5.2

Dinner was not exactly any more tense then it had been.

But Jewel personally felt the weight of anticipation despite the comforting support of the stones on her coiled up belly.

It was honestly nothing like when the wizards first arrived. Only her family, the Bog Wizard and Kraok attended dinner these days.

The peculiar habit of Tsulogothulan blinking bites out of their meal barely was notable. Except for the continued perplexity of precisely what the rules were on what could and could not be snapped up and ‘eaten’ that way.

Sometimes it was apparently possible for the bog wizard to consume an entire bread roll in one blink. Other times something had to be carefully parceled into ‘bite’ sized bits significantly smaller.

Whole peas were hilarious to watch the bog wizard attempt to eat as they needed to blink each one individually for some reason.

The solution was apparently to mash them all into a pile and ‘eat’ that up all at once.

There was amiable talk of how the harvests were going. Jewel offered her own observations from her circuit of the manor.

“I saw everyone is making brilliant pace on the threshing, I believe we will be finished a full nine days earlier than last year!”

Alexander had once again managed to get something on his forehead despite always eating quite daintily. At least whenever Jewel was looking he did.

But there it was, a single crumb of bread stuck to his head by a fleck of sheep’s butter.

He was proudly speaking of his triumphs in mastering a particularly tricky maneuver in his lessons of the sword with Muriel.

“I finally was able to match Muriel in a parry Mother! And she only knocked me over four times in the spar!”

Tsulogothulan’s side project of drawing the spillage of water from various parts of the castle into ‘dug rivers’ seemed to be going well; it especially helped sop up the spillage from the kitchens, butchery and Jewel’s own bathroom.

“It all turned out to be quite simple really, A bog is after all to whence waters flow from streams and rain. So why not from kitchen spills, baths and blood? All drain to the marsh in time in its journey onward.”

And other such chatter. Mother reminded Father that a few of the homesteads had lost old hands, elders and in one case all adults of an age to act as guardians.

“Ill humors took them in the spring and they did not rise to it — their heir is only twelve winters old and barely mature enough to work a field with his siblings.”

Father mulled over that a bit and wiped at his beard.

“No cousins, uncles or relatives in the village?”

To which Mother shook her head sadly.

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“All relations, according to the headman Gierolt, live in other villages and have their own fields to attend to.”

Father mulled that over before nodding. Considering the matters of the Demesne and how best he could rule.

But no mention of the messenger bird that had arrived near noon.

Just chatter and eating and nothing to do with the thing that was slowly burning through Jewel’s coils with a raging curiosity.

Finally it all got to be too much as the supper dishes were cleared (Jewel, of course, left hers utterly spotless) she could not stand it anymore.

“Excuse me Father, what news came from the south?”

That got some curious looks from Kroak and Alexander. But Tsulogothulan and Mother simply joined Father in giving Jewel a look that made her feel like she had somehow performed some terrible trespass of hospitality.

It made her want to hunch back and splay out her wings, but Jewel resisted.

She met Father’s gaze with her own. Level with him for a few moments longer than was appropriate for either of them.

But he sighed and broke the contest right before Jewel lost her nerve. He looked to the now rapt attention of Alexander for a moment before turning to address the rest of the table.

“Our Liege, Countess Bathory, has called a mustering and accounting of all her vassals and their arms to attend in her Demesne Kaeketeh, so as to assure her of the might of Viznove and reaffirm the vows of her armies. This is to be done at the end of Threshing Turn, so it coincides with the settling of tithes and accounting of debts.”

Oh. Well, that was not too terrible. Father made journeys of this sort at least once a year, sometimes even twice. It was the way of being a vassal of the Countess to have to attend to her call.

“Ah I see thank you, Father. When will you be departing?”

He sighed heavily and looked between Jewel, Tsulogothulan and Kraok.

“We three and half the footmen in retinue will be departing seven days from now, alongside the anum’s tithe to Kaeketeh.”

Wait what?

Tsulogothulan blinked heavily and audibly. Like a stone dropped in a pond.

Apparently the wizard had not realized they would be included either.

And Jewel wanted to dismiss this as some kind of a joke since she was only going to be turning ten this winter! But father’s face left no possibility this was at all in jest or a mistake of phrasing.

“The Lady Bathory has called up all armaments of war to make a showing in her demesne as is her right as liege of Rochford. This includes all exceptional assets of war at my disposal.”

His eyes were hard when they met the bog wizard’s one.

And to the unspoken question, Tsulogothulan nodded silent assent.

Father’s eyes softened when they turned to Jewel and there was a heavy breath that passed his lips before he spoke much more softly.

“I thought we would have a few more years, daughter... but there is no denying that you are already a match for a novice GryphonLord. And even a half trained heir would suit the command. The Countess will know this and if I do not bring you it would be a disgrace and an insult.”

Jewel found herself nodding as well even as her head began to fill with a whirling chaos.

Seven days.

Jewel had seven days to prepare to travel farther than she ever had in her entire life.