Two trips for all these books. Through the town to home, then back through the town to here. Back through the town and home again. There aren't so many Traveler books as there are wizard ones. Through the town just one more time."
"You'll still have the stairs," Hennea pointed out dryly as she started back down the narrow hallway.
"Only one set. Easy." Jes bounced passed her and ran up the stairway.
When Lehr decided to go exploring with Jes, Seraph relented and let Rinnie go with them. There weren't so many books in the library that she and Hennea couldn't take care of them.
"We'll get more done," she said, after the others had left.
"They're not so bad," Hennea said.
"Just not used to being cooped up." Seraph tapped her finger lightly on the page of the book she'd been paging through. "I've seen this book before, I think." She closed her eyes to aid her memory. "It was in a different language, but I recognize the illustrations."
"In Isolde's library?"
"I don't know," Seraph said. "For the first ten winters after Jes was born, I worked my way through the library of every mermora that came to me."
Seraph opened her eyes and set aside the book. "I had Isolde's after my brother died," she said. "Once I settled at the farm with Tier, I think I had three more. By the time Jes was nine, I had twenty-five. I went through all twenty-five libraries before I admitted my father was right when he told me that the Elder Wizards did not include anything about the Orders in their writings."
"You didn't say anything about that when Brewydd had us go through Rongier's library on the way to Taela."
"Rongier the Librarian might have had books in his library that the wizards in my first twenty-five didn't," Seraph said. "Then, too, you and Brewydd know different languages than I do. We didn't find anything - but we might have."
Hennea stared off into space for a moment. "That was unusual, wasn't it? How many Travelers, whatever their Order, do you suppose can read in any language other than our own and Common Tongue? To the Elder Wizards those libraries were invaluable, but for a Raven they are mostly just a reminder of what Travelers once were, good only for invoking on ceremonial occasions."
"It sometimes seems to me that most of my life I've spent shaking my head, and saying, 'What are the chances?' " Seraph fought to imitate Hennea's calm and push away her anger. "My whole clan dies except for my brother and me - the very last of the descendants of Isolde the Silent. Then he is murdered, and I am rescued by the only Ordered solsenti I've ever heard of."
"There are probably more of them out there," Hennea murmured. "Who would look to see if a solsenti was Ordered?"
"Even the solsenti would have noticed a Raven when they tried to train him to be a wizard," Seraph said.
"Really?" Hennea tilted her head. "I'm not so sure of that. Ravens can use ritual, chants, and components for spells. We just don't need to unless we're learning something we've never seen done before and can't find the pattern of the magic any easier way. Affinities still apply. A mage whose affinity isn't metalwork won't be able to use magic to add virtue to a sword, whether he be Raven or just wizard. If a Raven thought he needed to use component and ritual, would he think to try spelling without it?"
"I see what you mean."
"What else has happened that is unusual?" Hennea turned back to the book she'd been looking at.
Seraph looked at her hands. I should just stop the conversation here, she thought, because the rest of it is almost too painful to bear.
"Tier and I had five children," she told her hands. "One was stillborn, and Mehalla, who died when she was three years old. Jes is Eagle. Lehr is Guardian. Rinnie is Cormorant. Tier is Owl. I am Raven. What Order do you think my Mehalla who died of lung sickness bore?" She looked up as she asked the question.
Hennea was staring at her. "Lark?"
Seraph nodded. "I don't know of any clans who had all six Orders, let alone a small family. I've never heard of any family who birthed only Ordered children. The Orders don't follow parentage. That's one of the few things we do know about the Order. So why is my whole family Ordered? And why do we all bear different