“What about your friend?”
I shrugged. “I’ll catch up with her later.”
She wouldn’t thank me for drawing attention to her right now. She wasn’t much one for attention, not since Dragondale, and I couldn’t blame her. No-one wanted attention of that sort. And when word got around, which I was sure it would, she’d be getting at least as much as me.
“Alright, listen up, all of you!”
The room fell silent at Killian’s words, and I glanced around. Everyone had finished running.
“I can see,” he said with a sneer, running his eyes over the clusters of winded trainees, “that some of you are going to need more work than others. And some of you shouldn’t be here at all.”
His eyes flicked to me when he said that. Shocker. I barely kept from rolling mine in response. I didn’t need to go looking for trouble with him. As I’d said to Zara, trouble found me without any help at all.
“I will be assessing you for the rest of this week, and splitting you into two groups. Those who are ready to begin their combat magic training, and those who aren’t.”
No prizes for guessing which group he thought I belonged to. I shrugged it off. It wasn’t like I hadn’t been the underdog before. I was just worried I’d bitten off more than I could chew this time.
“Form up into lines, all of you.”
We shuffled around awkwardly, until we formed a dozen lines spaced throughout the hall.
“When I say, you will conjure your primary element. Fires and Airs, that means fire and air balls. Waters, you can draw from a bottle to create a water ball. Earths–” He broke off and looked round with a sneer. “I take it we don’t have any Earths?”
The guy on my left raised his hand, and Killian’s eyes snapped to him. He scowled, and for a moment I thought he was going to throw him out.
“I don’t get it,” I muttered to Zara under my breath. “What’s wrong with being an Earth?”
She flicked a glance to Killian, but his attention was fixed on the unfortunate trainee as he moved through the room in our direction.
“Earth elements are usually more passive,” she whispered back quickly. “They don’t tend to be as confrontational as the other elements.”
I thought back to the earth elements I’d met at Dragondale and wondered if there was any truth in it. Granted, most of the fighting in the battle against Raphael had been done by the Fire elements, but that was just because we’d convinced Alden to let us stay and help.
“What’s your secondary element, boy?” Killian demanded, looking the guy – who must have been a year or two older than me – up and down.
“Water… sir.”
Killian scowled, stalked away, then snatched something up from the floor. He turned back and tossed a bottle of water at the trainee.
“Name?”
“Kyle, sir.”
“Well, Kyle, I don’t know why they let you in here in the first place, but I doubt you’ll be around long enough for your element to be a problem. You’ll use your secondary element for this exercise.”
Kyle nodded, looking uneasy, and unscrewed the cap from the bottle.
“Did I say you could begin yet?” Killian snarled. Kyle shook his head quickly. “Then don’t!”
Killian stalked away, his face contorted into a scowl, and I wondered how I’d ever found him attractive.
“When I say,” Killian repeated with emphasis, “you will conjure a ball of your primary element in front of you, between your hands. If your element fades out, or you lower your hands, lose control, or collapse, you will not be welcome in this room again. Am I clear?”
A few heads nodded, and some of the trainees even ventured to respond with quick assents.
“Then begin!”
I raised my arms in front of me, shoulder width apart, and turned my palms inward to face each other. I drew in a slow breath, and a tingle started up in my hands. I exhaled sharply and fire burst from them, forming itself into a whirling ball at my mental command. Easy.
Around me, the first-year trainees all did the same, some conjuring fireballs, others swirling balls of air with a yellowish tinge to it, and water elements commanding the water to escape from the bottles and form itself into a ball between their palms. The Earth element, Kyle, stared at his bottle and a little furrow formed in his brow, but then his palms glowed blue and the water worked its way out of the bottle and rolled into a misshapen ball. A few drips hit the floor, and Kyle’s frown deepened.
“Shit,” he muttered, shooting a glance at Killian, but the instructor was haranguing someone in the front row.
