The morning of the day that the messenger returned, Alistar was busy making up his bed and folding his freshly laundered clothes. The last part didn’t take too long, seeing as how he only had two sets. He’d had three, but one was ruined when Anice emptied an inkwell down his front.

Once he finished, he stood back and admired his work. The house servants had taught him how to perform some of their daily duties, but only after he’d insisted past the point of politeness. The two women, who were a bit older than his mother, said that he was the first little lordling they had met that desired to learn the ways of their work. They said that it was unheard of, but to Alistar, it was simply natural to look after himself. Once he’d gotten the hang of using the washing board and hanging clothes up to dry, he quickly tackled the challenge of making up a bed. Anice had dragged him into Caedmon’s chambers on more than one occasion, and one thing that always caught his notice was the neatness of his made-up bed. Her room, on the other hand, was always a mess of discarded bedding and scattered clothing, and it was here that he’d practiced his skills at tidying up under the delighted tutelage of the two women.

After making his bed, he quickly cleaned his room and headed to the dining hall where Caedmon and Anice were waiting for him. As always, they sat at one end of the table. The food was already laid out before them, a place set for him opposite his cousin.

“About time!” Anice grunted, her tone and mannerisms crushing any illusions that her pleasant image gave off. “I’m starving.” She was dressed in a simple, pink dress, a sleeveless piece from her unnecessarily large collection. She had shown her wardrobe off to Alistar a few days ago, and had taken his hanging jaw to be a sign of awe. What he’d felt was a shocked sort of disapproval that one person might hoard so many clothes.

“Good morrow, Alistar.” Caedmon smiled at him. “I was beginning to think that you would skip out on breakfast.”

“Never,” he said happily, jumping onto his seat. He was in good spirits knowing that his mother would arrive any day now.

“With how much time you spend in the library, I wouldn’t be surprised if you forgot about mealtime.”

Today’s breakfast consisted of fried eggs, thin slices of roasted ham, warm, buttered bread, and a few little wheels of cheese. As soon as he took his seat, a house servant that he didn’t know brought out a variety of fruits and some milk to drink. As the other two began helping themselves, Alistar portioned his food sparingly. He never took more than he needed.

“It’s been years since that room saw so much use.”

“Somebody has to read those books,” Alistar shrugged. “And I daresay Anice won’t be doing it.”

A slab of ham slapped onto his cheek.

“Now, now, play nice,” Caedmon reprimanded.

When he’d played with Kaila, the two of them had always been on the same page, and got along so well that they usually knew what was on the other’s mind. Things were different with Anice. Sometimes he doubted that even she was aware of some of the thoughts that ran through her mind.

After peeling the ham off his face and biting into it, he brought up something that had been on his mind for a while. “Uncle Caedmon, can we all go swimming at the river when Mama arrives? You see, I’ve always dreamt of swimming with everyone, but with Uncle and Father gone…”

“A fine idea. I can’t remember the last time I went for a swim.”

“I don’t want to swim!”

“You can’t avoid it forever, Anice,” Caedmon advised her. “It’s about time you learned. Aren’t there times when you wish you were capable, like when your friends play at the river in the summertime and you’re stuck watching their fun from the riverbank?”

“When did that happen?” Anice blushed. She glanced at Alistar and then assured him. “I can swim.”

Alistar decided to throw her a bone. It wouldn’t do if she wasn’t onboard with his idea. “I’m not too strong a swimmer, myself,” he admitted. “I only learned a short while ago, but it was really fun. Why don’t we practice together?”

“Who needs to practice?”

“Don’t be stubborn.” Caedmon tapped a beat on the tabletop, with the expression of one lost in thought. “Let’s make it a picnic. We’ll spend time together as a family.”

A family…

It had been over two weeks since his arrival—three, really, if he counted the week he’d spent unconscious—and he still felt uneasy about the idea of living in Mayhaven as part of the Silverkin household. His new lifestyle was just too different from the one that he’d left behind in Crystellum. Although he was surrounded by kind people, nobody understood what he had been through, the depth of the pain that he struggled with at the start of each day. The more he learned about the world outside of the mines, the more he began to understand the horrid nature of the depravations that he’d accepted as normal throughout the majority of his life.

None within the manor house had eaten the same tasteless gruel for thousands of days on end, or been made to relieve themselves in front of others in the waste tunnels. Everybody that lived on the property had multiple sets of clothing, which were always washed within days of use, and nobody here went hungry. It wasn’t their fault, but he felt lonely nonetheless.

