House of Shadows(49)

It was warm to the touch.

This was the only thing that saved her from dying of embarrassment when Mage Ankennes found her waiting on his porch when he arrived home at dawn.

Nemienne was sitting on the warm stone in the center of the mage’s porch, her arms wrapped around her drawn-up knees. She had continued to try, from time to time, to open the door. It had resisted all her attempts, though she thought some of them had been rather clever. She had even tried to make keys that would fit the lock on the door. She had made one out of moonlight and, when that one had melted away when she tried to turn it in the lock, another out of a chip of white stone from the walkway. That one had seemed to fit. It had even turned. But it hadn’t opened the door.

At least the warm stone was sort of comfortable to sit on. Though not really for an entire night. She was so stiff Mage Ankennes had to give her a hand up, which, looking bemused, he did.

Then he opened the door with a look. It simply clicked and swung inward, just as though it had not spent recalcitrant hours refusing to open for Nemienne.

She followed Mage Ankennes into the entry and stopped, startled. The hall, which had always been dim, was filled with light. There were windows all down its length, some with the pearly dawn light coming through them and others blazing with brilliant sunlight. Silver moonlight pooled on the floor by the nearest, and through it Nemienne could see the full moon riding high among the mountain peaks.

Among the windows were three doors. The first was of beech wood, carved with an intricate border of interlocking beech leaves all around its edges. The second, carved of what she thought was red cedar, had fantastic animals twining together in sharply jagged patterns that linked each of its panels to the next. The third door was absolutely plain, made of some ink-dark wood she did not recognize, with no carving at all.

“Ah,” said the mage, looking at her face. “How many doors do you see in this hall?”

“Three,” said Nemienne, hoping this was good and that the appearance of the doors would make up for her stupidity in getting locked out. She described each one in turn when he prompted her. The mage looked pleased when she described the beech door, interested when she described the cedar door with the carved animals, and a bit startled when she described the black door.

“You won’t want to open that one just yet,” he said, and waved her ahead of him toward the kitchen. Every window they passed looked out onto the mountain heights. Through one, dark with night, she glimpsed distant lights and wondered whether she might be looking down on Lonne. If that was Lonne, it was very far away. She touched the glass of the windowpane. It was very cold.

“Come along!” Mage Ankennes called, and Nemienne jumped and hurried to follow him, tearing herself away from the windows.

The mage made breakfast for them both while she told him about her night. The kitchen, at least, was unchanged. Nemienne found this reassuring. She sat near the iron stove, for once enjoying its furnace heat. Even her toes and the tips of her ears felt like they were finally getting warm. She could feel every tight muscle unknotting while the reassuring heat wrapped around her. She did miss Enkea. She’d half expected to find the slim little cat sleeping peacefully in the chair near the stove, but there was no sign of her this morning.

The mage did not interrupt her on that first recounting, but then he made her go back over everything again once she was finished.

“The door was standing open?” he asked, handing her a plate of rice porridge and eggs scrambled with tiny shrimp. “And Enkea went through it before you?”

Nemienne nodded to both questions.

“You should never have gone into the darkness—”

Nemienne, who agreed completely, apologized.

“No, indeed,” the mage assured her. “You should have been safe following Enkea. One does wonder what the creature was about.” His expression became speculative, contemplating the absent cat. “And, of course, you were safe,” he added. “If uncomfortable. I would have found you, eventually. But you did well to find your own way through the darkness and back into the ordinary night.” He paused, contemplating Nemienne. “You do show interesting sparks of unusual talent. I believe Narienneh did well, sending you to me. You will clearly make a mage.”

Startled and very pleased, Nemienne stared back at the mage. She found herself smiling suddenly. “Even though I couldn’t open the door?”

“Child! I locked the door.”

“Oh!” Nemienne was embarrassed. “Of course.” Though she did wonder whom the mage might have locked his door against, and whether mages usually guarded themselves so carefully from other mages. She was too tired to think about it, though. She was surprised by a yawn, and put a hand hastily over her mouth.