Her preoccupied mind had been too busy to notice the footsteps when they first sounded, but now she realized they were right outside the door. She gulped hastily and prepared to face the music.

The Chancellor entered, his face looking like he would prefer to be going to bed instead of worrying over thoughtless girls who stumbled into his plans. But his eyes were still gentle, and he smiled, seemingly decided.

“Young Fia, I have spoken with your mother and father, and all will be well. Everything is not yet settled, but very soon it will be. You must not speak to anyone of the things you have seen or heard this night, not even your own family.” He paused. “You cannot stay at court now, and we cannot send you home. Therefore you are going to be sent away, somewhere very safe.”

He sighed. “I probably shall not see you again. But remember this, I fully believe that you have acted with the best intentions and therefore no blame can rest with you. But for the safety of many things it is best that you be sent somewhere else, where you will not be available to unscrupulous people who may use the little you know for great ill. You’ll go somewhere very out of the way, so that what you have seen will never have a chance to cause harm, even by accident. And that will be only for a little while, until all is safe again.”

“I…” A strange knot was twisting in her throat. “I must… leave?”

“It has not yet been decided where it is best that you go; I will speak further with your parents in the morning.”

She looked at him, unblinking. Something horrible was about to happen, and she had no way of reversing it.

“This is enough for tonight. You must go back to your family now and sleep. But do not speak of these things to anyone else, not even your sisters. The man in the hood, as you refer to him, is in grave danger for his life, and if any were to hear of this night’s events it would certainly lead to his death, and others besides. There are many foul things afloat with the overthrow of Othira, and this sad affair is among them. Therefore you must keep this matter secret. Remember, more than one life depends on it.”

“Yes, sir.” She nodded, feeling very much out of her depth.

“I have just come from a meeting with the representatives of the new ‘rulers’ of Othira, which is a repugnant duty, treating with murderers and thieves. But I did so with a good countenance, and told them cheerfully that they could jump off Lowrie’s Spear into the breakers, if they wanted to please me.  Now this sets our plan at an uncertain angle. Can we trust you to keep this quiet?”

“Oh, yes! You can, sir,” she said with feeling.

“Good.” He smiled kindly, seemingly satisfied. “Now go to bed, it is late.”

Then he paused, as if a thought had stuck him. “Have you thought of any apprenticeship you might like to take?”

“A jeweler’s, sir.”  

He knit his brows and murmured something to himself.

Then nodded his head reassuringly at her.

“Go on,” he said and motioned to the door through which he had come. Feeling hollow and almost numb, she slipped through it quickly, grateful for the interview to have ended, even though she did not know what was next. She turned and saw that her mother and father were standing not three strides away. They had been waiting in the hall for some time.

“Father,” she began, “I’m sorry…”

“There, there,” he said and shook his head.

“Hush, Fia,” Mother said gently, putting an arm around her.

Father laid a hand on her other shoulder. “The Chancellor has spoken with us, Fia, and there is no reason to be troubled. Come now, it grows very late.”

“I don’t even understand what I saw,” she said as they walked down the hall.

“Neither do I,” Father replied. “As far as particulars. It is probably best that we do not. Sometimes too much knowledge in the wrong place can be dangerous. But one thing I do know, the Chancellor is a good and wise servant of King Hanor and of Lorsia, and if he says there is nothing to fear, all will turn out right.”

“He said I will have to go away, Father. What does that mean?”

“He spoke of an apprenticeship. Although you are a little young for it, you are well grown for your age, and next year you will be seventeen, which is a quite usual time. A king’s choice of apprenticeships would be very grand indeed, and it could be that this night will turn out to be the making of you.”

“I’m scared.”

They were now before the door to their quarters, and paused. He rested his strong hands on her small shoulders, holding her half an arm’s length away to look steadfastly into her eyes.

“I shall hate to have you parted from us so abruptly, Fia; I was not prepared for such a thing until next year at the least.” He drew a long breath. “But I know you are ready for it, if I am not. You are strong of heart and quick with kindness. You have a level head on these square shoulders, and you will not easily run into folly. You rely on your good sense, and you are forever true to justice; ready to forgive, but not easily duped. I am proud of you, and I know that I will be even more proud of the woman you will become.” Then he smiled, a little sadly, at her downhearted expression. “Do not look so unhappy; many times we cannot help what comes our way in life. You did well; you tried your best, just like I would have wanted you to. Whatever life holds for you, I could not trust to anyone to meet it better. You will be safe from harm in your new home, but what we have taught you will always be secure in your heart.”

At this point her eyes began to well up a little, and her mother and father hugged her both at once.

