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As she settled back in her place next to Gabriel and arranged the blanket over them both, she mused over the exchange.Perhaps a human heart lurked inside Jadren’s carelessly cool exterior.Maybe not.But one thing she was sure of: There was no way Jadren had risked his life for a profitable product line.He’d done it for an entirely different reason, and she suspected she knew what it was.
When Nic wokeagain, misty morning light sifted through the infirmary, along with the noise of soft conversation and the louder clatter of dishes.Gabriel lay beside her, still asleep or unconscious, no glimmer of magic to indicate he was anywhere closer to reviving.Asa appeared on the other side of Gabriel, giving her a broad healer’s smile.“Good morning, Lady Phel.How are you feeling?”
“Fine.Why isn’t Gabriel awake?”
He kept his serene smile firmly in place, but his wizard-black eyes went opaque.“Sleep is the best thing for him.You know this from your schooling.Lord Phel expended an enormous amount of magic, and now he must replenish it naturally.”
She did know that, but the frustration welled up in her.Why couldn’t she inject her magic into him?Why did she have to wait for him to take it, when he was so incapacitated that he couldn’t?“If we could wake him, he could drink of my magic and replenish that way.”
“No sense wishing for things that cannot be,” Asa said.
The frustration boiled over.“So you suggest I simply give up and donothing?”
“I suggest that you go and eat, Lady Phel,” Asa replied gently.“Clean up.Put on fresh clothes.Take care of the business of House Phel.Leave Lord Phel to me.This is my expertise.”
She opened her mouth to retort but closed it again.She didn’t necessarily believe Asa had any expertise in this situation—certainly he couldn’t have previous experience with it—but then, neither did she.Sitting up, she stretched, her body much looser and energized this morning than when she’d woken in the night.
Asa came around, laying light fingers on her wrist as she stood, nodding to himself.“I treated you a bit ago, while you still slept.You’re recovering nicely, and the babe is fine.”
“Thank you.”She glanced around, seeing that Jadren was gone and Selly appeared to be sleeping also.“Selly?”
Asa gestured in that direction, and they walked together to Selly’s bedside.“Physically, she’s greatly restored,” he reported, sounding more clinical.“Lord Phel pulled the greatest charge off her stagnant magic, which is why he was worst hit, and Wizard Jadren was able to release a great deal more.After you, he drained Iliana, Han, and Narlis to do it.I’ve been able to tap a bit more this morning, but it’s still stagnant stuff.Nothing yet that anyone can use.I can handle it on my own now, however, and I hope that eventually I can purge all of the repressed magic and allow the fresh to flow and finish the work of cleansing her magical being.Then we’ll see.”
Nic nodded to show she understood, though her thoughts had snagged on something Asa had said.“Narlis was of help?”
“I was surprised, too,” Asa answered with a genuine grin that made his cheeks dimple.“The elderly lady has quite a nice punch to her now.The wonders a good home will do.”
Apparently so—and Gabriel had been the one to give it to her.“Asa… I apologize for being cranky earlier.”
His smile softened, affection in it.“You’re allowed, Lady Phel.Trust me to take care of him for you, just as we’re trusting you to take care of House Phel and all of us.”
She did feelbetter for eating and getting cleaned up.Though she longed for a bath—especially as Alise had also installed water and fire elementals to provide instant hot water—she resolutely used the cleaning and grooming imps instead.The morning was advancing relentlessly, and there was a considerable backlog of problems to deal with, as they’d lost an entire day of work.
Sitting alone at her desk in the library, Nic organized the correspondence in order of priority, trying to summon some enthusiasm for tackling her many tasks.The weather had turned cold again, a greeting rain falling steadily and silently.Even the cheerful fire in the fireplace didn’t seem to be dispersing the chill.Alise was busily installing fire elementals in the residential chambers, making sure everyone had at least one before distributing them through the rest of the manse.The library had only the fire for heating still.
The most pressing problem facing them was food, prosaically enough.With the rapidly increasing population of the manse, their food supply was diminishing at an even greater speed.Not to mention that they had a swamp monster to feed now.She spent a good couple of hours seeking out people to deliver food to the manse on a regular basis, and also sending out word that House Phel would pay for new suppliers.
That reminded her she hadn’t balanced the house accounts for a couple of days.They were also diminishing at an alarming rate.They really needed to get some products to market.If Gabriel didn’t wake, they’d be destitute in a couple of months—but she couldn’t contemplate that.She’d really love to extract her dowry from House Elal, but the odds of that were dismally low.
To exacerbate it all, more wizards and familiars had continued to arrive, and they were out of copies of the NDA.So far the manse had plenty of space, but these people needed to create income for the house or they’d drain the coffers even faster.It was lowering to recall she had been the one to insist that Gabriel needed minions.They should’ve started slower: a few wizards, build up the product lines, then incorporate new people gradually.But then, she’d never imagined their call for applicants would be met with such enthusiasm.
Or that Gabriel would be out of commission.
Shaking off that gloomy thought, she mused over the fact that there was apparently a great deal more dissatisfaction in the Convocation than she’d realized.All this time, she’d thought it was only her who railed against convention—and she’d thought it was entirely because she was a familiar and not a wizard as she’d planned.From talking to Alise, however, and hearing the stories and conversations among the new arrivals, she was realizing that not many people in the Convocation were happy.
Food for thought, but she really needed food for people.And swamp monsters.
“Lady Phel?”Iliana eased in the library doors, which Nic had left ajar to facilitate the coming and going of her various messengers.“You wanted to see me?”
The pretty redhead came forward as Nic beckoned her, though trailing her feet reluctantly, as if being called before a thought-seeker for chastising.“Why did you stop calling me by my name?”Nic asked.
Iliana flushed lightly, the pink making her fawn freckles stand out.“I wasn’t sure why I was summoned, I suppose.”
“I wanted to ask about fish,” Nic said gently, restraining her smile at Iliana’s confused expression.“What kind the swamp monster likes.Some varieties are apparently easier to obtain than others.Cost is, unfortunately, a factor.”
“Ah.”Iliana studied the documents littering the desk.“I don’t know if I ever told you, but my family’s branch of House Ariel was impoverished.I’m quite good at budgeting, if you need help.”
“I do need help,” Nic confessed, feeling unreasonably emotional about it.She couldn’t possibly start weeping over piles of paperwork.Get a grip on yourself.“What I need is a copying gremlin, but the things are ridiculously pricey.”She waved the missive from House Xerograf.
