Jathan whooped and jumped out of his chair. “Level nine! Just wait ‘til Father hears that.”
Warmth spread outward from Ailsa’s chest, rather like when she’d kissed Jathan. Level nine! That was more than she’d ever dared hope. There hadn’t been more than a dozen level nine green mages in all of history. Now there were two. When Jathan sat back down beside her, she had to restrain herself from leaning over to kiss him again, to share this moment. She settled for taking his hand, instead.
Grandmama noted their joined hands and frowned slightly. “The emperor and the master have both been informed.” She looked at Ailsa. “The master is sending a note to your parents, Ailsa. I’m sure neither of you will be disappointed to learn that there will be no further tests in this class for some time. You won’t be ready to be tested beyond the ninth level until you’ve had more practice with your magic and learned more control of it. Like any other exercise, you need to build up your muscles first.”
Ailsa wasn’t sure she’d heard right. “Beyond the ninth level?”
Grandmama nodded. “It’s unlikely, but you’ve both moved up through the levels so quickly that the master and I agree that further testing is warranted. But only after you’ve had more training.” Grandmama took a deep breath. “Now, the other thing I need to talk to you both about. I’ve also heard from the empress about your . . .” She cleared her throat. “What she considers your . . .”
Ailsa blushed. It was crystal clear what Grandmama was trying to say.
“It was only a couple of kisses,” Jathan said. He squeezed Ailsa’s hand. “Nothing inappropriate happened.”
“I’m glad to hear it, but that’s not exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. Your mother had the impression—from your expressions, I believe—that you’d experienced a . . . flare of your magic along with those kisses.”
“Well, yes,” Jathan said. “Is that unusual for mages?”
“Not especially.”
“Then it was just our magic?” Ailsa asked. She didn’t know how to feel about that. Relieved that she didn’t have to be confused between Sav and Jathan? Or crushed that something that had seemed so special wasn’t?
Grandmama shook her head. “No. If you two felt nothing for each other, your magic would not have responded. But . . . especially at your stage of training, it’s not necessarily a clear indication of how much you feel for each other. Especially because you both have the same kind of magic. That would have made the reaction stronger.” She smiled reminiscently. “It can be a heady mixture when the magic tries to carry you away with it. Almost irresistible.
“Now, I’m not making any comment—at this time—about what you may or may not actually feel. I don’t think anyone knows that yet. Including—maybe especially—you two. I’m not even saying that you shouldn’t kiss each other.” Grandmama smiled wryly. “I’ve been teaching teenagers for too long to have any misconceptions about how effective that advice would be. And I don’t personally think it does any harm, anyway—just as long as you don’t get ahead of yourselves.
“What I am saying is that both of you need to slow down. You’ve haven’t even known each other for three months, after all.” She looked between the two of them. “Just don’t get all starry-eyed and make any life-long decisions or . . . do anything you can’t take back until you have a better grasp on your magic and can gauge that reaction more accurately. That’s something that will only come with more experience in using your magic. Agreed?”
Jathan blew out his breath and nodded. “That’s pretty much what I’d decided anyway. Whatever is going to be between Ailsa and me—friendship or something much more—I want it to be real. Neither of us should be confused about it.”
So that was why Jathan hadn’t tried to kiss her again. Ailsa bit her lip. She was definitely confused. Jathan hadn’t seemed to be, but she surely appreciated that he was giving her time to figure things out. She squeezed his hand and nodded to Grandmama.
Grandmama put her hands on the table and pushed herself up. “Good. Now, let’s get out to the garden and start stretching those magic muscles.”
~
A month later, Ailsa and Jathan rode side by side, following Grandmama on the elderly mare she’d borrowed for the day. Diamond tossed his head, wanting to run, but this wasn’t a pleasure ride. A week ago, Grandmama had declared that they’d progressed as far as they could in her garden and started leading them on expeditions into the various parks that surrounded and wove through the Imperial capital.
