“Maybe not who, but what. Your leader, the one you adore? Think, Donna!” Despite the woman’s vile attitude, Julianne’s heart twisted with pity. “He’s got your head twisted so far backwards you can’t tell up from down. You don’t think he’s manipulated you the same way you think we should do to others?” Julianne fell silent, letting her opponent think on her words.
Donna didn’t take the chance. “Fool girl! I joined Rogan because he was right. He sees so much more than the rest of us, and he will lead us to glory! By casting us out and rejecting his support, you become our enemy. Think hard before making your people a target.”
“Get out. I won’t throw you off the mountain in this storm, but if you aren’t gone by daylight I may reconsider.” Julianne waited until Donna was almost at the door before adding, “And if you think my people will make an easy target, you’d best think twice.”
Donna didn’t pause, ignoring the guards that flanked her and her hooded followers as they left.
Make sure they’re well and truly gone, will you? Julianne sent to Aldred. She jumped into his head and quickly saw he had the full contingent of guards on duty and alert for problems.
Will do, Master, he replied as the mystics of the Heights filed quietly back in to finish their breakfast.
“After breakfast, would the senior members join me in my office?” Julianne called. Margit, Danil, and the three other mystics in question all sent their agreement, and Julianne sat down to eat.
Though her appetite was gone, she reached for some ham and a slice of thick, buttered bread, adding some sweet cherries to her plate as an afterthought. She tried to tune out the whispers and thoughts that drifted by, concentrating instead on her meal.
A young boy and two older girls approached the head table. “Uhh, Master?” Bettina, the oldest, was the first to speak. “Mattie and Birn were just wondering… are we to train in battle magic now?”
“It’s just, the younger ones are worried,” Mattie asked. Julianne didn’t point out he was one of the youngest in the Heights.
“Everything will be fine,” she said. “Your teachers and I will decide what happens and yes, your training in the mental disciplines may change. It won’t be battle magic, though.”
Mattie’s eyes dropped and his lips twisted into a childish pout. Bettina nudged him and whispered, “Told you so,” as they returned to their seats.
“Little runts are always worried,” Danil said through a mouthful of food and a grin. “It’s not your fault.”
Julianne swallowed her bread. “It doesn’t matter whose fault it is. I’m the one responsible for them, and they’re scared.”
“Bullshit, you’re teaching them resilience.” Danil shrugged. “And anyway, it is what it is. No point stressing over things out of your control. Best to focus on what you can change and do that… or something like that.” Danil frowned as if trying to remember the words Julianne had said to him, and to others, a thousand times over.
“Shut up.” Julianne threw a corner of bread at him, closing her eyes so Danil couldn’t use her own sight to duck. When he let out a bark of surprise, she opened them to see it had landed in his cup, splashing elixir over his shirt. “Serves you right,” she giggled.
Danil made a halfhearted attempt to return the volley, but miscalculated and sent it flying at Bevan, a cranky old mystic who had no tolerance for childish behavior. Of course, that made Julianne laugh even harder, and when Bevan stood to frown over the two of them, she slipped back in her seat clutching her ribs.
As was often the case in a room full of mind readers, her laughter became contagious. Before long, the entire room was happy and relaxed, the events from earlier all but forgotten.
“See?” Danil said with a smile. “Doesn’t take long for this lot to recover. It wouldn’t be like that if they didn’t trust you, J.”
Julianne reached over to squeeze his hand gratefully while she watched the mystics’ earlier anxiety melt away. Then, with a sigh, she pushed her plate away. “I guess I better get ready for this meeting. Are you coming up now?”
“Sure.” Danil rose and took her arm. In a room full of people, Danil could use multiple sets of eyes to ‘see’ his way around from different angles. The fewer the people, the harder it was for him to judge distance, and the chance that someone was looking just where he needed them to was much lower.
Julianne felt his familiar spike of alertness as the door closed behind them, and he was reduced to using her set of eyes. Still, she didn’t bother to change her actions. Danil had lived in the Heights as long as she had and knew every nook and cranny like the back of his hand. Probably better, in fact.
