“You drink like a man girl. You want to be careful. Keverin is notorious for keeping the best in his cellars. It might be too strong for you.”
Julia knew he meant well, but the advice irritated her. Everyone was very free with their advice, but would they listen to her? Of course not! She drank her second glass almost as quickly as the first and refilled it herself this time.
Purcell’s brows lowered. “Don’t do it for spite, Lady. You will only embarrass yourself in front of our host. If you are truly thirsty you should try some of the Pella juice.”
“Our host has no care or regard where I am concerned. I could fall asleep right here and he wouldn’t notice.”
“That is where you are wrong Julia. Keverin always has you in the forefront of his thoughts. You will learn that when I say something, you can lay gold on it being true.”
“Forgive me Purcell, I did not mean to suggest—”
“Do not concern yourself. I’m feeling a might grouchy. I have bad days too you know,” Purcell said a silly grin on his face.
Julia could not keep a straight face and giggled like a child. She drowned her hilarity in more wine, but laughter was bubbling just below the surface. Maybe the wine was a little strong for her. She was feeling a little hot and knew her face must be flushed.
“Tell me,” Julia said after eating a bite of her food hoping it would reduce the effect of the wine. “What is your impression of the Hasians?”
“Good fighters,” Purcell said instantly.
“So are you. What I meant was, why are they waiting? I thought it might be because they need more mages or reinforcements for all the men they lost.”
“Nasty thought that,” Purcell said frowning in thought. “I had assumed the sorcerers needed to recover themselves after tearing the wall down, but they’ve had plenty of time for that.”
“So you don’t know? Does anyone?”
“I know Gy doesn’t, and if Keverin did he would have told me.”
Julia drank a little Pella juice. “Mathius tried to use the mirror for me not long ago, but he hasn’t had much practise. He says the legion camp is warded against his scrying, but I think it’s more likely he doesn’t know how to use the mirror properly.”
“I heard that!” Mathius said mock glaring at her from his place on her other side. “I’ve seen the mirror used countless times.”
“But you were never taught,” Julia said. “Am I right?”
“You have the right of it,” Mathius reluctantly agreed.
Julia swallowed another sip of juice. She was becoming partial to Pella, it was like peaches and honey. “I can’t use a mirror either you know. It makes me wonder what they’re up to down there. Mathius’ friends seem to have spent most of their time trying to learn what the library had to teach them as individuals. They never tried to help each other.”
“You can’t blame them for that. It takes a lot of time and work to learn how to use our magic. Everyone guards their knowledge jealously because of that.”
“But that’s silly! If you taught the children at an early age how to use it wisely, Athione and Deva wouldn’t be in this situation now.”
“Darius said much the same thing,” Mathius admitted. “He thought I was lucky because my father taught me the dangers while on the road with him.”
“Hmmm, it doesn’t surprise me that Darius thought that way,” Purcell said. “He was a wise man. The Protectorate is the only country that formally trains its mages, and you can see how they have benefited from it.”
“Lord Keverin should be combing the countryside looking for boys to train in the craft,” Mathius said thoughtfully.
“I agree,” Julia said and Purcell nodded.
“Devarr was built by the Founders so they might seek their own way forward separate from those on the Black Isle,” Mathius said in his lecturing voice. “The Histories say that both groups were friendly for centuries before finally losing touch. Children grew up learning magical theory so that when they came of age they knew how to use their power and only needed to gain experience.”
“Makes sense to me,” Julia said.
Julia knew next to nothing about magical theory, but what she did know didn’t work for her. She had to make do with what she learned by trial and error. None of her patients had died because of it—she didn’t think they had. Those who died would have died anyway—she hoped.
“Were all the children taught? Surely some of the boys were born without the gift.”
Mathius shrugged. “I don’t know. I suspect they taught everyone equally.”
“Must have,” Purcell said. “How would the Founders have known who had the gift before the children came of age?”
Julia wasn’t so sure. “I wonder.”
“What?” Both men said.
“Well you see, I might know how they did it. When I healed Mathius there was a blue light in his aura. It was beautiful—like a sapphire all lit up. Renard has it as well, though—” she broke of frowning. Renard hadn’t recovered from his trance. The light in his aura was dull and lifeless, unlike Mathius’ and, she now suspected, hers. “Anyway, none of the guardsmen has anything like that. Certainly those I healed haven’t.”
“And you think what... the light is the gift?” Mathius said intrigued by the idea.
“What else could it be?”
“It does make a kind of sense, but a school for mages won’t happen until the Hasians pack up and leave. If then,” Purcell pointed out.
In Julia’s opinion there was no chance of running the Hasians off. The Gap prevented anything of the sort, but even if it hadn’t been there, going into the pass where lots of mages and soldiers waited to kill her was not her idea of fun.
Julia finished the main course and followed it with a small desert made with fruits of wildly varying tastes and colours. The wine mixing with the juices from the fruit seemed to do strange things with her eyes, and she had trouble focusing on those around her. She found herself viewing the world with her mage-sight with no memory of invoking it. She smiled dreamily at all the strange patterns that made themselves known to her. People were so complex. She had no chance of understanding their patterns, but then that was true in the real world too. She never had understood why they did what they did, but in this place—this realm of healing, she could see other patterns. Her sight was unfocused, the wine had affected her more than she had thought. She could see the patterns were everywhere. The wood of the table had a distinctly different pattern from the marble floor, and the crystals of the chandeliers were amazing.
