Breaking Stars (Book 2)

by Jenna Van Vleet

The cooks, mainly women and a few older men, were full of gossip and chatter. All seemed to convene in the kitchens. Gabriel was the tallest by far, leaned up against a wall with his arms folded, staring at the boiling kettles.

  “A watched pot never boils,” a cook said and handed him a wedge of cheese.

  “I hope so.” ‘Once I could feel them boil a room away. Once, I could make them boil in a moment.’

  “Fine horses, if e’er I seen them,” someone hummed in his background.

  “I ain’t never seen little Kindle in such a rage,” another muttered.

  Gabriel selected two cloth holders and lifted a boiling pot off the fire. “My but we need more strapping young men ‘round these mountains. Me old bones are tired of hauling water,” a woman chortled as he walked past.

  He repeated the actions for what seemed to be hours until the bathtub in his room was filled. If Mikelle found it lukewarm, she could always heat it up. In fact, she could probably heat the whole thing from room-temperature. He dared not tell anyone, happy for an excuse to escape the Novaculas.

  “Will you be stayin’ with us much longer, m’lad?” the head cook Coryn asked as he returned with the last pail, her wrinkled gray face pulled up in a grin. “This ol’ back can’t rightly handle lifting like she used to.” She took up his hand and patted it.

  He welcomed the touch. It was the first time in a while he could remember someone making connection with his skin without a dark agenda. “I do not think we will be staying long, no.”

  “A great pity,” she smiled and patted his hand. She left him and returned to the gossip circulating the room.

  Gabriel stuffed his hands in his pockets and sauntered out with one destination in mind. Mikelle should be able to heat water, which meant the bath was only getting cold.

  That was where she found him not long after, submerged up to his nose in the warm water. At first she averted her eyes with a surprised look, but her sly nature emboldened her, and she closed the door behind her as she entered. He gave her a sidelong glance that warned her to be careful.

  “I hope this will be the first of many occasions I find you in a bath naked as your name-day.” She folded her arms and leaned on the wooden door. “I am afraid Kindle is going to budge. We know how convincing Nolen is. He was spinning some tale of her freedom once the Silex is found and how she would help him rule once he took the throne, even guilting her for her father’s sake. Is that water getting cold?”

  He lifted his lips out of the water. “Yes.”

  She stepped up with her eyes on his and a smile fit to match a cat with a mouse in its paws. She twirled the familiar boil-pattern and touched the water. He did not know if she had to make contact with the liquid because she was a weaker Class than he, or because she was a dangerous woman. He decided on the latter and gave a wave of his hand when the water reached a hot temperature. She looked for a place to perch a hip but the tub was made of a thin iron piece without a ledge, so she returned to the door with a sulky expression.

  “Prince Nolen told me to be ready to leave by morning.”

  “Do you think he will harm his sister?” Gabriel asked and gave his head a shake, loosening the wet curls to bounce around his face. “I thought he was searching for her because he truly loved her, but I am unconvinced.”

  “Is unconvinced a word? I thought it was nonconvinced. “

  “That’s not a word.”

  “Oh. Well, I think Nolen will do whatever it takes to earn him favor in Ryker Slade’s eyes, be it harming his sister or no.” Since Mikelle’s arrival in Anatoly, her accent had slipped a little and gained a stronger tone to the point where he sometimes forgot she was foreign until she said a word ending in ‘er’ and gave it an ‘ah’ sound. “Or, we could take matters into our own hands and smother him in his sleep.”

  He gave her another sidelong glance, amused by the serious tone she used, and the comical action she gave of squashing something between her palms. “I would not.”

  “You would not, no. I am not frightened of him.”

  “You should be.” He reached for a towel thrown beside the tub. Mikelle stepped forward to pick it up, but at the last moment stepped back and leaned against the door. He thinned his lips and leaned an arm against the rim of the tub. “Fighting him would be like fighting me.”

  “Not if I can get the jump on him while he sleeps, or poison him perhaps.”

  “Poison is a coward’s tool.”

  She ignored him and tapped a finger on her lips in thought. “He never lets go of that control piece though—sleeps with it as well…so I am told.”

