Voice of Power (The Spoken Mage Book 1)

by Melanie Cellier

He crossed back over to the bed and sat down again, taking my hand in both of his. “Elena, lots of eyes are on you. Powerful eyes. What you did…it isn’t just unusual, it’s unprecedented. Unheard of. Almost undreamed of. There are…lots of opinions on it.”

  I frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  He bit his lip. “Just that you should watch your step, like I said. And your mouth.” He bent a stern look on me.

  I sighed. “I’m trying, truly I am. Believe me, I’m well aware of how impossible I am. But Jasper, it all feels so pointless when I can’t even get it to work.”

  “Tell me,” he said, and I had soon poured out all my struggles, relieved to finally have a friendly and familiar pair of ears. Ones belonging to someone I had loved and trusted before I even trusted myself.

  Yet for all his keen mind, Jasper had no suggestions to help me when at last I finished.

  “I’ll keep my ears open,” he promised, “but in all honesty, you’re already ahead of me if you can read.” The jealous gleam in his eye made me instantly ashamed for doing nothing but complain.

  “Jasper, I wish—”

  “Don’t say it. There are some things that can never be. And your explosion only proves that. Impossible miracles are in limited supply.”

  I gave him an impulsive hug, and then sat back. My stomach rumbled, reminding me of how much time had passed. A distant bell sounded somewhere, and Jasper stood.

  “Sorry I don’t have any food to offer you, little sis. But we’re not allowed to bring guests to the dining hall. And I’m afraid I have to get going anyway. We always have a tutor in the afternoon on rest day.”

  I stood as well. “Don’t worry about me, I’m just glad to have seen you. And I’ll come back when I can.” I bit my lip. “I just don’t know when that will be.”

  “You watch out for yourself and don’t be worrying about me,” he said, giving me a quick hug. “Do you know your way back out?”

  I gave him an amused look. “We might not all be geniuses, Jasper, but it wasn’t exactly complicated.”

  He grinned at me easily, before ushering me out of his room and heading off down the corridor in the opposite direction from the door I had used to enter the building. I watched him go until he disappeared before sighing and turning for the exit.

  It had been good to see him, but I hadn’t liked the expression on his face when he warned me to be careful. And only now that he was gone did I realize that I never pushed him to explain himself. Just what I needed—more nebulous threats to worry about.

  Hurrying out into the courtyard, I pulled my thick cloak closed around me, trying to shut out the sharp wind that had sprung up. Keeping my head down, I hurried toward the gate.

  “Elena?” The surprised exclamation made me pull up and look around me. Who else here could know my name?

  But the tall figure who leaned against a nearby wall didn’t belong at the University at all. When I stood frozen, staring at him, Lucas’s eyes flicked to one side. I heard a number of voices, hidden before by the sound of the wind, and turned to follow his gaze.

  But he pushed instantly off the wall and strode forward. Gripping my arm, he pulled me back to where he had been standing under the curved cover of a walkway. I stumbled after him, too surprised by the burn of his hand through my sleeve to struggle or protest. Was he as aware as I was that we had never touched before, not even in combat? The prince of Ardann didn’t pair with the non-blood.

  Twisting himself back into his previous position against the wall, he tugged me against him so that we stood face to face, my body just short of being pressed up against his. I struggled to breathe as I tried desperately to remind myself who he was and not to think about his broad chest or strong arms.

  I looked up into his eyes, to find them looking down at me with an arrested expression. But just as I opened my mouth to demand an explanation, his gaze once again flicked to the side.

  When I tried to twist to see the courtyard behind me, his grip on my arms tightened. I sighed, but Jasper’s warnings still rang in my ears, and I refrained from pulling myself free.

  Instead I listened, picking up on snatches of conversation between gusts of wind. It wasn’t enough to follow what was being said, but I stopped trying when a name floated across to me. My mouth fell open in surprise, and I suddenly felt glad to be hidden away.

