by J. P. Larson
"Yes, Ruby. If you're sure it's okay."
"It's fine, Garrison. Just a little privacy. I know it's strange to ask for privacy in a public room, but we're just going to drink our cider then be on our way."
"If you're sure," he said. A moment later, he was gone, somewhere in back.
"Well, where were we?" I asked.
"I believe I was about to call you an idiot," Eva said. "Idiot."
"Idiot," agreed Lunia and Loralai in turn.
She stepped closer. "Have you taken a new lover?"
"No."
And then she stepped straight into me, clasped the back of my head, and lifted my lips for a deep, deep kiss.
I wasn't expecting it, and it took me a moment, but I wrapped my arms around her. We held each other tightly long after the kiss ended.
"You don't hate me?" I asked.
"I am so angry at you, Kia. Two years. Two years apart! You shouldn't have done this to us!"
"I should have let her throw me in the army?"
She separated, and she handed me to Loralai, who turned me around and hugged me as deeply as Eva and Lunia had.
"That wasn't their plan," Eva said when finally I faced her again.
"Well, Quartain made sure that's what I would believe," I said. "If they had a different plan, I gave her ample opportunity to share it."
"Sit," Eva said, and a moment later, we all cradled our cider.
We sat quietly, drinking from our cider for a moment before I asked, "It is Adept Eva, isn't it? I presume you turned adept two years ago."
"I did," she said. "But it's not adept." She smiled. "You may call me Magus Eva."
I stared at her. "Congratulations. So fast."
"I was deeply motivated," she said. "You don't think they send a new adept out to find a missing sorceress when our best can't find her."
"If they couldn't find me, they weren't looking very hard."
Lunia chuckled. "It helps if they look in the right country."
"It was harder than you might think," Eva said. "We searched four countries for you."
"That's a big search. I presume someone finally accepted reward money."
"No one since those first few weeks," Eva said.
"Then how?"
She smiled. "The queen taught me a new spell," she said. "It turns out I'm pretty good at farsight. I looked for apple orchards."
I sighed. "I'm that predictable?"
"It wasn’t easy," she said. "I learned that spell last summer, and it's taken me hours a day, every day until about three weeks ago. I combed Roltaria, Heltan, and then finally Haltorda until I found your orchard."
"I could have been in a town somewhere."
"The queen had that covered," Eva replied.
"So much effort for one wayward healer. She must really be angry. Did Cardartina get her boat back?"
"She did," Eva said. "She was not pleased with you, but the queen paid her off from your funds."
I finished my cider. "Will you allow me to at least leave the village with dignity?"
"Aren't you going to invite us to visit your home?"
I studied her for a moment. "Sure," I said. "Care to see my little hovel?"
"We would love to," Eva replied. "Are you going to do anything foolish, Kia?"
"I couldn't beat a magus, Eva," I replied. “I haven’t been able to beat you for a long time, and you’ve had two years to entirely surpass me.”
"You beat a senior magus," she pointed out.
"She wasn't ready for me. I already said I'd go quietly. I'm asking you to leave the people here alone, and I'd hope to be offered a little dignity, at least until we're out of Renway."
"Do you really think I'd hurt the people here?"
"Of everyone who might be hunting for me, you three are the last I expected. So, I guess I don't know what to expect."
"You expected me to give up on us? Just like that?"
I didn't say anything. Finally, Eva sighed. "I need you to promise to behave at least until we get to your little farm."
"You'd believe me without a little magic to enforce it?"
"Of course, I would."
"I'll behave, Magus Eva," I said.
She smiled. "Thank you, Adept Kia."
"Excuse me?" I said. "I don't believe I completed the exam."
"Apparently, Senior Magus Quartain can elevate anyone she wants to adept, with the queen's signature. Congratulations." She climbed to her feet and gestured towards the door.
They were trusting, but they weren't that trusting. We stepped outside, and I watched Eva assemble a spell. I didn't recognize it, although I could see all the magic, or thought I could.
"I promised to behave," I muttered. "What is it?"
"Hush," she said. It took her five minutes to finish it, and we got some looks while she was doing it. When she was done, I saw three intertwined Mobius strips, and I didn't recognize the rest of it. I stood still while she settled it around me. It moved in and made itself at home.
"What is it?" I asked again. "Obedience spell?"
"Tracking," she said. "I'm not going through another two years of looking for you, and you won't dispel that one."
"Fine," I said. "Whatever."
"Don't be angry, Kia," she said.
"I said I'd go quietly."
"Then you shouldn't care."
"You've become more like Quartain, I see." I walked to my horses, but Loralai stepped ahead of me and assumed control of them.
"We'll walk," Eva said.
"You have horses somewhere," I said.
"We'll walk," she said again.
"Fine." I turned towards the farm and let them scramble to catch up. With my short legs, that wasn't difficult.
It was a twenty-minute walk, and I wasn't in a talkative mood anymore. They tried to draw me out, but I wasn't very pleased with Eva. She'd gone to a great deal of effort to find me, then just like Magus Erin had eleven years ago, she'd tagged me with a tracking spell.
"Why are you acting so sullen?" she finally asked.
