by Naomi Lane
“Yes,” was all Jenna’s escort managed to say.
Jenna’s heartbeat slowed slightly as the carriage headed back to the palace. The other passengers were far too stunned to say anything, so they made the rest of the journey in silence. Jenna had never experienced a longer hour in her entire life.
They had a bit of trouble at the palace gate, but the escort managed to get them through at Jenna’s insistence. As soon as the carriage stopped outside the East Wing, Jenna practically leapt out, knowing instantly where to go. She had to find Lord Harcourt.
“Jenna, where are you going?” asked Yolanda from the carriage door.
Jenna just ignored her and took off at a run. When she almost tripped in her shoes, she paused, ripped them off of her feet, and tossed them aside. She could run much faster barefoot anyway.
Her mind-link as her guide, she headed in the direction of the Central Tower. When she entered the courtyard, several people tried to stop her, but she ignored them too, and kept up as much speed as she could. Her link led her to the King’s audience chamber, but when she entered, it was empty. She sensed the high mage’s presence in the next room, but there were others with him. Lord Harcourt? she asked through the link. He still didn’t hear her. Lucas, I need to talk to you.
Miss Mallory, are you still here? You should be halfway to Mayfield by now.
Please! she pleaded.
Where are you?
In the King’s audience chamber. The high mage seemed shocked she would do something that seemed this foolish, but in a couple minutes he entered the chamber. They both approached each other and met up in the center of the room.
“Explain yourself,” demanded the high mage.
“It’s Nigen!” she said. “It’s a set up. It was his voice I recognized. I was stupid not to realize it before.”
The high mage was so shocked he barely knew what to say.
“Please, you have to believe me. This assassination attempt was not the work of the republic!”
“Well, I think you believe it. But that doesn’t make it true, Jenna. How would you even recognize his voice? Have you ever met?”
Jenna sighed. “It’s a long story.” She bit her lip. If she couldn’t convince her teacher, all was lost. Then they both heard footsteps and turned around. The others that Harcourt had been in conference with were watching them. Jenna recognized several of the illustrious people in the group, including both the elder princes and the King himself. But what worried her was the man who stood next to him. Lord Nigen narrowed his gray eyes when he saw her.
The high mage sighed, but approached the group and turned toward the Tenarran. Jenna stood close behind. “Lord Nigen, you stand accused of high treason,” he said. “How do you respond?”
“Treason?” said Nigen, in shock. “Who accuses me, some common girl?” Jenna could easily sense his anger, but she felt something else there… fear.
“I accuse you,” said the high mage. “Can you account for your whereabouts during the attack?”
“Whereabouts? I was asleep like everyone else, of course.”
“Your Majesty,” said Jenna, addressing the King. “I—” The high mage placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. Jenna winced. She was frustrated because her magic senses told her the Tenarran Lord was lying.
“Sire,” continued Harcourt. “I believe it was Lord Nigen’s voice in the recording of the suspicious conversation from the time of the winter ball.”
“What recording?” said Lord Nigen. “Your Majesty, this only grows more preposterous.”
“It’s true that conversation was never definitively linked to the assassination attempt,” replied the King.
“I also heard the same voice talking to the Dark Mage through my mind-link with Miss Mallory,” said Harcourt, seemingly completely calm.
“Mind-link?” said Nigen. “What are you?” He was obviously disgusted by Harcourt’s mind mage abilities, but he was also growing more scared.
“Miss Mallory,” said Prince Dominic. “Can you describe the horse of the man you think you have identified as Lord Nigen?”
“Oh,” said Jenna, unprepared for his question. She tried to think back to that day. It had been dark, but she remembered. “The horse was chestnut colored. A mare I think, with a white muzzle.”
“An apt description of your horse, Lord Nigen,” added Dominic.
The Tenarran’s nostrils flared. “So what. It proves nothing if some rebels decided to steal my horse.” Jenna realized he was stupid to ride his own mount during the attack. No, not stupid, arrogant.
“Yet,” continued Dominic, “your horse was never reported missing by the stables’ staff.”