  Chapter 14

  Even after the voices moved on and the clear sound of the gates opening and closing echoed across the courtyard, Lucas still held me in place. Except now his gaze had moved from over my shoulder to my mouth. I quickly snapped it closed.

  For a moment we remained there, held in our strange position, just short of an embrace. My heart pounded although I couldn’t seem to think clearly enough to work out why. Should I be afraid of something? Other than the message that I could never quite catch in Lucas’s bright eyes?

  “Did someone say…was that…General Griffith?” I managed to choke out. Just his name was synonymous with the front lines and everything I had grown up most fearing.

  Lucas nodded, his eyes shifting away from my face as he pushed me back. He kept a light grip on one arm, though, as if he was afraid I’d take off sprinting after the general.

  “But, I thought he was at the front lines?”

  “He was.” Lucas’s eyes still flicked around the courtyard, although a quick glance told me it was now empty, the various University inhabitants no doubt having hurried off to the dining hall like my brother.

  “But what’s he doing here?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Consulting with Jessamine, I imagine. Or even visiting Julian.”

  When I looked confused, he made an impatient sound in his throat. “The general’s older son. The twins’ brother. He’s doing a brief stint here at the University.”

  “Oh.” I tried not to glare at him or say anything my brother would disapprove of, despite my rising resentment. Why should I know who Julian was?

  Lucas shook his head. “You’re like a child, you don’t know anything. Whose bright idea was it to let you out of the Academy?”

  I drew myself up, wrenching my arm from his grip.

  “What are you doing over here, anyway?” He frowned at me. “This is almost the last place you should be.”

  “I was told access to the University was open to the public,” I said coldly, struggling to hold on to my resolution to mind my tongue.

  Lucas barked a laugh. “You’re hardly the public, Elena.”

  I hissed in a breath, reminded all too forcibly of Coralie’s thoughtless words. Did these mages truly think they were the only ones to exist in the world? No—just that they’re the only ones who matter.

  “No one let me out of the Academy,” I snapped, “I’m just taking my rest day, the same as everyone else. And for your information, I was visiting my brother. Although I didn’t realize I needed to give an accounting of my movements to you.”

  Lucas rubbed a hand across his face. “That’s right, I’d forgotten about your brother.”

  I paused, my heart pattering, fear mingling with my anger. Lucas knew about Jasper? My brother’s words pounded round my head. Lots of eyes are on you, Elena. Powerful eyes.

  And for some reason, the prince had pulled me out of General Griffith’s path. He had wanted to keep me from one set of those powerful eyes.

  I felt a new sting from his earlier words. I really did know nothing about the world I now inhabited. I had been foolish to forget that the bubble of the Academy floated in a much larger pool, and that at any moment, that bubble could burst, and the flood waters could come rushing in.

  I opened my mouth, but Lucas’s frustrated gaze ripped away my words. Which was probably for the best since I had been gone from my brother for only a few minutes, and I had already managed to let my tongue run free.

  Whirling, I hurried across the courtyard and out through the gates. And this time no voice called my name, and no hand reached out to restrain me.

  I kept my head down i
n classes after that, trying to remember my brother’s warning. It didn’t help that every time I saw Lucas, I could feel his hands gripping my arms, and remember his face as it had looked a mere breath away from mine. Was I right that he had been protecting me? And, if so, why?

  I caught his eyes on me even more than usual, but he made no attempt to speak to me or to reference our encounter at the University. With no further uncontrolled outbursts, the other students had gradually drifted back to their usual seats, only Natalya and Lavinia stubbornly remaining as far from me as they could get.

  Although I had ceased seeking out reading material from Jocasta, she had already assigned me enough texts on composition, that I no longer felt lost in class. And the day finally came when Redmond asked a question and, without thinking, my mouth opened, and I answered it.

  He paused for a long, weighted breath, his eyes narrowed, but he could obviously find no flaw in my response.

  “Indeed,” he said flatly, and continued with his lesson.

