The next day Mei led me in an entirely different direction from the formal audience chamber that had housed the welcome feast. We passed down many corridors and through what seemed like endless courtyards and gardens. Jasper walked with me, excused from the alliance negotiations to accompany me. I only hoped that was the real reason, and not that he was being excluded because of his words the day before.
He seemed calm, however, taking in everything we passed with a far more analytical eye than me. The Sekalis who crossed our path all stopped to bow to us, regardless of their status.
“Does it make you uncomfortable?” I whispered to Jasper, glancing over my shoulder at the most recent group to have thus greeted us.
“It seems to be their way,” he said, but his eyes rested on me thoughtfully.
“So they do this when you walk around on your own?”
He hesitated.
“They don’t, do they?” I said.
Reluctantly he shook his head. “Not unless we are actually introduced or have some reason to converse. But they show you extra honor as the Spoken Mage. That’s natural.”
“Is it, though?” I frowned around me. “Our borders have been closed for centuries. I wouldn’t have expected the average Sekali to even have heard of me.”
“Strength and power are heard far and wide,” he said.
Mei stopped ahead of us and gestured to an open door.
“The emperor awaits you.”
We thanked her and proceeded through the doorway. As soon as we entered the room on the other side, she closed the door behind us. I spun, startled at the surge of power that blazed behind me.
“Be at peace,” said Chen from the other side of the room. “It is merely a shield built into the structure of the room. It operates in the same way as your Academy’s arena.”
I looked around and realized we had been shown into a training room of some kind. A single row of benches ran down each wall, and the emperor and Chen sat directly across from us. Otherwise the room was empty.
I glanced at Jasper. “Is Lord Phineas not to attend?”
“He leads the negotiations,” Chen said. “I assured him his presence here wasn’t needed.”
No doubt Phineas hadn’t liked that. But there was nothing I could do except proceed with the demonstration as instructed.
Jasper and I crossed to stand in front of the emperor, bowing low. He still glittered, his yellow robe adorned with fine embroidery and jewels, but a more practical cut gave it a simpler look.
“I would like you to know,” the emperor said, “that if it had not come out the other night, I would have taken this opportunity to inform you of our custom of sealing commonborns in the Empire.”
Neither Jasper nor I said anything, but unease turned my nerves into a raging inferno. I wasn’t here as an official part of the negotiations, and I wanted no private conversations or confidences from the emperor. What reason could he possibly have for offering them?
“But I get ahead of myself,” the emperor said, seemingly unaffected by my silence. “First the demonstration.”
Chen produced a blank piece of parchment and an elaborate pen.
“First, if you would write—”
“I cannot,” I said, cutting him off and then bowing low to try to mitigate the rudeness. “I am commonborn, and though I can speak compositions, I cannot safely write without bringing harm to us all.”
“Interesting.” The emperor nodded, and Chen whisked the parchment and pen away.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper watch them go with a longing expression. It pulled at my heart. If I chose to do so, I could give him the gift of words.
“We will continue straight to spoken compositions, then,” the emperor said, and my mind sharpened, thoughts of Jasper falling away.
The parchment had been a test. And after three years at the Academy, I had some experience of tests. I could do this without bringing shame on my kingdom.
I had expected him to want to see something big, something showy. But Chen walked a few steps away from us and upended a bag of rice, the grains falling to the ground, bouncing across the smooth floor in all directions. Some were the usual white, but mixed among them were an equal number of black grains.
“Separate out the white grains into one pile and the black into another,” Chen said.
I nodded, taking a moment to consider how to frame the composition. It appeared they wished to test not my strength, but my finesse. I chose my words and ran through them silently a couple of times to be sure I had them straight.
Then I spoke the binding words, ensuring that I used a clear, measured voice for the sake of my listeners.
“Gather the white grains to the left, and the black grains to the right,” I said, visualizing the words in my mind. “End binding.”
Power flowed out of me, sweeping across the grains, spreading to the furthest reaches of where they had fallen. Sliding across the polished floor, the grains flew together, the white streaming to one side while the black moved to the other.
Gathered together, they formed themselves not into shapeless piles but into the elegant shape of two lily blossoms. One white. One black. My power had obeyed not only my words but the extra instruction I had overlaid on top of the simple sentence.
When the last grain stopped moving, the sense of my power faded away, its task complete. I turned to the emperor and bowed.
“As you requested,” I said.
He looked from the rice to me to Chen.
“The reports of your prowess are not exaggerated,” he said. “I congratulate you. Tell me, are all fourth year trainees in Ardann as advanced?”
I thought of Lucas, and then of Araminta.
“Some are, Your Majesty. But it is true that my unique situation has forced me to advance my training in some areas in order to stay abreast of my year mates in combat.”
The emperor sighed. “Ah, yes, combat. The favorite pastime of the southern kingdoms.”
“Ardann does not seek conflict,” I said, trying to pick my words carefully. “But we will defend ourselves when attacked. As I am sure the Empire would do also.”
“We must all be ready to look to our own defense, it is true,” he said.