Ailsa sighed at the slow pace of Grandmama’s placid mare, holding Diamond in check. “Maybe I should ask Mayra if I can borrow Silver for these excursions.”
“I don’t think so. The grooms can keep Silver exercised. We don’t want Diamond getting barn sour again, the way he was when you first rode him,” Jathan answered. “Besides, when we’re done with whatever we’re going to do out here, there may still be enough light for a real ride. Just you and me. It’ll be our last chance for a few days. Mayra’s testing starts tomorrow. I’ll be there as much as my studies allow, to support her.”
“I’ll come, too, when I can.”
“She’ll appreciate that. She’s really nervous.”
Ailsa smiled. “I’m sure she is. I remember my testing.”
“Funny. I wasn’t nervous at all.” Jathan winked across at her. “Not at your testing, anyway.”
“Enough chatter,” Grandmama said, reining her mare to a stop. “We’re here.”
They’d arrived at the edge of a bowl-like dell full of trees, most of them oaks. But it was obvious from up here above the hollow that something was wrong. The leaves of the trees near the center were more brown than green. The brown transmuted to yellow and the amount of green increased the farther from the center she looked, but Ailsa could feel that even the trees near the very edge weren’t as strong and healthy as they should be.
“Today we’re going to do something different,” Grandmama said. “These trees are diseased. Over the next days, we’re going to see what we can do to remedy that. Working together, we should be able to save the trees on the outside and even most of those a bit farther in. The ones in the very center are probably already beyond our help and the groundskeepers will have to remove them. To preserve our energies, we’ll be working about every other day. Which is fortunate.” She turned to wink at Jathan. “Because the new master has requested that we all attend your sister’s testing tomorrow, in case she turns out to be another green mage, like your maternal grandmother.
“Now, to begin with, you will need to allow me to guide the magic so we should space ourselves out around the edge of this bowl, as far apart as we can go and still maintain line of sight. Once you grasp what it is we’ll be doing, we can move farther apart.” She pointed off to her left. “Jathan, you go that way. Ailsa, that way.” She pointed to the right.
Ailsa turned Diamond in the indicated direction. She checked back frequently and when she knew the curve of the basin would take her out of sight of Grandmama, she stopped and dismounted. At a nod from Grandmama, she allowed her magic to build and sent it out across the dell. She felt Grandmama take hold of it and begin to direct it.
Joining her magic with her grandmother’s didn’t have quite the euphoric feel of working with Jathan. Then she felt Jathan’s magic in the blend, and the feeling of exhilaration grew. Hmm. That was something she’d have to think about later. She strongly suspected Grandmama had placed herself between them to moderate their bond.
As Grandmama put their combined magic to use, Ailsa turned her thoughts to watching what she was doing. The problem was in the root system. Oak root fungus. She’d read about that but hadn’t seen it before. Their magic seared the fungus where the roots were still viable and cut off roots, burning them to ash in place, where they were too severely affected.
She’d never used her green magic to kill or even harm anything before. This use of magic seemed strange, but it also seemed to be working from what she could tell.
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Unexpectedly, the magic faltered and rebounded to her. Ailsa turned toward where Grandmama was standing—only, she wasn’t standing now. She was prone on the ground. Ailsa jumped onto Diamond’s back and let him run his fastest back to Grandmama. Jathan’s horse raced back along the rim of the hollow from the opposite direction.
Ailsa’s stomach churned and her chest felt too tight to breathe as she slid off Diamond’s back and landed on her knees by her grandmother’s side. “Grandmama! Are you all right?”
Grandmama struggled to sit up. Jathan helped her. “I will be. We all have limits to how much magic we can hold and manage. Those limits are naturally higher for mages of a higher level. You are both at least level nine. Even at your age, I was never above a level eight. It was simply more magic than I could hold. Help me up.”
