The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set
Page 42
She nodded and held out her hand to him, trying to keep it steady as he reached for her. His hand didn’t feel any warmer than it had, or wet for that matter, and she hid them both.
Chapter 19
Almost as soon as they reappeared in the palace, the prince stepped back, bowed to Lis—which threw her completely—and then left. There was murmuring from the garden as the guards talked with him. Lis sat heavily at the table, pouring water into a cup.
The room was quiet, and she looked around waiting for someone to step forward. When no one did, she stood and looked into the dark spaces of the room. Not that it was very big. But the three of them had been living in the same room for some time.
She pulled a curtain back to reveal a small alcove with a bed and low table. A memorial sat on the table along with a small figure surrounded by incense sticks. ‘Wei-Song?’ Lis asked the shadows. ‘Hello?’ she called out, uncertain at being left alone.
One of her guards appeared in the doorway. ‘Your Highness,’ he said, looking around the quiet palace.
She nodded and tried to smile for the man. ‘Where is Wei-Song?’
The man looked her over carefully. ‘You sent her out some time ago to get something for you.’
‘It has been too long. She should be back,’ Lis said. ‘I’m worried—can you send someone?’
He bowed and left her.
Why would Wei-Song have left the palace empty? Had she followed them to see what they were doing? Did she not trust them? Lis wondered if she should trust Wei-Song, but she had helped her so many times. And she was determined to stay; she could be with her mother or back with her school. Lis had hoped that Wei-Song would help her and the prince, but if she was here for her own reasons then she might not.
She was still standing in the same position when Yang appeared beside her. ‘What has happened?’ he asked. ‘Did the prince do something?’
‘No,’ Lis said quietly, thinking of the flames across his skin and the small cloud that had formed so easily beside him. ‘Yes,’ she added.
‘Has he hurt you?’ Yang asked, suddenly taking her shoulders and turning her towards him. The concern made him appear weary, and Lis felt an overwhelming guilt at what she had put her friend through.
‘He has more magic than I imagined. But we need help.’
‘Help to do what?’ Wei-Song asked, appearing beside her and pulling the curtain back across her small space.
‘I thought you were to wait for us,’ Lis said. ‘What if someone had come and found us missing?’
‘There was something I needed to do.’
Lis waited, but Wei-Song said nothing further. Lis moved out to the table and poured herself water. She had hoped working with the prince would give her some more clarity, but it had only formed more questions and confirmed for her just how much help she needed—they needed.
Wei-Song sat opposite her at the table, where she poured water into a cup as Yang sat beside her. Lis looked over the two of them. It was hard for them here, and she hadn’t made it easier. ‘You don’t have to remain here,’ Lis said. ‘You could return to your mother. Yang, you can do as the healers require.’
They both turned on her. Yang looked confused, Wei-Song angry.
‘Why would we leave you?’ Wei-Song asked. ‘It is my choice to stay. You need us to stay.’
Lis nodded. ‘The crown prince and I have found something that relates to the old ways with the hidden princesses. I think they had magic.’ They waited for her to continue. ‘It is an area hidden from the rest of the island, and we have practiced a little magic there.’
Yang opened his mouth and then closed it.
‘What could you do?’ Wei-Song asked, an excitement behind her quiet words.
‘I made the grass grow, but I could change the plants into anything I wished, and they moved at my command.’ Wei-Song continued to stare at her intently. ‘I made the ground move.’
‘Move?’ Yang asked.
‘Like a wave on the ocean, only it was the ground that moved. It swallowed the stones and then I pulled them out.’
Yang’s eyebrows rose.
‘How far did you send the wave?’
‘Far,’ Lis murmured.
‘Could you go further?’ Wei-Song asked.
‘Perhaps, only I wasn’t sure how much of it I was controlling.’
‘The prince didn’t burn you again?’ Yang asked.
She shook her head. ‘He made it rain.’
‘Rain?’ Wei-Song said, standing from the table.
Lis looked up at her. ‘I thought such a mix of skills would be unusual. He wished he could make it rain in case he set light to anything by accident, and as he said it, a little cloud formed and rain fell.’
‘This changes things,’ Wei-Song said, heading for the door.
‘Wait,’ Lis called after her. ‘I need your help. We need your help.’
Lis saw the haze around Wei-Song as she hid, but she could too clearly see the worry on her face.
‘I will be a few days,’ she said. ‘Yang, don’t leave her side. And try to keep the prince away.’
‘Away?’ Lis said. ‘Do you realise how long it has taken us to get to this point? We need help—we need training.’
‘Stay away from him.’ And she was gone.
‘I like you in yellow,’ Yang said absently, looking at the tabletop.
Lis thumped the table in frustration. ‘What are we to do?’
‘I could send for another maid. We will need to eat.’
Lis waved her hand over the table, and bowls of rice and meat and vegetables filled the space. The smell made Yang lean forward and salivate.
‘I don’t think you need any training,’ he murmured, pulling a bowl towards himself. ‘I wish you had discovered this one some time ago.’
