by Alex Linwood
Lady Harper turned to address the advisor. “We need some rooms to prepare for the tests.”
The advisor nodded. “You will be given a spare ballroom and the three adjoining chambers. Is that sufficient?”
“It is. Thank you.” Lady Harper turned to Portia and gave a small bow. “We can begin as soon as the rooms are ready.”
Hilda stepped forward, blocking Lady Harper from leaving. “We would like to supervise these tests. We are responsible for our student’s well-being.”
Lady Harper looked coldly at Hilda. “That will not be possible. It might affect the tests.”
Queen Lorica tilted her head at that response. “Are these tests dangerous?”
“Only if she fails,” Lady Harper responded. “But there is no other way.”
Her words did not reassure Portia.
Once again, the sound of writing was the only noise in the throne room.
“Then we will proceed,” Queen Lorica said, breaking the quiet.
The queen dismissed the elves with a flick of her fingers. The advisor that had spoken led the elves towards a set of side doors that two guards held opened, several of them peering curiously at Portia as they passed. She felt her cheeks flame at their attention.
Once the advisor and elves had exited, Hilda turned to Portia, a soft look in her eye. “Are you ready for this?”
Portia swallowed nervously. She spoke quietly, not wanting the queen to hear. “Would it be possible to do these tests tomorrow? I’m not avoiding them. I’m just so very tired. It’s been a long day.”
Queen Lorica yawned. “Yes, yes, tomorrow. That is soon enough.”
Portia jumped nervously at having been heard. King Consort Aldis leaned over to whisper in the ear of a different advisor.
Portia realized she was staring at the king and turned away to find Aelric gazing at her intently. He put his hand on her arm and leaned in intently. “You can do this. But please, whatever you do, try not to kill them.”
After a quick inhale and a wave of shock that passed over her scalp, Portia realized he was joking. He gave her a small wink. She exhaled with a little snort and immediately felt better.
She was so distracted thinking about the tests to take place on the following day that she barely saw any of the city on the carriage ride home. Her eyes didn’t register the variety of shops, nor did she enjoy the speed of the rare ride in the royal carriage, something that would have normally thrilled her. The elf had mentioned that if she passed, she would have to go to the Elven kingdom of Rocabarra to learn the magic. She had heard so little about the kingdom, only that there was an uneasy peace between elves and humans. What would their cities be like? Would she be welcome? Were there other humans there? She had never seen an elf in Valencia, and only in the festival while in Coverack, even after living there for a year. It was an unusual occurrence.
When she arrived back in her room, she had barely enough energy to change into her nightdress, her head bobbing in exhaustion. Ella was already asleep in her bunk. Luckily, she slept deeply, and Portia did not have to worry too much about waking her. Even so, she kept the lights low and changed quickly.
She’d just pulled back the covers to slip into bed when a loud knock sounded at the door. Portia rushed to the door and pulled it open, ready to scold whoever was disturbing them so late. She recognized the palace guard just in time to stop herself and bit her lip in concern at his presence.
He gave her a small bow and then spoke softly, having seen the sleeping form in the bunk behind Portia. “Sorry once again to disturb you, Miss, but I’ve been instructed to tell you that you are expected at the palace at noon tomorrow. A carriage will await you in front of the main building on the Academy grounds.”
“Very well, thank you,” Portia said.
The guard gave a small bow again and turned and exited in the direction of the portal back to the Academy. She wondered if he knew the true location of the Pyromancy house or if that was kept secret from even the palace guards to protect the students. Perhaps he did know the location of the house, but he would not ride a royal mount to it and risk drawing attention and giving away its value to the palace.
The next morning, Portia woke to the sounds of Ella getting ready. She had hoped to sleep in, but her body’s adaption to her normal school schedule and the incessant chatter of her roommate talking to herself would not allow that. She sat up, her head groggy with exhaustion.
Ella noticed Portia stirring. “Good morning, roomie. It promises to be a beautiful sunny day.”
Portia grunted under her breath and pulled back the covers to rise. She adored having Ella as a roommate except for the early mornings when Ella bubbled and shone with energy while Portia slogged away until her mind woke up more fully in a few hours. She was grateful the tests with the elves were not planned for 8 a.m.
Ella went off to find breakfast. Portia opened her personal trunk and pulled out her old bag of clothing and effects, as well as Elyas’s small bag. She held up her old, worn breeches and doublet—clothes she had retained from her days as an orphan on the street. They were the attire of a boy and not a proper young lady of the Academy, but she knew she would feel more comfortable in them. There was something reassuring about having breeches and not a kirtle.
She pulled on her clothes, grateful to find they still fit, mostly. The breeches were just a hair short but the doublet and tunic, oversized to begin with, fit perfectly. She pulled on an old jacket over it all. She did not want to worry about ruining any of her current finery since she had no way to replace them. Thieving was forbidden to her as a student and she had no other way to raise coin. She refused to waste her remaining silver and copper replacing ruined clothes.
