stubbornly defiant and almost unperceivable shake of her head, she urged Rose not to comply.
Rose’s first instinct was to go along quietly and then to wait for an opportunity to save herself and her friend, but Lord Dux’s words were ringing in her head. ‘Whatever the cost, you must not be taken. Do you understand Rose, whatever the cost?’ She had said that she had understood, but she hadn’t, not until now.
The speed of her response took them all by surprise. Rose struck at the air with her potens hand. A loud snapping sound cut through the air, as if she had cracked a giant whip. Simultaneously she yelled the strike command.
“Icio!”
A whip-like thong of energy crackled as it flew from her ring and wrapped itself around Baroque’s dagger. Rose yanked back her arm, pulling the weapon from his grip. Auriel gasped as its blade sliced deep into her skin.
Rose did not hesitate. With a lightning fast lasso movement, she threw out her arm towards Baroque to cast a binding spell.
“Revincio!”
The air crackled and sparked as a stream of blinding white energy flowed from her ring, changing direction in mid-air it coiled around Baroque like a giant, flaming python. Beads of perspiration glistened on his forehead as he struggled in vain to get free. Rose pulled steadily, until the thick coil of magical energy had tightened around him and until eventually, he could utter no words, or move... even one finger.
Auriel stood transfixed, holding her hand over the wound on her neck, which was now bleeding profusely through her fingers. Staring open-mouthed from Baroque to her friend she shuddered.
'Now, I understand why everyone here is so afraid of you Rose” she said, her voice like sandpaper. “I thought that I was getting to know you, I thought that you were just like me, just like the rest of us, but now I’m not so sure; you scare me...”
Rose looked hurt.
"Why do I scare you?” she asked “all I did was I cast two incantations. I had to, or we would both be his prisoners now, or worse. You would have done the same in my position Auriel, if you could, wouldn’t you?"
Auriel’s reply was pensive and she appeared remote.
"Maybe, but it’s not so much what you did,” she said. “It's the way you reacted; so quickly, you knew exactly what to do, exactly how to do it and you didn’t blink an eye. It was just so clinical… so... ruthless."
“I did what I had to do,” Rose said quietly, “ as I do now.”
Looking up towards a small gap in the tree canopy, Rose pointed to an exposed circle of blue sky.
“Auxilio!” she said, casting a flawless alarm incantation.
A stream of light flowed from her potens ring, climbing high into the sky where it burst into a cascade of colourful sparks shooting out in every direction. Then a thundering boom sent birds scattering from the cover of the trees, their alarm calls echoing around them.
Rose took a square of lint from her occultus.
“Let me have a look at that,” she said, pointing at Auriel’s bloody neck wound.
“It is nothing,” said Auriel, wincing as Rose gently pried her hand away from the cut. “Really Rose, it‘s just a graze.”
“I’m sorry,” Rose said, her eyes brimming as she dabbed at the wound, “I am really, really sorry, but I had no choice…”
Auriel placed her hand over Rose’s.
“I know that Rose,” she said her voice softening “I understand. Lord Dux told us, but I don’t think I really got it, until just now. You just took me by surprise, that’s all.”
“I didn’t know that Dux had spoken to you about me. What did he say?” Rose asked sounding surprised.
“Well, to be honest, we thought he was being a little over dramatic,” said Auriel “maybe a little cruel, and even perhaps a bit paranoid. Basically, he told us that the three of us were expendable but that you were not, so we should be prepared to defend you with our lives.”
Rose’s eyes widened and flashed angrily.
“Lord Dux is wrong Auriel!”
The sharpness in her voice prompted Auriel to meet her gaze.
“Everyone is important.” said Rose, her eyes reinforcing the sincerity in her words.
She took Auriel’s hand in hers.
“None of us is expendable. I know this deep in my bones Auriel. I need you, we need all of you.”
The moment was disturbed by shouted words and concerned voices approaching from deep in the forest.
“Did you signal the alarm?”
“Do you know who did?”
“Has anyone seen Rose the Whyte?” These words were spoken by Lord De Lille, he sounded anxious.
Tamarix’s response was equally fraught.
“We saw them earlier,” she said, “they were heading to the edge of the swamp to harvest some bloodroot. The signal came from that area, follow us, we know where they were going.”
