My own fault for trying to pose as a Trainee without thinking things through. The last she'd seen of Trey, he'd been firmly ensconced in front of the fire in the Royal Suite, deep in a history lesson, and not about to be shaken out of it by anything less important than dinner. He certainly isn't going anywhere outside today. I probably should have asked to borrow Trey's cloak instead. That might have been a bad miscalculation. So she'd dressed in gray and swiped a Trainee cloak from the spares, figuring in weather like this no one was going to look too hard and realize one of the Trainees-wasn't. No wonder Kat looked unfazed by the rain.Ībi wasn't a Herald Trainee, but Rolan, her mama's Companion, had offered to carry her on this errand because the weather was so bad, and she wasn't going to turn that down. Actually, now that Abi thought about it, Kat's cloak not only was probably quite waterproof, but she knew for a fact it had a woolen lining, something Abi's lacked. One advantage of being a Princess rather than just a regular Trainee was that Kat's uniforms had been custom-made for her, so maybe her cloak was a bit more waterproof than the one Abi had purloined from the storage room. Kat's expression was generally cheerful though, and the old Queen's had been sad and sober, at least in the painting. In fact, Abi would have said, if she'd been asked, that if the Palace portraits were accurate, she looked like an exact copy of her great-grandmother: medium brown hair the color of autumn leaves, dark eyes, oval face. Of all of the Royal siblings, she was the most even-tempered, and she didn't look like either of her parents. Then again, Kat didn't seem at all bothered by much anymore, now that she'd been Chosen. Kat didn't seem at all bothered by the rain. Princess Katiana, known as "Kat," or now, "Herald Trainee Kat," answered her with a wry smile. As one of her father's agents in and around the Court, she reckoned that for every one happy marriage there were a dozen that ranged from "distantly friendly" to "armed truce." While the King and Queen and Mama and Papa were definitely in happy marriages, with few exceptions, the rest of the courtiers were not exactly an advertisement for matrimony. "I am never getting pregnant." Personally, she was not a big fan of marriage right now either, but it didn't do to ever say that out loud. "And we're both going so we can buy the old girl out and won't have to go down into Haven again for it until after the baby's born."Ībi glanced over at her best friend, riding easily on her Companion, Dylia, and grimaced. "Because Mama is pregnant and feeling horrid, she has a craving for Ma Sendle's tart apple jelly, and the old lady won't give the Palace cook the recipe," Kat said agreeably. not because of the expensive mansions, but because of the simple fact that they were in there and not out here. She so envied the people in the expensive mansions they were riding past right now. It was not raining hard enough that Abi had even a prayer of persuading Kat to turn back, but it was raining hard enough to give Abi, at least, a miserable ride. A dismal gray sky poured down water that was just short of being ice. "Remind me again why we came out in this weather," Abi grumbled, as the cold rain found the seam in the hood of her waterproof gray cloak and dripped onto her neck. With the help of her mentors, she must hone her gift to uncover the hidden secrets in the depths of Valdemar. Her Gift may also grant her a distinct advantage as a spy-there won’t be a building in the entire kingdom of Valdemar with a secret room that she doesn’t know about. Through training with both of them, Abi discovers unique facets of her Gift, including a synesthetic connection to objects that allows her to “see” as well as feel the strains. Intrigued by the potential of her Gift, the Artificers seek to claim her as their own-but only the Healers can train her. The experience, though harrowing, uncovers her unique Gift-an ability to sense the physical strains in objects. Their daughter, Abidela, dreams of building on her parents' legacy by joining her father's network of spies, hoping to offset her seeming lack of a Gift.īut when Abi senses the imminent collapse of a bridge only moments before it happens, she saves countless lives, including that of her best friend, Princess Katiana. Mags, Herald Spy of Valdemar, and his wife, Amily, the King’s Own Herald, are happily married with three kids. In this second installment of the Family Spies series, set in the bestselling world of Valdemar, the children of Heralds Mags and Amily must follow in their parents' footsteps to protect the realm.
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