Soul Blaze

by Legacy, Aprille

  She turned to the dressing table as I sat, mute with disbelief. But she wasn’t done. “It felt horrible… I’ve never experienced anything like it. It felt like my soul was coming up through my body, being sucked right out of my skin. And then the withdrawal symptoms,” her whole body shook and she gripped the table with both hands. “I know they took your magic too, Sky, so you must’ve gone through them as well.”

  “Yes,” I said quietly. I was in two minds about telling her that I got my magic back, but before I could decide anything, she continued.

  “Iain and Netalia tried to help me. After all they could take magic, maybe they knew some way of extracting it and replacing it. But everything they did made it worse. The damage was irreversible. Phoenix had made me nonmagi.”

  I sat in my chair, limp. There was so much that needed to be said but I didn’t know what to filter. I didn’t know whether or not to tell her that I was the new monarch or that Phoenix was probably being crowned King at this very moment. But one thing was certain; I had to do something.

  An arrow in the wall caught my attention. Another sat just above it, both embedded deeply in the wooden panelling. A bow had been leant against the table from which I’d stolen my chair. As I looked at it closer, I saw that two notches had been made in the wood of the bow.

  Two arrows?

  “You still practise then?”

  Eleanora glanced over and followed my gaze. “When I can. I have to wait for new tenants every time I want to shoot; the arrows go straight through the wall and my landlord isn’t happy about it.” She approached the arrows and tugged on one half-heartedly.

  “Are you still as good a shot as I remember?”

  She looked over her shoulder at me.

  “Better.” Ryman’s guards weren’t going to take kindly to being reigned in. I would face resistance, maybe even rebellion from some of them. If I wanted control, I was going to have to replace their leader with someone that I could trust.

  Or Eleanora. “Listen,” I began carefully. “Very soon, I’m going to be coming into a position of power within the city. I’d like you to join me.”

  “No power can bring me back into honour.”

  “This power can, I promise you.” She looked over at me, and I could almost see the cogs turning in her brain. Suddenly she straightened up, her mouth opening slightly in understanding.

  “My gods… you’re it, aren’t you? You’re the new Queen.”

  Blood rushed into my cheeks and my face burned.

  “Yes,” I made myself admit. “They tell me I am.” I watched her face as she realised all of the new implications. My return, Phoenix’s exile, our relationship, and then finally:

  “So you got your magic back?” “And then some,” I decided brutally honest was the way I was going to go about this. “I’ve entered the city as an ordinary citizen to get a feel of the place first.”

  “So why would Her Majesty want me by her side?” her voice had taken on a sarcastic edge, and I felt myself bristle.

  “Because Her Majesty wants the best of the best there to guard her,” I responded in the same tone, standing up finally. “I’m going to meet resistance from the governor of this city and I need someone I can trust to help me.”

  “You trust me?”

  “Not in the slightest.” “Not yet,” she finished for me. “You’re seriously offering me this? It wouldn’t grant you any favours with my family; they disowned me.”

  “I don’t want favours with your family. I don’t know them.” I met her gaze. “But I know you.”

  She frowned.

  “You haven’t known me for a year. I’ve changed.” “I can tell.” I’d spotted the empty wine bottles under her bed earlier. “But you’re standing here talking to me. Eleanora from the Academy barely granted me that.”

  “I think you have to take some of the blame as well.”

  I gritted my teeth.

  “I know,” I admitted finally. “What do you say to my offer?”

  “When will it come into effect?” “I’m not sure. I know I have to take the crown soon, but-”

  “It’s daunting.”

  “Just a little.”

  “What would you want me to do?” “Take command of the guard,” I said, and she blanched. “You’re the best archer I know, and apparently you’ve gotten even better. It’s a position of power, and honour. It would restore your status and you’d have all of the practise space you wanted.”

  She stood staring at me for a few moments. “You understand I’ll have to consider your offer,” she said finally, and I kept my face straight. “The command of the city guard is a huge undertaking.”

  “It won’t be easy,” I warned. “Take all of the time you need to consider.”

  She watched me closely for a few seconds and then said quietly:

  “When do you think you’ll take the throne?”

  My stomach rolled over, and I crossed my arms so she couldn’t see how my hands shook.

  “I… when the time is right, I suppose.” “You mean that you’ll wait until your hand is forced,” her faded eyes were almost kind. “I understand that. It’s one thing to take command of the city guard, another entirely to take control of the country.”

  So many people had been pressuring me to take the crown now that her understanding came as a complete shock. And from Eleanora! I clutched my arms in tighter and then met her gaze.

  “Thank you,” I said quietly. “I’d better head back to the palace now.” She nodded, and I shuffled awkwardly towards the door. Halfway through it, our gazes met and she lifted her hand in a half wave. I nodded, and then closed the door between us.

  I was further from the palace than I’d ever been. It took me most of the morning to walk back, watching the city people go about their daily business. My feet were aching and my stomach rumbling by the time I reached the portcullis.

