“I wish I was coming with you,” Coralie sighed, sitting on my bed and surveying the garments spread on every available surface.
“Not me,” said Araminta from the doorway. “I can’t afford to miss potentially months of lessons. I’ll need all the study I can cram in if I’m to pass final exams. You know they’re the only ones they make truly difficult.”
Saffron shook her head. “You underestimate yourself, Araminta. You’ve come a long way since first year. The exams are designed to weed out anyone who lacks control of their power. You won’t fail just because you have less strength, and you’re much more confident now.”
“I hope you’re right,” Araminta said. “But I still think it’s best if I don’t go jaunting off for half the year.”
“Half the year.” Coralie moaned. “Will you really be gone so long, Elena, do you think?”
“I have no idea.” I began to gather the dresses up. “I don’t think anyone does. It depends how the negotiations go. All we know is that we’ll definitely be back for exams.”
“That’s so far away.” Coralie flopped back onto the bed. “What am I going to do without you?”
I laughed. “Don’t be so dramatic. You’ve got Finnian now, you don’t need me. And Saffron and Araminta, if you need an escape from his manly charms.”
Coralie rolled over and buried her face in my covers. “As long as I don’t horrifically embarrass myself in front of his family causing him to lose all love for me,” she said in a muffled voice.
Saffron pulled her arm and dragged her back up.
“You’re as bad as Araminta. No one is failing. No one is losing anyone’s love. I promise my family isn’t that terrifying.”
“Not to you.” Coralie sighed. “The most embarrassing thing is thinking about the contrast. My family is going to fall all over him. They already love him from when he visited for my birthday two summers ago.”
“Well, don’t worry about that,” said Saffron. “There’s nothing Finnian loves so much as universal admiration.”
I snorted, and Coralie threw my pillow at my head.
“Hey!” I chased them all out of my room. “We all have packing to do, remember.”
But as they filed out, I had to resist the urge to call them back. I would miss this. Sitting around, laughing and chatting with my friends. I had thought I had another half a year, and I wasn’t ready for it to end so soon.
The fourth years met the rest of the delegation on the North Road, outside the city. I had hoped Walden’s experience in the Empire might mean he was assigned to be Lucas and my tutor, but apparently he was too important to be spared for so long. Instead we got Jocasta.
Lorcan accompanied us, too, along with a squad of soldiers, to escort the other fourth years back to the capital once we parted ways in Torcos. The soldiers rode on horseback while the trainees and our instructors traveled in carriages as usual.
We didn’t tarry at the meeting place, so I didn’t have a chance to get a good look at the rest of the delegation, or even to confirm Jasper’s presence. Although I did see Julian ride past the window of our carriage at one point.
Only when we stopped for the evening at a large wayside inn did I see that Beatrice had been selected as the healing representative on the delegation. I embraced her without thinking, and she accepted the gesture with a warm smile.
“Elena! It is lovely to see you again.”
“I’m sorry,” I said, quickly stepping back. “It’s just nice to see a familiar face.”
“Don’t apologize,” she said. “We are practically becoming old friends, you and I.”
“Where’s Reese?” I asked, looking around for her younger cousin. I had never seen her without him somewhere in tow.
“He does not accompany us on this occasion. His expertise is needed at the front, unfortunately. Only I could be spared.”
I frowned. Beatrice might be a Stantorn, but I would never suspect her of wishing harm on anyone. Reese, on the other hand, had been the mage in attendance when one of our intelligencers got murdered before imparting crucial information. He was one of my lead suspects. I didn’t like the idea that he had been left at the front, free from Beatrice’s supervision.
“Yes,” Beatrice said, unaware of my suspicions. “It’s a great pity for him to miss such an opportunity. But I have the most experience with research and development of new healing compositions, so Dashiell decided I must be the one to go. We are hoping the Sekalis might have knowledge and healing techniques unknown to us.”
“Well I, for one, am glad to have you along,” I said. Whatever suspicions I might have of Reese, there was nothing I could do about them from here.
“Elena!” Jasper called my name, and I turned to greet him. “What an adventure!” He looked more excited than I had seen him since his graduation.
A surge of gratitude filled me to find myself surrounded by so many friendly faces on such an intimidating journey. I smiled at Jasper, and he slung an arm around my shoulders.
“Tell me, do I need to launch into protective older brother mode?” asked a drawling voice from my right.
I glared at Julian, but he ignored me, approaching us with a lazy smile.
Jasper stiffened beside me, dropping his arm. I expected him to ask what Julian meant, but he gave a small, tight bow to the mage instead.
“Lord Julian of Devoras, I presume?”
It sounded strange to hear the general honorific for mages on his lips. Especially directed toward Julian. My brother might be a prodigy, and he might have lived beside mages for four years, just as I had, but he had never been accepted into their midst. I pulled him upright.
“You’re my brother. He’s my brother. I’m sure we don’t need all this formality.”
He straightened, his shoulders still tight, and gave Julian a direct look.
“Do we not, Your Lordship?” The challenge in his voice was clear despite his respectful words.
