“And so will you,” I hugged Emmy close with my free arm, kissing the top of her curls as tears threatened my own face.
“I know, Mama.”
“Such an endearing scene, Mage Keltie.” The cold familiar voice of Seamage Brandt startled me as he stepped from the cover of the trees beyond the cottage, eyes locked on Linsey’s tearful face. “I’d heard rumors about that child’s questionable parentage.”
No one had ever uttered a word about Linsey’s father being a renegade mage. How had he known? Was there a link, after all, between Derek Frontish and the imprisoned renegade who’d assaulted Khrista? And was there, then, a link between Frontish and Seamage Brandt? Fighting the urge to overreact, I got to my feet, careful to shove the girls behind Maylen, who’d drawn a dagger and knew all too well how to wield the sharp weapon.
“For shame. Is that how you teach your children? Be rude to their elders, especially one in authority?” Seamage Brandt stepped closer, coming near the tree stump where I’d been sitting only moments earlier. “Be hostile? There’s no need for that dagger, Mistress Stockrie.”
“When the elder comes uninvited and unwelcome,” I snarled, eying his every move, “yes. That is precisely how I teach my children to behave.”
“Pity you took after your mother. She was no less rude than you. A waste, truly.” An odd expression flashed in the older man’s eyes, and I could hardly believe his next words. “If she had been more hospitable, we might have been friends. I was destined to be her teacher, and she my student.”
“Over her dead body, I imagine.”
“Possibly over yours, too, one day.”
When Maylen stepped around me at his threat, I held her back with my eyes. “He’s an impotent and unimportant old man, Maylen. Don’t waste your time on him.”
“Impotent?” The seamage bristled with insult. “How is this for impotent, Mage Keltie?” One hand gestured to the small pond, raising the shallow water to the height of a man-high wave that frightened the children, now clinging to Maylen’s legs and hampering her movement, though Emmy appeared to be reaching for Linsey to lead her into the safety of the trees. “That is power, Mage Keltie, and you no longer possess that talent or any other.”
“That’s crude showmanship,” I spat back, refusing to respond to his latter comment about my own impotence, though he was waiting, the wall of water held in check.
Losing patience, Brandt smiled with open malice. “Ah. You’re so jealous. And because of your own impotence, I can take the children from you without fear,” he said, unaware Emmy had succeeded in getting Linsey’s attention and pulling her slowly toward the dense forest. “You have no magic, and mine can wash your Glynnswood bodyguard to the sea before you could lift a finger to cry for help.” The seamage lifted a hand, prompting a half dozen dagger-wielding thugs to emerge from the cover of the trees inches from the now-terrified children. They surrounded us, easily explaining why the seamage had been so careless of the children’s movements. “Drop the Gwynnswood dagger.”
“Maylen,” I warned, my voice low, breathing a sigh of relief when she dropped her weapon to the ground in barely restrained fury. Coaxing fire and ice to cool warmth, I thanked the lords of the sea for Kimmer’s antidote. Focusing on the ground, I swiftly transformed the air, which surrounded each filthy brigand, to a shoulder-high ring of flame, imprisoning them. Seamage Brandt, caught off guard by the showmanship of my supposedly lost magic, judging from the unsteadiness of his own water wall, I saved for last. That wall became a tempest to match the one that had hurt Anders all those years ago when my magic was raw and uncontrolled. With ease, the wind picked his heavy body from the ground and slammed him into the wall of the cottage, holding him upright.
“Believed the rumors, did you, Seamage Brandt, about my loss? You shouldn’t trust everything you hear.” When the wind’s force knocked him unconscious, I kept careful watch on the firewalls I’d built to keep the terrified prisoners in check. “Maylen, take the children and find Jules or Anders in town.”
“Alex—” Obviously torn between getting help, feeling useless, and abandoning me, Maylen didn’t budge.
“I’m fine. Now go. Hurry.”
Grabbing the girls by the hand, Maylen fled down the path toward Port Alain. Relieved they would soon be safe, I removed my belt and used it to tie the seamage’s hands behind his back, and then used his belt on his ankles. By the time I’d secured him, the seamage regained consciousness, dark eyes on fire with bitterness and loathing.
