House of Winter

Chapter 8, Part 1

L U M I

The next time Empress Kiyo joined them at the dinner table, Lumi was ready with a host of questions and requests for her grandmother. She was sitting at the table, across from Tai and Sanna, who were sitting in silence. Sanna was staring into her bowl of soup without eating it.

But when Empress Kiyo walked into the dining hall, and Lumi, Tai and Sanna stood up to welcome her, all of Lumi's questions left her mind. Instead, she blurted out, "Grandmama, where is Azinni?"

Azinni was the Empress's fire tiger. Usually he was by her side at all times. He was a regal beast, with dark orange fur and dark eyes, and a tail that flicked back and forth to show his irritation.

Empress Kiyo lowered herself into her seat, propped her walking stick against the table, and snapped her fingers. A servant came to her, and she said, "I'll need a fresh pot of very strong black tea."

The servant sprung off towards the kitchens, and Kiyo finally looked up, just as Lumi, Tai and Sanna were sitting down again. Her gaze swept over Lumi without seeing her, and landed on Sanna.

"And you must be our new Norrlish girl."

Sanna held her gaze steady. She looked the part, with her brown hair twisted into an elaborate braid around her head and held with fine pins. Her dress was still Norrlish, but she had abandoned the usual furs and thick wool for a more lightweight style that suited the warmth of the Volcano Palace.

"Sanna doesn't speak the Fire tongue."

Lumi turned to see her aunt walking into the room, with her huge white tiger behind her. Her boots made a sharp sound on the floor as she walked, and then she sat down in the seat next to Lumi. "Empress Kiyo, I would like to formally present my daughter. She is Sanna van Dael, of Norrlund."

"And why is she sitting at the royal dinner table?" Empress Kiyo asked.

"I extended her an invitation, grandmother," Tai said.

Kiyo gave Tai a look, and then looked at Auntie V with an even more piercing stare. The general stared back in defiance. Finally, the servant returned with the pot of tea, and Kiyo pursed her lips and broke her stare to sip at her tea.

"Grandmother," Lumi said again. "Where is Azinni?"

Empress Kiyo didn't look up.

Lumi gritted her teeth. Her grandmother had always been like this. She was impossible to read, impossible to talk to. She treated everyone around her as small bugs that annoyed her. She had never cared for Lumi or Tai. They had never felt any love from their grandmother, only the cold stare of disapproval.

"Taikku, Lumiko," Kiyo said. "Since you will no longer continue your education at the school in Lombardia, I think it is best you join the new recruits of the army, to serve as you would have done."

Lumi's mouth opened in surprise.

It wasn't that long ago that she had been desperate to join the army, like her mother and aunt had at sixteen. She wanted to train with other fire starrlings her age. She wanted to be instructed the way fire starrlings had been for years.

But Lombardia had changed everything.

She no longer wanted to be a part of the Fire Army. She no longer wanted to be in service to a potential war. She wanted to stop the war. She had realised that she believed in peace, more than anything, and it was her true goal in life to bring it about, in any way she could. Peace and justice would prevail over hate and war.

"I can't train without Jinni," Lumi said instantly. "Please, Grandmama. You gave me Jinni. I've formed my bond with him. I have to go back to Lombardia and save him."

"Don't speak to me unless I have called upon you to speak, Lumiko," Empress Kiyo said coldly. "I am aware that your kinnling was injured. I am disappointed you didn't take care of him. You will train without a tiger, until a new cub is grown old enough for you to bond. Until then, you will make do without a kinntiger."

Lumi let out a startled cry. "I have a kinntiger," she said. "He needs me!"

"General Virani, ensure that my granddaughter learns manners in her army training," Empress Kiyo said.

Once upon a time, Lumi would have looked to her aunt with pleading eyes, and she was sure she would have seen a sympathetic expression in her aunt's face. But now, Lumi had lost trust in her aunt. Instead, she stared down at the table, feeling her lip trembling. She didn't want to cry.

When she did happen to glance up, she caught Sanna staring at her.

Lumi knew that Sanna didn't understand the Fire tongue, and yet she must have understood the tone of the empress's beration of Lumi. Her gaze seemed sympathetic. But Lumi looked away, resolutely. Sanna was no longer her friend.

"If it is your wish for the twins to be trained in the fire army, then they shall start tomorrow," Auntie V said. "And Sanna can join them. She may not be a fire starrling, but she will benefit from the drills as much as the twins will."

Sanna looked up at the sound of her name.

"She's making you join the army, too," Lumi murmured in Starg.

Instantly, Sanna's expression changed to a look of horror. Beside her, Tai was smirking.

"Welcome to the Fire Lands," Tai said coldly.

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