Julian hesitated, his eyes flicking from Jasper to my face.
“No, I suppose we do not,” he said at last, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
With a nod that felt more mocking than warm, he strolled away again.
“Watch out for him,” Jasper said quietly. “He’s clever and ambitious, for all he doesn’t seem to take things too seriously.”
“Julian I can handle,” I said. “It’s the Sekalis that worry me.” And the Kallorwegians. But I didn’t add that. Jasper knew nothing of my determination to end the war, and I intended to keep it that way.
A sudden thought struck me.
“Do you have to ride in a particular carriage?” I asked. “Because if not, we have room for one more in ours. And there’s something I want to tell you.”
He chuckled. “Considering it’s you, that sounds dangerous.” He hesitated. “But are you sure your mage friends won’t mind?”
I shook my head. “It’s just Coralie and Finnian and everyone. You met them all in Abalene, anyway.”
He agreed readily at my assurances, and the next morning when we all assembled to continue our journey, he slipped into our carriage. My friends all greeted him with enough warmth to put him at ease, and I wasted no time launching into my reason for inviting him to join us.
“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said. “It’s not something I could exactly talk about in our parents’ apartment, or at the palace…It’s about my ability. You’ve spent more time studying than any of us—studying academics at any rate. You might have some insight none of us would think of.”
He frowned. “Is something wrong?”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not wrong, exactly…”
Some time later I finished the tale, and silence fell in the carriage. Jasper stared at me with an expression I didn’t entirely like. I didn’t want my own brother to be in awe of me.
“Unlimited energy?” he whispered. “You’ve cracked the secret of unlimited energy?”
I glanced at my friends before
nodding.
“Elena, that makes you the most powerful mage who’s ever lived.” His round eyes continued to stare at me.
I shifted on my seat. “Only in terms of raw power. I still can’t regrow a man’s leg like Beatrice. Or…or design and build an entire building like most of the creator discipline. And half of our year can beat me in a straight sword fight.”
Jasper shrugged off my caveats.
“It’s still incredible,” he said.
“Well, it could be,” I admitted. “If I could find a way to practice and to properly study it.”
“Oh, is that your issue?” he asked. “That’s easy, then. You can practice on me.”
Chapter 11
“What?!?” I jumped in my seat, bumping against Araminta on my left. “I’m not going to practice on you!”
But when I looked around the carriage, no other shocked or outraged expressions greeted me. Jasper looked matter-of-fact, and my friends a mix of thoughtful and excited.
“Why not?” Jasper asked. “You did say that commonborns have energy, too, right? I don’t exactly need it for compositions.”
“But you need it for regular life—walking around, and doing your work,” I argued.
“But you want to learn about skimming just a little off the top, not draining someone into exhaustion. And my work doesn’t exactly involve manual labor, or anything.”
“You know, he’s right,” Finnian said. “It’s a rather perfect solution. And he can tell you what he senses from his end as a non-mage. That would be interesting information.”
“Why don’t you try it now?” Saffron asked, leaning forward with interest.
“What is wrong with you all?” I asked, but without much feeling. They seemed agreed that it was a valid idea, and wasn’t this the heart of what Lorcan was saying to me? I needed to stop trying to protect everyone around me when they didn’t need to be shielded. My brother might not be a mage, but that didn’t make him weak or a victim in need of my protection.
“All right,” I said, slowly, building the composition in my mind. “Take energy.”
I kept my eyes on my brother, and as soon as I felt my power connect to him and begin to tap into his energy, I said, “Stop.”
My friends looked between me and Jasper as everyone silently considered us for a moment.
“I felt power connecting you,” Araminta said at last, “but that was it.” She looked around at the others. “Did any of you feel anything more?”
Finnian, Saffron, and Coralie all shook their heads.
“How do you feel?” I asked Jasper.
“Exactly the same.” He regarded me suspiciously. “Did you actually do anything?”
Finnian narrowed his eyes at me. “It was an awfully quick working.” He turned to Jasper. “Do you feel exhausted? Or even a little more tired than you did before?”
Jasper swung his arms as much as he could in the limited space. “I feel exactly the same. I think. I mean, I don’t exactly have a precise way to measure my energy levels.”
Finnian turned to me. “You’re the most able to monitor energy levels, Elena. Are his lower than they were before? What about you? Can you feel the extra energy?”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek and squirmed.
“You didn’t take enough to make a difference to either of you, did you?” said Coralie. “You should try again—and don’t cut it off so quickly this time.”
I looked over at Jasper, and he rolled his eyes at me.
“I can take more than that, Elena.”
I winced. “Sorry. I’m still working this out. It’s not exactly a comfortable feeling draining people I love of their energy.”
His face softened. “No, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t give you a hard time. The whole point of this is training, after all. Try again.”
This time I did the same thing I had done with Walden, monitoring his energy and waiting until I could sense a change in it before I cut off my working.
“How do you feel now?” I asked.
He rolled his shoulders. “Mostly normal. But I did feel it that time.”
“So you could actually sense it?” Finnian looked fascinated.
