“Mum!” Niko said loudly, and a woman emerged from one of the other rooms.
“Oh good, you caught it,” she said to him, wringing her hands on cloth. “And who might you be?” she asked me.
“I’m Sky, Larni’s-“
“Larni’s mistress, yes, I know,” she told me, her eyes crinkling with happiness. “She’s quite happy with you, you know. She was always worried that she was going to get one of the local mages, and the way they treat some of their servants is hardly fair.”
“Is Larni here?” I asked, glancing around.
“No, she just left to go to the market in the town square. You should be able to catch her, actually.”
“Uh, I actually wanted to talk to you about her,” I said, shuffling from foot to foot. Larni’s mother gestured to a chair at the table, and I sat, twisting my fingers in my lap. She sat opposite me, the mirth in her eyes gone.
“Is everything alright?” she asked me, concerned.
“Definitely,” I told her. “Larni’s great, but...”
“But?”
I sighed heavily.
“You had her tested for magic when she was four, didn’t you?” I asked, wanting to confirm what Larni had told me, just in case she was lying. Larni’s mother nodded.
“We did yes. Niko is going to be tested next year. The Tester said he didn’t find an ounce of magic in her.”
“He was wrong,” I blurted, unable to hold it in anymore. “Larni is a mage.”
We looked at each other across the table, the silence weighing heavily between us. It was promptly broken as Niko dropped the chicken, which made a bid for freedom by rushing the door.
“Niko, would you get that bird out of here?!” his mother shouted, and the small boy leapt after the fowl. She turned back to me, disbelief in her eyes.
“Larni’s a mage?” she repeated slowly.
I nodded and told her the story of the day I’d come back to my dorm room almost blinded. When I mentioned Larni healing me, her eyes widened, and her fingers gripped the table tightly.
“Should I not have told you?” I asked quietly, when I finished my story.
Her mother shook her head and I relaxed.
“What happens now?”
“We get her tested again,” she began slowly. “And then, I suppose, we appeal to get her into the Academy.”
“They have to take her,” I told her. “They have to. They can’t just leave a mage uneducated.”
“You’d be surprised about what they can and can’t do up at that Academy,” she said, standing up. “Thank you for coming here, Sky. We’ll keep you informed.”
“I just want what’s best for her,” I admitted. “I think she’s pretty great.”
The older woman smiled at me, and her face seemed to grow younger by several years. I turned around to leave just as Larni stepped through the front door carrying several baskets.
“Sky!” she said in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
“I thought I’d just stop by, but you weren’t home.” I told her quickly, stepping past her. “I’ll see you tonight back up at the Academy.”
“Of course,” she said slowly, and I could see she was beginning to guess about my real purpose in her house.
I closed the door behind me and trotted down the front steps, hands in my pockets. I’d almost rounded the clock tower when someone spoke.
“Will I be a mage?”
I looked down to see Niko looking up at me, the chicken still tight in his grasp. It clucked angrily upon seeing me.
“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. “Do you want to be?”
“Yes,” he said immediately. “Then I can go to school in the big castle on the hill. Is it fun there?”
“I suppose,” I said, thinking of the waterhole and my friends. “Yeah it is.”
“Can you cast a spell on me?”
“What?”
“Can you cast a spell on me?” he repeated. “So I’ll be a mage when I get tested?”
“Uh, I can try,” I said uncertainly, and then waved my hands about. “Niko, I declare you to be a mage!”
He’d shut his eyes, so I was the only one that saw the green spark leap from my fingertips to his shoulder. I snatched my hands back in surprise as he opened his eyes.
“Did it work?”
“I don’t know,” I said, tucking my shaking fingers into my pockets. “I guess you’ll find out.”
“Thanks, Sky!”
I watched him run back to the house, the chicken bouncing in his arms with every step. I decided it would be best to not mention this incident to anyone.
I rode back to the Academy’s stables, where I groomed Echo and let her into the paddock with the other horses. She nipped my hair gently before cantering out into the wilderness.
I was almost back to the Academy when I remembered the others were at the waterhole. I changed my path, heading there instead. The forest enveloped me, the cool trees shading me from the hot sun. I trod the path slowly, in no rush to get anywhere. The brush swept along my legs, and cicadas leapt from the branches as I disturbed them, singing loudly. I kept an eye out for snakes; I didn’t know if this realm had them, but I wasn’t going to find out the hard way.
I reached the waterhole, the sounds of screaming and splashing meeting my ears before I rounded the corner. I emerged from the cool forest onto the hot rocks, envying those in the water. My group was there, as well as some of our classmates who’d heard about the swimming hole.
“Sky!” Dena had spotted me, and heaved herself out of the pool. “Why aren’t you in your swimmers?”
“Just got back from Keyes,” I told her, making my way over to the edge of the pool. I pulled my boots off and rolled my breeches up, dunking my legs in the water. I sighed as the cool water lapped around my knees. “I’m an idiot, I know.”
She laughed, and splashed me a little. I didn’t mind; where the water hit me, it cooled my hot skin. I kicked my legs a little, not caring that my breeches were getting wet.
