Voice of Dominion
The Spoken Mage Book 3
Melanie Cellier
Luminant Publications
VOICE OF DOMINION
Copyright © 2019 by Melanie Cellier
The Spoken Mage Book 3
First edition published in 2019 (v1.0)
by Luminant Publications
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, stored in, or introduced into a database or retrieval system, in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
ISBN 978-1-925898-06-4
Luminant Publications
PO Box 203
Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064
[email protected]
http://www.melaniecellier.com
Cover Design by Karri Klawiter
Editing by Mary Novak
Proofreading by Deborah Grace White
Map Illustration by Rebecca E Paavo
For my niece, Cressida Bella,
who is already on her way to being
a strong and adventurous young lady
Contents
Royal Family and Mage Council
Map
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Note from the Author
Royal Family and Mage Council
Map
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Melanie Cellier
ROYAL FAMILY OF ARDANN
King Stellan
Queen Verena
Crown Princess Lucienne
Prince Lucas
MAGE COUNCIL
Academy Head (black robe) - Duke Lorcan of Callinos
University Head (black robe) - Duchess Jessamine of Callinos
Head of Law Enforcement (red robe) - Duke Lennox of Ellington
Head of the Seekers (gray robe) - Duchess Phyllida of Callinos
Head of the Healers (purple robe) - Duke Dashiell of Callinos
Head of the Growers (green robe) - Duchess Annika of Devoras
Head of the Wind Workers (blue robe) - Duke Magnus of Ellington
Head of the Creators (orange robe) - Duke Casimir of Stantorn
Head of the Armed Forces (silver robe) - General Griffith of Devoras
Head of the Royal Guard (gold robe) - General Thaddeus of Stantorn
Chapter 1
I stood outside my childhood home and tried to view it with the objective eyes of the mage girl beside me. Coralie had been my closest friend for two years, but she had never visited Kingslee before.
I hadn’t seen my house in nearly a year, and yet I could have closed my eyes and pictured every scratch and bump on the wooden door. Nothing had changed, although the curtains looked a touch more faded.
But would my family inside be equally unaltered?
“Is this it?” asked Coralie, looking between me and the door in confusion. No doubt my Academy friend thought I had gone mad and forgotten my own home.
The other possibility—that she might think me embarrassed of my family’s house—made me shake myself and step forward. Before I reached the door, however, it swung open, and a tall, slender girl came rushing out. We collided, nearly tumbling to the ground together.
Clutching at each other, we both staggered and regained our balance.
“Elena!” she almost screamed, letting go only to grab me in an even tighter hug.
“Cl…Clemmy?”
My eyes felt as if they were bulging out of my head as I tried to crane my neck back far enough to get a good look at her. Surely this tall girl—graceful somehow despite gangly limbs—could not be my baby sister.
I tried to hide the painful contraction of my heart as I remembered how long it had been since I last saw her.
“Yes, it’s me.” She pulled free and did a twirl, grinning at me with satisfaction. “Aren’t I enormous now?”
“Absolutely enormous. I can’t quite believe it.” I shook my head. “Jasper was back here for Midsummer—why didn’t he tell me you’d become a giant?”
I had spent our time apart trying to picture my sickly sister in full health after her healing a year ago. But I had never imagined her like this. Freed from whatever weakness had plagued her system, she had grown strong beyond even my hopes. Moisture gathered in my eyes.
“I’m fairly sure she’s grown a full inch since he was here, and that was only a few weeks ago,” said a gruff voice from the doorway. “Welcome home, Elena girl.”
I spun around.
“Father! You’re home.”
He held out his arms, and I ran forward for an embrace. He clasped me quickly and then let go, turning to offer a welcome to my friend.
“We heard you were both arriving today, so we left Thomas to mind the store. Your mother will be home any minute.”
I smiled and ushered Coralie inside as I performed all the necessary introductions, forcing myself not to wonder if his hugs had always been that short.
“I’ve been dying to meet you all and see the famous Kingslee,” Coralie said once we were settled and had deposited our bags in the loft which had once been my shared bedroom with Clementine.
I watched my father closely for his reaction. Did my parents resent my bringing a friend home with me? Invading their house and making them uncomfortable in their own space?
My father murmured further polite welcomes, but I knew him too well to miss the uneasiness in his eyes. I bit my lip and turned away to hide my face. Perhaps I shouldn’t have let Coralie badger me into bringing her home. I already struggled to fit in here now that I had become a mage—how much worse had I made it by bringing a true mageborn with me?
