by Elly Blake
“Enough!” Master Dallr shouted. His shadow fell across my face as I gasped for breath. “You are untrained,” he said quietly, “but you did not disgrace yourself. Your gift is strong.”
It took me a second to realize that the master’s hand was held out. I let him pull me up, just as Kai stumbled upright a few feet away, wiping his brow with his sleeve.
“I call this match a draw,” Master Dallr said to the crowd. Young faces beamed at us, some of the students whispering and elbowing each other. It looked as if they’d enjoyed the show.
“Prince Kai,” said the master, “if you and your guest would both follow me.”
Kai was brushing dust off his now-ragged-looking doublet, his brows drawn tight.
“Are you more upset that you lost,” I asked, gleeful that his cocky grin was finally missing, “or that I ruined your clothes?”
“It was a draw,” he corrected as we followed Master Dallr through a shaded walkway and into the school. “And yes, I am upset that you ruined my doublet.” He leaned toward me, his breath warm on my ear. “What are you going to do to compensate me for my loss? You don’t have any Sudesian coin yet, so…” His smile and the twinkle in his golden-brown eyes suggested several alternatives.
“Why did you wear it here if it’s so precious?” I turned my gaze ahead, fighting the heat that rose to my cheeks. It was annoying how easily he could make me blush.
“I didn’t expect to fight you. And when I did agree, I didn’t expect you to be so good.” There was unmasked appreciation in his tone. I smiled at that.
“You underestimated me.”
“It won’t happen again, little bird, I assure you.”
We passed a black lacquered door with two burly masters positioned on either side. “What’s in there?” I whispered to Kai.
“The masters’ library,” he whispered back. “Where all the secrets of the universe are found, or so they say. More likely it’s full of rotted parchment. Master Dallr wears his key around his neck, the show-off.”
My heart did a little reel in my chest. I was so close! Pernillius’s Creation of the Thrones might sit only a few yards away, holding the answers to the Minax’s destruction. Part of me wanted to rush the guards and break through the doors. But I’d likely just end up in prison. No, I needed to become a master so I had access to it for as long as I needed to find the right information.
At the end of the corridor, we entered a spacious room with arched openings to the corridor, the structure reminding me a bit of Forwind Abbey. But whereas the abbey was bleak and gray, the school’s warm yellow stone seemed to soak up and reflect the slanting sunlight.
Master Dallr gestured for us to sit on jewel-bright cushions on the tiled floor as he took his seat in an upholstered chair with gilded armrests. It was clear from his saturnine demeanor that the school was his kingdom and this was his throne.
He studied me for a few moments before speaking. “The queen sent a message that you wish to take the trials.”
“Yes.” My pulse, just calming from the fight, picked up speed again.
“And you want this of your own free will?”
I met his eyes squarely. “Yes.”
“Why?” he shot back, the question almost a command.
I paused. “I want to learn the skills you can teach me and gain control over my gift.”
“And what will you do with that control and that skill?”
That was a harder question. I glanced at Kai, but he just looked forward resolutely, calmly. As if it was obvious. As if he’d been born knowing the correct answer to that question.
“I will use those skills to serve the queen,” I said, aware of how vague that sounded.
“Forgive my candor, but you were not born here. Why do you wish to serve the queen? What would make you want to dedicate your life to serving her?”
Reasons flitted through my mind. What would convince the skeptical master? After a few seconds, he shook his head. “If you are to take the trials, you must know the answer deep in your bones. If you must think before answering, you are not ready.”
The walls and floor radiated stored heat from the sun, and my nerves further heated my skin. I hooked a finger around the damp strands of hair that had come loose from my braid and pushed them behind my ear. As I did so, Master Dallr’s eyes fixed on the left side of my face.
“Where did you get that mark?” he asked abruptly.
Instinctively, my fingertips moved to cover the heart-shaped mark.
