Voice of Power (The Spoken Mage Book 1)

by Melanie Cellier

  I smiled gratefully at him, and he came around his desk to clap me on the shoulder.

  “Return in two days, and we will see what I have managed to uncover. Take heart. Success is just around the corner. I feel sure of it.”

  Although I shared none of his excessive enthusiasm, it still felt as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders as I hurried from the library. Surely the head librarian of the Royal Academy of the Written Word would have more success in unearthing some clue to my power than I had yet managed.

  “Elena.” The low voice pulled me up just short of the library doors. Looking around, I spotted Lucas’s tall shape between two shelves.

  He beckoned me over, and I looked around reflexively to see if someone else might be standing behind me. Then I remembered he had called my name and flushed, feeling foolish and off-balance.

  But I had nothing to be ashamed of. I had been admitted to the Academy with the express purpose of learning control—no one could blame me for attempting to do just that. I straightened my back and marched over to him.

  “Lucas.”

  Something flickered in his eyes when I spoke his name, and I knew I had sounded unnecessarily belligerent. But I refused to back down. I crossed my arms over my chest and waited in silence for him to speak.

  “You should be careful,” he said at last.

  I lowered my brows. “I’m not about to start attempting to write again, so you needn’t be concerned for the Academy. I won’t be bringing down any more walls.”

  Impatience filled his eyes. “You have no idea of your power, Elena.”

  “No,” I said, exasperation loosening my tongue. “I don’t. No thanks to any of you. I’m here because I did something new. I understand that. But this is supposed to be an Academy, isn’t it? I might be forgiven in thinking some instruction would be forthcoming. Well, I’m sick of waiting around. If no one else wants to work out how to unlock my ability, I’m going to work it out for myself. And if you have a problem with that, you can…you can take it up with your father.”

  I somehow maintained my glare despite instantly regretting my words. What was I saying? The last thing I wanted was for Lucas to talk to his father about me on any topic whatsoever.

  But as I watched, amusement joined the impatience on his face, and anger welled up in me again. With a ridiculous and undignified, “Humph,” I turned on my heel and walked away from him. I wasn’t one of his courtiers, and I refused to put up with his needling.

  Of course, it was only later, when my emotions had cooled, that I admitted I probably had far more need than one of his courtiers to refrain from offending a member of the royal family. If only the sight of him didn’t rile me so. But I knew that was no excuse really. My safety and that of my family should weigh more with me than one pair of infuriating eyes.

  Chapter 13

  Two days later Walden assured me he had only begun to trawl the vast resources of the library. I tried to hide my disappointment and asked if he had some reading material for me to assist in the search. But instead he reminded me that the next day was a rest day. When he asked how long it had been since I took some time out, I found I couldn’t resist the allure of an entire day off.

  And I didn’t have to think for more than a second to know what I wanted to do with it. Which is how I ended up standing in the front courtyard of the Academy staring at the great gates that gave access to the rest of Corrin.

  Coralie had offered to accompany me, but this was one trip I needed to do on my own. I wasn’t going far.

  Shaking my head at my own foolish hesitation, I pushed open the gates and slipped out. Noises and smells instantly surrounded me, making me wonder if the creators who crafted the Academy walls had built noise protections into their compositions.

  I glanced back at the tall, sleek marble that surrounded the Academy grounds. I could almost feel the prestige rolling off the stone. But still it couldn’t hold my gaze for long. Instead my eyes were drawn to my left, to the towering palace that dominated the city.

  By using the same white marble, the Academy felt like an extension of the magnificent building. But there was no question which was the main attraction. The palace soared so high above me that its walls did little to block the effect. An untold number of people must live in such a vast place.

  I tore my eyes away and looked across the top portion of South Road. Sitting directly opposite the Academy stood another apparent extension of the palace. Except this tall marble wall hid the Royal University. The current home of my brother, Jasper.

  It seemed incomprehensible that we had been residing so close for all these weeks without seeing each other. But then perhaps Jasper had as little opportunity to leave the University as I had so far had to leave the Academy. Another thought struck me. Perhaps he didn’t even know of my presence here at all.

  Coralie had assured me that visitors were welcome at the University, and that in fact their extensive library was open for use by the public. She hadn’t even seen the irony of her words, and I had refrained from pointing it out, conscious of how much I owed to her kindness.

  But the words lingered with me now, as I darted across the street and approached the gates which matched those of the Academy. How many common folk had ever crossed this threshold except in the capacity of servant? Certainly none had ever come to use the library.

  These gates included a smaller section that could be opened without pushing wide the whole thing, and I slipped gratefully through it. Pride for Jasper welled as I did so. I was here by a still-unexplained accident. But Jasper had earned his place among the elite. He had worked hard all his life to hone his natural gift, until his mind had the capacity to hold everything it would need to succeed in a world of the written word. Once he graduated he might lead a merchant company, competing with the mage merchants, or even get an official position of some sort.

