“I’m glad.”
Something in me broke, and I leaned toward him, my voice filling with urgency.
“Lucas—”
He cut me off with a small shake of his head.
“I can’t stay long, but I promised to attend this event with the Sekali Ambassador.” His eyes moved to where the group of foreigners now talked to General Griffith beside one of the food tables. A tall, elegant young woman in a magnificent gown stood beside the general, and with a start I recognized Lucas’s sister, Crown Princess Lucienne. I hadn’t noticed her before, but she must have arrived with the Sekalis and her brother.
Lucas’s presence had driven everything else from my mind, but I noticed now how everyone in the room watched the Sekalis, even as they pretended to go on with their conversations. The Sekalis, on the other hand, displayed no such curiosity, their attention either on the food or the general. Except for one, who watched Lucas and me.
I swallowed. “So they are Sekalis. I suspected as much, but the general didn’t tell me they would be here.”
“Perhaps he thought it might scare you off.” He paused. “In truth—” His voice dropped. “I only came because I hoped you would be here. But now…this is worse than not seeing you at all.”
My eyes flew to his, the pain I saw there making my own pain flare like the stab of a knife. But a calm, commanding voice interrupted us before I could respond.
“Brother, we need your opinion.”
I curtsied to the crown princess while Lucas gave her a level stare. She returned it, her own holding steady. He looked away first, giving the slightest nod, and she turned to me.
“You must excuse us, Spoken Mage. We have many responsibilities.”
I met her eyes. “I understand, Your Highness.”
And I did understand the message she truly wished to convey to me. They couldn’t let their potential new allies see any hint that Lucas might disrespect—or worse, reject—the proposed marriage alliance.
She nodded once and swept Lucas away. He met my eyes for the briefest second, his gaze laden with far too much to be exchanged in such a fleeting moment.
I watched as they were absorbed into the Sekali delegation, the general turning to include them both in his conversation. My heart throbbed. If only I could run straight back to my room at the Academy. I wanted to be done with this evening.
“Elena of Kingslee,” said an unfamiliar voice behind me. “We meet at last.”
“Elena of Devoras now,” I said without turning around.
“So I’ve heard. Sister.”
I twisted, taking in the tall young man beside me. He had dark hair and looked more like Natalya than her fair-haired twin, Calix, did.
“Julian.” I had seen him before, but we had never met. The general’s oldest son.
“Father said you would be here.”
“And here I am. A dutiful daughter.”
He gave a wry laugh. “Are you now? Natty’s in Father’s bad books at the moment, so that makes one of you.”
“Is that why the twins aren’t here? I thought all of us were required, but I haven’t seen them.”
“Their return from the estate was unavoidably detained,” he said. “Or so I’m told. Perhaps Father didn’t want to risk a scene by having you all in the same room along with our new friends.” His eyes lingered on the Sekalis.
“I’m sure the twins know better than to be starting any scenes.”
“Oh, Calix does, certainly. He’s the truly dutiful one.”
Amusement lingered in his voice and around his eyes. I watched him curiously as he regarded the crowd. The general had hinted that Julian didn’t see the value in allying their family with me. Did that mean he sided with Natalya?
“You’re not like I expected, I must admit,” he said without turning to look at me.
“What did you expect? That I would be taller? Or breathing fire, perhaps?”
He chuckled. “From what I hear, you could, if you wished to. But I was expecting more along the lines of…coarse.”
I knit my brows. “I suppose I’m meant to take that as a compliment.”
He finally turned to look at me, a quirk on one side of his mouth. “You can take it however you like.”
“How generous,” I said dryly.
It occurred to me that I couldn’t remember anyone mentioning what discipline the general’s oldest son had chosen. He hadn’t been at the front the previous year, so I could only assume he hadn’t followed in his father’s footsteps.
“Since we haven’t met before, I take it you didn’t choose the Armed Forces,” I said.
He raised an eyebrow. “Thirty years into a war that might never end? I’m not so foolish.”
“Or so brave,” I muttered.
He snorted. “And I suppose you mean to choose it, do you?” His tone suggested he thought no such thing.
I glanced away, my face warming slightly. I had no intention of choosing the armed forces discipline.
“I can’t imagine they’d want me after the Battle of Abneris,” I said.
“Oh? And here was I thinking you were its hero.”
I narrowed my eyes, examining his expression. Surely the general’s son knew the truth of what had happened in the battle? His face held enough mockery to suggest he might, but not enough to confirm it.
“So what did you choose for yourself, then?” I asked, wanting to deflect the conversation away from me.
“When I’m on duty I wear a gold robe,” he said, “and answer to the other general.”
The Royal Guard, then. Their head, General Thaddeus, was a Stantorn, so perhaps Julian had seen it as the next best thing to serving under a member of his own family. I wished I could ask him about Thaddeus, but I didn’t think he was likely to be a receptive audience for my concerns about the potentially traitorous leanings of the Stantorn family.
