The prince leaned forward in his chair. Are you sure? When was the last time you tried to manipulate air?
She frowned: she couldnt remember. Someone tried to kill me by removing all the air from the end portal. If I had any affinity for air, Id have stopped it, wouldnt I?
It became his turn to frown. Were you not born on either the thirteenth or fourteenth of November 1866I mean, Year of the Domain 1014?
No, I was born earlier, in September.
Her birthday was a day after his, in fact. It had been fun, when shed been small, to pretend that the festivities surrounding his birthday had been for her also.
Show me your birth chart.
A birth chart plotted the precise alignment of stars and planets at the moment of a mages birth. It was once a crucial document, for everything from the choice of school to the choice of mate: the stars must align. In recent years it had become fashionable in places like Delamer to break with tradition and leave ones birth chart to molder. But not so in Little Grind. When Iolanthe had volunteered to contribute the fire hazards for the villages annual obstacle course run last autumn, her chart, along with those of all the participants, had been requisitioned to determine the most auspicious date on which to hold the competition.
As she dug the cylindrical container out of the mostly empty satchel, it occurred to her that if she had used her birth chart only months ago, then it could not possibly be in the satchel, the contents of which hadnt been disturbed in more than a decade.
Shed unrolled only the top six inches of the birth chart earlier, when shed checked to see that it was a birth chart. Fully unfurled, the three-foot-long chart had no name at the center, only the time of birth, five minutes past two oclock in the morning on the fourteenth of November, YD 1014.
Something gonged in her ears. But I was born in September. Ive seen my chart beforemany timesand its not this one.
And yet this is the one that had been packed, for when the truth came out and you were forced to leave, said the prince.
Are you saying that my guardian counterfeited the other? Why?
There was a meteor storm that night. Stars fell like rain. Seers from every realm on earth predicted the birth of a great elemental mage. Were I your guardian, I would have most certainly not let it be known that you were born on that night.
Shed read about that
night, when one could not see the sky for all the golden streaks of plummeting stars.
You think Im that great elemental mage? she asked, barely able to hear her own voice.
She couldnt be. She wanted no part of what was happening now.
Until you, there has never been anyone who can command lightning.
But lightning is useless. I almost killed myself when I called it down.
The Bane just might know what to do with such power, said the prince.
She didnt know why the idea should make her more frightened than she was already, but it did.
It has been an exhausting day for you. Take some rest, the prince suggested. I must go now, but I will return in a few hours to check on you.
Go? He was leaving her all alone?
Are you going back to the Domain? She sounded weak and afraid to her own ears.
I am going to my school.
I thought you were educated at the castle. More precisely, at a monastic lodge farther up the Labyrinthine Mountains that was used only for a young prince or princesss education, or so Iolanthe had learned at school.
No, I attend an English school not far from London.
She couldnt have heard him right. You cant be serious.
I am. The Bane wished it.
But you are our prince. You are supposed to be one of our better mages. You wont get any proper training at such a school.
You understand the Banes purpose perfectly, he said lightly.
She was appalled. I cant believe the regent didnt object. Or the High Council.
His eyes were clear and direct. You overestimate the courage of those in power. They are often more interested in holding on to that power than in doing anything worthwhile with it.
He did not sound bitter, only matter-of-fact. How had he handled it, the utter insult of having the Bane dictate his movements, when he was, on paper at least, the Banes peer in power and privilege?
So . . . what should I do while you are at school?
I was hoping to take you to school with me, but it is a boys school. He shrugged. We will make new plans.
He couldnt have been more cordial about it, but she had the distinct sensation it did not please him to have to make new plans.
I can come with you. I went to a girls school for a while, and every term I had the male lead role in the school play. My voice is low, and I do a good imitation of the way a boy walks and talks. Shed acquitted herself so well some of her classmates parents had thought a boy had been brought in to act the part. Not to mention I can fight.
Unlike most magelings, who were taught to refrain from violence, elemental magelings were actively encouraged to use their fistsfar better they punched someone than set the latter on fire.