any more detailed interrogation.
“He looks stronger,” suggested Khethila.
“Laborers need to be strong, not imagers.”
“Imaging does require strength, more than one might think.” I stepped from the back hallway into the breakfast room, where Nellica had added another place to the table. Even with the two wall lamps lit, the breakfast room was gloomy, because the windows were on the east wall and allowed no sunlight past late morning. Lunch had been clearly informal, with the plates set on green place mats, rather than on one of the linen tablecloths used for guests-or family when one or more men were present. “Where’s Culthyn?”
“He’s with Father,” Kethilia replied. “Father says he needs to learn the business.”
“That’s why we’re having leftover fowl in pastry,” Mother added from behind me. “Neither your Father nor Culthyn cares much for it.”
Since I’d always liked fowl in crust and sauce, I had no objections. Then, as I turned, I saw my chess study, mounted in a far more ornate frame, on the always-shaded south wall. For a moment, I just looked. It was every bit as good as I remembered, if not better.
“It goes well there,” Mother said.
What I realized as well, and what she had not said, was that it was placed so that she could see it from her customary place at the table. It was behind where my father sat.
“It does,” I finally said. “Thank you for reframing it.”
Mother looked puzzled. “That was the way it arrived.”
“Oh.” Who had had reframed it, and why? It had been in a simple black frame for the competition, as was required, so that no painting had an advantage. “I must have forgotten.”
Khethila gave me a sideways glance, as if to suggest that wasn’t something I’d forget. She was right, but what else could I have said?
Once she was seated, Mother looked at me. “You could have sent a note, saying you would be coming.”
“I honestly didn’t know that I would have this afternoon free until it was too late.”
Mother just raised her eyebrows.
“I was given more training, and while it was going on, I couldn’t leave Imagisle. I finished it more quickly than I’d been told it would take. This is the first time I’ve left the Collegium since I had dinner with you the last time.”
“Even if you didn’t let us know, it was good of you to come here first. You’ll stay for dinner, won’t you?” asked Mother.
“Not tonight.” I could have, but it was the fourth Samedi of the month. I hadn’t seen any of my friends since I’d become an imager, and it was a certainty that some of them would either be at Lapinina or at the Guild Hall later in the afternoon. “I’ll be more free from now on, since I won’t be spending quite so much time in training.”
“Your father will be disappointed.”
“I can stay for a while after we eat.”
“He said he’d be later today.”
“Does the extra time off mean that you got advanced again?” asked Khethila.
I smiled. “I did get nicer quarters-two rooms to myself, a sitting room or study, and a sleeping chamber.”
“Perhaps everything is turning out for the best,” said Mother brightly. “But your father will be sorry to have missed you.”
“I think you’ve mentioned that before,” I said dryly.
“Rhenn . . . I know you two do not see the world in the same way, but that does not mean that he doesn’t care for you.”
“I know.” I still had the feeling he’d care for me more had I chosen to become a wool factor, but I wasn’t about to say that. I turned to Khethila. “What are you going to do now?”
“I’m learning to be an assistant clerk for Father, the one who makes all the daily ledger entries.”
There was a hint of a frown from Mother. “Until she finds a proper young man, anyway.”
“What happened to Armynd?”
Khethila laughed. “He discovered I was reading Madame D’Shendael. He didn’t put it quite that way, but when he said that it was clear we had interests too different for harmony, that was what he meant.”
Mother frowned, if briefly, and I knew she’d hoped for the match, as much for Khethila’s comfort as anything.
I managed a pleasant smile, although what had already happened confirmed that anyone Khethila felt interested in would not be someone for whom my parents would care much. “Do you find working at the factorage interesting?”
“You just have to be careful and thorough,” my sister replied. “What’s interesting is the way in which certain number patterns show up in the accounts. I’m studying Astrarth’s
“Has it?”
“Not yet, but I’ve only been working on the ledgers for the last two weeks. Rousel thinks it’s a good idea that I know more about business.”
“So does your Father,” added Mother.
“How are things going with Rousel?” I asked quickly.
“He and Remaya are doing well.” Mother smiled briefly. “He writes occasionally.”
Khethila shifted her weight in her chair, ever so slightly.
“And how is the wool factoring going in Kherseilles?” I looked to Khethila.
“I couldn’t say, because so far I’m only doing the ledgers for the factorage here, and not the master ledger that merges both accounts.”
Mother looked sharply at Khethila, who smiled pleasantly.
In short, matters weren’t going quite so well in Kherseilles, but Khethila wasn’t about to say or was guessing from what she’d seen so far, and Mother wasn’t about to say anything negative about Rousel . . . or allow anyone else to.
“Do you know what you’ll be doing as an imager?” Mother asked. “Can you tell us?”
“They say I may have some duties working for the Council, but very minor ones at first. No one’s given me any details, but I have had to learn all the Council procedures.”
“Your father would be very pleased if you became a Council advisor.”
“That’s not going to happen any time soon,” I replied with a laugh. “How is Aunt Ilena?”
“As stubborn as ever. I’m thinking of visiting her in Juyn, on the way to Kherseilles . . .”
From that point on, I just asked questions and listened. Although I stayed almost to the fourth glass of the afternoon, neither Father nor Culthyn appeared, and I took my leave. The late afternoon remained pleasant, and while it was more than two milles, I walked the entire distance to the Guild Square, taking my time.
Because I didn’t see anyone I knew around the square, I made my way to Lapinina. When I stepped into the bistro, the couple at the table nearest the door looked away. Rogaris and Sagaryn sat at a round table for four, and I stepped toward it.
“How are you two coming?”
Sagaryn’s eyes widened as they took in the gray waistcoat, shirt, and trousers. “Is that you, Rhenn?”
“The same.”
“You’re . . . an imager?”
I nodded. “Might I join you?”
“Oh . . . yes . . .” Rogaris said hastily.
Sagaryn nodded, a trace reluctantly, but I eased into the seat across from them.
Staela appeared. “What would you like, sir?”
I looked up at her. “I’m still Rhenn, Staela.”
Her expression didn’t change at all. “Yes, sir.”
“Just a glass of the Cambrisio white, if you have it.”