Ailsa and Jathan each took one of her arms and lifted her to her feet. Neither let go until they were sure she wouldn’t fall again.
After a moment, Grandmama stood up straighter. “And let that be a lesson to you when you join your magic with others’. There’s a reason why the leader of a mage circle is usually the strongest. Though you two seem to be fairly closely matched, which is why you were able to work together at the burn without a leader.”
Ailsa thought back. “I think we came close when we worked on that burned over area. At least, it certainly made us both giddy.”
Jathan nodded, not taking his eyes of Grandmama. “Can you ride? Or should we send for help?”
“No, I’m all right now,” Grandmama said. She smiled weakly. “There’s a reason I brought such an easygoing old mare. However, I think I will go home and rest for a while.”
~
Ailsa stepped quietly out into the main room after seeing her grandmother settled for a nap. Jathan sat at the dining room table with a book open in front of him. She’d forgotten he was still here. Or that they’d talked about going for a ride after their lesson.
“Oh! I’m sorry, Jathan. I can’t go riding this afternoon. I just wouldn’t feel right leaving Grandmama alone here.”
He looked up with a smile. “I know. I feel the same way.”
Ailsa sat down next to him. “What are you reading?”
He half closed the book so she could read the title. It was a botany text. Two others lay on the table within reach. “I was studying up on oak root fungus. Might as well know as much as possible about what we’re dealing with.”
Ailsa smiled back. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”
“Good. Then we can study quietly together while not leaving your grandmother alone.”
Ailsa read for a while and then looked up. There wasn’t anything here she didn’t already know, but another question was beginning to seem more important. “Jathan . . .”
“Hmm?”
She swallowed. “Joining my magic with Grandmama’s didn’t feel at all like . . . like working with you.”
Jathan closed his book and looked at her. “I know.”
“What do you think it means?”
“Ailsa, I don’t know.” He leaned forward and kissed her very softly and briefly. The magic built around them. “But I think it has something to do with that and what it means.”
Ailsa sighed. “Me, too.” Now, if she only knew what that meant. Sav or Jathan?
~
Ailsa consciously slowed her steps as she and Grandmama walked toward the Institute. She hoped Mayra would turn out to be a healer, and not just because that was what her friend wanted. The master was likely to test for that first and green magic second. Ailsa really didn’t think Grandmama should be trying to work any magic right now.
Grandmama grabbed her hand and pulled her forward. “Don’t be ridiculous, girl. I’ve rested and I’m fine. I’m not that old and decrepit, yet. We can’t be late for this.”
Ailsa allowed herself to be hurried along. The lower floor of the tower building was lit by magic balls of floating lights, which would be extinguished just before Mayra entered. Until then, the assembled mages could mingle and converse freely. They both bowed slightly to the new master, an elderly woman who couldn’t have been that much younger than the previous master, and then looked around. It wasn’t hard to spot Jathan in the crowd. Ailsa and Grandmama threaded their way through the crowd to his side.
“Any time now,” Jathan said, eyes on the door.
Grandmama laughed softly. “I do believe you’re more nervous than you were for your own testing.”
Jathan shrugged and grinned. “Could be. Mayra so wants to be a healer. She’ll be crushed if it doesn’t work out.”
Ailsa reached for his hand. “It’ll turn out all right.” She leaned closer so that only Jathan would hear. “Besides, I really don’t think Grandmama should try to do more magic today.”
Jathan looked at the older woman and nodded.
The magical lights winked out and a few moments later the empress led Mayra into the square of light at the center of the room. Mayra dropped a curtsy to the master though the empress only acknowledged the older woman with a slight nod of her head. The master told Mayra to sit on the center bench. It was exactly the same ritual that Ailsa had gone through not so long ago. She empathized with her friend’s confusion. It seemed that was intentional.
