House of Night

chapter 2, part 1

ARI

They watched Lumi's ship leave the harbour under ashy grey skies, and then they went inside to drink tea.

Now they were the four winter starrlings - Ari, Katja, Sanna, and Tom - in a sitting room where servants brought them biscuits on fine china decorated with prancing ponies, and stoked the crackling fires that kept the room warm while it started to snow outside.

A servant announced himself and then brought a letter on a silver tray.

Katja reached out her hand, but then the servant said, "If you'll excuse me, ma'am, it's for Prince Tomas of Lombardia."

Tom sighed, and as he did a gust of wind caught underneath the letter, so that it flew from the silver platter and into the air. The letter gave one fanciful loop above all of their heads, and then landed in Tom's outstretched hand.

"You're showing off," Katja said flatly. She was wearing black mourning clothes, but Sanna had done her hair today, so that it was braided with ribbons of gold running through the blonde.

"I need to practise my air magic. Because apparently that's what I am, now," Tom said. "An air starrling, and a prince."

"No need to sound so enthused," Sanna said.

Ari knew it had been Sanna's deepest wish to be royal, and now here was Tom, suddenly a prince and unhappy about it. Once, Sanna might have done anything to take his position. She might have married her own cousin, a war criminal and a murderer, if only to claim a throne.

"What's in the letter?" Ari asked. She was terrified of more news from Lombardia, but she was desperate for it, too. King Matthias Stone had claimed the Vastien islands as his new colony, a part of Lombardia, and he had named himself king of all of them. The war had ended, but Ari knew many of the Vastien people were not happy with their new ruler, and there were rebellions on some of the islands.

Tom ripped open the letter.

"Another from the king," he said, and he tossed it over to Ari without reading it properly.

Ari scooped it up from where it had landed on the sofa between her and Sanna. Sanna was reading a book, and ignoring her, as usual. Ari had been trying not to look at Sanna today.

She unfolded the letter and read it.

She'd read every letter that King Matthias had sent Tom, desperate for any news of Vastier, but they had only been increasingly demanding letters that he return to New Hamilton to "begin his royal duties". Tom had spent the last few weeks ignoring them all, and following Lumi around like a puppy. But now that Lumi was gone, Ari wondered if there was anything keeping Tom in Vulfholm. At some stage, he needed to go home and face his future.

Ari also needed to decide what she was doing with the rest of her life.

She could go back to the school, which had reopened, although Doctor Hart was no longer the chancellor, as she had apparently disappeared. Ari wanted to complete her education, but she felt that there were more pressing matters at hand.

She couldn't shake the feeling that it was her fault that Pythos Savvas was in prison, and she needed to get him out. She was adamantly opposed to the Lombardian occupation of Vastier. She knew that while she was here - with Queen Katja of Norrlund and Prince Tomas of Lombardia - she had some tiny thimble of power, that she could wield by nudging them in the direction of ensuring the Vastien lands were returned to Vastien hands.

But Ari was just a teenage girl. What hope did she have in stopping her nation being invaded, occupied, and colonised by Lombardia? What could she do, when even Tom felt as if the situation was hopeless?