by Kova, Elise
Her uncle had been right about how others would see her magic. And she hated him even more for it. She hated the whole world in that moment.
“Sometimes, I just hear things.” Eira stood, stepping toward him as he walked away. “I don’t mean to. Usually I try and stop it but—”
“Don’t follow me.” Cullen’s voice was a stranger’s. No, she knew it. It was the voice of the indifferent apprentice, the Prince of the Tower, lording above her once more. Distant and unreachable. “I’m done with you. Your powers…you’re too dangerous.” Cullen started down the hall.
“Cullen, wait!”
But he was too far gone. There was no way he’d turn around now, no matter how hard she willed it. Eira stared at his back, her chest knotting painfully. She wanted to tell herself that it didn’t matter. That Cullen didn’t matter. But perhaps he hadn’t been alone in finding someone to trust…
Eira had never cared about Cullen before. But, somehow, now the idea of losing him—of yet another person abandoning her—was more than she could bear.
21
Alyss sat in the chair of the tiny desk that was wedged against the armoire in Eira’s room. Her feet were propped on the desktop, crossed, as she balanced on the back two legs of her chair. It was a wonder she didn’t fall over, given how transfixed she was on the latest printing of her favorite romance author. The book was perched on her knees as she furiously squished and molded clay, too distracted to make any concrete shapes.
Eira listlessly flipped through the pages of the Lightspinning book Mister Levit had given her. She’d read all the pages, multiple times, but she was now looking for a way to counter Deneya. She still had yet to break the stupid shield.
At least, that’s what she told herself she was doing.
Her focus oscillated between the writing and the dark world outside. It looked like a blizzard was approaching the mountainside. But Eira’s thoughts stretched beyond the horizon.
They landed first on Cullen. She’d yet to see him again since court three days ago. His eyes, however, lingered with her. They had even chased her into her dreams.
The only thing that could free her thoughts from them was Ferro. She had been seeing him almost nightly now. But he had warned her that with the trial fast approaching, he wouldn’t have as much time to spend with her.
Eira felt torn between the two with emotions she’d never felt before. Both were men she shouldn’t even be thinking of—shouldn’t even have known. Yet fate had designed to place them both in her life at the same time.
“I can’t focus on my book or my clay; you’re being too noisy,” Alyss muttered.
“What?” Eira was jolted back to her gray Tower room. “I’m not doing anything.”
“Your thoughts are loud.”
“Thoughts aren’t loud.”
“Yours are, when someone knows you as well as I do.” Alyss carefully slid her leather bookmark into her page and set the novel on the desk. She spun the chair to face Eira but her focus was now on making the blob of clay actually resemble something. “Tell me.”
“Tell you what?”
“What’s on your mind, since you already said you won’t tell me why you summoned me until Marcus arrives.”
“It’s nothing,” Eira murmured.
“Oh, Mother, why do you even try and lie to me?” Alyss rolled her eyes. “It’s not that room, is it?”
“No, it’s not.” Guilt swam through Eira’s tides. She hated lying to Alyss. But something about her meetings with Deneya seemed even more secret than her meetings with Ferro. “I… I have been seeing someone.”
“Obviously.” Alyss threw her hands in the air. “I’ve been waiting for you to tell me the details.”
“What do you mean ‘obviously’?”
“You haven’t been hanging out with me as much. You’re up late. You seem distracted. You have all the hallmarks of a heroine pining for her secret lover by day.”
“I am not a heroine and I do not have a secret lover.”
“Then who have you been ‘seeing’?” Alyss folded her arms over her chest.
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Try me.”
“Ambassador Ferro.” The confession came out as a rush of air.
Alyss blinked, several times, and then a slow, eager grin crept across her cheeks. This bit of news had Alyss setting down her clay. “No,” she gasped. “Tell me everything.”
Eira did. She told Alyss of the first mysterious letter. The study that had quickly become “theirs.” She told her of the burning western liquor Ferro had shared with her on their last meeting and of the comfort he’d given her following the revelation.
“You have an elfin lover.” Alyss gaped with shock. Then she quickly clapped, bouncing in her chair. “You have an elfin lover!”
“Not so loud! And I do not.”
“You’re meeting at night. There’s clandestine letters mysteriously left. He’s incredibly handsome. You’re obviously hopelessly smitten with him.” Alyss counted on her fingers. “Own up, you have an elfin lover.”
“We haven’t even kissed! I think lovers would do that.”
“But you have had romantic fireside chats. The kissing should come easy. Get to working on it!”
Eira groaned and face-planted into her bed. “I couldn’t. I don’t even know how old he is. He’s elfin. He could be eighty for all I know.”
“He seems young to me.”
“They’re a race that looks young until they’re, like, a hundred. And then they only look slightly less young.”
Alyss considered this a moment. “All right, fair. You’re right. It’s a lot sexier in books than when it’s actually your friend being courted by an ageless creature. So figure out his age and then kiss him if it’s not creepy.”
“You’re not helping!”
Eira was saved by a knock on her door. She bounced up, opening it to reveal Marcus.