I shifted slightly, refraining from looking over at Jasper. I didn’t like the tone of the emperor’s comments. We had come all this way looking for allies in our war, yet the emperor seemed to dismiss the matter.
“Let us proceed,” the emperor said.
For an hour, Chen continued to bring forward complex tasks for me to complete. Gradually the effort began to wear on me, but they made no attempt to attack me or to challenge my shield, and none of the tests required any great expenditure of power. It was a far cry from the sort of testing I had most commonly encountered in Ardann.
At last, they declared it over, and Chen indicated that Jasper and I should take a seat on the ground at the emperor’s feet. We sat awkwardly, our legs crossed far less elegantly in our Ardannian robes than Chen achieved in his Sekali one.
“You may perhaps wonder,” the emperor said, “why I have promised openness with you, and why I called the two of you here today unaccompanied.”
I glanced at Jasper. So it had not been the Ardannians who sent him away from the negotiations.
“Naturally a barrier must lie between our august selves and the primitive southerners. But among our own people, we may speak freely.”
Jasper and I both stirred, exchanging another quick glance.
“I understand it is news to you to discover that you are Sekalis,” he continued calmly. “But our suspicions were confirmed by a number of tests conducted by my trusted adviser on his arrival in your capital.” He nodded toward Chen.
Jasper stiffened, and bile raced up the back of my throat. In some ways the Sekalis were just like the Ardannians.
“I felt no such testing,” I said, unable to entirely keep the caustic note from my voice.
“Certainly such a test would have been
perceptible to you,” the emperor said, still calm. “So it was conducted on your brother.”
Jasper made a low sound in the back of his throat but didn’t speak.
“Occasionally,” the emperor continued, “a member of one of our sealed clans finds the sacrifice of their power to be a burden too heavy to carry. In those instances, to prevent from infecting their clan members with their own sorrow, and to avoid the reminders of power that abound around them, they choose a life of solitude in our southern forests.”
I frowned. Choose or were forced into it?
“We believe that one such sealed mage found her way across the border and into the section of trees which you know as your northern forests. Eventually she must have worked her way far enough south to meet and breed with one of your own people.”
My grandfather’s grandmother. We had assumed our grandfather’s grandfather had strayed across the Kallorwegian border to find his bride, but perhaps it was she who had strayed. And not from Kallorway.
The emperor met my eyes. “You are a Sekali, Elena. And it is from us that you gain your ability to access power.”
Jasper sucked in a breath, but I didn’t look at him, already struggling to process the emperor’s pronouncement.
It was all too likely he was right—to an extent. But a single mage four generations back was too distant to grant me the ability to safely control power, as evidenced by my parents and by Jasper and Clemmy. The emperor might wish to lay claim to the credit, but he did not know of the strange composition my parents had used to conceive me. My apparent Sekali blood had only provided the seed that the strange circumstances of my birth had transformed into my unique ability. Even Jasper, who shared in my strange origin, had received an entirely different ability—a mind that didn’t need to access power to be exceptional.
“We may have one portion of Sekali within us,” I said. “But we are many more parts Ardann.”
“The emperor, in his graciousness, is willing to accept you as Sekalis, despite this flaw,” Chen said.
I could see the cynical twist to Jasper’s lips. Of course he was willing to accept us—given I had extraordinary abilities.
“Naturally you will remain here, among your people,” the emperor said, as calmly as if commenting on the weather.
I barely bit back a startled exclamation, robbed for a moment of coherent speech.
“The Ardannians are our people,” Jasper said when I remained silent.
The emperor continued on as if he had not spoken.
“Naturally we will send for the rest of your family as well, since they also bear our blood. And the four of you will be sealed at the next available ceremony, as is our way. You will find that here in the Empire we respect our commonborn—especially those of great talent, such as yourself.”
Jasper’s mouth, which had been opened to protest further, slowly closed, an altogether different look coming into his eyes.
Did they truly give commonborns equal respect? Was that why their delegation had included no guards or servants? Because they didn’t wish to expose them to our southern prejudice? My mind raced, trying to understand the breadth of the emperor’s intentions.
“You wish to have the Spoken Mage working for you?” I asked.
“We wish always to advance the good of our Empire and her people,” he said. “You are strong, perhaps the strongest child of Sekali. We believe you could seal many—far more than an ordinary mage.”
The light died from Jasper’s eyes.
“You wish to seal Elena?”
Chen leaned forward, displaying eagerness for the first time.
“We wish to test her power. And not only to see how many she might be able to seal. Her power works differently, and it is possible that she could somehow work the sealing in such a way as not to block her own power.”
My whirling thoughts sputtered, falling away. Could such a thing be possible?
“If Elena could complete the working without blocking her own power, it would release a great many of your mages,” Jasper said. “But there would only be one way to know for sure. And if it didn’t work, her ability would be lost forever. Surely even you cannot want that.”
