Silene was beside him immediately. “Let me check that for you,” she said, pulling his shirt up. He took off his shirt and let Silene fuss over his wound. “That looks fine, no sign of infection.” She dusted it with more powder and tied the bandages back on. “You’ll need those stitches out next week. Otherwise, it should all heal itself if you take care.”
“Birlerion and I need to go and speak to Lord Hugh. We thought if Jennery was still poorly, we could leave him with you and pick him up later this evening?”
“That is probably best.” Silene looked up from her wrapping as Birlerion came back in the room.
“He’s not with it, best we leave him here if that’s alright with Silene and Reese?”
“Let’s go saddle up and see what Lord Hugh has to say to all this.” Jerrol stood and slipped on his jacket.
They were riding down the track towards Greenswatch before they spoke. “You should wake the others,” Birlerion said. “We need their help.”
Jerrol stared at him. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to wake them.”
“Knock on the door and tell them to come out,” Birlerion suggested with a gleam in his eye.
“If only it were that easy.”
“I think we need them. If the Ascendants have found a way to shred the Veil, we are at risk.”
“They must have help on this side of the Veil,” Jerrol said.
“They would have supporters just as the Lady does. The council’s new advisors?”
“To name a few, no doubt,” agreed Jerrol. “They definitely have influence; persuasiveness doesn’t seem to be a problem for them, does it?”
“It never was,” Birlerion said as they turned on to a well-kept tree-lined road leading to Lord Hugh’s home. The trees parted to reveal a grey-stoned manor house. A stone archway led to an internal courtyard, which reminded Jerrol of the keep at Stoneford where he had grown up.
Birlerion looked around with interest, though he did not comment. As they approached the stone-slabbed courtyard the relaxed nature of the guards was proof that Lord Hugh had yet to arrive; there was no bustle or confusion in the yard.
Lord Hugh’s steward Garrick came to greet them as they dismounted, frowning at their unfamiliar garb. “Captain Haven?” he said uncertainly, recognising Jerrol from previous visits.
“Garrick, it’s good to see you again. This is my colleague, Birlerion of the Lady’s Guard. We hoped Lord Hugh would have returned from Deepwater by now.” Jerrol handed his reins to a young lad who was staring in awe at Zin’talia.
Garrick blinked at Birlerion, who was inspecting the courtyard. He shook himself. “We expect Lord Hugh within the day; please join me inside.” Garrick led the way through the dark doorway as the lads took the horses around the back.
Jerrol followed, relieved they hadn’t heard of his fall from grace. “I was hoping to visit your records room, if that is acceptable? If Lord Hugh hasn’t arrived by the time we finished, we’ll head out to meet him on the road. I need to travel on to Stoneford anyway.”
“Of course, let me show you the way.”
They followed Garrick through a stone archway leading inside the mansion; the stone walls were softened by coloured drapes, and the air cooled imperceptibly. In the centre of the entrance foyer was a sweeping staircase leading to the galleries above. Below the stairs, corridors wove behind and under, leading to offices, storerooms and the Greenswatch records room.
Garrick stopped at a wooden door. “The records room. I’m afraid Lord Hugh does not allow food or drink inside; we’ve had accidents in the past that damaged essential papers. Refreshments will be laid out in the room next door for you. Please do not take them into the records room.”
“We understand. We appreciate your hospitality,” Jerrol said as he entered the room. He inhaled the familiar odour of musty books and dust that seemed inevitable in all records rooms.
“Silene mentioned a section for historical events?” Jerrol turned around, inspecting the books. Wooden shelves lined the walls, and every shelf was full of books, scrolls and manuscripts. There wasn’t a single empty shelf.
Garrick gestured at the shelves. “This whole room records events; it is a personal perspective as to whether it is major or not. I imagine she was referring to the Elemental scroll. It records any change in power, unusual storms or floods, changes in weather patterns or a change of government, a new King, for example.”
“Changes in power,” Jerrol repeated, hearing an echo of Silene’s calm voice. “That would be it, I think.”
Garrick turned the dial on the glass lamp to increase the light in the room and ran a hand down the cataloguing system; he found the reference he was looking for and pulled a hefty tome from one of the shelves. “Here you go,” he said, heaving it on the table. “Refreshments will be next door,” he said as he left the room.
Jerrol sat down and opened the book, and Birlerion drifted over to look over his shoulder.
The Elemental scroll was, in fact, a book of loose-leaf parchment pages, which had been sewn into the book individually. He skimmed down the rough pages, letting his eyes accustom themselves to the archaic script. He had learnt to speed read at the Chapterhouse in Old Vespers. He thanked his friend Torsion yet again for persevering with an impatient young boy who preferred to be in the training yard than a schoolroom.
The pages referred to floods, the planting of ancient plantations, the felling of specific trees, or the loss of specimens in storms. It marked the line of Descelles from the beginning and then the Lords who ruled the Greenswatch starting with Lord Warren Descelles, the first Lord Warden of Greens, his son Penner inheriting after him and so on, an unbroken line to the current day.
Jerrol paused over an entry celebrating four of their children becoming Sentinals in the year 1122.
