Ch. 223 Before the Snow Reaches Us

Chapter 223: Before the Snow Reaches Us

The first answer to the charter came from a village two days east of Greykeep.

It was delivered by a woman carrying a basket of eggs.

Mary took the letter.

Beatrice took the eggs.

The woman looked between them.

“I was told to bring both.”

“You have,” Mary said. “Would you like tea?”

The woman nodded.

I arrived in time to hear Beatrice tell her that letters did not entitle people to breakfast, but traveling in the cold did.

The letter came from the keepers of a small shrine.

They had read the public copy of the Accord and wanted to know whether a person who followed a god outside the pantheon could still seek healing at Greykeep.

“Yes,” Evelyn said.

Mary picked up her pen.

“We should put that in the reply.”

“And on the public notice,” Liora added. “Someone here may be wondering the same thing.”

The messenger warmed her hands around her cup.

“One of our keepers thought the charter was a list of gods people were allowed to pray to.”

“That is a poor reading of it,” I said.

“It is,” Mary agreed. “And someone read it that way. We can make the next notice clearer.”

Aurelia came in after hearing about the letter.

The messenger stood quickly.

Aurelia asked her to sit.

“I haven’t come to ask for anything,” the woman said.

“You brought us a useful question.”

“That was from the keepers.”

“You carried it.”

Aurelia took the chair beside her.

“What do people at the shrine need to know?”

The woman thought.

“Whether you’ll be angry if they stay where they are.”

“No.”

“Whether someone sick must join your church before Liora sees them.”

“No.”

Liora, who had just entered, answered with Aurelia.

The messenger smiled.

“I can tell them that.”

We wrote the reply before she left.

Mary read it aloud to her.

Anyone could ask the chapel for care. They did not need to worship Aurelia, join the Accord, or live within Greykeep’s walls.

The chapel would tell them when it lacked room or supplies, and would help them find care elsewhere if it could.

“Is that accurate?” Mary asked Evelyn.

“Yes.”

“Even in winter?”

“We’ll need a better way to bring patients in,” Evelyn said. “But yes.”

Mary added a note to her work book.

Eliza, passing the door, saw her do it.

“That means you’ve volunteered me for a road meeting.”

“I haven’t chosen anyone yet.”

“That means you’re about to.”

The messenger left with a warm cloak tied around her shoulders.

It belonged to the chapel’s lending basket.

She promised to return it when she came back.

Liora told her there was no hurry.

After she had gone, Evelyn stayed at the table with the letter.

“You look worried,” I said.

“I’ve just promised care to people who may have a difficult road to travel.”

“We can work on the road.”

“We will.”

She folded the letter.

“I’m glad they asked.”

“So am I.”

“They shouldn’t have had to wonder whether they were welcome.”

The Castellan found me in the courtyard that afternoon.

He carried a board covered with drawings of the castle’s wards.

“I have finished the changes to the nursery branch,” he said.

“Will you show Evelyn?”

“She has seen them. She asked me to show you.”

That was rarely a sign the drawing would be simple.

We sat on a bench in the covered gallery.

He pointed to the lines carrying Evelyn’s and my power through the castle.

Then to a separate circuit around the children’s rooms.

“If your strength changes suddenly, this branch will remain supplied through Evelyn’s contribution and the castle’s stored reserve.”

“And if Evelyn is with me?”

“Her presence elsewhere does not remove what she has already placed in the ward.”

I studied the drawing.

“How long would the reserve last?”

“Long enough for her to return. Longer if we limit it to warmth and the protections already in place.”

“The children sometimes touch a working without knowing they’ve done it,” I said.

“I have allowed for their ordinary use of the room.”

“How do you know what counts as ordinary for them?”

The Castellan looked toward the nursery windows.

“I revise my observations often.”

“That sounds like a gentle way of saying Carol surprises you.”

“She does.”

“And Garrick?”

“He has begun to shelter objects he prefers other people not to move.”

I thought of the boat.

“Can the ward tell the difference?”

“At present, yes.”

“At present is not a phrase I like.”

“It is the accurate phrase.”

I handed back the board.

“I appreciate you saying it.”

We tested the nursery reserve while the twins were in the lower garden with Helena and Garrick Valewood.

Evelyn, the Castellan, and I stood outside their empty room.

I drew my usual contribution away from that branch.

Nothing dimmed.

The hearth remained warm.

Evelyn touched the edge of the working.

“The reserve is holding.”

I could feel it too.

The room stayed its own size.

The little cloth book lay open on the rug.

The boat sat beside Garrick’s bed.

I returned my contribution slowly.

The Castellan checked every line before he said, “That part is ready.”

In the afternoon, Eliza held the meeting Mary had not yet assigned to her.

She wanted to know what people should do if I crossed the threshold while they were at work.

“Continue working unless a signal tells you otherwise,” I said.

