All Chapters of The Red Luna: The Queen of the Flames: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

54 Chapters

Chapter XXX

ROWENAI heard it. Not clearly. The Sanctuary walls were thick and the distance between my chambers and the eastern courtyard was considerable and the night swallowed most of it. But sound carried in the mountain cold in ways it did not carry in warmer air and I had been awake and still since before the third hour of night, sitting on the edge of my bed with my hands in my lap and my ears doing the work my eyes could not.Metal. Voices raised and then cut short. The particular quality of organized violence, which I had learned to recognize in a fighting pit with sand under my feet and a chain in my hand.Then, after a long time, quiet.I did not know what the quiet meant. I sat in it and I waited and I told myself that waiting was the only useful thing available to me and I believed that and I sat with my hands in my lap and I waited anyway and it was the hardest thing I had done in a very long time.The candle on the table had burned down to a stub by the time I heard footsteps in t

Chapter Thirty One

ROWENAEldra came to my chambers before dawn.She looked at the necklace around my throat and said nothing about it. She looked at my face and said nothing about that either. She was carrying two things, a clean grey coat and a decision she had already made."The council meeting is at first light," she said. "You will attend with me."I looked at her."You provided the intelligence that made last night possible," she said. "That gives you standing in that room. I am giving you the standing formally by bringing you as my witness." She set the coat on the table. "Put this on. It is clean."I put it on.She looked at me for a moment in the way she sometimes looked at me, as if she was checking something she had been monitoring for a long time and was satisfied with what she found."Stay beside me," she said. "Speak only if you are addressed directly. And Rowena." She paused at the door. "Whatever is said in that room today, receive it standing."I understood what she meant.I followed he

Chapter Thirty Two

ELOWENI woke to find that there had been a fight in the fortress. I lay in my bed in the grey pre-dawn and listened to the sounds coming through my chamber walls and understood that something significant had happened in the night and that nobody had thought to tell me.This was not new. The shape of my life in Ravenshallow had always been this. The significant things happened and then I was informed of them afterward, in the carefully edited versions that Thane considered appropriate for his younger sister. It had been this way since I was fourteen and it had not changed simply because I was no longer fourteen.I dressed myself before my maids arrived. I did not want their careful faces this morning. I wanted information and they would not have it.Morwenna would have it. †††††††††††††††††††††††††She was in the small eastern courtyard when I found her, sitting on the low wall near the herb garden with a cup in her hands and the look of someone who had not sle

Chapter Thirty Three

ROWENAAveline Ravencrest sent word through Eldra the morning after the council meeting. Not a formal summons. A request, which was a distinction I noticed. She asked if I would walk with her in the eastern garden after the midday bell. She said she would be alone. She said I was welcome to bring someone if I preferred.I went alone. †††††††††††††††††††††††††She was already there when I arrived, standing at the garden's far end with her hands behind her back and her face turned toward the mountain. She heard me on the path and turned. In the daylight she looked different from the council room. Less contained. The careful diplomatic composure she had worn at the table was still present but worn more loosely, the way you wear a coat in your own house versus someone else's.She looked at the necklace first. Then at my face."Sit with me," she said.We sat on the low stone bench near the eastern wall. The garden was empty. The mountain above us was clear and cold a

Chapter Thirty Four

THANEThe dream came in the deepest part of the night when the mind has run out of defenses against itself.I knew it was a dream. Some part of me, the part that had learned to stay alert even in sleep after years of Julius arriving unannounced at the edges of rest, recognized the quality of it. The too-vivid color. The way the Sanctuary receiving room was itself and not quite itself simultaneously, the proportions slightly altered, the light coming from no source I could identify.I knew it was a dream and I did not leave it. †††††††††††††††††††††††††She was standing at the window with her back to me.Her hair was down. I had never seen it down. In the weeks and months of watching her move through this fortress she had always worn it braided or pulled back, a practical arrangement that kept it contained and out of her way. Down, it fell past her shoulders, red in the dream light, longer than I had realized and slightly wavy where the braid had held it throu