“Fractals,” Julia whispered gazing at the sparkling lights.
“Are you all right?” Mathius said.
Julia giggled. “Shee the pretty cryshals?”
Mathius looked up and frowned. “What about them?”
“Everything ish made of patternsh do you shee... see? The crystals are all... fractaly!” She giggled.
You are drunk miss Morton!
She was. Julia knew that she was, but it didn’t seem to matter. “I wash going to be famoush,” she said slurring the words. “I tell you that?”
“Help me with her m’lord. I don’t want anyone to see her like this. It’s the strain and—”
“I understand lad.”
Julia found herself sandwiched between two men, one huge like a giant, the other slender as a beanpole. Together they hastened to leave the great hall. People hailed Julia and she smiled at them. She would have stopped for a chat but her legs wouldn’t obey her—they insisted on walking out of the hall, or was it Mathius who insisted?
“Yes lady, I’m sure that can be arranged,” Mathius said loudly.
“Of course!” Purcell boomed with false cheer.
“Famoush... I’m going to win the... win the ‘ympics for me mum,” she said or thought she did.
“Not a word of this to anyone. Not even the lord or I’ll—I’ll do something to you!”
“Be nice Mathius and don’t threaten me,” Moriz said. “The
Lady has nothing to fear while we are near.”
“Cursed right!” Halbert put in
“Moriz my friend,” Julia said trying to go to him. “Halbert too... where are yooo,” she giggled and found herself hoisted into the air. “Whoa! I’m flying,” she giggled and couldn’t seem to stop.
“Go back in m’lord, you too Mathius if you would. We will see to The Lady.”
Purcell rumbled something but Julia couldn’t understand what he said. Then suddenly she was in bed and wondering how she came to be there, but she was so tired it didn’t seem important. Julia sighed and went to sleep dreaming of patterns and blazing crystals made of magic.
The next morning Julia was invited to attend a meeting with Keverin and his friends to discuss the situation with the invaders in the pass below Athione. Keverin had requested Julia’s presence through his mother, because Julia wasn’t talking to him of course, but so far Julia hadn’t added anything to the conversation. As far as she could see she was wasting time better spent in the library… not that she had found what she was looking for in the books. Jessica said that Keverin valued her as a mage, which meant he wanted her to sit quiet and look pretty, which is exactly what she was doing—sitting quiet that is. She shook her head slightly in exasperation, and Keverin noticed. She stared blandly back at him as if she’d done no such thing. He frowned in puzzlement and turned back to the argument. She would like to do more than make him frown, she would like to box his ears for him! It was because of him that Moriz and Halbert were standing outside waiting to dog her steps when she left—just as they had done for the last tenday.
Tenday! She was starting to think in Devan now!
A month after her arrival at Athione, she was starting to think that she would never find the answer. She had read perhaps a third of the titles the library contained and only understood one in ten of them. No matter, she didn’t have to understand the theories the books contained to realise they had nothing to do with building gates. If the Gap hadn’t prevented her, she might well have visited the sorcerers to ask for their help. No, she couldn’t do that. Keverin wouldn’t like it.
Screw Keverin, I want to go home!
Ever since her visit to East Town and their big argument upon her return, Julia had made a point of ignoring Keverin when they met in the halls. Where before he would say a few inconsequential words before hastily taking his leave of her, now it was she leaving him standing there. Julia smiled secretly to herself. By giving him the cold shoulder she had achieved what she had once wanted—Keverin’s notice, but her aims had changed since then. She no longer had anything to say to the man. He was an arrogant, sexist, conceited, high and mighty, stuck up... man!
“...and run them off by the God!”
“Agreed, but the fact remains that the Gap prevents us.”
“For the God’s sake Gy!” Purcell said in exasperation. “You’ve said that ten times already. Can you not say something new?”
Julia heartily agreed.
She had been a little shy with Purcell at their first meeting. She had heard the stories told of him—that he went berserk in a fight, that he was as strong as ten men and drank more than all of them together. She thought that he would be an unintelligent bully. She couldn’t have been more wrong. Although Purcell’s size at seven feet was imposing, she had found him good natured and insightful. Gylaren on the other hand, came across as an intelligent man right off the mark, but he tended to belabour the obvious. She had known a boy at school like that once. He was a genius academically, but socially he tended to lecture people. What Gylaren needed was someone to point that out to him. Like the boy at her school, he might suddenly become more popular.
“I was only saying—”
“We know what you were saying my lord!” Julia snapped. “Forgive me if I seem rude, but you were not here. I was desperate. I’m not sorry the Gap is there because without it we would be dead!”
“Lady Julia, you misunderstand me,” Gylaren said stiffly.
“I don’t believe I do. You want the Gap to un-happen so that you can go thundering down the road and kill another four thousand people—all because God is on your side. Well let me tell you something! God is on everyone’s side! You might find the enemy stronger and instead of killing them you will kill all of us!”