“It is of no consequence,” said the emperor. “The Empire’s life is not measured in years but in centuries. If our experiment fails, we shall know not to conduct it on her children. Or,” he paused to correct himself, “not on all of them at least. At times some experimentation is necessary before achieving a worthy outcome.”
“All of them?” The words squeaked out of my mouth before I realized I had spoken.
“You shall receive great honor by serving the Empire in such a manner,” Chen said.
Jasper stood abruptly. “Just to be clear. This service you speak of is breeding as many spoken mage children as possible to further serve the Empire?” He used the emperor’s own word from earlier—breeding—but it sounded wrong on his lips.
“We each serve as best we are able,” the emperor said.
I surged to my feet and placed a restraining hand on his arm. I could see the angry rejection in his eyes, but I had learned the wisdom of circumspection, and I had never needed it as badly as I did now—alone before a foreign emperor, but for my brother.
“Your news is overwhelming to my brother and me,” I said. “We will need time to consider it.”
The emperor inclined his head. “Time we have in abundance.”
I kept my whirling confusion and anger tamped down as best I could, dropping into a full bow and dragging Jasper down as well. Tugging him with me, I rushed us both out of the room, almost tripping over my feet in my efforts to move quickly without turning my back on the emperor. I didn’t stop when we were free of the room, propelling Jasper through a number of corridors and gardens before I let him pull me to a halt.
“I…Did you…You heard…” Jasper spluttered to a halt. “What was that?”
“That,” I said grimly, “was the reason the Sekalis insisted I accompany the delegation. And the reason they showed interest in you as well, I’d warrant. You’re the enticement they’re dangling in case the prospect should be less than appealing for some reason.”
I could hear my own sarcasm thick in my voice, but as I gazed on Jasper’s face, I couldn’t deny the pull of it. My brilliant brother free to pursue his genius to its fullest extent. Was it my turn to sacrifice for him after all his years of sacrificing for us?
“It wasn’t like you to speak up like that in there,” I said. “What happened to the brother who survived four years with the mages at the Academy and always counseled me to hold my tongue?”
“He wants to breed you like a prize cow!” Jasper exclaimed.
I knew I should tell him to keep his voice down. And I knew the seriousness of the situation we now found ourselves in. But for some reason giggles bubbled inside me, bursting out of my mouth although I tried to suppress them.
“Surely a prize mare, at least,” I managed to squeeze out between giggles.
He stared at me like I’d lost my mind, and perhaps I had.
“You need time,” he said, running a shaking hand through his hair. “Gracious, I need time! But we have to think of something. They’re hoping you can work sealing compositions over and over, thus taking the role of two entire clans into one person. I can understand the attraction of that. But it’s a big risk to take with a unique ability—even when they don’t know the full extent. Given the risks it won’t work, they seem extremely unconcerned about what they could be throwing away.”
His face tightened. “I’d be excessively interested to know just how many dissatisfied sealed mages are fleeing for the forests—and if those numbers have been increasing lately.”
His words instantly sobered me. “You think maybe the sealed clans are unhappy about that and are putting pressure on the emperor to find another solution?”
He shrugged. “Either that or some of those mages are deciding to run before they turn eighteen and seal themselves. That woul
d disrupt the whole system. It might explain why the emperor decided to open his border and invite a delegation a few years ago. Perhaps he thought it was time to check if the southern kingdoms had made any progress on the issue of commonborns in the centuries of separation?”
“And of course, we hadn’t,” I said with a sigh.
He looked at me with a shadow in his eyes.
“Oh, but the emperor did discover a helpful new tool by opening the border. You. And I don’t get the impression he’s too used to hearing the word no.”
“Don’t mention this to anyone,” I said, grasping his hand urgently. “Not until we’ve had a chance to think it fully through.”
He nodded. “Who would I tell? You’re the one with all the important friends.”
I winced, and he slipped an apologetic arm around my shoulders.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said. “Just that I won’t say anything.”
“Perhaps…” I spoke slowly. “Perhaps it is not something to be instantly dismissed. You could have your power sealed, Jasper.”
He swung me around to face him, looking me directly in the eyes. “I made my peace with my fate years ago, Elena. Don’t throw away everything you’ve built just for me.”
I nodded slowly, but I didn’t speak any promises.
Chapter 16
I slept little and picked at my food at meals, the emperor’s shocking pronouncements running around and around in my head. But one day became another, and he made no effort to meet with me again, nor to press for an answer.
I knew when I eventually approached him it would have to be with caution since I could think of no way to turn him down without risking a diplomatic incident at the very least. I would need help from Lucas and the diplomats to attempt it.
But I couldn’t tell any of them until I knew for sure what I wanted to do. Because I had no doubt that they would have strong opinions on the matter, even if I couldn’t be sure which way they would fall. No doubt they wouldn’t want to lose my strength and ability—back in Ardann I was a symbol of hope, and if Cassius was to be believed, in Kallorway a symbol of fear. But the might of the Sekali Empire outweighed any one person, however strong. What if I was the cause of overturning the alliance?
Voice of Life (The Spoken Mage Book 4) Page 19