“What time are you headed out?” he asked as they walked.
“Early. Before breakfast, though I don’t think I’ll make it out before sunup.” Julianne shot him a sideways glance. “Why are you shielding me?” she asked. Danil had, at some point after they left the dining hall, locked her out of his head.
“What? Oh, it’s just left over from last night I suppose.” He dropped the shield, but a section of his mind still remained clouded. Julianne didn’t ask him about it. It was common for those at the Heights to guard small parts of their mind, usually to prevent awkwardness or to shield impolite thoughts.
Danil often had a little corner of his mind kept secret, and Julianne had long had the suspicion that he was hiding feelings for her. She knew many of the others suspected so. So far, he hadn’t mentioned it and neither had she.
“How do you think the others will want to deal with this?” Julianne asked him, trying to push away her nerves.
“The usual way.” He looked at her and, when she shot back a quizzical glance, explained. “They’ll throw up suggestions, argue about them, then wait for you to decide. They’ll offer a little token resistance to assert their value to the conversation, and walk away relieved that they didn’t have to have the final say.”
“And you?” Julianne asked.
“I will, as always, offer sage advice and eternal wisdom. Those present shall quake at my valuable insight and lament their puny attempts to compete with my greatness.” He bowed, almost tripping on the top step as he did so.
“Oh, for goodness sake, be careful!” Julianne admonished. “The last thing I need is for you to break your neck.”
“Because you can’t live without my sharp wit and clever ideas?” he asked with a wink.
“Because without the comic relief and constant bullshit you provide, I’d bore myself to death.”
They were both laughing as they entered Julianne’s office. She waved Danil to one of the seats as she poured him a cup of elixir, then ducked next door to drag a few more chairs into the room. She was shortly joined by Gunther, the head guard.
Quickly reading his hesitant request, Julianne nodded. “Yes, we will need you at our meeting. Thank you.” Gunther was a godsend to Julianne, taking her promotion to Master in stride and never questioning her decisions in public, yet forthright enough to let her know if there was a better way.
Footsteps in the hall signaled the arrival of the others, and Julianne closed her eyes. She sucked a breath in through her nose and slowly released it, taking that brief moment to find her center.
“Welcome Charles, Melanie, and Jonsen. Shall we begin?”
6
“I’d like to begin by saying that any objection I had to you leaving for Arcadia no longer exists.” Jonsen jumped in to speak before the others could even sit down. “What you’ve shown us since you’ve been back made me realize I hadn’t grasped the situation at all. In regard to the current situation… well, I’ll probably take your lead, Master.”
Julianne’s heart melted. Jonsen had been the loudest voice against her leaving and the most chastened when she returned. “Thank you, Jonsen.”
“I wouldn’t go that far myself,” Charles said as he lowered himself into a chair, which creaked under his impressive weight. “But I do think many of us geriatrics have shut ourselves in for too long. I
admit you have more expertise on current world matters, but damned if I’ll let you start arming my students before it’s necessary.”
“It’s long past necessary,” Danil said. “Did you hear what that woman said? And I’m twice as worried by the fact that not one—not one of us—could make it past her mental shield except Julianne.”
“You what? I must have missed that, what did you see?” Charles asked.
“Not much,” Julianne admitted. “Enough to know she’s under the sway of a very powerful mystic. Her mind is warped. Though I think the contempt she felt was real enough, there’s someone more powerful standing behind her.”
“Aldred said somewhat the same, Master.” Gunther nodded respectfully. “Seems he knew that Donna woman before she left. Said the girl he knew wouldn't break the Temple tenets like that, not if the world turned over.”
“Surely,” Melanie said, “the best thing we can do is to bunker down, close our doors and lay low.”
“And if another band of pilgrims knocks on our door?” Gunther asked. “How will we know if they’re regular mystics returning from pilgrimage, or a bunch of crazies?”
