Crown of Secrets (The Hidden Mage Book 1)

by Melanie Cellier

  I shot a quick glance back at the rest of the class and found both Jareth and Darius watching me. Jareth looked curious and Darius as hard to read as he usually was in public. When he made no move to join me, I shrugged and approached Captain Vincent on my own.

  He gave a small bow. “I’m glad to see you looking recovered, Your Highness. I will admit to some alarm at your appearance yesterday.”

  “Yes.” I smiled at him as brightly as I could. “I was horrified when I got back to my room and saw how covered in dirt I was.”

  He cleared his throat. “Indeed. One of my men filled the pit in last night. I have interviewed all of the gardeners and grounds staff, as well as the instructor for the grower class. Each assures me they know nothing of any hole. I am inclined to believe them, but I am ready to question them under truth compositions if it is your wish.”

  “Oh goodness, no,” I said. “Especially not the poor gardeners. Surely such a big hole was created with the help of a composition.”

  “That is certainly my opinion, Your Highness,” he said. “It is possible the instructor is protecting one of her students, but she made a suggestion that seems to me the most likely explanation. She suspects one of her trainees made an error in one of their compositions and then left the hole there, not wanting to confess to their mistake.”

  I nodded quickly. “That does seem more likely than someone leaving it there on purpose, doesn’t it?”

  “Obviously, if Your Highness wishes it, I will conduct a more thorough investigation and determine which trainee is responsible. However, since no actual injury was received, I did not like to take any such action without talking to you first.”

  I could see the wariness in his eyes. The trainees might only be students, but they came from powerful and influential families. And if one of them had made an error, as he imagined, they would be even less likely to own to it now that it had caused an injury to a royal.

  If my lifeless body had been found at the bottom of the hole, no doubt every person in the Academy would have been pressured into submitting to a truth composition. But the incident as it stood—as far as the captain knew—did not warrant any such drastic action.

  His eyes crossed to the rest of the class who were now walking back toward the Academy. I watched as they dwelled on Darius’s back.

  Ah. That was the other factor causing him pause. Some sort of accident had occurred, that much was clear to him. But he had also found the crown prince alone in the grounds, at night, carrying me cradled against his chest. I flushed a little at the realization that he probably suspected he had stumbled on something far outside his purview as captain of the guard. He had many reasons to wish to leave this matter alone.

  “No, indeed,” I told him. “You did the right thing. As you can see, I am unharmed, and feeling foolish for stumbling into the hole in the first place. I am more than happy for you to let the matter rest there. I’m sure the growers will receive a lecture from their instructor and will not make such a foolish mistake again.”

  His brow lightened. “I appreciate your forbearance on the matter, Your Highness.”

  I smiled. “And I appreciate your not spreading my own foolishness around further, Captain.”

  He bowed again. “Of course, Your Highness. I will leave you to your lunch.” He strode away toward the guard barracks, and I watched him go for a moment, a crease between my brows.

  Darius hadn’t been certain we could trust him, so I was relieved for him to let the matter drop. But at the same time, a small part of me wondered what would happen if we just gave him all the information. Perhaps he might be able to uncover the identity of my attacker.

  The two princes were sitting with Bryony and Tyron when I arrived at lunch, but I could hardly discuss my conversation with Captain Vincent in front of Jareth and Tyron. Darius stood to pull out my chair, however, and I managed to whisper that the captain was abandoning any investigation.

  He gave a single swift nod as I sat down before taking his place back beside his brother. Jareth watched Darius with narrowed eyes, apparently too attuned to him to miss that something was going on. But when he realized my attention was on him, he began an animated conversation with Tyron.

  I continued to regard him with narrowed eyes. Maybe it was my increased suspicion levels after the attack the night before, but something about Jareth continued to make me uncomfortable. I just wished I could put my finger on what it was.

  My mind worried over the question while we ate our meal, and I decided at last that I didn’t trust him. Not because he had ever behaved in a threatening way toward me, but because I had never seen behind his mask. It was easy to forget he had one when it was so much more friendly and outgoing than any royal I had previously met.

  But the more I considered what I had so far seen of him, the more convinced I became that it was a mask all the same. And there was something unsettling about a mask that was so very disarming. Even now, Tyron was laughing, forgetting himself so far as to clap the prince on the back.

  But it was dangerous to forget yourself around royalty, especially Kallorwegian royalty. Jareth might seem the least frightening of the family, but at least Darius’s presence reminded everyone they must tread carefully.

  When the bell rang to send us to class, Darius managed to brush against me as we exited the dining hall.

  “Tonight,” he whispered. “After the evening meal.”

  I didn’t have the opportunity to respond in any way, but he had already swept on. I wanted to roll my eyes at his imperious manner, but I had to admit, I was already counting down the hours. I wanted to get through class so we could finally experiment and work out the limits of my new ability.

  All through composition class I kept thinking about the words I had spoken to twist my attacker’s working. They had been unpolished, hardly what you would call a real composition. But they had carried desperation behind them. Perhaps that had helped shape them to the purpose I needed.

