Extract from Chapter 9

The girls are summoned to the manor at Forngarth where they are met by the formidable family matriarch Eleanor D'Shan:

A high door, gilded with gold, opened on the left a short distance from the bottom of the stairs.  Eleanor D’Shan came through to welcome her young guests.

        She was dressed in a rich black dress, well decorated with white lace-the only concession allowed to a widow-and a simple silver necklace with a sapphire pendant.  Her hair was silver and worn long which was unusual for a lady of her years.  Although frail and requiring an ebony cane, the old lady’s back was straight and her eyes sharp and intelligent.  Her voice, too, was strong and full of authority.

        “Elaine, Lydia, welcome to Math Forngarth.  I trust you are both well?”

        “Very, thank you Grandma,” Elaine replied with a slight bob.

        “Quite well, Great Aunt, thank you.”  Lydia’s curtsey was more practiced and earned her a slight nod from the elderly matriarch.

        “Do come through, dears.  Tea is ready and I can’t stand for too long in draughts.  The doctor tells me that warmth and rest are important in one of my years, though what he knows about being my age I can’t imagine!  In my youth it was fresh air that was the thing, but I do find standing tires me.”  The grand old lady chattered on as she led the girls into the drawing room whose tall windows looked out onto sweeping lawns.  The waters of Carras Sound glistened in the distance beyond the green sweep of the downs.

        Tea was set out for them. A silver tea service and china plates bearing light sandwiches and cake.  “Do the honours, Elaine dear,” the old lady ordered, settling herself gently into a high backed chair and setting her cane next to it.  Elaine hesitated.

        “Grandma, wasn’t that Tristan we just saw?”

        “It was.  Nasty young man he’s turned into I must say!”

        “Great Aunt, you must be careful!” Lydia exclaimed.  “He’s dangerous.”

        “Do hurry up with the tea, dear,” Eleanor rebuked Elaine mildly.  She waited until the tea had been poured and they each had a plate with two bread triangles.  “Dangerous?” she said eventually as if there had been no pause in the conversation.  “Well, I suppose he is to some.”

        “No, really, Grandma, Lydia’s right,” Elaine said, carefully swallowing her mouthful first.  “He has the Gift.”

        “He’s a D’Shan isn’t he?”  The old lady brushed a couple of crumbs absent mindedly from her lap.  “Of course he has the Gift.  He’s turned to the bad, that young man.  Thinks he has all the power in the world!  Humph!  He thought to get his hands on this place.  He won’t be back, though, I soon told him what I thought of him.”  Eleanor saw the girl’s horrified expressions.  “Don’t look so alarmed, children!  Elaine, do you think you are the first to have the Gift in our family?  Where did you think it came from?  Not your mother or your father!  The Gift often skips the odd generation.”

        “You have the Gift too?” Elaine exclaimed.

        “Of course I have! I’ve never troubled much with it, though.  Not my thing.  I’d been expecting Tristan ever since Master Berant came to see me on his way up to that school of yours a month or so ago.”

        “You know Master Berant?” Lydia managed to ask first.

        “Since he was a boy,” Eleanor replied.  “He used to put in for stores at Whellan.  Many’s the time we fitted him out with provisions and cordage; sails and the like.  He was for ever off on some journey or another.  Oh yes, we go back aways; I had quite a chat with him.  I can’t say as I approve of the way the Mageblades terrify the wits out of young and old alike, whatever their reasons might be, as if the Gift was something to be afraid of!  I told him so!  I said that I didn’t expect him to come it the high and mighty over my granddaughter, what with us being old friends.”  The two girls gaped.

        “That’s why he didn’t let them take me!”  Elaine said.

        “You’ll go yourself, in your own time, like I told him,” the old lady stated firmly.

        “He said his was the harder course to steer.  Do you know what he meant by that?” Elaine asked.  Eleanor D’Shan chuckled as she helped herself to a slice of cake before passing the plate round to the girls.

        “He talks in riddles, doesn’t he?  It makes him seem clever and mysterious, so he reckons!  He means, dear, that you can go to the Navigator’s Guild on Forath for the first part of your training.”

        “The Navigators!”  Elaine’s whole face lit up with excitement.  “I never realised!”

        “Why, dear, what do you think the Navigators and Weatherworkers are but Sea Mages?  Master Berant himself is a member of both Guilds; one of their most powerful members I should imagine, though like most men he lacks basic sense.  He should stand up to those fools at the Kerun Dur and I told him so!”  The thought of Master Berant being given a sound ticking off by Eleanor D’Shan brought a smile to both girls’ faces which they quickly smothered.  “I hear your father’s in a spot of trouble,” Eleanor continued suddenly, turning to face Lydia.  “Always was a weak fool, your father, and now what’s to come of this I can’t tell.”  Lydia shifted awkwardly, embarrassed at the brutal frankness of her Great Aunt’s words.

        The elder Mrs D’Shan stared hard at Lydia for a moment, as if thinking deeply, though Lydia got the distinct impression that she was being appraised by the shrewd old lady in front of her.  “I shall think about what’s for the best,” Eleanor said eventually.  “The last thing you need is a hasty and ill considered marriage, which is no doubt what your mother is presently planning on Thirnmar.  The D’Shan’s are strongest when they marry for love, not money or position.  Your father would have done well to remember that, although he undoubtedly does care for your mother.

        Now, unless girls are very much changed from when I was young, you both have good appetites and there is plenty of cake and more tea in the pot.”