by Narro, B. T.
“All right, I understand. Only when you say so.”
*****
Parts of the wall around the Kreppen encampment had been knocked down, most likely by Krepps as they’d left, Annah surmised. It granted their party easy access, and soon they were inside. Everything that could be carried already had been scavenged, leaving only dilapidated huts with angry rips and flaps dancing in the wind.
They quickly made their way to the stone wall. Its face was blackened by what must’ve been hundreds of fireballs. Annah rubbed her hand across it. “Krepps were punished for any act of defiance or laziness.” She looked at Cleve and tilted her head. “Did you know that Reela’s brother used to be in charge of punishing Krepps when he lived with them? He would detect lies and then use psyche to torment them.”
“I know.”
But Basen hadn’t. He wondered if it was strange for the Krepps to be in Merejic with Reela’s brother.
Jackrie drew his focus. “Basen.”
“What?”
“Where in the Academy will the portal lead to?”
He thought of the most memorable place. “The group one classroom for mages.” Unfortunately, it was memorable for the wrong reason. The image of Alex’s throat being cut by Sanya’s blade came back, and he shut his eyes as he relived that moment of terror.
Jackrie asked him, “Will we be able to simply look into the portal to determine that the destination is in fact the group one classroom, or will it be too hard to tell and we’ll need someone to go in?”
They’d walked far, and now the sun was sitting on the horizon. Basen fought back chills that the cold wind seemed determined to create. He didn’t like that they would have to sleep at the Kreppen encampment that night.
“It might be too hard to tell,” he said.
Concern came over everyone’s face as they looked to Jackrie. “We’ll need someone to go inside, then,” she said. “Can you keep the portal open long enough for someone to walk in and then come back out?”
“I’ve only made one portal big enough to go through,” he reminded her. “And I couldn’t keep it open very long, so I suppose it depends on whether whoever goes in can return quickly.”
“Seems possible,” Jackrie mused. “Now we just need to figure out who should go in.” She glanced at each man and woman. Alabell’s shoulders sank when Jackrie’s eyes lingered on her.
“It should be me,” Alabell volunteered, probably thinking Jackrie was going to tell her to go anyway. “I would weaken the group the least if I’m unable to return.”
“No,” Basen said without thinking. Even if her assessment was true, he couldn’t stand the thought of making a portal into some cavern accidentally and leaving Alabell there. If dizziness prevented her from returning soon enough, it could close, and it would be three days before the akorell stone was charged enough for another portal. “We need a chemist. You’ve already done so much to help heal our injuries.”
“But I nearly got you killed.”
“Oh, that’s what you’re worried about? That’s nothing,” he teased, and she chuckled as he’d hoped she would. “Besides, there are no more mountains between us and Merejic. But Krepps with bows and poison arrows could stand in our way.”
“I agree,” Cleve said. “I’m not about to die from poison. We should keep the chemist.”
“Well, it shouldn’t be the psychic.” Alabell gestured at Annah. “And it obviously can’t be you, Basen. We need your portals. And it shouldn’t be Cleve, because he’s the only one who can use a bow and the only one who has any idea how to get to the Elven village. And it shouldn’t be Jackrie, because then we’ll have no leader, and…” She paused and then looked as if she was trying to think of something to say.
Then Basen realized that Jackrie was the right answer.
He waited, hoping someone else would say it, but everyone remained quiet. Jackrie looked to have figured out their thoughts and made a face. She opened her mouth, but even she seemed to have trouble coming up with an excuse as to why she shouldn’t be the one to test the portal.
“I believe I can hold it open long enough for you to come back,” Basen offered.
Jackrie pressed her lips together as she shook her head out of frustration.
“It’s not that you’re not useful, Mage Jackrie,” Alabell said sweetly. “It’s—”
“Don’t patronize me.” As Jackrie turned to Cleve, her face set in a hard expression. “You’re to lead if I don’t come back. You’ve been there before, and you have Terren’s blood in you.” She faced Basen. “Don’t wait around for the akorell stone to charge because I won’t be waiting on the other side for another portal. We don’t have three days to waste. If I end up back in the Academy, I can make myself useful there. If I end up somewhere else…” She paused and seemed to consider changing her mind. Then she shook her head.
“I’ll find my way out.” She took the compass from her pocket and placed it in Cleve’s hand. “Should’ve brought two of them,” she muttered. “But I didn’t expect this would happen.” She surprised Basen by chuckling, then took on a sad expression. “There was a lot I didn’t expect.”
A moment of silence passed. Basen figured everyone’s thoughts were on Peter. The warrior had been an ass, but he was also an ally and a strong swordsman. Basen would gladly put up with a hundred more Peters to have them fighting on his side.
Jackrie nodded at him. “You ready?”
“Yeah.”
She put a hand on her stomach. “I hate these portals.”
“You might not even need to enter,” Basen reminded her. “If we can see the training dummies, the brick walls, and the sand, we can confirm the portal leads to the Academy.”
“No. We need to ensure it’s possible to go through and live, otherwise it’s not worth the time it would take to reach Merejic and come back.” She shot Cleve a look. “If something happens to me—if it doesn’t seem safe to use a portal from an akorell stone—go to Tenred instead.”
