Weston reached for his sleeve but hesitated, raising his sword instead of drawing his final composition. As he stalked toward me, I tried to remember if I had limited my shield to magical attack. Would his sword be able to pass right through? I couldn’t be sure.
Scrambling to my feet, I pulled up my own sword. But I couldn’t beat him in a straight sword fight, especially not with two constant drains on my energy.
I considered the broad incapacitation composition I had used when under attack before, but I still didn’t know what it actually did to the victim, and I suspected using it would bring down Thornton’s ire.
I called the binding words in front of my mind’s eye and spoke them without thinking, my mind racing to compose the next words in preparation.
As Weston stepped almost within reach, I rushed out the words I had decided on. An untested composition, but at least a more limited one than amorphous incapacitation.
“Bind the legs and arms of my opponent, so that he cannot move, for the span of one minute. End binding.”
Weston’s sword pierced through my shield, just as I finished the final word. A look of shock twisted his face as he stumbled, his legs and arms freezing, and toppled over to lie flat on the ground. It had worked.
I took a shaky step forward.
“I heard what you said,” he snarled, his tongue and throat unbound. “I’ll be free in one minute, and you’ve used up your—”
I pressed my sword tip to his throat, and his words cut off.
“Yield,” I said quietly.
He glared at me silently.
I pushed harder, a trickle of blood sprouting from my blade and trailing down his neck.
“Yield,” I said, loudly this time.
Still he said nothing, but Thornton called out on his behalf from the stands. “Weston yields.”
I immediately pulled my sword away and stepped back. But I kept my eyes on him, in case he was too angry to play by the rules. But although my binding composition had dissipated, he merely stood up, wiping at his throat and storming off toward the stands.
With the bout over, I quietly spoke a new composition, ending the useless hail of rocks. My shield had given out on its own since I had thankfully retained the sense to place my stepping out of it as a condition of ending the working.
I looked up at the stands, swaying slightly with exhaustion but still firmly on my feet. All eleven spectators watched me, their expressions varying widely.
When I reached the first level of seating, Thornton met my eyes.
“Your first victory.” He paused, and I waited for him to add some sort of congratulations, as he had done on occasion with the other trainees. But instead, he said, “Some lessons for you in there.”
My shoulders slumped, and for a moment weariness nearly overwhelmed me. But then I met Lucas’s eyes where he sat just behind our instructor. I straightened again.
“Yes,” I said. “And I will certainly be noting them.”
Lucas’s mouth twitched, as if he were suppressing a smile, and I nodded to him as I climbed the stairs past his seat, hoping he read my thanks for his training in the acknowledgment.
I had done it. I had won. Barely, and with far more expense of energy than should have been necessary, but still—I had done it. I had proven to myself that I could. Now I just needed to get better.
As I sat down among my friends, who all showered me with exclamations, praise, and congratulations, I was already considering Thornton’s words.
There had been lessons for me in that bout, and I needed to ponder them. Even Weston himself had pointed out a weakness I hadn’t sufficiently considered—unlike with a written composition, my opponents could hear my words if they were close enough. All the more reason to build as much control into as few words as possible.
Already new ideas for training exercises were springing to my mind, and suddenly I couldn’t wait to try them. I looked down at the trainees below me in the stands. Let them consider today a warning. One day soon I would be able to beat them all.
Chapter 17
I beat Araminta next, and then Clarence. Neither were a big challenge for me now, and I didn’t like doing it—especially against Araminta. I kept my compositions as gentle as I could, and I heard Saffron afterward reminding the other girl that I had beaten Weston, so she had no reason to be so downcast.
I winced and turned away, knowing I was the last one she would want to see in that moment. But I had spent far too long at the bottom of the class not to sympathize.
Coralie at least seemed pleased that Thornton was no longer pitting me against only the Devoras and Stantorn trainees, but Finnian seemed less impressed.
“Cowards, the lot of them,” he said. “Now that they’ve seen you can win, they don’t want any part of it.”
Whatever the truth, I itched to test myself again against a more difficult opponent. Because as the days ticked past, my life at the Academy was drawing all too swiftly to a close. Not mentioning it to my friends was increasingly difficult, but I had long ago decided to tell no one about my plans to enlist. It seemed all too likely that Lorcan would find some way to forbid it—and never mind the price to my family and sister if he did so.
Coralie had discovered the date of my birthday during first year, thanks to an unexpected birthday visit from Jasper, so I knew I wasn’t going to be able to avoid her making a fuss over it this year. Not when I was turning eighteen.
And, sure enough, she started making hints at least two weeks out. Of course, when I dutifully inquired after her cryptic comments, she refused to answer. The game amused me more than I thought it would, and I found myself appreciating her enthusiasm more than I had anticipated. Perhaps because I was finding it increasingly difficult to sleep as the big day approached. For far too many commonborn, an eighteenth birthday was something to be dreaded and feared. But no such stigma clouded the day in the minds of the mageborn, and their excitement was hard to ignore.
