her instruments 03 - laisrathera Read Free

closer look?”
    “Sure,” Reese said. “That sounds like a great idea.”
    Reese watched the woman set off. The Eldritch youth glanced at her. “My Lady,” he said. “It will be no warmer inside, but at least we won’t be exposed to the wind.” Then he followed Taylor, leaving Reese standing beside the trees with Irine, who’d been her irreverent co-pilot, employee and the ship busybody for years now.
    “You have a castle,” Irine observed.
    “I have a castle.”
    “You don’t know how to feel about that.” Irine cocked her head, mouth twitching.
    “Have I told you yet how ridiculous you look with a shirt wrapped around your head?”
    “Yes, well, if my gorgeous ears get frostbitten I won’t be able to tell when Sascha’s nibbling on them.” Irine rested a hand on Reese’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go get settled.”
    As they walked, Reese said, “I have sheep.”
    “I think those sheep have themselves,” Irine answered. “But I guess if you can find someone to round them up and put them in one place… then yes, you’ll have sheep.”
    But the tigraine was frowning. It was such a normal thing, to see Irine frown, such a welcome thing to have some normalcy at that point, that Reese said, “What?”
    “I was thinking about us having sheep,” Irine said. “To eat. Tonight.”
    “You can eat sheep?”
    Irine covered her face with one hand and used to the other to keep pushing Reese in the right direction.
    They caught up with the others in front of the enormous doors set into the castle wall, where Taylor was consulting her data tablet and Belinor was waiting, huddled in robes that seemed thick enough to keep him warm, but didn’t seem to be doing the job. As they approached, he said, “Yon fox is finding whether it be safe to open them. Those doors are centuries old now.”
    “I’m surprised they haven’t rotted,” Irine said, and paused. Reese looked past her and hissed.
    “My castle’s missing a tower!”
    “So it is,” Belinor said, subdued.
    “Why is my castle missing a tower?” Reese asked, trying not to be surprised. When Liolesa had granted her the property she’d expected ruins, so finding the building still upright had been a pleasant surprise. It also made the hole in the castle’s side feel like an unexpected wound.
    “Because,” Belinor said. “This was once the home of Corel.” At their blank stares, he said, “The mind-mage. The first mind-mage. The one who went mad, and upon whom Queen Jerisa threw her legions, and they died and watered this field with their blood.”
    Reese’s heart gave a great double-beat as whispers erupted in her head, ancient as childhood stories of the soil of Mars reddening with the blood of fallen patriots. She suppressed the urge to look down at the ground, see for herself her new life and the old mingling. Trying not to shiver, she said, “And then what?”
    “And there he would have conquered, had not love brought him low,” Belinor continued, looking at the tower. The gray sky and sea reflected off his eyes, winter-dulled. “But the love of a woman caused him to give himself over to judgment. Or so they say. Some of the tales say he killed himself for remorse for having slain her by accident.”
    “Wouldn’t you… well, remember?” Irine asked, trying to be delicate about it. “It hasn’t been all that many generations, has it?”
    “I wasn’t alive, certainly!” Belinor exclaimed. And then peering at her, added, “How well do you remember the events of your childhood? The details? Can you see them clearly in your mind? Could you describe them in the exact same way to more than one person, and know that you are recalling them truly?”
    Irine opened her mouth, then closed it and looked away, frowning. “Okay, right. And I’m only a few decades old. Good point.”
    “You’d think ‘committed suicide’ or ‘was dragged back for a trial’ wouldn’t be a matter of detail,” Reese said, studying the gash in the