Chapter 22: The Nursery Book

Elspeth's POV

Bastian opened the bedroom door himself.

He did not hide the babies.

I was propped on the pillows, gray with exhaustion.

The two girls lay in the crook of one arm and the boy in the other.

The Eldest stood in the doorway in his black cloak with the Registrar behind him.

Six nursery attendants waited on the landing in white gloves.

"Majesty," the Eldest said. "Madam."

"You may look," I said.

He came in three steps.

He was a very old man, and his face did not change.

He looked at the girls, and the girls looked at the ceiling.

He looked at the boy.

The boy opened his eyes.

The Eldest's long cold finger was an inch from his face, and he closed his tiny fist around it.

The Eldest went still.

"He has a good grip," I said.

"They all do," said the Eldest, in an odd voice. "They are very strong, at first."

"At first?"

"The old records say the children of a bond are born hale, and then become as their parents are."

"You've read the old records."

"I have read nothing." He did not look at me. "I was told as a boy that the nursery was a place of safety."

"Safe for whom?"

He drew his finger out of the baby's hand, gently.

"Majesty," he said. "I would like to hear the Archivist read the ledgers. Before the Court. I would like to hear the numbers."

Bastian stared at him.

"You have never asked before."

"No. I have not."

So we did it at dawn, in the great hall, with the whole Court standing.

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