Page 37 of Elemental Truth (Mysterious Fields #3)

37

MAY 20TH IN THE EVENING, AT brYN GLAS

T hessaly took one look at Vitus and said, “Come to the grove?”

He blinked, stopping where he stood. “Are you sure?”

“Mmm.” She gestured. “Can you grab that blanket?” It wasn’t yet six. They’d have a good two hours or so of light.

Vitus did not argue, which Thessaly considered a particular virtue of his. She went down the stairs ahead of him, pausing to let Emeline and Collins know they’d be outside for a bit. Supper around sunset would be grand. Neither of the older women asked her what she was up to, which was good, because Thessaly wouldn’t have known how to explain.

She wasn’t sure she could explain it to Vitus, honestly, and he had more right to know. But she could read the shifts in his magic, the way something had flickered into focus in him. And also, she was desperately curious about the appointment. He hadn’t come straight back, she thought, but had taken time to make notes or whatever it was he did.

Once they were in the centre of the grove, Thessaly let out a long breath. She settled down on the blanket and made sure her skirts didn’t take up the entire space. Vitus settled next to her, though turned, so that he could face her more easily, reaching for one of her hands. He laced his fingers through it, then he also let out a slow breath. “All right. Here is the right place, maybe.”

Thessaly squeezed his fingers back. “You went somewhere else, between?”

“To talk to Niobe, and run through what information I’ll need to ask them.” Vitus swallowed, visibly. “Discretion with clients matters. Both the reality of it and the show of it. I can’t tell you much. Though they said I could tell you I was working on a piece for them.”

Thessaly nodded. “I understand that. It happens with illusion work, too. If I take up consulting, I’m sure there will be commissions I take on I can’t talk to you about.” She saw that hit him, that this was fair, that it was going to be fair going forward. That she certainly wasn’t someone who’d pout and fuss about not knowing everything he did. She added, “I’m glad you went to Niobe, and I like that you tell me that sort of thing? But if you’d ever rather not, I understand that too.”

“I should at least have written to you and let you know when I’d likely turn up. Rather than leaving you to guess,” Vitus offered, grimacing.

“That would be a kindness. I spent the last hour reading the same three pages over and over. Or not reading, as it were. Not the worst hour I’ve spent in the recent past, not even in the top hundred. But I’d rather do other things.” Thessaly patted his hand. “What can you tell me?”

“I’d like to talk out the larger implications, honestly.” Vitus tugged her hand into his lap, cupping both of his around hers. “They asked me to make a talisman for them. Or more than one, probably, for what they want.” He lifted one finger from where it curled around her hand. “I asked why they weren’t having Laudine’s father do it. There’s a matter of oaths.”

“And that’s the part you want to talk about.” Thessaly tilted her head. “Related to whatever is going on at Arundel?”

“Mmhmm.” Vitus looked down at their hands, speaking slowly now. “Dagobert’s curse dates to the night your aunt was killed. Not from her, from others in the family. I don’t think it’s what they intended.”

“And you won’t speak of the details. That’s fair. And the talismans are for some ongoing aspect?” Thessaly added, a little dryly, “People don’t usually invest in your sort of talismans for something expected to resolve promptly. For one thing, there’s the time needed to make the thing. You’ve explained enough of that.”

It made Vitus chuckle. “No, that’s logical enough. Yes, something ongoing.” He considered. “I think they’re concerned about the show of the thing, as well as the reality.”

“That, now, I know something about.” Vitus blinked up at her and Thessaly let her smile broaden. “Illusionist, remember? Our entire art, sometimes, is drawing the eye to one place to do something elsewhere. That’s a lot of what Aunt Metaia did with the protective illusions. I really find it quite interesting.” She flicked her fingers. “Not so interesting I particularly want to hire out to the Great Families. Not any time soon. But enough I might ask about learning more about it, and the places that ordinary people could use a bit of illusion.”

Vitus blinked at her several times, and then leaned forward to kiss her, taking his time about it, one of his hands coming up to cup her neck. She had, in fact, brought them out here so that they would not get too distracted by the physical instead of talking. That, however, did not mean she didn’t enjoy the kiss, want more of it, and looked forward to what they might do when back inside. When he pulled back, his hand went around hers again, warm and right there.

“You should do that. When you’re ready.” Then he flicked a finger. “Anyway. There will be oaths, but Laudine showed me the shape of them. Proper documentation with the Scali and all that. I just made the provisional ones to allow for the planning today. That’s ordinary.”

“Quite.” Thessaly considered. “I suppose you can’t answer anything about if it’s about the mill. Or anything else.”

“Actually.” Vitus tilted his head. “That didn’t come up directly. It might later. They’re under oaths, Dagobert specifically, about what they can and can’t say. And those included not talking to anyone related by blood or marriage. It’s why Laudine can’t consult her father, but she could with me, even if there are parts she can’t discuss.”

“And, ugh. I can’t keep track of this without a chart. They must know you were doing work for Lord Clovis and Sigbert.” Thessaly started there. Vitus nodded once. “And that you’d seen the inside of the mill.” He nodded again and Thessaly went on. “And that you had talked some of it out?”

“Laudine made a point of noting you were not included in the group she could not talk to. Betrothal and marriage being rather different on that point,” Vitus said. “And besides, the betrothal would have broken, anyway.” He shrugged once. “But I don’t see how that helps. I don’t know the way to read the history of magic cast in a space. And honestly, I don’t even know that the Penelopes would get much from it, if they tried.” As he spoke, his eyes widened, like he’d realised something.

“Yes?”

“I explained a Faraday cage to you, I know.” Vitus was leaning forward.

