Kingdom of Scourge and Shadow (The Sightstone Series #1)

Chapter Forty-Two: Judith

"We know so little of the Sightstones. Indeed, we barely understand how they work, let alone what their purpose is, or where they draw their power from. But I believe that they, in the same way as we witches, are conduits for the power that lies at the heart of our world, what our scholars call the Great Making, or Creation itself."

-from the Codices of Saint Caroline the Heretic

***

 It turned out that the only ship departing for Allerstad any time soon was the C.R.S. Determined, a sleek little clipper that, Judith soon learned, was mostly used as a blockade-runner. Within a few hours of Judith's conversation with her mother–her mother; how strange it still felt to think of General Stark that way–orders arrived for her, saying she and Inez's unit were to muster at the naval harbor in Kesseldam the next day, prepared to sail.

"I can't believe you're swanning off on some private mission," Elizabeth groused when Judith told her where she was going–minus, of course, the information about the Sightstone. General Stark had made it very clear that particular snippet was extremely classified. So, Judith had kept her mouth shut, even though it felt strange not to tell her unit something so big.

Nor had she told them that General Stark was her mother. She'd almost told Grace after she'd caught her sneaking in, still damp, from General Stark's office, wearing a borrowed uniform. But something had made her hesitate, so she'd fibbed and said she hadn't been feeling well and got in the rain on her way back.

She'd immediately felt guilty for lying, or at least bending the truth, and that guilt had continued to plague her for the rest of the day. Still, she couldn't quite bring herself to tell them about General Stark, even if she didn't have a good reason for it.

"I mean, we're still cadets," Elizabeth went on, sprawling on her bed. "I don't think we're supposed to be deployed yet."

"It's not like she's deploying deploying," Rani pointed out. She was mending a hole in a pair of her practice uniform trousers, and she didn't even look up from her work as she spoke. "She's just going to pick something up in Allerstad and bring it back. She's not going on active duty or anything."

Judith laughed. "It'll only take a few weeks," she said, busily folding spare uniforms to pack. "And look on the bright side. Apparently, Sergeant Burns is taking everyone on a wilderness survival exercise in the mountains up north."

The others all groaned.

"Are you sure we can't come with you?" Grace asked plaintively. "Sergeant Burns is going to destroy us."

Judith just grinned. "Sorry. Orders are orders, right?"

Grace wadded up the essay she was writing for Tactics and Strategy and lobbed it at Judith's head. Yeah, Judith definitely had that one coming.

"Don't you need that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "Sergeant Burns'll kick your ass if you don't hand it in on time."

Grace made a face. "I'll just start over. It wasn't going so well, anyway. Hey, you're top of the class in Tactics and Strategy. What do you know about Saint Elaine's last stand?"

Judith stiffened. Far more than you do. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she bit them back. She couldn't even bring herself to tell them her own secrets–not just that General Stark was her mother, but also about Saint Caroline, and the Codices, and her dreams. She definitely wasn't about to spill General Stark's secrets either.

"Not a lot," she lied instead. "Sorry."

"Damn," Grace muttered, flopping back onto her bed. "Well, it was worth a try."