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Tag: aidan

Another letter to Aidan

August 28, 2009February 28, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars

He had intended to write in order for once, but first things had to be first.

Alysei Aidan astin Velain to Alysei Athal astin Velain, king of Valdyas, either still in Solay or on his way home.

Brother mine,

Cora took me to Vurian just now –I realise I’d been putting it off– and I told him about what the two men said. Not very coherently I’m afraid, I can hear Raisse tutting at me! Or at least, I didn’t say anything at first, just sat wringing my hands until he said “you’re bringing bad news, and it isn’t Athal or I’d have heard about it.” “Torin,” I said, “and I’m not completely sure because I don’t trust the man who told me.” It became a family affair at once, everybody from twelve-year-old Erlyn up called into the room and I had to tell it again. Cora, meanwhile, was talking to Lara in the kitchen, girls’ stuff or grand masters’ stuff, probably both at once.

There was an argument between Aine and Vurian, which Aine won, so she is going south on the fastest horse and Vurian is going to Valdis. Both, of course, to find out what really happened. I’m writing this letter as fast as I can in Vurian’s writing-room so I can give it to Aine to take to Essle. Vurian is good-natured about it, only a bit peeved that he won’t see Raith (“again!”), and probably not for a very long time because Raith is going back to Solay. He was a bit surprised that she was in Veray, but agreed that it was a good thing that she could take Ayneth with her.

Vurian took me half to pieces afterwards, telling me that I’ve been a sergeant, I will be a captain and I am a prince, and I can’t afford doubt. Well, yes, I’d kind of worked that out by myself, but it’s good to hear it from someone who really knows.

I’m getting this all back to front! I’ll try to start a bit more from the beginning now: even before we got to Veray there was a little harbour, I think it was in Nesh, where Ayneth and a lot of other people were waiting for us. When Ayneth had finished embracing Raith –for a bit– she came and hugged me and listened to my story about the girl whose name I still can’t pronounce or remember. She talked to her herself –she knows a little Síthi these days– but she couldn’t understand everything. She did gather that the girl was a Khas officer’s child, her mother had been the officer’s lover, but died when the little boy was born, and then the officer had taken her as his lover instead! His own daughter! It did mean that all the other officers and soldiers kept their hands off her. No wonder she wants another protector now and chooses the obviously most powerful man around, the prince; that is, me. Uncomfortable, but understandable. That still didn’t make it easy to tell Cora. But Ayneth kept her in Veray while I went home, she’ll be here in a few days and bring her, so it would at least be possible to tell Cora without making her think I’d brought a second wife.

Old Lord Aivan housed and fed those of us who weren’t going to Veray itself, about two dozen in all, seventeen men and two women for Turenay and the rest for some of the villages beyond Veray. Nobody from Gralen that I could see, perhaps they’re all still whole and fighting. He also arranged carts to take us to the north, and (very early in the morning) me and a few others to the Temple of Naigha. The driver was a veteran of the civil war, “I fought on the other side then, but well, I’m from Veray after all.”

Cora must have been looking out for me, because she saw me in the Halfway inn and got the gatekeeper to take her there on his horse. It seems that people left the room to let us be together, I can’t remember a thing about it. We’ve hardly left each other’s side since I’m back– though she does go to the hospital in the mornings, even though Leva gave her some days off, but she can’t resist. There are still two of our transport in the hospital, one with a really bad leg wound (which Cora mostly fixed this morning) and one who got hit on the head so hard that he was unconscious until Essle.

There’s one woman who came back to find that her husband had died from the lung epidemic, and she’d joined up to get over the death of her children from a fever, so she’s all alone now, though she has relatives in Veray. I’m thinking of making her caretaker in the training school if she’d rather stay in Turenay, she can live in Jilan’s rooms. The Temple of Mizran says that Jilan left everything to the regiment, and I think I’m the captain –at least acting captain until someone can swear me in– of whatever regiment we will turn out to have. I’m going to make Lyase my adjutant– I asked her if she wanted the captaincy, but she declined. Cora thought that it would be too much paperwork for her, anyway.

So now I’m home, trying to catch up with my life. I still get tired very quickly, and my side hurts at times (much better now that Cora rubs the scar with oil every day), and everything looks different but that’s probably because I’ve changed. Are you going to have a triumphal tour of the country when you’re back? Otherwise, at least come to Turenay in the autumn! I don’t think you’re likely to make Gralen at Midsummer, where I want to take Cora to have our baby.

There’s the young boy clerk with the sealing wax, I won’t keep him waiting. May the best man (clearly that’s you) win,

Aidan

Aidan writes to Athal

August 28, 2009February 28, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars

He was spirited away while unconscious. Not that he could have done any more fighting, even against doctor’s orders.