  As I watched my year mates composing, my limitations again pressed in on me. They could all sit here and practice, but I couldn’t even attempt to use my power on my own. I needed someone else to make an active working before I could try my own ability. It would slow down my capacity to experiment significantly.

  In discipline class it occurred to me that the situation was even worse than that. Only Bryony could help me, and she could hardly pour out her energy endlessly while I fumbled around, attempting to intercept it. And the worst-case scenario was that my ability might be limited to preventing someone stealing my energy. We had no way to replicate that scenario at all.

  By the time we stood up from the evening meal, I had reached a state of dejection. Someone wanted to kill me, and I had no way to discover their identity. After a long day of regular classes, all my bright hopes about my new discovery seemed foolish and naive. I began to doubt I could even stay in Kallorway. The earlier incidents had been one thing, but attempted murder was another altogether.

  Bryony trailed behind me to my room, chattering away. She had picked up on my low mood and was trying to lift my spirits, but her efforts did little.

  When we entered my sitting room, I could see that someone had been hard at work. With so many other things on my mind, I hadn’t even thought about my new roommate, but Darius must have spoken to Zora.

  The furniture had all been rearranged, leaving room for a sturdy single bed to be placed against one wall. It had a small side table next to it and had been surrounded by a set of tall wooden panels, sectioning it off from the rest of the room.

  When I continued on through to my bedchamber to change my clothes, I discovered a second wardrobe. When I peeked inside, I saw a flash of purple silk.

  “Your clothes are in there,” I told Bryony when I returned to the sitting room. “It looks like they brought your whole wardrobe down. Literally.”

  “Excellent!” She bounced through the door to take a look.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind being here?”
I asked her when she reappeared. “You’re sacrificing all of your privacy just to help me.”

  “Verene.” She gave me a look. “You’re not asking me to help you get ready for a ball or something. Someone tried to kill you. I’ve been trying not to think about it all day because it’s just so awful. Of course I’m going to be here.” A determined look came over her face. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

  Tears filled my eyes. “Thank you, Bree. Not just for this. For being here at all. Thank you for coming to the Academy. I had no idea how much I needed you.”

  “It’s not like it’s a great sacrifice. I’ve learned so much already, and I’d rather be here than in some Sekali school. You’re not the only one who appreciates having family in a strange place, you know.”

  “Of course.” I mopped at my eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s all just been a little…much.”

  “I’ll bet it has.” She patted the back of one of the sofas. “Why don’t you sit down for a moment? We don’t have to start experimenting straight away.”

  I sat down but immediately sprang back up, unable to sit still. “Yes, about that. We should probably wait for Darius.”

  “Prince Darius? Is he coming here?”

  A knock sounded from behind the tapestry, and she stared around in confusion. “Where did that come from?”

  I hurried over to thrust aside the material, pulling open the door behind it before Darius could knock again.

  “There you are! I thought you’d never…” My words trailed away when I saw he wasn’t alone, his brother standing so close their energy almost blended together in my senses. I should have been paying more attention.

  Jareth raised both eyebrows, looking between me and his brother. When Darius said nothing to relieve the awkward moment, he spoke.

  “Good evening, Verene. I hope you don’t mind, but I could see something was going on, and I hate to be excluded.”

  He gave me what was no doubt meant to be a disarming smile, but I only managed a weak one in return. Stepping aside, I gestured for them both to come through into my sitting room.

  Darius entered first, nodding coolly to Bryony. “I thought Jareth might have some insights to offer. He’s recently completed a tour of the Empire and met a number of energy mages.”

  “I heard Kallorway sent a recent delegation up the Abneris,” I said. “But I’d forgotten Jareth was a part of it.”

  Closing the door behind them both, I turned to find Bryony regarding us all with wide eyes. She sidled up to me while Jareth looked around the room with interest.

  “Um, since when does your room connect to the crown prince’s suite? And why did I not know about this?” She gripped my arm, lowering her voice further. “Verene, how often does he use that door?”

  I shook her free, my face flushing despite my best efforts. “We’ve spoken on occasion. But that’s it. I’m sure I told you we’d talked. He didn’t believe I had no power, remember?”

  “Talking and sharing a secret door between your rooms is not the same thing,” she hissed before giving me a significant look and marching over to one of the sofas.

  When no one else sat down, she looked around at us all.

  “Well? Come on! Don’t just stand there awkwardly.”

  I tore my eyes away from Darius and flushed again. Why did I feel so off-balance just because Darius had brought his brother?

  But Darius wouldn’t meet my eyes, and it suddenly occurred to me that he might be avoiding being alone with me after our unguarded interaction the night before. My flush deepened. Did he fear I was going to throw myself at him after the foolish things I’d said? I cringed at the memories. I had snuggled into him, declaring his hold on me nice of all things.

  Bryony cleared her throat. “I assume we’re not all here to look at each other awkwardly.”

