“Fast friends,” he said stoically.
“Fast friends,” I repeated.
I think you could have done far worse for your first friends as a True-Bonded, Auwei said with heartfelt joy.
Indeed.
They left after that, and Dove returned.
I rested again and found sleep, even as troubled as my mind was with visions of a mistweaver haunting me. I woke with a start several times during the night, and eventually found Dove curled up with me on the small bed. I slept well enough after that.
The next day I dressed in the finest of the dresses that ancient seamstress had made for me, packing the others away; they were mine now. I said good-bye to Dove and kissed her on the cheek. She said she’d meet me in the capital — she’d be there long before we would — and a moment later, she veered into her Dove form and flew away.
“Your sister is beautiful,” Blackclaw said staring after her.
Silence nodded, though his gaze seemed to shift from Dove to me and Blackclaw. We all got into the carriage and were off. A fast carriage was different from a normal carriage. The passenger area was wide enough that the benches could double as beds. With two additional fold-down beds above the benches, the carriage would accommodate up to four sleeping passengers. There was also a small sleeping area in front of the passenger area for the second driver. The drivers would spell each other out, riding in turns. And special way-stations were set up at intervals to switch out the horses. This way the need to stop was much less frequent.
We made it to the capital in six days, arriving the day before the tests were due to start.
And for the entire trip, I tried not to think about the mistweaver after me. Though… something had occurred to me during the passage. Something that last man had said as he’d come for me. My mind had hidden it away, buried in the trauma, but I recalled it in a dream one night, starting awake. He’d mentioned a name, probably the name of the mistweaver after me. It wasn’t much, but it was something. Now I knew who my foe was, though not why they were after me, nor how to defeat them.
Still, I knew their name, and that was something.
The name he’d said was: Hazra.
Chapter 12
And so endedmy time at Silverveil. I was Bonded and at the capital for the Noble House Test, but I was so very ill-prepared for what was to come. I had no clue what lay before me. I wasn’t prepared for the Noble House Test, let alone the many trials and tests which lay beyond that. I thought myself tempered then, but I was still so naïve.
I’ll never forget seeingthe capital for the first time. The sight of the white marble buildings glistening in the summer sun took my breath away as I gazed out the carriage window. Descending from Elismount, a low ridge of hills north of the city, I could see nearly all of the sprawling, sparkling city, which nestled into a wide, long curve of the Elis River. And after we had passed through the gates on to the city streets — paved with flat, square stones, perfectly fitted, such that they gleamed as one smooth surface — I gawked at the height of the buildings, and the finery of those out on the wide walkways on either side of the road.
Blackclaw and Silence laughed at my wide-eyed wonder.
I was feeling heartier and healthier after the restful trip. We’d eaten well, thanks to a purse of funds my sister had given to us for the journey.
I was feeling almost cheerful, though the thought of Hazra the Mistweaver, darkened everything. Still, for a moment, as I’d come into the city, I’d forgotten about my trials and simply marveled at the metropolis.
I kept the curtains of the window open but sat back on the bench. I couldn’t help the great grin on my face, which made the other two snicker all the harder.
“You have to take me to all the amazing places in the city,” I said, a little breathless. “After we all pass the Noble Test, of course.”
“Won’t we be whisked away to our various Houses?” Blackclaw asked.
None of us knew.
“I hope we all get into the same House,” Silence said, hopefully.
That wasn’t likely and would only partially be up to us. The way the tests worked was that once you had displayed your talents, one or more Noble Houses could offer you a place with them. Only then did you get to choose from those Houses offered. If only one House made an offer, that was your choice. You could decline and wait for the next year, but few did. Declining an offer meant you were rarely given an offer again. Nobody liked being snubbed. Still, we had a small chance of ending up together. I secretly hoped for that as well, but mostly, I was just bubbling over with excitement at being in the city and being Bonded and being so very close to my goal of joining a Noble House.
IfI was chosen.
But even the possibility of not being chosen, couldn’t dampen my spirits that sunny day.
The carriage took us right up to the front of a massive building, a high-end lodging house called The Golden Rose, and stopped under a covered carriage porch, where I hopped out and ran to my sister, who was there to greet us.
“This city is amazing!” I said as I embraced her. She was shorter and a bit slighter of build than I was, and I nearly knocked her over with my enthusiasm. “I can see why you love it here so much and haven’t gone back to Miraline.”
She extricated herself from my aggressive hug and smiled, though her face quickly fell. “I should return home. I’ve been so busy. How are Mother and Father?”