“That is the answer I expected,” she replied. “It is not enough.”

The room included Melody, Veyra, the Castellan, Eleanor, Aldren, and the watch captains.

Veyra had marked the approaches where sudden snow or wind might matter.

Eleanor had marked the unfinished well and the road bank.

Eliza tapped the map.

“If the weather changes, I can get the crews under shelter. I need to know who decides whether it is a storm or Uriah.”

“Veyra,” I said.

Veyra nodded.

“And if I cannot tell at once, the watch shelters people first.”

The beacons would use the existing weather warning.

Dorian showed the watch captains how his separate working would carry the signal between posts.

No new call would enter the castle’s wards.

No one would depend upon a god to make the signal by hand.

A guard could still light it with a torch.

“We tested that part,” Eliza said. “We will test it again tomorrow.”

Melody made a mark beside the roster.

“Who will stay with the children?”

“Helena and their grandfather,” Evelyn said. “We’ve asked them.”

“And if one of them needs to leave?”

“Mary will be nearby,” I said.

Mary looked up.

“I agreed to be nearby. I did not agree to become your answer to every question.”

“You’re right.”

“I will still help with the children.”

“I know.”

Aurelia waited until the room emptied before speaking to me.

“You’re making a time.”

“Yes.”

“Have you chosen it?”

“Not yet. I want the road work secure and the watch test finished.”

“Those are sensible conditions.”

I looked at her.

“There will always be another condition.”

“Probably.”

“I don’t want fear to make the choice for me. I don’t want impatience to make it either.”

Aurelia set her hand on the map.

“Then choose when the preparations you named are done. You can still change your mind on the day.”

“I won’t forget that.”

“I will remind you.”

She meant it.

We went to see the road before supper.

Eleanor showed us the new stonework beneath the bank.

Water ran through the channel without touching the road.

Aldren stood near the lantern post with muddy boots and a satisfied expression.

“Will it hold a frost?” I asked.

“It should,” he said.

Eleanor gave him a look.

“It will be checked after the first hard one.”

“That is what I meant.”

“It is now.”

Perrin leaned against the railing.

“I left room for the ground to move.”

“Did Eleanor approve?” I asked.

“She made me leave more.”

The road was not finished.

It would be safe enough to use while work continued.

I understood the distinction.

That evening, snow began beyond the ridge.

I felt it while helping Garrick Valewood put away his tools.

He had finished the new boat’s bow.

The sails remained loose so Helena could sew them.

“You keep looking north,” he said.

“I can feel the snow.”

“Is it coming here?”

“In a few days.”

“Will you bring it sooner?”

“No.”

He placed a small piece of sanded wood in my hand.

“Good. This needs another pass.”

“I thought you said it was finished.”

“The boat is. That’s a block for Carol.”

I looked at him.

“Does she know?”

“She will when I give it to her.”

At supper, Mary told us the watch test would take place the following morning.

Eleanor expected to finish checking the road by afternoon.

The Castellan had finished the nursery branch.

I listened to each report.

They were things I had said I needed to understand before choosing a day.

Evelyn touched my wrist beneath the table.

I turned toward her.

“After the watch test,” I said quietly.

She nodded.

“We can talk then.”

Across from us, Aurelia helped Carol untangle a blue ribbon from her cup.

No one announced anything.

It was a family supper.

I was grateful for that.

The next morning, Dorian’s signal crossed every watch post in the agreed order.

One guard missed the first call because he had stepped inside to warm his hands.

The second guard saw it and answered.

Eliza recorded both facts.

“Do we need to do it again?” I asked.

“We need to make certain two people are assigned where two people are required. The signal worked.”

She closed her book.

“The crews know where to go. The road is open. If you decide on a day, tell me before you tell the weather.”

“I can do that.”

Evelyn and I walked beneath the covered gallery afterward.

We had spoken of this decision so many times that I expected to have nothing left to say.

Instead, I told her I was frightened of hearing everything at once.

She told me she was frightened of reaching for me and finding that I had gone somewhere she could not follow.

“I don’t intend to leave,” I said.

“I know. I wanted you to know what I’m afraid of.”

I held her hand.

“When Aurelia changed, she learned to come back deliberately. I want us to decide how you’ll call me.”

“Your name.”

“That may reach me from very far away.”

“Then I’ll tell you something only I would know.”

I looked at her.

“You have several choices.”

“Yes,” she said. “I do.”

We chose three days from then.

Mary wrote it in the book she kept for the castle.

Eliza put it on the watch roster.

The Castellan marked the time for the wards.

Aurelia asked me once more whether it was mine to choose.

“Yes,” I told her.

I could feel the threshold without reaching for it.

The snow remained north of Greykeep.

For three days, we would prepare.

Then I would decide again, with Evelyn beside me, whether to step across.