“Why do you want to join our ranks?” he asked, still glaring at me suspiciously.
My answer to Hugo this morning hadn’t been the right one. I had realized that the moment I spoke the words out loud. I had spent hours on the cart thinking about an answer that would be better, so I didn’t hesitate when he asked. “That’s between me and the Red God.”
I wasn’t sure if this would be the right answer—if there even was a right answer—but the man grunted and shrugged. He motioned at the other guard to open the gate. “Hugo, I assume you will stay in our guest quarters tonight?”
“If I may, Cullyn,” Hugo said.
“Certainly.” The Red Priest nodded at the merchant, then turned back toward me. “Come,” he snapped, his entire demeanor changing.
Reluctantly, I traced after the Red Priest, who was apparently called Cullyn. The gate opened and Hugo’s cart rode inside, hobbling over the cobblestones decorating the courtyard of the Red Keep.
My breath got stuck in my throat, and my hands instantly grew sweaty. The Red Priests would be on to me in seconds. Cullyn was already suspicious. Everyone would be suspicious as soon as they saw the mark on my forehead.
Stupid, stupid Sebastian for getting me into this.
I glanced around, taking in my surroundings. The Keep had a traditional build; four buildings surrounded the courtyard, one of them the gatehouse. At least a dozen tall, gothic windows stared at me from the dwellings, and I wondered what secrets were hidden behind those windows. Several doors on the downstairs level had wooden signs next to them, indicating where they led. The utter-left door had a sign saying ‘guest quarters’, so I assumed that was where Hugo would spend the night.
The merchant was busy unloading the cart, but he stopped occasionally to smile at me.
My stomach ached at the thought that soon I would have to complete the rest of my mission without him.
“Hurry up,” Cullyn snapped at me. “Don’t stand there like a fool.”
I held my head down and balled my fists. I had never met anyone who was so downright rude in my entire life, especially when given no reason to be rude. With Cullyn, it seemed as if he had decided he wanted to hate me from the moment he first laid eyes upon me.
Reluctantly, I followed the Red Priest, waving at Hugo. The merchant looked up at me, a melancholic smile crossing his features. I could practically hear his thoughts. My offer still stands, girlie.
I wanted nothing more than to take the merchant up on his offer and have him take me back home tomorrow morning. But that would only result in Sebastian joining the Red Priests’ ranks instead of me, and I couldn’t let him do that, so I dragged my feet while following Cullyn, my heart hammering in my chest.
We crossed the square and entered through one of the doors. The first room we entered was a large entrance hall, dominated by gargantuan wooden stairs, covered in red carpet, leading to the second floor. Cullyn led me to the right, into a scarcely illuminated hallway with at least a dozen doors lined up on each side. I gaped at everything—at the torches lighting up the walls, at the crisscross pattern of stone on the floor, at the rounded ceiling—and barely kept up with Cullyn. The Red Priest sighed out loud, obviously annoyed by my stalling.
As we rounded the corner into an almost identical hallway, I asked him, “Where are we going?”
“To see the High Priestess, of course.” He rolled his eyes. “She decides who we accept as an acolyte and who we turn down.”
“I didn’t know you turned people down…”
Cullyn stopped so abruptly I nearly bumped into him. He turned around, his eyes as dark as the sky on a starless night. “When we get to the High Priestess’ chambers, I recommend you keep your mouth shut, and only open it when the High Priestess wants to ask you a question.”
My heart slammed against my ribcage. If Cullyn was this bad, then what would the High Priestess be like?
I nodded, showing him I understood.
Cullyn continued, and I trailed behind him, my blood rate increasing with every step I took. The last time I had been this terrified was ten years ago, when that Red Priestess branded my forehead with the mark that locked up my magic.
After walking for about fifteen minutes down the labyrinthine halls of the Red Keep, we eventually made it to a hallway with a larger door at the end.
Cullyn headed straight for the door.
