Page 34 of Seducing the Sorcerer
They began eating. The food was good, if not terribly hot.
Fenn swallowed a bite and cleared his throat. “You...er...get your work done today, then?”
Morgrim’s eyebrows rose. “I did. Thank you.”
“Go all right, did it? Must be right difficult, being court sorcerer.”
Morgrim blinked. “It...went all right. Yes.”
He sounded bemused. Maybe folk didn’t often ask him how his day had been.
“Done it for a while now, eh?” Fenn said. “Thirty years?”
“Indeed.”
“Long time, eh? Remember when you took it on. Only a lad, weren’t you? Fifteen or so? Old Wirrem Malovelent took sick and you stepped in. Talk of the town, it was, on Mandillo.”
“Yes, I was quite young. Thirteen, in fact, when I came to the tower. And what were you doing back then, Mr. Todd? Working as a groom?”
“That’s right. Nothing like as interesting as your job.” That was a white lie, of course, because nothing was more fascinating than horses. But it had sounded nice and that was what mattered. “Like it, then, do you?”
“Do I...like it?”
“Aye, the job. Court sorcerer.”
Morgrim looked, for a second, desperately sad. Almost lost, as if reminded of some terrible pain. But he recovered quickly.
“It’s an honour to serve the country,” he said smoothly.
That wasn’t the same as liking something. Same answer as Jasper had given too. Maybe they were both honoured, but neither one of them seemed very happy about it.
But Fenn nodded. “Oh, aye. Big honour. Huge.”
Morgrim was silent and Fenn wondered if that had been rude. He began to sweat. “I mean, not that you aren’t worthy of it. I mean, your name’s a watchword, ain’t it? Not just here. I mean, all over. Everyone’s heard of you.”
“Perhaps.” Morgrim’s tone was courteous, but there was an edge to it.
“Boring, aren’t I? Telling you things you already know. Ain’t really used to...to...let’s talk about something else, eh? This morning you said you got a library.”
Morgrim looked up from his food and said, with a note of real enthusiasm in his voice, “Yes, upstairs. You must come up after dinner.”
“Thanks. I’d like that. Used to read a lot once, you know. Wanted to improve myself. Remember the Citizens’ Guides? Citizens’ Guide to the Wool Trade, Citizens’ Guide to Modern Manners, Citizens’ Guide to Crystal Jigging. Read them all, I did.”
Morgrim gave him a wondering look. “I haven’t thought of those books in years.” He smiled, suddenly. A genuine smile that lit up his face. “I loved them. Remember the ‘conversations’? With the illustrations? The kindly teacher and the students?”
Fenn nodded, grinning, partly from the memory and partly with relief at having struck upon a topic that had gone down well. “Aye. Every ten pages. I’d go through and read them first and then start the whole book from the beginning.”
“Did you? How bold. It never occurred to me at the time that one could do that. I read them in order. The conversation was a summary and an extension of everything in the preceding chapter.”
“I know that. But I liked the students. The conversations were easy to follow. Marcus always missed something important, remember? And the teacher had to set him straight. And Aurelia always made a joke. And the teacher would quote a line of poetry. I learnt a lot of poetry that way.” Fenn felt relaxed enough to allow himself a swig of wine. He added, “Only I could never understand why they all wore their hats inside.”
Morgrim frowned, more in puzzlement than displeasure. “But they weren’t inside. That was the whole point. They were continuing the conversation outside the classroom. You could see the windows in the background. And if you looked closely there was a suggestion they were under a tree.”
“Aye, I saw that. But they do have trees in fancy houses. In big pots. So, I thought they were sitting under one, in a room, like.”
Fenn felt a little foolish on behalf of his younger self, who’d put two and two together and got six, but Morgrim didn’t laugh or scoff. In fact, he appeared to be considering the matter.
“I never thought of that,” Morgrim said, seriously. “But no. I think they were supposed to be outside. Hence the hats.”