  The University had an even grander courtyard than the Academy with three fountains dotted across it, each burbling and splashing despite the cold weather. And unlike the Academy, which consisted of a single main building with only a few small outbuildings sheltering beside it, the University was made up of several large, imposing structures, joined with arched walkways.

  I hesitated and looked between them all. Somehow I hadn’t anticipated it being quite so big.

  “Are you in need of assistance?” asked a friendly voice to my right.

  I turned to see a tall young man who gave me a half-bow.

  “We are always happy to be of help to fair visitors to our humble realm of learning.”

  A short girl beside him snorted. “With emphasis on the fair in your case, Edmond.”

  I flushed and resisted straightening my dress. I had put extra care into selecting my outfit and arranging my hair this morning, but I had done it for my brother, not to impress anyone else. I wanted him to see me in the fine clothes the Academy had provided and feel some measure of the pride in me that I felt in him. Of course, it would no doubt only last until I told him the mess I was in, but that hadn’t prevented me making the attempt.

  “You wound me,” Edmond said to his friend, pressing a dramatic hand to his heart.

  I halted just short of raising an eyebrow at him. He seemed more suited to a career as a Player than an academic. I glanced back over at the huge University.

  “I could do with some assistance, actually,” I said. “I’m looking for my brother who is a student here.”

  The third member of their group regarded me with narrowed eyes. “What’s his name?”

  His suspicious look and air of irritation reminded me that all three of them must be mages. When had I become so comfortable around their kind that I spoke to them without even thinking of their status?

  When you bent power to your will with a spoken word, said a voice inside me. I straightened my back and gave him an equally cold look.

  “His name is Jasper.”

  “Why am I not surprised?” The arrogant one turned away as if our conversa
tion was finished as far as he was concerned.

  I bit my lip in sudden concern. In all our pride in him, my family had never given much consideration to what poor Jasper’s lot might be, surrounded by those who viewed him as inherently inferior. Did he have a Coralie to help him, or was he struggling through alone? I wished I could have found an opportunity to visit earlier.

  Edmond’s expression faltered only briefly, however.

  “In that case, you want that door there.” He pointed at a side door in the northern building. “All us humble junior students have our rooms there.”

  The girl snorted again. “Humble? You?”

  Edmond pushed her lightly, and the two began to bicker good-humoredly.

  Their unpleasant companion sighed. “Are we really still standing here?”

  Edmond and the girl nodded at me in a way that was not exactly friendly, but neither was it rude, before ambling off in their friend’s wake. As they reached the gate, I heard the girl whisper, “Wait a second, did she say she was Jasper’s sister?”

  She tried to peer back at me, but her friend pulled her out onto the street, and I didn’t hear any more. I drew a deep breath and hurried for the indicated door, eager to find Jasper before I encountered any more mages. The door pushed open easily against my hand, letting me in to a long corridor lined with rooms.

  I stopped a passing servant to ask for my brother, and after a moment’s pause, the man directed me to a door part-way down the hall. I knocked on it and could barely contain myself while I waited for the familiar voice to call, “Come in.”

  I burst into the room and threw myself into his arms.

  “Oof!” Jasper staggered backward before catching us both. “Elena?”

  He pulled back to regard me with astonishment, and I surveyed his lean frame.

  “Have you been eating enough?”

  He laughed. “You sound like Mother. Why am I not surprised? Do I have to remind you again that I’m your older brother?”

  I glanced around the room, surprised to see a number of luxurious touches. And no bed was in sight, although a door to one side seemed to open into another room. I knew Jasper had to pay board, but it didn’t seem enough for a suite like this. The University provided for its students more lavishly than the Academy.

  “This is nice,” I said.

  Jasper glanced around himself. “Yes, it’s nice enough, I suppose. But you shouldn’t be here. Come on, let’s go to my room.”

  “Your room?” I followed him back into the corridor despite my confusion. “Isn’t that your room? I asked a servant where to find you, and he directed me there. And there you were…”

  Jasper opened a door some way further down the hall and ushered me into a small, single room. This one held a slim bed, a desk, and a single trunk for storage.

  “Those are Gregory’s rooms.”

  “Gregory? Who’s he? And why were you in his rooms?” I crossed over to look out his single window. Being in a ground floor room, he didn’t have the view I did back at the Academy, but he still had a pleasant outlook into a small courtyard with several trees and yet another fountain. That was something at least.

  “He’s one of the other non-blood students.”

  I turned to face him. The term sounded strange on my brother’s lips where I had never heard it before.

  “There are only three of us in the whole University currently. Gregory, Clara, and me. Clara is on a scholarship like me.” He shook his head. “She’s utterly brilliant, so it’s not surprising. But as you know, the scholarship only covers tuition. So, like me, her family are scraping to cover her other expenses.” He gestured around him. “Thus the simple room. Gregory on the other hand…” He shook his head.

  “A rich non-blood?” I asked. One of the kind who could afford to purchase compositions from mages, I supposed. The kind I had only been dimly aware existed before I encountered the larger world outside Kingslee.

