One morning, Bria awoke to a new sort of light filtering in through the doorway. Intrigued, she threw back the covers and slipped out into the main hall. A thin ribbon of light snaked down inside the wall from the ceiling to the floor.

‘Work has started to clear the pools’ said Rosa. She looked younger in the cleaner white light. ‘When they are all cleared, the entire wall will light up on bright sunny days.

Bria looked around at the hall, now able to absorb the magnitude of the place. ‘How far back does this place go? We’re less than halfway down it.’ She peered into the darkness.

‘Go not exploring.’ Rosa’s voice was sharper than usual ‘Much is still to be uncovered and I would not have more of you come to harm.’

Bria looked at her in surprise.

‘Child, it is not safe. Not every possible horror has been destroyed by the burning of that axe.’ Rosa’s voice was gentler. ‘I am not strong enough to rescue you if ill befalls you and the men may not enter here.’

Bria looked worried. ‘Could there be monsters down there.’ She peered into the darkness.

Rosa laughed. ‘No child. You will find monsters the other side of the door, none in here, but consider; The poison was brewed in here. You would not want to stumble across a barrel of it.’

Bria looked relieved at the news on monsters. ‘Good point, well made. I shan’t explore beyond this point without your sanction. I’m sure Adelyn and Nia will see sense, but we might need to tie Camryn up when she gets back to stop her gallivanting down there.’

‘Indeed child. Now wake your friends and go and eat. I believe the good Preceptor has arranged a lesson with the Lore Master for you this morning. Learn what you may and come back to share with me.’

Once Bria had woken the other two, Rosa shooed them out of the Lady’s hall and they hurried down to the kitchen to retrieve the morning meal.

Once breakfast was over, the Preceptor stood. ‘We cannot just train our bodies, we must also train our minds. The Lore Master was to start teaching you our lore this morning, but he is “indisposed”. Luckily the heralds were free and instead we will have a session on the laws, traditions and customs of the island so that you may pass judgement fairly when you sit in session around the islands.’

Sir Anders’ face fell. ‘Permission to go and shovel out the stables instead?’

The Preceptor chuckled. ‘No! If I grant that, there will be no knights here this morning and there will be no knights and no recruits in the second session. It is tedious but necessary and the stable hands would be out of a job.’

Vann put up his hand. ‘Why is the Lore Master indisposed.’

The Preceptor’s face twitched ever so slightly. ‘Apparently, he visited the king earlier today, most concerned that the Duchess of Farrenreed had started to refurbish the Queen’s tears. He is particularly worried about re-excavation of the cascade of pools that form the centrepiece and give the garden its name. He was the one that found two royal children drowned many years ago and he doesn’t want the same fate to befall anyone else’

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Vann looked puzzled. ‘That seems fair.’

The Preceptor’s face twitched again. ‘It seems that the king disregarded his advice and dismissed him when he tried to insist, along with a threat to banish him from the court and the islands should he impede the duchess in any way.’

Vann looked incensed ‘But people died. The gardens were dangerous. They were my family.’

The Preceptor focussed on Vann. ‘They were my family too and I knew them. The Duchess knows what she is doing and has given assurances that she will make sure the garden is safe. She is not slavishly following the old design. Ornamental railings have been commissioned and will be installed before the cascade is refilled.’

Bria raised her hand, but the Preceptor frowned at her. ‘There will be no more discussion on this subject. There will be a session on our lore the day after tomorrow. After the midday meal today, there will be no training for the rest of the afternoon. It is good to take a break and maintain contact with our families and friends.’ He paused and looked at them. ‘Nia, please retrieve your poleaxe for me. Jemryn, you and I will go and visit the armourer and then you are excused for the rest of the day.’

By the time the breakfast things had been cleared away, a herald had arrived. He was a tall silver-haired man and his blue and gold uniform stood out amongst the grey tunics of the recruits and the pink armour of the knights.

The lesson was every bit as boring as Sir Anders had predicted. The knights and recruits spent the entire lesson reciting lists of wergild prices and fines for every offence imaginable from severing a freeman’s toe to running over a duke’s hound with a cart. Eventually the palace clock chimed twelve and Sir Henrik jumped to his feet. ‘I would like to extend my thanks and that of my comrades for this morning’s session. It’s been a while and I didn’t remember quite the level of excitement that studying law could bring.’

The herald laughed. ‘I know it’s boring. It’s no better for me leading the sessions. Perhaps it would be more instructive to visit a law-court next week as observers.’

Sir Bjarne’s face was incredulous. ‘What’s changed? No herald ever has tried to make a session less boring.’ The recruits were nearly as stunned, but only because Sir Bjarne was the only knight who spoke less than Sir Lars. That was the most words any of them had heard him string together.

Sir Henrik, spotting a row brewing, intervened. ‘I will organise it and we shall discuss the judgments and the law behind each back here afterwards. Will you stay to eat?’

It was the herald’s turn to look incredulous. ‘Something has changed indeed. I would be happy to stay.’

The recruits knew what was expected and trooped off to the kitchen to fetch the midday meal while the knights turned the room from a classroom back to a refectory. The meal was quite a convivial affair, mostly because everyone was glad the law lesson was over and partly because the herald was actually a very good story-teller and spent the entire meal recounting the story of a woman who owned two inns. When she died, it was discovered that she had kept a husband in both of them and both men laid claim to the entire estate, He had been called in to settle the argument.

Once the food had been cleared away, the knights went and sat in the garden with the remains of the ale and their jacks. The recruits looked at each other with a ‘what do we do now?’ expression on their faces.

Vann glanced through the window into the garden and saw Sir Henrik and the Preceptor talking but covertly watching them. ‘This is a test.’ He whispered. ‘This is to make sure that we don’t fracture back into little groups. Let’s go down into the town and have a wander. We can visit our families this evening.’

Adeline looked at him. ‘It could get a bit … rough.’ She said timidly.

Nia stared at her. ‘Hark at you. Do you need some warmer socks? There are ten of us and most of the lads have been training for a while already. We can take staves from the barrel in the armoury.’ She stopped, aware that nine jaws had dropped open.

When Bria managed to get hers closed, she said ‘If that’s what the armour does to you, I want some now.’

Nia grinned evilly. ‘Just let me know when you plan to put it on so that I can watch. Come on, daylights a-wasting. Let’s go and see if there are acrobats in the Minstrels’ square.’