“And then you loaned me a fair bit of reading material, most of which I have looked at it. Some of the details lost me. I have a list of questions in the library.” Thessaly’s training was not remotely designed for complex diagrams of wiring. She was neither a talisman maker nor a ritualist by preference.

“The thing is that it removes a space from interaction with the electrical forces in the room. I could arrange to show you a small one. There’s a common enough experiment.” Vitus wriggled his fingers. “But I don’t know what it does here.”

“Does Dagobert, do you think?” Thessaly asked, chewing on the problem a little.

Vitus stared off over her shoulder, chewing on his lip. “I think he knows what their original goal was. I don’t know how that changed. You said, pardon.” Vitus looked at her, earnest now. “You said Childeric changed once the betrothal happened. Is it possible that whatever they were doing was part of that? I’d have worried that it was something in the research. Only Dagobert made it clear his own problems were a specific curse.” Vitus twitched his fingers. “Or there’s a question of whether there’s a larger curse.”

“I keep coming back to thinking about that. It’s groping around in the dark, isn’t it?” Thessaly shook her head, a bit of hair coming loose and down her cheek. “It’s a hard idea to ignore, at this point.”

“So many deaths out of season. Particular ones. On an estate that you’d think would be firmly set about with all sorts of protections.” Vitus agreed with that. “But it’s a cause and effect problem, perhaps? What was it like, early on? Before your betrothal?”

Thessaly grimaced. “Being around Childeric was tiring, a great deal. More after the betrothal than before, but before we were mostly out together in company. A supper, a concert, a gala. Later,” Thessaly paused, obviously sorting through memories. “I couldn’t tell, at the time, how much of that was him and how much was the situation. But I was going through my notes again earlier today. And I don’t think I had the same feeling with Sigbert. Or even the days before the funeral. I didn’t care for it. Those days, they were demanding in half a dozen ways. But I didn’t feel faint, I didn’t feel like my knees would give out, or just that I wanted to lie down and sleep.” Just thinking back to those feelings, how she’d made space for feeling awful, gave her a stomachache or something akin to it.

“And you did, with Childeric?” Vitus said. “You hadn’t said.”

Thessaly’s chin came up. “Women put up a with a great deal of discomfort on the average, and we’re expected to do it without letting it show. I thought it was mostly that until he turned awful. And then he was awful. Of course, I felt horrible after that. It would have been remarkable if I didn’t.”

“I do hope you do not feel you must hide any of that with me.” Vitus squeezed her hand. “I suspect not, given your clothing choices at home.”

“Oh, there are uses for a corset and a bustle. And if they fit well, they don’t limit most movement. How you bend, yes. Whether you can, no. Not really. Well, bending sideways is a bit of a trick. You can’t hinge at the hip.” She waved a hand. “Anyway. At the time, I thought it within the expected range. But what if it wasn’t? What if something was?—”

Before Thessaly could continue, Vitus smacked his forehead with his free hand, fast enough to make a loud and startling noise. “He’s the right age, too. He was. I don’t have my lists.” Then he blinked at her, several times, rapidly. “I told you I was looking at the number of people who didn’t complete apprenticeships. Niobe confirmed some of those lists for me, too. Sigbert was younger than the people listed. I’m older.”

“And Father has kept going on about some of the men my age not being up to snuff.” Thessaly let out a low whistle. “Do you think there’s something to it?”

“I’m not sure there’s any way for us to know. I can’t imagine it’s a topic Laudine and Dagobert want to talk about much. And we don’t even know if Childeric realised anything, or if his parents had concerns, or any of that.”

“He was the golden boy.” Thessaly shook her head. “And it’s not like we can ask any of the professors at Schola. They’d turn us away and be right to. It’s not right to pry into someone else’s records.” Then she coughed. “Even if you very much want to.” Then she swallowed. “But there’s me. There’s Cyrus. There’s you. It can’t be everyone in those years.”

“Talking it through with Niobe, she didn’t think so. No one’s looked at all the information together. Well, maybe Schola has, but if so, they’re not talking. And it’s certainly not the sort of thing families would reveal even if they knew. But think about it. Can you imagine Childeric admitting it? Any of the Fortiers? Other families might have known, but had different responses. Support for their children, for one thing. Training to use what they could do better.”

“Not really.” She leaned back, her head on Vitus’s shoulder. “Cyrus’s magic is hearty, we know that. And recently tested. Mine is, bar some bobbles for being out of practice. And that’s so much better now.” Thessaly shook her head. “I— look, that part, I don’t think we can sort out ourselves. And while I think it probably is a Council matter, I don’t even know where to start with it.”

Vitus nodded slowly. “Look. How about we ask Thirza and Merryn to come talk? Here, if you’d rather, where you can be sure it’s private. They both know a wide range of people, and they’d likely have an idea who to bring it to, or how.”

“And,” Thessaly’s voice went soft, “you like them. I like Thirza, what I know of her, though we’ve never talked privately.” She halted, uncertain. “Would it be uncomfortable for her to come here? Where she visited Aunt Metaia?”

Vitus hesitated, then stroked her hand with his thumb, reassuringly. “How about I ask? If she’d prefer somewhere else, we could talk at home. Or my office, with a bit of illusion to get you there without people noticing.”

“All right. Let’s do that. This is, this is too big, too many, too much to figure it out all by ourselves.” Thessaly nodded once. “Shall we go back inside, and you can write to them and then we can find something distracting to do?”

“Oh, I was thinking something involving a great deal of intimate focus?” Vitus offered, but then he was standing up, offering Thessaly a hand. “That sounds grand. Just what I want in my evening. Though I’d best not stay over, I have work to do first thing in the morning.”

“Some night soon, then.” It meant Thessaly would have something delightful to look forward to. Vitus gathered up the blanket and brought it back, as they talked through their respective commitments for the week.