Melanie shrugged.
“You can’t mean to turn away our own people,” Julianne gasped. “Donna and her companions are mystics, remember? They’re our people. Our own! We can’t turn away every journeyman who comes back seeking refuge. Even if we had the numbers to sustain ourselves, I wouldn’t permit it.”
Melanie grimaced. “Fair enough. I didn’t know any of her lot personally, I just can’t fathom any of our people speaking like she did.” She gave a slight shudder at the memory of Donna’s words.
“Danil has a proposal.” Julianne gestured to him to present it. She didn't mention it was one he'd been working on since she'd left for Arcadia so many months ago.
Danil explained that he wanted the few mystics who had trained themselves in battle magic to pass that knowledge on to all of the teachers, who would then filter it down to the students. As it stood, only the guards and a small handful of others knew offensive magic techniques.
“I still don’t think the younger initiates should be exposed to such things,” Melanie snapped. She folded her arms, her stance mimicking the resistance in her mind.
“Melanie, they just saw a madwoman plotting the enslavement and demise of non-magicals!” Danil sat back in his seat, stretching his arms over his head. “And they all heard about the incident of the Capitol Guards infiltration while Ezekiel was here. I get the feeling if we don’t do something to get them involved, they’ll take it into their own hands. Don’t you remember what it’s like at that age?”
All eyes turned to him, no doubt remembering what he was like at that age.
“Melanie is right,” Julianne said. The other woman’s plea to keep the children out of the battle training had made Julianne think of the children who’d come to her at dinner. “The children can’t be expected to bear this burden, nor should they be saddled with the weight of it. We will adjust the junior teaching programs to introduce effective mental blocking and simple disguises a little earlier, but nothing more. Are we all in agreement?”
All heads nodded, even Danil’s. It was rare he’d come up against Julianne, even when she contradicted him. Though it often grated on her, she welcomed it now.
“I can double roster my lot so they have a session at the gates, and a session of passing on what they know.” Gunther pursed his lips, thinking. “I figure we can run that for at least a couple weeks before they start to grumble. If you’re willing to lend us some bodies to ease the workload once we’ve got a few trained up, we’ll have half the Temple up to scratch in under a month.”
“That’s another pressing issue, Master,” Charles said. “When Gunther says, ‘half the Temple’, that only makes about one hundred and forty people. Adrien might be gone, but we still only have twenty-two initiates and most of those are almost ready to graduate. If we don’t replenish our numbers soon, we may find the greater problem we face lies within our own walls.”
Heaving a sigh, Julianne leaned back. That was a problem she'd been avoiding. The once teeming Temple was now full of dusty, unused rooms, and the school wing had been reduced to a single class.
“One thing at a time,” she said. “We deal with this threat first, or at least evaluate it. I don’t want anyone off galivanting through Arcadia alone with these nutters running loose. As soon as it’s deemed safe, we’ll start sending out search groups, like we used to. No one who’s not trained in battle magic, though.”
Melanie sat up and opened her mouth, but Julianne cut her off. “No, Melanie, I won’t force anyone to learn it. I can’t really force anyone to stay in the Temple, either, but I will stress it’s highly recommended at this time.”
“What about Arcadia?” Danil asked. “Surely, we need to send a message to them. Perhaps a rearick?”
“I can do that on my way to the Madlands,” Julianne said. “I leave tomorrow.”
Silence fell for a heartbeat. Then, the protests erupted.
Julianne waved them down. “I’ll be perfectly safe, and you will function perfectly well without me. I’m far overdue for a pilgrimage of my own.” She turned to face Jonsen. “No, Arcadia was not a pilgrimage, it was a rescue mission. I didn’t have a damned moment to myself that whole time, and I’m aching for some solitude.”
Danil’s emotions prickled behind her, but he quickly suppressed them. Julianne assumed it was just worry for her safety.