“I see my future in a palace, not a battlefield,” he added. His eyes sparkled down at me. “I hear you do, too.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” I said stiffly.
He laughed. “I’m sure you don’t.” He tipped me a mocking salute and strolled away, a lazy smile on his face.
I ground my teeth. I didn’t like my oldest new sibling much more than the two I already knew. But I had to admit he was more interesting than either of them.
The conversation had distracted me from the sensation of power and energy that filled the room, but left to myself, it pushed at me again. The strongest blaze came from where the Sekali delegation stood, still clumped together, and I watched them, idly practicing picking out the different sensations.
As I reached the inner part of their circle, I faltered. Frowning, I stepped forward. Princess Lucienne glanced up and met my eyes, a clear warning in hers, and I stopped. But I didn’t turn away from the group.
Most of their robes bore familiar colors, although we didn’t know enough of their culture for me to be certain if the purple and blue and orange represented the same disciplines. Or if they even had disciplines at all.
But my attention focused in on an unfamiliar color in the center of the group. The man wearing the pale green robe was one of the youngest of the Sekalis present, although he was still significantly older than me. The shade of his garment bore little similarity to the darker forest green of the robes worn by our growers, but it wasn’t the difference in his clothes that had attracted my attention.
I could sense his presence, as I sensed the people who stood around him, but he didn’t feel like them. He didn’t feel like anyone I had encountered.
Chapter 2
As if he felt the weight of my stare, the green-robed man looked toward me. I quickly withdrew my gaze, glancing blindly around the ballroom.
“Are you all right?” asked a quiet voice at my side, and I blinked and tried to focus on Finnian.
“Well enough,” I managed to say. Silence fell between us for a moment before I blurted out, “Does that man seem strange to you?”
; Finnian frowned. “Which man?”
“The Sekali with the pale green robe.”
Finnian examined the man from afar.
“Not especially.” He gave a small shrug. “He might have a touch more power surrounding him, but then all the Sekalis seem to be coated in compositions. They have the other times I’ve seen them, too. Not that it’s any great surprise, given they didn’t bring any guards with them.”
I turned to him in surprise. “No guards? Not just here tonight, but at all? That seems bold.”
“I suppose they figured their workings would offer them greater protection, and they’re right, of course. They’d need a lot more guards than courtesy would allow them to bring to make a difference if we decided to offer them violence.”
I looked back at the Sekalis. Or perhaps they didn’t have guards in the Empire at all? The idea seemed crazy, but we knew so little about them.
“Why do you ask?” asked Finnian. He lowered his voice. “Do you sense something strange about him?”
“I’ve never felt anything like it,” I whispered back.
“So he’s not just low on energy? Maybe he spent the day composing?”
I shook my head. “No, I know what that feels like. You exhausted yourself two days ago, remember?”
He looked guilty. “Well I really wanted to try that composition, and I know I won’t have the energy for it once classes start again.”
“He has plenty of energy,” I said. “It’s just muffled. No…” I shook my head. “That’s not right. It’s more like it’s…shadowed. Or something. It’s hard to describe.”
I could sense the energy coiled inside him, but not in the same way I sensed it in others. It was like a veil had been drawn across it, and only a hazy glow shone through.
Several academics who I recognized approached the foreign delegation and struck up conversation. Duchess Annika, Head of the Growers and a Devoras, apprehended Lucas and his sister. The general, meanwhile, detached himself from the group and approached us.
His eyes gleamed as he glanced back at the clustered Sekalis.
“You’ll have to remind me to introduce you to the Sekalis later, Elena. I’m sure they would be interested to meet you.”
“I’m not sure the crown princess would be so pleased about the introduction,” I murmured, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Perhaps you’re right.” His good humor didn’t fade however. “There’s no need to push things when we’re already honored enough by their presence. They haven’t accepted every social invitation they’ve received—not by far. I’m sure you’ll have an opportunity to meet them at a later occasion.”
I could almost see the calculation behind his eyes as he weighed up the advantages of increasing the Devoras family’s links to the Sekalis versus the possibility of upsetting the crown.
“I understand they provided very little information about themselves when our delegation visited their lands four years ago,” Finnian said. “Are they being more forthcoming now?”
The general glanced across at him. “It’s early days still.”
So, not really, in other words. How could we consider an alliance with a land we knew so little about? A land that had always kept its border firmly closed to us. But I didn’t ask the question because I already knew the answer. After thirty years of aggression from Kallorway, we couldn’t afford not to take the opportunity to gain such a powerful ally.
“Have they shared information about their disciplines, at least?” Finnian pushed.
“We know they have them, at least. And not so dissimilar to our own,” the general said. “Although they call them branches.”
I realized where Finnian’s questioning was headed.
“Do you know what branch the pale green robe denotes?” I asked.
The general frowned. “It’s hard to say with any certainty. Not one that seems to line up with any of ours. Mostly they wear the same colors as our own disciplines, but their growers wear brown. I heard Annika asking about the green robe, and the Sekali answer was typically vague. Something about new life. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged.