My ears rang, and I had trouble breathing. These Red Priests filled me with fear on a good day, and now I was surrounded by the lot of them. For the thousandth time today, I wished I had never met Reyna or the Brotherhood of Whispers, and that I was safe at home with my brother.
Cullyn knocked on the door, waited for the High Priestess to respond, and then opened the door, gesturing for me to walk in.
The first thing I noticed was the size of the office. It was larger than I had expected. The center of the room was dominated by an oversized oak desk and bookcases leaned against the walls, filled to the brim with leather-bound tomes. Two tall, arched windows allowed light to stream into the room.
Behind the desk sat a woman wearing a red robe covered in runes similar to the one disfiguring my forehead that had been weaved into the fabric.
I couldn’t say for sure, but I had the sickening feeling this was the same woman who had slit Aife’s throat in the market square of Bellhaven, just a little over two weeks ago.
The woman looked up from a staple of papers she was reading. Blood-red eyes gazed into mine, and I stumbled back, startled.
Besides her creepy eyes, the woman was beautiful. She had a small, elegant face, full lips, and porcelain skin. I estimated her about forty years old, but with the strange eye color, it was hard to tell—I could usually estimate someone’s age by looking at their eyes.
“Who is this?” the High Priestess asked, obviously talking about me, but addressing Cullyn.
“A new acolyte,” Cullyn replied, not bothering to hide his disdain.
“Hm.” The woman pursed her lips. She motioned for me to come closer. I counted at least three rings, two of those in gold, the other a bright red ruby, on her fingers.
The woman analyzed me from head to toe, her gaze lingering on the rune on my forehead. “I’m Altheia, the High Priestess,” she introduced herself. “Who are you?”
“Saleyna Loxley,” I replied.
“Where do you live?” The High Priestess crossed her hands, glancing at me curiously.
“Bellhaven.” I figured telling the truth was the safest option for now.
“Bellhaven.” Altheia let the name roll off her tongue. “I was there, not too long ago, for a magic-wielder hiding her powers.”
I cleared my throat. “I know. I saw.” It was hard to keep a straight face while my heart was trying to jump out of my chest.
“And what did you think?” Altheia asked. Her face betrayed no emotion except mild curiosity.
What kind of question was that—and more importantly, what kind of answer could I possibly give?
“I…” I struggled to find the right words.
“Be honest,” the High Priestess warned.
“I’m not fond of executions, nor being forced to watch them,” I said eventually, because it was true, and because I had a feeling that if I lied, this woman would pick up on it right away.
“Hm.” Altheia leaned back in her seat. “No one is, unless you have an evil streak. I dislike executions, too.”
She certainly hadn’t looked that way when she had paraded on the stage in Bellhaven, or when she had cut Aife’s throat, without a moment’s hesitation.
“But they’re a necessary evil, I’m afraid.” Altheia shoved her seat back and got up. She walked toward me, her long robes gliding behind her. “What is your stance on magic, child?”
I was not a child—I stopped being one the moment my mother screamed until her throat was raw as she was being destroyed from the inside-out by the magic that had been in our family for generations.
It took all my willpower not to
look away when the High Priestess approached me. I kept my hands balled into fists, standing as straight as I could. Don’t show them fear. Never.
“Magic caused the Great Famine,” I said, remembering what Hugo had told me. “We can never let anything like that happen again.”
“So, you agree magic must be bound?” The High Priestess halted in front of me. She towered over me; when she was sitting down, I hadn’t noticed how tall she was, but now she seemed like a giantess.
“If that is what it takes, yes.” I still hadn’t said anything that wasn’t true.
Altheia lowered her head until she was at eye-level with me. “Why do you want to join us, become a Red Priest?”
I licked my lips. “That is between me and the Red God.”
The woman blinked slowly, trying to gauge my intentions, I assumed. Then, after staring into my eyes for several minutes, she pulled back and whirled around. “Very well. Cullyn, bring Saleyna to one of the acolyte cells and hand her some robes. Her training will begin tomorrow.”
