Voice of Life (The Spoken Mage Book 4)

by Melanie Cellier

  “That loss of history was the spark for us to close our borders,” the emperor said. “Your ancestors, consumed by civil war and division, acted to destroy those records that might remind their people you were once brothers. The records that might speak for peace, for understanding of your enemies. They sought to ensure that the hearts of those around them would never turn back to their previous kinsmen, and they re-wrote history to serve those ends. It was inevitable that in the generations to come, the truth would eventually be forgotten. When the Empire saw what was happening, we withdrew and closed our borders. No good could come of such a thing, and we did not wish such violence and destruction to spread here.”

  “Destroyed all records?” Jocasta asked faintly, looking as if her librarian’s heart was about to stop from shock and horror.

  Was such a thing even possible? If Osborne had found out the truth of the histories without help from the Sekalis, then I suspected it had not been. But if the Kallorwegian throne had preserved true records for all this time, what catalyst had led Osborne to act on them now?

  “I would like to see some of your own ancient records for myself,” Lucas said. “To confirm your story.”

  Anger flashed in Chen’s eyes at the suggestion that his emperor might be lying, but the emperor raised a hand to calm him.

  “You may do so whenever you wish,” he said to Lucas. “Now that you know of the sealing composition, we have nothing further to hide. It is no doubt for the best anyway.”

  “But this new knowledge does us little good,” Lucas murmured.

  “It is true that you no longer have the mage numbers to both protect, build, and feed your kingdom and also seal your commonborn populace,” the emperor said. “But what you choose to do with the information we have now provided is up to you. Our mages will provide you with copies of the sealing composition if you desire it.”

  “We would appreciate that,” Phineas said.

  “I think that is enough for one evening,” the emperor said. “It is not the beginning I had hoped for your visit, but we will move forward in the morning.”

  Phineas stood and bowed, shaking slightly. “I will be ready to convene for alliance discussions as previously planned.”

  Chen stood also. “As will I.”

  The rest of us also rose, bowing to the emperor and filing from the room. Since the Sekali dictates required us to walk backward so as not to turn our back on the emperor, I was able to see the way his eyes lingered on me until the door closed behind us.

  I slept fitfully, tossing and turning as my mind turned over the enormity of what the Sekalis had told us. Some of the delegation had grumbled after we left the emperor’s presence, unwilling to believe something so radical.

  But Lucas had silenced them. He had used his observation of the servant girl as his reason, but his eyes flicked to me, and I knew he had another reason to believe the emperor. The same reason I did.

  Before ever we had been told anything, I had sensed the way something blocked off some essential part of both the commonborn and the green-robed mages. Cocooning them, as the emperor had said. And Beatrice knew it, too. She hadn’t said a word since the revelation, but as we made our way back to our suites, her eyes followed me.

  When I rose early the next morning, slipping out of the suite to walk through the nearby gardens, she was waiting for me.

  “You knew,” she said, as soon as we crossed an arched wooden bridge and stood in a small oasis of green. “You said it to me, at the wayhouse. You asked if something was wrong with the green-robed mages and the commonborn. So tell me, Elena, how did you know?”

  I kept my eyes on the pond beside us. I liked Beatrice. And I thought I trusted her. But she was a Stantorn. So how much did I really trust her?

  “Elena?” she asked, a hint of steel in her kind voice. “I’m not letting you go without an answer.”

  I saw a vision of a commonborn leg re-growing before my eyes and shook off my doubt. She didn’t deserve it.

  “It turns out my unique ability doesn’t end at speaking compositions,” I said. “It turns out I can tap into other people’s energy as well. And now that I’ve learned how to do that, I can sense everyone’s energy. I could sense the sealing, although I didn’t know what it was.”

  “You can access the energy of others.” Her voice sounded faint. “Anyone?”

  I nodded uncomfortably. “Unless they’re shielded against me.”

  She didn’t immediately produce an extra shield, and I appreciated it.

  “And the prince knows.” She didn’t make it a question. I nodded anyway.

  “So that’s why he accepted the emperor’s story so readily. He already had the confirmation from you.”

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  “You can access unlimited energy,” she repeated, seeming to struggle to take it in. “The possibilities…” Her eyes glowed. “You could heal anything, no matter how complex or deep-rooted.”

  The thoughts of a healer.

  “Or bring death, in equally unlimited supply,” I said, my voice serious.

  The glow on her face dimmed. “Of course,” she said. “And we’re in the middle of a war.” She passed a hand over her face before glancing around the garden. “But perhaps not for long.”

  “Perhaps,” I said without enthusiasm.

  She shot me a sympathetic look but said nothing. A long moment of silence passed.

  “I hope you can understand why I’m not telling people,” I said at last. I shifted on the seat to face her. “Will you keep my secret?”

  Beatrice hesitated and then sighed. “Of course I will, Elena. I can’t see any good coming of making it general knowledge.” She looked at me, concern in her face. “But that’s a heavy burden for you. What do you intend to do with it?”

