South of the creatively named town of Newport - Liv was never, if she lived a million years, going to stop giving Bryn Grenfell grief over that choice of name - two dozen students splashed, hip deep, through channels of brackish water, divided by grassy islets. The entire water-system was an exercise in adapting to treacherous footing: either you let your boots get stuck in the muck, or tried to climb up onto one of the islands, which were as liable to collapse under you as to support your weight.

  The few apprentices who were fortunate enough to have already imprinted Aluth had an alternative, even if they weren’t exactly practiced in the technique. As Liv watched from above, one shining blue disk of coherent mana shattered, dumping Edmund Carver into the water. He came up still clutching his wand, which was a mark in his favor, and his blonde hair was plastered tight to his skull. Two of Liv’s other students, however, managed to hold their discs together under their own weight, and sent themselves skimming forward to engage with the mana beasts of the rift - in this case, terns grown to enormous size.

  The birds, disturbed by the young mages splashing about in their territory and always inclined to protect their nests, hovered briefly above the students before diving, beaks open as if to snatch up a particularly choice and wriggling fish. The sudden descent of the birds provoked half-panicked shouts and screams from Liv’s students, which were only exacerbated when the first of them managed to step on a crab.

  It was all Liv could do to keep a straight face as the entire group threatened to break and run. This will be nothing if not a learning experience.

  “You’re in teams for a reason!” Liv shouted down to them, sending her own mana platform skimming down in a wide arc that placed her between the students and the bay. The two guards standing behind her had long gotten used to bracing themselves so that they wouldn’t fall off. “Shields to the front! Hold those terns back from the casters! Margery, there’s a reason I told you to wear boots - you can worry about whether you’ve lost a toe later!”

  Her scolding seemed to have some effect - or perhaps the prospective embarrassment of fleeing a few lesser mana beasts in front of their queen was simply too much to contemplate. Regardless, Liv was pleased to see the groups she’d assigned shuffled themselves back into something resembling a formation. The next time a tern swooped down, its beak plunged through a wooden shield rather than an arm, and the time it took to wrench free left it open to not only a return stab from the shield-bearer, but also mana knives cast by the back ranks.

  “Team leaders, do you know the mana counts of everyone fighting with you?” Liv shouted down at them, at the first pause in the fighting. Half the mages below had blood running from a minor wound of some kind, but no one had yet reached the state where she felt the need to pull them out.

  Belatedly, Edmund Carver called for ring counts from his companions, and the other team leaders followed suit. Liv nodded. It was one thing to talk about how culling worked in theory, another to practice fighting in the training yards, or even to duel against a single other student - but the chaos of an actual rift, with mana beasts that wouldn’t stop when you called for a break, was something that could only be understood with first-hand experience.

  In truth, the Estuary Rift outside of Newport was about as safe and controlled a learning experience as Liv could possibly give them, though she did tend to rotate training grounds. What the V?dim’s original purpose for the place might have been was unclear, and they hadn’t ever undertaken the massive operation which would be required to find the control room. Sidonie was convinced the old gods had built here back before the valley flooded, and that now, somewhere buried beneath water and silt, those ancient enchantments and still-functioning pieces of machinery simply continued to grind on.

  They’d swept through the entire area eighteen years before, at Bryn’s request, so that the workers dredging the harbor and building the docks would be able to focus on their labours without fearing for their lives from roving mana beasts. With no baron regularly culling the place until that point, the entire area had been saturated in overgrown crabs, sandsharks, terns, insects, and every other kind of marsh-life you could find. Since that initial purge, Baroness Grenfell had managed things well enough that Liv sometimes used her as an example to the other barons.

  Liv winced as she watched Ronja t?r Taneli take a vicious thrust from the telson of a horseshoe crab the size of a horse-drawn wagon; the spike plunged directly through her left thigh and out the other side. While normal crabs didn’t use their spear-like tails as weapons, once they’d been marinating in mana for long enough they became not only large and sturdy enough to be formidable, but also aggressive enough to use every weapon at their disposal. She doubted an attack like that would have a chance of piercing her enchanted armor, but against bare skin or cloth it was dangerous.