  The guards let me through without comment; their blank, vacant expressions reassured me that Jett had removed their memories of the day before. Seff was hidden in the castle, something that made me breathe a sigh of relief. There was something about the girl, something that made me pause when I thought about her. She was familiar in a way, but I was certain I’d never met her before. I got the feeling the governor would love to get his hands on her, but that made no sense. Seff was a street kid, a cutpurse, one of hundreds that resided in the capital. Ryman didn’t know she existed.

  So why was I so eager to keep her a secret from him?

  ~Chapter Fifteen~

  “Sky!” I groaned; I’d been in the process of opening my door when I heard Jett calling my name. I leant my head against the door for a second before reluctantly turning and facing my irate father.

  “Where’ve you been? Dena and the others came back without you, you’ve been out all night?” He snapped.

  “Really?” I asked sarcastically. “Must’ve been partying til dawn, father, sorry.”

  “Don’t,” he shut his eyes and clenched his jaw. “Don’t get smart with me. Where were you?” Uh, in a tavern brawl? Where I met an old classmate of mine who doesn’t want anyone to know she’s in the city, and I proposed that she join me at the palace when I take the throne as captain of the entire city guard?

  “Exploring,” I settled on finally. “There’s a whole city out there if you haven’t noticed.” His nostrils flared dramatically. He opened his mouth to keep admonishing me when a serving girl popped over the top of the stairs.

  “Mistress Sky?” she said warily. I immediately turned away from Jett. “The governor wants to see you, miss.” It was almost a relief to skitter away from my father and down the stairs towards Ryman’s office before I remembered where I was headed. I thought of Seff working down in the kitchens and my throat tightened. Had he found her?

  I knocked cautiously on his office door.

  “Enter.” I did so, closing it carefully behind me. I could feel my magic beginning to tingle beneath my skin. I would blast him if I had to. He would be
absolutely no match for me.

  The man himself was sitting behind his desk, the polished oak hiding the majority of his bulk. He made me wait until he’d signed the last paper in front of him with a flourish. He set down his quill, admired the signature and then looked up at me, his dull eyes stern.

  “My guards have reported to me a rather disturbing incident,” he began, and my heart started to beat a little faster. “Apparently you interfered with an arrest yesterday.”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t going to confess before I knew how much he’d been told.

  He steepled his fingers and rested his three chins upon them.

  “What is the reason for your interference?”

  “They were bullying a small girl.”

  “They were doing their job.”

  I let the corner of my mouth twitch in derision. “Good to know that the guards of this city have power over the small girl children. I saw some babies in their cribs on the way over here, would the guards like to harass them as well?”

  He stood, though I still towered over him. “You are insolent,” he barked, his cheeks flushing red. “Both guards are in the infirmary. You are to apologize to both of them.”

  I felt heat rush to my cheeks and my hands began to shake.

  “No,” I said. “I won’t.” “The girl you inadvertently set free was a known cutpurse to the guards in question, and she was finally being taken to face trial. Your meddling has set her loose about the city again,” his pudgy hands were splayed across the papers he’d so carefully signed, apparently not noticing that he was smearing his signature. He leant across the desk at me, and it took all of my willpower not to step back. “I promise you that I will find this girl and bring her to justice myself. And when I do, I can assure you that I’ll make you watch as they sentence her to exile.”

  For three glorious seconds I entertained myself with the thought of pinning the fat man to the wall and holding him by the throat. My hands twitched as if to carry out the motion, and I quickly tucked them both behind my back. I didn’t know enough about the city yet to take the crown, and I wanted to hear Eleanora’s answer before I attempted to control a faction of lawmen who were on the path to hating me.

  “If that is all?” I asked coldly, my face expressionless. “I have training to attend.” “Perhaps suggest some extra lessons on etiquette,” he replied, sliding back into his reinforced chair. “And remember that you are my guest in this palace and I am to be afforded every courtesy.”

  I turned and spun on my heel, deliberately slamming his office doors on my way out. I marched down the hall, anger brimming in my blood. I wanted nothing more than to return to Ryman’s office and make him regret ever summoning me. My footsteps slowed as I neared the kitchens, thinking of Seff, but then I remembered that Ryman was actively searching for her now and I couldn’t risk him finding her under his very nose.

  Instead I headed for the bath house. My legs were aching from my early morning walk and my body still complained of a night spent sleeping in a chair.

  The bath house of the palace was a spectacular thing. A large marble bath took up most of the room, sunk deep into the floor. It was full of lukewarm water, kept topped up by the bath house attendants. One handed me a towel and a bar of soap when I entered, then left me in peace. The bath was empty of patrons; a relief considering I hadn’t yet gotten accustomed to bathing with other girls. I stripped down and then sank into the bath up to my nose. The water was warm enough to make me sleepy, the heat seeping into my aching bones.

  I must’ve dozed off for a second, because when I awoke, Dena was sitting across from me.

  “How long have you been there?” I asked sleepily. “A while,” she wouldn’t meet my eyes, gazing at something across the room. “You were asleep. I was making sure you weren’t going to drown.”

  “Thanks,” I said, shifting awkwardly. I half-heartedly scrubbed at my arm with the bar of soap before deciding it was too weird. The abandoned soap floated across the bath between us. “So, uh, how’ve things been?”