Then the three returned to their quarters and softly bid each other goodnight, and as she went away to her bed she thought of what he had said. He was probably right, Father almost always was. Even though she felt a heavy pang at the suddenness of her prospective departure, already a feeling of excitement was lurking softly through her mind. Where would she go? She’d never been far from Scelane, other than an occasional visit to Tolsern.

But as she laid her head on her pillow at last and looked out the window at the pearly moonlight playing in the gardens, she couldn’t help but wonder what it was she had witnessed that had started such an overturn to her world.

The Chancellor and Illyria stood at one side of the desk and watched the king’s unhappy scowl. No, there wasn’t a lot to be said in the situation.

“And she saw his face?” his sovereign asked, just to be sure.

“Yes, Father,” Illyria answered quickly.

“Who is she?” He was having a little difficulty lending his entire thought to this new development. The finely scrawled lines on the parchment to his left still occupied his mind.

“No one of consequence.” The Chancellor eyed the inky window at the far end of the room. The mirror-like surface made them all look tired and worn, holding up their tiny reflections against the blackness which was sweetly reminiscent of sleep.

“The Provost that you commended this evening, Father,” Illyria explained. “She’s one of his daughters.”

The king rubbed a palm against his brow. “Then it couldn’t have been…”

“No, sire,” the Chancellor agreed. “I think it could not have been intentional.”

“Then what are we going to do with her?”

“I suggest an apprenticeship. It is most fitting.” He lifted a hand as if making a speech. “As a particular sign of royal appreciation towards the Provost of Scelane, the crown sends his eldest eligible daughter to a very prestigious apprenticeship.” He paused, listening to his last words approvingly. Then he went on in a normal tone. “Far from court and her own home… in case any nefarious persons get wind of this they won’t be able to trace her back to Scelane. That last is an unlikely event, but it still can’t be risked.”

The king nodded. “Sounds reasonable. But why his daughter? Why wouldn’t the crown send a boy?”

“Ah! A good apprenticeship for a girl is worth more to her family. Boys are easy to take care of; they all want to be pages, and grow up to be soldiers.”

The king nodded his head, wearily acknowledging the logic in that. “In what line, then?” he asked.

“She wants to be a jeweler.”

“A jeweler? All our good ones are in Tolsern. Or very near about. It won’t do.”

“There is one, sire, very remote.”

“Remote?”

“Yes. The Olayins.”

“Olayins?” He furrowed his brow. “Are they even Lorsian?”

“Yes, sire, they are. Very close to Othira, it is true, but so high in the mountains that there is no chance of anything unfortunate happening. All the land knows how hermit-like the Olayins have become these last decades. It’s like putting the girl in a closet. It’s as far away from anywhere as could be devised.”

“Yes…” the king mused.

“Will it be very hard to get them to accept an apprentice?” Illyria’s eyebrow wrinkled.

“I dare say they shan’t be pleased.” The Chancellor let his irritation show for a moment. “But we all must put up with a little inconvenience from this dashed unpleasantness, and they might as well be included.” Then he reined in this rare burst of mild venom, and went on politely. “It shall be worded in such a way that they can do very little but comply.”

“How soon will we know?”

“We’re in luck on that one. Calima Olayin just arrived at my cousin the Duke’s. One of her rare journeys for jewelry commissions… we can have her stop on her return towards the Gerardels, and have the girl meet them. We should have it arranged within days.”

“Good!” The king was glad to have it off his mind.

He turned his eye back to the pale parchment. “What do you make of this?” He tapped the unhelpful letter.

The Chancellor sighed. There simply was no high point to this evening. “Nothing, Your Grace. The Captain is an insightful man, I can make no more than he could.”

The king stared at it with unhappy eyes. “Stymied again.”

Fia slowly packed her baggage with the dresses she would be taking. Not so very many of them actually belonged to her. They had been herded together from her family’s trunks; the Brithins had had no notion when they set off from Scelane that Fia would be doing anything as decisive as taking an apprenticeship; and trooping off for a year or more.

Here was Ialla’s dark green winter dress, and Arya’s beautiful slate woolen from last year; she had stayed up nearly all night to fit it down to Fia’s size. And then Estha’s pale blue outing gown… which had always looked so beautiful with her golden hair and dancing eyes that Fia hated to allow it to come.

“Nonsense!” Estha scolded as she folded it on top of Mother’s ivory under-dresses. “If you think I’m going to have people think we can’t provide a decent wardrobe for my sister for her apprenticeship,” she looked at her younger sister archly from under her brow, and then closed the lid on the dresses decisively, “then you must have taken leave of your senses.”