  In any event, that was a severe enough wound for Liv to step in. The barest flicker of intent smashed the crab aside with a fist of ice, dredged up out of the brackish water. Then, a bubble of brilliant blue mana, striated with gold veins, snapped into existence around Ronja herself - a spell that Liv had designed specifically for keeping her students alive and hauling them out of dangerous situations. Aluth provided the external barrier: a mana shield that protected them from all sides, as strong as steel armor. Within the bubble, however, time passed at only a fraction of normal speed. Thus, Ronja’s face was caught, frozen in her moment of absolute panic, eyes wide and mouth open, as Liv hauled the bubble up to hover behind her, safe and preserved for later deposit with the healers at Bald Peak.

  Once, holding two words of power at once had been a struggle. The first time she’d tried - it was difficult for Liv to look back on her fight against Genevieve without flinching at just how foolish she’d been - she’d nearly killed herself. Now, Aluth and Dā resonated with each other like two plucked strings forming a chord.

  To Liv’s great surprise - she’d half expected to return with an entire fleet of bubbles floating behind her, each containing their own wounded student - she only had to step in once more. Cuthbert, whose father Hardwin had been the one to stumble through a waystone and bring Liv word of the assault on Ashford so many years ago, had run out of mana and decided that he knew better than his teacher.

  “And that,” Liv declared, hauling him up in a second bubble, to float above the battlefield, “is a textbook example of what the physical symptoms of mana sickness look like when one is foolish enough to guzzle raw, wild mana directly from a rift. Note how the veins all along his forearms, and even up his neck, here, have turned black? This is the level of mana sickness that is liable to kill you if you can’t get immediate treatment.”

  The only flaw in her rescue-bubbles was that Liv didn’t have the satisfaction of watching Cuthbert’s face when she tore into him.

  It wasn’t long after that, however, that the last of the crabs and terns had been subdued. Margery, perhaps in vengeance for her wounded toe, had made a point of hunting down and slaughtering every crab she could find. One team had even managed to get a sand shark, which Liv found mildly impressive. At her direction, they stacked all of the carcasses on a single large mana disc, and then clambered up themselves. Liv took them all far enough away from the rift that they wouldn’t need to be on guard for further attacks, and then had them all squeeze in close enough to make physical contact. With a word of recall, she used her Tether to dump the entire lot, carcasses, wounded and all, on the Bald Peak waystone.

  “See that all of those remains are delivered to Professor Norris before any of you run off,” Liv ordered her students. “Once that’s done, you can all get checked out at the infirmary for your scrapes and bruises. Class is dismissed for now, but next time we meet, be ready to tell me what you did right, and what you can improve on. Good work.”

  Without waiting for a response, she strode off through the city toward the hospital, her guards falling in behind her. The infirmary at the college was fine for most day to day injuries, and it gave the students plenty of practice, but for serious cases like these particular students Liv always went directly to Arjun.

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  Someone must have let him know that she was coming, because he came rushing across the courtyard the moment she’d stepped through the hospital gates. Liv was half disappointed that she didn’t get to interrupt whatever he’d been doing, but she satisfied herself with the despairing look he cast her after a glance at the two students in the bubbles.

  “Is that the severed tail of of a crab through that poor girl’s thigh?” Arjun asked. The neatly trimmed beard he’d begun to keep a few years back was just beginning to show a sprinkling of gray, but he hadn’t slowed down a step when it came to yelling at her. “I bet there’s sand, salt-water, and Trinity knows what else in that wound. Exactly the sort of thing to get infected. I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t yank the tail out before you brought her here.”

  “You know, I took the same classes at Coral Bay as you did,” Liv pointed out. “I do still remember a few things.”

  “I’d be more impressed if it ever changed the choices you make,” her friend grumbled. A crowd of healers began to gather around them. “The other one - how did he get such a bad case of mana sickness? I thought you tested their mana regulation techniques for taking anyone into a rift?”