Alysei Aidan astin Velain to Alysei Athal astin Velain, king of Valdyas, probably in Solay; otherwise please forward.

Brother mine,

I hope this reaches you in good order. Someone will know where you are, I suppose, it’s not as if you can disappear into the crowd. Not even I can, it turns out: as soon as people noticed that I was in Essle they came to me to sign their papers and settle their disputes. Now I’m writing on a river-boat on the swollen Rycha, so if the letters are wobbly and the ink runs it’s from that, don’t imagine I’m crying or my arm is stlll busted.

I was very surprised to wake up on the ship, and even more surprised that it turned out to be the White Whale! It must have been easier to repair those whopping big holes in the side than it looked. Oh, and I was very surprised that Raith was there too, spirited away by Dushtan while she was knocked out. She told me that she does tend to fall unconscious for a while after the sort of mind-work she did, but of course Dushtan doesn’t know that. Raith was positively livid and she intends to take Dushtan to task when she gets back. I couldn’t very well make the ship turn back immediately, for all it was my own, because there were about three hundred more wounded soldiers on it, but I offered to negotiate a place for Raith on the next ship back. She said she would think about it.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I spent most of the time on the ship having nightmares with a lot of blood, and dreams about Cora with unfortunate effects (as I heard later), but one morning I woke up and my head was clear, though my body was as weak and limp as a rag. There was a small boy at the foot of my bed, and a young woman who didn’t quite look old enough to be his mother hovering near, and when she saw that I was awake she went and got Raith (who was still angry with Dushtan, even after six weeks!) It turned out that the girl had been nursing me all that time, and she did it very well too, she ought to be a hospital nurse! She didn’t speak any Ilaini or even Iss-Peranian trade-speak, only Síthi and Khas– she looked half of each, so it figured. I got her to say her name, and the little boy’s name, but it’s so strange that I keep forgetting it.

When I got on deck for the first time it was marvellous to breathe fresh air but I could hardly stand, so weak were my legs –though those, miraculously, were still completely whole. I could see land, Raith said it was the desert, not even alongside Idanyas yet. But we got to Essle after a while, and there Raith said she was coming along as far as Veray now that she was in Valdyas anyway. The ship was full of wounded veterans, most in about the same condition as me but some were worse and a few had died on the voyage and been thrown overboard by the priestess of Naigha, that seems to be the usual thing to do at sea. I suppose the fishes eat them. There was a whole committee at the dock to meet us, Rhaye among them, who took me and Raith away to the house that used to be your palace. The Mighty Servant was there too, and if Cora did something to make him not love Rhaye any more he’s got over it, because they were being very soppy. Rhaye did ask me “do you want to stay at my palace, or at the official palace?” (that is, Koll Neveshtan’s house) but all I wanted was a good bed and a plate of squid and onions.

So there I was at Rhaye’s house, and I did get squid and onions and a good bed. Raith and I were sharing a room because they had only the one guest-room free, so ornamented and scented that Raith asked “what is this, a brothel?” with her usual lack of tact. I thought I’d have a day of rest after the voyage, and the young doctor –not much older than me!– who had been looking after me on the ship had prescribed exactly that, but I didn’t get the chance: suddenly everybody wanted to see me. People who wanted veteran’s bonus papers signed (which I could do), people who wanted more elaborate paperwork done (which I couldn’t, and I sent them to the other palace where there are lots of clerks), people who wanted disputes settled (which, being a prince, I had to do even if I couldn’t. You have that worse than me, being a king, I suppose). Two men who both called themselves Arin from Torin’s regiment, and accused each other of having deserted and collected the other’s bonus; I was willing to give them both the benefit of the doubt, but one of them would only accept a judgement from Anshen himself, so I lit the fire –I can do that with my mind now, by just thinking of Cora!– and asked Anshen. Immediately the man who had seemed to have the best case started to look icky, as if he was dripping with black miasma, and I sent him out and apologised to the other one. That turned out to have made me a master in the Guild! I must have been on the brink for quite some time, only there seemed to be no occasion.

I slept for a few hours after that, I think, and then Moyri’s Uznur came with a lot of letters. We talked a bit, and called each other Your Highness to both of us’ amusement, and I told him about the two veterans, and suddenly it occurred to me that I was a wounded veteran and I’d get a bonus too! Three hundred riders, a sergeant’s bonus. “I can buy Cora something nice with that,” I said, and Uznur promptly sent me merchants with wares and pressed it on me that I ought not to talk about the price, “that’s not done if you’re a prince”. The clothes and fabrics weren’t as good as anything in the cargo of the White Whale, and of the jewellery I really only liked a very plain ring made of “silver that doesn’t blacken” according to the jeweller, so I took that, and I bought her a few books but I had to trust the bookseller, because I’ve never known anything about books. I could show him the ones Raisse had lying ready to send to her, though! “Do you think she wants something old, or could it be something new?” he asked, and frankly I didn’t know but the books Raisse had picked out were probably proper old literature, so I said new would be all right. Eventually I got her an Iss-Peranian book and a Síthi book, one to teach obedience and the other to teach independence, or something like that.