Dizziness hit. Everything slowed, sight and sound fuzzing, a tingle sliding up the back of my neck. As I blinked, the world shifted.
My hands gripped the railing of a ship as I stared into the churning froth that slid against the hull. My stomach roiled. I was so ill. So tired. Tired of fighting the impulses, the urge to hurt people around me, which stole my sleep and made me shut myself away for hours at a time until the feelings were under control. How much longer could I survive this? How much longer could I pretend? I swallowed and gripped harder, closing my eyes. I had to make it to land, at least. But even then, I had to hold on until I could—
A warm hand on my wrist made the image blur. A soft voice said my name. I blinked and shook myself. Master Dallr regarded me intently, his brows slightly furrowed. He had asked me a question. About my scar. I opened my mouth, but no words came out. His frown deepened. Kai watched me, too. I knew they were waiting for a reply. The Minax marked me and told me I was its true vessel. It promised to return when I was filled with despair. I am the Child of Light or the Child of Darkness, or neither, and no one knows and I don’t want to know. I never want to know.
I couldn’t say any of that. I could barely admit it to myself.
I was suddenly furious, with the Minax who kept sending me these bizarre visions and with myself for being unable to control them, to shut them out. This was my chance to enter the trials, and I was ruining everything, making the master doubt me. I needed an answer and it had to be the right one. The scar was from… from…
“A birthmark,” said Kai smoothly, snapping time back into place. “She doesn’t like to talk about it. Something about superstitions in Tempesia.” He waved a hand as if dismissing the northern kingdom and all its silly beliefs.
I expelled a breath, grateful for the easy lie. “Yes. I was born with it. And you asked me why I would dedicate my life to the queen. I was never accepted in Tempesia.” That much was true. “My true home is here, and my place is serving her. I want nothing else.” I made sure to meet the master’s eyes, unwavering.
His expression darkened and he went silent. “Very well,” he said finally. “You may take the trials. You have a week to prepare.”
Kai made a strangled noise. Master Dallr turned grim eyes on him.
“Master,” said Kai respectfully. “A week? Most students have years.”
“Indeed. And that is the challenge you have been set by the queen, Prince Kai,” the master said. “You will train Ruby, and you may use the school as often as you wish. If she passes, you will be allowed to take your final trial a second time. I don’t have to tell you that getting a second chance is unprecedented. The queen has been very generous.”
I sucked in a breath, looking quickly at Kai to gauge his reaction. So this was the reason he’d made the long voyage to Tempesia and risked the Frost Court: to trade me for a second chance at the trials. And he was getting what he wanted. I expected to see satisfaction, maybe elation, on his expressive features.
But if he was happy, it was hard to tell. He didn’t move or speak for several seconds. It was unlike him to be at a loss for words. I touched his shoulder and his lashes fluttered as if he were coming out of a trance.
“I trust this is to your satisfaction?” Master Dallr asked drily, his mouth curving ever so slightly as he watched Kai’s reaction. I wondered if it was the closest thing to humor that the master ever allowed himself.
A telltale pulse beat in Kai’s neck. He stood and bowed low. “Extremely g
enerous. Thank you.”
We left the school, skirting groups of sparring students in the courtyard. Kai’s hands were balled into fists.
I tilted my head up to speak in his ear. “You’re pale as death. You look like you’ve eaten a bad fish.”
Even my insult didn’t jar him from his unaccustomed silence. He seemed to relax a little, though. By the time we reached the carriage, he’d regained his color along with his usual arrogant strut. When I was seated across from him, he knocked on the roof and we rolled away from the school. He stared at nothing in particular.
“What’s wrong with you?” I leaned forward. “If I’m not mistaken, you were just given your second chance. I would have thought you’d be… oh, I don’t know… happy?”
“I am happy,” he bit out.
My eyebrows rose. “You seem like it.”
“Conditions.” He frowned. “I should have known she would add conditions.”
“Why is it so important to you? Passing the trials?”
