by Alex Lidell
“The Drought is going to end,” says Leaf. “Magic has always been a vital resource, and once the Drought ends and the fear dies down, it will be vital once more. You and I—”
“I’m not a Whisperer,” I say, a little too forcefully. Thank the stars I have at least that going for me.
“You are something, Kali. What you feel when you touch living crystals is unlike what anyone else feels.” She motions to the stack of books across the room, next to a large slate with the living crystals and their magic charted in hundreds of ordered squares. “Believe me, I’ve checked.” I’d ask Leaf to bloody stop checking, but I might as well ask her to stop breathing. She tells me our mother was the same way, always studying and researching something, though I little remember the woman.
I sigh, rubbing my face. “Can you just patch me up now and we can argue about the future in the morning?”
Leaf takes out her sewing kit. A needle as long as my finger flashes in the lantern light, and I promptly pass out.
Morning—dawn, rather—brings a summons from Lord Gapral. I trudge uphill through the two fog-filled horse pastures separating my cabin from the main house, the frostbitten grass crunching underfoot. This far from Delta, Dansil’s balmy capital city, it gets freezing cold at the estate at night. It isn’t true winter weather—Dansil hasn’t seen snow in two decades—but it is cold enough to make me suitably miserable. The main house, the only stone building at the estate, rises before me as I clear the second pasture, but I double back down the hill instead of approaching directly.
That’s one of Lord Gapral’s unbendable rules—always double back to ensure no one is following, never take a direct path. Not even from your own cabin to the main house. The estate is safe from uninvited eyes, but Gapral pays his servants to report on the trainees’ movements—and woe to the scout who discovers his day’s activities accurately documented by Gapral’s gardener. The only one excused from turning ten-minute walks into hour-long treks is Leaf, but she spends little time outdoors.
Though it little looks like it, the estate is waking, trainees and instructors finding their separate, convoluted ways to training halls disguised as stables or heading out for practice into the adjacent woods. The morning air is crisp and grassy, the wind blowing freely through the vast, untended swath of hills.
By the time I approach the main house again, the early sun bathes the courtyard, illuminating lone figures going through training. How different Leaf’s and my lives would have been if the king’s brother had fallen in love with someone other than a Whisperer scholar he could never marry. If Leaf and I weren’t bastards of the king’s disgraced dead brother. If the bishop’s rise to power hadn’t translated into magic users being treated as criminals. Leaf would probably have been in charge of some academy by now. And I… I might be doing normal things. Spending time with a friend. Kissing a boy. Eating a family dinner.
“He’s waiting for you,” the man tending hydrangeas beside the main house steps murmurs without looking up from his work.
The words snap me back to reality. What I did last night. What I’m facing today. My heart speeds as I walk into the office and bow to the short, pudgy man sitting behind a polished oak desk. Lord Gapral’s office is so laden with books, I must take the existence of walls on faith, though at the moment, caving walls and objects on the brink of avalanche are the least of my worries.
You will protect you. My mind recites Gapral’s own teachings. You are your own fortress.
Lord Gapral keeps his gaze on a letter he’s reading, stray rays of sunlight bouncing off his bald head. “Report, Scout Kalianna,” he barks.
“Viva Sylthia indoctrinated a new recruit, sir,” I say crisply, outlining my evening with short, clear strokes. As I approach the latter part, I choose my words carefully. “A cell of three experienced members took what appeared to be an initiate outside the inn’s common room and toward the barn. I believe they intended mischief, but there was a commotion, and soldiers chased the Viva men away.”
“I see.” He rubs his upper lip. “Any problems?”
I shrug, even as my heart pounds bruised ribs. “None.”
“You were late,” Lord Gapral says with a quiet calm that I dare not underestimate. He’d used the same voice five years ago upon discovering I’d disobeyed his orders and started socializing with another trainee at the estate.
“I stayed to see whether my marks would return. They did not.”
A dismissive wave of his hand floods me with relief. “Any mention of larger plans?”
“The usual rhetoric about the evilness of Everett and the need to take back the Sylthia lands, but nothing specific or actionable.”
