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So they were standing, looking at each other, with the naked blade upheld between theh the open door behind them "Gholotat protect us," said Teka, and closed the door behind her
"Is my birthday present not beautiful?" said Aerin, and turned the blade back and forth quickly so that it winked at her old nurse as she stood by the door Teka looked at her face and then at Tor’s, and then back at Aerin’s, and said nothing
"I will bid you good night," said Tor, and because Teka was there he dared reach out his hands to Aerin, and put them on her shoulders, as she slid her sword into its scabbard, and kiss Her cheek as a cousin ht; which he would not have dared had they been alone He bowed to Teka, and left the a real sword of one’s own Perhaps it was being eighteen - or that eighteen years’ practice of being stubborn was finally paying off If she still stus or bus, she no longer bothered looking around anxiously to find out if anyone had seen her: either they had or they hadn’t, and she had other things on her s They ht of Perlith, knowing that he would have thought of so to say to her since the last time she had failed to avoid him, and that his little half smile beneath half-lidded eyes would h the halls of the castle and the streets of the City the most direct way instead of the way she would meet the fewest people; and she avoided the surka in the royal garden, but only that it e froht of its presence, or from the shame that she had to avoid it in the first place; nor did she any longer feel that breathing the garden air was synony Galanna’s onfire ointment
It was, she knew, sheer obstinacy that had kept her at it-over two years ofhow to find and prepare all the ingredients for theHorn sht sell the odder ones, and riding out on the reluctant Kisha for the herbs that grew nearby
At first she had wondered if anyone would try to stop her, and her first visits to shopkeepers, and beyond the City gates, gave her stomachaches of dread But the shopkeepers attended her respectfully and even helpfully, and slowly the visits stopped seeuise herself; she was the only person in the City with orange hair, and any Damarian who had never in fact seen her would know instantly who she was She had tried the effect of a scarf over the give-away hair, but as soon as she looked in a mirror she realized this wouldn’t work: the scarf was obviously there to hide her hair, and she still had orange eyebrows There was stuff Galanna used to blacken her brown lashes, but Aerin had no idea how to get hold of it, and thought that while Teka see to let her and her peculiar errands alone at present, she would probably throw a fit and spoil everything if she caught her royal charge creeping around with her hair hidden and her brows blackened And as she wasn’t stopped, her confidence grew, and she swept into the shops she frequented with her head high as a first sol should, and ain She felt trely unpretentious, being accustomed to the Perliths and Galannas who never looked anyone in the eye and were never satisfied (it idely held that the woman who supplied Galanna with her brow-darkener ed), and who always had lackeys to handle the ered their jewels and looked into the distance Arlbeth would have been pleased to hear the san to circulate in the City about the ohter (like the mother, a few folk now recalled) had a shter alun with the ru the first sola A few of her new supporters decided that Tor, as first sola and king to be, understandably wanted a quiet fahter, of all those court ladies, looked the likeliest to give it to hi the older folk, who shook their heads and said that they shouldn’t keep the young first sol mewed up in that castle the way they did; it’d be better if she were let out to le with her people If Aerin could have heard, she would have laughed
And the things she bought were such harh, as thethere that could cause anymischief Hornmar had mentioned, very quietly, to one or two of his particular friends the first sol’s ot around too, and as the oin to remember her ith animals
It was a few months before her nineteenth birthday that she put a bit of yellowish grease on a fresh bit of dry wood, held it with iron pincers, and thrust it into the small candle fla happened She had been perfor down,that herpractice even while her brain tended to go off on its own and conte Teka was sure to begin within the next day or two for her to darn her stockings since they all had holes in them and lately she had perforce always to wear boots when she attended the court in the great hall so that the holes wouldn’t show She was thinking that the green stockings probably had the smallest and most ht Since she’d turned eighteen she’d been expected to take part in the dancing occasionally, and there was sure to be dancing tonight since the dinner was in honor of Thorped and his son, ere here frohters was one of Galanna’s ladies It was difficult dancing in boots and she needed all the help she could get At this point she realized that her ar tired - and that the bit of yellow-slick as peacefully ignoring the fire that burned around it, and that the iron tongs were getting hot in her hand
She jumped, and knocked over the candlestick and dropped the hot tongs, and the greasy bit of wood skittered over the dusty, woodchip-littered floor, picking up shreds and shavings till it looked like a new sort of pomander She had set up shop in a deserted stone shed near Talat’s pasture that had once held kindling and things like old axe handles and sticks of wood that otten around to sweeping the floor Her hands were shaking so badly that she dropped the candle again when she tried to pick it up, and missed when she went to stamp out the thread of smoke that rose from the floor where the candle had fallen
She sat down on a pile of axe handles and took a few deep breaths, and thought fixedly about green stockings Then she stood up, lit the candle again, and set it quietly back in its holder She’d learned in the long months past not to waste her ti more than a tiny trial bit of eachandwent on before the expericup There was just enough in the bottoertip She chose the left index finger, which had been the one to get burnt with the result of her very first fire-ointertip steadily in the flame, and watched it; the pointed blue-and-yellow oval of the fire parted ser and rejoined above it to prick the shadows of the stone ceiling She felt nothing She withdrew the finger and stared at it with awe - touched it with another finger Skin-heat, no more; and while it had remained stickily apparent on the surface of the wood, the ointer Kenet It existed
She checked her notes to be sure she could read what she had written about the proportions of this particular attempt; then blew out the candle and went off in a daze to darn stockings
Teka asked her twice, sharply, as the matter with her, as she tried to help her dress for the court dinner Aerin’s darns orse than usual - which was saying a good deal, and Teka had said even more when she saw them, but as ueness as frohtforward exasperation at yet another si court dinners made Aerin clumsy and rather desperately here-and-now Teka finally tied ribbons around both of Aerin’s ankles to hide theand was even more appalled when Aerin did not object Ankle ribbons were all the fashion a ladies this year; when this first beca Aerin not to lengthen all her skirts eight inches, that theyon the floor and render all questions of ankle adornment academic; and Teka was fairly sure the only reason she’d won the arguht of all the sewing such a project would entail
Teka hung a tassel at the front of one ankle, to fall gracefully over the high arch of Aerin’s long foot (not that it would stay there; Galanna and the others had developed a coy little hitch and skip to their walk, to make their tassels fall forward as they should), and pinned a s the royal crest on the other, and Aerin didn’t even fidget She was dreaht smile Could she have fallen in love? Teka wondered Who? Thorped’s son - as his name? Surely not He was half a head shorter than she and wispy
Teka sighed and stood up "Aerin - are you sure you’re not ill?" she said
Aerin came back to herself with a visible jerk and said, "Dear Teka, I’gled her ankles "Ugh,"
"They hide your - dare I call them - darns," Teka said severely
"There’s that," said Aerin, and sirl? I will look for Tor tonight; his face will tell