  “Exactly.” Jasper shook his head. “Poor fellow.”

  “Poor?” I eyed him. “Weren’t you just saying the opposite?”

  “Well, not monetarily poor. At least not by our standards. But he doesn’t really have the mind to be here. It’s a constant struggle for him. His family are looking to make their way up in the world, though, so they weren’t content for a mere apprenticeship for him—even in the family’s prosperous shipping business. So here he is.”

  “Oh.” I considered that. “I’m still not sure why you were in his rooms.”

  Jasper shrugged. “His family give him an allowance, but he knew he was never going to be able to keep up in classes. So instead of hiring servants—the University ones only do the most basic tasks, so most of the students hire extra services—he’s spending the money on tutors.”

  “Tutors?” I tried to imagine a mage willing to tutor a non-blood.

  Jasper laughed. “I would have been as skeptical as you before I arrived. But it seems there are always hierarchies. How do you think some of the less wealthy mages from minor families afford the services of servants themselves?”

  I thought of Coralie and her talk of selling compositions. Tutoring might be considered less degrading for the poorer students.

  “Gregory can’t remember everything from the lectures like Clara and I can. So his tutors read aloud to him from the assigned texts. He’s a good sort, so he lets Clara and me join the tutoring sessions in exchange for acting as his missing servants.”

  He laughed at my pained look. “I can assure you I’ve done stupider things in my time than run errands and act as a footman.” He made a face. “Poor Clara has to clean his rooms until they shine, so it could be worse.”

  I raised an eyebrow at him, about to unleash a lecture on gentlemanly behavior, but he quickly cut me off.

  “Oh, don’t worry, she assures me she prefers it to running hither and thither around the University and city.”

  I considered Jasper’s handsome laughing face. That might well be the case, of course. It was also possible, however, that it was pleasing my brother that Clara preferred. And I found myself hoping it might be the latter. Jasper needed someone who could keep up with him mentally, and there had never been any hope of that with anyone in Kingslee.

  I only hoped my parents wouldn’t be disappointed if he ended up liking her back. Perhaps they had been secretly hoping he would make a match with a girl from a family like Gregory’s.

  I looked around the room again before fixing my eyes back on my brother.

  “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”

  “Of course I’m surprised. And delighted—that much goes without saying.” He grinned at me, but I continued to watch him with narrowed eyes.

  “Oh, you’re surprised enough to see me on this particular morning, but you’re not nearly as surprised as you could be.”

  A shadow passed across his face, and he sat down on his bed, patting the spot beside him. When I sat as well, he angled himself to face me, concern in his eyes.

  “I knew you were at the Academy, if that’s what you mean. I would have visited except I wasn’t sure exactly how things stood, and I didn’t want to make things worse for you…I was hoping you might make your way across here eventually.”

  I looked down at my lap, twisting my hands into my skirts. “So, you know about…what happened? About me? You heard?”

  Jasper laughed but, unlike earlier, it sounded hard. “Are you joking? A non-blood works a composition with a spoken word, and her brother just happens to be one of only two non-bloods in the entire kingdom to be offered a University scholarship in the last five years? Both the Reds and the Grays were crawling all over me.”

  I looked up at him in sudden alarm, but he shook his head.

  “Relax, they didn’t find anything. Of course. You don’t get to a position like mine without respecting the limitations. Whatever the temptation, I don’t go near any of the books.”

  His face twisted, and I could only imagine how hard it must be in an environment like
this, and with a mind like his. No doubt he could teach himself to read in a mere fraction of the time it had taken me.

  “They already watch us non-blood students like hawks, anyway,” he said.

  “I’m surprised they let you here at all,” I muttered.

  He shrugged, his expression cynical. “Well, they have to make some allowances to the common folk, don’t they? Demonstrate goodwill and all that.”

  “Do they?”

  He laughed at my dark face and pulled at my hair like he used to do.

  “Well, they let you into the Academy, didn’t they? And if that’s not making a concession…”

  I rolled my eyes and threw his pillow at him, not feeling in the least repentant when it ricocheted off and landed in a particularly large patch of dust in the corner of the room.

  His face dropped again, and he looked at me intently.

  “But in all seriousness, El, I hope you’re watching your step.”

  I nodded but looked down to hide a flush. I’d been trying to watch my step, at least. I just couldn’t always seem to control my tongue.

  He dipped his own head to meet my eyes. “I mean it, Elena. This isn’t like Kingslee where you could say what you liked.”

  I grimaced. He knew me too well.

  “Or do what you liked, for that matter. You’re rubbing shoulders with powerful people and—unlike at the University—there’s no precedent for your presence.” He hesitated. “I heard about the explosion.”

  My head jerked up. “You did?”

  He nodded, still focused on my face. “That surprises you?” He paused again. “I don’t know what it’s like over there at the Academy, but Elena…” He stood abruptly and walked to the window, gazing out for a moment before turning back to me.

  I waited, my brow creased. I wasn’t used to this serious, concerned Jasper.