  “Cuthbert thought it would be a good idea to reach out and drain mana from the shoals,” Liv explained.

  Arjun blinked. “I can’t imagine why he thought that would work,” he said, voice completely even. “Perhaps he was reading that biography of you they published a few years back.”

  Liv rolled her eyes. “I tell them all not to do it. Anyway, now I can use him as an example for at least a few years, to scare off the others. Where do you want them?”

  ?

  By the time Liv had seen her wounded students cared for - she did stay around long enough to be absolutely certain there wouldn’t be any complications - afternoon was drawing on toward evening. At the base of the mountain, the heat lingered, unbroken by any wind off the ocean; but once she flew herself up to the heights of the peak, over the curtain wall and down into the courtyard, the difference in elevation brought a bit of relief. From every side, guards and soldiers snapped salutes in Liv’s direction.

  Thora was waiting when Liv stepped through the great double doors at the entrance to the keep itself, into the vaulted foyer where the light of the setting sun filtered down through a ceiling which was as much glass as stone. Somehow, Thora always seemed to know when she had returned. Liv half-expected the palace staff were employed as a sort of spying service at the steward’s command, but she couldn’t complain at the results, and so she’d never raised the issue. Now that she was inside the palace, the guards who’d accompanied her to the rift peeled off to get themselves a bit of rest.

  “The training exercise went well, I hope?” Thora asked, falling into step just behind Liv and to her left as they made their way to the grand staircase, a sheaf of parchment in her hand. Whatever fear had once made the woman hesitant around those she’d been raised to view as her betters had long been boiled away by the demands of her duties. These days, she held herself straight as a spear, and it was the lesser servants who shuddered at the prospect of being called on the carpet by the steward.

  “Only two seriously injured,” Liv answered. “How are things here?”

  “Nearly every member of the council has arrived,” Thora said. “The embassies and inns are full, as well as the guest rooms here at the palace. The vote regarding the guilds should be able to proceed according to schedule.”

  Liv couldn’t help but grimace at that particular prospect. “What else? Any word from Wren yet?”

  “Ghveris says that her team should have reached the waystone someday today,” Thora said, flipping a page. “She wanted to get there during daylight, rather than at night. He should have another update tomorrow, but even in the best case it will take them time to get back to a functioning waystone. I’m not sure you should expect her to be present for the vote.”

  “Blood and shadows,” Liv cursed. She’d know it might happen, but she would much rather have Wren at her side then not if she was going to face down the guilds’ demands. “I want a meeting with someone from the Temple tomorrow. What else?”

  “Your husband has returned from Lendh ka Dakruim,” Thora said, as they rounded on the final flight of stairs leading up to the fourth floor, where the personal quarters of the royal family were located. “Covered in blood, apparently, but none of it his own. At least he wasn’t reported to be visiting the healers or leaving bits of himself in the baths.”

  Liv couldn’t help but smile at that news.

  “Good for the staff as well,” Thora teased her. “You get brittle when he’s away for too long. Short tempered.”

  “Oh, hush you,” Liv shot back. “I assume he’s got Rianne, then?” She stepped off the last of the stairs into the central corridor of the fourth floor, and made her way straight toward her rooms. She wanted to get her armor off, before anything else.

  “The prince consort, crown princess, Master Reikis, and Commander Ghveris are all in your solar,” Thora confirmed. “He did wait until she was finished with her lessons for the day, thankfully. Last I saw she was being spoiled with iced cream from the kitchen.”

  “In this heat? That sounds absolutely delightful,” Liv admitted. The enchantments worked into her armor had done their best to keep her cool, but in this weather they’d struggled.

  Once they stepped into Liv’s dressing chamber, she was immediately set upon by a swarm of women. In retrospect, giving in to Miina on the concept of ladies-in-waiting had been a mistake. What had begun as humoring Liv’s favorite cousin had turned into an institution.