It was almost as if she could tell that Fia was feeling a little sick in the pit of her stomach, and certainly feeling very small. The awfulness of leaving them all behind to go off into the horrible unknown was biting harder every minute.

Estha stood up and put a firm hand on each of her sister’s shoulders, staring straight into her eyes with those sky blue ones.

“This, my dear girl, is what is generally termed the opportunity of a lifetime. You are getting the very thing which you have never dared even hope for… and if it is a little rushed, and not a lot of time to get used to it, still you must jump at the chance. Calima Olayin! Her own personal apprentice? You’ll be studying under the most talented jeweler of our time, not to mention six kingdoms. There is no limit to the skill you can acquire, unless it is a limit you impose upon yourself.” She lifted her sister’s chin with a finger. “Spark up, and take life head on.”

A tear slipped down Fia’s cheek, and her lip quivered.

“Oh…” Estha murmured and enfolded her in a warm embrace. “I know it’s a little hard.” She laughed softly. “I was nearly scared to death when I went to Weaver Slendel’s.”

“You were?” The younger girl sniffed; with her arms wrapped around her sister she could not see Estha’s face.

Estha chuckled softly. “Yes. My heart seemed like it would burst right out of me.”

“You didn’t look scared.” Fia remembered that day, and Estha standing in the courtyard of Scelane Manor, a flush in her cheeks, her bags already aboard, hugging everyone in farewell. Her eyes sparkling, her head up, she had looked to the younger Fia like an eager hound that had caught the first scent.

“Scared stiff, nearly.”

“Then how did you do it?” Fia asked.

“I just kept reminding myself of all those times I’d longed for an opportunity just such as this, how everything I truly wanted lay ahead just one mile beyond the gate. And then when we had reached that mile, one mile more. When we reached Loomen House I said to myself, ‘Estha, it’s all right there inside, waiting for you. Everything the future holds. All you have to do is go in and let it find you.’ So I did.”

“I love you, sister,” Fia whispered softly.

“You, too. We’ll miss you.” They drew apart, and there was a shimmer in her own eyes. “There you are, now I’m crying too!” she said in half-exasperation. She brushed an irritated hand across her eyes and shook out her handkerchief.

“Hurry up; I’ll race you to the dining hall.” And even though it was highly unladylike, and she at least was certainly supposed to be too old for such things, they did, and she beat Fia.

One day later, with the clean, early light beginning to warm the courtyard, Fia’s baggage was put aboard a carriage and her family said good-bye to her. Her mother and father told her how proud they were of her and how sure they were that she would make them even more so, and kissed both her cheeks. “We will be praying for you and may the Lord be with you,” her father said.

Only Fia and her parents had any inkling of the real reason she was going; the others thought that it had been offered to Father because of his good service, and the reason she had to hurry was that the apprenticeship would only be open for a short while, or someone else might fill it.

Ialla, Arya, and Estha kissed her and told her not to forget them and to learn a lot very quickly and to come back.

Eilma gave her a soft hug and whispered something Fia couldn’t quite catch in her ear. It had something to do with the fact that she wasn’t going to tell anybody that Fia had been in trouble. Fia smiled and sniffed and thanked her, the fact that that night was the reason she was now going away a sad reminder.

“It’s not fair,” Jithra muttered. All the previous evening she had cried bitterly because Fia was going on an adventure and she had to stay home.

Raylor hugged his young sister-in-law tightly. “As a youngster I would have given a great deal, Fia, to have this opportunity.” He smiled. “It is an amazingly good turn of fortune to study under an Olayin. There’s no one I could be happier for. Make sure and pick up a few tricks for me to learn when you return.”

Fia laughed through watery eyes at the thought of her teaching him.

“I doubt that I can,” she told him.

Her two brothers all bade her farewell with downhearted hugs and hesitant well-wishes. They weren’t clear on what to say, and she was touched to see that she would be missed so much. They were still feeling their older brothers’ absence keenly.

Mother and Father kissed her again, and then Jithra rushed forward to hug her hard, and threw her heart into her good-bye, sprinkled with a few tears.

“Don’t forget me,” she said as she wiped her eyes.

“How could I?” Fia protested.

“You’ll be having so much fun, you won’t even think of us.”

“I surely will not!” she declared. “That could never happen.”

“Ready?” prompted the coachman and Father helped her in. Her bags were already loaded, so all there was to do was blow a few kisses and wave madly as the horses rumbled out of the courtyard.

She traveled by private carriage only to the heart of Tolsern, where she was transferred to common-coach, the great lumbering conveyance that traveled all the main roads at an astonishing pace for its size.

And with it she set out on the journey towards the rest of her life.

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