“I’ve tried to convince her to stay. Believe me, she’s stubborn as a damned mule.” Danil ducked the hand that almost swatted his ear. “You're prettier than one, though.” He ducked the next blow, too.
“She’s right,” Charles said. “The Temple will function without her, however unwilling we may be to do so. Julianne has made considerable headway in making sure we can stand on our own feet after the mess she had to deal with when Selah died.”
Julianne winced. “I wouldn’t call it a mess, Charles. It was just a bit… disorganized, is all.”
Charles snorted. “That’s the understatement of the year. It took you months just to sort out his papers. No, dear, no fault of yours. The man was a pack rat, and we do appreciate the changes you’ve made. Besides, we survived just fine during your trip to Arcadia. Well, most of us. Those that weren’t moping about the halls and pining for your company.”
Julianne pointedly ignored the bright red flush creeping up Danil’s face. “Thank you, Charles. Now, do we have anything else to address?”
“How long will you be gone?” Melanie asked. “What do we do if that lot come back?”
Julianne shrugged. “What we normally do, I guess. We pull back to the safety of the Temple and close our doors until we think of something better. I don’t like it, but I also don’t want anyone starting a war with these people until I can find out more about them.”
Melanie’s eyes narrowed. “You’re going to try and find them, aren’t you?”
“Not exactly,” Julianne said. “But by chance, I’m headed in the direction they came from. If I happen to ferret out some information, all the better. My main mission hasn’t changed, though. I want to find Artemis, see if I can coax him back to the Heights for a bit. What little work he left behind showed him to be an expert on battle magic, and he may know more about the exact threat we’re up against if he’s in the same region.”
Melanie nodded. “Can’t say I envy your position, Julianne. I appreciate your decision regarding the young ones. Now, I imagine we all have a lot to organize before our Master’s departure. I shall see you all at dinner.”
With that, the meeting was over.
Butterflies danced in Julianne’s stomach as she contemplated the journey ahead, and the possible danger she was leaving behind. In her heart, she knew she couldn’t delay this trip. No magic could foretell the future, but Julianne had something better than magic in that respect: common sense.
She needed Artemis and damned if she wouldn’t go get
him, even if she had to drag him back by the toenails.
7
Julianne spent the rest of the day in a frenzy of preparation. There were schedules to be altered, to reduce the impact of her absence. A pile of paperwork was set aside for ‘later’ and wouldn’t wait until she got back. Bags needed packing, horses looked over, and money counted.
Though Julianne intended to travel light, she would still need clothes, a bedroll, food, water, maps, papers, and a jumble of other necessary items. She’d also need at least one nice robe and the required items to make herself presentable for her brief visit to Arcadia.
“Do I really need six pairs of socks?” she asked Margit, who was helping her pack.
“Have you forgotten what it’s like to walk in wet ones, or how long it takes wool to dry?” Margit shook her head and stuffed the extra pairs in Julianne’s pack.
Julianne’s previous forays into Irth has mostly involved traveling village to village, with no more than a night or two spent sleeping on the road between inns. A trip across the Madlands would take longer, though, and there would be no safe haven or clean bed to sleep in.
Margit dropped a gold belt into her bag. Julianne plucked it out.
“You're being ridiculous.” Margit shook her head and threw the belt back in. “You can't go out into the world, representing the Temple while looking like a hobo!”
“Margit, do you think I’m crazy?”
“I think you're devoid of any sense of style.” Margit clicked her tongue, tying up the bag’s strings and setting it on the floor next to the bed. She smoothed out the blanket and sat, close enough to put an arm around the younger woman. “I wouldn’t like you much if I didn’t. But this journey? I think you’re doing the right thing.”
“You knew Artemis best. What should I expect?”
“A fight.” Margit removed her arm and turned to look Julianne in the eyes. “You have to remember, Jules. He’s not like us. He’s… different. Don’t appeal to his better nature, and don’t think for a moment you can guilt him into coming back for the good of the people. He doesn’t give a damn about the people.”
Welcome To The Age of Magic Page 95