  “I don’t want to know. Give me my towel.”

  “If I could persuade him to let me try it on, I could use your Water Element to strangle him. Though I’ve always wanted to try Fire. Perhaps I could…no, Earth would be terribly interesting. Yet, Spirit is that uncharted Element no one can fully describe.”

  “That’s Void.”

  “No, Spirit is just as wondrous to us who cannot use it.”

  He extended his hand. “Towel, please.”

  “I wonder if I could exchange the control piece if I spent the evening—”

  “Give me the towel.”

  She stopped her nattering and gave him a narrow gaze. “Are you clean?”

  ‘No one listens to a word I say,’ he sighed. Bracing his other arm on the rim of the bath, he pushed himself out, dripping into the floorboards. She stood there with wide eyes, clutching the towel and trying very hard to keep her eyes on his face. Slowly, as if awakening from a dream, she realized she still held his towel and quickly handed it over.

  He wrapped it around his waist and searched for a pair of sleeping trousers. The air was warmer in their adjoining bed chamber where a fire flickered against the far wall. She followed at a distance with a bubbling energy he was finding common in the Arconian women. As he dug through his bag, he felt her slip the excess water off his skin with a Water pattern.

  He pulled on a pair of woolen trousers that synched around the waist and a linen shirt that hung loosely on him. The towel he left on the floor as always.

  Mikelle turned away and vanished behind the door of the washroom, leaving him to put another log on the fire and stoke it until it roared again. She emerged freshly washed, her cheeks pink from the warm bath. He eyed her from a chair, a book on his chest. Mikelle slid between the sheets and pulled the blankets up to her neck.

  “Are you going to sleep on the floor? It’s much warmer under here. Or it could be.” She paused until he looked at her. “I really just want your body heat.”

  He had no retort and was in no mood to be funny, so he stood and joined her silently.

  “I do wish the door had a lock on it,” she whispered as she tucked herself into his side. For once, he did not mind the touch. “I would freeze it shut, but if Nolen wanted in he could break it.” She wrapped an arm around his chest as he put his left under her head.

  “You’ve done this before,” he said quietly.

  “I am no maid, Mage Gabriel.”

  “On a mission like Queen Cathlyn’s, I did not think so.”

  “Arconians do not value chastity like Anatolians do. I’ve bedded three.”

  “I don’t need to know your secrets.”

  “I killed the first one.”

  He looked down at her. “I’ll try not to anger you.”

  She laughed and pulled her arm back. “I won’t be bedding you, so you have no reason to fear me. He was a rather roguish man who sought the arms of other women while professing to be mine.”

  “And that gave you cause to kill him?”

  “Oh yes. It’s very easy to hide a body if you really want.”

  “Please warn me before you kill anyone,” he replied and closed his eyes. If she stayed still, with luck he could fall asleep. Her frame against him was dangerously distracting, but if he thought hard enough about something, he could block her out. ‘Dead puppies….’

  He didn’t need to, as minutes
later they heard loud bootfalls coming down the hall. He braced himself before the door swung open and grimaced, keeping his eyes on the ceiling.

  “Up,” Nolen commanded.

  “Leave us, Nolen. We were about to get into trouble.” Mikelle snapped and rewrapped her arm around his torso.

  “Save it,” Nolen sneered and threw back the sheets on Gabriel’s side. “I said get up.”

  Mikelle clung to Gabriel as he rose and stood before Nolen. The Prince took him by the shoulder and pulled him outside into the cold hall. The hallway was open and banded by a banister railing, so one could look over the edge and see the foyer below. Nolen jerked him away from the railing and tied his hands together behind his back.

  “What is this about?” Mikelle barked as she entered the hall, her fists balled and her face furious.

  “What indeed.” Nolen said quietly. “He embarrassed me before my father and sister by purposely making contact with my eyes. That is a punishable offence.”

  “You already cuffed him for it. Stop this, you are drunk,” she said and tried to grab his arm, but he pushed her back making it clear he was wearing the control piece. Nolen tied Gabriel’s hands to the banister solidly before strapping his ankles to two balusters. He rose and took a step back. “Kneel.”