“It’s your grandmother’s fault,” he snarled.
Surprised, I stood back and stared at him. “What are you talking about?”
“Old history that might have changed everything. If your grandmother had only returned my affection, things would’ve been different.” Beyond the anger, to my great surprise, lay genuine emotion.
“You loved her?”
“Yes, Alex, I loved your grandmother, but she scorned me. I could have given her the world and prestige, but she wanted none of it and married your grandfather. And then one day, when your mother exhibited mage talent and was old enough to apprentice with a tutor, your grandmother brought Emila to the Mage Council Hall.” His features hardened at the memory. “When I threw your mother out of the school for willful behavior, your grandmother insulted me and defended her child, refusing to even send the girl back to apologize. Your grandmother’s rejection of the Mage Council prompted your mother to become a renegade, and you,” he spat at my feet, “how it galls me you have risen so high in the queen’s favor with your perverted magic. You don’t deserve the honor or the magic. You don’t deserve to live.”
My blood chilled at his hateful words, calling to mind the mission of the Spreebridge elders in their use of feyweed. Was Brandt their connection? Had Westin traveled to Port Alain to meet with Brandt, while Derek stayed in Ardenna to meet with the Crown Council of Mages? The thought had never occurred to me, though maybe it should have.
“You’re placing the blame for your treachery in trying to steal my daughter on my grandmother’s long-ago rejection of your love?” I asked, unable to believe what I was hearing. “Are you mad?”
“Emmy should have been my great-granddaughter, as you should have been my granddaughter,” he said with such heartfelt conviction that I turned my back, unable to look at the confused emotions on his face.
“Over my dead body, Seamage Brandt.”
“As I said before— Or weren’t you listening? It may come to that. Watch your back, Mage Protector.”
“Why?” Suddenly, I spun on my heel and knelt beside the seamage, safely out of reach. “Do you have friends in high places who can do me harm?”
“If I did,” —he laughed— “surely you don’t think I’d tell you.”
“You—”
“Alex—Are you all right?” Jules’s shout of concern interrupted my question, as the duke led a small band of troopers on horseback along the forest path, their faces incredulous at the sight of the firewalls that greeted them.
Anders and Elena had come along, too, though they were riding on horseback from the direction of the manor, which I didn’t understand. I doused the flames with water to allow the Port Alain guard to take charge of my prisoners.
“I’m fine.” Rubbing my eyes, I leaned against Anders when he dismounted and came to stand beside me. Still reeling from the seamage’s curious words about my grandmother, I didn’t know what to think. “Just caught off guard, for which I feel responsible.”
“Looks like you caught him off guard.” Anders nudged the seamage with his boot. “Never underestimate my wife. After all these years, you should know that by now.”
“He’ll never underestimate any of us, not anymore.” Elena’s voice was harsh as she pulled a small vial from the pocket of her violet tunic. “I can guarantee that. Trust me.”
“Hold on,” I cried, realizing her intention and why she’d come along the path from the Hill. When Maylen found them, Elena and Anders must have taken
the main road up from the harbor, stopping at the manor first. Horrified Elena had kept a supply of feyweed on hand, I stepped in her path, blocking her view of the seamage. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Dispensing justice, as I see fit,” she said softly, sliding a glance at Anders, both of them surprised, I thought, by my attitude. “Seamage Brandt violated the ethics of his profession and endangered your daughter and Khrista’s child, attempting to kidnap them for his own foul use, not to mention threatening you and Maylen. I’m punishing him, Alex, as he deserves.”
“Not with—” Bad enough I had nightmares of the poison, I couldn’t say the word aloud. “You can’t just go around punishing mages like that.”
Elena started to say something, and then reconsidered. “All right. As Mage Protector of the throne of Tuldamoran, the punishment should rightfully be your responsibility.” When she went to hand me the vial, I refused, placing my hands out of reach. My stomach knotted with tension as her expression underwent a transformation from compassion to ice. “If you abdicate this responsibility, then step aside and allow me to finish what I came here to do.”
