“It’s Vai!”
I crept downstairs, unbarred the door, and let him in. In the back of the house the fire in the kitchen stove, sealed for the night, groaned with a resigned huff as the presence of a powerful cold mage sucked all combustion from the flames. We tiptoed upstairs.
“Andevai!” Bee whispered as he shaped a spark of cold fire into the shape of a candle. “Why are you here? What went wrong?”
He shook off the coat. He was wearing a rough workingman’s jacket and trousers we had smuggled into Five Mirrors House as cushioning for the cacica’s head, which he had pulled on over his other garments.
“I told them it wasn’t the first time you had run away from me, which statement has the added benefit of being the truth. I spent all day nagging at them to find you, thinking that would relieve their concerns about me. Then they paraded four women in front of me and asked which one I wanted in my bed.” He sank down on the bed and rubbed his head as if it hurt. “They were so insistent, reminding me of how every magister owed it to the vigor of the Houses to do his part. The only way I could get rid of them was to reduce them all to tears by enumerating their flaws and shortcomings at length.”
“That can’t have been difficult for you, Magister,” said Bee with a sting in her smile.
He looked up so quickly I thought he meant to cut her with an edged retort. She braced herself, ready to give back what she got.
“For over seven years I worked to become the magister they would accept in Four Moons House, so I could prove I was more powerful than them, smarter than them, better than them. It was so easy to become him again. But I don’t want to be that man.”
Bee’s mouth parted in astonishment. Mercifully she said nothing, for above all things I could not imagine Vai accepting sympathetic platitudes.
“Then you won’t go back, love,” I said.
He looked away. “None of that matters,” he went on in a curt tone that another might have heard as a rejection but that I knew came from pride. “As I was leaving the parlor after getting rid of the women, I saw a messenger wearing the colors and badge of Four Moons House.”
“The courier I saw leave last night can’t have gotten there and back so quickly.”
He nodded. “Yes, it seemed odd to me. I followed, but I’m not a skilled spy. I never discovered what the messenger was there for because I was caught just as the steward was ordering the captain of the House guards to start a house-by-house search of Noviomagus to look for you, Catherine. I pretended I had come to insist on that very thing, and demanded to go with them. I slipped the laborer’s clothes inside my coat and changed in a tavern.” He laughed mockingly. “I pulled an old cap over my head and slouched out past them. They look only at posture and clothes. They didn’t even see me go past.”
Sleet hissed along the roof. He glanced at the window.
“I expect their magisters are bringing down a storm to keep travelers off the roads. It will take some time to search, but they’re bound to check hostels and inns first. We’ve got to go.”
“Very well,” said Bee decisively. “We’ll return to New Academy and demand refuge. The headmaster was singularly unhelpful, but we are owed that much, surely!”
“What about Rory?” I asked as I began collecting our belongings. “He went to the innkeepers’ chamber.”
Vai’s amused grin was so rare a sight that Bee actually stared. “Ah. I take it he is out prowling. I shall fetch him while you dress.”
As we dressed, he descended the creaking stairs. I heard the hard rap he gave on a closed door and his voice raised without the least embarrassment. “I beg your pardon, but I need Rory immediately, for we’ve had urgent news.”
The baby woke and began sobbing disconsolately. Rory made apologetic fare-thee-wells as Bee and I got everything ready. We had a lot to carry, a bag each plus Vai’s carpentry apron, which he wore under his coat. Foul weather dogged us as we strode miserably along the road beneath a biting sleet that made my nose go numb. Not a single soul braved the road except for us. The night lay as dark as if pitch had been poured over the world, but Vai’s mage light lit our path.
Wind tangled in the trees with a rush like wings. Between gusts I heard hoofbeats. Bobbing lights approached from the direction of town, not lantern light but cold fire. Mages pursued us, riding with soldiers. Ahead the impenetrable hedge gave way to the academy gates, where a real lamp burned. We reached the gates before the troop got sight of us. A burly guard with a bored expression slouched out from the gatehouse. The gate lamp burned steadily despite Vai’s standing next to it.