Lis looked at what she had done and then back to her hand. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said.
‘You seem to have all sorts of powers. Are you sure you can’t make fire?’
Lis looked over her hand and imagined the flames that had danced across the prince’s knuckles. Nothing happened. ‘Why does she want the prince to stay away?’
He shook his head, his mouth full. ‘How can we make him stay away?’ He put the chopsticks down and looked up at Lis with real concern. ‘The crown prince does exactly what he wants, when he wants. I can’t direct him anywhere but where he wants to go.’
Lis sighed, and Yang looked towards the doorway.
Wei-Song moved quickly towards the dock and hoped the man they used was still there. She slowed as she moved through the centre of the island, wondering at the number of people. Usually there were crowds to a degree, if only small ones. And yet, very few moved through the central square. Despite the efforts of the Empire to assure people the world was safe, the idea of magic had everyone scared. The level of fear had only increased, and with that came more danger.
She rubbed at her eyes as she walked. The world seemed hazy around her, and she tried to contain the sigh in case anyone heard her. She knew Lis had power; it was what they had expected. Having heard what she could do, Wei-Song was even more certain Lis was the hidden princess of the prophecies.
But then Lis was so sure that all the hidden princesses had been magic at some point. That had been long before the war and the segregation of magics. As she considered it, she realised there had always been a segregation. Those with magic couldn’t truly explore what power they had or what they could do with it.
An image of the crown prince flickered through her mind, but she pushed it away. She couldn’t think about him now, couldn’t grasp what he was or how he had managed to live as long as he had without their father wanting him dead. Or had he truly not known what he was?
Wei-Song found the boat, but not the boatman, and she stepped into the boat with a sigh. She wouldn’t wait long before looking for an alternative. As she sat down, she saw him across the dock, talking with a small group. She climbed back out of the boat and walked towards
him.
As she drew closer, she heard what was being whispered amongst the group, but it didn’t make sense. ‘Magic’, ‘war’ and other similar words were being used. Had the knowledge of the magics seeped into the general public and worried them? Or had an announcement been made that she had missed?
She wanted to talk to her mother suddenly, desperate to know what she would think if she discovered her son’s ability. But then she had to talk to the master first. She had to know if what she thought he might be was true, and what it would mean for them if it was.
She reached the man she had been looking for and carefully tugged on his sleeve. He turned around and then back to the conversation when he saw no one there. She tugged again and wrapped a hand around his arm.
He nodded and headed towards the boat. She followed as closely as she could, and he stopped to talk with someone else. She stepped onto the boat, but she was only thinking of what she needed to be doing rather than what was going on when she heard the other man ask, ‘Do you think it will come to war again?’
‘Who can tell? If there was a problem with magics, wouldn’t we have heard about it?’
The other man nodded and returned to his work. The boatman stepped into the boat, untethered the rope and pulled the sail tight. It took only moments before they were far from the dock.
‘Where to, Your Highness?’
‘The school,’ she said, allowing herself to reappear before the man. ‘What is going on?’
‘There is talk of magics and trouble.’
‘Do you think there will be fighting again?’
‘It is hard to say. No one believes there are any magics left, and if there are only a few, surely the hunters can dispose of them before they become any real threat.’
Wei-Song raised her eyebrows.
‘I am just repeating what people are saying.’
She nodded and looked out across the water. If what she feared of the prince was correct, it may be more likely than not. But then, Lis may have more influence than she thought. Wei-Song needed to know just what the hidden princess could do. Other than bringing flowers to bloom, Wei-Song had seen very little skill in Lis. She may not be the hidden princess of the stories after all. And if that was true, then the prince was not what she feared either.
‘There have been more boats about in the water,’ the man said, and she turned to him. ‘Not sure if they are hunters, but they might be looking for anything unusual. I suggest you hide until we get there.’
Wei-Song nodded and hid. He looked through her out to the sea as the Palace Isle disappeared behind them.
The boat knocking against the old pier shook Wei-Song from her thoughts. It had seemed like an age to get from the Palace Isle to here. When she breathed in the scent of the island and the school, she knew she was home. They had remained unknown to the world as the war had raged around them. The people had been hidden. Wei-Song again wondered how her mother had managed to find someone to watch over her. And how her father had remained unknowing. But then, she knew the price she would pay if he discovered her. No matter their connection, no matter what he felt he when he laid eyes on her for the first time.
She did not feel the familial tie to him as she did her mother—nor, she didn’t want to admit, to the prince. She could not call him brother, but there was something in him that she had wanted to like. Although that had been before Lis had told her of their work together and what he was capable of.
She looked up into the face of the man waiting for her at the doorway.
‘What have you learnt?’ Master Yangshing asked before she had even reached him.
‘I think we need to sit down.’
‘Is she what we thought?’
‘I don’t know. In some ways I hope not, for I think another story may also be true.’
He waved her inside. She sat at the table in the room when a child appeared in the doorway.
‘You called for me?’