He shot me a burning glare, as if I knew the answer and was merely baiting him.
“What?” I gave him an open-palm gesture. “I wasn’t born here. I don’t know these things.”
“Only a master can rule an island. Without passing the trials, I won’t be able to succeed my father as ruler of our home.”
“Oh.” The pieces fell into place. “When did you take the trials the first time?”
He didn’t bother looking at me as he answered. “Almost two years ago.”
“What happened?”
He grimaced. “Revealing details of the trials is forbidden.”
“So how are you supposed to train me if you can’t tell me what to expect?”
He waved a vague hand. “I’ll figure it out.”
He was beyond frustrating. “Well, at least I know why you lied to me, essentially kidnapped me, and handed me to your queen like a wrapped present.”
“You agreed willingly enough.”
“Yes, we need to talk about all the lies you told to secure that agreement. For the record, I haven’t forgiven you. I just put it aside because we had more important things to worry about today.”
“Fine. I admit that I lied. But in the end, you’re getting what you want, aren’t you? The chance to learn how to master your gift? You were eager enough when you asked the queen to give you a chance at the trials.”
“I don’t like being lied to. Besides, she may be letting me take the trials, but I’m still under her control. I would rather have come here secretly.”
He snorted. “Nothing happens on Sere without the queen knowing. You’d have been worse off if you’d tried to sneak in.”
I folded my arms.
He stared at me for a few seconds. “All right, I’m sorry. I was desperate. And I didn’t know you.”
“You know me now.” I stared at him. “Don’t lie to me again.”
“I promise,” he said, fighting a smile.
“I don’t trust you when you smirk at me like that.”
“My enjoyment has nothing to do with whether or not I’m telling the truth. It’s just that you’re rather adorable when you’re annoyed. Am I forgiven?”
The answer was easy. “No.”
“You’ll have to forgive me once you pass your trials,” he said with confidence. “We’ll train every available moment until you’re as prepared as I can make you. Be warned, though. It won’t be easy.”
“I’m not scared of hard work.”
“Good.” He settled back and folded his arms behind his head. When he started to put his feet up on my seat, I knocked them off with my knee. It wouldn’t do to let Kai have his way all the time. He would become truly impossible.
As we passed the wharf, my nose wrinkled at the scent of hundreds of sweaty fishermen and laborers and ten times as many dead fish being gutted or dried or piled into baskets. In between shacks and fishmongers’ huts, the sea sparkled with flecks of sunlight that winked like a thousand cold diamonds. It reminded me a little of Arcus’s eyes when he was angry: sun-bleached blue lit with white sparks.
The bobbing ships made me think of the vision I’d just had in the Fireblood school. Whereas previous visions had been some form of memory—aside from the vision in the throne room, which was so strange it had seemed more like a nightmare—this recent one had felt real. Like a glimpse through a spyglass, as if I’d been watching something that was really happening. I had the sense I’d fallen into the Minax’s mind for a few minutes. If that were true, it had found its way to possessing some hapless sailor and was currently on a ship.
What if it was on its way to Sudesia? Would it come all this way to find me, its true vessel?
If so, it only made my mission more vital.
I couldn’t help but wonder what might happen to Kai once I escaped Sudesia. Would the queen turn on him and punish him for my disloyalty? Imprison him? Judging by our interaction in the throne room, she seemed as mercurial as the sea, capable of anything.
I watched Kai as he lazed on the carriage seat, staring out the window with a placid expression, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. The only detail that belied the studied picture of ease was the hand resting on his knee. It was curled into a white-knuckled fist.
ELEVEN
“FORGET WHAT YOUR FROSTBLOOD monk taught you. I’m telling you to rein in your fire on the upswing and let it out at the end.”
Kai demonstrated by snapping a fire whip, the crack reverberating off the walls of the school. We’d arrived at the end of a morning practice session, watching a few minutes of sparring before the students filed inside for meditation. The scent of flowers perfumed the oppressively humid air. A handful of masters watched us from discreet positions on benches or stools. We’d been practicing for an hour and Kai was already impatient. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the afternoon.