They burst into the clearing minutes later. De Lille was visibly relieved when he saw that Rose was unhurt.
“What happened here?” he asked, but noticing the bound, struggling figure at the edge of the clearing, he quickly understood what must have occurred.
The novices, most of whom had responded instantly to the alarm signal, continued to arrive in their pairs. Gathering at the edge of the clearing they stood gaping at the scene before them. Tamarix held one hand to her mouth as she stood at the edge of the path, her eyes fixed on Auriel’s blood soaked robe. Lee and Ash almost knocked her flying as they stumbled into the clearing from the thickest part of the forest. Quickly taking in the scene, they ran over to the girls.
“Are you alright?” Ash asked, his mouth agape as he glanced from Rose and Auriel and then across to the custodian.
“Auriel has a wound on her neck. Otherwise, we’re fine” said Rose, sounding calmer than she felt.
Ash put his arm around Auriel, now ashen faced and shaking uncontrollably. He took off his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. De Lille took hold of Rose’s arm and led her to one side
“Rose, what exactly happened here? Did you do this?” He asked, nodding towards Baroque’s tightly bound body.
He could see that the binding spell that had been cast on the Senior Custos was of an extremely accomplished and powerful form. Remembering what Lord Goldin had told them all a few days earlier in the Magister’s meeting he realised that he was right. Rose’s magical potens were extraordinarily strong and well developed for a first-year novice.
Rose recounted what had happened and what Baroque had told them.
“But that’s impossible,” said De Lille, though his expression was troubled.
He shook his head and continued, his words spoken almost as if he was attempting to convince himself.
“Lord Ka is now nothing more than an effigy. Lord Eldwyn used a sophisticated petrification spell. He was transformed into stone, this is irreversible. Sublimation from stone has never been accomplished, even with plants and lower animals.”
Rose placed a hand gently on his arm.
“My Lord, if you recall,” she said, “until recently, the ascension of a Whyte was thought to be impossible too.”
“You think he speaks the truth?” De Lille asked her, an old fear rising in his bones.
“I think that he believes it to be true,” she said, “and there must be a reason I am here, a Whyte, after all these years. Can a prophecy actually foretell what is to be?”
Lord De Lille did not answer, but the anxiety in his face was answer enough. He looked past Rose, towards the other novices who had been waiting, huddled together, and were now chattering nervously.
“I don’t know Rose.” Said De Lille, his voice morose, “ but I look at you and at them, and I wonder what would become of you, of all of us, if Ka were to return. Lord Ka is a particularly venomous flavour of evil.”
They were interrupted by commotion within the group of Gold novices who were moving towards the east path into the forest.
“Can’t you hear it?” sai
d Saffron “It’s coming from over here.”
Then they all heard it, a soft buzzing sound, rapidly increasing in volume.
“Apis?” said Rose.
Then out of the cover of the forest, like a demented phantom, flew a large swarm of apis bees.
Locating De Lille they immediately formed into a monitus spiral.
“Indica mihi,” De Lille instructed them to reveal their message.
Responding as one, they landed on the ground in front of him and frantically began to dance.
After a few seconds, Rose lifted her gaze from the swarming insects. Her troubled eyes met De Lille’s and instantly she saw to her horror that her clumsy interpretation of the apis message had been correct.
De Lille called to the others, his voice filled with urgency.
“Everyone, back to the carriage, we have to return to the Oratory immediately.”
PHLEGON
It was almost an hour since Che and Tu-nek-ta had cautiously assisted Lord Ka from the cubicula. His strength now recovered, Ka stood before them, dressed in the long black robes of a Blood ascendant, and regarded them with an emergence of satisfaction and respect.
El-on-ah bowed her head reverently as she presented him with the potens ring and Ouroboros pin, which were taken from the ruins of the Hydrargyrum ascension basilica in Cynnabar at the end of the Dragon War. Since that time, they had been kept hidden by the Ophites, in readiness for this day. Ka slipped the ring onto his finger as El-on-ah awkwardly attached the pin to his robe.
“El-on-ah?” He said, leaning into her and attempting to catch her scent. He seemed a little confused. “I assume it is you... You look somewhat
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