“That is quite enough Julia,” Keverin said coldly.
Julia turned her annoyance on her real target. “Do you think so? Let me tell you something, I... will... not... allow... my friends to die because you can’t see sense!”
“You will not allow?” Keverin said with his head cocked to one side as if tasting a strange flavour. “You dare dictate to me in my own fortress!” He roared.
Julia jumped in surprise at his roar, but he couldn’t scare her that easily. Why couldn’t the fool see? The Hasians couldn’t get in, so why go out to die? Keverin glanced awkwardly at the other lords. They were busy pretending not to have heard him shouting at a woman.
“Your friends they may be Lady, but they are my people. They look to me for protection and just governance, and I can do nothing for them. They look to me, and I...” he looked away and sighed. “I look to you.”
Gylaren eyed each other and shifted uncomfortably. They were not happy with such plain speaking and wished to be elsewhere. To see any lord brought so low was a thing they wished not to see. Much worse to see a Lord Protector in such straights.
The creak of Keverin’s chair broke the silence. “I know you think me addled for trying to hold this pile of stone, but that’s because you are a woman—No! Let me finish.”
Julia closed her mouth, and nodded.
“Thank you,” Keverin said dryly. “If we evacuate Athione, the sorcerers would be across the Gap as quick as that,” he said clicking his fingers. “I don’t know how these things are done on your world Lady, but here a rope bridge would be strung across. General Navarien and his men would take Athione in mere candlemarks.”
Keverin stood and poured wine for each of them. Julia drank hers in one breath so she might have another. Keverin blinked in surprise and refilled her glass. Julia took her time with it and ignored Keverin’s frown. He shrugged slightly in annoyance at his preoccupation and replaced the decanter in the cabinet.
“Athione is a tool,” Keverin mused. “I might love this place and its people, but I still know that. It has but one purpose—defend Deva from enemies in the west. If I evacuate, Athione would be occupied and the invasion proper would be launched. Athione would make a strong base for the Hasians to continue their campaign.”
The other two lords nodded in agreement.
“I cannot leave, and I cannot sit and wait. The sorcerers are still out there,” Keverin finished waving a hand vaguely toward the pass.
Julia was confused. If they didn’t want her to bridge the Gap as she had assumed, what then did they want? Gylaren was complaining about not being able to reach the Hasians, and now Keverin seemed to be agreeing with him.
“Then... why am I here?” Julia said in confusion.
“I wanted to ask you whether it would be possible for you to... remove the sorcerers.”
I flaming well knew it!
“Remove?” Julia said coldly. “You mean kill don’t you?”
“Yes. I do mean kill,” Keverin said.
Gritting her teeth to stop herself from saying what she thought of him, Julia took a deep breath to calm herself. Her hand was clenched so tight on her glass that she feared she might break it. She finished the wine and carefully placed it on Keverin’s desk.
“Remember what I said at the east gate, Lord Keverin? I meant that! I’m not your little assassin. You can’t take me out of a box when someone needs killing. No, not again. I can’t—I won’t!”
“I see,” Keverin said as he sat back behind his desk. “Then we have nothing further to discuss. Athione will fall and Deva will follow.”
“That’s not fair!” Julia cried in outrage. “You can’t put this on me!”
Kev
erin slammed his hand down on the desk. “Fair? What is fair? Was it fair that Darius died to bring you here? Was it fair that a third of my guardsmen lie dead? Nothing about this is fair! Wake up and look around woman! We are desperate! What, did you think that because I don’t go wailing through the corridors and beating my chest in woe that we have nothing to fear?”
“Forgive me,” Julia said in a small voice. “You must think me very stupid. You are right, I did think of you as calm and that the worst was over because of that.”
“It’s bad for morale if the men see me looking worried. After a while it becomes second nature not to show it.”
Gylaren spoke quietly, and to Julia’s ears in a patronising voice. “No one thinks you stupid, Lady. Young and inexperienced perhaps, but not stupid. You do not know our world, or have the experience of war a man would have. These stupid attempts to cross the Gap only cost the Hasians lives. They might as well go home while we stay behind these walls, but that is precisely what we cannot do. The sorcerers haven’t resumed their attack yet, and although it makes no sense to us, I can assure you that it does to them.
“They will attack us Lady, of that I have no doubt. Before that happens we need to kill the sorcerers. If we don’t do that, if we simply rely upon the Gap to stop their men, a mage, you, will have to defend us against their magic. With us unable to respond, you will have to keep the Hasians at bay for years, or until they leave.”
Julia could see it all too well. The Protectorate was bigger than Deva. It had much greater resources. Deva on the other hand was a kingdom without a government fracturing into smaller… duchies she supposed they were. Each lord would rule his lands as if he were a king. That was no way to resist an invasion; even she could see it, but to kill even more people… where would it end?
“I can’t,” Julia said quietly. “I’ll help with something else. Anything else, but I can’t kill more people. Please... please understand.”
“I understand that this meeting is over,” Keverin said and slammed out of the room.
Devan Chronicles Series: Books 1-3 Page 24