  Coralie grinned at me triumphantly, but I was already wishing I hadn’t spoken up and resolving not to do so again. The last thing I needed was to draw Redmond’s ire.

  But then I caught Lucas staring at me from the next desk. And he looked most displeased. I glared back at him, my posture straight and unyielding. After that, I made an effort to try to answer one question in every class. Apparently the prince needed reminding that he had intelligent subjects among the common folk.

  Every few days I stopped by the library to consult with Walden. Each time he came up with some new strategy for me to try and would coach me through it in his office, but my words always fell dull and lifeless from my lips.

  Somehow the head librarian’s enthusiasm didn’t wane, as if the greater the challenge, the more he delighted in it. The one time I came earlier than he was expecting, I found him wandering up and down the shelves, muttering to himself, his bright eyes skipping from book to book.

  I ran into Jocasta that time, too, and her disapproving eyes followed me. I didn’t come early again after that. My reading had improved enough that I didn’t need her exercises, and Walden was a much more pleasant tutor than she had ever been.

  In combat, there were rumors we were soon to graduate to actual blades, so I could only be thankful that day hadn’t yet come. I was finally beginning to feel comfortable with a staff, and given my failure with my ability, it was nice not to feel totally inept in one part of my life.

  One particularly cold day, not long before Midwinter, Coralie headed straight for Acacia’s rooms after breakfast instead of combat.

  “I’ll be good as new once she’s seen to me,” she promised through her streaming eyes and nose.

  I saw her off with a sympathetic look, unsure how she’d even dragged herself out of bed. How different the winter flu season was with a healer on hand to step in before the illness peaked. I wondered often how Clementine was going at home, and how many times she had been ill during the cold months so far. Were my parents surviving without me there to help nurse her?

  We had only expected there to be one winter between my anticipated departure for the war and Jasper’s graduation. And after that, my family would move to the capital to join him, where we could access the clinics that the healers discipline ran. Once we had saved up the hefty fee, of course.

  Thoughts of my younger sister distracted me all the way to the training yard before it dawned on me that Coralie’s absence meant I was short a sparring partner. A quick glance around the group suggested that she wasn’t the only one struck down by illness. There was no sign of quiet Saffron, although her cousin was cracking jokes at the unresponsive Thornton.

  When he called for us to pair up, I expected an awkward shuffle as everyone tried to avoid me, but Finnian strolled cheerfully in my direction.

  I nodded at him awkwardly and adjusted my grip on my staff before deciding that I should make more of an effort to reciprocate his friendliness.

  “Coralie’s with Acacia,” I said. “Saffron too? It’s this awful weather.”

  Finnian nodded. “She has a harder time adjusting than me, I’m afraid. We don’t get the biting cold weather like this up home.”

  “Where do you come from?”

  “Torcos. It’s way up north, on the North Road, just below the northern forests.”

  I bit my lip on a sharp retort. I could tell he was trying to be friendly rather than making a statement about my implied lack of schooling in geography.

  Thornton called the first set of exercises, and we fell silent as we settled into a steady pattern of blocks and strikes. When he called for free sparring, I sweated slightly, my hands spasming against the staff.

  But to my surprise, I held my own, even managing a few knocks of my own despite Finnian’s skill. And when the class finally came to an end, Finnian grinned and actually clapped me on the back.

  “Good bout,” he said.

  I stared at him, robbed of words by my shock at having a trainee other than Coralie voluntarily touch me. Then I remembered that one other trainee had touched me. Once.

  My eyes slid sideways to Lucas. He had several sparring partners, rotating between them from class to class, but only Weston and Dariela ever succeeded in landing a blow against him. Usually he sparred with intense focus, easily the best trained and strongest in the class.

  To my surprise, I found his eyes on me, however. I quickly whisked my own gaze away, but not before I saw his eyes narrow at Finnian’s next words.

  “Don’t worry,” the northerner said, with a wink. “I generally have that effect.”

  “What?” I gaped at him, trying to straighten my thoughts.

