“They said they found some sort of…markers in my blood. Whatever that means. I don’t think they know themselves. Markers that they didn’t find in Clemmy’s.”
A hiss like an indrawn breath sounded.
“Mother? Do you have any idea what could cause a difference between my blood and my sister’s?”
She was shaking her head before I had finished speaking.
“You are my blood and your father’s, as I already said. As is Clementine. As is Jasper.”
“We know nothing of blood markers,” my father said, his voice curt. “And we should all be getting some sleep. Those officers want you all on the road by first light.”
I looked slowly between the two of them. My mother met my eyes almost defiantly, while my father turned to busy himself with his sleeping pallet.
“Very well then,” I said, reluctance making my voice slow. “I can let them know about your father’s grandmother at least.”
“Let them spend their time searching out our ancestry if they so desire,” my father said, still not looking at me. “And good luck to them. My great grandparents were an odd couple by all accounts, but it’s no nevermind of mine.”
I didn’t answer, slipping silently down to rest my head against my pillow instead. But it took a long time for sleep to come.
I had learned nothing that seemed to shed any light on my mysterious abilities. Nothing except that my parents appeared to have a secret. One they weren’t willing to share with me.
As it turned out, we were all woken before dawn by the arrival of troops from Corrin. The two silver-robed officers leading them had brought a cart to carry the prisoners, a carriage for Coralie and me, mounts for Martin and Carson, and a whole squad of commonborn soldiers.
The racket of their arrival was enough to wake even Clemmy, who my mother had informed me was now a deep sleeper. The four officers conferred and loaded the prisoners into the cart before permitting us to come down from the loft. The first rays of dawn were piercing the windows by then, and it was only with reluctance that Carson agreed to allow us to eat a quick breakfast before departing.
When the carriage door closed on us and the vehicle lurched into motion, I looked across at Coralie. It was our first chance to talk alone since the attack.
“Don’t look at me like that, Elena,” she said.
“You hosted me for a week at your home at the start of summer, and it was one of the best weeks of my life. I host you and it’s, well, not.”
She snorted a brief laugh. “It wasn’t that bad!”
“Wasn’t it?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “And I’m not just talking about the attack.”
She shook her head. “I loved meeting your family—especially Clemmy. You talk about her so much. And seeing Kingslee. It’s so much smaller than Abalene. I’ve never spent time in a fully commonborn village like that…” She trailed off.
“And was it everything you imagined?” I asked, dryly.
“I don’t know what I imagined, to be honest.” She chewed on her lip and shifted a little in her seat. “You’re always saying we should make more of an effort to understand the commonborn. So I thought it was a good place to start.”
So that was why she had insisted on accompanying me. Once again demonstrating how much more open-minded Coralie was than most of her peers. And that difference in attitude made even more sense to me now that I had spent more time in her family home. As a minor family, the Cygnets seemed a great deal less formal than their counterparts among the great families, and they interacted freely with their commonborn servants, even assisting them in their tasks when needed.
“Well, it turned out we weren’t the only mages in Kingslee,” I said, a sour note in my voice.
“No. I admit the visit would have been improved by the absence of a Kallorwegian attack.”
I winced. “I’m so sorry you got caught up in that.”
“It’s hardly your fault that you’re so extraordinary everyone wants you.” She gave me an exaggerated wink, and I laughed reluctantly.
Her face fell into more serious lines, and she hesitated before speaking.
“It wasn’t right for him to lie to you, but I have to admit I’m glad Lorcan sent officers to watch over us. As it turned out.” She looked at me tentatively, and I forced myself to nod.
She was right, of course, and her hesitation hurt me more than I cared to admit. Coralie was my best friend, and she seemed to expect me to fly off the handle. Lucas was always telling me I overreacted, too. I just wished either of them could understand what it was like to be so constantly beset on every side, out of place wherever you went. Threatened, mistrusted…
I gave myself a mental shake. I had a family who loved me, powers no one had ever dreamed of, and access to unlimited words. Alice’s face formed in my mind, shaken and white, defenseless against our attackers, and then before that—wistful but hopeless.
A whole kingdom of commonborns would never have the opportunities I’d been given. I had a duty and a responsibility to them, and I couldn’t advocate for them among the mages if I continued to let my unruly tongue get the better of me. It was time to overcome that particular weakness.
“You know…I’m glad, too,” I said. “If he hadn’t sent them, I’d be on my way to Kallorway right now, and for some reason I vastly prefer being here with you.”
“Goodness, I can’t imagine why,” she said in a joking voice, and we both laughed. The release of tension lightened the air in the carriage, lifting the cloud that had hung over us since the attack.
The day was still only beginning when we rolled into the capital. The small houses on the fringes slowly grouped closer together as I watched through the window, pressing against each other into a solid mass of building. Unlike the year before, the weather was already starting to cool, and I saw the occasional tree in one of the small parks already stripped of most of its leaves.
The tall row houses gave way to elegant storefronts as a growing feeling of homecoming rose in me. Was it possible to feel at home both in a simple three-roomed house on a dirt road and in a crowded city among mansions of white marble and red sandstone?
