Liv was struck by how much Piers had aged since she’d last seen him, just over a year before. But then, she realized, that wasn’t quite right. The guardsman must be coming up on fifty now, and his hair had been going gray for quite a while. All of the snacks he used to sneak from the kitchen had gone to his belly, and all the exercise that came with service to first Baron Henry, and then later Duchess Julianne, hadn’t quite managed to prevent that.

But somehow, in her mind, Liv had always thought of him as the earnest young man who’d asked her for advice about what Sophie’s favorite flower was. Only now, when she’d been away at Coral Bay, and then the north, had that mental image been disrupted by the shock of reality.

“It’s me,” Liv said. She looked at the center of the snow-dusted waystone, then put aside what she’d come here to do. “And these are my friends. This is Lady Rosamund Lowry, and this is Inkeris ka Ilmari.”

Piers gave a bow. “We didn’t expect you, m’lady,” he told Liv, once he’d straightened up again. Two other guards – young men that Liv didn’t recognize – piled out of the guardhouse, crossbows in hand. The rough building had clearly been raised for the purpose of keeping a watch on the waystone. “It’s alright, boys,” Piers said. “This is Lady Livara, the duchess’s daughter.”

“I thought I knew all the guards,” Liv remarked. Only once the two young men had lowered their crossbows did she relax.

“Well, a lot’s changed since you’ve been gone,” Piers told her. “Lots of refugees. Anyone who’s got on Benedict’s wrong side has come north. And Her Grace has been hiring as many new guards as we can train and outfit. This is Albert, and this is Martin.”

“M’lady,” each of the young men echoed in turn, ducking their heads. It seemed that the word of the older guard was enough for them. They each looked old enough to be first year students at Coral Bay, and Albert’s face was scarred from the pox.

“I’m pleased to see that you have the waystone well under guard,” Liv said, doing her best to act how she thought Julianne would. “It’s an important post. Our enemies could sneak troops behind our lines here.”

“No chance of that happening, m’lady,” Martin assured her with a cocky grin. He had the sort of scruffy, strong jaw that probably went over well with girls. “We’ve got a whole cage of pigeons for Whitehill. Sent one off as soon as the stone started glowing, actually.”

Liv winced. “Does that mean you need to send a second, to let Henry and Julianne know there’s no danger?”

“We’ll do that right away, and let them know you’re here,” Piers promised. “We’ve horses, as well. I see you haven’t brought any mounts?”

“I wasn’t intending to stay,” Liv admitted. “We just came to –” She paused. There was no reason to spread the secret around. She didn’t think Benedict or Milisant would ever be able to figure out how to tether themselves to a waystone without a teacher, but Genevieve Arundell had earned the title of archmage, whatever else she’d done. It wouldn’t be wise to underestimate her.

“I need to adjust something in the waystone,” Liv said, keeping her statement as vague as possible. Hopefully they would pass it off as the sort of thing that mages did, and let it go. “And then we were going to be off again.”

Piers winced. “I’d be much obliged if you didn’t, your ladyship,” he said. “If the duchess finds out you were here and I just let you run off again, she’ll skin me up one side and down the other. Not to mention your mother. She won’t let me in the kitchen for a month, at least!”

Liv bit her lip. She really didn’t want to get tied up in Whitehill, and if she went to the castle, there was no possibility of getting away again without staying the night.

“I’ve never met your mother,” Rose pointed out, and grabbed Liv by the arm. “We won’t be ready to leave Mountain Home until sometime tomorrow, anyway. Let’s go and say hello.”

“If you do, could the two of you help send me back?” Keri asked. “I’d like to spend as much time as I can with my son.”

“Of course,” Liv said. “Alright, fine. Keri, get on the stone. Rose, help me out?”

The three of them activated the sigil for Mountain home, and then Rose and Liv retreated back out onto the snow with the guards. They watched and waited alongside the two younger guards as light roared up around Keri, sending him on his way. Once the stone was quiet again, Liv walked out to the middle, and Rose followed her.

“Going to tell me what you’re doing?” the dark-haired girl asked, crouching down next to her.

“Elder Aira showed me how to do something,” Liv explained, keeping her voice low. “She called it a word of return. There’s an enchantment here, just at the center of every stone, that you can hook your mana onto, creating a kind of magical tether. Here, watch.”

She took a deep breath, centering herself, and then began to circulate her mana. Gently, ever so gently, Liv pushed a thin strand of mana out through her finger, and lowered it to the surface of the stone. Down, down she pressed, and for a moment she was convinced that she’d done something wrong, or that this waystone truly was broken.

And then Liv felt her mana attach to something.

“There,” she said, with more relief than she would have cared to admit. “Could you feel it? I can use it to pull myself back here, now, without a waystone on the other end.”

“Well that’s handy,” Rose admitted. “You think I should give it a try, too?”

Liv frowned. “I’m not sure you have the mana,” she admitted. “What were you measured at, last anyone checked?”