  Lenota Grenfell, who Liv had first met as a frightened little girl fleeing the fall of Ashford, immediately moved in to accept Liv’s helm. Liv was supposed to be finding the young woman a husband, a request from her brother Cyr, who was now one of Liv’s barons in his own right, having reached the age of majority.

  Venla t?r Jere had clearly been sent by House Veitha to curry favor, but the woman had been so well chosen that it was difficult to resent her. For one thing, she had a beautiful singing voice, and was just as happy to perform at dinner in the great hall or to soothe Rianne with a lullabye. For the other, she was just genuinely nice. Liv had rarely met someone so genuinely good hearted, and she sometimes wondered whether Venla even realized the position her house had put her in, or if she was blissfully unaware.

  Between the two of them and Miina, the pieces of Liv’s armor came off in rapid succession, laces and buckles managed with practiced familiarity. Each part of the set would be cleaned, polished and oiled before being put away on her armor stand, ready for use once again.

  “Something light and airy tonight, I think,” Liv mentioned to her cousin. “Even up here at the peak it’s too hot.”

  “And something cute as well,” Miina teased her. “Your husband hasn’t seen you in weeks, after all.”

  Liv half-heartedly swatted at her cousin, but wasn’t truly angry. She had missed Keri, after all. “I hope it wasn’t too horrible for him,” she said. “Everyone thinks it doesn’t affect him, but it does. It’s just he’d rather suffer through doing what has to be done himself, than make someone else do it.”

  “And we’re grateful he does,” Lenota murmured. “Everyone who knows what’s right is, anyway. There’s nothing to be done with those cultists but wipe them out. That’s the only way to be safe.”

  In short order, Liv was striped, washed and changed into a white dress with a low neck and a high waist, so light that she might have sworn she was wearing a cloud. A fresh set of stockings and a pair of slippers was all she needed to make her way over to the solar, where Liv heard the voices even before she stepped into the room.

  From the doorway, she saw Rianne sitting in Keri’s lap on one of the cushioned benches, a bowl of iced cream clutched in her lap, her little mouth smeared with it, cornsilk-pale hair tumbling about her shoulders. The top of her head was tucked just under Keri’s chin, and he kept one hand on their daughter’s hip out of habit. The days when they had to worry about an infant suddenly tipping over and falling sideways were gone, but it was a difficult habit to break.

  Rei - who was looking less and less a child every time Liv saw him - was telling his sister a story about caribou, sleighs, and a lake with ice that wasn’t as thick as it looked, and he had Rianne giggling.

  It was Ghveris who noticed Liv first, from his place on the bench she’d had made for him all those years ago, when she’d insisted that every corridor and room in the palace be designed to accommodate an Antrian’s size, so that her friend would never feel out of place. He met her eyes, and nodded, but said nothing.

  For her own part, Liv was tempted to just watch, and enjoy the sight of her family; but then Rianne must have noticed the war-machine’s movement, for she turned, squealed, threw aside her bowl and spoon, and rushed across the room to fling herself against Liv’s legs in the doorway.

  “Hello there, dove,” Liv said, swinging her daughter up into her arms. “I see your father’s come home.”

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  Dramatis Personae

  Livara t?r Valtteri Kaen Syv? - Archmage, former scullery maid at Castle Whitehill, the bastard daughter of Maggie Brodbeck and Valtteri Ka Auris. Queen of the Alliance and Lady of Winter. Can you imagine what her insurance rates would be like on injured students? [38 Rings of Mana, not counting mana stored in items.]

  Arjun Iyuz - Journeyman Guildmage from Lendh ka Dakruim; his jati specializes in healing magic. Puts up with so, so much. [19 Rings of Mana]

  Lenota Grenfell - Daughter of the late Isaac Grenfell, sister of the current Baron, and Lady in Waiting. Has strong opinions about Ractia-followers. [12 Rings of Mana]

  Miina t?r Eilis, of House D?ivi - Daughter of Eilis, niece of Eila, cousin of Liv, Lady in Waiting. Still a tease. [23 Rings of Mana]

  Thora - Former lady's Maid to Liv, now Steward of Bald Peak. Keeps everything running.