His eyes narrowed, and he glanced once at Finnian. But his reluctance to speak in front of a Callinos wasn’t enough to completely hold him back.
“Only one green-robed mage accompanied them, and the one thing that has been apparent is that he is held in great respect.”
He might not want to spell it out in front of my year mate, but his subtext was clear. Don’t go poking around where it might cause offense and, by extension, embarrassment to the Devoras family.
“Perhaps they are a sub-group of their grower branch,” I said, trying to keep my voice nonchalant.
The general looked at me a little suspiciously but let the subject drop, striding off to welcome another new arrival.
“Mysterious,” said Finnian.
“Everything about the Sekalis seems to be mysterious,” I said.
Part of me itched to try pulling energy from the green-robed man, but I resisted the urge. The general didn’t know what type of diplomatic incident I had the capacity to provoke, but his instincts had apparently been right. I needed to be warned away.
I rubbed at my head. He didn’t need to worry, however. I hadn’t drawn energy from anyone since the Battle of Abneris. I was hardly going to start on a foreign dignitary cocooned in unknown protections.
“Getting tired?” Sympathy laced Finnian’s voice. “Ready to head home?”
I sighed in relief. “More than ready.” I couldn’t get back inside the Academy walls quickly enough for my liking.
Our year mates began to slowly return to the Academy over the following days. This was to be our final year, and I wondered if their return felt bittersweet. After this year, we were all supposed to return to the front to complete our two year terms with the Armed Forces. Did they fear it? Or had our time there last year given the idea an unanticipated familiarity?
Sometimes I let my mind dwell on what my life would be if I just accepted the inevitability of Lucas’s betrothal and put aside all thought of trying to bring about an end to the war. I highly doubted Griffith would be assigning me to the front. And not because I was now legally his daughter. He was one of the few who knew that my proximity to the battle lines had been the reason for the all-out attack now called the Battle of Abneris. He would no doubt assign me to some dull duty far from the battlefield.
And I could not be sorry. I still woke up screaming and sweating from nightmares. Sometimes my sleeping mind dwelled on the lives I had taken, the no-longer beating hearts. Other times it circled around the moment of weakness when I agreed to accompany the Kallorwegian crown prince back to his capital, thinking it the only way to save my friends.
No, I couldn’t help being glad I would not have to face the war again. But that didn’t mean I was free from the fear of graduation. I already dreaded being separated from my friends, of knowing they were in danger and I wasn’t there to help protect them.
But I could hold out hope. An alliance with the Sekalis must bring an end to the war. Perhaps they would have to serve only weeks or months before a truce was declared. Perhaps we would all be released from our conscription duties in such a case, free to return to our families, or pursue our chosen disciplines.
I only wished I could imagine such a hopeful future without a lurking sense of dread. Without conscription, we would all scatter even sooner. The pain of separation from Lucas already sat in my chest like a rock. I couldn’t imagine carrying that burden without the help of my friends’ company.
And at least the two years with the Armed Forces would have direction. For myself I feared release from my term almost more. My year mates might look forward to life after conscription, certain of their future paths. I, on the other hand, couldn’t imagine life beyond both the Academy and the Armed Forces, when I would have to find my own way.
Kingslee was no longer my home, or even the home of my parents. And in the world of the mages, t
he Academy alone felt familiar. My parents’ small apartment in Corrin had no room for another occupant, and I had no desire to live in any of the general’s dwellings.
No, after the Academy, I could imagine only one place feeling like home. The one place that had been barred to me. At Lucas’s side.
Which is why such images of the future were only an idle imagination. I was determined to change that future. I had vowed to find a way to end the war before graduation, and despite the many times I had struggled with the seeming futility of the attempt, I could not abandon my efforts. Not when doing so meant abandoning any hope of a future with Lucas.
If only I had any idea how to achieve such an end. I had hoped the summer would bring answers, but it had not. None that I liked, anyway. And the constraints of being stuck at the Academy had become abundantly clear.
Trainees from the other years trickled in as well, and I began to grow accustomed to the feel of their energy filling the building. I paid closer attention than I had done previously, but I felt nothing like the shadow over the Sekali’s energy.
Coralie returned, although her initial attention was monopolized by Finnian. When she finally shook him off long enough to hear the story of the Devoras soiree, however, she asked if the Sekali could be ill.
“I suppose it’s possible,” I said, “although I’ve never felt a change in anyone’s energy from illness. Well,” I corrected myself, “not a change like that. Generally they just feel weaker. This didn’t feel like his energy was depleted, more like it was…veiled.”
“Veiled?” Saffron entered the living room of Coralie’s suite on Finnian’s heels. “What’s veiled?”
I explained it all again, including Coralie’s suggestion.
“What if he has a fatal condition of some sort?” Saffron asked. “One you’ve never encountered before?”
“It’s certainly possible,” I said.
“But why would he be included in the delegation if he was so ill?” Finnian argued, tucking Coralie into his side.
Voice of Life (The Spoken Mage Book 4) Page 2