Chapter 106: THE HOUSE

DIANA’S POV

Diana had two days to decide where Blackharrow would house the Valence officials who might recognize her as Diana.

The elderly treaty commissioner could not use the northern guest stair. Diana knew this before Mistress Hale finished explaining his knee injury.

She wrote:

EAST WING.

Mistress Hale looked at the floor plan.

"The eastern rooms are farther from the main Government Terrace chambers."

Diana pointed to the covered passage connecting the wing to the council level.

LESS STAIRS.

Mistress Hale nodded.

"Correct."

A junior household clerk moved the commissioner’s name card.

They stood inside the central household office with three floor plans spread across a long table.

Blackharrow considered diplomacy another form of logistics.

Diana approved.

Guest names had been written on movable cards so rooms could change without producing an entirely new document every time someone remembered that a diplomat limped, required a private clerk, snored loudly enough to create border disputes, or could not be placed beside a man he had insulted at a treaty banquet twelve years earlier.

Mistress Hale picked up the next card.

"Valence engineering representatives."

Diana pointed to the lower western guest rooms.

The clerk hesitated.

"Those are less formal."

Diana wrote:

CLOSE TO HOUSEHOLD WORKS.

"Yes, Your Grace."

AND FAR FROM DRAGON HEIGHTS.

The clerk moved the cards.

Valence engineers might eventually require controlled access to ward and repair offices. They did not need to wander past Dragon Host operations on the way to breakfast.

The next argument concerned meals.

The formal Government Terrace dining room could hold everyone, but Diana rejected it for daily use.

Mistress Hale asked why.

TOO FAR FROM THEIR WORK.

Most treaty delegates would spend the day near the council and diplomatic rooms. Moving thirty people across Government Terrace three times daily merely because the formal hall had better ceilings was foolish.

The smaller west dining hall in the guest complex could handle working meals. Formal dinners could remain formal.

The steward changed the plan.

Nobody praised Diana for knowing the building. They simply asked the next question.

Diana did not notice anything strange about that until nearly an hour had passed.

When she first entered Blackharrow, every corridor required explanation: which stair reached her rooms, which bell meant fire, which gate belonged to military traffic, why one passage stayed warm after sunset while another froze, and which doors her enormous key ring actually opened.

Now Mistress Hale asked which route would keep visiting Valence clerks away from infirmary movement, and Diana answered before looking at the map.

WEST COVERED PASSAGE UNTIL MIDDAY.

"Because of the treatment carts?"

Diana nodded.

The infirmary moved convalescent patients through the eastern section each morning when weather allowed.

Valence could use another corridor.

Blackharrow had become familiar without asking her permission.

The thought remained with Diana when the office door opened.

Tavia Morcant entered carrying a territorial road ledger under one arm and snow along the hem of her coat.

She took in the table.

"Apparently I have been kidnapped."

Mistress Hale continued moving guest cards.

"You were already in the Citadel."

"For the territorial road-access review."

"And therefore available."

"That is not the same thing."

"It is today."

Diana’s amusement must have shown because Tavia noticed.

"There. Someone appreciates my suffering."

Tavia had come to the Citadel for the road-access negotiations attached to the restitution settlement. Several routes under discussion crossed northern administrative lands she helped oversee, and Blackharrow wanted the territorial officials who actually managed those roads present before anyone promised access from a council table.

She planned to remain through the formal reception, then return north.

Mistress Hale had apparently decided that made her available for household work too.

She pushed a second map toward Tavia.

"The Winter Court planting."

Tavia looked offended.

"The plants did not become diplomatic because Southerners are coming."

"No. The people stepping on them might."

Reasonable.

Tavia stayed.

The rest of the first day disappeared into room lists, security routes, meal plans, staff assignments, and arguments over which officials actually required access to Government Terrace.

By the following afternoon, the household plan was ready for one final walk-through.

They inspected the guest route after lunch: Mistress Hale, Tavia, the Citadel steward, two guards, Diana, and a household clerk carrying enough paper to make movement difficult.

The eastern wing passed inspection. The older commissioner received the first-floor suite, two junior delegates took adjoining rooms, and support staff would sleep in the lower diplomatic house rather than crowd the Inner Keep.

At Government Terrace, one guard stopped.

"If all delegates use this door, we need a second inspection point."

Diana looked at the narrow passage.

Too many bodies.