  I suppressed a sudden urge to cry in response to her sympathy. “For now, I’ll keep training and learning how to use it. I need to be able to use it seamlessly, so I never run the risk of reacting without thinking and hurting someone.”

  “That is an admirable goal. And I now understand how you managed to regain your energy on our first day in the carriages. I thought it strange at the time. Who did you take energy from?”

  “Jasper. Since I was expending it to shield him in the first place.”

  “Ah, of course.”

  We fell silent again although I kept shooting her looks.

  “What is it?” she asked eventually.

  I swallowed. “You’ve spent so much of your life helping others. Commonborns even. When you heard about the sealing composition…did you consider…”

  “Did I consider going home and working it?” she asked. “Sealing as many commonborn as I can?”

  I nodded.

  She heaved a sigh. “For a fleeting moment. But the thought quickly passed. I have been given a gift, Elena, and I use it to the best of my ability to help others. It is simple truth to say that I have saved countless lives. In the Empire they may have healers enough, but in Ardann we do not. It would be squandering my gift to throw it away in such a fashion.”

  A band around my chest eased. “You don’t think it’s selfishness to want to cling to your power when others have none? When others can’t even read or write?”

  She placed a gentle hand on my shoulder.

  “That entirely depends on what you do with that power, now doesn’t it?”

  “Elena?” Jocasta’s voice called through the leaves. “Are you there?”

  I squeezed Beatrice’s arm gratefully and stood.

  “Yes, I’m here. With Beatrice.”

  Jocasta emerged. “Oh, thank goodness. I didn’t know where you’d gone.” She nodded at the healer. “Morning, Beatrice.”

  “Morning,” Beatrice replied.

  “I don’t suppose either of you are part of the alliance negotiation team,” she said. “So I was thinking perhaps we should search out their library. Read the truth of this history for ourselves.”

  Beatrice also stood. “Tha
t sounds like an excellent idea.”

  The Imperial Library turned out to be a comfortingly familiar place, and being there helped settle and balance me. We encountered several more from our delegation—all of those who had attended to pursue the interests of their discipline rather than for the negotiations, in fact.

  Even Julian was there, lounging in a window and watching the people who moved about the library.

  “I wouldn’t have picked you as much of a reader,” I said, stopping beside him.

  “I’m generally to be found in the most interesting place I can manage. And since they don’t want me on the negotiation team, here I am.”

  “How the mighty have fallen,” I said, my mouth twitching.

  “Peace, young one,” he said. “History is changing before our eyes and leading us who knows where. It is exciting enough for me.”

  My amusement dimmed. “Well, I’m glad someone’s finding it exciting.”

  His expression shifted as he focused intently on my face.

  “Don’t tell me you’re considering sealing yourself for a handful of commonborn?” He didn’t sound amused anymore.

  I didn’t reply, and he sat up straight.

  “That would be foolish in the extreme. I can see I was right when I told Father you would need a keeper.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I thought you were here for yourself, and I was the favor repaid?”

  He gave a mocking smile. “Haven’t you ever heard that family is complicated?” The humor dropped from his face. “You have a gift unlike anything we’ve seen before. And from what I hear we are still far from understanding it. To throw all that away so a few commonborn can read and write?” He shook his head. “Unthinkable.”

  “I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” I said. “I’m sure such a thought never crossed your mind.”

  He paused for the briefest moment. “No, it didn’t. And it should never have crossed yours.”

  I sighed and left him there, not wanting to argue the point any further. Deep in the shelves, I trailed my hand along the books and scrolls, remembering what I had thought my first time in a library, what wonders had been opened to me when I learned to read. And I held the power to give that gift to an untold number of others. Could I withhold it? Did I trust myself to meet the balance Beatrice had described?

  “Elena.” A familiar voice made me halt. Of course Lucas would be here, meeting me among the shelves.

  He stepped toward me, stopping less than an arm’s length away. But he didn’t reach out and neither did I. The distance remained between us, fraught with a thousand conversations bound by other shelves and other books.

  “He’s right, you know. Julian,” Lucas said at last.

  “You heard that?”

  He nodded.

  “But you of all people should know that they’re not just a ‘handful of commonborn’. They’re your subjects. And they’re my family.”

  He looked away from me. “As a ruler, I know that I must consider the good of all, and not just a small number of individuals. Your power is even more important than Julian knows. You cannot recklessly throw it away.”

  I longed to step forward into his arms, to let him convince me, but this was not our shelves, it was not our library. I could not run to him for comfort here. And I could not let myself give in too easily to what I selfishly desired to be true.

  “I know it never crossed Julian’s mind,” I said. “But equally I know that it must have crossed yours. You think always of the good of the kingdom.”

  “Not always,” he whispered, and I turned my head away from the pain in his voice. Our moment of rebellion had been brief.

  He drew a breath. “It occurred to me, of course. But the emperor is right when he said we don’t have the numbers. And we cannot give up healing and farming and fighting in exchange for reading. No matter how much we might wish to.”

  I sighed, unable to argue with his words.

