Crown of Danger (The Hidden Mage Book 2)

by Melanie Cellier

“I may have a solution for you on that matter.”

  “You?” He frowned down at me. “I don’t want you playing in this, Verene. My father is too dangerous.”

  I drew myself up. “You’re forgetting that I act as the representative of my kingdom. I have offered you Ardann’s help, and I intend to deliver. Are you aware that your father has issued the duke with an invitation for the entire Academy to attend a Midwinter Ball in Kallmon?”

  “I have heard rumors he had plans for Midwinter, but I have yet to receive exact confirmation. Surely the duke himself did not confide such a thing to you when he has not spoken to me?”

  “No, but I had it from an excellent authority,” I said. “And it struck me that this might be your chance. But I currently stand as an impediment to the duke’s accepting the invitation since I am bound inside the Academy walls. So I have requested that my aunt remove that particular block to the plan. I believe once he has her permission for me to travel, the duke will accede to the king’s wishes. And not even your father could suspect you of plotting your way to the capital when he issued the invitation himself without your knowledge.”

  “Verene, you can’t travel to Kallmon.” Darius sounded dark and angry, but I stood my ground.

  “I think you missed the important point,” I said. “Here is your access to your father and the Mage Council and the court itself.”

  He took several steps toward me. “No, I missed nothing. You cannot leave the safety of these walls.”

  Inside I melted a little at his concern for me, but I forced myself to sound confident and strong.

  “Captain Layna is to travel with me as my personal guard again. And I have no doubt the duke will also bring Captain Vincent and most of his guards. Surely you cannot think any assassins would dare assail such a group as we will make. The entire Academy, Darius.”

  “And once we arrive at the capital?” he asked.

  I hesitated. “I am not defenseless. And I am sure Captain Layna will not leave my side. Bryony as well, I imagine.”

  For a moment he read my face in silence, his expression harsh, and his eyes burning. But he must have seen the certainty there.

  “If you are determined to be so foolhardy, then Captain Vincent will not leave your side either. I will ensure it.”

  “Thank you,” I said softly.

  He groaned. “I wish I could promise that I wouldn’t leave your side either, Verene. But—”

  “But you will have other duties and priorities,” I finished for him. “I understand, truly I do.”

  The vision of a purple flower danced behind my eyes. Just tell me everything, I pleaded with him silently. Tell me the full truth of what is going on and let me help you properly.

  “I wish…” His voice trailed away while I held my breath hopefully.

  “What do you wish?” I whispered at last.

  “Too many things that can never be.” His harsh voice broke the moment. “But I will see you return safe to the Academy, Verene.”

  “I certainly intend to do so,” I replied. “I only hope you return with a crown.”

  “Hope is something I have long left behind,” he said with blazing eyes. “But I will win the crown without it.”

  Chapter 15

  Several days later, Duke Francis announced the king’s invitation to the entire Academy. If he thought the timing of my aunt’s communication about the ending of my travel restrictions to be strangely coincidental, he never mentioned it to me.

  He did, however, call me to his office to gravely explain the measures that would be taken to ensure my safety. They included the reinstatement of Captain Layna as my personal guard for the time we were outside the Academy walls. I thanked him and gave no indication I was already aware of the arrangements.

  At every meal the dining hall buzzed with chatter about the upcoming holiday, and I didn’t hear of a single trainee who had refused the invitation. Most of them reported their families would be traveling to Kallmon to join the festivities and seemed excited about a visit to the capital. A few seemed less pleased with the arrangement, but apparently personal preferences didn’t weigh into the matter—not when it came to a joint invitation from both monarchs.

  “This is outrageous,” Dellion exclaimed on the way to combat class one morning, several days before our planned departure.

  We all turned to look at her, and Royce sniggered openly when he saw she had put her boot in the waste left behind by some unknown horse.