In the evening there was a banquet, with everybody who was somebody in Essle present, and the young doctor had given me something to stay awake but not necessarily alert, so I only remember that I ate quite well and people seemed to like me.

We started for Ryshas the next day. There were about fifty of us, out of three hundred, bound there. Two men of my own battalion went on to Valdis– someone told me they were all there was left of it. Poor Erian! I wrote a letter to his widow, too. And the two men with the dispute told me they’d seen your brother-in-law Torin fall, but I don’t know for sure that he’s dead so I won’t pray for him yet when I go to the Temple of Naigha in Veray to pay tribute to Dhamir and Erian and Jilan.

Raith said that looking at me made her want to hire a horse in Tilis and speed to Ayneth immediately– do I look so much like her? I’m the only one with curls, but I do have the same colour of hair and almost as many freckles. I said “why not?” but she wanted to stay with me, sort of to protect me, I think. Veray seems to be more dangerous these days than the last time I was there.

We tried to keep the girl and her little brother at the Order house in Essle, but she turned up on the boat! Either she’s so gifted that she can breach any seal, or she’s an accomplished burglar. We can’t see her gifts, though– I’m not surprised that I can’t, being only just a master, but that Raith can’t is something else. On the other hand, perhaps that’s what’s kept her alive among the Khas for, well, sixteen years or so.

Athal, please win the war– all I’m hearing now is that you’re already doing just that. I’m praying for you, which is just about all I can do in my condition.

Aidan

Aidan writes from Iss-Peran

June 14, 2009February 28, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars

If all goes well this will arrive before the report of victory, not with it. And if all does not go well, it may be Aidan’s last message, but he doesn’t realise that.

Alysei Aidan astin Velain to Raissei Cora astin Velain in Turenay

Darling Cora,

I’m writing this in Iss-Peran! The north-westernmost point of it, a city called Kushesh in the kingdom of Jomhur. You probably know better than I where it is. It’s now full of our army, more soldiers than I ever thought I’d see, about ten times as many as left from Valdis. And that’s not even all of the army! Some troops have already gone forward to Solay, and I’m not counting all the sailors on the warships. Most of them are Iss-Peranians, but there’s a good thirty thousand Valdyans in all, perhaps more, because I didn’t see anyone from the old regiment of Turenay –the one that went first of all, before I even knew you– and I know they’re still active so they must be somewhere in the vanguard..

You were right about me being able to give Athal a bit of earth to keep him steady, though I wasn’t all that steady myself when we started out from Essle and gave my breakfast to the fishes. Apparently that’s normal for one’s first voyage, and the first mate of our ship gave me a sip of very strong brandy “to settle my stomach” and it did.

Athal wasn’t as bad as last time, he said, because there was only one bit where the water was so deep he lost his footing completely, but he did lose the use of most of his gifts the moment we were out of sight of land (and probably in deeper water than he could handle). I could just sense him, so I took him into my mind, in the pansy field — did you ever see the pansy field? I think it came from showing you the forest, because it wasn’t there before. If you stand facing the forest it’s in front of you and to the right as far as you can see; to the left there’s something I know is there but can’t see yet. To get to the forest you wade through pansies, and they smell delicious but don’t get trampled, they bounce right back again. I took Athal’s hand, in my mind, and sat him down on the ground there. I knew he shouldn’t fall asleep or I wouldn’t be able to get him back on my own, so when it looked as if he was dropping off I led him out again and he could sleep in his bunk without any trouble. I think I did that almost every evening, and he was really fit again after only a few hours ashore! (See, I’m using seaman words, a few weeks ago I wouldn’t have known ‘ashore’ existed.)

Prince Dhamir wasn’t seasick once, which is beastly of him, because the last time he was at sea, he says, was when he was eight years old. We were supposed to share a cabin but I’ve been with Athal every night, and he’s been sleeping in the men’s quarters with the rest of the troop. I wonder if Síthi men don’t have much of a beard generally, because he doesn’t, and what beard hairs he does have he pulls out with tweezers (which looks very painful!). I’ve been growing mine, but I’ll ask the royal barber to shave me before we fight, much more practical.