"Oh gee, I don't know," I said. "You helped them find me. You came to haul me back to suffer I don't know what punishment. And then you are treating me just the same way Magus Erin did. I wonder why I might have unhappy memories of that."
She didn't respond immediately but when she did, her voice was subdued. "You're jumping to conclusions, although I didn't think about the similarities to how you originally came to Northmere. I'm sorry about that."
"Whatever," I said.
They were quiet after that, and a few minutes later, we stepped onto my farm.
"I'll see to the animals," Loralai said. "Where do you want your gear?"
I glanced at my paddock. There were eight unfamiliar horses there. "I'm not sure it's going to matter, is it?" I sighed. "Leave everything in the barn. I usually unpack out there to keep any field animals out of the house, as much as I can. If I'm still here to unpack it, I'll worry about it all in a day or two. I doubt it's going to matter."
None of them said anything. Loralai headed for the barn, and I turned to the house. "Will you tell me who is here?"
"No," she said. "But there is no reason to be afraid."
"Said the woman holding the tracking spell," I said. "You're not the one about to get hauled back to face punishment."
"Do you distrust me that much? Do you think I'd have helped them find you if I thought that was going to happen?"
"You helped them find me, Eva!" I said firmly. "You helped them! Do you know what they're going to do to me when they get their hands on me?"
"Yes, I do," she said. "You, however, do not."
"Oh please. I had nine years of Quartain and her games, and if you believe some claptrap from her that this ends well for me, then you're as naïve as I was. And the queen is no better. She looked me straight in the eye and made promises to me, but she had no intention of keeping them. All of them played me since the day Erin found me, and now you’re helping them."
Eva and I
looked at each other for a moment before she said, "Well, we can argue out here about it, or you can go inside."
"Maybe I don't mind prolonging my last few minutes of freedom, or at least the illusion of it."
Eva shook her head. "You've grown paranoid. Will you please just trust me?"
"You don't trust me," I said, arching an eyebrow.
"Oh, for crying out loud," she said. She stepped forward and brushed her hands along me slowly. I felt her spell leave. "Kia, I miss you, and I don't want to lose you again. Is that so hard to believe? Go on. Run if you're going to run. I won't stop you. Or you can go into that cabin and see if it's possible for us to be together again."
"Who is waiting?"
"Friends."
I found that unlikely. I didn't think I had any friends, as the last three had helped to find me. I eyed her carefully. I didn't believe she'd come this far to let me leave, and I knew I wouldn't get very far if she wanted to stop me.
I decided to see what she would do if I raised magic, so I did, raw magic in a big wall behind me. She arched an eyebrow and moved a hand to her hip.
"You're not going to use that on me," she said. "So, what are you doing with it?"
"I don't know," I admitted.
"I'd rather you put it away before you stepped into the house, Kia."
I sighed and let the magic disperse as I turned to the house. The two of them flanked me, not touching me. I arrived at the door, kicked the mud from my shoes, and stepped inside.
* * * *
It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimmer light inside the house, and then I stared at my guests. There were three of them, all women, and I knew them.
I moved forward, but I didn’t curtsey. "Greetings, Your Majesty." Old habits, but I was angry with myself right away. I didn’t owe this woman anything anymore, much less respect.
"Don't 'Your Majesty' me!" she said. "My name is Jade."
We looked each other over. She was in disguise, the same disguise she'd worn for our last date when I was barely eighteen, five years ago. I wracked my brain before I could remember the names of her guards: Nara and Kelline.
"You idiot," the queen said. "You raving lunatic. Do you know how much work we went through to find you?"
"I believe that was the idea, Jade," I replied. "I knew if you put enough effort into it, you'd find me eventually. I hoped to make it more effort than it was worth."
"Oh, you did, did you?" she asked. "Tell me, if Eva were missing, when would you stop looking for her? If I were missing, or Quartain, when would you have stopped looking?"
"I wasn't missing," I said. "I was hiding. And I damned well wouldn't have helped you find Eva if she didn't want to be found."
"Idiot," Eva said from behind me.
"Yeah, I heard all of you already," I said. "I acted on the information presented to me. You were getting ready to throw me into the military."
"I. Was. Not!" the queen yelled.
I let the rafters settle down. "Frankly, I don’t believe you," I said. "But even if you weren't, Quartain was playing a game of some sort. She made sure I believed you were going to break your word. Either way, I didn't deserve whatever was going on."
I stepped around her and her guards, moving to the sink. I grabbed my teapot, filled it with water, then poured magic into it until the water was hot. I then began brewing a large pot of tea.
"I don't have enough cups for everyone," I said. "Some of us will have to share." I set out my four cups before turning back to the queen.
She'd been watching me the entire time. When she finally had my attention, she said, "Well, you're right. You didn't deserve it."
She surprised me with that.
Marie looked around the room. "You're not long on seats, either."
"I didn't take time to empty my bank account. I've made do."
"You're doing well for how you arrived."
"The village has been kind," I replied. "If I were still here another eight years, the farm would be mine." I sighed. "Well, I promised to leave it better than I arrived, and I've done that. I don't have to feel too guilty when you haul me off."
"Who said anything about hauling you anywhere?"
