The cool night air when they emerged from the residence nearly shocked her back to reality. What do I really think I can accomplish here? I have no idea how to fight magic. I can’t even use my own to any real effect.
The moon lay hidden behind clouds, a dim glow in the distance. Lamps and torches hung about the city, making little pools of light across buildings and walls and patches of street. Not a soul could be seen. A peacock called in the distance, and Lis wondered where it might be.
‘Can you feel it?’ she asked the healer.
He nodded, his face creased.
‘You can’t tell where it comes from?’
‘No,’ he admitted. ‘It is as though it is all around us.’ He stepped forward. ‘Like it surrounds us. What is on the other side of the wall?’
‘Water and rocks,’ Lis said, thinking of the approach to the Palace Isle and that there was no way to get close to the wall other than the docks. ‘There must be lookouts,’ she said, pointing to the top of the wall.
‘I can’t see anyone,’ the healer said.
‘Let’s get closer.’
‘I don’t think that is a good idea. But I see why you think it is.’
Lis stopped and looked at him closely. ‘Who are you?’
‘An idiot,’ he murmured.
‘Really?’
‘Healer Yang,’ he mumbled, giving her a cursory bow.
‘Why are you here?’
‘Because you dragged me out here and into the gods know what.’
She laughed. ‘Why are you on the Palace Isle?’
‘I came to learn. I had an affinity for healing, and the masters took me on as an apprentice.’
‘Now you work as a healer for the royal family.’
‘The lesser members,’ he added.
She raised her eyebrows. ‘When did you know you could sense?’
‘When I got here. There has always been something around me, something around the Palace Isle, and it seems to be increasing. I wondered if it was you,’ he said honestly. ‘It started to increase when you arrived.’
Lis made to say something, but she thought she saw movement. The guards all stood behind her, waiting for orders.
She felt suddenly exposed, and she motioned a man forward.
‘Your Highness,’ the soldier said softly.
‘I haven’t a sword,’ she said.
‘Would you like me to stand before you, or do you want a sword?’
She looked up at him then, and he watched the world around them rather than her. He looked back at her briefly. ‘Would you trust me with one?’
‘I’m not sure you could carry it,’ he said, turning his attention back to the world around them. ‘You direct us and we’ll protect you.’
‘And me?’ the healer, Yang asked.
‘You have a sword,’ the man said, but Lis could hear the laughter in his voice. ‘You should stay close to the princess.’
She nodded and stepped forward.
As they got closer to the wall, the feeling of magic increased. She could feel it pressing on her, but she couldn’t detect where it was coming from. Healer Yang wore a pained expression, and she knew he sensed the same. She paused, wondering if he was the same as her, and how she could find out if he was.
There was someone on the top of the wall, and she couldn’t tell if it was a watchman or someone else. ‘Can we get inside the wall?’ she asked.
The nearest soldier stopped and looked at her seriously.
‘It is very thick. Either it is solid, or there is space to move through inside.’
He sighed and indicated towards a watch tower that sat further along the wall. They moved as a group towards it. She wondered if they would be hampered by buildings jutting up against the wall, and if those inside the buildings had a way of getting into or through the wall. As they drew closer, she saw there was a walkway separating the dwellings from the wall. The walls around the houses and smaller palaces never touched up against the main wall of the island.
When they reached the base of the tower, Lis expected more light to spill from the wider structure above, but it was just as dim. A door was built into the wall that looked no different from any other part of it, and she knew she had been right. Perhaps she should have been learning about such aspects of the Palace Isle during her classes with her tutors.
The soldier stepped forward and banged on the door, and only then did Lis realise it had no handle. Silence surrounded them before the sound of footsteps drew closer. A heavy bolt moved somewhere on the other side of the door, and it squealed open.
Lis remained back in the group, but she didn’t sense any shift in the magic as the door opened. The soldier stepped forward and explained the princess’s fears in hushed tones. The man looked across at her and laughed.
‘There is no way for any man to get inside the wall other than a watch door.’
‘What if someone on the watch let them in?’ she asked.
‘It wouldn’t happen,’ he snapped, pulling himself up tall. He made to pull the door closed, but the soldier at the front put his foot in the way and glared at the man on her behalf.
‘May I look from the top of the wall?’ she asked.
The man sighed and pushed the door open wider. Lis stepped into the darkness beside him, and the soldier followed before the door was pulled closed behind her. She felt nervous at the idea. When the bolt slid back into place, she heard something else, a lock perhaps.
‘Up,’ the man said without ceremony.
Lis took a breath, lifted her skirts and moved up the wooden, creaking steps. There were far more steps than she was used to, and she paused to rest.
‘Do you need assistance, Your Highness?’ her guard asked. She smiled as she shook her head.
‘I don’t get as much exercise as I used to,’ she said, starting upwards again.
It seemed to take a long time before she reached the starlit sky through a small trapdoor at the top of the stairs, where a soldier looked at her with surprise. She held her hand out to him, and he helped lift her up the final rungs to the top. With the guard not far behind, Lis stepped forward and leaned on the high stone wall. It came up to her waist as she breathed in the cool stone around her. There was no buzzing of magic.
