowbound back home?”

“Dunno,” Tuck replied, trying to look innocent and failing utterly.

They passed the formal gardens and the kitchen gardens, where the vegetable and herb beds, protected under mounds of straw, now had a smooth, insulating blanket of undisturbed snow on them that brought them up to the boys' waists. No one would dare plunder the kitchen gardens for snow for snowballs, not even during the hottest battle. The cooks and their helpers would have served a fricassee of the culprits' ears for dinner afterward.

A scraper pulled by a team of horses was clearing the road to the gate just as the boys got there, so the last part of their journey was on cleared paving. The Gate Guard was warming his feet at a brazier when they arrived, and greeted them cordially.

“Sister, eh?” the Guard said, when they explained their errand. “Older or younger?” A young man, well-muscled and good-natured, not terribly handsome but not ugly either, he obviously was not averse to a bit of flirting with a Trainee's sister.

“Younger,” Lan replied, and the guard feigned disappointment, shaking his head so that snow that had accumulated on his fur cap fell around him in little clumps.

“And you've none older?” he persisted, grinning hopefully. “No chance there might be two sisters coming instead of one?”

“He doesn't, but I do,” Tuck spoke up. “Two older sisters, very pretty, or so I'm told, and very friendly. And I
might
see my way clear to introducing them if you'd look the other way when I come in late some night—”

The Guard laughed and shook his head reprovingly at Tuck. “No use asking
me
to do that,” he chuckled. “The ones they pick for night-watch are all older fellows, with daughters of their own, probably daughters the same age as your sisters! They don't take kindly to lads who want to sneak out to town for a bit of fun and overstay their curfew.”

Tuck sighed gustily. “
Just
my luck!” he complained aloud. “I think I've finally got a use for the girls and it turns out they
still
don't do me any good!”

Lan interrupted any further complaints. “There she is now!” he exclaimed, waving, as he recognized Macy in her brown wool cloak edged with fox fur, driving up the road in a hired pony cart painted red. She handled the reins quite neatly, but then back at Alderscroft she had done a great deal of the marketing in her own little two-wheeled cart when their mother was too busy or too deep in a project to go.

She waved back, but didn't urge the pony to go any faster. Then again, she might already have discovered that it was difficult to get a hired beast out of a fast walk. Both pony and cart were plain and reliable, and exactly the sort of conveyance that Lan would have expected her to pick for herself.

“You didn't tell me she was pretty!” Tuck exclaimed, his green eyes as round as gooseberries, just before she got within earshot. Lan didn't bother with the obvious answer that it hadn't occurred to him; it also hadn't occurred to him that Tuck might be smitten with his sister. He certainly hadn't had that reaction with any of Tuck's siblings!
What a thought—Tuck taking a fancy to Macy! I wonder if she's likely to fancy him back? Wouldn't that be one in Mother's eye. I reckon she's got her mind set on wedding Macy off to some Guildmaster's son or even a highborn.

Smitten or not, Tuck had recovered completely by the time Macy brought the cart to a halt in front of the gate and got out to let the Guard inspect her cart and its contents. Tuck introduced himself, jaunty as ever, without waiting for Lan to do the honors.

“Oh, you're the Trainee he was visiting!” Macy said in recognition, tucking her dark auburn curls under her hood. “That was awfully nice of you. I wish
I
had someone to go stay with over the holidays. It got quite horrible at times with all the children getting into fights over toys, Granny complaining and passing judgment on everything and everybody, and Mother wanting me to run errands for everybody, and never mind what I was already doing.” She sighed. “I want a holiday like we
used
to have, without cramming more relations into the house than it can hold.”

“Sounds right miserable,” Tuck sympathized.

Instead of getting back in the cart when the Guard finished his inspection and waved her inside the Palace walls, she led the pony forward. “Mother had another Guild meeting at the house, and Cook baked an indecent number of honey cakes for it,” she said to both boys, as Tuck and Lan walked on either side of her. “There were
piles
of leftovers, so I thought you and your friends might as well get the benefit of Mother trying to impress the other Guild members.”

Lan caught the not-so-faint hint of exasperation in Macy's voice with surprise; evidently his sister was getting tired of their mother's obvious attempts at social climbing.

“I wish she'd go back to designing and stitching, and spend less time—or should I say,
waste
less time—toadying to anyone with any influence,” Macy concluded. “I'm tired of having to dress up and interrupt
my
work to help hand around trays. I'm tired of interrupting my work to go run errands.”

“I can understand that,” Lan said soothingly. “Maybe what you ought to do is spend more time at the Guild Hall with the other apprentices instead. If you aren't there at hand in the house, if you're actually
in
a lesson with another Guild member, she can't drag you into helping when you should be learning. It would be dreadfully bad manners to take you away from a lesson with someone that might be her peer or superior, and if there's one thing Mother won't do, it's display bad manners.”

“That's a good idea,” Macy mused, brushing aside her hair with one hand as she led the placid pony with the other. “I mean, when we were back at Alderscroft, there wasn't anyone else to learn from but her, and nowhere else to work but at home, but that's not the case here.”

Lan smiled. “You might even learn something she can't teach you. She doesn't know
every
technique, after all. I've never seen her knit a great deal, for instance.”

