Chapter 29
That evening at Auctoritas
Claudio reviewed his plans one last time. If worst came to worst, he was confident he could make it either to the portal or to his rooms without Mother’s interference. Then again, most people did not have their rooms firmly warded against family members they lived with.
Cammie had made a horrified face at him when she’d realised he considered it an ordinary sort of decision.
Orion, on the other hand, had consulted on it when Claudio had moved back.
Along with Isembard, of course. It would have been ridiculous not to consult one of Albion’s foremost experts, especially when he’d been eager to help.
It did, however, mean that choosing where to do this conversation was tricky.
The timing had been somewhat forced upon him.
He was also aware that other people did not schedule conversations with their mothers— or their fathers— with the precision of a well-run military campaign.
He, however, did. Claudio needed to tell Mother three things before tomorrow night.
Tonight was the only night she was free for an hour when he was. Ergo, tonight it was.
Her supper plans, at least, were with Mabyn.
He’d learned that much in advance. Claudio had, in fact, dropped a word to Cyrus about his choice in timing.
He trusted that the man would figure out what to say about it and at least have warning if Mother turned up in a snit. But now here it was, half-five.
He’d had just enough time to come home and wash up after the afternoon’s meeting and then worry about how this would go before Mother came home from her afternoon.
Tiberius was staying for supper at his apprenticeship, and had been warned to come in the private entrance to the stairs up to his rooms, just in case.
Claudio had also taken a memory potion because he was going to want to be able to recall this perfectly for a number of people at some point in the near future.
He could feel the bright sharpness, just as much as he could still taste the bite of the mint and rosemary.
Though he had a query about the vervain in this batch, actually, for both Matty and Hypatia.
Now he heard the door, the soft chime, and then she came in from the hall, setting her bag down on the drawing-room sofa.
“Claudio, darling. You had something specific?” As always, she was impeccably dressed, not too modish, but with an eye to the style of the season.
This dress was of a deep purple silk, by which he diagnosed she had been on some bit of Council business, but not making a point of it.
That would have been the more royal purple, brighter and with a bit more red to the shade.
The frock was, however, first quality woollen silk.
That meant it almost certainly had at least a handful of enchantments woven and sewn in.
She was also wearing the strand of pearls and matching pearl eardrops that he knew were charmed for smoothness of speech.
Claudio was wearing one of his usual working suits, the one that looked every inch a sombre pinstripe, but which provided no small amount of protective enchantment, up to and including sudden flame.
“Yes, Mother.” None of the minor pleasantries about how he thought it wouldn’t take long.
He stayed where he’d been standing, near the door that led to the stairs to his rooms or out onto the grounds, whichever seemed called for.
No sense in delaying now, it wouldn’t help anything.
He could hear Orion’s voice in one ear urging him on, and somehow Matty’s in the other, stalwart about rising to the occasion.
“Tomorrow evening, Gabe will be putting in my name for the Challenge. I thought you’d want to know now. ”
Her eyes narrowed, but of course she was far too controlled to let any of what she was feeling show. Claudio had more than a few guesses, of course. He was her son, which did actually give him years of observational data, in foul times and fairer ones.
More to the point, he was a thoroughly trained Penelope, and they had a number of tricks for this sort of thing.
It was often relevant in an investigation, of course.
And he’d had all his own experience growing up around others of Fox House, though admittedly Mother was near the top when it came to subtlety, control, and self-presentation. Credit where due.
The silence grew, and Claudio just waited, breathing through it.
He was using every skill he’d learned duelling, in his life before the war, and especially during the war.
Being a Penelope required, on average, somewhat less in the way of agonising patience.
Finally, she inclined her head. “Why now?”
Of course there was no word of praise or welcome or anything that might come anywhere near an expressed emotion. He filed it away for later dissection. “You’ve been wanting me to for years.”
She turned her right hand palm up. Not that she was calling enchantments to her fingertips, he knew the range of her skills well enough. “That isn’t an answer, and you know it. What aren’t you telling me?”
His mouth twitched. “That’s not how the game is played, Mother. You’re the one who taught me that.”
This time, her mouth became a perfectly straight line. “Claudio.”
It didn’t work. He didn’t actually know when it had stopped working.
Sometime between Camp 020 during the war and Gabe taking him on as an apprentice at one end, and ending up in Matty’s bedroom, certainly.
But he did not know if he could pin it down to less than a six-year span.
He hadn’t provoked her like this since at least 1938, bar telling her he was going to Europe in the aftermath of the war. That had been far less personal.
Now he just waited. She had taught him that. Both she and Father had. Most people couldn’t tolerate the silence, even the ones who used the trick themselves. Maybe especially them.