“Elena—”
Blue eyes bored into mine, and I knew she would win, whatever the cost. “Five years earlier, when you hunted the renegade mages in Edgecliff, you allowed Jackson to punish those mages in this same manner. Though you didn’t have the stomach to do it yourself back then either,” she said with such icy contempt, I stared at my friend in bewildered hurt, “I was given the impression you agreed with his action. Was I misled?”
“Those mages were mad. They—”
“Not all of them. The women were mad. The man was not. And Seamage Brandt, with all his full powers of intelligence and logic, has broken the law with full knowledge. My law, which I swore to uphold. Now, step aside, Mage Protector,” Elena snapped, losing all patience with my argument, “and bear witness to what I do.”
Heartbroken, I held Elena’s chilly gaze for a long time, until I acknowledged defeat. I couldn’t make her see why her action was wrong. That was clear in her eyes. Without a word or signal of my intent, I stepped aside. Yet, though she had the legitimate authority as queen of Tuldamoran to punish the seamage and command my presence, I made a difficult decision, refusing to cooperate, and knew I would bear the consequences of that disobedience. Without a glance at Anders or Jules, I disappeared into the safe harbor of my cottage, braced for what I knew would come.
And when it did, when Seamage Brandt uttered his anguished cry beneath my open window, I curled into a ball and wept.
* * * *
The door to the cottage opened and shut to reveal Elena, alone, without the support of my husband or Jules. She sank heavily into the cushions of the chair opposite me, though not before reaching down, to where I sat on the floor, leaning back against the other chair, my knees hugged close to my chest. Elena’s finger touched my cheek and came away wet.
“I didn’t expect you to take it so hard.”
“Does it matter?”
Elena’s long-suffering sigh spoke with more eloquence than any words could. She got to her feet once more and went into the pantry, unstoppered a bottle of Marain Valley wine and poured me a glass, shoving it into my reluctant hand. “I had to make an example of him.”
“You sure did.” Seeing the fire leap into her eyes, I raised a hand to stop her protest. “I know you did. I even understand why. But I don’t have to like it or feel comfortable with it.”
“Yes, you do, Mage Protector. Maybe you don’t have to like it, but you have to accept it. Or are you frightened I might use feyweed against you?”
Lords of the sea, was that possibility at the base of my misgiving? I set aside the wine glass, untouched.
“Good,” she snapped, “maybe you should be frightened. I prefer that my advisors not take me for granted. At the least, I require you to agree with me in public, not to question my decisions about anything, including the administration of feyweed.” Before I could respond to Elena’s demands, she perched on the edge of the chair, leaning closer to my face. “You yourself, only days ago, told me you didn’t think it right that you should have the formula for feyweed or its antidote, that as a mage, you couldn’t be trusted with decisions about its use. After today’s pathetic little spectacle, Mage Protector,” though Elena whispered, I felt her fury like a blast of searing flame, “I completely agree you can’t be trusted regarding feyweed. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t be trusted about the use of the poison. It’s my duty as queen to see justice is done, and I will not, I repeat, I will not suffer self-doubt in upholding my law, particularly in light of your flawed judgment.”
“I never thought I’d see the day,” I said, furious that my voice betrayed me by trembling, “that I’d look at you as a tyrant.”
“Tyrant?” Her hand, wearing the Dunneal ring of sapphires and diamonds, curled into a fist, and I braced for a blow, but Elena controlled her rage, and turned it into a mocking laugh. “I’m not a tyrant, Alex. I’m a queen whose kingdom is under silent attack. I can’t afford to look the slightest bit weak or unsupported. And when my appointed Mage Protector questions my decisions in public, weak and unsupported is exactly how I appear.”
Though my head understood her words, my heart couldn’t accept them. I struggled to my feet in silence and stood over her chair. Slipping the leather thong from my neck, the copper and wood pendants side by side, I tossed the symbols of my office in her lap. When I walked out the door, Elena didn’t even try to stop me.
