“Is it supposed to be doing that?” Ferdinand eyed the arch of the portal warily. It was not complete, yet. They still had a couple of weeks of work if everything went well, but it was beginning to draw in ambient magic, with little flickers and sparks.
Rathna grinned, running her hand through her hair to get the wisps out of her face. “It’s a good sign. Don’t touch it yet, though.” She stretched, feeling one of her shoulders pop. “I’ll want my working stones next. Let me warm my hands up a bit first.”
To be honest, she was very pleased with their progress. She’d done this now four times, and each time it got easier. There was a song to a portal, or rather a class of songs. She got better and faster at refining the one for a particular portal each time. This one had a slightly melancholy mode to it, not a minor. Dorian, maybe, rolling through harmonies that echoed in ways not common in modern music. And by modern, she meant the last five hundred years or so.
The stones were all in place, though. They were anchored sturdily, well into the ground beneath them. They didn’t need to be touching bedrock, not for what they were doing, and that was good, because there was a fair bit of boggy earth beneath them. Trees wouldn’t have done well, but they’d been able to find suitable stones from a ruined wall that were doing nicely. Nelis had even found a local mason to carve something for a keystone.
They’d placed that two days ago, with a mix of magic and scaffolding. The keystone had slotted into place perfectly, with a satisfying magical click. Ferdinand had looked at her, baffled. “You understand stone?”
She’d shrugged. She’d done more with it than most of the Portal Keepers, but they should all have the skills. “Carving it? I don’t have the precision I’d like with stone, but we’ll make sure you get time learning the basics. And the different woods, too.” Though, to be fair, they tended toward a couple of trees for portals. Oak, yew, ash, most commonly, though she knew portals from two dozen other species. Water was a different trick. But learning how to understand the local water was a skill he needed.
She was still standing there, considering, when Beth, one of the Guards, came across. “Rathna? You want your journal. There’s news. War, not personal.” That was good. Well, not good, but Rathna’s heart had stuttered at that. One of the Guards was always monitoring the journals for news of changes in the larger world that might affect them.
Rathna wheeled on her heel, going back to the hut for her journal, and flicking it open. She’d got access to the Guard news journal, which did regular updates, focusing on security implications. Because of Richard, she was quite sure. There was a new entry there, and she saw that the glowing notifiers that indicated messages from Alysoun and Gabe were both lit as well.
The Guard summary laid out that there were German attacks in progress on both Denmark and Norway, starting very early that morning. It looked like they might be successful, and quite quickly. Rathna wondered, suddenly, how many layers that had come through, and how that worked, for them to get the information so rapidly, it was only just past lunchtime.
Denmark, though. Denmark was not far away at all. Germany was between them, but if Germany were moving up north, would the Netherlands be far behind? They were running out of time, in a race that had always been short on it. Rathna made a prayer, for the safety of all who could find it, and repeated it two more times before she flipped first to Alysoun’s entry.
It was, as she’d known it would be, all analysis. A very early one, yet, of course. Alysoun would be working from the same material as the Guard. But she’d added a few other comments from the newspaper and radio, and from an unnamed contact closer to Whitehall. Alysoun didn’t think the Netherlands was under immediate threat, but she was exceedingly clear that Rathna should be alert to any sign of trouble coming closer.
Alysoun had never attempted to replace Rathna’s own mother, nor had she attempted to fill Morah Avigail’s seat. But there was something in the steady support that made a vast difference. Knowing that Alysoun was giving her all this attention for her safety. And on Rathna’s own account, not just because of Gabe and their children. She hadn’t ever expected to have a family like that, not in all her years between the age of eight and twenty-eight. And yet, here it was, and it still surprised and delighted her regularly.
She wrote a brief note back, to acknowledge the information. And then she added a question about whether there was any specific news of the form of the attacks, whether by land or sea or air. It could be all three, and knowing which might be a help. The land was flat enough here that they might well see any notable show of force near the German border. That was not terribly reassuring, especially with the portal still awakening.
Then she flipped to Gabe’s note, which said, “You’ve seen the news. Keep safe,” along with an annotation for a new warning enchantment, designed to trigger at a significant amount of metal, such as an automobile or tank. It could be placed a mile or two out, and alert them in the hut or the immediate area. Rathna shook her head. He must have only just come up with that one, or he’d have shared it sooner. But she took it right out to the Guards, to figure out how to implement it.
It meant sending Ferdinand on a quest for several dozen stones of similar origin that could be linked together. “Not halite, not any of the water-soluble ones. River stones would do, so long as they match.” She hoped he’d find something that worked quickly enough. She didn’t have enough suitable small stones on hand for this. They’d want to do rings, ideally, and to work within the range of the charm.
She peered at the notes again. Gabe had done something clever, even if she couldn’t figure out what right now. It would probably turn up in her head at three in the morning. No time for that now. She wrote the briefest of notes back - “Working on it. Love you.” - and went off to do her own preparation for that work.
