“How do you know all this? Lorcan consulted with you, I suppose?” I loaded all the sarcasm into my voice that I could muster.
“No, of course not.” He sighed. “But I know how he thinks. Members of the Mage Council can hold their positions for decades. You can be sure that understanding the inner workings of their minds is a matter of great interest to my family.”
I fell silent, considering his words. I had learned so much in my months of study, but he made me feel young and foolish and naive. Some things couldn’t be learned from books, and there were so many subtleties about this world of mages that I didn’t understand.
I looked around with a start. I wasn’t quite sure how he had done it—he certainly hadn’t touched me again—but somehow Lucas had got us both moving as we talked. We were already well up South Road, heading north toward the Academy.
He was dressed the same as me, in our trainee robes, and I eyed him sideways, a sudden thought striking me.
“Where are your royal guards, Your Highness?”
When I started to speak, he looked over in my direction, but when I finished, his gaze shifted away. He made no answer.
I shook my head. “Don’t tell me your business wasn’t so official after all? Who’s being reckless now?”
He narrowed his eyes but didn’t have time to respond before a large arm reached out and yanked me into a side alley.
Chapter 24
I stumbled and almost fell as the iron grip pulled me away from the main road. Before I could get my bearings, or even see who had grabbed me, a second set of arms pulled me into a rough hold, dragging me sideways and through a door. The first man followed, slamming the door behind him.
The second attacker towered over me, his arms holding my back firmly pressed against his chest, my arms pinned at my sides. I finally screamed, the sound delayed by my shock, and the first man hit me hard across the head. My neck snapped to one side, and for a brief moment my vision blurred. Then three seasons of combat training kicked in, and I responded on instinct.
Slamming my head backward, I smashed my skull into my captor’s neck. He wheezed, his arms loosening, and I stomped hard on his foot. He staggered slightly, and I pulled myself forward and free.
The man in front of me immediately stepped forward and grabbed at my arm. I moved to block him without needing to think about it, at the same time ducking under his raised arm and shoving him in the back.
He lurched forward and into the second man, but both quickly regained their balance. However, the second it took for them to do so gave me a chance for a quick look around. We stood inside a large, empty building, the details lost in the dim light. Surely a warehouse of some sort, though, currently without goods except for a few crates against the far wall.
I spun around, looking for the door, but as soon as I saw it, my heart sank. Two more men stood between me and the exit. And they were already advancing to help their companions.
I darted sideways, my steps echoing loudly. There must be another door somewhere. But the two new men began to run as well, angling to cut me off. I tried to put on a further burst of speed, but the taller of them caught me, bringing me crashing to the ground with a running leap.
I braced my fall, taking the impact on my arms, but he had acquired a firm grip around one of my ankles, and despite my kicking feet, held on.
“Don’t let go,” yelled a deep voice behind us. “I’m not losing the pay on this one no matter how hard she fights.”
I continued to kick out wildly, trying to drag myself forward, but the man pulled himself up and pinned me to the ground.
“What about the other one?” asked a second voice, clearly more wary than the first.
“Sullivan and Matthews stayed to deal with anyone who tries to follow, remember.”
I went limp against the floor, trying to lull my new captor into changing his position, so I could make another attempt at escape. But he didn’t move, distracted by his companions’ conversation.
“Yeah, but he might not be so weak, and no one ever said anything about a second—”
A splintering crash sounded through the large space as the door swung open and slammed against the wall. The man pinning me down jerked slightly, and I tried to push myself up onto my hands and knees, even as I reflexively looked to see what was happening.
Lucas stood in the open doorway, his white robe bright against the gloom. His eyes raced across the room before landing on me. I thought I saw a flicker of confusion cross his face as he watched me struggle, and then he shouted across the distance.
“Elena! What are you doing? COMPOSE!”
I went limp again as a spark raced through me. What had I been thinking? Had I really forgotten again?
Lucas reached inside his robe, clearly going for a composition of his own, but I didn’t wait to see what it would do. Whispering the binding words, I called up the mental image of an armed forces composition I had never had the chance to test. The words tumbled out over themselves as fast as I could speak them.
“Incapacitate all attackers within this building. End binding.”
Power pulsed out of me, sweeping across the empty space, stronger than anything I had felt before. Its connection to me lingered, and I could feel it reaching for anyone in its path.
The man on top of me screamed and went limp. I pushed myself upward, and he rolled to one side, thudding against the ground. I scrambled onto my knees in time to see the effect of my invisible force hit the others.
The tall man who had pulled me into the building bent double, groaning, before he collapsed to his knees and then pitched forward to lie prone. The other two had tried to run, heading deeper into the warehouse, but the power sought them out, sending them both silently crashing to the ground.
They were all unconscious now, but the power didn’t fade away. I felt it reaching for one final victim, and my eyes locked on Lucas in horror. I had never meant for him to be included in my composition.
