“I’ll try to teach you someday, after I know the way of it better myself,” promised Nemienne. “But the house can be, well, difficult. I got lost tonight, and when I thought of light and warmth and…” She did not want to say safety. “Anyway, I came here.” She looked around the gallery where her bed still stood, at the interested, bewildered faces of her sisters and the cheerful fire. “How nice it is here!” she exclaimed. “I have my own room in Mage Ankennes’s house, you know…”
“Your own room,” Liaska repeated enviously. “Is it pretty?”
“Yes, and I love it, but I hadn’t realized I miss all this warmth and crowding. Tell me—tell me everything. The wedding plans are nearly finished, Enelle, surely? Jehenne, will you find one of your invitations to show me? Miande, have you decided what you’ll serve the guests? Are you keeping out of trouble and helping Enelle, Liaska?”
Everyone, even Enelle, tried to answer at once, and for an hour Nemienne lost herself in the familiar warmth and chatter. She tried not to talk about herself or Mage Ankennes, for nothing about the mage or his strange house seemed quite real here in the noisy company of her sisters. But Jehenne brought Nemienne a book from Samenne and listened, fascinated, as Nemienne tried to explain how you could read a new language without learning it first. And then Liaska wanted to see Nemienne light a candle without a candlelighter.
“That’s enough, now, Liaska,” Enelle said firmly. “If Nemienne wants to, and if she thinks it would be all right with Mage Ankennes, she can show you that in the morning.”
“Oh,” Nemienne, startled, and looked at the hourglass on the fireplace mantel. She said reluctantly, “I had better go back.”
“Already?” said Miande.
“But you just came!” protested Jehenne.
“You have to show us all the other magic things you’ve learned!” cried Liaska.
“Is it so urgent you should go back?” asked Enelle, cautiously. “Is Mage Ankennes so strict?”
Nemienne stood up, drawing Enelle up with her. She embraced her sister and smiled at her, around at them all. All the brief terror of the strange darkness seemed distant and much less disturbing in this familiar place. She said—and was relieved to hear no unexpected ambiguity in the statement—“I’m happy being apprenticed to Mage Ankennes. I am happy.” She paused to appreciate this thought, still odd to her, especially in these familiar surroundings. “The mage is kind to me, and he is teaching me so many things I never knew—never knew I wanted to learn. I’ve loved seeing you all, but look at the glass! Time’s passed so fast! And I don’t want to be gone when Mage Ankennes looks for me in the morning.”
“He’d be angry with you?” Enelle asked doubtfully, clearly wondering again, or still, whether the mage was really the best teacher and master for her sister.
“Oh, no. I mean, I don’t think he’d be angry if I came back in daylight, after breakfast—but why risk his displeasure when I didn’t have his leave to come here? Besides, it’s embarrassing to have… gotten lost. I think I should go back right away.”
“Oh,” said Jehenne, looking downcast.
“Perhaps that would be best,” Enelle said reluctantly, undoubtedly thinking of the extra nine hundred hard cash that depended on Mage Ankennes not being displeased. “If you truly think so, Nemienne. I’ll send down for the carriage.” She looked sternly at the little girls. “Time for bed! Liaska, Jehenne, it’s rather late for you, isn’t it? Don’t fuss! I’m sure Nemienne will come visit soon. During the day, even. And she’ll write you a letter tomorrow and tell you all about the mage’s house and about reading languages without having to learn them first, won’t you, Nemienne?”
She gave Nemienne a look on this last, and Nemienne promised meekly. “I meant to write… I was waiting for more to happen.”
“Well, I’m sure enough has happened now.”
Nemienne had to agree with this, and did, as gracefully as possible. “You are all well?” she asked Enelle, very specifically, as they left the littler girls and walked from the gallery toward the front of the house.
Her older sister gave her a tense smile. “Oh, yes. Ananda will be married next week—we will send an invitation to Mage Ankennes, of course. Jehenne did a wonderful job on the invitations; no scribe in Lonne has a nicer hand. Even the announcement has helped, and we’ll do much better after the marriage has actually taken place. Petris seems quite sensible.” Meaning he still intended to let Enelle run the stone yard.