Cullyn grimaced but bowed his head. “Yes, High Priestess.”
He moved to the door, and I turned to follow him, but then, the High Priestess said one more thing. “Saleyna Loxley of Bellhaven. I hope you don’t disappoint us.”
I gulped, but before I could even formulate a response, Cullyn grabbed my arm and roughly pulled me onto the hallway.
My stomach felt hollow, as if my insides had been carved out and I had become an empty vessel.
Cullyn shut the door to the High Priestess’ office and strode down the hallway.
As I chased after him, I realized that Reyna’s assumptions hadn’t been accurate at all. I wasn’t just walking into the belly of the beast, and it was far from the safest place for someone of my kind to hide. Everyone here loathed me and my kind, and they would do everything they could to bring me down as soon as the opportunity arose, even the High Priestess. And honestly, what else had the Brotherhood of Whispers expected?
My one advantage was the Red Priests’ own arrogance; never, not in a thousand years, would they suspect their runes were failing and that some of us still had access to our powers, albeit limited.
I contemplated this while Cullyn escorted me through the hallways. After what seemed like an eternity, he paused in front of a door, opened it and walked in. I followed him, gasping as I saw how small the room was. Claustrophobically small, barely one meter wide and two meters long. The only furniture in the room was a bed.
“What’s wrong, magic-girl?” Cullyn sneered. “Too tiny for your liking? Obviously, you’re used to more luxurious quarters.”
I shot him an angry look but didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of replying.
Cullyn’s smirk vanished when he couldn’t draw a response from me. “I will come back with your robes.” He rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
With the door closed, the room seemed even smaller. Like a prison cell, potentially even worse. The only window was so narrow I couldn’t even look through it. I tried to breathe, but it seemed as if there wasn’t enough oxygen in the miniscule cell to fill my lungs.
I sat down on the edge of my bed, keeping my head between my knees. The room is not that small, I told myself. There’s enough oxygen in here for five people, if not more. This is just your claustrophobia speaking.
As I finally started to get control of my air flow again, tears stung in the corners of my eyes, and I cursed Sebastian for the thousandth time that day, cursed him for forcing me to come here, to the last place on earth I wanted to be, and surrounded by the very people who despised my kind.
Stupid, stupid Sebastian.
Chapter Six
Cullyn appeared again about half an hour later, and brought me my robes, some bread and a bowl of water. He didn’t say anything as he dropped them off, turned on his heel and disappeared, locking the door behind him.
I put the robes on. The fabric was crude, the color a dull grey. I guessed you were only allowed to wear the red robes once you were a full-fledged Red Priest, and that the acolytes had to wear grey. After a few hours, I ate a piece of the bread—it was so dry I nearly broke my teeth on it.
Even if I wanted to escape to Hugo, Cullyn had locked the door. There was no way out. Once one signed up as an acolyte to the Red God, there was no going back.
The room had no candles in it, so as soon as the sun sunk behind the horizon, it was pitch-dark inside the cell. I lay down on the bed, pulling the covers up to my neck. Besides being as dark as the pits of hell, it was also freezing cold.
I had never missed my own bed, my own room, more than in those moments.
After tossing from side to side over half an hour, trying to fall asleep, I realized I must have fallen asleep somehow after all, because I had transported from my tiny cell to an even worse place: a cage.
The cage was suspended in the air with iron chains. A storm raged outside the cage; that was the only way to describe it. Thunder, lightning, rain…beyond the cage, I could see nothing but the storm, no matter where I looked. The storm raged up, below, left and right, surrounding me.
“Who are you?”
I hadn’t noticed the man inside the cage with me, so I practically jumped out of my skin when he spoke.
He wore black leather pants and a matching black shirt. His eyes were as dark as a bottomless well. He was beautiful—not just handsome, but beautiful. If the most talented artist of the Seven Kingdoms combined the best traits of the handsomest men in the Kingdoms into one statue of perfection, that statue wouldn’t even be half as beautiful as this man was.