“Your Majesty,” said the high mage as he turned toward the King, “I recommend—”
The high mage broke off his sentence as he saw too late that Lord Nigen had drawn his sword. When he lunged toward Jenna’s teacher, everyone else could only stare in horror, but Jenna reacted. She raised her arm up to protect the high mage and her sword came into her grip just in time to parry the blow. Lord Harcourt staggered away in shock, giving Jenna some room to maneuver as she continued to face off against the Tenarran nobleman. Jenna knew the appearance of her magic sword startled him, but unfortunately this wasn’t enough. He retained the upper hand, and she was on the defensive. She managed to keep enough wits about her to parry several attacks, but she retreated as she did so. He attempted a feint, and she was almost fooled, his blade coming far too close to her face for comfort. When their swords unlocked, Jenna stumbled and fell to the floor.
She gazed in horror as he moved in for the final blow, his sword beginning to glow slightly with his fire magic. She winced, closing her eyes, but then she heard the reassuring sound of metal on metal. His weapon had been parried by another. Prince Dominic had come to her aid, forcing the other man away from her. Lord Harcourt came over to help her up, keeping a hand around her shoulders. Whether it was out of gratitude or a desire to protect her, Jenna couldn’t tell.
They stood, entranced by the sword fight in front of them. Jenna could see Prince Dominic had skill in deflecting Nigen’s weapon, but then Nigen grinned.
“Dominic, watch out! He’s got fire pellets.” It was Eamon who warned his brother. Jenna bit her lip as the Tenarran threw several small round capsules toward Prince Dominic’s chest. They splattered him with liquid that Jenna knew any fire mage could ignite and use to burn someone to the bone.
But Dominic’s face remained impassive, and he continued fighting. As Jenna saw the heat radiating from Nigen’s sword, she feared it would burn the Prince. Her heart skipped a beat as Nigen lunged in close enough to singe the area of the prince’s clothing stained by the liquid, but Jenna could tell he was frustrated that it did not reach his opponent’s body. She wondered what kind of magic the Prince must have to guard against such an attack. It couldn’t be Sebastian’s defense magic. No, she realized, he must be a healing mage like his mother and able to heal himself during a fight.
After his first plan failed, Nigen switched tactics, backing away from Dominic and using his magic to make the floor shift, forcing the Prince to lose his balance. He fell to one knee, but before Nigen reached him, Eamon intervened, clashing his own glowing sword with the other fire mage. Dominic quickly regained his balance, and the brothers then attacked in tandem, Eamon swiftly disarming their opponent, while Dominic did not hesitate to ram his blade into the Tenarran Lord’s chest, withdrawing it quickly.
Nigen slowly fell to the floor, and the rest of the group watched in stunned silence as a pool of blood formed underneath him on the cool stone. The King came nearer, staring down at the man in disgust, at the same time resting his hand on Prince Dominic’s shoulder in approval.
“Curse all of you, Sevalians!” said Lord Nigen, his breath growing more rapid. “Fools and weaklings to be led around by some… common mind witch. Can’t you—” He paused, Jenna could tell it was becoming harder for him to speak. “Can’t you see what is happening? You�
��ll all be next. You’ll… regret…” Some blood came out of his mouth, and he fell back onto the floor. Jenna was disturbed to see his body make one final spasm.
The King only sighed. He raised his hand, signaling to a man Jenna didn’t recognize. “Gerald, please clean this up. Put his body with the rest of the vermin.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” replied the other man, and he quickly left the chamber to carry out the King’s wishes. The rest of the group backed away from the body.
The King gave a final look of approval to both his sons, who each nodded. He then turned toward Jenna. “Well, Miss Mallory, it appears once again I owe you my gratitude.” His eyes fell upon her sword. She still held it clutched tight in her grip. “That sword of yours seemed to come in handy.”
“Uh, yes, Your Majesty, it, um, it…” She gulped. “It’s a magic sword. I received it in the desert at the same time I received my bow.”