The empress took a seat on the right hand bench, since Mayra was to be tested for healing magic first. A pink-robed man took the bench on the left and a much older woman in pink robes sat behind Mayra. A young man with an injured hand was led out into the space between Mayra and the master. From her position near the front, it looked to Ailsa like a pretty bad cut, deep enough to cause damage to muscles and nerves.
“They bring the least serious patient over from the Healers’ Hall for the testing,” Jathan whispered. “I’d hate to think what the worst cases are like.”
Ailsa could feel the tingle of unfamiliar magic building around her. Unlike working with Jathan, or even with Grandmama, this felt unpleasant. Was that because it was healing magic? Or was she just more sensitive now to her own green magic, so that anything else felt wrong? She’d have to ask Grandmama later.
At first nothing seemed to be happening. Jathan drew in a ragged breath. Ailsa squeezed his hand in sympathy. Then the magic surged and the young man gasped. The cut shrank visibly. The magic subsided again and the younger healer came forward to finish the healing.
“Well, that was quick,” the master said. “We have found a new healer.”
Ailsa let out her held breath and heard Jathan do the same beside her. Mayra leapt off the bench, just barely restraining herself from dancing around the room.
~
It was two more days before they rode back out to the oak hollow. That wasn’t very long, really, and Ailsa wished that Grandmama would rest longer. Still, it was obvious as they approached that the trees on the outer edge of the dell were greener and stronger already. They rode around to the far side, where the leaves were still yellowish since the magic hadn’t reached that far.
Jathan helped Grandmama down from her horse. “Let Ailsa and me try by ourselves this time. We watched what you did last time and we’ve both been studying up on oak root fungus. If we do it wrong, you can stop us and take control again.”
Ailsa smiled across at Jathan. “Yes. Let us try at least. How else will we know what we can do?”
Grandmama frowned and looked from one to the other. “I’m not that old yet. However, one of the points of this particular exercise was to teach you about working together—correctly. This time, Jathan will take control of the magic and direct it. Next time will be your chance, Ailsa. Spread out again, but, for now, stay within line of sight. Just in case.”
When they’d taken their positions, this time with Jathan in the middle and Ailsa and Grandmama to either side, Ailsa began to let her magic build. She felt it join with Jathan’s and the scintillation of that bond almost swept her away. She bit her lip and concentrated on feeding her magic to Jathan and watched as he repeated the same process Grandmama ha
d started, burning out the fungus that was killing these oak trees.
She concentrated on keeping the flow of magic constant. She didn’t want to overload Jathan the way they had Grandmama, but Jathan seemed to be able to handle the magic much better. As Ailsa relaxed, confident in Jathan’s leadership, she was aware that the intoxication of their joined magic was steadily growing, too. It was not at all like sending her magic through Grandmama. That had never produced this euphoria.
As their work continued, Ailsa felt only exhilaration, but she began to worry about Grandmama. Surely, they’d worked almost twice as long now as they had the first time. She was fine, but could Grandmama keep it up this long? She couldn’t see her grandmother around the curve of the hollow, so she looked at Jathan. Most of his concentration was naturally on their work, but he did periodically glance over at her and in the opposite direction. He must be keeping tabs on her and on Grandmama.
Jathan took a step back, leaning against the shoulder of his horse, and the magic recoiled. Ailsa quickly mounted and rode to his side. He was standing, but sweat had popped out on his forehead, more than could be explained by the heat of the day.
He looked up at her and smiled. “Oof. That does kind of take it out of you. And it happens all at once. One minute, everything is flowing and the next the magic just . . . slips out of your hands. But . . . wow, what a high!”
Ailsa grinned back. “It is, isn’t it?”
Grandmama rode up more slowly. “Are you all right?”
Jathan stood up straight. “Yes, ma’am. Are you?”
Grandmama nodded. “It’s easier when you’re not the one leading. You did a very good job. Let’s get back and find something to eat. This kind of magical work really builds up an appetite.”
Jathan grinned and winked at Ailsa. “It sure does.”
Daughter of the Disgraced King Page 19