It’s so full of soldiers here that it’s hard to see anything of the city but I think it would be quite pretty if it hadn’t been half sacked by the Khas, and commandeered as quarters by our army. I think the Baroness of Lenay is quartered in what used to be a fish shop, with some of her apprentices.

We did have to fight off some Khas who thought to waylay us, but we had Prince Attima as admiral and they didn’t have a chance. I could point out on a map what he did, but I don’t have any words to describe it, it was sort of attacking from both sides at once when they thought they were attacking us in the middle. Attima said the Khas had a mage, but someone shot him down with a big crossbow before he could do any magic. And Athal says, now he’s clear-headed enough to have an opinion, that this mage must have been a very weak one or he could have pushed the bolt aside or shielded himself against it. He thinks –and so does Raith– that they’re keeping their grand master mages for the battle itself. Athal, Raith, Uncle Ferin, Attima, General Beguyan (a comical little man at first sight, but impressive the moment you see him working) and some other people who make the decisions are in conference now to talk about strategy. Athal asked me to “keep Dhamir out of it, please” so I took my troop to the flood-plain for sword drills.

Lots of other people had had the same idea, so it wasn’t even as if I was only doing it to distract him. There are even some soldiers in the Guild of the Nameless, who are fighting for our king! I talked to a sergeant who has been here for three seasons already, and he says it’s his king as well as ours, meaning the Guild of Anshen (I don’t think he knew that I’m Athal’s brother as well as a sergeant and a journeyman) and we could put our squabbles aside until we’d won the big battle. Sensible of him! I hope he’ll agree to put our squabbles aside a bit longer, so we can celebrate together afterwards.

The worst thing is that when we win, I can’t come into your arms right away! (It would be still worse if I died and you couldn’t be with me, but I’m confident that we’re going to win and that I’m coming back to you.) But the best thing about that is that I’ll be able to spend the whole journey back in expectation.

Blessings of all the good gods on you and on our daughter,

Aidan

A little note from Aidan

May 29, 2009February 28, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars

This came with several crates of medicines from the White Whale.

Dearest Cora,

Here’s a load of medicines. I remembered just in time that if there were spices, there ought to be medicinal herbs too, and that you’d be glad to have them. After all, they’re ours, and we’re rich enough without selling them to strangers.

I let Athal’s doctor Dushtan take what she needed, but that wasn’t much at all, mostly stuff to use at sea. Athal’s seasickness medicine, for one! Today he doesn’t have time to worry about the voyage, because he’s gone to the poor neighbourhoods with Raisse and Moyri and all the little kids to meet the people there. Prince Dhamir from Aumen Síth wanted to go too, but Raisse said it was only an occasion for the people of Essle to see their king, not an outing for foreigners. He was properly chastised! Now he’s sparring with my soldiers, coming along nicely, I think he’ll actually be able to fight a bit once there’s some fighting.

Please, please don’t overwork yourself! I’d almost come home to keep you from it, but Athal needs me more now than even you and our child-to-be together. But take care!

This is likely to be my last letter that will reach you easily. Tomorrow we sail, as early as there’s a useful tide. I’ll try to write from Iss-Peran too, but I can’t promise those letters will arrive before I come back. I’ll be thinking of you every day, even when I can’t write to you. When I look at your picture, it’s as if I could touch you– and it makes me very sad that I can’t.

All my love, many kisses, loving thoughts,

Aidan

Sergeant Aidan writes to his wife again

May 13, 2009March 1, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars, school and hospital

This letter comes with a large parcel of assorted silk fabrics and embroidery thread and spices. It was clearly written in haste.

Darling Cora,

I wrote half a letter to you, and then lots of stuff happened and nothing that was in the letter mattered any more so I tore it up and started again.

I was at the harbour this morning with some of the lads, and there was a whopping big ship coming in, which turned out to be ours! The White Whale! I stayed around to watch the unloading, lots of fabrics and spices and glassware. I’m sending you some of it. Jeran was there, he’s the son of the Síthi tailor who made the jacket I wore at the feast, and he helped me pick out the right colours for you and to make sure that each piece is enough for an Iss-Peranian gown. He says that it’s not of the quality that used to come from Iss-Peran, but it looks splendid to me anyway. Also I’m sending embroidery thread, and I thought you’d like some of the spices too.

I think we’re rich. There was so much in that ship. They came and asked me if it was all right, now the ship was in, to use it for troops transport and I said yes, of course– I know that means it may not stay whole but that’s how it goes in a war, and I couldn’t very well say no! Anyway, if it’s only used for trade it doesn’t necessarily stay whole either. And perhaps we will sail in it!