Whether he felt my power or was warned by some other instinct, he dropped two of the curls of parchment from his hand. With blinding speed, he ripped the third, and I felt my force crash into a barrier of his own power.
For a moment, the wave of my power crested over him. But an invisible bubble prevented it from reaching him, and gradually it softened and died.
I knelt where I was, panting and staring at him. He looked more shaken than I had ever seen him, but he quickly recovered, stooping to retrieve the two untouched compositions he had dropped. Shoving them into his robe, he strode toward me.
He held out a hand to help me to my feet, but I ignored it, pushing myself up unaided.
“Are they…dead?” I poked at the closest attacker with my foot.
Lucas knelt to examine him before moving to the next one.
“No, not dead. Just unconscious. And that one looks like he might have some broken bones.” He nodded back at the one beside me.
I shook all over, despite my efforts to calm myself. I was glad they weren’t dead, but I couldn’t be sorry about the rest of it. Who knows what they had planned for me?
“What should we do with them?” I asked.
He looked up at me, and I shrugged defensively.
“You’re the one studying law enforcement. I don’t exactly know the protocols for this sort of situation.”
“I’m the prince of Ardann, and you’re the first Spoken Mage in history. I think we should get back to the Academy and leave the clean-up to the Reds.”
Spoken Mage. I felt a new shiver up my spine. I looked around at the sprawled bodies. I had done this. I had done this with my words.
Lucas gripped my shoulder, feeling the tremors running through me. “That was a powerful working. It’s no wonder you’re feeling weak. Come on.”
He pulled me toward the door, and I let him, dodging around the body of the large one without looking at it. When we emerged into the alley, we had to avoid two more bodies. Sullivan and Matthews, presumably. I didn’t look at
them closely.
“Thank you…for coming to help me,” I said, rather belatedly.
Lucas gave me a strange look. “I wasn’t really sure you would need me. But I thought if they had a mage with them…” His brow crinkled. “What happened?”
I shrugged, embarrassed to admit the truth. My combat training had come instinctively, my muscles responding to the long months of training. But my other ability had been entirely forgotten in the terror of the moment. Just as I had continuously forgotten my white robe during my day in the city.
“They were bold for thieves,” he said, after a pause. “Especially to take on an Academy trainee.”
I started as we emerged back onto the main road, almost stumbling over a loose flagstone. When I regained my step, I stared at him.
“Those weren’t thieves.”
He frowned at me, his eyes shadowed. “Of course they were. What else would they be?”
“They were after me, specifically.”
He had long since dropped his grip on me, but at that he reached out again and patted my shoulder.
“It’s natural to feel that way, especially while you’re still so weak. But for all the efforts of the Reds, there is still crime in Corrin, you know. Some people will take advantage of anyone, if they think they can.”
His eyes seemed to be communicating something more than his words, but the anger burning through me made me too impatient to try to understand it. My shaking stopped. It confirmed what I had already guessed—my physical reaction had been shock not weakness from my use of power. I felt weary and sore, but not excessively so, especially with the energy from the scare still coursing through my system.
I gestured at my robe. “Really? You think an Academy trainee seemed like a good target to a bunch of street criminals? Your opinion of the intelligence of common folk is even lower than I thought.”
Lucas glared at me. “You’re defending them now?”
“Of course not!” I glared back at him. “But someone had told them I was weak. They didn’t expect me to be able to defend myself against them. They were definitely targeting me.”
Two red-robed guards appeared at the street corner in front of us. Lucas increased his pace but gave me a warning look over his shoulder before he reached them.
“There are thieves everywhere, Elena. Don’t let your imagination run away with you.”
I swelled, too infuriated for words, as he hailed the guards and reported the attack, directing them where to find the so-called thieves. These men recognized their prince, even if the criminals hadn’t, and they both stood to attention, not questioning his words.
One suggested he fetch an escort to accompany us back to the Academy, but Lucas rejected the offer.
“See those men are arrested and as quickly as possible. As you can see, I am well able to defend myself.” He smiled, the gesture holding a veiled threat rather than any goodwill.
Both guards nodded briskly and took off in the direction he had indicated. Neither made any suggestion we should go with them.
As soon as the men had left, Lucas strode on toward the Academy, and I hurried to catch up with him.
“Do you really think this was some random attack?” I spat the words at him. “And I suppose you think that balcony just happened to collapse as well?” The disdain dripped from my words. “What are you? A fool?”
His steps slowed, and he gave me a piercing look. We had never properly spoken of the collapse or the subtle surge of power that preceded it. The one we must have both felt.
“I don’t know what to think, Elena. And if you knew what was good for you, you would feel the same way. So, I repeat. It is unfortunate that thieves decided to target you. They must have been desperate or fool-hardy to attack a trainee. No doubt other such criminals will think twice before doing so in the future.”
I blinked at him, my rage dying away. Embarrassment took its place as I realized I had once again failed to pick up on the subtle signals that made up this world I still knew so little about. So Lucas didn’t necessarily believe it was thieves, he just thought it was the safest story to stick to until we had further information. And that we should make sure we told the same story.
