“A disguise of sorts. A great many people want to discuss foreseeings, but all they know of me is that I’m recently bound and wearing a veil.”
The pavilion was shaded by trees, but it was still the first time since she’d been bound that Aunt Arianne had been outside during the day without a veil, and Eluned suspected that the curious crowd must have been particularly trying.
“What do you tell them?” Eluned asked, sitting down on the circular stair beside her aunt. There were no proper seats, the floor of the folly being taken up by a beautiful, if sadly cracked mosaic depicting constellations in a night sky.
“I tell them as much as I know, which is nothing at all, at least where the Dragon of the North is concerned.”
“Do you think it might really happen? That you’ll find Albion’s fourth dragon?”
“I think I’m not going to waste my time on guessing games. Better to simply prepare as best we can for whatever tests are thrown our way.”
“But Cernunnos accepted you as Keeper. Why do that and then test you?”
Aunt Arianne tipped back her head, studying the inside of the pavilion’s dome. More stars, brilliant against a wash of dark blue. She looked tired.
“Oakfire speaking comes from the forest, not Cernunnos,” she said. “The Horned King is one of the Great Forest’s many gods, one aspect of something vast. There’s very little of this world that was not forest at some point. Even deserts have ancient forests beneath them. Perhaps only the oceans are outside its bounds. Can’t you feel it? All around us is forest.”
Eluned started to point out that there was a stand of trees only a few feet away. But a cool breeze whisked her face, bringing a hint of loam. And was Aunt Arianne looking up at the inside of the dome, or at sky through sheltering branches?
“The trees are always with us,” Aunt Arianne said. “We asked to be part of it, and we must prove ourselves worthy.”
“You keep saying ‘we’,” Eluned said, almost under her breath, though it was not as if she could forget Lila’s bite, or the key that would come when she called for it.
“Keeper Tyse cannot say with complete certainty who those foreseeings were intended for. She recorded me officially because my arrival triggered the speaking, but given that you received the same blessing from Cernunnos, it seemed to her a high probability that you and I are both the subject of these challenges. Pretending that you are not involved is not going to prevent you from being drawn in.”
“I don’t know anything about the Dragon of the North either,” Eluned said.
“No. But if that ‘shopping list’ was in chronological order, dragons will be the last of our problems. What, to you, most strikes you as an ‘unfinished one’?”
Since Aunt Arianne was being so serious, Eluned cast her mind about for something that seemed unfinished to her. It could be anything, although the phrasing had made it seem like a person, and people usually weren’t…
Stiffening, Eluned stared at her aunt’s profile. “The independent automatons. Eleri doesn’t consider them finished, because she hasn’t verified reliable movement. They are—” She choked, head spinning.
“I spent some energy on the question of cause and effect”, Aunt Arianne said, serene as ever. “Were we accepted by Cernunnos because we had already become embroiled in the first of the challenges? Or were we chosen, and then matters arranged so that we would be willing to give allegiance? Is it possible that what the Swedes would call a ‘fate’ was laid on us, and that your parents’ deaths were part of that fate? I have yet to decide my feelings on this. To be angry at the gods is to scream at the stars. Even if they hear, they will not stop shining.”
“Wh-what?” Eluned could not think through what she’d been told. Had Cernunnos caused—no, that wasn’t what Aunt Arianne had said. Fate. When the Swedish gods laid a fate on someone, the world would rearrange itself to bring that fate about. A wholly different thing to oakfire foretelling.
“Or, of course, the unfinished ones might have nothing to do with automatons. Perhaps we are simply people who were in the right place with the right reasons. I may need to choose to believe that, to be able to not waste myself in anger. I can’t be sure which case is true, but I felt you were entitled to know my suspicions.”
After that Aunt Arianne didn’t say anything at all for a long while, and they sat contemplating a sweep of grass down to a river, and the vast forest that would always surround them. Only after Eluned’s thoughts had progressed through a circle of incredulity did her aunt go on.
“Tomorrow evening I will be visiting this fencing school that Lynsey Blair recommended. In part because I want to investigate her separately from Lord Fennington. But also because I now have a need to learn to better defend myself physically. If the school seems suitable, I want you to attend as well. Unless you prefer Tangleways, of course. Do you think you’d like it here?”
“It’s no good,” Eluned said, struggling to shift her thoughts away from fates and gods. “Did you listen to that speech? All that time spent on sports. Horse-riding. And raising animals? At school?”
“Yes, those are reasons Griff and Eleri wouldn’t like it here. I asked what you wanted.”
“I want to go to the same school as Eleri and Griff,” Eluned said firmly. “But otherwise, yes, I think this place would be fun. You were right about Melly, by the way. She likes it here enough she’s working out ways to afford it.”
Aunt Arianne picked up her hat. “I expect she’ll manage it. She seems very capable. And, Eluned, it never hurts to check rather than fret. Don’t ever hesitate to ask me if something is worrying you—or even if you’re simply curious. The most I’ll do is not answer. Or lie.”
Smiling weakly, Eluned wondered whether the possibility of lies was meant to be comforting. Not that lies or truth were going to help with the problem that had been troubling her all summer—or even the new one her aunt had shared.
Instead, Eluned hauled her mind back to the task at hand. “We talked to Lord Fennington already,” she said, realising she hadn’t even mentioned it. “Griff introduced us, but Lord Fennington didn’t seem to recognise our names at all, and with all these people here I’m not sure we’re going to have a chance to talk to him again.”
“No need to worry there. As I said, a great many people want to discuss foreseeings.”
“You’ve talked to him?”
“Accepted an invitation to view a painting of my father’s that he owns, and sample the Towering Folly, a cocktail invented for him. Rather ripe for double entendre, but I gather that’s unlikely to be the intention.”
The clock in the school’s central tower began to toll.
“And there’s my cue,” Aunt Arianne said, picking up her hat. “Given his ambitions to play principal, he’s less than likely to open up in front of prospective pupils. You might find it worthwhile to track down Monsieur Telaque, the drawing instructor, while I’m gone. Alain Telaque is a master of line work, and you’d probably find even a short discussion with him very useful indeed. You’re still working primarily with line and floral patterns, yes? It’s been a while since Aedric last sent me an example.”
“Father sent you my pictures?” Eluned asked, trying not to sound appalled.
“Oh yes. He was very proud of all three of you. If you’re nervous about speaking to Monsieur Telaque by yourself, wait until I return and I’ll introduce you.”
“No, no I’ll look for him,” Eluned said hastily, cast her mind about for something else to talk about, and asked: “What did he mean, your Roman friend? What was badly done?”