  “Only that you needn’t be embarrassed. I generally render the ladies speechless.”

  He struck an absurd pose, and I couldn’t help laughing.

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  “Do.” He fell into easy step beside me as I made my way back toward the Academy. “But, in all honesty, you’ve come a long way. You were truly terrible when you started.” He laughed but there didn’t seem to be any malice in it, especially after his earlier compliment.

  And even I was surprised at how far I’d come. I had thought Coralie was still going easy on me, but after my session with Finnian, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

  “Some of the others grumble that old Thornton makes us work our way through the basics before he’ll let us get to any of the fun stuff,” Finnian continued, “but that’s why.”

  “Oh?”

  “My father says Thornton doesn’t trust anyone’s teaching but his own. And he’s sworn that no trainee will graduate the Academy without sufficient skill in combat. So he insists on treating everyone like beginners and training them from the ground up.”

  I winced as I remembered the bruises I used to have after every combat class. And the lack of clear instruction from Thornton. All these mages might think he was starting at a beginner level, but I knew better.

  “Was he here when your father came through the Academy, then?” I asked, unwilling to pick a fight with Finnian when he was actually voluntarily walking beside me and chatting as though I was just another trainee.

  “Goodness no,” said Finnian with a chuckle. “Thornton might be getting on the older side, but he’s not that ancient. But my father tends to keep his mouth closed and his ears open. He’s constantly assuring me you can learn a lot that way.”

  He grinned in my direction, inviting me to share his self-deprecating joke.

  “He sounds a lot like my mother.” I rolled my eyes, and Finnian laughed.

  “To be fair, I imagine it helps when you’re a duke and have access to all the council meetings,” Finnian added, and my moment of fellow feeling evaporated.

  “Your father is a duke?” The words sounded a little squeaky, so I cleared my throat.

  “Duke Dashiell of Callinos, Head of the Healers,” Finnian said, the pride clear in his voice despite his earlier joking.

  I had known Finnian
and Saffron were from the Callinos family, but somehow I had missed his father’s status. I bit my lip, watching Calix who stalked ahead of us. Our year level might be unusually small, but it was also apparently illustrious.

  Lots of eyes are on you, Elena. Powerful eyes.

  I fell silent, although Finnian didn’t seem to notice, keeping up a steady stream of one-sided conversation as we rounded the corner of the Academy and stepped inside the entryway.

  “Elena!” An excited flurry of movement was my only warning before Coralie barreled into me, nearly knocking me over.

  “Whoa there,” said Finnian laughingly, reaching out to steady us both. “I know we’re delightful, and you’ve no doubt been missing us, but we haven’t been gone that long.”

  Coralie righted herself and ignored him, her feet dancing on the spot.

  “What happened to you?” I asked.

  “Acacia told me to take the morning off and rest. She said the healing needed time to work.” She glanced at Finnian. “Saffron too. Which means we were the first to hear.”

  She grinned up at us both and waved a thick piece of parchment in our faces. Finnian snatched it out of her grip and quickly scanned it before passing it to me. He raised both eyebrows.

  “Classy move. But then I guess we shouldn’t have expected anything else. So everyone in the year got one?”

  Coralie grinned and hugged herself. “Yes. Even you, Elena. They were pushed half under each of our doors during class, so I checked to make sure. But only us first years.”

  She sounded particularly triumphant at that, but I was only half listening as I slowly read the words on what appeared to be an invitation. I looked up at the other two.

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “It’s only an invitation to the Royal Midwinter Celebration.” Coralie’s dancing feet started up again.

  When I still looked slightly confused, she sighed.

  “The Royal Midsummer Celebration is the big one. Every mage in the kingdom is invited, although they don’t all travel in for it every year, of course. But the Royal Midwinter Celebration is different. That one is exclusive. Getting an invite is an honor, a mark of royal favor. It’s supposed to be the most elegant event, and this one should be even more extravagant than usual.”