“Miss Mallory,” said Lord Harcourt, “you mean to tell me you have had two weapons magically keyed to you this entire time and never told me?” His tone was angrier than Jenna expected.
“I, I apologize, My Lord. I thought about telling you, but I still don’t fully understand the magic myself. My brother knows more. You can ask him.”
The high mage opened his mouth to speak again, but the King cut him off. “Lord Harcourt, that is enough for now. You can discuss the weapons with Miss Mallory later.”
“Yes, Majesty,” he replied, but Jenna could tell he was still annoyed.
“But what I want to know is who taught you to use the sword,” said Lord Fyrian. “You’ve obviously been trained.”
Jenna couldn’t help looking over at Prince Eamon, who grimaced.
The King scowled. “Eamon!”
“Father, I admit it. I trained her, and I don’t regret doing it. You can see for yourself she’s good. And that only after a few lessons. Her riding skills are even better. Why don’t we allow women to be knights anymore anyway?”
The King just shook his head. “We don’t have time for this. Lord Harcourt—”
“Father, wait,” said Dominic. “I want to know how Miss Mallory recognized Lord Nigen’s voice.” He looked at her. “Did you ever meet him?”
“Oh, well…” Jenna held her breath. She didn’t want to admit what she had done, but she couldn’t lie anymore. “One time, soon after my arrival here, I sneaked out to go meet my brother. I got caught inside the stables and mistaken for a knight trainee.”
“That was you?” said Fyrian.
“I’m so sorry, My Lord,” she replied. “I didn’t mean to get that caught up in it.”
“Gods, I thought I had gone mad.”
“Yes, well, obviously Miss Mallory has some things to discuss,” said the King. “She can sit down with the high mage a little later. For now we have some more pressing concerns. Lord Harcourt, I need you to contact the troops that have already left and pull them back. Dominic, I am going to hold you responsible for drafting a letter of explanation to the UNR government. I can’t have this blow up on us despite all this. Eamon, Fyrian, I do want you both to spread the word to the others in the palace, but secure the other Tenarran nobles first.”
“You mean the women and children?” asked Eamon.
“Yes. And Lord Martis. I’m not taking any chances. I want them all questioned under Harcourt’s truth spell.” He paused but everyone in the group still stood there. “Well, what are you waiting for?”
The others then knew they should be off, but Lord Harcourt hesitated. “But Miss Mallory, Majesty.”
“Oh yes,” replied the King. “Gerald!” The man had returned with two others, who were taking Nigen’s body away on a stretcher.
“Yes, Sire.” The man bowed.
“Could you go find my wife and request her to come see me immediately?”
“Of course.” He turned and strode away quickly.
Harcourt faced Jenna. “I’ll see you later, then.” And he, too, turned to leave.
Jenna found herself alone with the King. He smiled. “You are an astonishing young lady, Miss Mallory.” He looked at her sword again. “You may want to put that away, if possible.”
“Oh,” she replied. “Hold on.” She concentrated on making a link to the sword’s magic and asked it to please return to… wherever it normally waited. It suddenly vanished.
“Where does it go?” asked the King.
“Into my luggage, I think,” she replied. “Both my bow and my sword don’t seem to like to be apart from me.”
“I see. Well I, for one, am glad for it, and that you came to court.” He shook his head. “Extraordinary turn of events.”
Jenna turned her head and saw the Queen walk in. She didn’t look overly surprised to see Jenna standing there. “Miss Mallory!” She approached. “I have already spoken to Lady Yolanda. What is this about Lord Nigen?” She looked at the King. “What is going on?”
Jenna was surprised to watch the King embrace his wife. If anything Queen Mirella was even more stunned. “The war is canceled,” he said. “And we have Miss Mallory to thank for it.” He smiled at them both. “I wish I could stay in your fine company, but there is still work to be done. My dear, would you please see that Miss Mallory is made comfortable? She’s had a bit of a trial.” He kissed his wife on the cheek and strode off, the Queen staring after him.
