Chapter 33
“Right. Thank you for coming out here.” Alexander gestured them down the hall into Ytene’s ritual room. Geoffrey Carillon, whose ritual room it properly was, gestured with two fingers and went back down the hallway toward the library. This conversation was about the Council.
Claudio had no idea what Alexander might have already discussed with Geoffrey, or what he might later, but they could all lend a hand to preserve the illusion. Claudio ducked in first, with Orion and Gabe on his heels.
Alexander made a point of closing the doors firmly, then adding three different privacy charms. None of them were actually entirely necessary, given what Claudio could sense in the room, but he wasn’t certain how to factor in the fact that this was Geoffrey’s ritual room, and Geoffrey was both Lord here and an immensely talented ritualist. “All of you lot have salles and not proper ritual rooms. I don’t know what the younger generation is coming to. ”
Gabe snorted and moved to claim one of the wooden benches.
As with the most traditional ritual rooms, the windows could be entirely covered, but at the moment they let in the summer light.
“Some of us are duellists, and some of us have workrooms. And some of us give the workrooms to our wives. By which I mean Orion here.”
It meant Alexander twisted around to peer at Claudio over his rimless glasses. “You ought to give some thought to that. You’ll want space on your own. Don’t you have outbuildings?”
“Aren’t you getting a little ahead of yourself, Alexander?
” Claudio parried back. “For one, I don’t know what I need yet.
Second, if— don’t bother arguing, better men than you have tried— I am successful, I’ll figure out what’s needed then.
There are certainly plenty of spaces I can borrow as I figure it out.
Including the keep. The keep just means dealing with Mother, but that’s going to be true no matter what. ”
“Which better man?” Alexander asked, but he was visibly amused.
Orion had come around to lean against the wall, and Claudio made quick work of stripping out of his jacket and tucking it away before pulling out the sleeveless silk ritual robe appropriate for what they were planning to do.
Alexander had wanted to try a variety of pattern work, echoing some of the solstice dances.
Alexander waved a hand now. “No, we shall come back to that in due course. Let us begin at the beginning. Why is your mother in this particular flavour of snit, please? Are you partnering her for the solstice rites? If so, how are you planning on handling all of that? It is relevant to the ritual discussion, to whatever our varied plans are for the Midsummer Faire, and for your Challenge, so no ducking the topic.”
Claudio settled on the bench, feeling Orion’s presence comfortably behind him.
Just having him there made all of this so much easier.
Gabe was being rather unusually quiet, which Claudio was not yet sure how to interpret.
He thought it was about two-thirds that Gabe was having fun watching Alexander do the prodding, but that left at least a third unaccounted for.
Claudio took a breath before answering, but he was finding something of a joy in it.
He didn’t feel like he was being put on the spot or scolded.
Instead, it was more like rising to the challenge.
“Yes, I plan to partner her. She asked by journal late last night. Half-eleven, so after the meeting and whatever conversations she had at supper.” Claudio spread his hands. “I don’t know who that was with, however. She did not confide.”
“Ivor Harris.” Orion said it quietly, making Claudio crane around to peer at him. “I saw them going off together. I don’t think she realised I noticed.”
“Mother might, at some point, remember how attentive you are to detail. I won’t lay bets on it, though.
” Claudio considered that. Ivor was a decade younger than Mother, but they’d joined the Council the same year.
And Ivor was quiet, with a steady resilience that might have been some help in this case, actually, without being personally entangled in either Mother’s life or Claudio’s.
Then he added, again to Orion, “What do you think of Ivor? I don’t know that I’ve asked specifically. ”
“Your theory...” Orion gestured at Claudio and Gabe both.
“Says he’s the High Priestess, as we’re laying it out.
That seems a reasonable fit. Not in the mystic sense, but when it comes to seeing the whole picture, including those parts that aren’t visible.
I don’t really feel like I have the measure of him entirely.
And he’s a specialist in transformation, which is one of those magical arts I do not pretend to understand. ”
Gabe laughed at that. “No one does, even the ones who say they do. Present company excepted.” He waved a hand at Alexander. “No, I agree, steady man, gets his part done without fuss. We could use more of those.” He then focused on Claudio.
