"Birth and death; we all move between these two unknowns." - Bryant H. McGill
"Hey! I'm an uncle!"
Bredin's yearmates looked at him curiously. The group sat in their common room enjoying a candlemark between putting their books aside and curfew. With an autumn storm blowing hard outside, none of them wanted to brave the trip to visit their Companions.
"Congratulations! Boy or girl?" Tanis asked. The rest of Bredin's yearmates echoed her.
"Boy. He was born the day after Sovran. My brother named him Leif after our grandfather." Bredin said.
Lars looked at the ceiling, doing a mental calculation. "Umm, Bred. Spring Day was just over seven moons ago…."
Bredin snickered. "I thought I'd hear two moons ago. I thought she was farther along than that when I went to the wedding."
"A new bride can do in seven moons what takes a Companion or a Countess nine." Ari said wryly. The others chuckled agreement.
"So what are you going to give your new nephew?" Jan asked.
Bredin shrugged. "Oh, a rattle or something like that, I guess."
"Give him a toy Companion." Ari suggested.
Bredin hesitated. "I'm not sure my dad would like that." He said.
"To the nine hells with your father." Ari said. "Sorry, Bred, but your dad is being a total ass to you. He doesn't get a say in what you give your nephew. Half the children in Valdemar have toy Companions."
::Very few have toy Companions with real Companion-hair manes and tails, though.:: Lacaral added.
Bredin looked up, startled. "What? You'd do that?"
Ari laughed. "If Lacaral just said what I'm guessing he said, you are going to be a very beloved uncle."
"But he's just a baby. He won't have any idea what it means!" Bredin pointed out.
::He will when he grows older. And your family will know what it means.:: Lacaral said.
The next day, Bredin and his yearmates created a feather-stuffed Companion for newborn Leif. Lacaral carefully shed a handful of his mane and tail hairs. Bredin stitched them into the 'Companion'; he had not forgotten the skills he had learned in his father's shop. Since Field Heralds often needed to repair their own tack, the Collegium instructors had seen to it that his skills were not forgotten and assigned Bredin to help repair tack as one of his chores. By dinner, the toy was wrapped and in the hands of a merchant going through Bransat.
Though Bredin would not have thought it possible, his second year classes were more intense than the first.
Bredin and his yearmates were learning the beginnings of mounted combat, though Keren still gave them regular lessons in basic skills. Bredin's riding skills still lagged, so he also practiced on his own – with Lacaral coaching through their mind-link – as much as possible.
For mounted fighting, Lacaral wore padding over his head, neck and croup. ::Decapitating your own Companion is considered exceedingly bad form.:: Lacaral mocked gently the first time Bredin put it on.
In the salle, Alberich increased the tempo of the drills and added new ones. When they made mistakes, Alberich now began to ask Bredin and his yearmates to explain what they had done wrong. If they couldn't, Alberich would take them through the exercise again and again until the trainee recognized his or her error.
At the Temple, Deacon Tsareyn began teaching Bredin how to deal with street brawlers who would attempt to blind him or throw things at him to put him at a disadvantage. "They are not going to follow Temple rules about proper fighting. They are going to try to kill you the easiest way they can. You have to be on your guard and know how to protect yourself without being thrown on the defensive."
A new crop of trainees entered the Collegium, filling the tables as older trainees got their Whites and left on their internship circuits. Bredin now saw Harrow only rarely as his mentor divided his time between basic riding lessons for the newcomers – some of them had almost as much difficulty learning to ride as Bredin – and training under Alberich in an advanced form of Hurlee intended as war-training. The practice was in a distant corner of Companions' Field. Bredin had no intention of trudging out in the cold weather to stand and freeze in order to watch.
Twyla and Asen sent enthusiastic thanks for Bredin's gift to Leif. The toy with real Companion hair set Bransat buzzing for a fortnight. Bredin found out his father had come twice to Haven to deliver and fit saddles for highborn customers without letting Bredin know. Bredin continued to write faithfully, but Enro still hadn't relented by Midwinter, so Bredin stayed at the Collegium that year, despite invitations from Jan, Tanis and others to go home with them.
Bredin attended the Midwinter vigil at the Temple of the Iron God and had a Midwinter Feast with Ari and her family. He visited the Midwinter Fairs, which were far larger than any he had seen before and explored the streets of Haven on Lacaral's back.
Though the winter, Bredin's mindgifts grew stronger as his control got better. Herald Kyril asked him a few times to find bits of jewelry that highborn had lost in the snow. The Seneschal's Herald never let the nobles know how their valuables had been recovered, so Bredin's peace remained undisturbed.
Once, Kyril asked Bredin to find a stolen purse, but it was empty when Bredin found it. Kyril turned to Lars, whose gift of hindsight identified the thief, one of the servants of another highborn.
