"Oh, I was quite the prodigal," he said, unperturbed. "Indeed, I expect I’m even younger than you think. So what set your tall friend off?"
"None of your business."
"No? Well, I expect she’ll tell me herself."
He would ask Sukata too, the scut. And knew Kendall would answer rather than see Sukata be made to talk about a thing that had so severely upset her—particularly now Kendall had figured out the why of it herself.
"It was our latest Sigillic exercise," Kendall said, reluctantly. "Rennyn’s not just showing us how Thought Magic works: she trying to teach us to be devising mages, and she keeps telling us to write Sigillics to do the same thing as whatever she’s most recently Thought-cast. Not that she’s been casting much at all lately, but the last thing she did was make an apple fall into segments.
"The Sigillic I wrote was just something short, and it was no good—likely to make the entire room fall into segments, according to Herself. The Sigillics Sukata and the Pe—and Fallon wrote worked. But even though they were really long, they were identical. The Pe—Fallon said that of course they were the same, because Fan-Fen…"
"Falzenar’s Division and Miktok’s Restriction," Samarin said. "The most logical combination of Sigillics to use there."
"That’s it," Kendall said, eyeing him doubtfully. "And we could all see that Rennyn was expecting us—them—to realise something, but then she sighed, and made a couple of changes to mine, and told Fallon to cast it, and it worked too. Then she told us to go buy instruments."
"Ah, I see. Your Sukata’s upset because, flawed or not, you produced the superior Sigillic."
"No," Kendall said irritably, though this was exactly what she’d thought at first. But Sukata wasn’t like that. "Sukata really loves magic. She wants to understand it properly, to be a devising mage, and a Thought Mage, and to use Symbolic properly. And yet for every one of these Sigillic writing exercises, she’s done just what she did today—stitched together a couple of existing Sigillics that someone else had come up with. Because that’s how she’s been taught to do it. Rennyn’s never come right out and said Sukata and the Pest aren’t doing what she asked them to, but she made it kind of obvious today. Sukata’s angry at herself."
"Huh." Samarin picked up another bit of metal. "You can’t stand to see her criticised, can you?"
"It’s just the truth," Kendall told him crossly.
"Perhaps. But it’s entirely unsurprising for a well-studied student mage to be annoyed when shown up by some random sprat who has only been studying magic for a handful of months. How do you think she’ll react if you make this next step in Thought you’re all aiming for?"
What was he trying to get at? "I expect she’d be glad to know it’s not just the Claires who can. She’s not the type to be jealous."
"Such devotion," he said. "How long is it you’ve known her again? No, don’t kick me, I’ve a serious point to make. There’s a lot of this blinding and immediate loyalty going around. Sentene mages who would walk over glass to defend those assigned to protect them. Rennyn Claire, marrying the first Kellian she meets, all in haste. Diminutive spitfires who don’t have a good word to say about anyone, except one particular fellow student. There’s a pattern."
"What in the Hells are you trying to say?"
"Why are you such a friend to Sukata Illuma? How did all this steadfast and true companionship come about? Who gained most from it?"
Kendall boggled at him. She and Sukata were friends because they were friends. Because they’d both been picked on studying at the Arkathan. Because together they’d trailed around after Rennyn, and been exasperated by Sebastian, and looked after the pair of Claires after the Black Queen’s death. It wasn’t about gaining…
Yes, Sukata had ended up as Rennyn’s student because of Kendall. But that wasn’t because Sukata had angled for it.
"They have an extreme vulnerability to magic, you know," Samarin went on. "An innate lack of resistance. Is it coincidence that their service as Sentene brings with it a supply of companion mages? That those mages often go on to become parents of Kellian? Or is this a logical tactic for a people determined to breed out their greatest weakness?"
"You’re cracked."
"I’m asking the questions that need to be answered, before Kole can settle her attitude toward a people whose home settlement is, technically at least, within the Imperial borders. Asset? Ally? Threat? There are more ways to invade than to show up with an army at the border."
"Triple cracked and left out in the sun."
"Be that as it may, I would appreciate you giving the question some thought. Have you observed anything that fits with the theory? Anything to contradict it?"
Kendall proceeded to let Dezart Rhael Samarin, Hand of the Emperor, know exactly what she thought of playing snitch for him, but Samarin only smiled, then glanced briefly away before selecting another bit of metal.
"No doubt you will proceed according to your own wonts," he said. "Just perhaps not alone down hidden by-ways."
The inner flap of the tent tore as it was thrust back, but it was not the two men returning. Sukata, long knife in hand, stepped through and stopped short, the Pest peeking anxiously around her.
Samarin finally produced a satisfying click from the padlock and said: "There we go," as he slipped it loose. "Perhaps you two could find one of the Market Peacewards. They should be wearing a red quarter-mask."
Ignoring this, Sukata knelt as Kendall sat up and pulled the cuff off her ankle. "Are you hurt?"
"Just wishing I could twist someone’s neck," Kendall said, glaring at Samarin because it was strangely hard to look at Sukata, and not because of any Kellian weirdness with light.
"There was someone wearing a quarter-mask following us anyway," the Pest said, and ducked back out the way he’d come.
"If you were roaming the markets with that knife drawn, I’m not surprised," Samarin said, tucking away his collection of bits of metal.
"Aren’t you going to unlock these others?" Kendall snapped.
"I’m sure the Peaceward will enjoy doing that." He stood, slipping his mask down over his face again, and went into the adjoining tent just in time to disconcert whatever a Peaceward was.
"I didn’t notice," Sukata said, as soon as I they were alone. "I am sorry, Kendall. That was inexcusable."
"Not your job to look after me," Kendall said.
Can’t stand to see her criticised.
Kendall pushed the smug, sneaking memory aside. "Nice set-up they had, too—that damn cow bell."
This, of course, meant nothing to Sukata, but Kendall wasted no time pulling open the concealed slit in the tent wall and marching back out the way she’d come. No surprise that the red-headed scut was gone, but he’d left his table of wares behind.
Kendall took the entire line of fine-cast bells, each a different size from each other, and tossed her paltry collection of Kolan coin on the table in return.
"There," she said, handing half the bells to Sukata, and refusing by so much as a dropped glance to acknowledge that anything could have upset her. "Whatever Herself wants with musical instruments, this’ll surely be more than enough."
She spared a moment to collect the Pest, then led them effortlessly back to the House, shrugging off any suggestion that the Dezart and the Peaceward might want to ask them questions. The one thing Kendall didn’t need, at the moment, was more questions from Samarin.
He’d asked quite enough already.