by Natalie Grey
“Sure, from a kid,” the curly-haired girl argued.
“She’s right,” the boy said. “And she was old enough to know about the Acadamh. She’s been on the run, clearly.”
“I saw her come in,” the brunette girl argued. She looked at the curly-haired girl. “I was there with you! She was talking with Daiman, she didn’t try to run away, he didn’t have her in vines or anything.”
This appeared to throw a wrench into the others’ assumptions. The frowned as they considered.
“Maybe he saved her from the Monarchists,” the boy said suddenly. He was animated, bright-eyed with this new theory. “They had her captive, they used her as a slave!”
I bit my lip to keep from snapping out loud that slave-keeping was exactly the thing the Monarchists accused the Acadamh of. The last thing I wanted was for these people to see me.
“They would have taught her dangerous magic,” the curly-haired girl agreed. “Or maybe she’s a sleeper agent!”
“You two are ridiculous,” the brunette girl said wearily. “I’m going to go get some dinner, are you coming?”
“Wait.” The curly-haired girl put out her hand. “There’s more.”
“More conspiracy theories?” The brunette girl shook her head. “I’ll pass.”
“No, I heard this from Jean. She said she saw the message they sent to Terric.”
The twins looked at one another.
“We shouldn’t know about that,” the boy said uncomfortably.
The curly-haired girl didn’t waver. “She said it was calling him back to assess this woman’s skills—and deal with her if she was too dangerous.”
The twins looked at one another.
“You know what that means,” the curly-haired girl said. “Don’t you? You remember the last time they brought someone in and no one ever saw him again, right? They called Terric back for that one, too.”
My chest seemed to cave in. I couldn’t catch my breath. Someone else with talents like mine, someone never seen again after a meeting with Terric.
Maybe Terric had taken his powers.
Then again, one of the Coimeail had been adamant that taking a sorcerer’s powers was the same thing as killing them.
I really couldn’t breathe at all. I was entirely frozen with horror.
“Those are just—” The brunette girl seemed to lose her nerve. “Look, maybe they take some people to be trained somewhere else. If they’re dangerous.”
The curly-haired girl just stared at her.
“Look.” The brunette girl looked almost panicked. “What can we even do about it? If that’s what they do—if you’re right—” She looked at her brother, as if hoping he would step in.
“If Terric does that,” he said slowly, “then….”
His sister put her hand over her mouth.
The boy’s face hardened. “If Terric does that, there’s a reason,” he said firmly. He looked at the curly-haired girl. “He was there during the plague. He tried to save people. If what you’re saying is true, maybe we should ask why he does that. Maybe there’s a good reason. Akihito told us that some sorcerers get burned alive by their own powers. And some of them are evil.”
The curly-haired girl looked uncertain now.
“Come on.” He nodded toward the main bulk of the castle. “Let’s go get food.”
But the curly-haired girl hunched her shoulders and shook her head. “You go. I … have to think.”
She turned and left, walking quickly with her head down, and the twins headed for the wide stairs that led to the castle. Left alone once more, I huddled on the bench and tried not to start screaming.
They hadn’t just rejected the idea outright. They’d acknowledged that Terric might simply execute me for what I had done. For what I was.
I had better hope that it was possible to take my powers, because I was increasingly sure that that was the only thing that would save me. I stood up and dusted off my pants, nodding resolutely. I just had to figure out how to take away my powers, myself.
It was going to involve sneaking into the library, of course—where else would I find out how to do it?—but if there was really the possibility of my execution, I didn’t have much to lose.
Tonight, I decided. I would do it tonight.
9
Midnight took forever to arrive.
I went to the great hall for dinner and stuffed myself with vegetables and bread and meat, about four plates’ worth, staring down anyone who had the gall to look sideways at me. As far as I was concerned, they could try going on the run and then walking for five days straight, and then see how much they ate. In the meantime, I was going to be full for the first time that I could remember.
Of course, there was the small matter that a legendary sorcerer might be planning to execute me, which would make all of this eating redundant, but my stomach didn’t seem to care about that.
I sat alone, as if surrounded by a sort of force-field. No one tried to talk to me. No one wanted to sit too close to me. I, for my part, refrained from pointing out that dark magic wasn’t contagious. The Coimeail would probably get all upset about that. After all, I wasn’t supposed to discuss my magic.
I was about halfway through my meal when I noticed Daiman sitting at the head table next to Akihito. They were in close-headed conference about something, barely touching their plates. Daiman looked up, and for a moment I was sure he was looking right at me.
I looked away rather than meet his eyes. If what the students had said was true, how could he not know about it? And if he had known about it…. He had let me walk into a trap, knowing that there was a chance I would be killed for what I was. I couldn’t reconcile that with the way he had reassured me, and the way he was so adamant about the importance of the Acadamh, but some part of me from beyond the memory wipe whispered that you couldn’t always judge a person by their smile.
I left as soon as I was full, rubbing my arms in the evening air. The sea stole the warmth of the sun quickly as soon as evening fell.