“Sorry I’m late.” He stepped inside. The room was cramped with three people, so Eira quickly returned to the bed. “What’s with all the secrecy?”
“I have something I want to share with you both.” Eira flipped to the back of her book where she’d been hiding Ferro’s papers.
“Are you going to tell him?” Alyss gasped.
“Tell me what?” Marcus looked between them.
“Stop.” Eira glared at her friend. “This is serious.”
“I know!” Alyss looked to Marcus. “She has been seeing someone.”
“Alyss!”
“Cullen told me,” Marcus said, the words guarded.
Eira’s blood ran cold. What had Cullen said? Was he still thinking of her like she was of him?
“Wait a minute. You didn’t say anything about Cullen.” Alyss had an expression of horror and delight. “Two? Tell me more!”
“Can we please focus?” Eira groaned. Before her brother or Alyss could say another word, Eira handed them each a sheet of paper. Their expressions quickly turned serious.
“This is…” Marcus murmured, stepping to read over Alyss’s shoulder. The two compared papers and Eira handed them the third. Marcus’s eyes turned up to hers. “How do you have these?”
“I can’t say.” Eira glanced askance. Then quickly added, “But I didn’t do anything that would get me in trouble.”
“Did he give them—”
“Shhh,” Eira made the noise with a finger against her lips and a glare at Alyss.
Alyss had the audacity to laugh.
“Who’s he?”
“No one,” Eira said quickly to Marcus, before Alyss could get a word in. “Can we focus, please? These are the notes on our next trial. They’re going to blindfold us and fill our ears with cotton. We’ll be taken out into the wilds surrounding Solarin and have to use our magic and wits to find our way back.”
“But what are these?” Alyss pointed to various markers on the map.
“They’re going to be challenges that stand in our way. Either trap
s laid, or actual sorcerers who will try and impede our progress.”
“So with this we can prepare for the challenges.” Marcus stroked his chin, exchanging pages again with Alyss.
“Somewhat… We aren’t going to be allowed to take anything with us. You know how guarded they’re keeping this trial. If we go in with supplies, they’re going to know we had an edge.”
“Then we each train in a different area of survival for the next few days.”
“No, we’re all going to be dropped in different spots,” Eira said. “We won’t go in as a group.”
“The more you explain this trial, the more it seems…dangerous.” Marcus frowned.
“It’s only the illusion of danger, like the second trial.” Eira couldn’t help the defensive edge in her voice. Ferro had designed the final two trials.
“They’re putting people as young as fifteen out in the wilds alone.”
“If there are sorcerers out there to give us challenges along the way then I’m sure we’ll be watched every step,” Eira countered.
Marcus just shrugged. Alyss gave her a sly smile. Her friend had figured out why she was defensive.
“At least this way we can see the paths of least resistance back.” Alyss brought a page close to her face, narrowing her eyes. “Now, if only my sense of direction wasn’t so terrible.”
The three of them spent the rest of the night going over the pages. They made a brief excursion to the library to get some cartography books, followed shortly after by dinner. The clocks had chimed eleven when Alyss and Marcus finally bid their goodbyes. Eira didn’t allow them to take the papers, so they vowed to go over everything again the next night.
Eira was exhausted, but she pulled herself from her bed and crept up the Tower. Moving in and out of Adela’s secret chambers was second nature to her now. But every time she did, she always paused by the bookshelf, staring at the journals and wondering what other secrets they held that Eira had yet to see.
It was nearly midnight by the time she arrived in the long-forgotten royal passages.
“You’re late.” Deneya leaned against a wall, waiting. “I was about to give up on you.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. I thought we might do something else tonight?”
“Getting tired of the shield?” Deneya grinned. “What do you have in mind?”
“You seem capable of making more than a shield—like the dagger, from the first night we met.”
“Mysst soto larrk.” Deneya raised her hand and threads of light collected into a dagger in her palm.
“Teach me how to use it.” Eira raised her own hand, summoning a shard of ice.
Deneya tilted her head, arching her eyebrows. “Are you asking me to teach you how to fight?”
“You know how, don’t you?”
“I do.” Deneya chuckled. “Why do you want to know, is the real question.”
“Teach me something I could use to defend myself against an attacker.” Ferro had given Eira the tip that their final trial might pit the candidates against each other. She didn’t know the first thing about dueling.
“You’re not defending anything with a stance like that.” Deneya looked Eira over from head to toe. She slowly approached. “If you want to learn combat, I’ll teach you. But it’ll be much harder than trying to break a shield.”
“I’m ready.”
“Are you?” Deneya chuckled. “I doubt it.”
“I have to do this.”
“Why?”
“Because I must go to Meru.” Eira wasn’t about to let anything stop her. “There are answers for me there, I can feel it.”
“A bit of advice.” Deneya paused, a step away from Eira. Up close, the woman looked ten times stronger. The moonlight outlined the muscles of her shoulders and arms. She could easily hoist much heavier weapons than the dagger. “Be careful when you go hunting for the truth. It’s rarely what you expect.”
“I know that better than anyone.”
“So you should heed my warning better than anyone.” Deneya nodded. “Now, hit me.”
“What?”
