Page 46 of Stars May Burn

His words faded out as I continued to stare at the swamp; my chest became tight, and tears pricked my eyes. Kasten had given me this. I’d expected something pretty and grand. Something generic that would impress any wife. But he had given me something meaningful instead. Something I loved so desperately the moment I saw it. Something nobody else would have given me. I’d never received a gift like this before. It was like he really knew me—I just hadn’t realized it. And not just known me but accepted this part of me I’d always felt the need to keep hidden.

We had barely spoken, and he always seemed so distant. Yet this gift communicated more than words could. How had he known that this would be perfect for me?

I couldn’t help the tears streaming from my eyes and Tom’s grin dropped. “My lady?”

I quickly wiped my eyes with my handkerchief. “Oh Tom. It’s wonderful, thank you. I’m so grateful.”

His smile returned. “Well, it’s all yours, so we’ll follow your directions with whatever you wish to grow. Just give us some time to perfect the irrigation and acidity.”

I drew in a shaking breath, still reeling from Kasten’s thoughtfulness. “You’ve really managed to grow bigsweed? And honey orchids? I’ve only read about them in books.”

He nodded. “We can harvest one of the bigsweed now if you’d like, just to see, or we could wait for them to get bigger. I only planted the seeds five days ago, so they’re pretty tiny. Might be nice for them to spread a bit undisturbed. I can’t image you would get much powder from them yet.”

A jolt of sadness mingled with my excitement. If I’d had bigsweed root before the general and Callum had left, I could have made a much stronger tincture. Hopefully, there would be a next time. I would make sure I had some harvested, powdered, and prepared before their return. Who knew how many of the soldiers might arrive injured. Bigsweed root was a rare antiseptic, not to mention felixleaf. I’d heard of nothing better for killing infections, but nobody had invented a preservative for it yet.

I reached the first platform and stepped on it, raising my skirts so I could see where I trod. There were plants everywhere, many I didn’t recognize. Beatrice was studying me intently from behind. I expected her to comment on the oddness of my enthusiasm, but instead she said, “I will need to design you some better clothes, my lady. Ones with shorter divided skirts that you can wear with boots.”

I looked back at her and smiled. “That would be fantastic. Maybe I could wear some waterproof waders like the gardeners?”

Tom leaned back and laughed. “Wouldn’t that be a fine sight for the general to come back to!”

I joined in his laughter, feeling lighter and more hopeful than I had in weeks. It felt good to imagine the general’s return rather than dwell on his absence.

A faint new voice called from behind. “My lady? Lady Sophie?”

I turned to see a servant I didn’t recognize hurrying through the rock garden toward us. I stepped off the walkway to meet him partway, surprised since there had never been anything urgent in Kasomere for me to address previously. “My lady, we have an unexpected visitor.”

I smiled, still heady from my morning surprise. “Who?” It would be nice to meet somebody new in Kasten and Callum’s absence. I’d not yet had the chance to host.

“It’s your brother, Master George Halfield.”

My lightheartedness vanished in an instant.

KASTEN

The rain lashed down on our backs as we studied Whitehill under the cover of darkness, crouched behind the rim of the hill. Lord Hans had claimed he was too old to be crawling in the mud, so I passed the spyglass between Sir Cley and Sir Egbert as we each studied the walls and counted the enemy soldiers we saw on patrol, their flaming torches bobbing weakly. Callum sat farther behind us below the ridge, not wanting to muddy his clothes unless he had to. He was eating something and seemed to be enjoying it.

“This is suicide,” Sir Egbert murmured.

“Then we take down as many of them as we can with us,” I replied. “Every one we kill here, means one less to come inland and kill Fenland innocents. Kasomere may have a high wall, but Lord Hans’s villages have next to nothing.”

I saw my words take root as their movements became more resolute.

“Any sign that they’re guarding the old latrine shoots?” I asked Sir Cley, who was still focusing through the spyglass.

He shook his head. “Either they haven’t thought about them, or they don’t think anyone would be crazy enough to try to climb up them.”

“It might be our only advantage,” I said. “They’ve only been occupying Whitehill for a few days. They won’t have discovered all its secrets yet. And we’ve got the original architect’s plans.”

Sir Egbert looked skeptical. “Are you sure about this? If we climb up those chutes and hit a thick brick wall, we’ll be taking all this risk for nothing. In fact, we could all get killed.”

Callum cleared his throat. He was barely visible behind us in the rain-drenched-darkness. “Whitehill only got plumbing twenty years ago. Not a kryalcomy system, of course, like I helped install in Kasomere. But I will bet anything, they just plastered over the old chutes when they installed the new latrines.”

Sir Egbert looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “Does that include betting your life? You want to go up there first?”

I slipped the spyglass into my pack and crawled back below the ridge. “I’ll go and inspect the possibility. You stay here.”

Sir Cley slid to his feet. “I don’t think…” But I was already melting away into the darkness. Nobody would risk their life in my stead tonight. It was my fault they’d all been dragged here, and I was sick of losing my soldiers.

---