When I went to the sort-of-palace to tell Athal and Raisse, I got another shock. You know that old ox-guy Koll Neveshtan? He died last night (I’d heard that already, it was all over the city, hard to miss) and –here’s the shocking part– left everything to Athal. Apparently because he wanted to disinherit his nephew Koll Konandé. (That’s the bloke who is after you, right?) Not quite everything, Raisse says, not his ships and trade interests because they belong to the family really, and I suppose his two adopted daughters get something too– one has gone with the army, and the other lives in Veray. But all the rest of his personal stuff, and his house and slaves.

They’ve been freeing the slaves all day, there were about sixty of them, women and ox-men, he wouldn’t have any whole men in his house. There’s a lot of money, more than a hundred times ten hundred riders, even after paying off all the people who aren’t slaves any more. And books and maps that Raisse drooled over, and musical instruments that made Athal swoon. And it’s all his! He won’t get the money until after we take Solay, that was in the will, so the money doesn’t get used for the war. But they’re using the house as army offices for now, bursary and quartermaster’s office, because it’s very big and there are lots of servants staying on for pay.

This is probably the last letter from me that you’ll get for a while because we’re leaving the day after tomorrow, and I don’t know how long it will be before I can find someone to take one back for me. I’m definitely sailing with Athal, so I can hold his hand when he’s worse-than-seasick. Prince Dhamir will have to take second place to my brother the King of Valdyas, even if he turns out to be a bad sailor too. (I know his name at last: Rakor Bebe Dhamir, and there’s some more but that’s all titles. He’s asked me to call him Dhamir because that’s his own name like mine is Aidan, the rest are house-names.)

I wrote “nothing that was in the letter mattered any more” but it does matter of course, it was an answer to the letter I got from you! Moyri gave it to me with a broad grin, as if she’d secretly read it, but she couldn’t have of course because you’d sealed it very tightly. I did laugh at the picture of our bed full of women (and cats)! I keep the letter in my shirt and read it over and over again, just like the one you gave me in Valdis, to hear your voice in my mind. I love you so much! And it’s splendid to hear about all the good things you’re doing. When I saw Uznur he showed me his arm and told me how you and Leva had made it better. He’s staying in Essle –Moyri won’t let him go on a ship– to deal with money and ships and things, while Moyri and Raisse go back to Valdis via a very roundabout route, Idanyas and the Western Plain.

See, now I’ve written almost all of my old letter again.

Love and kisses, smelling of cinnamon and cloves and camphor,

Aidan

PS. Raisse said that she’ll write to you too, but she’s staying on in Essle for a while so her letter may not arrive with the same messenger because she doesn’t have to hurry.

Sergeant Aidan writes to his wife

April 20, 2009February 27, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars, school and hospital

He’s not one of the great literary letter-writers, but he loves her very much.

My dear sweet Cora,

Finally I can sit down and write without the feeling that the whole troop is looking over my shoulder. Or at least bumping into me all the time because in a tent made for eight there’s really no room for eleven. And that’s only the men, there are also six women in a tent made for four. We’re firmly in Lenyas now, on the baroness’ grounds. If Moyri is still in Turenay, Lydan says to tell her that there’s a letter waiting in Essle. (And if Moyri doesn’t turn up in Essle, we’re to send it to Valdis, but he thinks she will go to Essle first.)

I’m missing you so much. It’s a bit better because most of us have someone they miss a lot. About half carry letters or pictures, but I have both! And such a nice picture! I look at it morning and night and imagine that you’re with me (and then have to get dressed or under the blanket in a hurry). You needn’t be afraid that I’ll fall for one of the silly girls who flock around our troop because they want to boast to their friends that they’ve slept with a prince. I tell them that while I must admit that I’m a prince I’m also only a sergeant, and point them to the Imperial Prince in Exile, Prince Whatshisname (I still can’t pronounce or even remember it; our sister-in-law the queen knows what he’s called). I don’t know whether he’s actually slept with one or some or all of them, that’s none of my business. In fact he’s not a bad guy at all, polite and friendly, only I’m afraid not very clever. Matches well with the silly girls, that’s true.

There’s one lad here, called Erian, who is younger than me and also a father-to-be, so we can be worried together. Not that I’m very worried, because I know you can do it, and you have my father and Leva and all the other people in Turenay to take care of you. He never learnt to write well, so he’s going to dictate his letter to me when I’ve finished this one.


Well, that took a long time! As soon as I’d written the previous bit we broke up and went south again. We’re in Tilis now, luckily before the water is high so we can camp and exercise on the flats. (This is the land that falls dry when there’s not enough water in the river to cover it. It’s very flat.) We’ve met up with the troops from Veray and Turenay, another two thousand! Even Master Jilan is here, and lots of people from the training. I wonder if there will be enough ships to carry us all to Solay, but of course because I’m with the king (and Prince Whatsisname) there’s no chance that they’ll leave me behind. I’ll come back to bring you glory and victory (and, Erian says, interesting scars, but I’ll do my best to stay whole for you).