“Here,” I muttered. I twisted one hand to the drips, and my palm flared blue for a second. The drips leapt up from the floor and back into the ball of water, taking all traces of the moisture – and proof of the guy’s slipup – with them.
His eyes widened. “But… you’re a fire. That’s impossible.”
Another splash almost slipped from his ball, but he caught it this time, and it re-joined the rest of the liquid. He kept his eyes in front of him, not sparing me another glance, and I turned my hand back inward to my own elemental ball. It seemed like not everyone had gotten the memo about who I was. That was refreshing. After everything that happened at Dragondale, I’d had my fill of people staring at me, and whispering behind my back in the halls.
After a few minutes, I started to realise that Killian’s exercise wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed. Conjuring an elemental ball was one thing. Standing perfectly still with your arms outstretched while you controlled that elemental ball was another entirely. My shoulders were already burning – not from the fireball, my own fire couldn’t hurt me – and it took all my self-control to keep from shifting my weight from one foot to the other. Self-control that evaporated after a few more minutes of the torture. At least I wasn’t the only one – all around me, people’s faces were screwed up in concentration and discomfort, and more than one of them was squirming on the spot.
Killian prowled through the ranks of trainees, taking great pleasure in our suffering, if the grim satisfaction on his face was anything to go by. He stopped in front of me and I felt his stare boring into me.
“Enjoying yourself, Zeke?” he said, his voice a low rumble that I doubt anyone other than me, Zara and Earth heard him – other than maybe Paisley. I meant to ignore him – I really did. It was just that all my self-control was already being used up.
“Having a ball, Killian.”
“Oh, you’re a funny one, are you? We’ll see who’s laughing by the end of the lesson.”
He kept staring at me, and I clamped my jaw shut – and ordered it to stay that way, for once. I was in enough trouble as it was. With herculean effort, I kept my eyes from straying from my fireball, taking care to keep it from drifting, and my arms from succumbing to the burning in my shoulders. It seemed like a very long time before he moved on.
He didn’t go far. I watched from the corner of my eye as he stopped in front of Kyle. It was clear from his expression he wasn’t much fonder of the Earth element than he was of me. He leaned in close and muttered something in the guy’s ear, and Kyle’s jaw clenched in response. Killian’s lips twitched in amusement, and then he moved on to torment someone else.
I wasn’t sure how long he made us stand, but it was long enough that I started to question coming to Krakenvale. It was pretty clear I wasn’t cut out for this, but I was determined not to fall at the first hurdle. The professors at Dragondale had seen something in me, and if I let them down by dropping out of Krakenvale on my first day, I’d never live it down.
“Enough,” Killian called, somewhere between me wishing I hadn’t come here, and wishing I hadn’t been born. “Release your elements and lower your arms.”
My fireball fizzled out, leaving not so much as a trace of smoke, and I tried to remember how to lower my arms. A sharp pain shot along my shoulders and I winced, then shoved my hands into my pockets so my shoulders wouldn’t have to support their
weight. A sneaky glance around the room told me I wasn’t the only one to have that idea.
“That’s all we have time for today.”
“Shame,” Kyle muttered, and I glanced his way, sharing a quick grin with him.
“I’m sure he’ll let you do another two hours if you ask nicely.”
“Oh, I’d love to,” Kyle said. “But I think I’d rather remove my own teeth with a rusty spoon.”
I chuckled and turned back in time to see Killian glare in my direction. Oops.
“I suppose we’d best get going.” Kyle glanced to the pile of bags at the back of the hall. “Good to meet you, uh… Zeke, right?”
My jaw clenched. “Lyssa. It’s Lyssa.”
“Oh, right, I just thought…”
“That’s just some dumb nickname Killian has given me.”
“Well, I think it suits you.” I twisted round to the source of the voice. A tall blond – the same one who tried to play skittles with me and Zara at the induction talk, if I wasn’t mistaken – was sneering down at me. “Hiding out here near the back with the other outcasts.”