  She fixed me with a stare, apparently uncaring that we were starkers with only a few metres of soapy water separating us. Then again, she’d had a few years to get used to bathing with other girls.

  “Things are different now,” she said, her voice ringing off the stone.

  “Because I’m back?”

  “Yes,” she said sadly, taking me by surprise. “You don’t want me back?”

  “Of course I want you back,” she seemed mildly surprised at least. “But I thought you would want-”

  “To spend more time with you.” I finished for her.

  She lowered her gaze.

  “You were my best friend.” She said softly. “I still am. Dena,” I went to scoot closer to her, remembered where we were, and stopped. “I didn’t have any friends in Ar Cena that came close to you. Even when I couldn’t remember a damn thing about Lotheria I missed you somehow. And when I came back, I didn’t want to intrude on the group too much, you guys have had a lot of time without me.”

  “We still wanted you around, but you seem to be determined to go off and do your own thing lately.” “I know, and I’ll admit that I have an agenda,” I gnawed my lip. “Dena, you know the responsibility I have to undertake soon.”

  “And all of us want to be here to help you!” “Help I’ll gladly accept,” I said. “But I’m still trying to get my bearings. When I’ve got a game plan, I’ll need advice. And my friends are the first place I’m going to go for it.”

  That seemed to placate her somewhat. She fidgeted in the water, steam rising around us.

  “If you need to test any ideas out, I’m right here,” she said eventually. Suddenly I needed to tell her everything. I started with Seff and the familiar feel I got from her. When I questioned Dena about it, she agreed that she too felt as though she knew the girl but couldn’t recall how. I recounted my meeting with Ryman just a few minutes before retreating to the bath house and she shared my anger and resentment against the governor.

  “Seff is out of harm’s way,” she reassured me. “Hidden in his own kitchens. He won’t even think to look under his own nose… provided he can see there.”

  We sniggered together in the cooling water. The soap had floated back to me and I picked it up, sliding it over my skin.

  “I don’t know about that… from the looks of him, I’d say he’s fair fond of the kitchens,” I said, and she burst into laughter again.

  When her giggles subsided, I pushed the soap over to her.

  “There’s something else,” I said gravely. “About where I was last night. But I have to swear you to secrecy.”

  She eyed me off, catching up the drifting soap. “I was in a tavern brawl last night,” I began, and she opened her mouth to say something but I stopped her. “Yeah, yeah, I know, anyway. I met someone there.”

  I saw the word form on her lips but didn’t stop her in time.

  “Phoenix?”

  The name jarred me like a hit to the elbow. I was shaking my head before she’d finished.

  “No. Eleanora.”

  Her mouth fell open even further, and she almost swallowed some bath water.

  “Elea-… but she’s supposed to be in Gowar!”

  “I know,” I quickly outlined Eleanora’s current living situation and the offer I’d made her. “What do you think?” “I think you did the right thing by wanting to help her,” Dena said, deep in thought. “And whilst I get that you want people you know by your side during the takeover, I think having Eleanora as their captain straight away might give the guard the wrong impression. To them, it’ll seem like favouritism.”

  “It’s not though.” “I know that, but they don’t. They’ll get a new Queen and then a new captain. It’ll unnerve them, and the last thing you need is a twitchy guard around you.”

  I nodded, considering her input. “But at the same time,” she continued. “Having someone you know and trust protecting you will be reassuring. I get wh
y you offered her the position.”

  “Final thoughts?”

  She leant against the back of the bath, combing her fingers through her hair. “Keep the offer there. Wait to hear what she says and if she accepts, worry about the consequences then. Though she’d be mad to turn the opportunity down.””

  “You haven’t seen how she’s changed,” I shivered slightly; the water was cooling. “I didn’t recognise her until our faces were almost literally shoved together.”

  She laughed, and we continued chatting in the bath for a while. For the first time since arriving back in Lotheria, I felt as though I had my best friend back.

  I padded back to my room a short while later, the lush carpet soft against my bare feet. I dressed in my room quickly and collected Morri from his sleeping place atop my bedstead. The sun was illuminating my city, making dirty rooftops gleam reluctantly. In the distance I could see the harbor sparkling, several ships at the dock, their tall masts swaying slightly as the waves rolled underneath them.

  I was going to be Queen of all this. This city and the country that extended all the way north. I stroked Morrigan, who was sleeping contentedly in my hands. He chirped softly, completely unaware of the turmoil that was making my stomach turn over.

  I decided a walk would settle me. I thought briefly about tracking down my friends to accompany me, but then decided against it. Dena had mentioned that she would be spending the day at the city hospital, shadowing the healers there to better her craft. Ispin was down at the docks again, and I was unsure of the whereabouts of Rain, Petre or Yasmine. Theresa had taken to disappearing into the city much like I was about to, though she would spend days on end in the lower districts before returning without a word to explain her absence.

  Morri relocated to my shoulder as I passed under the portcullis, preening as I walked. The high road was busy as usual, and I had to weave my way between several carts headed for the palace. People jostled me as I passed, but after a few days of walking the busy city streets I was used to it. Morri, however, took every opportunity to pass comment to every person that bumped into the shoulder he was riding.