She looked out across the water, reflecting the dull glow of the moon. This side of the island looked to the east and in the distance, she could see the mountains of Fourth. There were some boats out on the water, their small lanterns casting dots of light to show where they were.
‘Fishing boats,’ the man beside her said, and she nodded.
There were only five or so that she could see.
‘What do you think?’ the guard asked beside her.
‘It is beautiful,’ she said. ‘But I can’t feel anything here. Can I see inside the wall?’ she asked the other soldier with them, and he shrugged.
She walked over the other side of the wall and, stretching across the thick parapet, she looked down at the healer and the other soldiers still waiting. They appeared nervous. She could sense the buzz surrounding the healer. She closed her eyes but couldn’t feel anything else.
‘So strange,’ she murmured.
‘This way, Your Highness,’ the guard said, stepping down into the darkness beneath them again.
They had to help her down, and she dropped a short distance into the arms of the waiting soldier. ‘I beg your pardon,’ he said, a nervousness about him.
‘It was required,’ she said, hoping he could see her reassurance in the dim light as well as hear it in her voice.
They travelled down a flight of stairs. Then the soldier held out a torch, and she saw the narrow passageway that led off from it. She hadn’t noticed it on the way up, but then it was dark and she hadn’t been looking for it.
He moved ahead of her, the hallway lighting up with the torch he held. She heard something squeal in the distance, possibly a rat, and she shivered.
‘Enough,’ she called after a time. ‘There is nothi
ng here.’ She also didn’t want to go too far, for she didn’t know what lay ahead of her. If only her father had told her more of what he had fought, how they had fought. She might know what she could do.
At least her head had stopped hurting, and she could feel nothing but the men around her. Why did there appear to be so much magic surrounding the palace when they couldn’t find it?
They made their way back along the passageway and down to the base of the stairs. She heard the clicking sound of a lock before the bolt was slipped back, and she wondered what they would do if they were locked in here. It was a relief to be back in the cool night air after the stuffy hallways.
The healer looked just as nervous as he had before, as though they might run him through without Lis there to protect him. As soon as she made it out of the shadow of the wall, the overwhelming buzz of magic returned. She put her hand to her head.
‘What are you saying?’ the emperor asked, leaning forward on his throne as Remi knelt before him.
He tried to keep still, holding his arms out and his head dipped low. ‘What I have been saying for some time. Magic is back.’
The emperor leapt from his seat. Although he had not been dismissed, Remi let his hands drop. The emperor shook his head as he paced.
‘I have felt it increasing. The princess felt it as well; it pulled her from her sleep.’
‘The empress said she was a hunter,’ the emperor murmured, still pacing. ‘She is safe?’
‘The empress?’
He stopped his pacing and looked at him seriously. ‘The princess.’
Remi took a deep breath. ‘She is somewhat determined,’ he said. ‘She has gone to investigate further.’
‘Have you lost your mind completely? Do you not want to marry the girl?’
‘Quite certainly. She is very different from any other girl I have met. She knows what she does, and I trust her.’
‘Despite her not telling us she was a hunter.’
‘She didn’t know, didn’t realise until she was here. Her father kept her protected on his island.’
‘Hmmm,’ the emperor hummed, looking into the distance beyond Remi. ‘He is far shrewder than I ever gave him credit for.’
‘He won the war; you rewarded him.’
‘But I knew his heart wasn’t in it. Perhaps he saw something in the daughter he wasn’t sure of.’
‘Maybe there are more hunters than we knew. Maybe they feared what we would do with them.’
‘Maybe they hold magic of their own.’
‘I would sense it,’ Remi said too loudly, then bowed again to his father.
‘And yet the girl has sensed more than you, and she is untrained, unpractised.’ He sighed and sat down slowly on his throne. ‘Who did she go out with?’
‘Her personal guard.’
‘Traditions already destroyed,’ the emperor murmured. ‘They would look at her.’
‘Everyone looks at her. You brought her before the court. There is not one member of the court who has not seen her. Unless she should take the veil again?’ he asked, more with his eyebrows than his voice.
‘That has very different connotations,’ the emperor huffed.
Remi felt confused for a moment.
‘You should know your history,’ his father scolded. ‘It is from the days when we hid a whole generation and all but one survived.’
‘I was aware of that,’ Remi said.
‘It was more about the not surviving that the history tries to forget. We don’t want the world thinking we will kill her if she does not meet our expectations.’ The emperor sighed. ‘Your mother continued her training in tradition. Thankfully, we wed before the war started.’ He rubbed his hand over his forehead, a small sign of his tiredness that he would not have shown if anyone else were in the room. ‘I hope that I live long enough to see you wed.’
‘Of course you will.’
‘Unless those with magic are here to remove me from my throne. Although there was talk from the one you captured.’ He turned seriously to Remi.
Remi nodded.
‘You are sure that she is safe?’
‘Do you mean safe from the magic, or not a danger to us?’
The emperor scoffed without answering.
