A Trial of Sorcerers: Book One

by Kova, Elise

  She was trying to apply the same concept without actually touching the item—something she’d been doing subconsciously since birth but only began actively trying to control, rather than stint, these past few weeks. Eira imagined her magic pooling around the crown, soaking it. She was careful not to summon actual water and drench the empress.

  “Five minutes have passed, candidate,” Cordon said dully. “What do you intend to present?”

  “The echoes of truth,” Eira said. Vhalla leveled her eyes slightly with Eira’s, clearly taking note of her intense stare.

  The magic finally took hold. It was stable and strong. The words were faint, but the crowd continued to wait in a hushed thrall.

  She would’ve wanted you to have it, a soft voice said across time. Eira didn’t know the time or place the moment she was tapping into had occurred in. But the connection was unwavering.

  “She would’ve wanted you to have it,” Eira echoed, praying that these words would mean something to the empress. Fiera was not one to change who she was. “Fiera was not one to change who she was.” Even when she married an emperor of the South, she wanted a crown of silver. “Even when she married an emperor of the South, she wanted a crown of silver.”

  The empress inhaled, raising a hand to her chest, clutching over her breast. She stared at Eira in slack-jawed shock. The panel oscillated focus between Eira and their sovereign.

  So, this crown truly is… Eira breathed a sigh of relief. The new voice was younger than the empress’s now, but it was unmistakably Vhalla.

  “So, this crown truly is…” Eira paused, her magic wavering. She’d never echoed the words she’d heard before and it took more focus than Eira expected. “You said that, in response to this woman, Your Majesty.” Eira paused. “No, two women…there’s another voice.”

  She locked eyes with the crown again, and allowed the conversation to play out as long as she could hear it.

  “Our sister’s, Aldrik’s mother’s. She was the empress this realm needed, if only she’d lived to fulfill that role,” Eira said in tandem with the second voice.

  Then, there was the first voice again. “But she gave us Aldrik. And hopefully he has brought us an empress who will be worthy of picking up my sister’s crown.”

  Eira blinked. The voices were becoming fainter. She was going to lose the connection. “I will be—you said, Your Majesty.”

  Vhalla stood with purpose. The empress pressed both hands into the table, leaning forward. Her breath was ragged, her eyes wide and…vulnerable. Eira knew that expression because she’d worn it countless times. She just never expected to see it on her sovereign. And certainly not because of her.

  “How… How did you know that?” Vhalla whispered.

  “Your crown told me.”

  “What?” Cordon said.

  The emperor leaned forward. Ferro wore a smirk, settling in his seat. His eyes shone with an approval that made Eira stand a little bit taller.

  “The crown told me,” Eira repeated, louder. “We change everything we touch. We mark this world with our mere existence. Especially sorcerers.” She turned, addressing the crowd in the process. The emperor and empress knew this principle better than anyone, from the stories Fritz had told her as a girl. “They’re called unintentional vessels—trapped bits of magic from a sorcerer in items.”

  “It takes a great deal of magic to create an unintentional vessel,” the emperor said skeptically.

  “Respectfully, Your Majesty, I have found it does not. Any bit of magic can mark an item, or a wall, or a tapestry—anything. And if there is something said while that imprint is left, then an echo of those words lives on.”

  “This ring.” Cordon thrust his hand forward. On his middle finger was a large signet ring that nearly spanned both knuckles. “What do you hear from it?”

  Eira glanced at the hourglass. There was only about a minute left. She shifted her focus from the crown and tried to condense her magic around the ring.

  There was more murmuring from above. Whispers abounded. But Eira’s senses, and magic, were now honed. She heard the voices easier than the last time.

  …commissioned from the Le’Dans, a female voice said. Wear it even when we are apart. Swear you will return.

  “It was a gift, commissioned from the Le’Dans. The woman who gave it to you told you to wear it even when you are apart and swear you will return.”

  “A reasonable guess,” Cordon said, though panic was creeping into his voice.

  Eira waited. The words continued playing across her mind. She allowed them to flow like the sands in the hourglass. It was clearly a conversation between lovers. But, given the scandalous implications…one of the lovers was already spoken for.

  “Ambassador, I do not think you’ll wish for me to say the rest, not here.” Eira bit her lip as the conversation finished.

  “I am unafraid. Surely you—”

  “Who is Lucelle?” Eira asked.

  It was Cordon’s turn to jump from his seat. He stumbled backward, slowly shaking his head. “No,” he whispered twice over. “What sorcery is this?”

  “My sorcery,” Eira answered as the time ran out.

  The empress eased herself back into her seat. The emperor tapped on the hourglass. The whole of the Sunlit Stage continued to watch her with shock and horror.

  Eira swallowed hard, trying to stand tall under the crushing weight of their judgment. No matter what happened from here—no matter how her magic was received or responded to—she finally had shown all of them that the voices she heard were real. Her theories on vessels were real.

  Let someone try and deny her now. She didn’t expect her uncle, of all people, to rise to the task.

  Fritz stepped forward from the line of sorcerers and guards at the back of the stage. “Your Majesties, I do not know if this presentation meets the requirements you laid out.”