My mother arrived in a storm of activity, hugging us all, even Father and Clemmy, almost before I’d drawn a breath. Her welcomes to Coralie were long and effusive, and she didn’t pause until everyone was sitting with a cup of tea in their hands.
But instead of alleviating my worry, her efforts only exacerbated them. My mother wasn’t usually so…intense.
“I was horribly disappointed when Jasper showed up for Midsummer without you,” Clemmy said, pouting out her bottom lip, her mischievous manner reminding me that she was still only thirteen, and half child as much as she had suddenly become half woman.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I would have come if I could. I’m sure Jasper explained the situation.”
Clemmy’s good humor faltered, and I tried to think how to smooth over the awkward moment. Clearly she did know the reason for my absence—and I never wanted her to get the idea that I resented her for it. Not even for a moment. Because for all the trouble it had caused me—and might still cause me—I had never second-guessed my decision to enlist in the Armed Forces in her pla
ce. Even if my role as a private meant I could only receive a maximum of two weeks leave a year—and even then, only at the discretion of my commanding officer.
Lorcan was my current superior, despite his lack of rank in the Armed Forces, and I did wish he had let me take my leave at Midsummer. But the Academy Head was far too obsessed with studying me and had put my trip off until the week before classes resumed, when other tasks at the Academy required his attention. Apparently he had thought my week spent at Coralie’s home in southern Abalene celebrating her eighteenth birthday to be plenty of frivolity to keep me going until the end of the break.
My mother only made the moment worse by lurching to her feet and pulling me into a suffocating hug.
“My girl. My dear girl. What you’ve done. And here you are. Not on the front lines at all.”
I fended her off and grimaced apologetically at Coralie. My mother might have spent years expecting me to disappear to the front lines as soon as I turned eighteen and enlisted in Clementine’s place, but she wasn’t usually so emotional. Certainly not in front of outsiders.
My actions seemed to remind her that we had a guest, and she hurried off to boil yet another kettle. Something had certainly put her on edge and off balance. But surely it wasn’t my presence. I couldn’t bear the thought that I might not have a place here anymore.
Something almost like fear lingered around her, and she wouldn’t meet my eyes for more than a second. Surely she couldn’t have heard that the third and fourth year Academy students were to visit the front lines this year?
And even if she had, she would no doubt think us safe there, unlike the normal soldiers. To my mother the world of the mageborn was one of privilege and safety—she couldn’t even begin to imagine the complexity of the dynamics among the great mage families and the ten mage disciplines. How could she? She had no way to know of my precarious position, balanced between my role as a trainee under the Academy Head, Lorcan, and my new role as a private under General Griffith, the Head of the Armed Forces.
News of my unique powers had apparently made its way throughout the kingdom—or at least the capital. In our world of written power, I was the only Spoken Mage. And when you suddenly found yourself the hope of your kingdom, everyone had an opinion on how you could best be used. It didn’t matter that being a weapon in someone else’s hands wasn’t where I wanted to find myself.
“I’ve been trying to convince Mother and Father to take me to Corrin for Midwinter since it’s been so long since we were all together for a festival.” Clemmy’s bright voice tried to recapture the earlier mood. “Tell them they have to take me.”
My mother flinched, although she tried to hide it by bustling over the tea. Was she concerned that the capital was too dangerous for someone with my sister’s weak health? And then I remembered Beatrice and Reese had healed her.
I tried not to think about why else my mother might not want to have the whole family together in Corrin. Not when I was the only one of us who had changed. Instead I changed the subject.
“I suppose it was the healing that made you grow so much?”
Clemmy shrugged, bouncing on her seat with an irrepressible energy that went a long way toward driving off the shadows filling my heart. Whatever changes I had undergone—and whatever they cost me—they were worth it to see Clemmy so well.
“Who knows?” she said. “Maybe?”
Our mother directed an affectionate look her way. “You certainly seemed to shoot up not long after. Mayhap the old weakness just delayed your growth somewhat.”
“Did you ever find out who was behind sending Beatrice and Reese to heal her?” asked Coralie.
“You don’t know?” my father asked, a sharp edge to his voice. “I’ve been thinking you were behind it this whole time—or your important friends at any rate.”
“I thought it was our friend Finnian at the time,” I said slowly. “His father’s Duke Dashiell, the Head of the Healers.”
“His father, a duke.” My mother murmured the words, half shaking her head as she bent over the stove. I tried to ignore the tremor in her voice.
“But then it turned out it wasn’t him,” said Coralie. “So it was all a great mystery.”
