Bryony gave an exaggerated shudder. “Me too! Can you imagine me spending my life foraging for food on some icy rock?”
“Not at all. But then you’re far too fierce for that. No doubt you’d have been fighting mountain lions, or some such.”
“Well, I prefer being here and fighting the human versions.” She winked at me, reminding me of my description of Dellion on our first day.
“You would certainly have been wasted on the mountain lions,” I said. “And they are no doubt happy to be left in peace again without humans invading their territory.”
“Talking about fighting…” Bryony said in her most wheedling voice.
I winced. “I’m truly sorry about abandoning you on rest days, Bree, but even you have to admit it’s freezing outside in the mornings.”
“We could still run inside, though. Like we did last year.” Her hopeful look almost made me laugh.
“That’s true,” I said. “We could. In fact, why don’t we do it right now?”
“Yes!” She leaped up and down, her face wreathed in smiles. There wasn’t much that could keep Bryony suppressed for long.
I smiled back. The mindless exercise would do me good. Maybe I could regain some of the perspective I’d allowed myself to abandon in the last weeks.
Chapter 13
Pounding up and down the stairs and along the hidden servants’ corridors proved even more cathartic than I’d hoped. It had been nearly a year since Bryony and I ran this route last, but everyone we encountered flattened themselves against the wall at our approach as they had learned to do in winter of our first year. And they smiled at us as we passed.
Seeing them only reminded me how much I had let myself be consumed by my focus on my ability. At the start of the year, I had resolved to discover more about the position of the Kallorwegian commonborns—for the sake of both Ardann and Darius—and yet here we were approaching Midwinter, and I had done nothing toward that goal.
As we ran, I kept an eye out for both Ida and Zora, but we encountered neither of them. When we finished our exercise, I dragged Bryony back to my suite. I wasn’t going to make the mistake of shutting her out again.
“You just spent the whole summer break in Corrin,” I said, after telling her what I wanted to discover. “Have you noticed a difference between our commonborns and the ones here?”
“Definitely,” she said, without needing to pause and consider. “The issue of the commonborns always made me a little uncomfortable when we visited Ardann in the past from the Empire. I didn’t grow up with the same sort of barriers you’re used to. Of course there’s still a distinction between mages and everyone else, but it’s different when everyone can access words, it’s…”
“Better,” I supplied, in case she was too polite to say it. “Mother has always wished it could be like that in the south. But we just don’t have enough mages.”
“I know,” Bryony rushed to say. “And I noticed a difference this summer.”
I gave her a surprised look. I couldn’t think what might have changed since her previous visit.
“I don’t think anything had changed in Corrin,” she clarified. “I think it was just that I was seeing a different comparison. I was used to seeing Ardann compared to the Empire, where everyone is sealed. But seeing it compared to Kallorway…well, your commonborns seem much better off.”
I nodded. “I always expected it to be more formal here, but it seems like it’s more than that.”
“So what’s our plan?” Bryony asked.
“That’s what I still need to work out. But I think my best hope is starting with Ida.”
Unfortunately, the servant woman always came to clean my rooms while I was in class. And while I reduced the amount I was practicing my own compositions, I still needed to attend classes. Ida kept my rooms supplied with a pile of bell compositions, but I didn’t want to use one to summon her just for an interrogation. I suspected I was unlikely to get the answers I wanted with such a direct approach.
When I woke up several mornings later with a sore throat and runny nose, I knew my opportunity had arrived. Hurrying straight to Raelynn’s healing rooms, I found no sign of the healer. My next stop was the library, where the library head, Hugh, greeted me with enthusiasm. If I had needed it, his attitude provided further proof that Bryony had been right. She wasn’t the only aspect of my life I had been neglecting. Even the sight of the books gave me a pang of guilt. Their pages held many lifetimes of accumulated knowledge, won through hard effort, not stolen with a shortcut, as I had attempted.
Hugh himself gave me no recriminations on my recent absence, however, merely directing me straight back to the corner where his office door hid. Inside I found Raelynn. I should have known she would be with her husband as usual. I could have saved myself time and come straight here.
Thankfully she had her healing case with her. I suspected she even slept with it tucked beside her bed.
Healing my cold took only moments, although she spent several extra minutes chatting sociably, asking me about my classes and commenting on the recent cold turn of the weather. I tried not to show my impatience.
But since I didn’t know what time of day Ida usually appeared in my rooms, I didn’t want to waste any time out of them. Finally Raelynn turned back to the topic of my healing, reminding me that I should spend the day resting despite now feeling as healthy as usual.
“But you know that, Your Highness,” she said. “This healing won’t have taken as much out of you as healing that awful break last year, but it still needs a day of rest at least. I’ll let your instructors know and tell the servants to send up your meals on a tray.”
I thanked her effusively and almost ran from the library. Would Ida bring the trays of food herself? She must have done so in the past on the occasions when a tray had been left in my sitting room. None of the kitchen servants would have attempted crossing the guards on my door.
I almost collided with Bryony at the door of my suite, her hands full of rolls to replace my missed breakfast.
“There you are!” she said. “I was coming to drag you out of bed. Where have you been?”
“With Raelynn. I had a cold.”
Bryony gave me a bewildered look. “You sound strangely triumphant about that.”
“This is my chance.” I pulled her into my sitting room. “I’ve been instructed to spend the day resting, of course, so I’ll have the chance to catch Ida.”
Enlightenment broke across Bryony’s face. “Brilliant!”
A bell sounded, and she thrust the food into my hands and rushed for the door. “Let me know what you find out,” she called over her shoulder as she disappeared.
The pain and discomfort were gone, thanks to Raelynn, but I did feel unnaturally weary. I dragged the cover off my bed and propped myself up on one of my two sofas, wrapping the warm material around me. I had initially worried the day might be unbearably boring, but I now realized my true concern should be the danger of falling asleep. If Ida came in and found me sleeping on the sofa, she would no doubt creep straight back out again.
But the thought of everything and everyone I had been neglecting lately had reminded me how long it had been since I wrote my family. So I set myself up with a makeshift writing desk on my lap and spent the morning hours writing several letters.