“Hello,” someone beside me said. Dustin had come up behind me to sit next to me. He kissed me on the cheek and I blushed. Dena smirked and then leapt back into the pool, deliberately splashing me. “Where’ve you been?”
“Keyes,” I told him. “Had some stuff to do in town.”
“Why didn’t you ask me to go with you?” he asked.
“Oh,” honestly, it hadn’t crossed my mind. “I don’t know.”
“Ask me next time,” he said, smiling. “We can go for tea or something.”
“Will do,” I grinned up at him. “Hang on.”
I stood up, moving my boots to where everyone else’s stuff was. Then I stood on the edge of the pool, lifted my arms and gracefully dived into the water.
The water was icy, but it made a wonderful contrast to the hot sun. We swam and paddled around, and by the time evening was falling I knew I’d gotten sunburnt again. We climbed out of the pool, and I waved Dena’s offer away of borrowing her towel or a drying technique she’d learnt. It was still humid and muggy, and I had a hunch that by the time we reached the Academy I’d basically be dry.
We set off, chatting and laughing. I slowly dripped dry along the path, and by the time we staggered up the hill, only the waistband of my breeches and my underwear were still damp. I excused myself to have a quick shower before dinner, trotting up the stairs to get a towel and a change of clothes.
We ate quickly and then Rain brought up the economics paper.
“I haven’t handed it up yet,” I said, and everyone rolled their eyes.
“Typical,” Petre said in a high and mighty tone. “I handed it up a few days after she set it.”
I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Well, aren’t you fantastic?” I toyed with my fork. “Hey, where is the library? Can someone please take me there after tea?”
“I can,” Dena said, and Theresa nodded in agreement. “I have a paper to work on anyway.”
We finished eating
and grabbed our school bags from our rooms. Dena and Theresa led me down a corridor I hadn’t been down before, and then up some stairs. Dena pushed open a large pair of double doors, admitting the three of us into the most breathtaking library I’d ever seen in my life.
It took up two stories, and every wall was plastered with shelves which weighed heavily with books. To get to the second level, spiral stair cases twisted towards the ceiling, which had been painted with a fresco. I recognised Queen Fleur, her sad eyes observing all who studied below her. Large windows arched across the walls, and where light would spill through them during the day, a few librarians were drawing heavy, red velvet curtains across them. The library was instead lit with torches in their brackets, and lamps on tables.
Dena and Theresa made their way to a corner, where a low table was surrounded with comfy, plush chairs. I sat my bag next to one and looked around, unable to peel my gaze from the beautiful room.
“It’s something, huh?” Dena said, taking out her notebook and beginning to set up on the table. “I didn’t have a library like this back at home.”
“Neither,” I said, watching one of the librarians hurry up the staircase to the second level. “Our town library was kind of dingy.”
Whilst Dena and Theresa began to quietly discuss their next essay, I headed to the section on international economics, which happened to be on the second level. I climbed the stairs, watching my feet; the steps were very close together and I’d had bad experiences with staircases before. I found the section easily, thanks to the brass plate above a shelf telling me what those books were about. I pulled a few promising titles from the shelf and then headed back down the perilous stairs to Dena and Theresa.
I read quietly for the next half an hour, now much more interested in this homework than I would be back in my own realm. Surac specialised in fruit export. In fact, much of what we ate in the castle would be shipped from there, if the food wasn’t in season here. I jotted down a few notes, reading with interest about Surac’s difficulties with the island above them, Sudafrae. I shuddered as I read that they were quite traditional, and some of the rituals they performed there were very squeamish. I’d just gotten to the part about the human sacrifices, the Grey Sea (which was so named for the ash in the water) and the Suracan’s policy of not swimming when the water was dark for fear of bathing in human remains, when one of the librarians approached us to tell us that the library would be closing.
We quickly packed up our books, and I checked out a small pile of them so I could continue my homework in my room. By the clock on the wall, it was about seven o’clock; plenty of time for home working.
We headed back to the dormitories, discussing the grizzly Sudafraens and the paper I was yet to write about Surac.
“Gotta tell you, I miss my computer,” Dena admitted. “Writing by hand is not all it’s cracked up to be.”
“I bet,” I groaned, thinking about having to manually write and then count every word. “At least there will be fewer distractions.”
I sat at my table and cracked open the book I’d been reading in the library. I began to turn my notes into the opening paragraphs of the essay, and as I wrote I realised I’d missed it. I knew I had a gift for writing, the words flowing onto the paper with hardly any conscious effort. My quill scratched continuously, and when my fingers went stiff and my hand refused to uncurl from the pen, I knew I’d done enough for the night.
The next morning I was woken by Larni instead of my bell. I opened my eyes as she glared down at me.
“Good morning,” I said pleasantly, and she scowled.
“What did you tell my mother?”
“You already know,” I said, and yawned widely.
“Why did you tell her?” she stepped back as I swung my legs out of bed.
“Because I want you to have a chance at living the life you’re supposed to,” I told her. “Because you’re a mage and now you can study and live as one.”
She chewed her lip anxiously.