Chapter Thirty Five

ROWENAEldra told me the evening before that I would be needed in the war room at midmorning. Not asked. Needed. She said the word with the particular weight she gave to things she had decided were not open for discussion. I knew what it was about. The scouts. Thane had moved quickly after the council meeting and Celdric had delivered the names by morning as promised and now the men who were going into the outer territories needed to understand what they were going toward. My dreams were the closest thing anyone in this fortress had to a map of that.I understood why I was being called. That understanding did not make walking into a war room full of soldiers any less strange.I went anyway. †††††††††††††††††††††††††The war room was smaller than the council chamber and felt it more acutely with seven people in it. Thane at the head of the table. Celdric to his left. Aveline Ravencrest across from Celdric with her hands folded and her eyes already moving when I

Chapter Thirty Six

ROWENASome days later, Thane sent word through Sefa at midday.Not through Eldra. Not through Celdric. Through Sefa, which told me it was something that required care rather than urgency and that whoever was delivering the message had thought about how it would land.The note was brief. Four words.Come to the east wing.No signature. He did not need one. I had been in this fortress long enough to know his handwriting by now, the compressed efficiency of it, letters that took up no more space than they needed to.I set down what I was doing and I went. †††††††††††††††††††††††††He was standing in the corridor outside one of the east wing's smaller rooms when I came around the corner. Alone. His coat was dusty at the shoulder the way coats got when you had been outside in the mountain wind and he had the look of a man who had been waiting and was relieved the waiting was over.He looked at me when I came around the corner and he said nothing for a moment.Then

Chapter Thirty Seven

ROWENAMy mother slept through the evening bell.I sat with her until Sefa came to check on her and told me, gently, that the most useful thing I could do now was let her rest and rest myself. I did not feel tired. I felt the opposite of tired, a kind of restlessness that had been building all day under everything else, the accumulated weight of a day that had held more than most weeks did.I went to the Vellmoor. The guards at the eastern gate knew me well enough by now not to question it. The evening was cold and clear and the valley was quiet in the particular way it was quiet at dusk, the moss and the dark earth holding the last of the day's warmth, the old stones at its center catching what light remained and holding it the way they always did, from within rather than from the surface.I sat on the ground near the stones with my back against the largest of them and I closed my eyes and I breathed the cold clean air and I let the day settle into me. ††††††††

Chapter Thirty Eight

ELOWENThane was different at breakfast.I could not have said how. Nothing about him had changed in any way I could point to. He sat where he always sat and ate what he always ate and spoke to Oryn about the scout deployment with the same flat efficiency he brought to everything. But there was something underneath it, a quality I had not seen in him since before our father died, something that made the air around him sit differently.I watched him for a moment longer than I meant to. Then I let it go, because I had my own morning to get through and Thane being lighter than usual was not a problem that required my attention.I found Morwenna in the small eastern courtyard, where she usually was at this hour, sitting on the low wall with a cup in her hands. †††††††††††††††††††††††††"You look tired," she said, when I sat down."I did not sleep well.""Celdric," she said. Not a question."Partly." I looked at the mountain. "I keep going over the conversation in th

Chapter Thirty Nine

THANEThe scouts came back on the fifth day. I had expected them on the fourth. The extra day sat badly with me, the way most things I could not control sat badly with me, and I had spent it going through the motions of fortress business with one ear always turned toward the eastern gate.Julius had been at the foot of my bed again that morning. The urgent face. Saying nothing. Just present in the way he was present when something was coming that he could see and I could not yet.When the gate watch sent word at midafternoon I was already moving. †††††††††††††††††††††††††There were three of them. Four had gone out. The oldest scout, the one who had asked me how far, was not among them.I looked at the three men standing in the inner courtyard and I looked at the space where the fourth man was not and I said nothing for a moment."Aldus," the youngest scout said. He could not have been more than twenty two. He was holding himself together with the effort of s

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