Coralie herself wouldn’t turn eighteen until just after she returned home for the second half of the summer, and she had already begun planning her own celebration. When Jocasta had arrived back at the Academy with the news that the epidemic was officially over and Abalene free of green fever, Coralie had thrown herself into the plans with even more enthusiasm. When she insisted I come for the event, I hedged, not wanting to make a promise I couldn’t keep. But she assured me blithely that one way or another she would send a carriage for me.
I woke with a jolt on my birthday, unable for a brief second to remember why the day felt so significant. Then memory came surging back, and I just lay there, trying to take it all in. My original plan had been to leave the Academy on my birthday, not risking even a day more than I needed to. But if I wasn’t going to be able to say goodbye to my friends, I at least wanted to leave with good memories. And disappearing before whatever celebration Coralie had planned didn’t seem like the actions of a friend.
Honesty also compelled me to admit that I wanted a single day to celebrate before reality hit me with deadly force. I had started to hope that my training at the Academy might keep me alive on the front lines for the three years of my term, but the five mage deaths at the end of winter had been all too sobering. If fully trained mages with four years at the Academy behind them could die in this war, then it would be all too easy for me to do so. Especially when I had enemies on my own side who might go out of their way to ensure it. Once I left the safety of the Academy, everything changed.
But I had one day left, and I meant to enjoy it.
I entered the dining hall for the morning meal, already mentally practicing my surprised response. But no cake greeted me as it had done the year before. My friends, already seated, greeted me as they normally did, Coralie merely pausing briefly as she spooned porridge into her bowl.
“Oh yes, and Happy Birthday, Elena.”
Finnian and Saffron immediately chimed in with their own birthday wishes, and then everyone returned to their meal. I slid into
my seat, trying not to feel disappointed. None of them owed me anything.
The day progressed from there as it always did. Thornton didn’t call on me in combat, and lunch also held no surprise birthday delicacies. All in all, the day was proving an unexpected disappointment.
Even Jasper failed to appear. After his visit for my seventeenth birthday, I had thought his attendance on my eighteenth guaranteed. After all, he was the only person in Corrin who knew what today really meant for me.
I held out hope all through composition class and then through discipline studies in the library that the cake would appear at the evening meal. And since it was not only my birthday, but my last day at the Academy, I gave myself permission to spend the library study session just browsing through the shelves. In my year and a half as a trainee, I had lost much of my initial wonder at this unimaginable collection of words, but every now and then I liked to take a moment to bask in it again.
All of these shelves, shelf upon shelf upon shelf, all filled with books and even scrolls. All holding words that I could now understand, mysteries there ready for me to explore. I hoped I never entirely lost the wonder of it. I closed my eyes and listened with something other than my ears. Listened for that elusive siren call of the letters. The one I barely felt now that I had discovered how to unlock their power.
But I hoped I never forgot. No matter what happened to me from here, no matter how long I had left to live, I had felt a feeling no one else had ever felt. I had opened my mouth to speak and felt my words bend and shape reality. Felt the rush as power shaped itself to my spoken will.
My eighteenth birthday had always meant the Armed Forces. And now that I had safely made it, gratitude filled me that I had been able to experience this first. How much fuller and stronger I felt now than if I had never left Kingslee.
The evening meal brought no special surprises, although Coralie led my friends in a quiet chorus of happy birthday. I thanked them with tears in my eyes. Somehow the disappointment from earlier had faded away, and instead I could only remember that this was my last meal with them. I hadn’t expected on my arrival to make friends at the Academy that it would one day pain me to leave.
I lingered at the table, unwilling for the meal to end. Eventually, however, I was the last one left, my friends having drifted away with murmured good nights. Finally I hauled myself to my feet and slowly left the hall.
The closest barracks of the Armed Forces wouldn’t be open now until first light, but I couldn’t imagine being able to sleep. My steps dragged as I took in every aspect of this place that would soon no longer be my home.
So distracted was I, that I almost didn’t see a shadowy figure waiting for me in the corridor. When he stepped forward, I started, pressing my hand to my heart.
“You scared me. What are you doing lurking in the dark like that?”
Lucas smiled, a half-quirk that was dangerously alluring. “Waiting for you.”
“For me? Whatever for?” I frowned at him suspiciously.
“I heard a rumor. That it’s your eighteenth birthday today.”
“Oh, that. Yes, it is.”
“Happy Birthday.”
“Thank you.”
I waited, but he neither moved nor said anything else. Instead he calmly stood there, his eyes fixed on me, as if he had all the time in the world.
“Was there anything else?” I asked eventually.
“Yes, I want to show you something.”
I raised both brows. “Show me something?”
He nodded. “It’s just up here.” He gestured toward the stairs before leading me in that direction.
I followed behind, uncertain but too curious to refuse. Before I could demand to know what he wanted to show me, he spoke again.
“I don’t think I ever congratulated you, by the way. On your wins in the arena.”
I flushed, although hopefully the darkness hid it. “Thank you. You can claim some of the credit, you know.”
“Can I?” He paused, seeming to find this idea amusing. “Then I will. Although you seem to have improved since we stopped our lessons.”
I shrugged. “I practiced in Abalene.”
He looked back down at me with a raised eyebrow.