I was so busy staring at him I forgot to answer his question. “Uhm…” I said eventually, struggling to find the words. What was it he had asked again?
“Who are you?” he repeated.
“I’m Saleyna.” I still couldn’t tear my gaze away from him. At first, his beauty had made me overlook it, but upon closer inspection, I saw the marks across his face and neck, similar to the rune on my forehead, except he was completely covered in them. The faint lines of the runes looked like a piece of art, making him look even more breathtaking.
“Who are you?” I asked. My mind felt clouded, overwhelmed. I knew this was a dream—it had to be—but it still felt very real.
“I’m Veritas.” He seemed as entranced by me as I was by him. “How did you get here?”
I shook my head, keeping eye-contact with this mysterious man who was no doubt the most beautiful specimen I had met in my entire life. “I don’t know. One moment, I was sleeping, and the next…”
“You ended up here,” he finished my sentence for me. His gaze traveled up to my forehead. “You’re a mage.” He didn’t say it with disdain, as the Red Robes had; he was merely stating a fact.
“Yes, I am.” I didn’t bother denying it.
“Then that explains how you got here,” he said, although to me it didn’t explain anything. “I like your name.” The smirk on his face made an armada of butterflies tumble around in my belly.
“Thank… thank you,” I struggled to say. “You… your markings.”
It wasn’t a question, but somehow, he still managed to figure out what I meant. “To keep my magic locked up, same as yours,” he explained.
“But there are so many…” I kept on staring at him, like a lovesick teenager who had never seen a man before in her life.
“The Red Priests struggled to keep my magic locked up, which is why they also imprisoned me in here.” Here, in a cage surrounded by a storm.
I had never heard of anything like this. Of anyone so strong and powerful that he had to be branded multiple times just to contain his magic. I stared at the stranger—at Veritas—in awe.
“It’ll be dawn soon,” Veritas said. “Not that anything ever changes down here, but I can feel it.”
“Is this place real? This isn’t just a dream?” I frowned.
“It’s real, all right. But it’s not on the same plane as the rest of your world is, mage. It
’s in the In-Between.”
What the heck is the In-Between?
Before I could ask him, Veritas shook his head. “You’ll wake up soon. You must come find me, Saleyna. Not in this world, but in yours. Find the In-Between and find me. You’re my only hope.”
As he looked at me, his eyes shining brighter than diamonds, despite their dark, infinite color, I wanted nothing more than to help him. I had to help him. He needed me.
But helping him, a magic-wielder who was also, apparently, extremely powerful, could jeopardize my entire mission. It could mean I had to risk my own life.
Before I could ask how I should find this In-Between, I woke up.
The storm clouds were replaced by the brown stone of my cell, Veritas was replaced by a sullen-looking Cullyn, and the cage was replaced by my bed.
“Time to get up,” Cullyn said harshly. He looked as if he would rather spend an eternity in the slave mines of the Empire than spend a day tutoring me.
As I got up and followed Cullyn, my mind lingered on the stranger—Veritas. Had he been telling the truth? If a magic-wielder so powerful existed, maybe he was the key to solving all this, to overthrowing the Red Priests, to making sure magic was only used scarcely so another Great Famine could be avoided? The key to saving myself, my brother and the entire Brotherhood of Whispers?
Or had it all been a dream, after all?
“I don’t have all day,” Cullyn complained while I tried to keep up with him as best as I could. “Your training starts today, so hurry up.”
My stomach knotted from worry about my ‘training’ starting today.
Whether Veritas was the key to solving all my magic-related problems or not, all I knew was that I had to keep my magic a secret at all costs. No one could find out; as soon as Cullyn or one of the other Red Priests had the faintest idea I still had access to my powers, they would execute me before I could even try to persuade them otherwise.
I had to keep my magic hidden and refrain from using my powers, no matter what.
Hidden Magic Page 70
