Playing to the Gods by Melanie Rawn

Author:Melanie Rawn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

Chapter 24

Every time Touchstone returned to Gallantrybanks from Seekhaven, Blye presented them with glass boxes to keep their Trials medals in. This year, presenting them on the fly while everyone scurried about preparing for the Royal Circuit or preparing to move house, she grumped that she was running out of ideas. A dragon etched into each had been easy and obvious, that first year. She’d referenced each play of the Thirteen Perils that had secured them their places (for the Third, a single foot in a laced boot beside a knight in full armor who was only as tall as the Giant’s ankle). If there was a repeat, she decorated the boxes using symbols for their last names, a clutch of fanned-out withies, or an array of glass baskets. This year she confessed herself flummoxed by how to commemorate the first part of Window Wall, and instead depicted their wagon with TOUCHSTONE on the side and Derien’s map.

“Another reason for striking out on our own,” Mieka remarked. “Blye’s convenience!”

She had come to tea to give him and Cayden their glass boxes. It was a rare afternoon of quiet at Redpebble Square. There’d been no time for lunching with the Princess this year after Trials, no time for visiting friends—unless those friends happened to drop by, in which case they were given a crate and directed to pack something in it. This was true of all four members of Touchstone. Jeska, due to become a father again by Wintering, had found a larger house into which his growing family would move while he was away. Rafe, Crisiant, and little Bram were changing residence as well—though in their case it was only around the corner from his parents’ bakery. Cade, Derien, Mieka, and Mistress Mirdley were in the midst of moving to the new house on the river; Jed, Blye, Jez, and Eirenn would transfer to Number Eight; Rikka Ashbottle and her husband, Parlen Cropready, would take over the lodgings above the glassworks. It seemed to Mieka that almost everybody he knew was moving almost everything they owned that spring—except for Jindra, who would stay at Wistly Hall with her doting grandparents until his return from the Royal this autumn. He had the occasional attack of nervous worry, wondering how she would adjust. But surely it was better for her to grow up in a home full of people who adored her. He knew bloody good and well that anything was better than growing up around her grandmother.

The problem of Derien and the journey to the Continent had worked itself out, no credit going to Cade. The boy had indeed won the competition, first place in both the examination and the interviews. He reported this news about twenty seconds after Cade and Mieka walked through the front door of Redpebble Square. Cade scowled and gathered himself for an argument; Mieka rolled his eyes; Mistress Mirdley snorted; Derien said cheerily, “You’ll be glad to learn I’ve politely declined the invitation. After all, I have family responsibilities.

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