  “What?” they asked together, both disbelieving. “You’ll pull his shoulders out of their sockets!” Mikelle shouted.

  “If I repeat myself, she will be joining you,” Nolen replied, his voice tight.

  Slowly, Gabriel bent a knee and sank to it. His shoulders stretched and pulled but did not cause him too much distress. “All the way down,” Nolen said, and Gabriel pulled the other leg back and sank down to his ankles. It did not hurt too greatly, though the air was cold and his feet were bare.

  “Stay here all night,” Nolen commanded. “Do not rise or untie yourself. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, Prince Nolen.”

  “You,” he said in Mikelle’s direction, “Will not free him or make any attempt to ease him. If you care to share a warm bed, mine is always open.”

  Mikelle replied in Arconian that she hoped Nolen died by…something Gabriel did not know the word for, but the tone she used and the look she gave said it was unpleasant. Nolen did not seem to understand either, but both men knew what a slamming door meant. Nolen strode away without a word and vanished around a bend in the house, leaving Gabriel in the cold dark.

  Gabriel would have loved a warm bed and a solid night’s rest, but part of him did not care. Minutes passed, and as they grew, a small ache in his shoulders began to form. At first it was only a warm sensation, but it soon turned into a pain that wound down his arms and across his chest.

  He heard a floorboard creek and hoped a servant would not pass and see him so vulnerable, but the soft padding of slippered feet revealed little Princess Kindle carrying a candlestick.

  “Mage Gabriel,” she said in a surprised tone. “What is this now?”

  “What your brother wishes,” he replied and adjusted his knees on the hard floorboards with a wince.

  “This is barbaric,” she said and looked around before returning back down the hall quietly. He returned his gaze to the floor as his eyes readjusted to the darkness, wondering if he could sleep in such a position. But Kindle returned. This time she held a small dirk in her slender hand. “Hold still.”

  Warning flared in him, and he straightened immediately, wishing he hadn’t. “Please don’t. Prince Nolen will make it worse if he found me freed by morning.”

  “You cannot possibly—”

  “Please, Princess Kindle, please do not cut me loose.”

  “Mage Gabriel,” she wined in a defeated tone. “Let me talk with my brother. Perhaps I can bargain with him.” She crouched down. “Does it pain you badly? No? Can you kneel here all night? Why would you?”

  Gabriel took a while to reply. “Your brother has taken everything from me. I have nothing else to fight for.”

  “No, not everything. You still have your wits, and your senses. You can still see and hear and speak. He has not taken your tongue or your fingers, or your ability to function. You have much still to your name.” She stood quickly. “Wait here.” She left tittering, realizing she had said something foolish.

  Kindle returned a few minutes later with a pile of blankets in her arms. “Lift up a knee, now the other,” she said quietly as she slid a plush blanket under them, and she draped two blankets over his shoulders. “Once, Nolen was a nice boy,” she said, crouching to tuck the blankets under his calves. “He was an excellent brother to have, but he was born much stronger than I, and it was all the more evident once he came into his Elements that we would not be equals.”

  “Princess,” Gabriel said to the floor. She put a hand on his chin and raised his eyes to hers with a thin smile. Everything he considered saying slipped away because Kindle already knew, and voicing it could only damn him further. “Thank you for the blankets.”

  “If you wish to chance the ruse, you could always spend the night in my room. I have a large sitting room with a chaise that is not so uncomfortable.”

  “If your brother found me there, he would kill me, Princess.”

  She thinned her lips again and nodded. In the candlelight she looked younger, but her eyes were still hollow and her skin tight. “I have not decided if I will tell him of the Silex.”

  “You must not, if I may be so bold. The power was meant to be hidden. You know Ryker Slade wants it for himself.”

  “Yes, but if Nolen does not fetch it, Ryker will kill him, or me.”

  Gabriel lowered his head again. A sharp pain streaked across his shoulders and made him audibly wince.