“Why now?” She did not, in fact, devolve so far as to cross her arms. She considered it vulgar in a woman of her age and breeding, and it also put odd creases in a frock. But her hands twitched, as if she actually wanted to. He wasn’t entirely sure she’d ever had that particular impulse before.
“Because now is when I’m choosing. If I don’t now, then never.
” It was a particular ultimatum, but he was confident in that.
Certainly never in her lifetime, and he did actually want her to live a long and pleasant life.
The fact that the two of them could not be in a room without some bit of social duelling didn’t mean he disliked her.
Just that it was far easier to deal with her with several countries between them, or at least several counties.
There was a tiny silence. “You have a reason for it.” It wasn’t a question.
He shrugged. “I have a reason for a number of things.” He could have listed the ones she’d accept.
That he had, in fact, paid attention in Thesan’s Time and Place classes, about the aligned moment for certain acts of magic, especially the greater ones.
That he’d learned as much in Incantation and in duelling about choosing his moment. He didn’t say that.
And of course, no one had explained the theory of the seats to her.
No one, not even Mabyn in the end, had been confident about how she’d take it.
They’d only told Mabyn and Cyrus after Paul’s successful challenge.
When it had been clear his gift with plants and growing things had been the necessary roots for her seat and the archetype of the Empress blessing every green thing she touched.
Claudio did not think, at this point, that Mother was going to be the sort of difficult that involved every protective charm he knew, and he relaxed minutely.
It would be the cold fury, then. He was used to that, enough.
Then, tossing the tidbit as a distraction, as one might toss a bit of deer to a prowling tiger, he went on.
“Alexander did not directly suggest it to me, but he did his part in putting the idea in my head. Should you want to give credit where it’s due. ”
“Pah.” She shook her head, just slightly, the small, sharp jerk that made her pearl earrings shift and shimmer for a moment in the light. “That isn’t an answer. Don’t I deserve that, given everything?”
It was perhaps exactly the reason she didn’t deserve it.
And besides, no other Challenger would have to deal with this from the Head of the Council before even putting their name in.
Mother couldn’t forbid him. He had his own allies.
All of this was a moderated roar of fury and intense disapproval, but that was all she could do.
She could be difficult, but she could not actually change anything on the field.
Claudio could. He would make his Challenge, there was no question about that now.
And, if he had his way, Claudio would change the field as well.
That was the fire of the Tower burning in him.
He could feel it now in a way he didn’t have names for.
Maybe he’d find a chance to talk to Alexander about it, and see if he’d come up with words.
Now, he just shrugged one shoulder. “We let the Lady decide, and the Challenge. Whatever form that takes.”
Something in that hit her oddly, the way her eyes widened. Then she nodded one more time. “Anything else?”
“As a matter of fact, yes. A few details, so you won’t be surprised.” He shifted his weight slightly so his knee wouldn’t cramp. “Gabe, as I said, is sponsoring me, though obviously I’ve discussed the matter with Gabe, Alexander, and Orion.”
“I would have thought you’d ask Orion. Or that he’d insist.” Mother’s mouth was pursed, as if she were tasting something bitter.
They’d gone back and forth about that, the last few weeks. In the end, they’d decided that Gabe was the better show. If Orion had sponsored him, there would have been an odd weight of seniority between them, in a way neither Claudio nor Orion wanted.
With Gabe, that was already there, he’d been Claudio’s apprentice master.
It was a natural fit. People would assume all the wrong things about what that meant, where Claudio’s loyalties were and would be.
They could learn better over time. “Gabe offered.” That was true, but it was absolutely not remotely the whole truth.
Mother could work the social dynamics out from first principles and get most of it. He didn’t need to help.
“He will keep doing that.” It had a particular exasperation to it. “Suggesting things. What was the other point you wanted to touch on?”
“Oh, I’m seeing someone. I suspect you won’t approve, but we have no current intention to make it particularly visible. You can trust my discretion that way.” Now her eyes did narrow again, considering, as if she were calculating everyone he was known to be near who might be a candidate.
Since she was almost certainly only considering the women, it would miss Matty out entirely. And while Mother’s networks of information were extensive, they did not particularly extend into Urania’s Apples, or for that matter, any of Trellech’s pubs. Mother was not made for pubs.
“And you will not tell me who.” Again, it was not a question, just a statement of reality.
He shook his head slightly. “Well.” She made no comment about it, neither for nor against, though admittedly leading with the fact she’d disapprove had made the former unlikely.
“I need to get on to change for supper, unless there’s something else. I’ll be late back tomorrow, I expect.”
“Plenty to tend to, of course. Have a good evening, Mother.” Claudio made a slight bow, the sort that meant his eyes did not leave her, then he disappeared out into the hallway, took a few steps to the stairs, and went up without any pause.
Once he stopped his heart racing, he would write to Matty and let him know it had been about what Claudio had expected.