On a bitterly cold day shortly after Midwinter, Bredin experienced the Death Bell for the first time. He had heard it ring before and seen the Heralds and the older trainees react to the loss of one of their own. Often the deceased Herald had personal friends among the instructors or other Heralds present in Haven. The Heralds' faces would fall at the first peal of the bell. They would pause in what they were doing and seek out their brethren for support. The Companions would gather round the bell tower and stare at it. Now Bredin felt the loss for himself.
Bredin was in the History Class. Herald Rebecca was covering some of the early treaties with Hardorn that set the borders between the two kingdoms. She had just asked Jan to go over a point about the recognition of titles for families with members on both sides of the border when the Death Bell began tolling.
Before, the ringing had been only an ominous sound to Bredin. Now, he felt the loss deep inside.
Herald Simon and his Companion Chahati had been negotiating a treacherous path along a steep ravine. A rock had shifted under Chahati's hooves and the two plunged down the slope. Simon struck his head on a boulder as he fell, killing him instantly; Chahati broke her neck a moment later. Bredin caught images of it in the first few peals of the Death Bell.
At the front of the class, Herald Rebecca froze; her wrinkled face showed a look of pain and loss as she took in the passing of Simon and Chahati. The trainees all knew what the Death Bell meant. They waited with respectful silence as their instructor took in the tragedy.
Herald Rebecca closed her eyes for a moment and wept a few tears. She opened them once more and looked at the class. "I am sorry, trainees, but that will be all for today."
She spotted the stricken looks on the faces of Bredin, Lars and Jill. She pointed to them. "You, come with me. The rest of you work on the question I asked Jan." Rebecca picked up her books and cane and went out with Bredin, Lars and Jill following.
The aged Herald walked slowly towards the dormitories. "You three will feel better with the other trainees who are sensitive to the Death Bell. They usually gather in the library. Did any of you know Simon?"
Bredin and Lars told of meeting Simon at The Blue and The White the Midwinter before last. Jill knew him from her childhood; Simon's family were also merchants in Haven and Jill had talked to him at Midwinter while the other trainees were away.
"Simon was my last intern before I retired from riding circuit. We always took an evening at the Bell whenever he came back from circuit." Rebecca said. "Now, you three head up to the library. I'll go find Jadus and Elcarth."
The three trainees went to the library. They found most of the older trainees gathered around tables at one end, quietly sharing their memories of Simon. Bredin sat beside Harrow; his mentor gave him a wan smile and patted him on the back.
Two sennights later, another bell rang through the Palace. The day had been snowy. Instead of going to visit their Companions after dinner, Bredin and his yearmates gathered in their common room to study. As they poured over their books, the Great Bell began to sound its powerful note. The trainees jumped and looked around.
"What's that?" Jan asked.
"It's the Great Bell." Jill said.
"I know that." Jan said. "I mean why is it being rung?"
All of the trainees' faces took on a distant look as they consulted with their Companions.
Tanis was quickest. "The Queen has gone into labor!" She said. The others received the same news from their Companions as she spoke.
The group fell into excited speculation about the new heir until one of the older trainees in the room irritably told them to shut up and get back to their studies.
The next morning, the trainees learned that Selenay had given birth to a daughter named Elspeth. Everyone thought the name a good one in view of the three Queens who had borne that name.
Bredin and his yearmates found it strange how their Companions became even more reluctant to talk about the Prince Consort now that Selenay had borne his daughter. "What's wrong with that?" Bredin demanded. "We now have a clear Heir to the throne." Herald Rebecca had just been going over some of the early dynastic struggles that had upheld King Valdemar's law saying that only a Herald could inherit the throne.
::Elspeth isn't the Heir until she is Chosen.:: Lacaral's mindvoice was testy. ::A lot can happen between now and then.::
Bredin was baffled by Lacaral's irritableness. "We've had childless Kings or Queens and got through it. We've now got a potential direct Heir, so we're better off than we were. I don't see what's wrong."
::This time is different. The situation is different.:: Lacaral snapped.
"Why?" Bredin persisted. "Because you and your horsey friends don't like her father?"
Lacaral bucked. ::I am not a horse! Shut up and ride.::
A moon after the birth of Princess Elspeth, Bredin was in Companions' stable just after luncheon. The day was one of those warm late winter days that gave the promise of spring to come.
The stable was busy. Four newly Chosen had arrived in the last sennight and they were there for their first lessons in riding. None of them were highborn or had ever ridden a horse before their Companions Chose them. The new trainees had no notion of how to tack up their Companions. Harrow was off with Alberich and the other advanced Hurlee players, practicing what the trainees referred to as 'War Hurlee.' With no one else available, the stablehands were pressed into helping the newbies learn the basics of grooming and tacking their bondmates.
As Bredin finished grooming Lacaral, an unpartnered Companion stallion wandered into the stable and stood near the tack room. The stallion whinnied for attention. Bredin had seen this before. The stallion was about to go out on search and wanted to be tacked up.
Keren was busy helping the stablehands. There was no one to tack up the Companion. Keren looked around and spotted Bredin. She caught Bredin's eye and pointed at the stallion. "Bredin. Please groom Tantris and tack him up."