Opening Elyas’s faded yellow leather pouch, she pulled out a small locket with engravings of Elyas and his daughter, Chenna. She knew he had treated her just as if she had been his daughter; sometimes she looked at the engraving and imagined her face on it as well. He had been planning on getting one done for her to keep but had never gotten around to it before his untimely death. As it was, holding the image of his face warmed her heart and gave her strength to face the uncomfortable tasks she had ahead of her that day. She knew he would not want her to give up nor to despair in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges. He had believed in her, something she valued immensely. She held the locket tightly and imagined him giving her words of encouragement.
The breakfast bell rang. Portia had to hurry if she wanted to eat. She tucked the engraving safely back into Elyas’s pouch and added the locket Liam had given her to the bag. Then she shoved the two bags back into her trunk and shut it.
“What are you wearing!” Ella asked, her voice rising in dismay as Portia entered the breakfast hall. She looked at Portia wide-eyed. Her voice had been loud enough to draw attention from all those supping that morning, and they turned curious eyes to stare at Portia. A few gasps and a small giggle reached Portia’s ears, which were turning red from embarrassment. Her clothing would not have been that unusual in Valencia, and now she felt keenly just how far away she was from the city she had grown up in.
Ella continued to stare until Mia, who was sitting next to her, gave her a sharp elbow while she was studiously eating her oatmeal. Ella didn’t take the hint, continuing to stare until Mia elbowed her again, much harder this time, whereupon Ella rubbed her arm and transferred her irritated look to Mia. Portia scooped some eggs onto a plate and made a mental note to do Mia a favor, any favor, as soon as possible.
She brought her tray of food over to join them. Ella scanned Portia’s outfit up and down, scandalized. She leaned in and whispered loudly to Portia, “What are you wearing?”
Portia looked down at her outfit casually and then put her attention to buttering her toast. “It looks like clothes,” she said, taking a large bite.
“Yes, but what clothes? Those are not the clothes of an Academy student! You look… You look… like a page. And a poorly dressed one at that.” Ella’s lip c
urled in distaste.
At this, both Mia and Portia burst out laughing.
Ella turned to Mia and gave her a scathing look. “I don’t understand why you’re laughing. You’re a noble. No one in your house would dress like this. You would never dress like this.”
Mia turned to Ella and spoke quietly. “No, I would never have been allowed to dress like that. I can give you twenty different rules I had to follow about what to wear, when and how, and all for reasons that made little to no sense to me. I’ve had enough of such rules. It is one of the reasons I am so grateful to be here at the Academy and away from that dreadful, hidebound routine.” Mia’s eyes flicked to Portia and then back to Ella. “Perhaps the important question is why has Portia changed her style of clothing so dramatically.”
Ella took this in and then turned to stare at Portia again. Portia faced their questioning eyes, wondering if one would actually speak the words. Ella gave a deep sigh and gave in. “Okay, why are you wearing those clothes?”
“I have an important test today. I want to feel comfortable,” she said.
“We have a test today?” Ella said, suddenly concerned. She had forgotten about more than one test with her focus on social life at the Academy. Portia knew Ella could not risk forgetting about another test and face the possibility of being booted out and condemned to her old life in the boring village she had grown up in. Ella said it was boring enough to bore boredom, whatever that meant.
Portia realized she might have made a mistake by telling them about a special test. Neither one knew about her special magical abilities or that the king and queen had deemed her a Jack of Magic. She was one of three people in the known history of humans to be able to do all types of magic, only limited so far by what she had been shown as possible. Certainly no other human would be tested for an ability to do elf magic. Beyond the palace, she only knew there were a few in the Academy that knew of her existence, including Professor Hilda and Professor Aelric. Mia and Ella were definitely not supposed to know.
“Not a class test,” Portia said quickly, shoving the rest of the bread in her mouth and scooping in the eggs to follow. She needed to finish her breakfast and get out of there before she said something she shouldn’t.
Ella was not going to let it go as easily as that. “Well, what test then?”
“Some ancient sword technique Professor Aelric had found in the archives. You know how much I love history and swords.”
Ella immediately lost interest. She did not understand Portia’s obsession with history, much less any sort of weapons. “Oh, thank the mages. I cannot be unprepared for a test again,” she said, stacking her dishes on her tray and rising to leave. The end breakfast bell would soon sound, and they all had to go to class.
Mia looked at Portia skeptically while stacking her own plates but did not say anything. Portia looked down, avoiding her scrutiny and hoping Mia would just go and not linger to inquire further. As quiet as Mia was most of the time, Portia feared that she knew and saw much more than she let on.
She breathed a small sigh of relief as Mia rose and followed Ella to the tray rack. Portia pretended to be drinking the rest of her broth, trying to kill some time so she wouldn’t have to walk to class with the other two girls. It was bad enough she had the first period with them in Professor Aelric’s history class. But at least there would be little opportunity for further questioning from them while Aelric lectured. Hopefully, neither would ask Professor Aelric himself about Portia’s special test.
Portia sighed. Perhaps she should have asked for permission to skip the entire day’s lectures. Instead, she felt like she had to go to her morning classes and then, after a busy morning, go face whatever the elves had waiting for her. Sleeping would have been much better preparation.