It was only the streets that felt familiar in this part of the city, though. I had never actually been inside one of the mageborn city estates.
Still, the sight of them signaled the approach of the Academy, and not even the beautiful, elegant palace towering above us could lessen the pleasant glow of turning in at those familiar gates. If I was fortunate, I would have no cause to visit the palace this year. I certainly couldn’t imagine Lucas would be inviting me to his Midwinter birthday celebrations.
The thought of the prince made my stomach clench and my eyes turn glassy, as I imagined an altogether different scene from the one visible out the carriage window. Was he already here? Would I run into him in the corridors? In the dining hall? What would he do? What would I say? I didn’t dare hope that he might have changed his mind over the summer break, that he might have decided he was willing to fight for change after all.
“Elena?” Coralie peered up at me from outside the open carriage door. We had stopped in the Academy courtyard, and she had alighted without my noticing. I jerked and scrambled quickly down.
“Sorry, my mind was elsewhere.”
“It’s strange how much more familiar it grows every year, isn’t it?” She joined me in my contemplation of the square building of white marble. “And even stranger to think that next year will be our final year at the Academy. After we graduate, we won’t have any reason to return. Well, not until we have children old enough to attend,” she added, with a giggle.
Children. The idea felt too foreign to even contemplate. Before I could get married, I would have to forget about a certain tall, dark-haired, green-eyed year mate. Unthinkable. An impossible task.
I shivered.
“Let’s get inside, shall we?” Suddenly contemplating the future was the last thing I wanted to do.
Coralie followed me eagerly e
nough, and we found the entryway deserted, due no doubt to the early hour. Together we headed for the broad, elegant stairs. Climbing past the instructor suites and classrooms on the next level and the fourth-year suites on the level above them, we stopped on the third years’ floor. We had finally achieved enough seniority to spend the year in suites rather than the single rooms that filled the higher floor for students in the two junior years.
I had been living in mine for some weeks now, but Coralie wanted to examine every inch of hers, exclaiming at the extra space and the simple yet elegant furnishings.
“It will be so nice to have proper study space in our own rooms.” She patted the enormous desk. “There’s enough space that we could study together in the evenings.”
I nodded, murmuring something noncommittal. My head said it was a very good thing indeed. If only my heart wasn’t telling me how much I would miss nights spent studying in the library with Lucas. But being alone with Lucas in the depths of the library in a single shared circle of light seemed like more than a bad idea.
I extracted myself as soon as Coralie would allow it. I didn’t doubt that Lorcan now had a full account of the attack, since Captain Carson and Lieutenant Martin had continued on to the Academy with us while the newer officers split off with the soldiers and the cart of prisoners.
Like many other mages in positions of authority, Lorcan’s wont had always been to question other senior mages about happenings of interest rather than me—even if I was the sole witness. But I wanted to talk to him, even if he didn’t want to talk to me.
I let myself into the receiving room outside his study and hesitated before the door. It stood partially ajar, and I could hear no sound of voices. The officers had already left, then.
“Come in,” called Lorcan as I raised my hand to knock.
I rolled my eyes and pushed the door open. The bookshelves that lined two of the walls of the large room no longer impressed me as they had done on my first day at the Academy. But I still appreciated their presence, along with the tall windows that gave a view over the gardens to the rear of the Academy. Combined, they gave the room a pleasant aspect that had made the long hours I spent here over the summer more tolerable.
“Ah, Elena, I was about to send for you,” said Lorcan.
So he had intended to speak to me directly. Progress, then.
“I wanted to find out if you had a chance to speak to your parents about any known irregularities in your ancestry.”
I blinked at him for a moment. So much for the progress. I considered protesting and bringing up the attack or Captain Carson and Lieutenant Martin’s presence in Kingslee, but I remembered my resolution in the carriage.
“There is some question as to the origins of my grandfather’s grandmother.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That is a great many generations back.”
I shrugged. “Everyone since then has come from Kingslee, apparently. They were all as Ardannian as you.” One side of my mouth quirked up. “Unless there’s something you haven’t told me.”
“Very amusing, Elena.” He drummed the fingers of one hand lightly against the desk. “Your grandfather’s grandmother.” He murmured the words, shaking his head. “I cannot see what relevance that would have to the…” His mutterings dropped so low I couldn’t catch the words.
I walked over to one of the windows to look at the view, leaving him to his musings. The last of the summer flowers had died in the week I had been gone.
“Will we continue our training now that the year has begun?” I asked without turning back around.
“What? Oh. No, you will need the time for your regular studies, and I will be busy with my own duties. You’ve come a long way, and Jessamine and I will need time to consult before we have any more experiments for you to try. And perhaps it would be worth looking into this ancestor after all. Perhaps Jessamine will…”
I sighed and glanced over my shoulder at him. He had taken up a pen and begun to scribe something on a piece of parchment before him, still muttering indistinguishably.
Shaking my head, I crossed over to the door but paused with my hand on the latch.