‘Mother trusts her. If it had not been for the hidden princess, then who knows what might have happened to her.’
‘I do not want it cried in the streets,’ the emperor said with a sigh.
Remi stood quickly and bowed low again to his father. ‘Thank you, Your Highness.’
‘You may have whatever resources you need, but you must remain discrete.’
Remi nodded and left. He wasn’t sure how he could keep it secret much longer. With the buzz that surrounded them, he was sure an attack of some kind was not far away. And if fighting started on the Palace Isle, the whole world would know that magic had returned.
Chapter 32
Lis entered her room with the healer and half the guard following, then stopped. Wei-Song stood against the far wall, looking weary and worried, and Lis suddenly realised that others knew who she was and where she had come from. The boatman had called her ‘Highness’ and Lis had thought he was speaking to her. The healer made a strange sucking noise and when Wei-Song pointed to her hand, he turned to Lis.
‘Are you well?’ the guard asked.
He nodded mutely.
‘I am tired,’ Lis said. ‘Could you check over my hand again? Then I would like to sleep.’
The guard bowed. ‘I will not be far should you need me.’
She tipped her head and they left.
The healer looked at her with desperation, and she indicated that he sit at the table. ‘It is well,’ she said softly as the other woman stepped forward.
‘Healer Yang,’ Lis said, half looking at the door. ‘This is Princess Wei-Song.’
She bowed to Healer Yang and then turned to Lis. ‘Could you find anything?’
Lis shook her head. ‘This isn’t your doing, is it?’
The young princess looked taken aback. ‘This is not the Hidden,’ she murmured.
‘Why can I see her when the guards could not?’ the healer asked.
‘You have a skill you did not know,’ Wei-Song told him.
‘It is ok,’ Lis said. ‘You have a strong hunter skill.’ She glanced back at the princess.
Wei-Song scoffed and indicated that Lis move along the cushion so she could sit down. ‘You are a Hidden,’ she said to the healer.
He looked at his hands and then back to her.
‘You can tell what is ailing someone more quickly than others?’ Wei-Song asked.
‘I have trained a long time.’
The princess looked him over as though he were a boy.
‘I can’t have magic,’ he whispered. ‘The prince will run me through.’
‘He can’t sense you,’ Lis answered.
‘But you can.’ The fear was evident in his voice.
‘And I am also talking to a woman no one else can see.’
Yang opened his mouth and then closed it. He looked at her seriously. ‘You have magic,’ he breathed.
She nodded.
‘Not everyone with magic is dangerous,’ he mumbled. ‘At least they weren’t, and I’m sure you’re not trying to…’ He paused, unsure what to say.
‘We don’t know what they want,’ Lis answered.
‘They want complete power,’ Wei-Song said. ‘They want a world where only those with magic exist, and they would rule such a world.’
‘That is why they want you dead,’ Yang said, pointing at Lis. ‘They don’t want you to make it how it was, when magic was just part of the world and we all worked together.’
‘You have heard these stories too?’
‘My grandmother used to tell me how the world was before.’ He gave her a small smile. ‘She used to love the rain and when I was a boy, I thought that she made it just so she could stand in it.’
Lis smiled at the idea of an old woman s
tanding in her own little rain storm.
‘She died in her sleep, and I was sure she wasn’t ill.’
Lis felt her heart rate increase.
‘I was too young to be sure, but I think my father did it. I think she asked him to.’
‘Better to go quietly, without bringing attention to her family, than to be slaughtered by sword,’ Wei-Song said.
Yang nodded slowly. Lis looked him over. He must have been older than her, for this would have happened during the war, yet he looked no older than Ting.
‘You don’t believe me,’ he said sharply, looking at Lis with hard eyes.
‘I do,’ she said softly. ‘I wonder what we can do to prevent this war from starting again.’
‘I don’t think there is anything we can do to prevent it.’
Lis turned and took the girl’s hand, and Wei-Song looked at her with surprise. ‘I heard your mother is unwell,’ she said quickly. ‘Are you able to visit with her?’
She stood quickly. ‘How do you know my mother?’
Lis waited, wondering if the princess truly knew who she was.
Wei-Song looked between the two of them, then bowed and stepped towards the door just as it flew open. She disappeared quickly through it before it could be pulled closed by a guard, and the prince walked past his sister without knowing she existed.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, stopping and looking at them both. ‘You should be resting.’
‘I can’t sleep,’ Lis said. ‘Will the emperor allow you to do as you need?’
He nodded, leaning against the desk. He watched the healer, who sat lower at the table. It would take time, Lis thought, for him to come to terms with what he was. Lis had known for her whole life that she had magic. She only hoped he did not do something silly.
‘Should you still be here?’ the prince asked Yang.
‘The healer is yet to look at my hand,’ Lis said. ‘And he has just discovered hunter abilities. It has been a big day for us all.’
The healer nodded. Lis placed her hand across the table, and he unwrapped the bandage from it. He paused as he looked over it, and Lis looked down to see the skin nearly healed, the blistering gone and the skin pink.
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 26