No. She stopped and wrote one more note to all three of the children. “Still safe. Love you.” Because there was never a time when saying it wouldn’t be a help. It was a help to her, and a help to Avigail, in particular. Rowena and Anthony would hear the news at their schools, almost certainly. Rathna trusted that Thesan and Isembard, at least, would check on Rowena at Schola, too. Having friends in varied places was a balm, considering. Even if it was also something she’d never expected.
She rubbed her hands together, turning to pluck the case with her working stones out of her bag from where it was sitting by the sofa. She came back out. “Right. Ferdinand?” He wasn’t back yet, and she settled in to do one more scan of the portal stones, to find the places where they might be refined.
When he joined her again by the portal, she lowered her voice. The Guards would share the news around, but better to do this smaller and quieter for the moment. They could all talk through the more general implications over tea later. “They’ve passed along the news that Germany has invaded Denmark and Norway.”
His face went white, and he took half a step back. “Both? When?”
“Starting at four this morning.” Some of the early news suggested it had begun not with an attack but a meeting. Rathna felt that it was entirely uncivilised to have a meeting that early in the morning to launch an invasion. This was, perhaps, why she was not permitted anywhere near an army.
He took another step back, and Rathna caught his arm before he toppled over. She had been careful not to touch him more than the work required, because she wasn’t at all sure what he felt about that. Now, though, it would do no good to have him go over in the grass and mud. “Steady.”
“This feels more real.” He said it cautiously, as if he were feeling out the words.
Rathna frowned at that, not upset with him, though she quickly added. “Thinking. Go on?”
“I knew about the other places. The Anschluss, Czechoslovakia, Poland. But this is different, somehow.”
This was closer, for one thing. Rathna made sure Ferdinand was steady again and dropped her hand. “You’re on the Continent, this time. Not too far from where you have kin. Albion’s a different landmass, geologically speaking, as well as magically.” She hesitated. “Well. Except for this strip of the Netherlands and northern Germany. It’s possible you’re more sensitive to the land magic here.” Not Denmark, she knew that, and she didn’t remember at the moment how Berlin - or more importantly, his mother’s family home - fell. “Has anyone suggested you might be particularly attuned to the land magic that way?”
He blinked at her, unfocused. “No?”
Rathna would have liked to have spent ten minutes cursing Davis Fortnum out in Bengali, and she did not have the time. Near the first thing Morah Avigail had done with her was run her through a series of experiences to see what she sensed, then more formal testing to confirm it. Because Morah Avigail, very sensibly, wanted to work with the skills Rathna had, not force her into a shape that didn’t fit. She’d assumed from the notes in Ferdinand’s files that Davis had done the same, and no.
Not that they could do much about that now. For one thing, they did not have the leisure time for it, or the energy. For another, all of Ferdinand’s experiences would have been shaped by his first years of training. She took a breath. “All right. Did you feel anything early this morning?” They were at least in the same time zone. That was a start.
Ferdinand frowned. “Nothing obvious, Mistress Rathna.” Good. That was settling him down, giving him a structure. “But I woke up earlier than I meant to, and I don’t remember my dreams.”
“Do you, usually?” It wasn’t something that was generally relevant to their work, not like some specialities. But she’d lived with Gabe and his dreams more than long enough to know that even the ones that weren’t life-changingly prophetic mattered to his work.
“Often. But they’re usually prosaic. A story of some kind, a narrative, or scenes from one.” He looked up at her, blue eyes searching for some sort of reassurance.
“All right.” She could be calm and in control here. “All right.” That was repeating herself. She was not doing as well as she wanted to be. “First thing, we scan the portal again. You pay attention both to the readings I call out, and to whatever you feel. Tell me to stop if anything feels unusual. Then we’ll want to talk about why I wanted those stones, with the Guards and the others.”
Ferdinand bobbed his head. “May I ask, Mistress Rathna?”
Rathna smiled at that. “My husband sent me a love note, of sorts.” Ferdinand blushed, rather shockingly red, and she went on. “A method of warding, that should tell us if there’s anything large and metal coming our way. With a mile or two radius.”
Ferdinand let out a low whistle, the first real sign of informality and immediate unfiltered reaction she’d got from him. Then he flushed darker again. “Pardon, Mistress. Do forgive me.”
“I’d not have said it if I didn’t think you should know. Both that we have that as an option - we’ll see how to make it work - and because showing you how to be the kind of adult you want to be is also part of my work, the way I see it.” She brushed her hands off. “Come on, let’s to.”
Ferdinand nodded, and went over to stand where she indicated, while she got out the working stones she needed. The conversation had helped her settle, honestly. And if it meant Ferdinand unbent a little more, that was excellent. He needed more flexibility, really.