“Oh, not with combat compositions, of course. But just on my finesse. I had lots of chances to practice picturing and speaking the necessary words while maintaining a secondary overlay of meaning.”
He nodded, his face approving, and I reminded myself that this was supposed to be our new normal. Friendly. My heart didn’t seem to have received the message, however, and was racing far too fast. Would this be the last time I ever saw Lucas?
I tried to think of something significant to say but could think of nothing.
He led me down the corridor, not continuing up to the next floor where his own suite lay as I had half expected. We didn’t go far, however, stopping in front of a closed door that I was fairly certain led into an unused classroom.
He turned the door handle and then looked back over his shoulder at me.
“Happy Birthday, Elena.”
“You already said that.”
His smile sent shivers down my spine. “Did I?”
And then he pulled the door open, placing a hand on the small of my back and propelling me inside.
“Surprise!” yelled a chorus of voices as I blinked in the bright light of many candles.
“Happy eighteenth birthday!” Coralie bounced over and gave me a hug. “Are you surprised?”
I looked around again, still trying to take it all in. Flowers and garlands hung everywhere, and a table to one side held an enormous chocolate cake along with several other small delicacies. Another table held a small pile of presents, and people seemed to be everywhere.
Slowly my eyes picked out each of them. Coralie, of course. Finnian and Saffron. Araminta. Walden, and his assistant librarian, Jocasta—although the latter didn’t look much like she wanted to be here. Acacia. And, even more surprisingly, Jasper, Clara, and Edmond. I glanced back at the door again to find it closed now with no sign of Lucas. He hadn’t stayed. I shouldn’t feel so disappointed.
Jasper strode over to envelop me in an enormous hug, holding me for so long that tears sprung into my eyes. He knew. He understood. When he stepped back, he shook his head at me.
“Tonight is for fun only.”
I nodded and smiled back, surreptitiously wiping my eyes.
Clara was next. Then Finnian and Saffron, and even Edmond. The sudden sound of strings filled the room, and a fiddler in the corner nodded and winked at me.
“Coralie!” I shook my head at my friend. “This is outrageous!”
“Well, are you surprised?” She grinned at me. “I’ve been bursting all day!”
“You did a good job of hiding it.”
“I know. Didn’t I? I couldn’t believe you would think I didn’t have anything planned, though. It was a stroke of genius to ask Lucas to bring you here. I knew if I tried anything like that, you would have been onto it in a second.”
I shook my head again. “It really is outrageous. But also incredible. And amazing. You’re the best friend.”
She squeaked and pulled me into another hug before pulling back and winking. “Just wait until you see my eighteenth.”
She dashed off suddenly in the direction of the cake, calling an instruction to someone, and my eyes moistened again. I wished I was going to be around to see her party. But then I firmly banished the thought. Jasper had been right. I was here for my birthday party, at least, and tonight was for fun.
We proceeded to dance and eat and talk and dance some more until far too late into the night. At some point, Coralie insisted I open the presents, although I protested the whole time that it was just too much.
I received a fan from Finnian and Saffron, and a bag of my mother’s homemade cookies from Jasper. He watched me open them with a twinkle in his eyes, and it warmed me to know he had somehow made it home since Abalene.
; Clara and Edmond had gone in together on a beautiful shawl, and Coralie had outdone herself, giving me a small book of fairy stories. I gaped at it for a full minute, stroking its leather bindings. A book. Of my own.
She looked utterly triumphant, so I couldn’t refuse, although it seemed too rich a gift.
Only one package remained after that, but it wasn’t marked with a name and no one present would own to it. When I opened it and shook out the contents, I gasped. A warm cloak unfolded, made of rich material but in a practical design of deep forest green.
It was far finer than anything I had owned, finer even than the clothes and robes the Academy had provided. Again I pressed everyone, especially Jasper, but they all assured me it had not come from them.
“I wish I had the coin to buy you such a thing,” Jasper said wistfully, rubbing his fingers along the hemline.
I could think of one person with plenty of coin to spend, but I quickly squashed the idea. Friendly didn’t cover such a rich and thoughtful gift, and I couldn’t—shouldn’t—let myself wish for anything more than the friendly we had agreed on. He hadn’t even stayed for my party, after all.
The group broke up after that, Coralie helping me carry my gifts up the stairs to my room. Once we had dumped them all on my bed, I gave her a lingering hug.
“Thank you, Coralie. For everything. I don’t know if I would have survived at the Academy without you. You’re the very best friend I’ve ever had.”
Coralie smiled, her own eyes misty now. “And you’re the best friend I’ve ever had. What would I do without you? The Academy would be far too boring.” She chuckled, and I shook my head. I knew where the true burden of gratitude lay.
When she left, I sat on my bed for a long time, remembering and treasuring each memory from the party. Then I made myself get up and sort my things, carefully selecting what to take and what to leave. My Academy clothes and robes would have to remain, of course. But it was cool enough still overnight and in the mornings that I could wear my new cloak. I hoped they would let me use it on the front lines, where I could only imagine its warmth would be more than welcome in the colder months.
Voice of Command (The Spoken Mage Book 2) Page 16