  “What?” Vhalla looked over her shoulder at the approaching Minister of Sorcery.

  “The task, as you laid out, was to create something with magic—not do something.” Fritz’s attention drifted to Eira. Disapproval filled his eyes, tangling with what Eira believed might be resentment. She hadn’t known her family could find still new and creative ways to wound her. “In the interest of fairness to the other competitors who followed the letter of the trial, I would propose a motion to disqualify Eira and remove her pin.”

  “You can’t be serious. What she did was incredible!” Ferro’s defense of her was the only thing that broke through the ringing in her ears. Sound began to slowly return to Eira and she realized the people in the stands were beginning to murmur in protest as well.

  “He does have a point.” Ambassador Cordon regarded her warily, as though he was looking at a completely new person. “Perhaps it would be more fair.”

  You just didn’t like what I heard. Eira bit back the angry words.

  “I am serious.” Fritz doubled down. “Moreover, in the last trial she circumvented the rules with her illusion. She was already given a second chance.”

  “You didn’t say that was against the rules before the trial began. I didn’t know! I followed the rules you laid out then.” Eira couldn’t keep quiet and it earned her a glare from Fritz.

  The emperor and empress shared a look, an unspoken conversation flowing between them in a way that only deeply bonded partners could manage. But as they debated silently, the crowd began to rally.

  “You can’t disqualify her!” someone shouted. “Not on a technicality!”

  “Let her be scored!” That was Alyss. Eira looked up, searching for her friend.

  “Let her compete, let her compete!” A chant was rising from the masses. They were behind her, rallying for her. Eira stared up in awe.

  “Give her a fair chance.” Marcus. Somehow, she found him out of the hundreds of people. She heard his voice out of the rising cheers. “She deserves to be scored like the rest of us!”

  Fritz looked as though he’d been wounded. He’d no doubt
heard Marcus’s defense of her as well. Something in her cracked and tears threatened to ooze out. But for the first time in days, they were not tears of despair. Things weren’t perfect. But Marcus was still on her side. Marcus was fighting for her to stay in the trials, even though it meant they were pitted against each other.

  Nothing could’ve cemented her forgiveness of the way he acted during the revelation faster.

  “Enough.” Vhalla stood and the crowd fell to a hush. “The emperor and I have decided that Eira Landan will not be disqualified. While she did not follow the letter of the trial, she followed the spirit. She showed us something truly special that only her magic could do. She returned to me a memory I have not thought of in years and more than anything, for that, has my gratitude.” The empress’s gentle gaze landed on Eira.

  “Thank you, Your Majesty,” Eira forced herself to say. She didn’t know how to handle random people defending her, approving of her. Having the empress also stand up for her was more than she could process.

  Perhaps this was how Cullen felt all the time. Perhaps that’s why he acted how he did.

  The crowd erupted in cheers as Eira bowed. Their jubilance at her victory gave her the strength she needed to turn her back to her uncle and walk out of the Sunlit Stage with her head held high. Her parents, her uncle, Marcus, none of them were in control any longer.

  She was the one in charge of her own destiny; and, now that she knew this feeling, Eira would never let anyone take it from her again.

  20

  Scores were posted later that night at the base of the tower. Once more, Groundbreakers erected a stone tablet, stamping names one by one. Once more…Eira’s name was at the top.

  She stared, stunned. Everyone had been giving her a wide berth. No one had even spoken to her following her display in the trial.

  No one but—

  “You amazing sorcerer, you!” Alyss threw her arms around Eira’s neck. “You did it!”

  “So did you.” Eira gave Alyss a squeeze and then promptly began her retreat up the Tower. There was another dinner tonight for the candidates and she couldn’t handle the stares and side-eyes of the other apprentices. Some were clearly regretting cheering for her not to be disqualified.

  “I got third place.”

  “You’re still continuing on.”

  “Only four Groundbreakers competed in that trial and three are moving on. I basically got last.” Alyss rolled her eyes. “I should have done something more creative, like you.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I got last in the second trial. All that matters is that we keep making it through.”

  “You and me, on our way to Meru!” Alyss jumped up and down, letting out a squeal.

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Eira scolded lightly with a laugh.

  “We just have two more trials. I can’t wait to find out what—”

  “Excuse me, sorry for interrupting, Alyss.” Fritz seemed to materialize out of nowhere, stopping them both. “Eira, may I speak with you a moment?”

  “I…” Her uncle’s face had become the face of betrayal, and it stung just to be in his presence.

  “I’ll leave you to it,” Alyss said quickly, stepping away. Eira shot her a glare but Alyss was impervious to it. “You two should talk,” Alyss insisted. It must be easy to insist such things when she got to retreat down the Tower.

  Eira folded her arms. “Yes, Minister?”

  “Eira, please, it’s Uncle and you know it.” He sighed. “Come, we have a bit of time before dinner. Let’s speak in my office.”

  “I don’t have anything to say to you.”

  The wounded look that crossed his face nearly set her off. How dare he get to look wounded after what he’d done to her?

  “Please?”

  “You’re going to keep hounding me until I do, aren’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fine, let’s get this over with,” she grumbled.