  Ashlyn made a sympathetic face. “I’ll admit I’ll be glad when it’s time to actually leave. I’m not sure how many more horses and carriages the Academy can hold.”

  “Has the entire Academy ever traveled anywhere in convoy before?” Tyron looked around at the bustling courtyard where yet another carriage was being backed into a large storage shed. “I hadn’t quite considered the logistics of such an undertaking.”

  “I doubt it,” Jareth said. “Everything has been strange since we started here. The Academy had never hosted the monarchs for a Midwinter Ball before last year either.”

  Everyone carefully avoided looking at me, although personally I suspected Jareth himself had a little something to do with the unusual happenings of the last year and a half.

  When the third new carriage of the morning arrived halfway through our combat class, causing Frida to lose concentration and drop her defense, Mitchell called a halt to our bouts. He sent Frida back to the Academy in search of Raelynn, Ashlyn in attendance and a trail of blood drops behind them.

  “There is clearly no point in attempting a lesson when you are all so distracted,” he said with a disapproving expression. “I shall register my complaint with Duke Francis, but in the meantime, I am canceling combat classes until after Midwinter.”

  Wardell whooped loudly, despite Mitchell’s forbidding expression, and Isabelle hid a chuckle.

  “Sorry, Bryony,” Tyron said with a grin. “Don’t be too disappointed. I’m sure it will feel like no time at all until we’re back in regular classes again.”

  She just laughed and shook out her hair. “Even I can appreciate the occasional holiday. I’m dying to see Kallmon. I wonder what it’s like?”

  “Cold and gray,” Armand said from her other side.

  We all turned to him in surprise. He didn’t usually volunteer any information.

  “Does your family live there?” Tyron asked.

  “For some of the year,” he said. “I much prefer the months we spend at our small estate in the south.”

  If I remembered correctly, General Haddon had an estate on the south coast. Maybe Armand’s parents had changed allegiances due to being neighbors with the general.

  “Well anyone would rather live on the coast than in a city,” Isabelle said. “That’s just natural.”

  “Speak for yourself.” Dellion tossed her hair. “I love the capital. Being out on the estate is so boring. Unless someone is holding a party or something. We all had a fabulous time at Grandfather’s estate on the coast last summer.” She glanced at Jareth who grinned back easily at her. As cousins, they had been at the large family gathering together.

  “But being at the capital at Midwinter will be amazing,” Dellion continued. “Absolutely everyone will be there, and there’ll be all sorts of festivities. And the shopping.”

  “Oooh yes, I’m looking forward to that,” Bryony agreed.

  “Are you not looking forward to it, Isabelle?” I asked the quieter girl.

  She looked thoughtful. “I’ll miss having my normal holiday at home. Especially since my family can’t make it all the way to the capital just for a ball. But I’ll admit, I’m curious. I might not love cities, but I’ve always wondered what Midwinter in Kallmon is like.”

  “I grew up in Corrin,” I said. “So I don’t know anything other than a city Midwinter, but I’m curious as well. I’ve never been to Kallmon.”

  “At least the trip has been good for one thing,” Wardell interjected. “I’ll take an extra break from lessons
any day.”

  Most people seemed to feel the same as Wardell. One by one, the other instructors followed Mitchell’s lead, and I didn’t hear any of the trainees complaining. In the library, I overheard Hugh telling Raelynn that the instructors were all worried about distracted trainees making some sort of fatal error in their compositions.

  “We don’t want another one bringing half the Academy down,” he had said with a chuckle in his voice, making me wonder if the story about the expelled trainee was true after all.

  Finally only Amalia was left teaching, and much to her displeasure we had to return to our usual room to focus on energy studies only. She grumbled a number of times about trainees needing to learn to work through distractions, and I must have been infected by the holiday spirit more than I realized because I actually answered back.

  “But don’t forget we’re all unstable youth,” I told her with a grin. “I imagine the theory is that we’ll all have steadied somewhat by the time we actually graduate.”