“You don’t know that they’ll take me though,” she said.
“No, I don’t, but I can hope. You’ve got a better hope of getting in now that your mother will appeal after you’ve been tested again.”
I expected her to argue, but she just continued to watch me with her large brown eyes.
Finally she said something, but it was so quiet that I missed it.
“What?”
“Alright!” she repeated loudly.
I cracked a grin at her. I knew she wasn’t used to people taking care of her, only the other way around.
“Good. Now, I’m going to head back to the village this weekend to see your mother, see how she’s going organising the tester to make sure nothing gets in the way of you becoming a student here,” I stood up, stretched, and then begun my morning push ups and sit ups.
Larni laid my uniform out on the bed and then turned to me like she was going to say something. I raised my eyebrow at her, upside down as I lay on the floor. She opened her mouth and then closed it, leaving instead.
The week passed quickly, and I succeeded in finishing my essay and handing it up to Watt, who almost refused to take it because it was so late.
“I promise that’s the only one that will be,” I told her, bouncing on the balls of my feet. “I couldn’t find the library.”
She took it without a word, and I knew that I would get marked down but at least I’d done it.
We’d begun a new lesson, Magical Practical. We all giggled as we said it over and over again. Sometimes I thought we were really just six year olds in disguise. Jett, who also taught this subject, scowled as someone said it one too many times.
“Alright, so we’re not so good with the names of classes,” he snapped. “But what matters is what you learn in the class, not what it’s called.”
We all clammed up, but someone would occasionally whisper it and set the rest of the class off.
I felt for Jett sometimes. I really did.
Despite the ridiculous name, Magic Prac turned out to be one of the most interesting classes yet. That first lesson we learnt the basic theory of healing, and whilst my attention trailed off like it did in Theory, Dena’s eyes sparked with interest, and she hung off of Jett’s every word.
“We can’t test any of this just yet, but with this group I take it that it won’t be long until one of you injures yourself,” Jett said, and though we scowled, many of us agreed with him.
That accident happened the very next day in weapons training. And of course, it happened to me.
“Ow ow ow!” I clutched my thumb desperately as blood spilled out of the large gash I’d managed to open.
“What is it, what have you done?” Professor Yu demanded.
What I’d done was try my hand at throwing knives. No one had told me they were sharp, so I thought they were practice blades and had gone right ahead and wrapped my hand around one.
I cradled my thumb close to my chest, trying to hold back tears as the class gathered around for a look.
“Can I try healing it?” Dena asked, hope in her blue eyes.
I could hardly resist her anything when she looked at me like that, so in spite of the pain, I held my thumb out to her, dripping blood on the practice mat.
She took my hand in hers, probing the wound gently. I almost tore my hand away as it stung suddenly.
“Sorry,” she said, unapologetically. “Hold still.”
She held my injured thumb on her palm, and then held her thumb and little finger above it, making an arch. I recognized this position from the text book Jett had made everyone borrow.
Dena closed her eyes – an act which made me very uneasy – and then, faster than anyone could see, snapped her fingers together. A small blue spark, the colour of her magic, threaded the gash close, leaving me with only a faint scar as though I’d had it for years.
“Wow,” I said softly, holding my thumb up. I knew if I’d tried it, I probably would’ve done either nothing to the wound, or ma
de it worse.
From then on, if anyone had an ailment or wounded themselves, they went to Dena, and she fast topped us all in that particular area.
The next lesson, Jett decided to give us a break from healing.
“We’re going to try creating objects,” he told us, and we all broke out into excited mutters. I wriggled my fingers anxiously; finally, hopefully, something I would be good at!
I wasn’t. The bowl I was supposed to be making from the energy around me just wouldn’t materialise, and when something finally did happen, instead of a bowl I had a small, demented egg cup.
“Good effort,” Jett said, passing me. I scowled at the cup, not oblivious to the fact that Eleanora had just succeeded in making a perfectly round bowl of purple glass.
“Her family is renowned for their crafts,” Dustin said, trying to mollify me as I carried my out of shape egg cup away from class.
“For your information,” I snapped. “I quite happen to like my egg cup. It’s just what I need for breakfasts.”
Dustin let this slide, despite the fact that the cup was so out of shape that an egg couldn’t fit in it.
In a bad mood, I stomped up to my room and went to face-plant on my bed, but something stopped me. A beautiful orange feather, the size of a peacock feather, lay gently on my bed, like a ray of sunlight that had materialised. I picked it up reverently, pulling it through my fingers.
Who had put this here? And how had they gotten into my room?
I noticed my open window and the ball of nervous energy in me unravelled. It would’ve been easy for someone to float something through the open window.
I brushed the feather against my cheek, noticing small sparks coming off of it like fire.
Suddenly I realised what it was, and dropped it onto the bed. It was supposed to be a phoenix feather.
“Phoenix, huh? A legendary bird of flame is a pretty awesome namesake.”
Now I wasn’t sure if the feather was a beautiful gift or a cruel taunt. I wasn’t sure if everything we created had to be of our colour, but I only knew of one mage who had that colour magic.
Soul Fire Page 10