She looked at me with raised eyebrows. But a slight twinkle in her eyes made me wonder if she suspected the truth.
“A mystery?” My father frowned. “I don’t like the sound of that. To owe so much to someone unknown?”
“We don’t owe him anything,” I said too quickly, and then bit my lip. Would I ever learn to bite my tongue and keep my silence?
“So you do know who it is.” Coralie’s smile only reinforced my earlier impression.
I tried to correct myself. “Well, we don’t owe him anything for Clemmy, is what I mean. Of course we do owe him in general. Well, not him, more his family. And not owe exactly, but—”
“Who are you speaking of, Elena?” asked my father, cutting me off.
My eyes slid away from his. “It was the prince. Lucas sent the healers.”
“Prince Lucas!” My parents exchanged a look, and there was no mistaking the discomfort now. “He did this…for you?”
“No! I mean…yes. Sort of. It’s complicated.” I knew my attempted explanation was weak, but I subsided into silence despite the interested eyes watching me with varying levels of fear, mistrust, excitement, and pleasure.
I could hardly admit to the truth. The strange, impossible, tangled truth. Lucas had remembered I had a sickly sister. He had cared enough to send healers, had cared enough to try to save me from conscription. But he had not cared enough to save her from conscription—if I had been heartless enough to consider Clemmy’s new strength reason to leave our family’s conscription responsibility to her. Lucas had no younger siblings, so perhaps he had truly not understood how impossible such a thing would be for me. Or perhaps it proved that his actions had been driven more by strategic thinking where the Spoken Mage was concerned than love for me.
He had kissed me, certainly, and assured me of my importance to him. But then he had let me walk away. His love for me was forbidden, and apparently his feelings did not run deep enough to counteract the barriers that stood between us.
Sometimes I respected him for his duty to our kingdom, for his desire to end this never-ending war and all the death it brought. Other times I railed at him silently for being so focused on the war that he refused to work to bring about the changes needed in Ardann. For believing that unity in fighting Kallorway required he put aside any thought of fighting for the rights of all his subjects, including the commonborn. And sometimes I could think of nothing but the pain that I would never be first for him. That at the end of the day, we could never be together unless laws against the commonborn were changed—something he would not do. He would not fight for me.
The one thing I had not managed to do was succeed in putting him from my mind. None of which boded well for classes resuming in less than a week. How would I sit across from him every day and act like nothing had changed?
“I think coming into Corrin for Midwinter is an excellent idea,” Coralie said to Clemmy, saving me.
“Thank you!” Clemmy looked up at Coralie with a slightly bashful enthusiasm. She at least didn’t seem to share my parents’ strange discomfort.
“Let’s go into Kingslee,” I said, standing abruptly. When I received several odd looks, I tried to smile normally. “I want to show Coralie the village.”
“Can I come too?” Clemmy leaped up, clearing our mugs from the table with such an excess of enthusiasm that she nearly sent two of them crashing to the floor.
“Of course,” I said, and ushered them both out of the door.
I just need some fresh air, I told myself, as we started down the dirt road toward the distant clump of buildings. That’s all. And then I’ll realize I’m being foolish. I could never be unwanted and out of place here. This is my family.
Chapter 2
Three days later, standing in my parents’ s
tore, I no longer felt so sure.
The bell above the door clanged, and three women walked in, gossiping among themselves, their hands flying as they punctuated their words with exuberant gestures. But they made it only a couple of steps into the store before they looked up and saw me.
Their movement faltered, and fear transformed their previously animated expressions. The one in the front cast an agonized look at the women behind her, and one of them spoke up quickly.
“Oh! I’ve just remembered that I have some turmeric at home after all.”
The three of them turned tail and fled from the store, not even acknowledging my mother as they went. My eyes flew to her. The stoic cast to her face did nothing to reassure me. Three years ago, one of those women had endured a flare up of her arthritis. She had come to the store for herbs to alleviate it, and I had seen my mother pack twice the weight of herbs in her package as the woman could afford. There had been no fear in her eyes then.
The third silent one had been the Kingslee midwife. Her hands had delivered me and my parents before me. And yet now she turned from us all.
My hands balled into fists before a sudden memory made them begrudgingly relax. Duchess Phyllida, Head of the Seekers, had said once in my presence that she had visited Kingslee herself after my powers appeared. That she had interviewed the midwife who delivered me. Could I blame the woman for turning away now, when I had been responsible for bringing the Grays down on her? The Head of the Grays herself, in fact. Had the midwife’s own business fallen off at this sign of mistrust from the most feared branch of the mages?
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