By this time, the Port Alain troops had taken the prisoners away, including, thank the lords of the sea, Seamage Brandt. Even Jules was gone. In his place, speaking with Anders, was my brother Gwynn.
Easily reading the emotion on my face, Anders touched my damp cheek. “You all right?” he said softly.
I shook my head, not wanting to discuss what had happened either outside or inside the cottage. “Shouldn’t you be with Maylen?” I asked Gwynn.
“She sent me to make sure you were all right. Alex—”
“Seamage Brandt said something,” I swiftly cut into my brother’s concern. “He spoke of my mage talent as a perversion. He also mentioned Linsey, implied he’d heard rumors of her parentage, which means,” —I brushed strands of hair from my eyes as a cool wind blew through— “that he may have heard those rumors from Elder Frontish or Westin Harlowe.”
“You believe Brandt is the Port Alain connection,” Anders said, correctly reading my intent in sidestepping the issue of Elena Dunneal. “If so, the crates may be sitting in the Mage Council Hall.”
“My very thoughts. I’ll go with Gwynn to look.”
“I’ll go with your brother. Why don’t you go up to the manor and stay with Emmy for a while,” Anders suggested, compassion and unconditional love reflected in his seagray eyes. “After what happened here, she could use her mother’s presence. And vice versa.”
“At the moment,” I said quietly, kissing his cheek, “you’d be the better influence. Tell her I love her, and I’ll see her later.” Anders didn’t argue, for which I secretly blessed him, when I grabbed Gwynn’s arm and led him down the forest path toward the harbor. “I know it’s daylight, but everyone is likely to be in the streets indulging themselves,” I told my brother. “I’ll be your lookout while you practice your sneaky thieving skills.”
“That sounds like an insult.”
“It is.”
“Fine, and the plan makes sense, but I need to know something.” Brown eyes slid me a glance as we walked side by side. “Where is your pendant of office?” When I refused to answer, he persisted, “You were alone in the cottage with the queen. When you emerged, your cheeks were damp from crying, and the leather thong is no longer around your neck.”
“Leave it,” I said, angry when my brother skipped ahead to block my path. I grabbed his cloak and held on tight. “We have work to do, and I don’t want to talk about it.”
Reluctance was written all over his handsome face,
but he let me be, for the moment. At the outskirts of Port Alain, we slipped through the narrow corridors behind the buildings until we came to the rear of the Mage Council Hall in the center of town. The building looked deserted, and I prayed it were true. Acting as lookout, I sent Gwynn inside, which was probably a bad idea. The moment I was alone, jumbled thoughts crowded my head.
Had I just surrendered my commitment to the queen? More important, would my friend ever forgive me?
Who was right? Who was wrong? Did it even matter?
Scaring the living breath from me, Gwynn appeared at my side and led me back down the alleyways to the rear door of the Seaman’s Berth. Signaling Chester’s daughter, Gwynn ordered some ale and squeezed me into the end of the very crowded bar as all the tables were taken. Thanks to the festivities, it looked as though Chester, who waved from across the room, was making a small fortune. We soon had mugs of foaming ale in front of us, and Gwynn’s smile was huge as he clinked my glass.
“I gather that’s good news.”
“Indeed, it is, Alex. In the basement,” he whispered in my ear, “hidden under a tarp in the wine cellar. It might mean the seamage acted alone.”
“Maybe.” I took a sip of ale and then another, not realizing how thirsty I’d been. “When you get back up the Hill, tell Jules to question his prisoner about that. And tell Anders we have to move fast and switch the crates before news of the mage’s capture travels to our foreign guests.”
“Would it not be better,” Gwynn asked, “if you spoke to them in person?”
“No. I—” Clapping my brother on the back, I drained the mug and tossed him some coins. “Tell Anders to meet me here at midnight, with whomever he needs to help us. Oh, and Gwynn, when he has a moment of peace and quiet” —I nodded at the busy innkeeper— “let Chester know what we’re doing.”
Mage Evolution (Book 3) Page 23