Chapter 5
B ryonia Park was a ten-minute walk from my house, or five if I hurried, and today I hurried. Briar and Wrenley were already waiting for me there, but I couldn't leave until Adora was occupied in her afternoon bath. She must've sensed that I had somewhere else to be because she was particularly slow, and I was left running to meet my friends.
The park was filled with towering trees, their branches stretching towards the sky, creating a canopy of leaves that filtered the warm summer sunlight. Manicured gravel trails wound through it, and I followed one down to the babbling brook.
Sitting among the wildflowers with a picnic blanket spread out were Briar and Wrenley. As soon as she saw me, Briar got to her feet and waved her hand wildly as if I wouldn't have noticed them. Wrenley lounged on xer back, shaded by a wide-brimmed sunhat, and xe was already munching grapes and cheese.
“There you are, Izzy!” Briar pulled me into her arms, hugging me tightly as if it had been years since we’d last seen each other.
It had been three weeks since the Balefire, and though my friends and I usually tried to get together once a week, summer was a busy season for muses. Briar had performed at a wedding on the beach, Wrenley did a prosperity ritual at a vineyard in the southern gardens, and I had conducted a christening for a noble’s new baby. And those were only some of our assignments over the last few days.
"Glad to see you finally escaped," Wrenley told me between bites. "But I couldn't wait for you to eat. I'm famished. They had the worst food spread at the vineyard yesterday. And the gardens were lush, so the vintners were simply being stingy."
“So good fortune will not rain down on them this summer?” I asked as I sat between Briar and Wrenley on the blanket.
“Not if I have my say,” Wrenley grumbled.
“Don’t joke about such things,” Briar chastised xer but she did it with a laugh. “We do what we do because it is needed, not for the spoils. Our compensation is merely a gift of gratitude on top of our duty.”
“We are muses, not saints,” Wrenley said, then quickly amended, “Well, maybe you and Izzy are, but I am certainly not.” Then xe motioned to the food. “Eat up, Izzy. The conduction starts soon.”
Ordinarily, it wouldn't have been an issue that I was late, but today, we had a schedule to keep. Wrenley's younger sister Sparrow was set to perform at the Bryonia Grand Amphitheater on the other side of the park, so Briar had suggested we have a picnic lunch together first.
“We have fifteen minutes, which is enough time to have a good chat,” Briar insisted, and her eyes had a glimmer to them as she settled in beside me for gossip. “Have you worked with Soren again?”
I picked at the sweetbreads so she wouldn’t notice the flutter of my heart at the mention of his name. “No, I haven’t had the occasion to. Why do you ask?”
“He seemed to think you were talented,” Briar replied coyly.
“That’s her polite way of saying that Soren could hardly take his eyes off you,” Wrenley said, and my cheeks suddenly blazed with heat.
“That’s not true!” I protested.
“He did seem taken with you. Because he admired your light and your skill, I’m sure,” Briar clarified. “He’s a rising enchanter, so he would know better than to romance any muses.”
Wrenley sneered. “As if that has stopped other enchanters.”
“It stops the good ones,” Briar asserted. “Muses and enchanters should never be romantically entangled. It ruins the sanctity and vulnerability of our roles. That’s why it is explicitly forbidden in the Regula.”
"It doesn't matter since I am not interested in him," I lied. "I haven't seen or spoken to him since the night of the Balefire, but if I do again, I can assure you it will only be on a professional level."
“You have always been the consummate professional,” Wrenley said, shaking xer head in disappointment.
"Enough about me," I said because talking about Soren made me uneasy. "What of you two? Any good news to report?"
“I got my invitation to perform at the Ashoralida before Queen Kriselle’s palace in the southern gardens,” Briar said.
“Me, too,” Wrenley added with a grin, and then they both looked to me.
“Congratulations!” I said as brightly as I could, and I did mean it. It was an impressive conduction, and they must both be excited about it.
Briar frowned sadly. “You haven’t gotten one?”
"No, it's fine." I forced a smile and swallowed my disappointment. I was genuinely happy for them, and I didn't want my pride and jealousy to get in the way of that. "I will have other assignments."
“Maybe you haven’t gotten your invitation yet,” Briar said hopefully. “They just went out.”
“Sorry,” Wrenley said. “If it makes you feel any better, Adora probably would’ve ruined it for you anyway.”
“Wrenley!” Briar gasped. “That’s a terrible thing to say!”
“What?” Wrenley asked. “Adora does ruin everything. I’m simply stating a fact.”