A little of the anger returned. He couldn’t speak plainly to me? No doubt he thought it beneath him to discuss the matter openly with someone commonborn.
The Academy came into view, startling me. Had we walked so far already? Lucas stepped sideways, so that he brushed against me as we walked, and then slipped his shoulder under my arm. I almost stumbled again at the unexpected interference, and he steadied me.
“That was a major working you composed back there,” he said. “You must be exhausted. It’s amazing you made it back to the Academy on your own two feet.”
I looked up at him, and my heartbeat instantly sped up at the proximity of his eyes. I had to look away quickly before I could process the warning they held. After a moment, however, I nodded. I wasn’t going to play the fool again. I understood his warning, even if he didn’t want to properly articulate it.
“And you might not want to mention to our instructors just how much you condensed that composition.” Now there was a hint of amusement in his voice.
I looked back up at him, this time able to resist the effect of his face so close to mine.
“I was kind of pressed for time, you know.”
He shook his head. “I’m serious when I say you’re lucky it didn’t burn you out. It was risky to go for uncontrolled, brute force like that.”
I flushed a little and looked away. That hadn’t been my intention. I had reacted out of fear, cutting out most of the limitations from the original composition. Remembering it, another image rose to mind.
“Are you going to tell anyone?”
“Tell them what?”
“That my composition attacked you, too.” I bit my lip. “I still don’t understand why it did that. It wasn’t my intention, I swear.”
“Elena.” He sounded tired. “There’s a reason we spend four years at the Academy learning finesse and control. And we don’t just dash off the first words that come to mind. There are legitimate reasons why some of us feel that a Spoken Mage is dangerous.”
I said nothing, as struck by the title now as I had been when he first used it back in the warehouse.
“You specified all attackers in your working,” he said, apparently interpreting my silence as further confusion. “You failed to limit it to people attacking you. I was there to attack your captors—which made me an attacker.”
“Oh.” My voice sounded small, and I hated it. But he was right. I hadn’t thought my words through, and if he hadn’t been so fast with his shield composition…
“I’m sorry.”
He gave the slightest start, discernible only because he was still pressed against me, helping me along.
“Did you just apologize to me?”
My eyes flew to his, and the laughter reflected in their depths made me lose my breath again. But I forced myself to grimace, acknowledging that I recognized my own words from Midwinter.
Before I could think of an appropriate response, however, he led us through the doors of the Academy. Several trainees were crossing the entrance hall.
“What happened to you?” Natalya sounded half-shocked, half-contemptuous, her eyes flying between Lucas and me.
I stared at her for a confused moment before glancing down at my once-white robe—now dirty, torn, and blood-stained from several long grazes on my arms.
Lucas stepped away from me quickly, and I swayed, the whole experience catching up with me, as someone in the distance called for Acacia.
By the time the healer arrived, Lucas had already disappeared.
Chapter 25
Everyone at the Academy accepted Lucas’s version of events—or at least pretended to do so—and I kept my mouth shut about it. Lucas had reminded me that, unlike him, I didn’t understand how these people, or their complicated dynamics, worked. And I couldn’t deci
de who would be safe to talk to.
Well, other than Coralie, but what could she do about it? Nothing but worry, and she was already worried enough. First year would end half way through the summer, but not before exams, and our instructors had already begun to talk of them—usually in dire and threatening terms.
I took none of it seriously—I had no need to win prestige among these people, or to curry favor in hopes of a better discipline placement after graduation. But finally Coralie’s concern wore me down.
“Relax, Coralie. Please.” I passed her an extra serving of dessert, figuring she needed it. “You’re driving me crazy. I promise if by some unexpected catastrophe you fail, I will stay back and repeat first year with you.”
“Repeat?” She stared at me blankly. “Is that what happens in common schools if you fail?”
I stared back at her. “Of course. What else could happen?”
She lowered her voice. “The Reds.”
“The Reds? What does law enforcement care about a failed trainee?”
“There are few things more dangerous than a mage who can’t learn control.” She shook her head. “All mageborn must attend the Academy, and anyone who fails is locked away. For life. Without any further access to the written word.”
I gaped at her, my mouth open. “Imprisoned? For failing at school?” I closed my mouth and swallowed, an image of Duke Lennox rising before me. What had he said at the Mage Council? That imprisoning me would not be a simple matter like imprisoning other mages. That execution would be the only safe option…
Coralie must have seen something of the terror on my face, because she quickly swallowed her mouthful and patted my hand reassuringly.
“But we won’t fail. They make first year exams easy because they know we’re still beginners. It’s not like they want mages to fail.”
But her own anxiety belied her words, and she didn’t know of my recent experiences. It might be true that no one wanted her to fail, but I didn’t believe for a second the same was true of me. Clearly someone wanted me to do far more than fail.
Voice of Power (The Spoken Mage Book 1) Page 23