I’m giving this to Arin Hayan, who turned up in Tilis with Orian on their way to Valdis, but as they’ve met Athal here they don’t need to go to Valdis to see him, of course, they can go straight home. At least Keti and Raisse won’t be without their men any more! They tried for a whole season or more to get Koll Neveshtan to come with them to Athal, but it seems that he’s really too ill to travel. Now, I think, Athal will go and see him before we sail.

Here’s Arin to take the letter, so I have to stop. I’m going to sand and seal and kiss it right now, and I’ll try to write again from Essle. I dream of you every night!

Lots of love and kisses and things I’m not writing in a letter with people close enough to see me blush,

Aidan

Aidan writes a painful letter

February 11, 2009February 27, 2018conquest of solay, khas wars, school and hospital

ixteen-year-old boys are horrible, as we noticed in play and I noticed again while writing this. At least he’s made up his mind about it.

Alysei Aidan astin Velain to Hyltei Radan astin Brun, sheriff of Turenay

Dear Father,

This is very hard for me to write, and I’d much rather come back to Turenay to tell you in person what I’m about to do, but if I did I couldn’t do it. Because both of your sons are going off to the war.

I know that I promised Cora that I’d stay with her and not go off, but it occurred to her that this would likely be the last big and important battle in the whole world, or at least the part of it that we know, in our lifetime, and if I couldn’t be there I’d be explaining for the rest of my life why I wasn’t. And she must have seen how bracing the sight of the army was for me. Athal lent me one of his uniforms –it fit!– and he and Uncle Ferin took me to inspect the troops, and I joined in some of the sword training. Athal is going to give me a sword from the armoury that’s long enough for the extra reach I’ve grown lately, because he saw how much trouble I was having with the one I’ve had since I was twelve or so.

So I came back kind of exultant and tried to keep it from Cora but you know as well as I do that it’s impossible to keep anything from Cora. We took Athal and Raisse out for dinner and dancing –it’s amazing how people can pointedly not notice that the king and queen are eating at the next table– and at the Mill Gate dance hall Cora took me outside and demanded that I make up my mind, and said she’d release me from my promise if I really wanted to go and fight.

It took me all the rest of the evening and half of the night to come to a decision, torn between letting Athal down and letting Cora down. But yes, I do really want to go and fight. Perhaps it’s only for the glory, or to save myself embarrassment forever more, or to hold Athal’s hand when he’s in distress at sea (come to think of it I’ve never been at sea myself, what if I’m the same way? But then I’m not a grand master); I don’t know. Certainly it’s not because I think I’m indispensable: I saw dozens of fighters better than I am, and they have so many sergeants that they don’t really need one aged not quite seventeen from the provinces. This is something I want to do, not something anybody else wants me to do. Athal says he’ll be glad to have me but doesn’t require it of me, but he does understand.

So I’m off to Essle in a week and a half. Cora will come back to Turenay, I suppose after visiting her friends to the north. She’s determined to go home pregnant. I can’t very well deny her that– she knows her own body well enough to know that she can pull it off, both to start it and to finish it. And if everything goes as well as we expect, I’ll be home in time to see my son or daughter born. I do realise that it’s likely that I’ll be wounded, and possible that I’ll be killed, but I could fall down a flight of stairs or be trampled by a horse in Turenay, and I don’t expect Naigha to take me before she wants me.

Could you please tell people– the school, and Master Jilan, and Jichan, though I wouldn’t be surprised to meet Jilan and half the new regiment in Essle, and perhaps Jichan and some more people from the school too. I’m not all that confident I can write everybody their own letter and find the right words every time.

In Valdis, on the Feast of Mizran,

your son, Aidan

Aidan writes to the king

August 28, 2008February 27, 2018school and hospital

This was very hard for Aidan to write. The first draft had at least as many struck-out words as Khora’s letter, but he copied this one, wearing out his pen altogether. It’s a good thing goose-quills are cheaper than Iss-Peranian brushes!

Alysei Aidan astin Velain, at the Guild school in Turenay, to King Alysei Athal astin Velain.

Dear brother,

If my writing seems less readable than you are used to, it’s because I have just been writing Cora’s letter to Raisse as well. I wish I could have written it without reading it! She loves me so much that she sees only my good sides. Not that I mind her loving me, far from that, but it still makes me blush.