  “And how many would even wish to?” I murmured.

  He did not argue with me, either.

  Chapter 15

  The next day Phineas gathered the entire delegation in his suite.

  “Negotiations are now underway,” he said. “But it is apparent they will take some time. I have sent an urgent missive to King Stellan with the information we have just received. None of you are to communicate about it outside of this delegation until we receive his orders on how we are to proceed.”

  “We will proceed as we have always done,” said the mage who had been shocked by the idea of commonborns wearing robes. “Personally, I’m not convinced this story is even true.”

  Phineas bent a disapproving stare on him. “Regardless of your feelings on the matter, you will not let any whisper of such a sentiment be heard outside this room. The last thing we need is to offend the Sekalis any more than we already have. Remember we need this alliance a great deal more than they do.”

  “But it’s ludicrous,” the man protested. “Whole clans where every member willingly blocks their own power? I find that hard to believe.”

  Several others nodded, their faces skeptical.

  “But that’s why it must be whole clans,” said Jasper. “I’m sure they’re conditioned from birth to believe this sealing is their purpose and duty. Surely you’ve seen the differences in how the Sekalis think? They have been raised from birth to believe the collective good more important than their individual desires, and to believe that bringing honor to their clan is their greatest achievement. And you can see how the mages honor those who wear the green robes.”

  He looked around at the assembled mages. “Just as those of us in Ardann have been raised to believe that only mages can safely read and write, and that the right to rule is therefore theirs.”

  The implication rang through the following silence. It is possible to think in another way.

  I would have appreciated such a speech from anyone else. But instead I turned cold to hear my usually circumspect brother speak so boldly to mages of power and influence. Nothing else so strongly demonstrated the power of ideas to bring change. Whatever these mages thought, Ardann could not go on unchanged.

  But they would not thank him for pointing it out to them.

  For a moment there was silence, tension heavy in the air, and I tried to think of something to say to defuse it. I cast a desperate glance at Lucas, but it was Julian who stepped forward.

  “My brother speaks the truth,” he said.

  A few eyebrows raised at his stretching his relationship with me to cover Jasper as well, but I could have embraced him for it. General Griffith’s son claiming kinship with a powerless commonborn spoke as loudly as my brother’s words, and it meant he was no longer the only target.

  “You all traveled the same road I did,” he said. “You saw the villages we passed. At the time I thought perhaps we had been purposely shown the most prosperous part of the Empire. But I now suspect we would find every village in a like manner, no matter where we traveled.”

  He spread his arms wide. “Look around you. Sekali is a prosperous place, with wealth—both of riches and of power—that we only dream of in Ardann. Could such a thing be the result of using all the resources open to them? What heights could civilization reach if reading could be shared with all? I, for one, intend to give the matter a great deal of deliberation. And I shall certainly not be doing anything to offend such wealthy and powerful people.”

  “You raise an excellent point,” said Phineas, clearly grateful to bring the conversation back to where he had left it. “And you may all consider not offending the Sekalis to be a royal order.” He glared around the group until he received nods from everyone.

  “You may go,” he said, and the group broke up. But as I turned to leave, he spoke again. “Not you, Elena. I need to speak to you.”

  I halted, as did Jasper, Julian, Lucas, and Jocasta. Phineas eyed them for a moment before sighing and ignoring their presence.

  “As you are aware, the emperor is most ke
en to see a demonstration of your power. We have told him tomorrow afternoon.”

  “What sort of demonstration is he hoping for? What do you want me to do?” I asked.

  “Apparently he would like to request the compositions himself,” Phineas said.

  “No doubt he wants to ensure you can’t have regular compositions somehow prepared in advance to fool him,” Lucas said.

  My stomach began to churn. “Just how many people are going to be observing this demonstration?”

  “We told him it would be a private audience with only a few of his top mages and advisers,” Phineas said. “And he accepted that stricture remarkably readily. In truth I thought he would want to make you a spectacle for his people.”

  “Perhaps that is still to come,” said Jocasta.

  “Perhaps,” Phineas acknowledged.

  I glanced at them uneasily. The emperor had a lot of people. This could be a long visit.

  When I finally left the suite, I matched my stride to Julian’s.

  “Thank you,” I said. “For speaking up for Jasper.”

  He looked down at me. “I didn’t do it for you. Didn’t I already say that change is coming, and I mean to be at the forefront of it?”

  I grinned, not perturbed by his words. “I seem to remember you saying family is complicated.”

  He rolled his eyes and then chuckled once, clapping me on the shoulder before strolling away. My chest filled with warmth as I watched him go. I had said it without thought, and for the first time I had truly meant it. Julian had somehow become family.

  I had seen a storm brewing between my two brothers on this trip, but instead the opposite had happened. Jasper had spoken up for himself, and Julian had stepped up and supported him. Perhaps there was a true place in the Devoras family for me, after all. Perhaps I really did have room in my life for two older brothers.

  Maybe in some way, we had all gained relatives rather than me standing alone between them, pulled one way and then the other.