“You know just how well I get my part done. Sir.” Now Claudio was teasing. “I don’t promise a lack of fuss, however. As Alexander has kept hinting, that’s part of the hope here, isn’t it? That I might have an angle on some things that others won’t, and a willingness to keep going at it.”
Alexander chuckled. “That is the idea, yes. If you feel you can rise to the need, at any rate. I am glad, by the by, that you did not argue about it too extensively. All right. I am not worried about your preparations any more than I fussed about Gabe’s.
You have skills, you have resources for whatever you think you might need, you certainly know how to lay out a particular plan of attack.
Including the part where no plan ever survives contact with reality. ”
It made Claudio snort. Orion picked up, not missing a beat. “As I was saying to someone last Saturday, actually, there are reasons none of us are worried about Claudio’s skills. He’d just explained how he’d made Cassandra Thanet’s wards work for him without needing to be renewed every fortnight.”
Alexander let out a low whistle, and Claudio immediately said, “Glad to walk you through it and send on my notes. I’m almost done writing up a clean copy for Orion.”
“Not Isembard?” Alexander asked, before he came and settled on one of the spare benches, which suggested there was a little more conversation first. “Also, no ducking my other questions, please.”
“Thesan helped me with part of it, but he’s getting a fully annotated copy too.
As if I’d leave him out, I just hadn’t written up all the notes in something other than my shorthand.
Been busy.” Claudio shrugged. Then he considered how to go at the other two.
A moment later, Orion’s hand— the left— settled on his shoulder, and he took a breath.
“When I told Mother that Gabe would be putting my name in, I also mentioned that I was seeing someone she won’t approve of,” Claudio said it with carefully level tone.
He had the pleasure of watching Alexander deal with a piece of information he had not expected.
That was a rare point to win, since as far as anyone could tell, Alexander expected almost everything.
It stalled him enough that he tilted his head, peering at Claudio, then looking searchingly at Orion and Gabe. “Someone you both know?”
“Had supper Saturday. And you were at the Edgartons together on Friday, weren’t you?” Orion said, his voice absolutely purring now. He was certainly enjoying this bit of sparring just as much as he might have enjoyed a duel.
Gabe picked it up, of course. “Mama and Papa entirely approve. So do Gil and Magni. And Doyle.” That was a particular set of lists.
“Mason and Witt weren’t free, alas. They’d have enjoyed several parts of the conversation.
By which I mean I gather Claudio has been fielding several questions about topics that came up. ”
Alexander snorted. “All right. You’re all playing me. And doing so actually rather well. Tell, please. I can’t do anything without more specifics.”
Claudio had known that it would come to this.
And there were multiple reasons for it. Alexander was an ally.
Alexander had a vast range of information and magic at his disposal.
Claudio was not worried about any particular bigotry from him for at least four reasons that he could name.
But saying it out loud, to someone outside his closest circle sent a shiver through him.
“I believe you’ve come across Matthew Lawson professionally.
He mentioned he’d reviewed the enchantment applications you’d put in a month ago.
We’re quite clear we’re serious about each other, though still figuring out what that actually means given everything else.
Orion and Cammie and Hypatia put him through his paces properly. ”
Alexander’s face went still for a moment, then he tilted his head.
“Huh.” Just the one mystifying syllable.
“You’ll want to ask Geoffrey about some of his private collection when we’re done.
” He flicked his fingers. “There is a certain amount of relevance to the Challenge. You might not have the mode I use. But let us just say there’s rather a lot of theoretical and practical literature to consider.
Particularly when it comes not only to the socially unapproved relationships but specifically to men engaging with men that way. ”
Claudio laughed because this had come out perfectly for his purposes.
“I mentioned to Matty that I knew someone with a ritual library of interest. The trick was going to be in figuring out how to ask. He has allowed as how he might be interested in a mutual exploration, to go with an increasingly long list of things we wish to try. When we get time, which is rather the problem given our respective schedules and obligations.”