Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 37

A R I

The final day of the week was a day with no classes, and now, no expectations to tail the fire princess. Ari planned to spend as much of the day as possible with her sister. She also needed to use the opportunity to catch up on an ever-growing pile of homework that had been neglected while she carried out her ward duties.

In the morning, Ari waited outside the House of Water instead of the House of Fire. The house was built across the canal, almost like the building itself was a bridge. The canal flowed underneath, while the students slept above. On bright mornings like today, the reflection of the house on the water shone almost as bright as the house itself. A punting boat drifting past shattered the reflection, but then it shimmered back into focus.

The front entrance was marked by a stone fountain - a dragon with water spurting from its mouth. Ari sat on the edge of the fountain. It wasn't long before her sister emerged from the house with a few other water wards.

"Ari!" Bell cried out. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be... you know?" Bell reached Ari, and then grinned. "Look," she said. She waved her hand above the fountain, and the water rose to meet her palm. "I'm getting better."

"That's amazing, Bell."

"So you're free of the winter witch and the fire twins?" Bell asked, now that her friends were out of hearing range.

"Do you want to come to the library with me? I thought we could work on our homework together."

Bell raised her eyebrows. "Only you could say something so boring with such a straight face. We have a day off! I'm not spending it doing more homework. Come to the kitchens."

"The kitchens?"

Bell grinned wickedly. "If you want a hot breakfast, you need to eat in the kitchens, not the dining hall. Trust me, Ari, come on!"

Bell dragged Ari across the school to the Old Building, but instead of leading her upstairs and into the dining hall, Bell led Ari around to the side entrance on the ground floor, where the food deliveries arrived every morning. A few wards were outside, unpacking a carriage full of fruit.

Bell and Ari slipped past the wards and into the kitchens. Ari had been here before, but only ever after breakfast, to clean up. She'd never been here so early in the morning, when the kitchens were so full of activity.

There were fire wards working the stoves, frying meat, potatoes, eggs and vegetables, and toasting loaf after loaf of bread. There was a station of water wards, washing the fresh fruits and vegetables as they arrived from the delivery, and sending them down the line to a group of light wards who were chopping and dicing, knives glinting in the light. Spring wards were arranging prepared food into dishes, and winter wards were sending them upstairs through a pulley system. Everything was steam and fire, the clattering of bowls and and knives, and shouts of laughter and conversation.

Bell slipped with confidence through the tangle of wards, to the workspace where the spring wards were setting up big plates of toasted bread and warm pastries, to go up through the pulley system.

Bell took two pastries, and handed one to Ari. "If you eat upstairs, the food goes cold. I think it's something to do with the winter wards," Bell said with a grin, as she elbowed Ari. "Everything they touch turns to ice."

Ari rolled her eyes at her sister, but she had to admit, the fresh pastry was perfectly toasted, much warmer than it would have been if she'd eaten it upstairs, ten minutes later.

They watched the commotion for a while longer, trying not to get in anyone's way, and then eventually left through the delivery door again, to see the fruit cart leaving, and a new carriage arriving up the long drive.

Ari and Bell sat on a low wall dividing the courtyard from the drive, and watched the carriage arrive as they ate their second toasty warm pastry.

This carriage was driven by a Kaio man, with smooth black hair. He slipped down from the back of the donkey that pulled the cart, and pulled at the canvas covering, to reveal wooden crates of sweet potatoes and sacks of rice. Two of the wards from the kitchen came to meet him and accept his delivery. The wards heaved the rice sacks into the larder.

As the wards took away the delivery, Ari noticed a new student hastening down the external staircase towards the entrance to the kitchens. Ari thought it might have been another student coming to steal breakfast from the kitchens, but then she recognised the shining black hair and the sharp black coat that was not part of the Hilverton uniform.

Taikku Tsukasai, the fire prince, greeted the delivery driver with a nod. The delivery driver bowed deeply in return. From his coat, he retrieved a rolled piece of paper, tied with a ribbon. Tai said something, and then turned and was gone up the stairs before the wards had returned to collect the next two crates.

"That's the fire prince?" Bell murmured. "The one you've been watching?"

"I've been following the princess, not the prince. But did that seem suspicious to you?"

"It seemed like a letter," Bell said. "But we always get our mail delivered every morning by the Royal Post."

"So that was a letter he didn't want in the hands of Royal Post," Ari mused. She swallowed the last of her pasty. "I've followed the princess to every class, and everywhere she goes. But I can't be in two places at once. I haven't been following the prince. There's been many evenings when the princess stays locked up in House of Fire, but the prince goes out. But I've never followed him, because the only thing Katja cares about is if Lumiko is seeing Raphael."