I was all the way back to my room before I realized that my hand wasn’t stinging anymore. I stared at it in confusion. When had it stopped?
In the great hall … after Daiman had looked at me.
For some reason, that pissed me off. If he was going to bring me here to die, nice little gestures weren’t going to make much of a difference.
I shut the door in my guards’ faces and lay down on top of the covers to wait for the other residents to go to sleep. I didn’t have any idea how to get to the library, or how I would get past my guards, but I was determined to try.
Just let them all fall asleep. That was simple enough, right? Surely the universe owed me one favor right about now. It wasn’t even like I was intending to do anything bad—just break one tiny rule in pursuit of an admirable goal. Everyone should oblige me and just fall asleep. Nighttime was for sleeping, after all. It seemed like a reasonable request on my part.
The sky darkened outside my window, and I drummed my fingers on my stomach while I waited. Everyone just needed to sleep. Sleep. Sleep.
Now I was falling asleep, dammit.
I sat up and rubbed my eyes. It took pacing to keep myself awake as the time ticked by, but after a while, I realized I hadn’t heard anyone moving around in a while. I snuck to the window to peer out, and saw only a few windows lit up.
This was as good a chance as I was going to get. I squared my shoulders, rehearsed my I don’t seem to have a nightgown line one more time, and opened the door as quietly as I could.
The guards were asleep. I nearly whooped aloud, and clapped a hand over my mouth to stop myself. I edged out the door and down the first few stairs, shooting frequent glances over my shoulder. When one of the guards stirred, I fought the urge to sprint back to the room. This was my chance, and I was determined not to waste it. I tiptoed down the rest of the steps, praying for them to keep sleeping until I got back, and poked my head out of the door at the base of the garden.
There was a stude
nt on a nearby bench, but on closer inspection, he was sleeping, too. His chin rested on his chest and he was snoring gently. It seemed so improbable that I stopped in my tracks to look around.
Was someone helping me? Was I supposed to run away?
“Daiman?” I risked the single word, and hunched my shoulders, regretting it as soon as it was out. It would have to be him, right? Or the curly-haired girl.
But there wasn’t a sound except for the waves and the wind, and the idea of someone helping me escape, and not showing up to tell me to do so, was ridiculous.
On with the plan.
I reasoned that the library had to be in the main building somewhere. A library for the world’s single magical academy would be big, wouldn’t it? Unfortunately, that was as far as I’d gotten, but if my luck held, I was going to have as much time as I wanted to search.
By the big double doors, I found two more guards asleep and snoring.
Something very odd was going on here. I turned to look at the big gates, suddenly uncertain. Even if no one was helping me, should I take this opportunity and run?
No. Useless. They’d only hunt me down again. The only way forward was to make me not important to them, and the only way to be not important … was not to have magic.
Inside the castle, I headed past the great hall to the right, only to find a series of classrooms. I headed back the other direction, still tiptoeing, and—once—nearly had a heart attack when a mouse ran across my feet.
“Daiman?”
Nothing. Sometimes animals were just animals, I reminded myself, not druids. I shook my head and kept tiptoeing.
A warren of corridors led away from me in one direction, lined with expensive carpets and lamps that shone too steadily to be real flame. In the other direction was a broader corridor, hit slantways by moonlight falling in the windows. I took the big corridor, peering in every door until I hit the jackpot: row upon row of bookshelves.
I had the sudden fear that alarms of some sort would go off as soon as I stepped into the room, but I was damned if I was going to chicken out now. I edged into the room, waiting for a net to fall on me or a ghost to jump out, and was greeted only with silence.
Well, that was oddly disappointing—not to mention unnerving. This all seemed too easy by a long shot.
I hadn’t really expected to make it all the way here, and now that I was here, I wasn’t sure where to start looking. I tried to scan the shelves for titles, but the books were all so old that most of them had nothing printed on the spines. I picked one that wasn’t dusty, eased it out, and flipped it open.
On the Propertief of Wind Stormf
Nope. I put it back and walked a few shelves on, pulling out another book at random.
Being an Examination of Ancient French Druidism
Interesting, but I didn’t have time to stick around and read it. I put it back and made to move on, then a thought occurred to me. I pulled out a nearby book.
A Comparison of Shape-shifting Between Druids and Sorcerers
I had the feeling I was getting closer. I pulled out the books one by one, dusting off the spines completely so as not to show obvious fingerprints. There were mentions of different druidic movements, arguments over which types of animals it was and was not permissible to shift into, collaborations between druids and sorcerers, and—finally—a book examining the incidence and types of sorcerer magic.
I put the book on the floor and kept looking. More of the same, and I could practically feel time ticking away. Who knew how long I’d been in here? I took the book with me and looked around myself as I walked. Where would someone keep a book on how to repress magic?
I stopped. A spiral staircase was blocked off, and I traced it up to a tiny alcove half-hidden amongst the shadows near the ceiling. I stepped over the rope and made my way up the stairs as quietly as I could. Everyone just needed to stay asleep for a little while longer, I told myself. Just a little while longer.