  “I am sorry I cannot do more for you,” Kindle whispered, standing. “Would you like the candle?” He shook his head a fraction. She stepped away but stopped before reaching the next door. “Was it you who broke the star above?”

  “Princess, if I had that power...”

  Chapter 12

  The makeshift council in Kilkiny Palace debated for hours until the sun was well set behind the Gray Mountains. Before they could get too far, Casimir took the Arconian Fire Mage and three of his Class Six Mages to Viorica. Queen Challis was surprised to see him, and even more worried that he had come unannounced, but she was happy to join their party. They stopped by Castle Jaden to obtain Councilman Dagan next. Back in Kilkiny, everything had to be discussed or repeated for those who had not been privy to information. Ryker Slade’s actions and whereabouts were first on the list, followed by the uncounted attacks and sightings of numerous specters. They discussed all information concerning Gabriel.

  Casimir wanted to know why so many Arconian Mages were present in the palace. Lady Aisling glossed over it rather quickly, but eventually it came up again, and the true reason revealed. Robyn had sat there in silence, rage rising in her eyes as her face grew red. The silence in the room was palpable, and when Markus leaned back in his creaking chair, half the room turned in alarm.

  “Has he?” Robyn finally whispered.

  “He would not,” Balien replied. “No,” Aisling answered,” and Miranda shook her head with a simple “It is possible.”

  Robyn flicked her sharp brown eyes on the Queen, causing the woman to give a worried smile. “He broke, Princess. There is no telling what has happened between then and now.”

  Casimir moved the conversation as quickly as possible, going into battle tactics for the next morning. Their plan was to send scouts to find Gabriel and Nolen, and once they reached the location of the Silex, Casimir would bring the Mages to wait. Once the sun sank, and they felt their debating had gone on long enough, Casimir dismissed everyone but his Council.

  “This is the first time I have had everyone here to speak with. We find ourselves lacking two Council Members, and we may be without more once this is over.” Casimir looked at Lael who gave a small nod. “We must present potential members, and I would like to rise at least one tonight, if that person is with us. Give yoursel
ves a moment to consider, and we will begin with Lewis.”

  Lewis, the eldest who knew his time would not last forever, submitted a Spirit Mage who trained under him, for every Council needed an expert healer. Galloway suggested Mage Cordis, who knew the man to be just and honest, as well as someone to keep Markus company when the Councilman thought himself amusing. Penny put forth a Fire Mage librarian and an Air Mage attack pattern teacher. Challis suggested an Earth Mage of Cinibar who knew how to find precious materials should Castle Jaden fall on hard times, as well as Mage Gabriel’s name. Markus agreed with Galloway in his choice of Cordis, saying it was more important to have a Mage with control over two Elements.

  Adelaide submitted two Fire Mages who helped her contain the fires and a Water Mage who understood the forbidden patterns and old regimes of Slade’s time. Aisling voiced she would accept Cordis on the Council, and she had her eye on Mage Malain before his capture, if he were still hale enough to lead. She also would see Gabriel on the Council if everything went according to plan. Dagan put forward the same librarian as Penny, and nodded his head at the suggestion for Cordis. He suggested a young man as well who had taken down two specters with his Air Element.

  It fell to Lael next; he hated the Novaculas as much as any man, and agreed for Cordis, knowing the man would agree with him in politics. Lael was deft in manipulation, and sometimes even Casimir did not know when Lael was working his skills. He disagreed with the librarian, saying he had too much to lose if Ryker got his hooks in him. He would also see Mage Malain on the Council.

  Lastly it came to Casimir. “It seems we have already reached a decision on Mage Cordis. I had my sights on that man for a while and was most wroth to see him vanish. He knows the hardships of any poverty-stricken man while having the education to handle the worst of situations. The vote must be unanimous, so lower your heads and raise a finger if you approve.” He counted each person raised a finger, all but Adelaide. He expected she would disagree, as she did with most things. They moved to debate why the man would make a valuable asset as Councilman, seeing what he had to offer in wealth and knowledge and skills. By the second voting, Adelaide was convinced, and Cordis was raised in word. It would be done in deed later.