Macy laughed and changed the subject. “She doesn't know fancy braiding. I learned that all by myself—which reminds me; here—”

Macy reached into a pocket of her coat, and pulled out a shining white, seamless band. “Here, this is for you,” she said. “I made it from Kalira's hair, that's what I wanted it for.”

Lan took it; the intricate braiding amazed him, and he literally could not see where the ends of each horsehair were. It looked to be about the size for a bracelet and he slipped it on over his wrist, smiling to feel Kalira's hair lying smoothly against his skin.

“See? Mother doesn't know how to do that.” Macy was quite pleased with herself. “I made a set for myself, and everyone who sees it wants one.”

Lan laughed. “Don't think you can make a business out of this!” he warned. “We can't have you denuding our Companions of hair just so silly women can wear jewelry made from it!”

Macy laughed, too. “I don't intend to make it from Companion hair; I'm going to see if I can't braid it from horsehair and silk yarn. I don't think
everyone
should have Companion hair, it's too special for that.”

“Maybe fine silver wire,” Tuck suggested speculatively. “Wire that fine would cost you, though.”

“True, but it's a good suggestion.” Macy beamed on him, and Tuck basked in her approval. “I could practice on copper at first; the maids would probably appreciate my practice pieces.”

“How much of the Collegium do you want to see?” Lan asked, as they neared the stables for the ordinary horses. “We can leave the pony and cart here and come get them when you're ready to go home.”

“All of it!” was Macy's reply.

So show her all of it, they did, from one end to the other, stopping at Lan's room to leave the laundry basket of honey cakes she'd brought him, for she really had not exaggerated the amount of leftovers. There would certainly be a merry little party in their section of the students' quarters tonight!

Macy was suitably impressed, and their friends were in turn quite taken with her. Lan lost no opportunity to display her handiwork, and she left with several skeins of Companion hair, each neatly labeled, and the commission to make more bracelets like Lan's. The Companions were just as taken with the notion as their Chosen, and quite insisted that she get more than she needed, even though it meant pulling perfect hairs afresh.

“Can I see Healer's and Bardic, too?” Macy asked when their tour was over. Lan scratched his head.

“I don't know anyone in Bardic, but there's someone in Healer's who could probably show us around, if she isn't busy,” he said. “Let's go find out.”

Tuck was not willing to let Macy do without his escort as well, so he came along as a willing third as they hiked across the grounds to Healer's Collegium. When they reached the building and stepped inside, Macy looked around with great interest. In the interest of cleanliness over anything else, the floors and walls were tiled in pale green ceramic, and the lighting was all accomplished with glass-chimneyed oil lamps. Healer's was a bit different from Herald's Collegium in that there were not as many structured classes as such. Instead, the Trainees did a great deal of study on their own, and worked directly with the teachers, one at a time, in each specialty, until they found the one they were best suited to.

As a consequence, there were not many classrooms, but there
were
a number of rooms in which animals suffering from various injuries and illnesses were housed. In the earliest stages of their training, Trainee Healers were rarely allowed to work on human patients, instead tending to animals brought to the Collegium by their owners. This aspect of the Collegium made it very popular with farmers and pet owners, and there was never a lack of subjects for them to learn their craft on. Even wild animals were sometimes brought here for tending.

Somehow, instead of resembling a crazed blend of barnyard and zoo, there was very little evidence of what these rooms were for out in the hallway. Peace and quiet reigned, with only the occasional call, bark, or whistle to show that the place was full of birds and animals. And as far as scent went, the stalls and cages were kept so scrupulously clean, as were the patients, that the only aroma was that of the clean straw used for their bedding, overlaid with the scent of herbs used to repel vermin.

Lan motioned for Tuck and Macy to stay near the entrance, while he asked several teachers or Trainees if any of them knew where Elenor was. As luck would have it, she was not far off at that very moment, and since the teacher in question was going in her direction anyway, he promised to tell her of Lan's arrival. Lan thanked him profusely as he bustled off.

They didn't wait long. Lan spotted Elenor at the end of the hallway hurrying toward them with a bright and expectant expression, and he waved at her. As she neared and saw he wasn't alone, for some reason she faltered, and her face lost some of its brightness.

“Elenor!” Lan called. “You know my friend Tuck, and this is my sister Macy. Macy wanted to get a tour of Healer's. Do you have time to give us one, or could you find us someone who can?”

“
Your
sister?” was Elenor's reply. “Not Tuck's? I thought Tuck was the one with all the sisters.”

It was a curious question, or so it seemed to Lan, but since it didn't seem to signify anything, he assumed it was just curiosity. “No,” he answered, grinning. “Macy's mine. She just looks more like Mother than I do.”

“Which is a blessing,” Macy retorted, poking him in the arm teasingly, “since you'd make an
ugly
girl!”

Elenor brightened back up again, and Lan decided that it was only shyness that had made her expression change. “As it happens, I have just enough time to show you about, and I would be happy to!” she said, and proceeded to give them a whirlwind tour.

Macy was fascinated, although she blanched a bit at the room where people were actually cutting into a dog to remove a growth, and backed out of the one where a wound that had gone bad was being cleaned out. Lan didn't blame her; it was a wonder to him how gentle Elenor managed to observe all of this with equanimity.