The books up here were practically ancient, and I swore I could feel magic in the air. I was sure there would be alarms here, but nothing seemed to go off, and so I knelt down to pull out heavy sheaves.
Half of them at least were in languages I couldn’t read, and while some seemed to shimmer and shift so that I understood their meaning, others stayed in the form of pictograms and runes. I placed each book back carefully, reverently. This was some of the oldest knowledge in world, I was sure of it, and I didn’t want to damage it.
I looked up, and caught sight of a familiar name: Delaney.
The book, however, seemed to be by someone named Fordwin, not Terric. A given name? A relative? I frowned as I opened it. There were accounts of the Assembly, personal accounts, and I found myself reading breathlessly.
But when a clock struck the hour nearby, I knew I had to go. I snatched up the two books and fairly ran, doing my best not to clatter down the stairs or trip over the rope at the bottom.
The sky was lightening outside and I ran, whispering my prayer to myself for everyone to stay asleep for a few more minutes, for just long enough that I could get back to my bed. I half-expected to see some sort of drunken revelry in the main courtyard, people misbehaving while the guards were held asleep by whatever strange, fortuitous magic there was, but there was no one.
I hurdled bushes and made a bee-line for the tower with my little room, and walked up the stairs as normally as I could, hiding the books behind my back. Please, please, just a little more luck.
I got my wish. The guards were still sleeping at their posts, and I edged into the room and closed the door behind me with a sigh of relief.
There was almost enough light to read by now, and I slipped one book under my mattress and opened the other to continue reading Fordwin’s account of the Assembly. I wasn’t sure why it was so fascinating, but I found myself nodding along with some pieces and rolling my eyes at others. He had clearly been there, and had strong opinions about the people who attended.
I flipped through to see what else was in the book. Accounts of Fordwin’s own magic, interesting but hardly relevant; a series of essays on the magic used to create the black death, which I had no desire to read; and, on the last page, an essay simply titled, On the Suppreffion of Dark Magicf.
This was it. Someone did know how, and soon I was going to as well. I took a deep breath and started to read. My eyes skimmed over the sentences, looking for the relevant pieces of information.
“Innate abilities … erosion of blocks….” I shook my head. “Come on, come on.”
And there was the answer, stated plainly at the bottom of the next page:
The only way to enfure that dark magicf are not wielded incorrectly is not blockf or ritualf, but the death of the user.
I stared at it for half a second, fingers shaking on the page.
Only half a second, though. Because that was when the sirens started.
10
I jerked upright. Panic was coursing through me. They’d found out. Oh God, oh God….
There was a clank and a shout from outside as the guards woke up, and I shoved Fordwin’s book under the mattress with the other one. I only just made it under the covers, boots off, before the two guards burst in the door.
We stared at one another silently. The sirens were like a banshee’s wail, eerie and hair-raising.
“What’s going on?” I asked them. It seemed like the right thing to ask.
And after all, I told myself, I was here. The alarms were going somewhere else, but I was here. Therefore, it couldn’t be me.
The guards only shook their heads, as lost as I was, and the next moment, two members of the Coimeail appeared out of thin air in the center of my room. I slammed back against the wall in surprise, and my only consolation was that they looked equally surprised to see me in bed.
“You are here,” Akihito said in evident confusion. He exchanged a look with Maggie.
“Has she been here all night?” Maggie demanded of the guards.
“Uh….
” One of them shuffled.
“What?” Her voice was deathly quiet. “What is it?”
“We were asleep,” one of them admitted.
“Both of you?” There was murder in her voice. When they nodded shamefacedly, she turned to look at me with the coldest expression I had ever seen. “So what did you take?”
“What?”
“The alarms are in the library. What did you take after you put the guards to sleep?” She walked towards me, green-blue eyes burning with anger.
“I didn’t put them to sleep!” My words were wild. It was just occurring to me that I was going to be blamed for all of this, not just the things I’d done. “I didn’t—I was asleep, too. I swear I didn’t work any magic, I didn’t even try, you said I couldn’t!” I hoped the lie would slide in amongst the truth believably.
“You did set the block,” Akihito reminded her. “She has a good point.”
Maggie’s look was far from friendly, but even she had to acknowledge the sense in that. “So you didn’t sneak into the library?” she asked me suspiciously.
“No.” I didn’t even consider telling the truth. They would blame me for all of it, and what if they decided I was dangerous enough that they needed to ‘take care of me’ themselves before Terric got back?
I could tell they didn’t believe me, though. I cast around for something to say, and remembered my first thought: “The alarms just went off. I was here. The guards came in as soon as the alarms started. I wouldn’t have had time to get back.”
“Unless you know how to transport yourself,” Maggie snapped. She bowed her head the next moment. “But I blocked the magic,” she reminded herself quietly. She walked to me and laid her finger over my heart once more, only to shake her head in confusion. “The block is still in place.”
“This leaves a question, however.” Akihito’s voice was pensive. “If she did not put the guards to sleep, then who did? And to what end?”
Maggie crossed her arms and peered over my head, out the window.