“A dozen rings,” Rosamund answered. “But I can tell I’m holding a bit more than that now.”

“No, you’d need twenty at least to activate this waystone yourself,” Liv told her. “Not counting the ring that would go to make up the tether. You might be able to make the attachment, but not to actually cast the spell.”

“I guess that shows how everyone forgot this was even possible,” Rose said. “I mean, I’ve never heard anyone talk about it before. But hardly anyone can hold twenty-one rings of mana.”

“Alright. Let’s put in an appearance at the castle,” Liv said, and stood up from the stone. When she turned back to the guards, she found them affixing a message to the foot of a pigeon. “You don’t need to bother with that,” she told them. “We’ll get to Whitehill before a message does. Save the bird for when you actually need it.”

Piers frowned, and the pigeon in his hands flapped its wings in annoyance. “You’re taking the horses then, m’lady?” he asked.

“No. Aluthet Avia,” Liv said, creating an enormous gyrfalcon from a swirl of shining blue and gold mana. The construct stretched out a wing, and Rosamund climbed up onto its back. Liv could admit – if only to herself – that she derived a certain amount of satisfaction from the awe-struck faces of Piers and the two younger guards.

Stolen novel; please report.

“We’ll be back tomorrow morning,” Liv called back to them, then scrambled up onto the great bird’s back, settling in with her back to Rose. Once she was certain neither of them was going to fall off, her intent spurred the mana construct into action, and with a great sweep of its wings, the falcon launched itself up into the sky.

“This is your home, then?” Rose asked, in Liv’s ear, as they banked toward the south.

“The Aspen River Valley,” Liv shouted back to her, over the wind of their passage. She pointed down at the river. The road that ran alongside the western bank was completely hidden by winter snow, but they were already coming up fast on the castle and the town. “That’s Whitehill,” she said.

Liv circled the summoned gyrfalcon once, choosing herself a landing spot in the center of the castle courtyard, and giving the guards training there time to scatter out of the way. She didn’t want to hurt anyone, after all.

As they descended, Liv could hear shouts from the walls, and she noticed that someone had built scorpions there. That could have been a problem, but Matthew was among the men in short order, and he’d clearly recognized her. The last beat of the falcon’s wings kicked up a spray of half-frozen mud, and then they were down. As soon as the bird had landed, and Rose had scrambled off, Liv released her spell and allowed it to dissolve into motes of bright blue and gold mana. There was just enough ambient mana remaining for her to reach out with her Authority and take hold of it, if she had wanted to.

No sooner had Liv got her boots under her than she found herself caught up in an enthusiastic, one-armed hug, and nearly yanked off her feet.

“It’s good to see you again,” Matthew told her. When her adoptive brother finally let Liv go, and gave her enough space to breathe, she could see that he was grinning wide as the ocean. “I presume you were the one coming in the waystone, then?”

“That was us,” Liv admitted. “I wasn’t actually going to come all the way here, but the guards –”

Matthew laughed. “Don’t let anyone else hear you say that,” he warned her. “Hello again, Lady Rosamund.”

“Lord Matthew.” Rose inclined her head, rather than curtsy.

“Did my sister finally figure it out?” Matthew asked, and Liv couldn’t help but blush. Thankfully, she was saved from further conversation as the courtyard filled up with people she hadn’t seen since leaving home.

Beatrice practically crashed into her, and then gave Rose a big hug as well. Julianne was slightly delayed by the task of pushing Baron Henry’s wheelchair, but she made it over before Master Grenfell, who’d at least spoken to Liv recently in dreams. Archibald was there, and for the first time in months Liv remembered that there’d been a letter about him marrying her mother. A rather unsteady Gretta used her cane to prod two of the kitchen maids over with cups of hot tea, steaming in the winter air, and then the crowd parted brought Liv face to face with her mother.

Margaret Brodbeck’s hair had a bit more gray in it than when Liv had left, and the lines in her face were deeper, but she was smiling and her eyes were wet.

“Mama,” Liv murmured, once they each had their arms around the other.

“Are you safe, dove?” Her mother pulled back just enough for them to get a good look at each other’s faces. “The duchess told us what happened at Valegard. That you’d gone north to your father’s lands.”

Liv opened her mouth, and hesitated. Safe wasn’t precisely the word she would use to describe all of the things she’d done since leaving Whitehill. She’d fought Antrian war-machines, corpses animated by the last curse of a dead goddess, poisonous crabs, immense eagles grown vicious on mana, and even other people. She’d killed Antris, and Anson Fane, and Calevis, and she would probably have to kill more people before everything was said and done. Especially with Benedict bringing war to Whitehill.

“I’m doing fine,” Liv said, finally. “I’ve been in a lot of rifts, Mama, and I’ve gotten hurt a few times. But I have a friend named Arjun – I’ll introduce him to you next time I come – who’s really good at keeping us all healthy.”

