‘I’m well aware of that.’ Rafrid scowled, resting his elbows on the arms of his chair and twisting a heavy ring around the middle finger of his writing hand. A sizeable sapphire, dark and mysterious, was set deep into the silver. You’re Hadrumal born, as were your parents, both of whom have added significantly to the scholarship of wizardry. Yet your parents have always found time to nurture the lads and lasses arriving on our dockside still reeling from the shock of discovering their magebirth. As for further study, your mother in particular has an unequalled record for guiding pupils on paths that seemed entirely unpromising at first glance.’
Velindre sat in silence, her narrow lips thinned almost to invisibility. Rafrid drummed his thick fingers on the edge of his table, his square jaw hardening.
‘You used to spend more time with apprentices,’ he pointed out with a visible effort at reasonableness. ‘You’ve had past pupils who made notable progress and not just in the understanding of the element of air. Why the change of heart over this last winter?’
‘Tell me how much time I’m to set aside for apprentices.’ Velindre uncrossed her feet and stood. ‘And how many pupils I’m required to take on.’
‘Kalion did you no favours encouraging you to think that you stood a chance of being elevated to Cloud Mistress,’ said Rafrid bluntly.
Velindre lifted her chin defiantly. ‘I suggest you take that up with the Hearth Master.’
‘I have done,’ Rafrid assured her dourly, ‘with him and Troanna both. Our esteemed Flood Mistress is under no illusions about what I think of her meddling.’
‘I’m surprised you want me spending time with apprentices, since you think so little of my abilities,’ said Velindre tartly.
‘Don’t be a fool,’ he retorted, scathing. ‘I think very highly of your wizardry. Your admirable focus on our element has led you to some remarkable insights. I can’t recall seeing anyone with more feeling for the elemental air in the twenty years I’ve known you. What you’re lacking are the necessary instincts for the demands of an office such as this.’
He waved a curt hand at the parchments littering the table. ‘As Master of Hiwan’s Hall before my elevation to this office, I got used to keeping all these balls in the air, better than a festival juggler. You’ve always been able to put your own interests first, and that’s all very well, but an element master—or mistress—needs to take a wider view. He can’t stay aloof if his feelings have been hurt. He can’t turn unapproachable if he doesn’t want his studies disturbed for days at a time. He needs to keep an ear to the ground, not have his head in the clouds.’
‘And you had Planir’s ear when it was time for him to make his nominations to the Council.’ Velindre came perilously close to sneering.
Somewhat to her surprise, Rafrid laughed, a full-throated chuckle. ‘You flatter me if you think our esteemed Archmage would hand me such an honour just because I fancied wearing this pretty blue ring myself.’ He leaned forward, waving the faceted sapphire at Velindre, who flinched as if he’d offered her a blow. Rafrid scowled blackly for an instant before he continued. ‘The only opinion of mine that Planir sought was who should replace me as Master of Hiwan’s Hall. I don’t know who first suggested that I should be elevated to this rank of Cloud Master, but I do know that Planir took a long time to think it through and consulted with wizards far more eminent and experienced than you or me, here in Hadrumal and beyond.’
He paused for a moment and when he went on, his voice was level, even kindly. ‘I don’t pride myself on defeating you, Velindre. I simply want to justify the faith our fellow mages have shown in me. I’m charged with the better guidance of those born to master our element and with helping those born with an affinity to another to a fuller understanding of the interactions of air with earth, fire and water. I want your help, not your hostility. That’s what the apprentices need, and our pupils.’
Velindre said nothing, her sharp face icy calm.
Rafrid sighed with exasperation. ‘Make yourself available to any apprentice wanting your instruction from breakfast till noon. Your time’s your own after that. I’ll let it be known that you’ll be considering new pupils over the Equinox festival. There should be two or three keen enough and bold enough to put forward their ideas for your consideration. After Solstice, you can expect your contemporaries studying the other elements to recommend their most promising pupils in the normal fashion.’
‘As you wish, Cloud Master.’ Velindre turned to depart, her hazel eyes impenetrable.
As she reached for the door latch, the Cloud Master spoke again. ‘The next time a bunch of apprentices come to me, I want it to be because they can’t sing your praises loudly enough. I told this last lot that you’re one of the most skilful wizards on this isle. Don’t let me down.’
Velindre showed no response as she opened the door, about to step out on to the stairs.
‘Give some thought to what Otrick would have made of your behaviour lately,’ Rafiid called after her. Velindre slammed the door behind her so hard that the reverberations echoed all the way down to the bottom of the stairwell, pursued by the angry clatter of her booted steps on the aged treads. ‘What would Otrick have made of all this?’ she muttered, furiously scrubbing away the sting of angry tears with the back of one hand as she snatched her thick cloak from a peg. ‘What would he have made of your prosy lecturing? Do you think he’d have started apprentices on summoning showers to freshen up a turnip’s wilting leaves?’
Her stride lengthening, Velindre crossed the flagstoned courtyard walled on all four sides with ranges of accommodation. She glanced up at the garrets with their little gabled windows jutting through the stone-slated slopes of the roofs, chimney stacks spaced between them. Which of the apprentices crammed into those poky rooms had had the gall to complain about her?
Her gaze slid down to the first—and second-floor rooms, wider windows shut firmly against the bitter weather. Who were those ungrateful pupils who’d begged for her guidance and now felt entitled to whine when she’d cast them off to stand on their own two feet?
They were better off trailing around after the likes of Colna and Pemmel anyway, she thought with contempt. The uninspired deserved the insipid. Let them coddle the apprentices and the pupils; she had better things to do. She would find some insight into magic that would restore her reputation within the higher ranks of Hadrumal. She would find something to make Planir sit up and take notice, something to make the Archmage regret his mistake in passing her over.
She glanced back over her shoulder at the central tower of the wizard hall, at the triple-mullioned window of Rafrid’s eyrie at the centre of the four quadrangles. What would Otrick have made of him as Cloud Master? The old scoundrel would have laughed himself breathless and then sent everyone into hysterics with his incisive dissection of Rafrid’s inadequacies.
She raised a hand to her eyes as the pain of ()tick’s loss stabbed her anew, heading blindly for the dim passage that threaded through one corner of the courtyard.
‘Excuse me, miss.’ A laundry maid tried to step out of Velindre’s path, hampered by her wide wicker basket.
‘I beg your pardon.’ Velindre flattened herself against the plastered stone wall to let the servant pass. She felt the damp and cold on the back of her neck and pulled up the hood of her midnight-blue cloak, tying it loosely. The first impetus of her anger spent, she walked more slowly out through the gate and into the narrow lane running behind the Leeward Hall. So her mornings were to be taken up with the misapprehensions and misunderstandings new apprentices always spouted.
No, you’ve not been sent into some irreversible exile. Ships that have the Archmage’s trust come and go from Hadrumal all the time,’ she mouthed as she walked along the cobbles. ‘Yes, you’ll be able to go home to visit your families—once you’ve learned how not to set chimneys alight when you’re angry or freeze the water in the well when you’re miserable.’