USE SOUTH DOOR FOR STAFF.

The guard considered.

"Better."

They continued.

Their final stop was the Winter Court.

Diana slowed beneath the entrance arch.

The place no longer looked unfinished.

Some work remained. Blackharrow appeared constitutionally incapable of reaching a state where no repair could be found.

The main shelter roof was complete, though. Dark wood covered the stone benches, and the low-output heating stones beneath the protected wall grates kept the sheltered section from becoming another frozen court.

Frostbells grew beside the warmed wall, their pale blue flowers modest enough that Southern gardeners might have overlooked them. Wintermint and bitterleaf filled the useful beds.

The children’s area had collected several more wooden animals.

The one-winged dragon remained.

Diana had made sure of that.

A soldier’s mother sat near the infirmary door with a cup in both hands. Across the courtyard, a boy arranged wooden animals into a military formation that would have caused Captain Arven pain.

Tavia looked around.

"Useful place for one informal delegation reception."

Diana turned.

Her first impulse was to write NO.

Tavia noticed.

Mistress Hale did too.

Neither commented.

Diana looked around again.

Families had waited here. Children had played here. Diana had sat on those benches when nobody needed anything from her.

The Winter Court was the first place inside Blackharrow that existed partly because Diana had looked at a bad system and imagined something kinder.

Valence entering it felt different from Valence entering a guest hall.

Too close.

She wrote: THERE ARE OTHER ROOMS.

"Yes," Tavia said.

"The formal rooms are better for formal meetings."

Exactly.

"The Winter Court is better for people who spent four hours arguing about freight obligations and need somewhere that does not look like another council chamber."

Diana stared at her.

Tavia crossed to the nearest frostbell bed.

"It was built to be used."

The words settled.

Valence did not deserve the place merely because it had arrived, but foreigners entering it did not make the court any less Blackharrow’s.

The Winter Court had not been made as a private shrine. It existed because waiting people needed somewhere humane.

If Diana protected it from use because it felt personal, she would turn the first useful place she helped create into a monument to herself.

Unacceptable.

She wrote: ONLY INFORMAL.

Tavia nodded.

"No speeches."

NO IMPORTED FLOWERS.

"Obviously."

Mistress Hale said, "Valence may bring arrangements."

Diana and Tavia both looked at her.

The housekeeper sighed.

"I will tell them the court already has planting."

Good.

They inspected the private family room next.

The room remained unavailable to diplomacy. Diana did not hesitate.

It existed for bad news, confidential medical conversations, and waiting families.

A visiting minister could survive without it.

When they returned to the main court, Raigoro stood beneath the entrance arch with the senior steward.

Diana had not heard him arrive.

He took the route sheet from the household clerk.

"Dragon Heights separation?"

"West and south routes only, Your Grace."

"Infirmary?"

"Morning treatment traffic remains clear."

"Guest security?"

"Two controlled entrances."

He looked at Diana.

"The Winter Court?"

She nodded.

"Your decision?"

Diana wrote: INFORMAL RECEPTION ONLY.

Raigoro read it.

"All right."

He gave the route sheet back.

"The household arrangement is approved."

Irritation rose with embarrassing speed.

At least irritation was familiar.

Raigoro left with the steward.

Diana watched him go long enough to find Tavia watching her when she turned back.

Diana immediately raised the slate.

NO.

"I did not say anything."

Diana pointed the chalk at her.

Tavia looked entirely innocent.

Poorly.

Mistress Hale said, "The lower guest house."

Work resumed.

Tavia said nothing about Raigoro for the rest of the inspection.

Diana remained suspicious of the silence.

By evening, the guest plan was complete.

The clerk brought the clean version for Diana’s office mark.

She signed.

The Valence delegation would sleep in rooms she assigned, eat in halls she chose, walk routes she understood, and sit beneath a shelter she helped create.

When Diana first arrived in Blackharrow, she could not have found these rooms without help.

Now the Citadel was asking her how to receive the kingdom that had taught her she belonged nowhere.

A horn sounded below the Citadel.

Diana turned toward the nearest window.

One long formal note, followed by another from the outer gate.

The household clerk nearest the door stopped arranging papers, and Mistress Hale crossed to the window first.

Diana followed.

Far below, movement had appeared along the final mountain road.

Red and gold.

Valence standards.

The first carriage was already climbing toward the gate.