The point is, now that Cora is laid up with exhaustion –what we couldn’t manage, to make her stop working all the time and overstretching her mind even more than her body, her mind and body have managed all by themselves– I have been sleeping with her, in her bed I mean, because she needed someone to help her if she had to get out in the night. The apprentice maid, Lara, was with her for one night but she has her sister to attend to, who has a half-healed broken foot. And neither of us wants to go back to sleeping alone when she is all right again. We have not actually asked Raisse yet for fear (at least on my part) that she will say no and banish me from Cora’s bed immediately, except the two nights that we’re allowed to be together. And perhaps not even that if we misbehave.

It’s not just the sleeping together that we want, it’s being together; we’re clearly made for each other. We want to marry, Athal, as soon as we can– I know that I have to finish school, and she has three more years to go if she stays at school and the gods know how many years as Leva’s apprentice, even if she can leave early and go on only at the hospital. She wants children, too –my children– but we will be prudent and wait until Leva and Lyse say that she can. Alyse tells me that her mother had her at fifteen, when she was still in school, so I know that it’s not entirely impossible.

Father thinks we’re too young, but don’t fathers always think that of their sons? But he is buying the house next to Halla the apothecary’s house to live there with her, leaving the two rooms above the shop free where Halla now lives, and I have reason to think that Halla is not averse to letting us have those. And at a rent we can afford.

I have enough strength of mind to wait until Midsummer next year, but I’m not at all certain that I have enough strength of will to resist Cora when she is back to her own self. I do want to spare you the scandal of your brother eloping with a foreign princess, and I’m serious about that, not just saying it to coerce you into saying yes. For if you say no, I have to abide by your command.

This pen is worn and I have no other, and anyway I have said all I have to say. Give the little red-haired scamp a cuddle from his disconcerted uncle.

Aidan

(At the risk that you will not be able to read this at all: Jichan asks me to ask you to tell his father that he can prove that it was not he who got the glass-grinder’s apprentice in trouble, whatever the glass-grinder may say, because he and she are both dark-haired and the baby’s hair is as fair as that of the glass-grinder’s apprentice’s young man. I think Vurian already thought she was telling the truth, didn’t he? But anyway, I’m doing as Jichan asks for friendship’s sake.)

An exultant letter from Aidan

August 13, 2008February 27, 2018school and hospital

Being in love makes him poetic!

Alysei Aidan astin Velain, in Turenay, to Alysei Ayneth astin Velain, in Valdis.

Sister mine,

I am the happiest man in the world! Cora loves me! Well, perhaps the second happiest man after Athal, because he is a father and we are not permitted to have any children yet, everybody thinks we are too young. And we can only be properly together once a week, on the eve of the Day of Anshen, because of school –the first time we missed half a day– and because Raisse has to put us under a seal in order not to swamp the whole town with love, as we did when we first kissed. And that time it was really only a kiss!

Of course, now that we’re overtly in love everybody keeps giving us work that may not be intended to keep us apart, but it does have that effect. Cora works at the hospital every day after school, or goes with the midwife on her rounds, because she wants to become a midwife herself. (Either that, or a doctor for children; I think it’s the same thing where she comes from.) She’s already been rousted out of bed once to deliver a baby. She was concerned whether I’d mind, but why should I? It’s not as if she’ll have queenly duties like our sister-in-law. It’s stylish to be married to a midwife.

Also, Jilan the swordmaster and Liase the sergeant (who, by the way, took her master’s trial taking out two thugs who were clearly after Cora, but that was just after the Feast of Timoine so Cora was in Veray: some of us went on a pilgrimage to the Síthi temple of Timoine) have started weapons training for whoever is willing. Lots from the school, Jichan and Alyse and I, of course –we do miss Arin!– and the little girl from the Plains who turns out to be a mean staff-fighter. Also, several craft journeymen who were too young to get into the regiment or simply had to work. Jilan grumbles, as he always does, but Liase tells us we’re shaping up well.

I had to write my astronomy essay twice because I’d got it all wrong the first time, on account of not paying attention in class because I was dreaming of Cora. But the second time I kept my dreaming for afterwards, as a reward, and Seran pronounced it good enough.

Father is in love too; Cora blames it on our exuberance but I think it’s just because he’s now lost all the stuff that was holding him back and happened to meet the right woman. She’s an apothecary called Halla, nothing wrong with her, the right age and in the Guild. I like her a lot and so does Cora. I won’t write more because if it goes any further he’ll probably want to tell you in a letter of his own.

Dearest sister, give my love to Athal and Raisse and our little nephew and everybody I’ve forgotten, and keep a whole lot of love for yourself. I have a surfeit of it.

Aidan

And Aidan writes a letter too

July 23, 2008February 27, 2018khas wars, voyage to albetire

It’s contagious! Perhaps even Radan will write his letter in public.