  Tyron looked terrified on my behalf, but Amalia actually snorted a laugh.

  “Unstable is the right of it. Although it sounds overly hopeful to think the mere passage of time will fix many of you.”

  She actually let us out early after that, a miracle that made Bryony exclaim all the way to the evening meal.

  “I never would have expected Amalia of all people to be prone to such indulgences,” she said. “She seems the type to hate holidays.”

  “I suspect it’s the prospect of an empty Academy that’s put her in a good mood,” Tyron said.

  “What, isn’t she coming to the capital then?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I heard she managed to weasel out of the invite by convincing Duke Francis to leave her in charge of the Academy in his absence.”

  “Ha! That sounds like her,” said Bryony, “and explains her good mood.”

  As we had visited more discipline classes, I had discovered it wasn’t only the wind worker instructor who deferred to Amalia. Eventually someone had told me she was the head of all discipline studies at the Academy. So as a senior instructor, she was as logical a choice as any to be left in charge. I suspected Duke Francis would have liked to use the same excuse himself if duty hadn’t required he accompany us.

  Three days before Midwinter, we gathered in the front courtyard at dawn. The duke had decided we were to do the trip in one long day’s travel, so the instructors had to corral a group of sleepy, complaining trainees. But the cold morning air soon woke up even the most determined sleeper among us, and excited chatter drowned out the moans.

  I had expected us all to pile haphazardly into the mass of waiting carriages that had accumulated at the Academy over the last week. But the duke—or perhaps Zora—had everything arranged with far more precision than that.

  By the time we arrived, the carriages had already been harnessed and prepared, and stood in a long line stretching out of the gates of the Academy. Instructors moved among the trainees, dividing us into groups and sending the fourth years out of the gates to carriages at the front of the line.

  As always, I was acutely aware of Darius’s presence. Nothing in his demeanor gave any indication of either fatigue or emotion at returning home for the holiday, and he climbed fluidly into the carriage the duke indicated. I noticed it had no decoration or crest of any kind on its panels, and when Jareth tried to follow his brother, he was directed instead to a different carriage.

  When Bryony, Tyron, and I were ushered into a third unadorned carriage, two down from Jareth’s but not at the end of the line, I realized the royal trainees were being purposefully spread apart, hidden in the mass of trainees, instructors, and servants who made up the enormous party.

  For several minutes we sat waiting inside the still carriage, and then the door opened again, and Alvin joined us. He gave us all a hearty smile and began to talk with enthusiasm about both the journey and the capital.

  Bryony, who had previously been a bundle of bouncy excitement, looked a little horrified at the discovery we were to have an instructor riding with us.

  “It could be worse,” Tyron leaned over to whisper to her. “We could have Mitchell with us. Can you imagine enduring his dour face for that many hours in a row?”

  She laughed. “Poor Darius is probably saddled with him.”

  Tyron rolled his eyes. “They’ll be well-suited then and will probably spend the whole journey in silence.”

  My heart contracted, and I quickly looked out the window. I knew how Darius must seem to those watching him from afar, but I hated the thought of what the long day would be like for him with only Mitchell and all the pressure of his upcoming coup to keep him company. What kind of conversations would we have if the two of us had been assigned to travel in the same carriage alone? It was far too tantalizing a thought, so I thrust it aside.

  Eventually the carriage began to move, and we rumbled through the Academy gates. Our long procession joined the main road on the other side of the village, traveling west for a short time before beginning to curve directly south toward the capital.

  At first the journey was merry enough, Alvin and Bryony supplying most of the conversation with the occasional whispered aside from Tyron to make us laugh. I suspected Alvin of hearing at least some of them, but his good humor never abated. Apparently at least one of our instructors was pleased to receive a Midwinter invitation to the capital.