“Fine.” I swished the fiery rope into the air in what I thought were impressive trails of flame. I controlled it well, but even I could see that it didn’t crack with the kind of force Kai had achieved.
He closed his eyes, his lips moving silently. Maybe he was begging Sud for patience, or more likely asking her to sweep me away with a strong wind that deposited me in a conveniently deep area of the sea. His initial optimism seemed to have worn off. He had to be so aggrieved that his second chance depended on me passing my trials.
Served him right for bringing me here in the first place.
“But yours has no bite.” He cracked another fire whip over my head, making me cringe involuntarily. “Your way is a dull sword. A toothless snake. You need to fully realize each and every move. You won’t pass the trials if you continue to—”
“I’m trying, Kai. I learned it one way and I can’t just… undo that in my mind!”
He expelled a frustrated breath. “I don’t have time to unteach you as well as teach you.”
I shared his frustration. If I couldn’t do this, all was lost. If my gift wasn’t strong enough, or if I wasn’t fast enough or clever enough to learn these lessons, everything I’d done since leaving Tempesia would be for nothing. My failure would mean the deaths of countless others if the Minax remained free.
Kai stared at his feet, his brow creased. This wasn’t any easier for him, I realized. So much rested on our combined success. We were so similar, both ready to lose our tempers at the slightest provocation. But I also saw his vulnerability. As uncertain as he was of me, he must feel a little uncertain of himself, too.
“I want to learn, Kai.” I waited until he lifted his head and looked at me before continuing. “But I’m having trouble understanding. Brother Thistle learned from watching the masters at a Fireblood school. It could have been this very school. How could his teaching be so different?”
He stared at me for a moment, his brow furrowed, then strode forward and grabbed my hands, turning them to face upward. I followed his gaze to my palms, which were dry and chafed and still smoking slightly from my last move. “The general principles he
taught you are fine. But your monk is a Frostblood. He had to adapt these moves so they worked with ice, an element based in water.”
He pressed my palms together and pulled them apart. “Ice breaks, loses its form. It’s not as malleable, not as adaptable.” He curled my fingers against my palms, making fists. “As a result, Frostbloods rely more on brute force, but Firebloods…” He opened my hand again, staring down at it for a second before lifting his head to meet my eyes. “Make a small flame, Ruby. Small.”
I nodded and brought a flame to life in my palm. Kai held his fingers over it and, with a graceful manipulation as if he were sculpting clay, he made the fire twist and rise in little sections, its form almost like a castle. Or a crown.
“You’re working with fire,” he explained, “something that feeds on air and thrives on sharp bursts.”
He made the castle-crown flare toward the sky, then smoothed his fingers against my palms, pressing until the fire died. Then he stroked my fingers until they stretched straight out. A tremor raced through my limbs.
“Fire is hungry, but it’s also elegant.” He turned my hands over again, lifting the right one and brushing his lips to the back as if he were a gentleman meeting me for the first time. A shiver rippled across my shoulders. “Wild and precise. Dangerous but beautiful.”
He stared at me, his eyes bright and intense. The heat from his body, so close, pressed against me. It was like standing next to a bonfire. Even though I half suspected this was another excuse to flirt—for a second, I wanted to move closer. I was drawn by his heat, the sense of familiarity I’d felt from the moment he’d first touched me in the ice garden. Our similarity. How easy it was to understand him.
The impulses were distracting. But at the back of my mind, I saw another face—Arcus’s cold blue eyes warming with approval as he trained me in Forwind Abbey, the tilt of his admiring smile when I surprised him with a move while we were sparring in the castle garden. The echo of him reverberated through the moment, breaking the spell.
I shook my hands free and stepped back. “I’m not sure I agree. Brother Thistle is plenty elegant in his use of frost.”