“Lorcan.”
He looked up.
“Yes, Elena.”
“The Kallorwegians tried to abduct me yesterday.”
“Indeed, I had the full report from Captain Carson. He says you performed admirably.”
I gave him a flat look.
“You needn’t feel any concerns. You are perfectly safe here at the Academy. After the incursion in your first year we have been to considerable pains to shore up our protections. No trainee under my care is in danger, I assure you.”
“You told me you weren’t sending mages to watch me.”
For the first time he had the grace to look uncomfortable. “Consider it a test. To see how you performed when not under supervision.”
“And I performed admirably, you said.” My voice was expressionless.
He nodded, still looking uncomfortable.
“Then I can assume there will be no more secret tests?”
“No, indeed,” he said quickly. “I can foresee no need for such a thing.”
“That’s good.” I paused for a moment as if the topic were done. “Oh, I hear General Griffith is eagerly anticipating the completion of my time at the Academy. I wonder what plans he has for my next posting after I am no longer under your command?”
The general was a Devoras, and I didn’t trust him one bit. And that was on top of his desire to use me as a weapon. I would never willingly choose the Armed Forces over the Academy, but thanks to Lucas, I had never actually told Lorcan of my suspicions regarding Devoras. He no doubt considered me just rash enough that I might throw myself at the front lines if he offended me enough. And the Academy Head wouldn’t want to lose his most interesting subject of study—any more than a senior member of Callinos would want to lose a pawn as significant as me to a Devoras.
I looked at him for a long moment, meeting his eyes without backing down. His gaze changed from uncomfortable to considering, and then a calculating gleam filled his eyes. I pulled the door open before pausing a second time.
“Don’t lie to me again, Lorcan. You might not like the consequences.”
“Very well, Elena,” he said, his voice as serious as my own.
But as I stepped out of his office, I saw the beginnings of a satisfied smile. Almost like that of a teacher whose pupil had made him proud. Finally I was learning to play the game.
Chapter 5
Finnian and Saffron, my Callinos friends, didn’t show up in the dining hall until breakfast on our first morning of classes. Our other year mates had moved up to the row of third year tables as soon as they arrived, but Coralie had been insisting we eat with some of the first years.
Her younger brother Arthur—whose enthusiasm for the Academy had known no bounds on the previous occasions I had met him—was now trying to act as if his entry to the Academy was no big deal. But Coralie cheerfully overrode his protests as well as his requests that she would, “Go sit with her own kind.” And so we ate all our meals until the start of classes with him.
And from the way he kept looking at me and then quickly away, and then back again, and then at the other first years who had arrived early, I wondered if perhaps he didn’t mind our presence after all. The sixteen-year-olds in his year seemed torn on their opinion of me—but opinions they all seemed to have. And Arthur personally knowing the one and only Spoken Mage clearly gave him a position of some interest among them.
I tried not to dwell on how utterly strange such a thing felt. If being an object of awe and terror among my old friends in Kingslee had been strange, this was even stranger again. And when I got called to Lorcan’s office from lunch one afternoon, it struck me as I left the dining room that I felt no surprise or trepidation at the summons. Some of Arthur’s year mates had looked nervous at a summons from the Head—even if it wasn’t for them. It was easy to recall that I would have felt th
e same when I first arrived—magnified many times in fact.
Less easy to pinpoint was the moment when I started to belong. When a call to the Head’s office evoked no more extreme reaction than mild irritation that I had not yet finished my meal.
And when Lorcan told me the purpose of our meeting, a further sense of satisfaction swelled in me. He had called for me in order to update me on information regarding my attackers. It seemed my earlier challenge had generated the desired effect.
Less satisfying was the news itself. All four of them had been questioned under the influence of carefully crafted compositions that compelled them to speak truth. They were intelligence agents, smuggled across the border with a raiding party. Their sole goal had been my abduction, and they knew nothing of the reasons for it. They had no links to other Kallorwegian intelligencers in Ardann, and they knew nothing of the overall plans for the war. Lorcan assured me that they would have been carefully chosen with this lack of knowledge in mind.
“So they knew there was a good chance they would be caught?” I asked.
He nodded, and I frowned. Two mages—trained intelligencers, too—seemed a big sacrifice just for a chance of stealing me. But was it possible they had already tried without a mage and failed? I had never believed Kallorway was truly behind my abduction attempt in first year. Particularly not once I saw one of my abductors with the Stantorns. But was it possible the man had been an intelligencer placed with the Stantorns by Kallorway?
But, no, that made no sense. He had been arrested and apparently died in prison. I still didn’t know how he had faked his own death, but the Stantorns would certainly have noticed his unexpected resurrection and return.
Unless they had been the ones to make it happen, of course. And my abductors in first year had used inside knowledge of my exams that Kallorway could not possibly have acquired. No, despite Lucas’s insistence, I still believed at least one of the great families had chosen to act against the ruling of the Mage Council. Traitorous behavior Lucas believed to be impossible.
Voice of Dominion (The Spoken Mage Book 3) Page 4
