CHAPTER ONE
IT’S NOT WORKING, I thought at Katti as I broke up the clods of earth with the hoe. The heavy swallowed anger still burned in my chest, no matter how hard I thought of the family as I smashed.
I’m hardly surprised, she thought back at me. It’s mud, not relatives. Her thoughts held a certain paw-shaking disgust at the word ‘mud.’ Katti considered herself a mighty hunting cat, far above such distasteful mundanities as breaking up clods in the fields with the peasants. She had only come out with me because of the chance of catching tasty little animals in the hedgerows. Her thoughts were full of mystification as to why I would choose to do fieldwork on this of all mornings.
But I had to do something. I was so teeth-grindingly angry at my family that I wasn’t sure I could face them without creating some terrible scene that would make us all homeless. It’s a bad idea to punch someone in the face when they have complete financial power over you and the people you love, no matter how much they deserve it.
If I could only calm down a bit, I thought at Katti.
My dear young human, I can’t imagine fieldwork… Her focus suddenly switched away from me. I looked up. Her elegant grey head was turned towards the estates’ entrance.
“They’re here!” shouted one of the peasants.
Oh, no. Already?
It was only midday, far too early for the Blessing party to arrive. Yet a gleam of light had appeared in between the pair of tall trees that marked the entrance, showing that someone was travelling under magical power.
Katti leapt up and streaked away towards the carriage. Praying it wasn’t the family but wondering who else it could be, I ran over to my horse, scrambled onto it and took off after her, leaping over the ditch at the edge of the field and up onto the track. The peasants working round me had dropped their hoes and were also running towards the road. A solitary phaeton without horses, a light carriage that carried only a couple of people, came sweeping up the drive way between the bare early spring trees. Ladypraised. Not the family. Who then?
It’s him. It’s him! came Katti’s gleeful thoughts back to me.
But who?
The blue body and black hood of the light two-seater vehicle were unfamiliar to me, but I recognized the mage sitting in the driver’s seat, and my heart leapt with joy.
Waving and shouting, I urged the horse forward faster. On the roadway before us the phaeton pulled to a stop and settled on the ground. The crystal embedded in the mage’s forehead went dark.
“Shine!” Bright’s round face split into a grin. “How’s my favourite ghostie-girl?”
Normally I hated being called ‘ghostie-girl,’ but to hear Bright’s teasing voice again was so wonderful it didn’t matter today. He leapt out of the phaeton and held out his arms. His crystal lit up again and I felt his power snatching me off the back of my horse. Reaching out, I threw myself through the air to be caught in his arms. He squeezed me and swung me around.
“How are you?” I cried, hugging him tight and kissing both his cheeks. “What are you doing here? How long are you staying?” The true situation stabbed at me. Bright was the reason for all my anger at the family, and he was in danger. “Oh, no! You’ve got to go. It’s Blessing time. Impi and the others will be arriving in a couple of hours.”
“Thanks a lot,” laughed Bright. “I just arrive and you’re telling me to go away.”
He was damp with sweat, as any mage would be after a long drive, but it was the dear familiar stink of my beloved cousin, so it didn’t much matter. He looked pale and tired, but his eyes were much livelier than when I had last seen him, and all the bruises were gone. The dusty tan of his military robe suited him and his arms felt muscular as he replaced me on the ground.
“Bright, it’s Blessing time...”
“I know, I know. I’m going to come and go. I’ve got something to give you. Wait a minute and I’ll show you.”
He turned away to shake hands and exchange greetings with the peasants who had run over the fields behind me. Since he’d grown up here at the Willow-in-the-Mist Estate, my noble cousin knew everyone by name and was still well liked despite the scandal. He had a lot of questions to ask and answer.
While he was distracted, I turned to the other seat where Stefan Graceson, Bright’s valet, was sitting.
“You both look great,” I said. I’d known Graceson all my life, but after not seeing him for so long I was struck again by how gorgeous he was, with his high cheekbones, huge dark eyes and lovely curly hair. As children, the Graceson brothers and Bright and I had played together and, later, Graceson and Bright were inseparable. I’d always known that Bright loved Stefan more than anyone else. I’d accepted it as part of my cousin. If only the family had, curse them. What was it to them anyway? Bright was honest, loyal and kind—a wonderful person and surely a credit to his family.
“Military life agrees with us,” murmured Graceson. “He’s so much happier now he’s got something to do. He’s been saying the disinheritance may have been the best thing that ever happened to him.”
“Shine, get someone to take your horse back to the house,” interrupted Bright. “I need to discuss something private with you.”
“I’m all ears,” I said, giving the order to one of the peasants.
Katti was sniffing at the trunk of the phaeton. Something smells very strange in here, her thoughts told me.
Graceson shooed Katti away as he climbed onto the back and sat on top of the trunk. I took his place beside Bright, calling Katti to sit between us. She almost reached our shoulders.
“Lady!” exclaimed Bright, reaching across to rub her cheeks. “Look at you, you gorgeous cat. You’re enormous.”
She had the size of her wildcat sire and very likely her dark tufted ears came from him too. But she had the long tail of her mother and the soft smoke grey fur of a domesticated cat. Katti allowed Bright to rub her neck and cheeks. She liked him; she said he gave good neck rubs. But oddly enough she almost never spoke in his head, so he turned to me for information.
“Is she full-sized now?”
“She’s had her first litter of kittens, so I guess she must be.”
“That’s a relief. Wouldn’t want her to get much bigger. She must terrify visitors.”
Quite true, thought Katti smugly.
Bright settled himself into place and crossed his arms, and his face took on the glaring, jaw-clenched look of a mage at work. The crystal embedded in his forehead that marked him as a mage lit up as he called his power out. The phaeton rose into the air and turned towards the forest that covered the sides of our valley. We flew high enough over the fields not to disturb the neat furrows in the earth below. Once the phaeton was flying straight, Bright was able to drive and talk at the same time.
“So when are they due?”
“The family? Not till nightfall.”
“No need to rush off, then. Are they still as appalling as ever?”
“Worse,” I said. “Apparently our Holy Matriarch was so smoked at Plainsofgold, she almost fell over during her first Blessing. Lumina’s as horrible as ever and I hear Klea has run off to join the theatre. And Impi still rules the roost.”
“Cursed be the family where the consort holds sway,” quoted Bright. “I’m glad I’m out of the whole ghastly thing.”