“All right, Mage Jackrie.”
“Do it, Basen, before I change my mind.”
This all felt so messy to him. Everything had gone wrong from the start, and now their plan was risky at best. Dangerous and desperate might be more accurate descriptions.
“Basen.” Jackrie had an annoyed look. “Go.”
He paused for a moment more to think of a better option, but no ideas came. He set his mind to the task. He’d already pulled out the cluster of bastial energy from the akorell stone once before, and it was easier the second time. He ripped open the portal, then almost fell into it as he collapsed to his knees, the weight of it on his mind nearly too much to bear.
Jackrie flinched as he fell, then reached down and helped him up. In the fading sun, the sphere looked mostly dark. He could make out what might’ve been a brick wall, some training dummies, and possibly some sand. But it took all of his strength to keep the portal open, and he didn’t have the focus to be certain of what he was seeing.
Jackrie jumped in. She seemed to shrink the moment she entered and then fell quickly.
The portal must’ve been a foot or two off the ground, he realized. Jackrie’s head reappeared, but she seemed to fall again as her head disappeared below the bottom of the portal.
Basen strained his mind to hold it open, but he could feel his strength fading, the walls of the portal rippling as it threatened to close. He hadn’t been prepared for the strain to be this powerful and barely had been holding on from the start. It felt like trying to hold a heavy rock that someone had dumped into his arms before he was ready.
Jackrie finally stood up, but she stumbled farther away and fell. Basen could finally discern that there was indeed sand beneath her feet. He had created the exit in the Academy, but if she didn’t get up and run back in, he was about to leave her there. The strain was too much.
She did manage to turn, but she fell again, no doubt overcome by dizziness.
That was it, he decided, and let it collapse as he crump
led to the ground.
Alabell had her arm around him before he could tell everyone he was fine.
“Sorry,” he said instead.
“You tried your best,” she said.
Annah was crouched beside her, ensuring Basen hadn’t hurt himself. But Cleve stood with his arms folded. “I should’ve gone in. I would’ve been able to make it out.”
“You can next time, leader,” Basen said to remind him of his new role. “Where are we sleeping?”
Cleve dropped his arms and took on a worried look. “I don’t have to decide everything.”
Silence followed save Basen’s sharp intakes of air. As no one spoke up to offer a suggestion of where to sleep, Basen began to miss Jackrie. She might not have been the best leader, but they seemed lost without her.
“Let’s look for a decent hut,” Annah finally suggested.
Cleve puffed out his chest. “All right. And in the morning, we’ll go northwest.”
Everyone knows that. But Basen kept the thought to himself. It looked like they would have enough trouble without snide remarks.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Sanya felt another portal open hundreds of miles away. She stopped what she was doing and used her mind to reach out for her mother in the spiritual world. But it was just an instinct. She no longer needed to worry, for her mother now stood before her.
Make as many portals as you want, Basen. It doesn’t matter anymore. She longed for Lori to hug her as Lori used to when she was a child, so she wrapped her arms around her mother. But the shoulders of Bliss’ body were stiff, as if her mother was uncomfortable being touched.
Sanya chose not to use psyche, too fearful of finding out her mother really was put off by her touch. She had no idea whether Lori now had Bliss’ abilities. Psyche took years of training, but was that ability retained by Bliss’ spirit or did it exist within her body? There was so much to learn.
Unfortunately, there were more pressing matters. Did Tauwin expect Bliss to come back to him promptly with information? Or was it Cheot who’d sent Bliss after Sanya?
Lori looked confused as she glanced down at herself. “I’m—” She became startled at the sound of her own voice. “God’s mercy. Who am I?”
“You’re Lori.”
She shocked Sanya by yelling, “Of course I’m Lori! But whose body is this?”
Sanya could hold back her temptation to use psyche no longer. If her mother sensed it and was offended, so be it. She dove into her mother’s mind to find love but also deep anger that swelled like lava in a volcano about to erupt. The two most powerful emotions, she realized.
“Her name was Bliss, so that’s what people will call you.” Sanya soothed Lori with psyche as she answered. “We might not have much time, Mother. Does the name Tauwin Takary bring up any memories?”
Lori’s eyes lifted toward the ceiling. Then she grabbed her temples and screamed as she fell to her knees. Sanya felt a terrible pain in Lori’s head when she put her hand on her mother’s back, so Sanya quickly removed it. Lori’s screaming stopped, though she held her stomach and looked ill.
“What was that?” Sanya asked.
“Memories,” Lori answered weakly. “They came back to me like remembering an entire dream in an instant.” She had a look of horror, then grabbed her head again.
Sanya alleviated the pain, but there was still much discomfort. Her mother coiled in on herself on the ground and screamed again.
“You have to be quiet,” Sanya urged her, but her mother didn’t comply.
A group of people threw open the door. They seemed to be lackeys for the Takary family by the looks of their simple clothes.
Sanya leaned down to whisper in her mother’s ear, “They can’t know what happened.”
“What’s the matter, Bliss?” Sanya recognized the voice with dread, looking up to find Cheot passing through the throng of servants.