“Not anything specific,” Jasper said. “If I hadn’t known Elena was doing it, I would never have guessed anything had happened. It feels like…” He paused, thinking, before a smile spread across his face. “It feels like that moment in the middle of the afternoon, when the day’s tiredness suddenly crashes over you all at once, and you start to think longingly of sweet cakes.”
Araminta laughed. “I know that feeling.”
“I might have noted it,” Jasper said. “But I wouldn’t have thought anything of it.”
Finnian looked across at me, his eyes wide, but I shook my head slightly, and he said nothing. I knew what he was thinking, and I wasn’t ready to hear the words aloud. If I perfected this ability, I could skim a small amount of energy from every commonborn I encountered. They wouldn’t be able to sense my power, and it wouldn’t harm them—but it would provide me with a limitless amount of power. The larger the army that came against me, the stronger my power would become.
“We’ll leave it at that for now,” I said quickly. “I want to know how you feel later in the day, Jasper. Let me know if the energy drain affects you at any point.”
“Yes, Mother,” he said, his eyes laughing at me across the carriage.
We had made it well past half way the day before, and a shout went up from the front of the riders, although we hadn’t yet stopped for the midday meal.
“Is this Torcos already?” I asked.
Finnian stuck his head out the window and whooped. Pulling back into the carriage, he grinned at Saffron.
“Home, sweet home.”
She smiled and peered out the window herself. “Not quite.” She turned to the rest of us. “Uncle Dashiell and Aunt Helene’s estate is on the other side of the city, so we’ll have to travel a bit further before a warm fire and a meal, I’m afraid.”
I leaned over her to peer out the window myself. The wheels rolled over cobblestones now, and buildings had sprung up on either side of us. The rushing of the river sounded over the clatter of the horses and carriages, although the road hadn’t yet brought us into view of the water. The journey had been leading us gently downhill for some time, and the air had lost its biting chill.
“It’s warmer,” I said, breathing deeply and appreciating the lack of bite in my throat and lungs.
“Not warm enough,” muttered Coralie, and Finnian slung an arm around her shoulders and pulled her against his side.
“We can’t all come from the river delta,” he said cheerfully.
She smiled at him, but it had a tremulous quality.
The houses and buildings were all built of a rough gray stone, giving the city a uniform look. People lined the streets, gawking at us as we rode past, and I quickly pulled back from the window. Not that any of them would recognize me, but I didn’t like the feeling of being watched like a curiosity.
“Your subjects have gathered for your return,” Coralie said to Finnian.
Saffron snorted. “He wishes. I think they want to see the Sekalis. It’s strange living up here near the border but never seeing a sight of them.”
Every one of the Sekalis had chosen to ride, which meant the townsfolk would get the opportunity they wanted. They were easy to pick out, too, despite most of the northern locals having the same golden skin and dark hair as the Sekalis themselves. On horseback the slits up the sides of their tunics were more obvious, and the embroidery on their robes glinted in the winter sun. They carried themselves differently, as well, their backs ramrod straight, and their attention always ahead, despite riding through an unfamiliar land.
The houses continued right up to the edge of the wall, visible briefly as we rumbled through the city’s northern gate.
“All of this is Uncle Dashiell’s land now,” Saffron said quietly, and Coralie tensed, her eyes on the window.
We traveled on for a short distance further before turning off the main road. The paving remained even and smooth, however, the road comfortably wide enough for a carriage.
I had been wondering how Finnian’s family would house us all, but when we passed through a new set of gates, they weren’t much smaller than the ones into Torcos. Behind the walls, Duke Dashiell’s home more closely resembled a village than an estate. The enormous manor house at its center had been constructed from the same rough stone as both the buildings in the city and the smaller buildings in the estate grounds, but its size alone distinguished it.
“All of the new healing recruits come here for a time,” Finnian said. “The commonborn healing assistants as well as the actual healers. So we’re used to hosting a crowd.”
“I wrote to Mother that we were coming,” Saffron said as we all piled out of the carriage. “And she said she’d already decided to spend the winter here.” She turned to look at me and Araminta. “My family has a home in Torcos, but we’ve always spent more time out here at Uncle Dashiell’s estate than we do in our own house.”
“Finnian!” A voice pierced through the hubbub of our arrival, and an elegant older woman appeared, with eyes only for her son.
“Mother.” He strode forward and wrapped her in an embrace.
After a moment she drew back. “And these are your friends?” She turned to us with a smile on her lips.
Finnian glanced at Coralie and paused for the barest second.
“Is Father home?”
“Yes, of course,” she said. “He wouldn’t miss such distinguished guests. He arrived two days ago and has been readying the estate for your arrival.”
“I see. Well hopefully I’ll get a proper chance to talk to both of you later, despite the chaos.”
Her brow crinkled slightly, and she looked at him with penetrating eyes, but he was already turning back to us.
“Yes, these are my friends. Other than Saffron, obviously, this is Araminta, Coralie, and Elena. Oh and that’s Jasper, Elena’s brother.”
Voice of Life (The Spoken Mage Book 4) Page 13