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Quinnahunti ends, Quinnatorz elapses, the twins have their ninth birthday on the thirteenth of Quinnasweela, and Kiri has eventually seen bits of everything she will need to take or delegate charge of - the palace, key portions of Chialto, the Ardelay estate, and the various family business concerns (the national network of libraries being the primary thing, but the Ardelay family has been a major investor in museums as well, and Kiri has inherited partial concerns in things ranging from bakeries to stationery stores; eventually she will have to take a more active role in managing the finances, but they should be self-managing for the time being unless too many key people die.)
In Quinncoru, Kiri - with Aleko in tow this time in addition to Renny - makes a visit to the palace, and, since the king seems willing to ignore her and she doesn't really want his attention, and since there is not a full complement of primes around, has nothing much to do with herself but make a beeline for the prince. (Aleko goes exploring by himself.)
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calescent
Isten says something quietly, which his brother amplifies and/or translates as, "Can we be next to each other?"
calescent
"Sure, easy." There is a back door to the middle wing. Kiri identifies for them her own room, Aleko's next to it, Jayce's across the hall, and two adjacent rooms next to Jayce's that they can take if they want. "I think this might be one of the room pairs with doors between them, is that good?" she asks.
Isten nods. The elder prince says, "Yeah."
calescent
"Okay, those can be yours then. I'll tell the head servant at dinner. I'm afraid the cook here isn't as good as the palace one," she adds. "But he's all right and," she adds specifically to the elder prince, "you can help if you want to cook."
"Ooh," he says. "Yeah, I think I will."
calescent
"And I can show you the library. Oh, and the fire room. There is an entire room up on the top floor that's fireproof, I practice in it."
"There's a fire room?" says the elder prince, fascinated. "Yeah, I wanna see!"
Isten tugs on his hand. The elder prince leans down to hear him murmur something, and then says, "Does anybody wanna read to Isten? He likes that."
Isten tugs on his hand. The elder prince leans down to hear him murmur something, and then says, "Does anybody wanna read to Isten? He likes that."
spinnaker
"Sure!" says Jayce. "I have a good book of folk tales I'm reading and I can read them to him."
Isten smiles at Jayce. It is less small than most of his previous smiles.
spinnaker
"I have a window seat," adds Jayce. "We can sit in it, come on."
Isten lets go of his brother's hand and follows Jayce.
spinnaker
And Jayce sits him down on the window seat, and climbs in and sits so Isten can see the illustrations in the book, and picks up with the next story.
liakoura
Aleko, meanwhile, hugs Kiri and then disappears into his room: "Gonna draw for a while."
calescent
"So, library," says Kiri, clapping her hands and heading down the hall. "Unless you want to go to the fire room first."
(Isten is looking at more than the illustrations, but he's unlikely to admit as much.)
"Don't care," the prince says serenely, tagging along. Now that he does not have a little brother attached, he walks inside Kiri's range.
"Don't care," the prince says serenely, tagging along. Now that he does not have a little brother attached, he walks inside Kiri's range.
calescent
"Library's closer."
And so it is.
It's kind of a big library. It has a basement section, although some of the stacks are in a room about the size of the wing's kierten, on the ground floor.
And so it is.
It's kind of a big library. It has a basement section, although some of the stacks are in a room about the size of the wing's kierten, on the ground floor.
"Oooooooooooh," says the prince. He likes this library. This library looks like fun.
calescent
"You can read anything in it you want, but take one of those strips of carbon paper," she says, gesturing at a stack of such strips on a table near the entrance, "and write down what section you got it in, nice and hard so it comes out on both sides, and tuck one in the front of the book and one in the stack where you got it. Then even if you don't put it back yourself, it'll be easy to find the place it came from."
"Huh. Okay," he says. He wonders if most libraries do that sort of thing; he hasn't been to that many.
calescent
"Our publicly accessible libraries don't. They have permanent marks about where they're supposed to be inside of the books," says Kiri. "Just this one does, because it doesn't have a full time librarian, only a couple of the house servants who know how to navigate it, and me and cousins."
"Makes sense," he says. He is still gazing admiringly at all the books.
calescent
"We can find a good introductory book about Soechin," Kiri suggests, and she goes carefully down the stairs towards the foreign language section.
The prince traipses after her, looking at all the shelves they pass along the way.
calescent
There are a great variety. There are books about knitting and about tigers and about wars and about math and about mountains and about music and about pastry.
And then there are books about Soechin, which can be distinguished by the preponderance of Soechin characters on their spines. Kiri sets about looking for something for beginners.
And then there are books about Soechin, which can be distinguished by the preponderance of Soechin characters on their spines. Kiri sets about looking for something for beginners.
The prince looks, too. (Although he is still half thinking about that book on pastry and how soon he would like to come back and borrow it.)