Then she turned around. “Miss Mallory, if you would accompany me please. Why don’t we have a cup of tea? And uh…” The Queen looked down toward the floor. “Perhaps you would also like a pair of shoes?”
Chapter 32
Jenna gladly took tea with the Queen, relishing the chance to catch her breath as her life seemed to make yet another complete turnabout. She smiled inwardly, thinking of what her brother’s face would look like when he heard the news. He wouldn’t like discussing her magic with the high mage, but what choice did they have? There was no preventing scandal after everything that had happened. She wanted to believe the other nobles would cut her some slack, considering she had just prevented a war, but she knew petty prejudices were difficult to overcome.
Jenna did her best to answer the Queen’s questions. She admitted having magic weapons, but said that her brother would still have to explain more details. The Queen was quite stunned that she was able to figure out Nigen’s plot. She was even more stunned when Jenna admitted to holding off Nigen’s attack using Eamon’s training. When the Queen seemed upset about this, she tried to help Eamon out by convincing her it not only saved the high mage, but came to her own aid in the woods during the attack.
“I know the impropriety of Eamon training me, but my brother was always there the whole time, and it did save my life as well as the high mage’s.”
“Your life? You mean when you defended yourself against Nigen?”
“Not exactly. When I fled the assassins in the woods the other night, two pursued me. I killed them both with arrows using my magic bow.”
“Are you sure you killed them?”
“I saw the corpse of one of them yesterday. He had the arrow wound I gave him.”
The Queen’s face went absolutely white. “Good Heavens. Have you told Lord Harcourt about all of this?”
“No,” said Jenna. “It was difficult in all the chaos to explain.”
“Of course, but you must tell him everything. Absolutely everything.”
Jenna nodded and sipped her tea. She took advantage of the pause in the conversation to ask a question of her own. “Are the other Ladies all gone?”
“Oh, yes, except for Lady Yolanda of course.” The Queen continued to explain that they would be invited back, including poor Aylin once Khazaran was informed the war was unnecessary. The Towers had the ability to instantly communicate between each other to spread the word generally. Some messengers would be sent to fetch some of the Ladies back more quickly.
When Jenna had finished her tea, the Queen led her to a private bedroom, explaining that since the other Ladies were still away, she and Yolan
da would get separate rooms. Jenna thanked her and used the opportunity to rest for awhile. The Queen was expecting this and made sure she wouldn’t be disturbed. Jenna hadn’t realized how tired she still was until she fell asleep.
When she awoke from her nap, the sun was already setting. She had some supper brought to her room, and she was almost finished eating when there was a knock on the door. Her brother entered. Peter did not look overly happy, but Jenna could tell he had some relief that he wouldn’t be sent into battle. “I see you’ve been busy,” he said.
She just sighed. “What was I supposed to do? Let you die for an unjust cause?”
Peter frowned. “Look, what’s done is for the best. I always knew your magic would be found out. I had just hoped it wouldn’t have to be at court. I’m here because the high mage is waiting for us inside the Tower. He wants to see your weapons.”
Jenna thought about summoning them, but was curious. She opened her trunk and found them there, and Peter helped her carry them over. Jenna thought about asking him some questions about how the day had gone, but she could tell his mind was uneasy, so they said little on their walk.
Once at the entryway to the Tower, she grabbed his hand to lead him through, and didn’t let him gawk too much at the interior. They entered her normal instruction room, where the high mage sat at a table. They laid the weapons down on top of it, and Jenna used her magic to make sure the high mage could handle them safely.
Lord Harcourt lost little time in beginning his questioning as he looked them over. “So you have had these weapons since you were five, Miss Mallory?”
“Yes,” she explained. “I received them in the desert, but my father insisted I not handle them. I didn’t fully understand that they were linked to my magic until last winter when I sensed magic directly in my bow.”
“And you didn’t come tell me.”
“Peter convinced me not to. We were both concerned about the scandal since it is illegal for Sevalian women to own or use a sword. I also wanted to find out more about them first, but my mother had trouble reaching me, and Peter refused to tell me everything.”