  Having seen the expertise and strength of his compositions from the inside, I had no doubt he had been placed in our carriage for my protection, if it came to that. But there was no sign of any disturbances as the hours rolled by. I had seen Captain Layna from afar in the courtyard, but as soon as the carriage rolled out of the Academy walls, she and her mount appeared at my window, and they hadn’t moved in the hours since.

  We stopped at a large inn for lunch, all of us more than ready to get out and stretch our legs. Layna stuck close to my side during the chaos of the meal, as did Alvin and both my energy mage friends, so that I felt as if I were hedged around by a wall of people. I didn’t complain, though, despite my longing for a measure of space. Every one of these people was willing to place themselves between potential danger and me, and my gratitude overrode every other emotion.

  When I nearly bumped into Jareth, however, I gave an exasperated sigh. But I quickly turned it into an empty smile in response to his excessive apologies. With so many people around me, it was hard to believe our collision could be an accident, but I didn’t want to cause a scene.

  I looked up from accepting his apologies, only to unexpectedly meet Darius’s eyes across the expanse of the room. They seemed to be pure black from this distance, and there was no doubt they were fastened on me. What did he think of his brother hovering so close around me?

  As always, in public I could read little of his expression.

  When we piled back into the carriages, it was almost a relief, but that emotion soon wore away. Eventually even Bryony fell silent, and we all began to wince every time we hit a small bump. No one was ever prepared for so many hours in a carriage.

  To my disappointment, darkness fell before we arrived in Kallmon, limiting my view of the city. One moment we seemed to be on the open road, and the next ominous stone walls loomed before us. I crowded against one window, while Bryony and Tyron took the other, Alvin watching us all with an indulgent expression.

  Despite the darkness, we were clearly expected, and the gates still stood open for our arrival. Enough light blazed from multiple hands to light the gloom, a mix of mage lights and regular lanterns. The front carriage must have been waved through because we barely paused, moving into the city in the same procession that had brought us through the countryside.

  My overwhelming initial impression aligned with Armand’s summary. Everywhere I looked, I saw gray, although the darkness no doubt exacerbated the effect. In Corrin, the city was arranged in concentric semi-circles, leading up to the palace and its grounds at the northern height of the city. You
passed first through the sections that housed the commonborns, and then through the mages’ shopping district before reaching the mage estates and finally the Academy, University and palace.

  I had expected something similar here, my eyes searching for narrow houses crowded against each other and the occasional market square. But from the moment we passed through the gates, I saw only large, elegant homes surrounded by either small but carefully manicured formal gardens or else vast fenced grounds.

  As the carriage jostled on over the cobblestones, my frown deepened.

  “Where are the houses of the commonborns?” I asked. “Where are the public buildings? Surely Kallmon cannot house only mages.”

  “No, of course not. But the commonborns do not have houses along the main streets.” Alvin gave me a curious look. “Is Corrin arranged differently? Four main streets enter Kallmon—one each from the north and west, and two from the south. The homes of the capital’s mage population line all four of them. The commonborn districts can be found deeper into the city, between the streets.”

  “Wouldn’t want any of the mages to have to sully themselves by passing through those areas,” Tyron muttered, earning a reproving look from Alvin.

  “Surely it is natural for a city to wish to present itself well,” our instructor said.

  I frowned, watching the houses of the mages pass by the window. I would have considered practicality a more important factor, and it didn’t seem convenient for the commonborns to have their parts of the city so distant from the main thoroughfares.

  “Doesn’t it make the public buildings difficult to access?” I asked, thinking of the new building whose creation we had nearly seen go awry in Corrin. “Don’t your sealed complain?”

  Alvin frowned. “I’m not entirely sure what public buildings you refer to. Do you mean the recruiting offices for the Armed Forces? I believe there is one large barracks at one of the southern gates.”

  “She means the healing clinics and the law enforcement centers, and the offices of the sealed. That kind of thing,” Bryony chimed in. “In Corrin many of them are located on the main roads since both commonborns and the mages who work there need easy access to them.”