He elbowed one of the cluster of guys with him and they chuckled.
“Well,” I said, “you’re the one who got the Wizard of Oz reference, so what does that make you – the scarecrow?”
His eyes narrowed, and his lips twisted into a snarl.
“You’re going to regret making an enemy of me, Zeke.”
He pushed past me, and I stepped aside.
“Promises, promises,” I muttered with a roll of my eyes, watching him and his band of cronies make for the pile of bags.
“You do realise who that is?” Kyle said.
“Some sexist jackass,” Zara said with a shrug. “Hi, I’m Zara.”
“Hey. And no. Well, yes, obviously, but that’s Xavier, Silas Thornton’s son.”
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” I asked, and the pair of them stared at me like I’d grown a third eye. I almost raised a hand to my face, just to check.
“Silas Thornton is one of the High Enforcers.”
I let out my breath in a huff. “Of course he is. Why wouldn’t the son of one of the most powerful enforcers in the country take a disliking to me in my first lesson?”
Seriously, could this day suck any harder?
Chapter Six
We hit our room long enough to take a quick shower – very quick, because the canteen was open for lunch and I was ravenous after Killian’s torture session. First year trainees weren’t supposed to leave the grounds – for some reason that no-one had felt like sharing with me so far – which meant there were bound to be a lot of hungry druids. On the other hand, if the kitchen mage here was half as good as the one I’d known at Dragondale, feeding a hundred trainees shouldn’t take long.
“Uh, I don’t suppose you know which way?” I asked Zara, as we emerged from our room. She grinned and pulled her hand out of her pocket.
“No, but I know someone who does. Where do you reckon the biggest concentration of power is right now?”
I groaned. “I’m so far behind. When are you going to teach me that?”
“Tonight, if you like.” She shrugged. “It’s not hard.”
I resisted the urge to add for you, and instead forced a smile.
“Cool. I’ll hold you to that.”
The canteen was heaving by the time we got there, and the queue was halfway to the door. Guess we hadn’t been as quick in the shower as we hoped. The fact that no-one seemed to be joining the queue behind us was a bit of a giveaway. I hoped there’d be some seats left – I wasn’t sure I could handle standing up to eat after that brutal training session. Just standing in the queue was murder.
I distracted myself by looking around. The canteen was ordinary – location aside – and much like you’d find in any university or large office throughout the country, if you discounted the casual use of magic throughout the room. One guy was holding his hand over a cup of coffee, his palm glowing red as he used his magic to heat it back through. Another was using his air magic to flip through pages of a book while he ate, which I knew was far more impressive control than I’d ever managed of my air power. On the other hand, air had been my third element, which shouldn’t even have been possible, so there was that.
The room itself was brightly lit with a combination of large windows and fireballs hanging in the corners of the room. The floors and furniture were wooden – druids preferring natural materials over synthetic – but rather than the setup I was used to, with each element claiming a cluster of large tables in one quarter of the room, most of the tables seated only six people, and they were scattered throughout without any particular heed paid to element, rank, or anything else, so far as I could see. It made for a refreshing change. I’d never understood the rivalry Dragondale encouraged between each element, and Elias clearly didn’t subscribe to it, either. Made sense – if we graduated here, our role would be to enforce the law equally for all druids, not just those of a certain element.
The tall double doors swung open as the queue inched forward, and I wasn’t entirely surprised to see Killian enter the room. Even smartarse instructors had to eat. I was surprised, though, when he joined the back of the queue, rather than going right to the front. He stood close enough behind me and Zara that our conversation faltered – on account of the fact we’d been bitching about his lesson – and the look of satisfaction on his face told me he knew it. We waited in silence after that.
There were about five people waiting to order when a tall, lean guy with dark hair headed past towards the double doors, then did a double take, stared at me a moment, then turned on his heel and headed over.