Alysei Aidan astin Velain, in Turenay, to Alysei Ayneth astin Velain, in Valdis.

Dearest sister,

I hope news travels faster than people and my letter isn’t the first you hear of it in Valdis. Athal has been sighted! Orian came pelting into town early this morning on that ridiculous horse of his, eighteen hands at least though he’s hardly any taller than I am, to tell everybody who wanted to hear that he’s spoken to our sister-in-law on a ship off Sarabal. As I write this Athal is probably not much further north yet, and likely to be as sick as a dog still. He seems to have been successful, though; if you haven’t had news of that there’s more amiss in Lenyas than we know of in Ryshas, and we should be preparing for civil war again. Not that we have much of a force to fight with here, everybody is off to Iss-Peran except for me and the sergeant and soldier who were the girl from Albetire’s escort.

Well, yes, the girl from Albetire. She’s called <painstaking Iss-Peranian letters>Khora</>, that’s pronounced ‘Cora’ with a bit of a breath after the C. I know I’ve been in love before, and thought every time that this was the one, but… well, she’s stunningly, devastatingly, overwhelmingly, breathtakingly, ravishingly beautiful. Even though she tries very hard to hide it, or at least that’s what it looks like, as if she wears a seal to hide that she’s even more beautiful. She’s right across from me in the refectory with the other two foreign girls, one from the Plain who is appropriately plain, and a tall and dark Síthi from Sarabal who I think Arin is falling for. He told her the other night that he likes black girls, but spoilt that immediately by saying that the town is full of pretty black girls. I’m pretty sure that she’s falling for him, too.

Raisse –not the one here in Turenay, but our queenly sister-in-law– seems to have forbidden her –not the Síthi girl, but Cora– to chase me, so she isn’t chasing me. She’s so obedient. They train them like that where she comes from, as far as I know. It drives the other Raisse stark raving bonkers. But she’s learning very fast. Yesterday Alyse organised a dancing lesson, the three foreign girls and our crowd, Alyse playing the lute –she’s getting almost as good as Athal!– and us lads partnering the girls. Afterwards we went to the Apple for a drink and a pie, and there we talked and she told us things about her life before she came to school. I promised to keep it secret, and it was in fact so secret that Arin threw a seal over all of us, so I’m not telling you until Cora says I can, but it made the way she is so much clearer.

Orian said that Athal is likely to be here by the Feast of Timoine; are you coming too, or can’t they spare you in Valdis? I don’t think the kingdom will collapse if you’re in Turenay for a few weeks. Or do you have to organise the welcome-back party there? I’d like you to meet Cora and say if she’s really as stunning as I think, or if it’s just that I happen to be stunned. But then you’re likely to be stunned too, of course. Alyse told me that Cora thinks that women who fall for women are scary –Cora was afraid for a moment that Alyse was falling for her, that’s why– so if you do come, perhaps you’d better not let on. I wouldn’t like my girl to be scared of my sister. I’m saying “my girl” but I haven’t even made much headway yet, I’m almost as wary of chasing her as she is of chasing me. Nobody can say that I’m not behaving! I don’t want to be a disgrace to Cora, or to you or Father, or to Athal and the kingdom.

She does seem to be noble, as much as we are or more so, but she lost everything in the upheaval in Albetire. Can you imagine she’s already a widow? Noblemen in Iss-Peran have lots of wives and she was the youngest wife of an old man, married to him when she was still a child, poor thing. She came here with only the clothes on her back and the apprentice fee in her pocket, and Athal is giving her an allowance like mine, five riders every quarter-day. She did find money somewhere to buy paint for her face, but perhaps the Síthi girl took care of that because all three of them were painted and there’s a Síthi shop here that sells that kind of thing. (Also candied fruit and pressed nut confits, which I think you’d like a lot; if you’re not coming here, I’ll bring you some at Midsummer.) It’s not as if she needs paint, but it does look good on her, not by far as gaudy as the girls downtown.

Father is writing to you too, so I won’t give his love along with mine. I haven’t dared say anything about Cora to him yet, and I don’t think he’s seen me looking at her goggle-eyed, though he’s certainly seen her, nobody with any eye for women can miss her. But he’s been so busy learning that he hasn’t paid attention to anything else. He’s beginning to look normal at last, not pinched and strained like he used to, though it’s kind of strange to see someone his age who is a journeyman in the Guild. Stranger still that I was a journeyman before him, though not by much. (You didn’t know that, did you? Are you a master yet?)

On the Day of Naigha in the tenth week of Naigha, with greetings and love,

your brother (and I almost wrote “and obedient servant” because that’s what Cora says a lot),

Aidan

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