You could say that again. She must have felt my mood, for as I passed, she stood up and pushed her head into my hand. Comfort flowed out of her.
You are mine, her thoughts said. Do you need to be anything more?
What would I do without her?
CHAPTER FOUR
USUALLY, THE BOTTOM of the Eyrie was a cheerless stone hall, with the echoing vault of the tower rising above it like a giant chimney. But when the family visited and it was put to its proper use, we unpacked all the furnishings and it was filled with low couches, rich carpets, cushions and tables. The tapestries were hung back on the walls and the space became warm and comfortable… but very loud. The wooden stairs and balconies leading to the rooms on every level of the tower echoed with the thumps and shouts of servants carrying luggage up to the rooms above, and of retainers using magic to levitate the bigger articles up to the appropriate floors. The hum of people in the hall below was already rising to a roar as everyone tried to hear each other above the din.
The family, at the eye of the storm, had flopped onto the brocade-covered couches in the centre of the hall. Our servants were already moving among them handing out wine and teacups and little meatballs on sticks. I checked with Thomas that all was well with the accommodation, and that Tane the Blessing cook hadn’t gone home in a huff. As far as I was concerned the family could starve, but it was Eff they’d take it out on and she’d borne enough.
“Sweetie,” said a voice in my ear as Thomas turned away. And there was Auntie Four and Cousin Two with Great Uncle Five, all the mundane members of our family who usually came along at Blessing time. In a large traditional family like the Lucheyarts, the same first names got used again and again. To prevent confusion, the mundanes were simply known by the place they came in birth order.
Cousin Two was Auntie Splen’s daughter—Lumina and Blazeann’s sister—and acted as a kind of secretary to her mother. She was skinny and beaky but a keen follower of fashion, and had dyed her hair white, which looked odd against her dark skin but very striking. She told me it was ghost fashion—all the rage in Elayison. Auntie Four, who was Eff’s favourite sister and her main source of family gossip, enveloped me in a warm lavender and wintergreen hug, and gave me a bag of sweets. As usual Great Uncle Five offered to take me newt hunting. He had retired from active service, but he came for the natural history opportunities. Their fussing and exclaiming soothed my wounded soul. The most powerful members of the family were pig rats, but there were some nice ones, too, and it was a pleasure to see them. I let myself drift along with their chatter.
Unfortunately, that meant that when they fluttered away to check on their sleeping arrangements, I found myself standing, completely exposed to criticism, in among the family’s couches.
Auntie Splendance was sitting back taking deep appreciative draws from a long thin smoke pipe, while Lucient packed another one. Blazeann was scanning the manservants, pleating a cloth of gold flower in her hand. She already had three daughters, but the Imperial family could never have enough. To win the gamble of breeding girl-children with magical powers, you had to have a lot of entries in the pool.
Lord Impavidus, who was standing surveying the scene with an offensively proprietary air, raised his hands and clapped. A silken canopy spread out from the landing above us, floating over to the opposite landing to be tied to the banisters by waiting servants. That was new—and what a good idea! Suddenly it was much quieter in the hall.
“This place is a dump!” Lumina’s voice rang out loudly in the sudden quietness. I felt my jaw clenching.
Eff, scooting past, gave me a grin and a wink and turned to Lumina—who already had a huge plate of dainties on her lap—and solicitously inquired if she had enough to eat and drink.
“Oh, yes, Lady Lumina,” added Impi, “watch your weight. You know how inclined you are to porkiness.” All quite needlessly, since Lumina was obsessively careful of her weight. The maids told me she often threw up her meals.
Lumina flushed and threw the plate of dainties onto an occasional table. His second snide remark for the Blessing period; we were off and racing. I headed for the door before Impi could start picking on me.
A hand caught mine. Lucient smiled up at me from his couch and pulled me down beside him.
“Sweetheart, I’ve brought you some lovely travel stories. Come and hear about them.” He had a tendency to tell me the whole contents of whatever book he was reading in mind-numbing detail, but he did read some interesting books.
Lucient’s valet leaned over and held a lighted taper over my cousin’s long elegant smoke pipe. Lucient took a long appreciative pull. In the last couple of years he seemed to have become as big a smoke rat as his mother.
“Ah, just the thing! Now I’ve brought you one about the pagan tribes of Omorod and a lovely one about the archaeology of Parratee. The city was first settled over two thousand years ago, would you believe? Will you take a draw?”
I took a draw from the offered pipe. A hot unfamiliar taste filled my mouth and I coughed.
Lucient thumped me on the back. I seized the glass of water which the ever-capable valet presented.
“Sweetheart, so sorry. I should have thought. It’s the new dreamsmoke the ghosts have introduced. The most marvellous dreams, but it’s so strong and burns so hot. You need to take little pulls. Or a lot of people use a water pipe. What’s that? Are we to have no peace?”
With a creak, the huge iron doors of the Eyrie had swung open again.
“Shine! Shine!” cried Auntie Eff, rushing towards them. “Someone else is arriving. Oh, Lady, first one extra mage and now another. Thomas, quickly! Make up another couple of rooms. No, I don’t know where we’re going to put another mage! It looks like one of Flara’s lineage. Ah, yes! Lady Chatoyant. And she has Lady Glisten with her. Oh, no, that’s two!”
I was taking such great pleasure in whispering to Thomas that he should move Impi’s noble nephews into the stable with the mundane menservants to make room that way, that I took a while to notice how Lucient was tugging my arm.
“Shine, stay with me. Please!” he hissed.
“I have to go and greet her.”
Lucient pulled me back.
“Shine’s staying with me, Auntie Eff.”
I shrugged at Eff, who had more important things to worry about and flustered away.
“Let her go,” purred Lumina. “I’ll protect you from Toy.”
“Even I’m not smoked up enough to believe that, darling sis,” scowled Lucient.
Lumina flicked his cheek, a playful gesture on the surface but hard enough to make him wince. As she flounced away, I hissed, “What’s going on? Are you getting me into trouble?”
“No, no, Toy never notices gentry. Me, on the other hand, she claims to be absolutely smitten with. I can’t shake her off.”
He didn’t seem her sort. Chatoyant was active and busy. Lucient was... not. He caught my raised eyebrow and didn’t take it as an insult.
“I don’t think she really wants me, but she knows I’m in line to be the next Avunculus. Bloody Flara’s get; they’re all so ambitious.”
“But if you take Toy’s keys, she’ll do all the work of being Blazeann’s Avunculus. Could be an easy life for you, Lucient,” I said.