Taudde put down the quill, laying it neatly across the topmost leaf of paper. “Kalches,” he said, and sighed.
“You’ve been expecting it, you said,” Nemienne reminded him. “You said you wanted this door to appear before the solstice. Well, it has, hasn’t it? What’s wrong with having the door appear now?” She had thought he’d be happy about the new door to Kalches. He didn’t look very pleased.
“I did expect it.” The Kalchesene sorcerer stretched his long legs out under the table and tapped the plectrum absently against the surface of the table. He sighed again. “I’ll have to ask leave of Prince Tepres to visit my grandfather. He’ll give it, of course.” He didn’t sound as if he relished the prospect. “It’s true I’d hoped to have that door before the solstice. It’s also true that I don’t look forward to using it. I imagine Grandfather will have several choice comments to make about, well, nearly everything that’s happened in the past six months.” He brightened slightly. “Perhaps I’ll ask Leilis to come with me. Let Grandfather try to sharpen his wits on her. He’ll find he’s not the only one with an edge to his tongue.”
“She may be too busy to go with you. Or Narienneh may not want her to go, now that she’s made Leilis her heir to Cloisonné House. Or—”
Taudde held up a hand. “Let’s not borrow trouble against the wretched day, shall we? What time is it? All right, there should be time before the candlelight district wakes for the night. Please step over to Cloisonné House and ask Leilis whether she might find a moment for me this evening, would you, Nemienne?” He bent a stern look on her. “Take Enkea with you, mind. None of this solitary wandering through the dark.”
Nemienne hadn’t known he’d been aware of her slipping from one house of shadows to another of an evening. She could feel a flush creeping up her cheeks. “I do know the way, now,” she protested.
“Through those caverns?” The Kalchesene sorcerer’s tone was mild, but unyielding. “I doubt anyone could. I’m glad of your skill and confidence, Nemienne. But let’s not exceed good sense. Do you wish to accidentally trouble the dragon now that it is awake? Take Enkea with you.”
“Yes, all right,” Nemienne agreed hastily, wanting all the more urgently to drop the subject because she knew he was perfectly right. “It’s only, she’s not always handy when you want her—”
“Patience is a virtue in sorcery as well as magecraft,” Taudde said mildly. “If I can’t expect you to act with reasonable prudence, Nemienne, I’ll go myself. Only I should first attend upon the prince.”
“I’ll take her, I’ll take her!” Nemienne promised.
“Attend upon me?” The prince’s voice, faintly edged with the fierceness of the dragon, made Nemienne jump; she hadn’t heard him enter.
But Taudde glanced up with no sign of surprise, then rose and bowed, a brief gesture. “Ah, eminence, welcome. It seems this house has at last seen fit to offer us a door that leads into Kalches.”
“I see.” The prince’s dark eyes rested on Taudde’s face. After a second, the pale brows lifted. “You don’t doubt I’ll give you leave to go? No, of course not.” The light, fierce voice gentled. “And is that such a burden?”
Taudde moved his shoulders uncomfortably. “It’s not a burden I ever expected to bear. Forgive me if I sometimes find it weighs heavily.”
The prince inclined his head without comment. He said after a moment, “And you are concerned about your grandfather.”
“I fear his initial reaction to… all this… will be, um. Intense.”
The prince did not smile. “You will have to persuade him, then.”
“I know. I will.” Taudde lifted a hand toward the door, inviting the prince to accompany him. “Shall we find out whether you are able to perceive this newest addition to the house’s complement of extraordinary doors?”
The young men left the music room together, Taudde politely stepping aside to allow Prince Tepres to precede him.
Nemienne didn’t entirely understand what either of them had meant. Sometimes she felt that the ten years that lay between herself and the young men might as well be half a lifetime. She thought about the exchange as she ran down the stairs to the kitchen, collected Enkea—fortunately the cat seemed in an accommodating mood—and then headed through the infinite darkness beyond the black door to emerge in the cellars of Cloisonné House. In Lonne, as had eventually become clear to her—she was sometimes slow, but Taudde was patient—quite a number of houses hid a way into the shadows. The gallery of her father’s house, the cellars of Cloisonné, the dungeons of the Laodd, more than one shop in the Paliente, many a shadowed warehouse corner, almost anywhere where the sea came up under the docks—half of Lonne, it sometimes seemed, lay under the dragon’s shadow.