“Hit me. Though I warn you it’ll only be a slightly less impossible task than breaking the shield.”
Eira had always known the shield was impossible. But she’d tried anyway. She’d thrown herself against it night after night and hadn’t realized why Deneya had put her through the exercise until that moment.
Her magic had been honed with each attempt. Every time she’d attacked the shield, she’d summoned more strength. By day, she’d thought of new techniques. Even if Deneya was giving her an insurmountable task, Eira was striving to new heights just trying to reach it.
Determined, emboldened, Eira threw her weight behind a jab. Deneya didn’t even lift her dagger to parry. She dodged backward, sidestepped, turned, and, without so much as a whisper of air, was behind Eira. The sharp blade of Deneya’s weapon pressed into her throat.
“Again,” Deneya whispered.
So Eira moved once more.
* * *
Everything ached. Over the past week she’d sparred against Deneya every night. Tonight had been her last showing and far from her best. Deneya had sent her back to her room early and instructed her not to return the next night.
She needed a night to heal, Deneya had said. Otherwise she had no hope of passing the trial in two days.
Eira was forced to agree. But she hated doing so. She felt like she had years of training to make up for—years of knowledge she was lacking. She had been a diligent student, but maybe not as diligent as she’d thought. The more she learned, the more the gaps in her knowledge were becoming apparent.
She opened the door to her room and stepped inside. Eira caught movement from the corner of her eye. Perhaps it was just having come from training with Deneya. Or perhaps she really had developed new instincts. Eira acted without thought.
A dagger of ice was in her palm—icepick grip. She twisted, thrusting backward.
“Mysst xieh.” Light sprung from the darkness, illuminating Ferro’s face.
Eira let out a gasp, trying to stop her momentum. But it was too late. Her dagger bounced off his shield harmlessly.
Thankfully, she’d never figured out how to break them.
“Do you regularly take it upon yourself to attack people?” he asked, amused.
“I… I’m so sorry,” Eira said in a rush. “I didn’t realize it was you, it’s late and—”
“It is late,” he murmured. “Where were you?”
“I was doing some reading.”
Ferro released the glyph from his palm, plunging them into darkness. Eira blinked several times, trying to force her eyes to adjust. He was a shadow, outlined in silver moonlight.
“I waited for you,” Ferro whispered. There was a weight to him in the night. His shape had become something instinctual—a force felt more than seen.
“How did you get here?” she whispered in reply. Her back pressed against the door. His hand landed to the side of her face as he leaned over her.
“I followed the passages you told me about.”
Oh, right, she had told him about the Tower’s secret passages, hadn’t she? It was hard to form cohesive thoughts with him standing so close. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to wish you luck before you set off tomorrow.”
“Thank you,” she said, little more than a squeak. Her heart was thundering. His lips were struck silver by the moon and she could imagine Alyss screaming, kiss him!, in the back of her mind.
“You’re welcome.” His eyes were almost luminescent in the darkness and they bore into her. “I’ll be watching you. I’ll be looking for you.”
“Ferro…”
“Eira?”
“How old are you?” she blurted.
He chuckled. “I’m twenty-four.”
Six years older than her. Not twenty-six. Not sixty. Six. A perfectly “not creepy” age gap, Eira decided. “You’re so young.”
“I had motivati
on to ascend beyond my humble beginnings as fast as I could.” She remembered him mentioning he was orphaned. “We’re a lot alike in that way. The Tournament of Five Kingdoms means as much to me as it does to you.”
“Why?” she whispered.
It was as if she broke him from a trance. Ferro blinked several times, staring at her. The shock faded into tenderness. He cupped her cheek. “Because it brought me to you.”
Ferro leaned forward and pressed his lips gently to hers. Her whole body tingled, from the top down. She shivered, shifting closer to him, wanting more. But all too soon, he pulled away, giving her nothing but a chaste peck.
“Ferro—”
“Consider that your good luck charm.” He smirked lazily. “Keep us—everything about our interactions—a secret for just a bit longer and then you’ll be headed to Meru with me as a competitor.”
Before Eira could even think of a response, he was gone. He’d disappeared into the night faster than a pleasant dream. The only proof Eira hadn’t fabricated the whole encounter was the pent-up energy threatening to explode from her every pore and the tingling of her lips.
22
Seventeen sorcerers stood in a spot usually reserved for royalty. They lined up on the Sunlit Stage in three groups—eight Waterrunners, three Groundbreakers, and six Firebearers. The amassed crowd cheered and chanted. They waved pennons emblazoned with the symbols for water, earth, and fire. Fever for the trials had spread and was reaching its climax.
Eira stared blinking in the morning light and frantically scanning the crowd for her parents. Thankfully, they hadn’t come. The other candidates smiled and waved. They made proclamations of victory to the crowd.
The emperor and empress made a series of announcements, wished them all luck, and discussed more about the tournament. Ferro stood beside them. He, too, addressed the crowd.
The people of Solaris fell to a hush as he spoke. Eira could hear their whispers and see their shifting gazes. Solaris might have grown to love the notion of the trials happening in their own lands, but the idea of sending competitors across the sea to Meru still gave them pause.