[Repost - originally posted 15th September]
Irvyn walked up the stone stairs to the main entrance of Duke?s Lodge. The night was misty, chilly and damp in the shadow of the mountain, and he fumbled his keys a bit with numb fingers .. he could have knocked and got Fitzpaine to open the door, but as usual these days he was tired and depressed and did not want fussing over. Fitzpaine was the only person who knew what was bothering Irvyn, and sometimes the silent but obvious sympathy got a bit much.
The heavy door swung open with a slight creak and a welcome rush of warmth from the fire in the hall. As he stepped forwards, he felt a crackle of paper under his right boot .. puzzled, he stooped to pick it up, and as he lifted it, smelt the familiar perfume. His heart leapt .. at last ... his other hand went automatically to the cloak pin which had remained dark and lifeless for weeks. He walked swiftly over to the fire, lit one of the lamps and eagerly unfolded the paper. He read the letter through several times, hearing the beloved voice in his mind, and feeling a great weight lifted off his shoulders. The warmth that spread through him was not just from the fire.
********
Irvyn slept soundly that night with the letter under his pillow. If there were dreams, he did not remember them, and woke in the morning feeling refreshed and considerably happier than he had been for a long time. As befitted his mood, the day was bright and sunny, with no trace of the damp and miserable mist of the day before. He kept the letter in his pocket, just to remind himself.
He made his customary Friday visit to the Trinsic Rose, where Kamar proudly showed off the cloak he had won at the darts. Raven was there, a little gloomy as usual, and Pierre deep in conversation with Gwyn. John had been trying to relax with a drink after helping with the fight against the void shadow; he thanked John for the report on the blackrock meeting and was overheard by a woman called Ravida, who seemed to be an expert on it. She gave him some books she had written on the subject ... he was grateful, but it brought back the memories, some of them painful, about the black dagger. But that also took his mind to Isidore who had helped bring him back from the madness.
So after that, he went back home again. It was time to get Isidore to Trinsic, start him off learning about the city. It was hard to repress his pride in his son. He was a bit shy still, but once he relaxed and got to know and rely on the guards and others sworn to the Duchy, he would do just fine. After introducing him to the guards at the gate, and Leisa the magistrate who happened to be there, he abandoned Isidore (not without a qualm) and went off to his office where he caught up on a few days? worth of the Morning Poste. An odd paragraph from a couple of days previously caught his eye: Chancellor Michael had gone missing from Spiritwood University.
A little later, he went out and found Isidore in the park with a few other people. Ikus came by and they all chatted for a while. Then someone else came to speak to Ikus, and Isidore suddenly remembered that he had a message for Irvyn. He handed him a note and message from Kaelyn. Irvyn looked at the piece of paper .. a torn piece of paper with Michael?s handwriting, but since when would Michael go tearing up his own notes? His uneasiness about the disappearance returned, especially when added to the appearance of a lot of blackrock which could well be connected ? Michael was a determined scholar with sometimes little thought for danger. Abruptly he made a decision to go to Spiritwood for a day or two. Isidore would do better without Irvyn hanging over him protectively, and Ikus was there to keep an eye on him anyway.
********
The next day he rose at dawn, and dressed himself in old plain clothes that no-one would remark on, the ones he?d used before to walk around freely without being noticed (except once in Skara, he thought with an inward smile). Reluctantly, he locked the letter away in the strongbox, along with the cloak pin. Best not to risk losing either. After giving Fitzpaine a few last minute instructions, he set off.
In spite of a faint nagging feeling in the back of his mind whenever the blackrock dagger popped into his mind ? almost as though someone or something were tugging at him from a long way off ? his spirits were high. As he stepped out of the gate to start the journey to Spiritwood, he even broke briefly into a merry whistle, and chuckled to himself at the guards? quickly hidden surprise.