“Oh, great,” I muttered. “Here we go again.”
I was starting to have serious doubts about coming here. I mean, being the underdog was one thing – rocking up at Dragondale without any clue about what magic even was gave me plenty of experience at that – but these guys hated me. Actually hated me, without ever having spoken to me. It was like coming to an academy full of Felicitys, and sure, I’d proven her wrong in the end, but it had been a long three years until I did. I’d thought I was getting away from all that. Hashtag naïve, right?
“You’re Lyssa Eldridge,” he said, and the guy in front of me twisted round, stared at me a moment, then quickly looked away again. Great.
“Thanks, I’d worked that out for myself,” I said. His expression faltered, then he forced a smile.
“I’m Ryder.” He held his hand out to me, and I eyed it for a moment, wondering if it would burst into flame if I touched it. My fire couldn’t hurt me, but other people’s could. Ryder didn’t look like the practical joker sort, but then, nothing here was what it seemed.
He dropped his hand back to his side before I could make a decision, and his smile faltered again. Shit. I was being unfair. People didn’t usually go to the trouble of introducing themselves if they were going to give you a hard time. At least, not in my experience.
“Sorry,” I said, forcing a quick smile. “My shoulders don’t really work right now.”
He looked confused, then saw Killian standing behind us, no doubt looking pleased with himself. Crap. I should have come up with a better excuse. Ryder cracked a smile.
“Just come from your first Combat Magic lesson, I take it?”
“It’s going to take more than that to scare me away.” That ought to wipe the look off Killian’s face.
“Glad to hear it, because I was hoping you were planning to ride for us.”
“Ride?”
“Itealta. You do play, right? I’m captain of the academy’s team, but I didn’t see your name down for try-outs.”
“Oh.” I glanced down at my feet. “I’d love to, only… well, I don’t have a gryff.”
He frowned. “So that’s not your big black and gold gryff trying to bite everyone down in the barn, then? Um, Stormclaw, right?”
I gaped. “Stormclaw? Stormclaw’s here?”
“W
ell, yeah. We left a memo for when you got here.”
I spun on my heel to face Killian. He had to have known. He was the one who’d been sent to bring me in from the front gate.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I demanded. Stormclaw had been here since at least yesterday. I should have been there to help him settle in. No wonder he was trying to bite people. I should have been told.
“Don’t forget who you’re talking to, Zeke. You’ll mind your tone with me.”
“Or what? You’ll single me out, give me a hard time?”
He laughed, and the sound sent chills through me. “You think that was hard? I haven’t even started yet. And let’s get one thing straight, while we’re here. I am not your messenger boy. Is that clear, trainee?”
I opened my mouth to retort, and Zara stamped on my foot.
“Yes, Instructor.”
“Good. And for what it’s worth, that memo was left in your room. It’s not my problem if you didn’t stick around long enough to read it.”
Except, I was suddenly getting the sense that it might be. I mean, I doubted he’d gotten his own hands dirty, but someone had leaked the fact I was staying in that dorm, and so far as I knew, Killian was the only one who’d known.
“Next!” a voice called from behind the counter, and I twisted round to see the queue had completely disappeared – whether because they’d been served, or because no-one other than me was dumb enough to stick around when Killian’s back was up, I wasn’t sure.
“Come down to the barn this evening if you want to try out, yeah?” Ryder said, then hurried off.
I shuffled forward to the counter, and the woman behind it scowled at me. I guessed she wanted to finish service and start getting cleaned up – and she couldn’t do that while she was waiting for me. Great. Just what I needed. Someone else I’d upset on the first day of the semester. And if there was one person you didn’t want to upset, it was the kitchen mage.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I said quickly, and she grunted in response. I decided to lay it on a bit more thickly. “I know how important your time is.”
I wasn’t sure, but her scowl seemed to soften just a little.
Familiar Magic (Druid Enforcer Academy Book 1) Page 4