  The march up the Tower was over all too quickly. Eira settled in the chair across from her uncle’s desk, running her hands over the familiar, worn leather arms. Whatever comfort they might have once given her was gone.

  Fritz sat heavily. His shoulders slumped and he folded and unfolded his hands several times.

  “I owe you an apology,” he said, finally.

  “I think you owe me several,” she snapped.

  He rubbed his temples. “I’m just trying to help you. We all are.”

  “Stop using that excuse.”

  “It’s not an excuse.”

  “You’re not helping me, you’re hurting me!” She gripped the arms of the chair with quivering hands. “Everyone in this whole family says they love me, but all they do is hold me back, cut me off at the knees whenever they can, and have no faith in me. You claim it’s to help me…but I think you’re just trying to make yourselves feel better.”

  “Eira.” Fritz’s voice raised a fraction, summoning her inner child and hushing her. “What you did today was reckless, and might endanger you for the rest of your life.”

  Now he believed she could hear voices. “Not everything I do endangers me.”

  “Think about what you just showed to the world.” He slammed his palms onto his desk. “You showed that almost no secret is safe with you around. That not even secrets taken to the grave die because of these voices you hear.”

  Eira’s back pressed into the chair as his words startled her. “I— That’s not—”

  “That is how every senator, every minister, every man and woman with aspirations saw your power to hear echoes.” Fritz tapped his fingers into his desk with every word. “And they will either want you for their own now, or to see you eradicated, or worse.”

  “You’re overreacting.” Eira sank farther into the chair for stability.

  “I’m not. None of us are. We’re trying to keep you safe. You’re a danger and—”

  “I’m a danger?” she whispered.

  “You— I didn’t mean— Your magic— In danger—”

  “I’m a danger.” Eira repeated with a shake of her head. “You said exactly what you meant, Uncle.”

  “That was a slip of the tongue.”

  She stood. “I don’t think it was.”

  “We’re not done with this discussion.” He rounded his desk as she started for the door.

  “I was done with it before it began.” Eira glared back at him. “Careful, Uncle, or I’ll be done with you next.”

  Eira slammed the door as his face crumpled and started down the tower. Luckily, for her uncle’s sake, he didn’t follow her. With the way she felt, she’d have no problem telling him off for all the Tower to hear.

  Wrenching the door to her room open, Eira saw a figure on the bed from the corner of her eye. Assuming it to be Alyss, she started right into her tirade. “I can’t believe him, he really just—” Eira froze. Her eyes met Ferro’s. “What’re you doing here?” she whispered.

  “I came to say congratulations.” His words were as fluid as his movements when he stood. Eira had never been aware of how small her room was, or how close he stood. “I couldn’t wait until tonight. I had to see you,” he whispered breathlessly.

  “What if someone sees you coming or going from my room?” she breathed. He was so agonizingly close.

  “They won’t. We’ll be careful we’re not discovered, just as we have been this whole time.”

  “Dinner will start soon… They’ll wonder where I am.”

  Ferro slowly lifted his hand, fingertips trailing along her jaw to hook behind her ear. He had her in stasis with the lightest touch. The feeling of his breath, hot on her lips, had Eira’s toes curling.

  “I know, we don’t have long. But will you come to me when I next summon you?”

  “I will,” she murmured, all too aware of how alone they were. What would he do if she kissed him? Would her affections be welcomed? Was his heart hammering against his chest as loudly as hers was?

  “Good. I will try to make it as soon as I�
�m able.” Ferro eased away and a low whine rose up in the back of her throat that Eira thought she strangled before he’d heard. But given the grin on his face, she was wrong. He reached into the pocket of his coat. “In the meantime, I have something for you.”

  Eira accepted the folded papers from his long, elegant fingers. “What is it?”

  “The rough plans for the next trial.”

  “Am I allowed to have this?” she whispered.

  “I’m the one who’s planning the trial. Whomever I deem fit can see it.”

  Eira suspected that wasn’t true. “Thank you,” she said anyway.

  “Thank you for your display today. It was truly a sight to see. And for all you’ve done for me while I’ve been here. I couldn’t have designed this without you.” He tapped the papers lightly.

  “It’s been my pleasure.”

  “I assure you, the pleasure is all mine.”

  They stared at each other for a long moment. Her stomach bubbled with effervescence. She felt like she wanted to say something, or he wanted her to say something, or she should say something, maybe all of them at once.

  “I should—”

  “I must go. But”—he caught her hand—“I cannot wait until we are alone together again, my delicious secret.”

  “Neither can I,” she whispered with a shiver.

  Ferro brought her knuckles to his lips and slipped out of her room, leaving her aching and wanting.

  * * *

  Banging on her door woke her the next morning. Between her meetings with Deneya and Ferro at night, and her practicing during the day, she had been burning the candle at both ends for a week and it was finally catching up with her. She’d been sleeping much more heavily than normal these past few days. Blinking away the pleasant dreams she’d had following last night’s discussions with Ferro in their study, Eira got herself upright.

  “What?” she grumbled, swinging open the door.

  “Really? That’s how you greet someone bearing gifts?”

  “It’s too early, Cullen.” She yawned.