  I sat down hurriedly, and both princes followed, each taking one of the straight-backed wooden chairs.

  “What did the captain say?” Darius asked, looking at me so calmly that I wondered if I had imagined his earlier hesitation.

  “Apparently the grower instructor suggested that one of her trainees may have made an error in one of their compositions and left the hole there rather than confess to it. Captain Vincent believes it to be the most likely explanation and wanted to seek my permission to let the matter drop. I don’t think he’s too eager to start questioning trainees—not when I appear to be unharmed.”

  “And you agreed, of course,” Darius said. “So he won’t be looking into it further.”

  I nodded, carefully not looking at him. “I think he was quite pleased not to look too closely into what was going on out there.”

  My eyes caught on Jareth who was looking between me and his brother with a crease between his eyes.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered if he had,” said Darius, making me forget both my awkwardness and Jareth.

  “What do you mean?” I asked him.

  “After I saw you both here to your suite last night, I went back to the gardens. The guards had finished filling in the hole, but I worked an investigation composition to reveal recent activity in the area.”

  My mouth dropped open. I knew he was studying law enforcement, but that was a highly advanced composition. The sort of composition discipline heads—the strongest mages in the kingdoms—completed personally.

  “You just happened to have such a working on you?” I asked weakly.

  “Since you told me about your previous accident, I made sure I did,” he said evenly. “Too much time and activity had passed in the yard to use it for that incident, but I wanted to be prepared in case of another.”

  Just how strong was Darius, and how much private training had he received? Sitting through classes must be torturously boring for him.

  “Well?” Jareth sat forward. “Don’t keep us waiting. What did you find?”

  I frowned at him, but I supposed it was natural for him to be as concerned as Darius about such goings on in his kingdom.

  “Nothing,” Darius said flatly.

  Jareth sat back with a low whistle.

  “Nothing?” Bryony frowned at him. “I don’t understand. Isn’t that one of those compositions that shows you what happened, almost as if you’re watching it again?”

  “Yes, it is,” said Darius. “And according to my composition, there was no one there. Well, there was a giant ball of power, but no person.”

  “But there must have been a person,” I said. “I felt them.”

  “They were invisible, then?” Jareth asked.

  “As in, with a composition?” Bryony frowned. “Is it possible they were energy shielded instead? Would that stop them from showing up in your composition, Prince Darius?”

  He frowned. “An interesting question. I will raise it with our law enforcement instructor when I get a chance. But it can’t have been the case here. Or at least, if they did have their energy shielded, they were also using a whole collection of other power compositions. The area where they must have been standing was lit up like a beacon.”

  “The type of composition Darius used is designed to do two things,” Jareth explained. “It shows what was visible during the time span it’s exposing, and it also makes any power being used visible. In fact, they are often keyed to go back to the last time power was used in a particular area, or in the vicinity of a particular person.”

  Darius wasn’t paying attention to his brother’s explanation, his focus on me instead. And I could read in his face that he was waiting for me to come to the same realization he had already reached.

  “So we’re not talking about just one person,” I said, my heart sinking. “Whoever attacked me used an energy composition to do it. But they also used a whole collection of power compositions. Which means we have a conspiracy.”

  Chapter 24

  We discussed it exhaustively, of course. But without further information, there was no way to come to any conclusion. Jareth then wanted an explanation of my discovery of my ability, w
hich I gave him with the utmost reluctance and only because I could think of no reason to refuse.

  “Amazing!” he said when I finished. “Have you tried it again?”

  “I haven’t had the chance.”

  “We should try it now.”

  Darius, who had been watching me closely, his expression inscrutable, frowned at his brother’s enthusiasm.

  “Verene might need longer to regain her energy levels before she starts experimenting.”

  It seemed he had read my reluctance, although not its cause.

  “Actually she’s—” Bryony began to speak, probably to tell them my energy levels were fine, so I cut her off.

  “It’s been a long day. Perhaps tomorrow.”

  Darius nodded and stood, his brother following his lead with more reluctance. Bryony stayed where she was, eyeing me strangely, but I ignored her.

  Jareth was first through the door, and on impulse I reached out to stop Darius from following him.

  “Why did you bring Jareth?” I asked.

  Darius examined my expression, his own closed. “For the reason I told you. I thought he might be able to help. I didn’t realize you were still so tired.”

  I felt bad for letting him believe me exhausted, but my irritation drove away the guilt.

  “You shouldn’t have told him without asking me first.”

  He frowned. “He’s my brother. I tell him everything.”

  I arched an eyebrow, dropping my voice even lower. “Everything?”

  His face didn’t change, but a muscle in his arm jumped beneath my fingers.

  “Everything of potential import to our kingdom.”

  I sighed and let my hand drop. Of course it was all about his kingdom. With Darius it was never anything else.

  Jareth had stopped halfway across Darius’s sitting room and was looking back at us with curious eyes. I stepped back and let Darius leave.

  He stopped with his hand on the door, his eyes on me.