“Damn.” Lord Gapral sighs. “That cell is from Delta. They keep a low profile over there in the capital, and I’d hoped their tongues would loosen on the trip. I’ll be damned if something wasn’t in the works.”
“Yes, sir.” Stars, but I’m luckier than I’ve any right to be—it would be just like Lord Gapral to have had a second scout in the area. The fact that he hadn’t posted one, or at least not one close enough to give a contradictory report… I’m so dizzy with relief that it takes me a moment to realize I’ve not been dismissed just yet.
On the contrary, Lord Gapral is leaning back in his chair and tapping the letter he’s been reading. “I’ve a new assignment for you,” he says finally. “King Firehorn has requested a scout with a working knowledge of Viva Sylthia to attend him at the palace.”
I stare at my master. “I was under the impression King Firehorn dissolved all official ties to us when father died, sir.” A kind way of saying that after our mother’s death left us orphaned, the king had been about to send Leaf and me to the Goddess’s temple when Lord Gapral intervened. Had Firehorn had his way, I’d be one of Bishop Bahir’s Children of the Goddess now, selling flowers and proselytizing. Leaf would be dead.
“Things change. Firehorn subsidized you and Leaf, his brother’s bastards, for twelve years. Now that you’ve both reached the age of majority and the documents forever barring you from the line of succession to the throne are irreversible, he wishes to call in the investment.”
I put my hands behind my back, digging my nails into my wrist. I hate cities. I hate Firehorn. But most of all, I cannot bear the separation from my sister. “Wouldn’t I be more useful to him in the shadows? I’ve no experience in a palace, but I do in a forest.”
“You’ve no experience in a palace yet,” Lord Gapral corrects. “And you’ve etiquette training enough to play the lady. As for the other, don’t be daft about working from a shadowed outpost. I’ve plenty of male scouts who can do it, and can do it better than you. Your specialty skill lies in being simultaneously female and male, a young man skilled in weaponry and a noble lady of childbearing age and royal blood. The shadows you work in shall be in plain sight.” His face hardens. “I was informing you of your orders, scout, not requesting your opinion.”
“Of course, sir.” I bow quickly to distract from the shaking in my voice.
But Gapral is not done with me yet. “There is one other thing, Kalianna.” He meets my eyes, and the worry there is enough turn my bowels. “The king insists that Leaf accompany you.”
“He is acknowledging a crippled Whisperer as a relation?” The words are out before I can bother with diplomacy.
“No. The official letter claims Firehorn little wishes to separate the family and requests Leaf attend you as a lady’s maid. But I imagine you can read between the lines as well as I?”
My mouth dries. Firehorn wants Leaf as collateral. “I understand, sir,” I say, gathering myself together.
Lord Gapral nods toward the door. “Get packing, then. And Kalianna—” He waits until I turn back to face him. “The king might little understand that Leaf is infinitely more valuable than you are to our kingdom, but I trust that you do. And I trust that when you are in Delta, you will not put Leaf’s life in danger to save a handful of horses.”
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About the Author
Alex Lidell is the Amazon Breakout Novel Awards finalist author of THE CADET OF TILDOR (Penguin, 2013). She is an avid horseback rider, a (bad) hockey player, and an ice-cream addict. Born in Russia, Alex learned English in elementary school, where a thoughtful librarian placed a copy of Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA in Alex’s hands. In addition to becoming the first English book Alex read for fun, ALANNA started Alex’s life long love for YA fantasy books. Alex lives in Washington, DC. Join Alex's newsletter for news, bonus content and sneak peeks: www.subscribepage.com/TIDES Find out more on Alex's website: www.alexlidell.com
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Also by Alex Lidell
TIDES
FIRST COMMAND (Prequel Novella)
AIR AND ASH (TIDES Book I)
WAR AND WIND (TIDES Book II)
SEA AND SAND (TIDES Book III)
TIDES Book IV - coming 2018
SCOUT
TRACING SHADOWS - coming April 8, 2018
UNRAVELING DARKNESS - coming 2018
THE CADET OF TILDOR
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