Her mother regarded Liv with narrowed eyes, so she reached out and took Rose by the hand, giving her a tug. “This is my friend, Rosamund Lowry,” Liv said, with only the slightest hesitation at the word. It felt like hiding something or keeping a secret, but she also couldn’t think of a better term. Lover would imply they’d slept together, and other than one cramped night on a cot in Varuna, that hadn’t happened. They weren’t officially courting or betrothed, either of which would have involved an awkward conversation with both their families. So, ‘friend’ it was.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, m’lady,” Margaret Brodbeck said, giving a curtsy.

“No, please don’t,” Rose said. “You’re Liv’s mother, and I care about her very much. You don’t ever have to curtsy to me. Anyway, we’re both guild members, and she’s actually higher ranked, so just – don’t even worry about it, please.”

“Now that everyone’s had a moment to welcome you,” Baron Henry said, his voice easily breaking through the chatter, “why don’t you both come into the great hall. The kitchen maids can bring out whatever is easy, and you can tell us what’s brought you back here.”

Liv turned to answer, and stopped when she saw that Henry was not wearing boots or shoes of any kind. In fact, his trousers hung empty from somewhere below the knee, but above the ankle.

“Yes,” Henry said. “Mistress Trafford decided they finally had to go. But don’t feel badly, Liv – I wasn’t getting much use out of the things anyway. Come, let’s all talk over wine and something to eat. And you must come, as well, Margaret. I won’t have you in the kitchen while your daughter is visiting.”

Liv’s mother looked somewhat uncomfortable at the idea. “I really should make certain that everything’s cooked to our standards,” she protested. “And I won’t know what we have for mana-enriched food until I look.”

“Nonsense,” Gretta said, and tapped her cane against Margaret’s shin. “I’ll ride herd on the maids for you, Maggie. They can do all the work while I sit with the cookbook and make their lives miserable. Go sit with our Livy. I have a feeling she won’t be here for much longer.”

“You aren’t back to stay, then?” Mama asked Liv.

“No.” She shook her head. “Baron Henry’s right. Let’s all sit down and I’ll tell you about it.”

While most of the servants and guards returned to their duties, Liv and Rose followed Duchess Julianne, Baron Henry, Matthew and Beatrice, and Master Grenfell into the great hall, where the seven of them sat at the high table, and a place was made for Liv’s mother to join them. Archibald brought a bottle of wine and filled a glass for everyone, then took his place by the wall.

“We’re actually here somewhat by accident,” Liv said, once everyone had settled. “We’ve been at Mountain Home most recently, and as soon as our armor’s fitted and all our supplies packed, we’ll be headed up to the Tomb of Celris.”

“Where your aunt died?” Liv’s mother asked.

“Yes.” Liv reached over to put her arm around her mother’s waist; it felt nice to be sitting between her and Rose. Comforting. “But you don’t need to worry, Mama. I’m going with Rose – she’s very good at earth magic, and she’s talented with a sword, as well. And our friend Arjun, who is a healer. And Keri, an Eld of House Bælris. And if she gets back in time, Wren will meet us there, as well, so then we’d have five.”

“I was wondering where she was,” Julianne commented, from her seat next to her husband’s wheeled chair. “I assume there’s a pressing reason?”

Liv nodded. “There’s something we need at the bottom of the rift – a key. But I wanted to be certain that I could get back here when the snows melted, so I needed to do something at the waystone. I’d honestly planned to only stay for a few moments, and then use it to go right back to Mountain Home, but your guards there saw us.” She smiled. “It was a good thing Piers was there, actually – he recognized me. Otherwise we might have been greeted by a volley of crossbow bolts.”

“Once they told us a pigeon had already been sent, I whined until Liv agreed to let me come and meet her mother,” Rose said, with a grin. She held her glass of wine up with her left hand, swirling it about in front of her face.

“We can’t stay long,” Liv said. “There’s things we need to get done before flood season, so that we can be back in time to meet Benedict’s army. But Airis ka Reimis will be coming from Al’Fenthis to speak with you all about what supplies we can send. And you’ll have the support of at least four houses, when the battle comes,” she promised.

“That’s good to hear,” Henry said. “We’ll have troops from Valegard, of course, so long as they don’t have an eruption to deal with. I wish there was time to show you the fortifications we’ve been building in the southern pass, Liv, but that will have to wait. And of course we’ve been recruiting and training every able-bodied man we can find. But Benedict has more money, and a much larger population to draw from.”

“You can talk logistics and strategy later,” Julianne broke in, as the footmen began to carry out platter after platter of food. “There hasn’t been a lot of good news since my father’s death, but tonight is a happy surprise. Let’s enjoy the time Liv has here, while we can.”

“Now that, I can get behind,” Triss said, raising her glass. “To my sister-in-law. Home at last – and next time, I hope, home to stay.”

All around Liv, her friends and family raised their glasses to her. For perhaps the first time that she could recall, being the center of attention didn’t bother her one bit.