I raised an eyebrow. "I suppose you could kill me. Or just take my magic. I don't know what the other options are."
"I could do what I came to do."
"And I haven't addressed the possible choices?"
"Not yet you haven't."
I didn't say anything, but I gestured. The queen took a seat. I took another. Eva took a third. The other three remained standing, taking positions around the room.
No one said anything while I poured tea. I moved one in front of the queen, another to Eva. I wasn't sure how to distribute the remaining two, but the queen handled that. She picked up the third and held it out for Nara and Kelline. They could share. She moved the fourth in front of me.
"Lunia may not mind sharing with you," she said.
"I'm pretty sure Lunia has moved on by now."
"I'm pretty sure Lunia has not," Lunia said. "And while you may mind sharing with Lunia, she does not mind sharing with you."
I was surprised by that, but I inclined my head and held out the cup to her. She moved to stand behind me, and after that, we traded the cup back and forth before setting it onto the table.
"Well," I said. "This seems to have turned socially awkward. What can I do for you, Jade?"
"You can come home."
I cocked my head. "You make it sound like I have a choice."
"Of course, you do," she replied.
"You're not going to make me return?"
"No."
"I don't understand."
"It's not a difficult concept, Adept Kia," she said. She waited to see if I responded to that, then she glared at Eva. "I wanted to tell her."
"I'm sorry," Eva said. "I didn't realize."
"I suppose you already told her your title as well."
"I did." She grinned. "But I didn't spill the beans as to what you want from her."
"Well, you left me something at least," the queen said.
"She hasn't explained what games Quartain was playing, either,” I said.
"You were supposed to argue with her!"
"To what end? I have never won an argument with her."
"You don't understand," the queen said. "She had her wretched dreams. In one, you didn't even come to see her, and the fight happened during the academic exam in front of everyone. In the second, you fought with her that night. But neither happened. That's never happened before. Neither of her visions came to pass."
"I'm sorry to be so unpredictable," I said. "There was to be an argument. And the results afterwards?"
"If you argued during your exam, you would have alienated several of the magi in attendance, and I would have been pressured to assign you to duties you wouldn't have accepted."
"And?"
"I would have had to break my promise."
I glared at her.
"Not the military!" she said. "More of what you did with Byseen."
“I see,” I said coldly.
I looked at the mug and refilled it, offering it to Lunia first. She waved it away, so I drank slowly and set it down.
"Five minutes ago you told me you weren't going to break your promise to me. In other words, I didn't get the details right, but I wasn't that wrong, either. You sat there during that examination, renewing your promise, while the entire time, you had no intention of keeping it?"
"That is inaccurate," she replied. "Quartain didn't tell me about her dreams until later, after you fled. You remained calm. I had no idea there was a risk to the promises."
"But you would have. We both know I respond badly to situations like that. It was only because I trusted you that I remained calm, and now you're telling me if I hadn't trusted you as much as I did, you would have earned my distrust."
"But that's not what happened," the queen countered. "You were so calm. Flutarine was so damna
bly maddening, and you didn't let her get to you."
"Was she trying to goad me?"
"Probably, but neither Quartain or I set her up for it. I tell you this: I was quite annoyed with her, even before I knew her attitude contributed to you running from us."
I ignored that last statement. Frankly, I didn't care. "So instead, I showed up at Quartain's home, and she was expecting a fight. I didn't give her one."
"Right. Her dream suggested you would fight, and in the aftermath, I would assign you to healer duties, apart from Eva. But instead of fighting, you calmly walked out, never to be seen again."
"Until today."
"Well, seen three weeks ago. But yes."
“So, either way, in both dreams, you were going to break your promise to me.” I folded my arms. “You’ve made a number of promises to me over the years, Jade. And you seem to have a habit of breaking them.”
“I am not responsible for Quartain’s dreams.”
“Nor do you seem to take responsibility for your own promises, Jade,” I said.
Her lips tightened for a moment, then she said, “You have a right to feel a little bitter.”
“Oh, thank you for your permission,” I replied sarcastically. “A little bitter is how I felt last week, knowing it was unlikely I was ever going to see my family again. But then my last three friends helped you find me. I think we’re beyond calling it a little bitter.”
“Kia,” Eva said. I could hear pain in her voice.
I turned to her. “I don’t know if I should now distrust you with the others, or if I should only distrust your judgment. I get it. You’re living your dream. You’re a magus now, and quite young besides. It’s what you always wanted. But I’m not you. I was dragged to that school, and then I was treated horribly.”
“Not by me.”
“No. Apparently it took them time to convince you to betray the people you should protect.”
“That’s not fair, Kia,” said the queen.
“She put a tracking spell on me!” I yelled. “Just like Erin did, and she looked pleased knowing I wouldn’t be able to dispel it.”
“I took it off!” Eva retorted.
“So apparently they haven’t finished teaching you to be a heartless bitch. Maybe that takes longer.”
There were several hisses, and then no one spoke. Eva turned away. Finally, the queen asked, “Do you think Eva came here to hurt you?” I looked into Marie’s yes. I didn’t have an answer. “Do you think she looked for you so she could punish you?”