So it was he who sent her. That was better than Tauwin doing it, but that could still mean the young king had known and allowed Sanya to be followed.
Lori looked up at him but made a face as if she’d looked straight at the sun. She hissed and grabbed her head again, tucking it between her knees.
More memories, Sanya figured, hoping this meant Lori would know Cheot’s name and pretend to act like his daughter.
“She walked in and just fell in pain,” Sanya lied. “I didn’t see her get hurt, so I don’t know what’s wrong.”
“Yes, you do,” Lori yelled, then groaned.
What was she doing? Cheot would suspect Sanya now.
He gave her a cold look before turning to the lackeys. “Is there still a healer in this house?”
“One,” someone replied.
Cheot scooped up Sanya’s mother. “Lead me to him.”
Sanya trailed behind, but Cheot turned and snapped at her. “Stay away!”
“I did nothing to her!” Say something, Lori. She gave her mother the urge to speak.
But all she yelled was, “I’m sick! I’m sick!”
Cheot hurried off and Sanya followed, but when they passed by guards, he ordered them to stop her. They grabbed her arms, giving her no way to follow without psyche, and she wasn’t about to let anyone know her secret.
She feared her mother might, though.
*****
It was in Effie’s dreams that she felt closest to Alex. She awoke as she did the other mornings, with disappointment that she would have to wait until the next night for another chance to see him. At least Reela shared her bed. She cuddled against her closest friend, thankful that Cleve was away so she could have Reela to herself.
She hoped to get better before Cleve returned, so she could truthfully tell Reela that it was all right if she and Cleve went back to sharing a bed. But at this point, Effie wasn’t sure she could make it through the night without her friend’s touch.
When Reela awoke, Effie asked her, “How are you doing without Cleve here?”
Reela rubbed her eyes and thought about the question for a long time. Effie was used to these pauses when Reela was asked something difficult, for she wouldn’t say something she didn’t fully mean. Finally, she replied, “I miss him and I worry about him, but it’s not difficult. I think it might be if you weren’t here, though.” She kissed Effie on the cheek.
Battle training had taken the place of regular training at the Academy, reminding Effie all too well of last year when it became difficult to breathe every time she remembered they were at war. She’d grown stronger since then, now able to envision herself standing against hordes of enemies without feeling her chest tightening.
She hadn’t seen Wilfre since they’d returned, and she was glad for it. Though she was curious to know what had happened with Trentyre. Effie had expected Terren to ask her and Reela to join the group that would travel back through the forest with Wilfre into the abandoned Slugari colony. They would dig beneath Trentyre, then create a tunnel to the surface. But Effie and Reela hadn’t seen Terren in a while. Effie wondered if he’d sent a different team of people. Perhaps Wilfre’s complaints had changed the headmaster’s mind about her and her friends.
It had gotten easier to train each day that passed since Alex’s death. She actually could focus now while shooting fireballs at training dummies or out from the top of the Academy’s walls. She wondered what Tauwin’s men thought of all the fireballs that would fall thousands of feet short from their camp—whether they understood the mages were preparing for an attack and not actually trying to shoot them a mile away. Hopefully it scared them, though Effie imagined it would be difficult to be scared being on the side with so many more soldiers. Sometimes she had to remind herself that she was just as much of a soldier as the warriors clashing swords during every hour of daylight. She didn’t always feel like one compared to them. Especially compared to Cleve and Alex.
When Effie came home one day, Steffen called from his room, “Effie, is that you?”
“Yes, why?”
“Meet me in the
front room after you change,” he said, knowing her habit of getting out of her uncomfortable training gown as soon as she got home. The fabric was thick to protect her from burns, but it was rough against her skin. She put on a clean shirt and some less clean pants, then returned to the front to find Steffen sitting at their table.
“Reela, we’re ready for you,” he called out.
The psychic came out of her room and sat beside Steffen. “So what is it we’re doing?” she asked.
Steffen gestured for Effie to sit. He looked more serious than usual, as if burdened by unfortunate news. Steffen was often the first student to know something, a perquisite of his friendship with Jack Rose.
Effie sat and untied her long hair, giving her hands something to do as she waited for Steffen to speak. He had three sheets of paper in front of him, all either blank or facedown. He arched his back to access his pocket, then withdrew a potion in a vial and set it carefully on the table as if it were dangerous.
“I hope you know neither of us is stupid enough to take that.” Effie pointed at the black substance.
“It’s only there if you want to take it.”
“That depends,” Reela said. “Did you invent it?”
Effie and Reela had assisted Steffen many times in testing his potions, more so when they were younger and hadn’t learned their lesson yet.
Steffen frowned. “Partially. Jack Rose helped.”
Effie scoffed while Reela calmly reminded Steffen, “We agreed a long time ago that we wouldn’t be helping you anymore with your trials.”
“But—”
Reela put up her hand to stop him. “I know. This is very important, and it needs to be tested. But every potion is very important to you. We’re not going to do it.”
“This one is different.”
Reela squinted and leaned toward him.
He took on a sad look. “I wouldn’t lie to you. It really is different. I invented this specifically for you and Effie…and I think also for myself.”