He nodded, and she stepped forward and bowed to Wei-Song.
Wei-Song nodded acknowledgement to her, but the child turned to the master.
The girl sat down on the floor with her legs tucked beneath her and closed her eyes. Her hands rested on her knees. She nodded and then shook her head.
‘I am sorry,’ she said. ‘I still see the same thing.’
‘You have visions?’ Wei-Song asked.
The girl nodded, but she looked sad. ‘I have seen the hidden princess and the prince fighting one another. He has great power, and the Empire will be split.’
Wei-Song groaned. ‘It is as I feared. He has fire and water.’
‘She has so much more, but there is something strange,’ the child said. Wei-Song thought she sounded much older than she appeared. ‘There is a connection between the two, a force that pulls them together, but it is hidden from them both.’
‘They are destined to be together?’
‘Or to kill each other and the Empire with them. We must find a way to heal the bond.’
Wei-Song let out a sigh of relief. ‘I think they may be doing so already. They have been training together, learning of their skills together.’
‘But there are secrets between them,’ the child continued. ‘Secrets that will damage the bond.’
‘Secrets?’
The child looked up at her with deep brown eyes that glowed in the candlelight. ‘You are one such secret. One they both keep.’
‘He doesn’t know who I am.’
The child bowed her head in agreement. Wei-Song found her frustrating.
She had known another child with visions, not so long ago, who had told her of the hidden princess and what she would become. She had claimed that Wei-Song needed to assist her, for it was her Empire as well. Wei-Song had claimed it was everyone’s Empire, for she would never be in a position to be a part of the family who had wanted her dead. She had spent much time with the child and still ached at her loss.
‘What secret involves me?’ she asked, straining to keep her voice level.
The child shook her head in response.
‘Who told the magics of the prophecy?’
The child looked up at her with wide eyes.
‘Who else may have seen it?’
‘There are many,’ the child whispered.
‘Many who have visions?’
‘There are many, and I should be one, but I stay here.’
A sudden chill covered Wei-Song’s skin. ‘Where?’
A large tear spilled over and down the child’s cheek, its sudden movement startling Wei-song. ‘They call to me, but they are hidden from me. If I answer the call, I will be accepted by them without question and give up all ties.’
‘Do they work with the magics?’ Tutor Yangshing asked.
‘I don’t know. I know nothing of them other than the call.’
‘And if you answered the call, could you tell us more then?’
She shook her head. ‘I too would become one of the unknown, calling to others for them to join me in the darkness.’ Her voice broke and she started to cry, the young woman appearing again as the small child she was.
Wei-Song sat down on the floor with her and pulled her close. Rocking back and forth, she allowed the child to cry. The sobbing slowly eased, and Wei-Song thought the girl might have drifted to sleep in her arms when she murmured, ‘Secrets.’ Then she was quiet again.
‘Where did you find her?’ Wei-Song asked in a whisper over the child’s head. ‘She’s not a Hidden.’
‘No,’ he agreed, squatting down and taking the child easily from her arms. He nodded towards the doorway, and she followed him out. They walked down to the bedrooms, where he pushed a door back and placed the child on a bed. She murmured in her sleep and rolled over. ‘She will need some rest,’ he said. ‘It takes a lot to give us what she does.’
‘You still haven’t told me where you found her.’
‘She found us. She appeared on the end of the pier only a few weeks ago and said that she needed t
o be here. That she had seen so much.’
Wei-Song nodded slowly as Yangshing pushed the door closed. They walked in silence along the corridor and into another building that housed the classrooms.
‘Do others know what she is?’
‘Only those of us who should. There are so few who have visions.’
‘Not according to the child,’ Wei-Song interrupted. ‘She said they call to her.’
‘She has said this before. It is part of the reason she is here. She heard the call but feared it, and then she had the visions she described to you today. She had visions of you and knew she needed to find you. Her skills led her here.’
‘They could have led her to the Palace Isle.’
He shook his head. ‘She knew where you were, but she knew you would return.’
Wei-Song let out the breath she was holding. ‘The old stories are true.’
He pushed open a door and indicated that she go ahead of him. They were standing on a small paved area that overlooked the sea. A sharp drop before them. ‘I never believed them. I thought they were started as rumours during the war to scare those with magic.’
‘Where are the magics? They have been determined to kill the hidden princess. Will they try to contact the prince?’
‘Do you think they might have already?’
She shook her head. ‘He appears determined to kill them, although I think he is coming around to the idea that there are different forms of magic.’
‘You said they have trained,’ he said, looking at her closely for the first time.
‘They haven’t told me where; they snuck away. But it has something to do with the hidden princesses of old. Lis is sure they had magic.’
‘Another secret of the Empire. So many.’ His voice sounded tired. ‘Will you stay and see what we can learn from the girl?’
She nodded.
As they looked back over the sea, he asked, ‘How is your mother?’
‘Better,’ she said softly, turning back to him to see the relief on his face. ‘How did she know I could come here and be safe?’
‘Because I assured her it would be so.’