Chapter 4
The carriage had been waiting exactly where the guard said it would be. Portia went to the Hall of Portraits. The royal advisor who had led the elves away the previous night was already there and waiting for her. He brought her to a large ballroom which was guarded by two burly guards who stared straight forward. The advisor motioned for her to enter the door the guards held open, but he didn’t follow. Instead, the doors were shut with a resounding thud, leaving Portia in the cavernous ballroom.
There was a row of elves at the far side of the room sitting behind a long table. There were three portal doors set up next to the table. They were oval and appeared to hang in the air, unlike the doors in the courtyard for the different houses, which were square and normal except that they weren’t attached to anything visible other than their frames.
The elves sat quietly staring at her. She walked towards them, a little unnerved by their silence. Uncertain what to do next, she stopped about twenty feet away.
Lady Harper sat at the end of the table, dressed in all white leather. Portia thought the leather pieces almost looked like armor. She suddenly was glad to not be meeting Lady Harper alone in a dark alley. She rose and came around the table to Portia. “Welcome. Everything is prepared. Are you ready?”
Portia could only nod.
“We need you to answer verbally before we can continue,” Lady Harper said.
“Yes. I am ready.”
“Excellent. Your professors tell us you are familiar with portals. We have created portals to three worlds constructed for the tests. One world for each test you will perform, or at least attempt. If you fail a test, you will not be permitted to go on to the next one. You must complete all tests to pass the challenge,” Lady Harper said, her voice even but her eyes flashing. Portia wondered if it was anger or indignation that the elves must go through this with Portia.
Something Lady Harper said tickled at her mind. She said they created worlds. That was different from simply creating a portal to a different location. Could she really mean that’s what they had done? “How… How do you create worlds?”
Lady Harper squinted at her, a flicker of irritation crossing her face, but she answered the question nonetheless. “It is part of the Splinter magic. We know how to heal a splinter; thus we also know how to make one. We simply create a world and then open a splinter to it. The worlds we have created are not large, but they are large enough for the tests. It takes a great deal of magic to maintain these worlds.”
This explanation confused Portia. How could anything that existed not be a part of this world? Her mind hurt trying to figure out the puzzle. At Lady Harper’s intense gaze, she gave up. If she passed, maybe she could ask again. But she did not want to press the issue further now, instead filing it away in her mind as something to learn more about later if she was allowed to go into the kingdom of the elves.
“Okay,” Portia said, nodding.
One of the other elves stood and came to join Lady Harper and Portia. He exchanged a look with Lady Harper, and she nodded at the first door. He held his hand out for Portia and led her to the first door on the left. Portia stood in front of it, uncertain what to do.
Over her shoulder she could hear Lady Harper clear her throat. “You need to enter each door—we call them gates—and complete the task on the other side then return.”
“What if I can’t do it?” Portia asked. Her hands were trembling. She focused on her breathing and tried to calm herself.
“Then you can’t come back,” Lady Harper said, her voice impassive.
Portia whirled around to face Lady Harper. “What do you mean I can’t come back? Am I dead?”
“No. But you will not be able to exit.” Lady Harper tilted her head questioningly. Portia wondered if she was waiting for her to say she wouldn’t do it.
“But if I can’t come back… and it takes a lot of energy to maintain these worlds… then…” I’ll die. The words stuck in Portia’s throat.
“Yes, exactly. At one point, we will stop maintaining the worlds. They have only been created for this test.”
Silence hung in the ballroom. Portia wished desperately she could talk to Professor Hilda or Professor Aelric. Or even the queen. S
he couldn’t believe they would want her to face a mortal trial.
“The queen and king know,” Lady Harper said, her voice low.
“But…” Portia didn’t know what to say. This felt like too much to ask of her. And if the queen knew, why wouldn’t she have warned her? Perhaps they were afraid she would not dare attempt the test. Portia swallowed. She had to make a decision. If she was too afraid to attempt the test, then there was still a chance the elves could heal the splinter and save them all. But there was also a chance they could not. There was a reason she was here. There was a reason she had been given the powers of a Jack. Perhaps this was a test of the strength of her belief as much as a test of her skills.
Portia trembled. She had to decide. Finally, she shook out her arms, trying to banish her shakiness. She spoke louder than she intended to. “Fine. I want to finish this.” Portia’s stomach roiled with anxiety. Her heart hurt at the thought of failing and never seeing her friends again. But she was not going to let that stop her. She could not. She turned and faced the door.
Murmurs of approval from the other elves surprised Portia, but she refused to look at them, instead grabbing the portal door handle and opening it. She stepped through it before she could think about it a moment longer and lose her nerve.
The portal opened directly onto a path leading through a woods. She heard the door shut behind her, but when she turned to look there was nothing but the path itself going off into the distance. She stood there for a moment, listening, but the woods were disconcertingly quiet. The air was absent of birdsong or the scurrying noises of small creatures running through the leaves on the forest floor. No sound at all. She shivered involuntarily.
Turning back to face her original direction, she walked down the path, her footsteps unnaturally loud. Portia gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep going. Her ears tingled with the effort to hear any sound, especially any from behind her. But there was nothing. Portia forced herself to not hold her breath.