Anice’s voice drew his eyes up from his plate.

“Fine,” she mumbled, oddly compliant.

The rare pull of her frown yanked Alistar from his solemn thoughts. Anice was the type of person that did whatever came to mind, without giving things much thought. Seeing her appear so pensive was a bit odd. Coming to some conclusion, she downed the rest of her milk and hopped off her seat, hurrying through the doors as she called over her shoulder. “I’m off to see Lessa!”

Caedmon nodded at a nearby house servant, a young woman that followed Anice out the door. Although he’d already finished his meal, he stayed back to keep Alistar company.

“How many books have you read now?”

Looking up from his roasted ham, Alistar replied, “Ten, as of yesterday. I’m partway through the eleventh, The Denizens of the Tall Forests.”

“Ah, that’s a good one, though it’s a bit short. It was written by my uncle, you know, the former lord of Distan. How are you finding it?”

“I never thought there would be so many creatures in the area.” He paused for some milk. “I’ve gone over the first half twice, just to be sure that I remembered everything correctly.” As Caedmon said, The Denizens of the Tall Forests was a short collection of entries logged in an old, leather-bound book that detailed all of the known animals, insects, and danger beasts that were common throughout the region. It detailed things such as known habitats, diets, average sizes, behavior, and all sorts of other things.

“You can’t mean that you’re attempting to memorize each entry?” His surprise was well founded. There were countless hundreds of entries in the journal, which had taken the former count nearly a decade to complete, if the scrupulous man ever even considered it complete.

“Why else would I be reading all these books?”

Looking at the innocent expression Alistar had on, Caedmon thought for a moment. “What is the most dangerous predator found in these parts that isn’t a Danger Beast?”

Alistar’s look hardened. “The giant moss snake.” It had been a giant moss snake that had killed Bertrand.

“Do you know what danger beast they transform into, whenever one makes the transition?”

“It can either become an armoured moss snake, or a colossal serpent. Apparently, most big snakes seem to turn into either of those.”

“Can you tell me the most abundant animal?”

“Um, I’m not sure. In the book it said the brown-tailed squirrels, but I also read that sometimes they get eaten too much and then they become hard to find.”

“The largest animal?”

“The great brown bear, and then the bull deer.”

“You are bright beyond your years, truly Laisha’s son. Sometimes I forget that I’m speaking with a nine-year-old, hah.” Impressed, Caedmon patted Alistar’s shoulder. “Well then, I’ll tell you what. After you finish reading your book, I’ll have you come by my office and you can pick something out of my personal collection, the best in my possession. There’s a lot in there that you won’t find in most libraries, even in the royal libraries of some kingdoms.”

“Can I really?”

His uncle was always covered in ink, and his fingers were heavily calloused from working with a quill. Of all the people on the property, Caedmon was the only one who enjoyed reading as much as him.

“I pride myself in my collection, you know, and rarely do I hold back when I see things that catch my eye.” He laughed in a way that was similar to his daughter’s laughter when she’d boasted about her wardrobe. Caedmon cleared his throat after a few moments, and glanced down at Alistar’s wrist. “I’ll do something about that bracelet of yours, too. There are also other things that we must talk about, but all in due ti—”

“My lord!”

One of the house servants Alistar was familiar with, Madeline, skittered into the room while holding up the bottoms of her black skirt. Her face was flushed, her eyes telling of an urgent matter.

“Yes? What is it, Madeline?”

“Stason has just returned from Melsian!”

Melsian was the county where Crystellum was located, which meant that Stason must have been the messenger sent to retrieve Alistar’s mother.

Both Caedmon and Alistar found their feet in an instant, their conversation forgotten.

“Where is he?”

“He should be dismounting any moment,” Madeline breathed. “I recognized his cloak from afar, and thought to inform you immediately.”

“Have him report to my study. Quickly now.”

Madeline turned to go, but Alistar called out to her. Anxious, his voice left him in an awkward pitch, his mind fighting through the haze of mixed emotions that spread within him like an early morning fog. “What about my mama?”

Caedmon said nothing, but stared at Madeline, his eyes hard, desperate.

Meeting their expectant gazes, she looked as if her knees might give out at any moment. “It looked like he was alone. I could be mistaken, he was far—”

“Leave us.”

She left almost as soon as the words fell from Caedmon’s mouth. His face was rigid as a rock, his body still. When he spoke, his voice was dry, empty. “Come along, Alistar.”