Chapter five
Lancival“Returning to Lancival is like feeling your mother’s arms enfolding you.” So had said a long-dead sister, and despite the sentimentality of that, Delia admitted its truth. Other sisters had said similar sentiments. Delia likened the feeling of going back to Lancival to resting her head on her mother’s breast. This Delia regarded as sickly sentimentality — and, also, admitted of its truth. Her own mother had died when she was young, a tragedy she believed she had surmounted.
Lancival. Lancival of the red roofs and the ivy-clad walls. Lancival of the calmness and the peace, the singing and the quietness and the harsh banging of steel on steel and the panting exertions of girls in combat. Lancival of the Disciplines known only to women. Lancival of the Whip. Lancival of
