Crown of Secrets (The Hidden Mage Book 1)

by Melanie Cellier

I forced down my instinctive reaction and considered her words. I was here to understand how these Kallorwegians thought, and I couldn’t do that if I grew defensive over every element of difference.

  “We leave the more intensive discipline-specific training to the disciplines themselves,” I said. “I suppose it is inefficient, in some ways. I imagine when you all graduate and join your discipline, you’ll be much more capable members from the beginning. I can see the appeal of that.”

  She started to turn away, but I kept going.

  “On the other hand, it’s a big decision to make on your first day at the Academy—without any experience of composing, let alone experience with any of the disciplines. In Ardann, trainees focus on basic compositions for the first year and then from second year onward have the chance to study across a range of disciplines of their choice. It allows us to find where we’re best suited. I can see value in both approaches.”

  “A diplomatic response.” Dellion sounded amused. “Although your arena training must be a shambles if that is your way.”

  She glanced a final time at the unmoving Darius before shrugging and crossing the room to the instructor, taking the place of Wardell who was now heading for the door. I frowned after her. What did advanced combat lessons in the arena have to do with anything?

  “I’m surprised Ardann has so many mages they can afford to use their resources so flippantly,” said a quiet voice behind me.

  I turned slightly to find Darius had stepped forward. My pulse, which had spiked at the unexpected sound of his voice, now took off at an alarming pace. I looked at him measuringly, trying to hide my irrational reaction.

  “No, indeed,” I said. “Ardann may have more unsealed mages than Kallorway, but we’re no Sekali Empire. What we cannot afford is to have our disciplines full of mages ill-suited to their choice. Or to have senior mages expend valuable time training new members of their discipline only to have them step away from their commitment. We would rather take the time up front to test the interest and disposition of trainees to ensure they end up where their talents best place them. And there is value in a broad foundation. None of the disciplines stand entirely alone.”

  Darius regarded me, his expression unreadable. “Well, you are in Kallorway now, Princess, and we do things differently here. So which discipline do you intend to study?”

  I opened my mouth only to close it again. I had assumed, when I thought about it at all, that I would spread my study evenly across the various disciplines in order to increase my understanding of how all the elements of our kingdom functioned.

  I shot a slightly panicked look at Bryony. I wasn’t ready to commit myself to four years of intensive study in a single discipline—especially when I would never have the chance to actually engage in the work of that discipline.

  My mind raced through the options, grateful that at least the disciplines themselves were the same here as at home. The University and the Academy weren’t options for study but instead attracted the academic-minded or instruction-inclined from across various areas of specialization. Which left eight remaining disciplines: law enforcement, the seekers, the healers, the growers, the wind workers, the creators, the Armed Forces, and the Royal Guard.

  I knew something of all of them, of course. Along with the University and Academy heads, the heads of those eight disciplines formed the all-important Mage Council, responsible for advising the monarch and helping form Ardann’s laws. My family studied the members of the Mage Council with as much focus as others studied important texts. Managing the ten powerful dukes and duchesses—or generals in the case of the Armed Forces and the Royal Guard—was one of the core elements of maintaining stability in a kingdom.

  But that even-handed focus didn’t help me now. I had no idea how to prioritize one discipline over the others.

  “She’ll study energy compositions with me, of course,” Bryony said, slipping her arm through mine.

  I threw her a grateful, albeit confused, look, and she came to my rescue again with a further explanation.

  “When we arrived, Father asked about their intentions for us energy mages and discipline studies. He wanted to be sure my time would be well-spent here, since four years is a long commitment.”

  “We may get energy mages only rarely in Kallorway,” Darius said, “but you are not the first.”

  Bryony continued to smile, not in the least deflated by his comment. “I’m glad Tyron showed up because it will be much nicer to have two of us to study and experiment together. We’re to spend some time on specific study relating to our energy compositions and the rest of the time moving between the different discipline classes. They want us to learn how we can best work together with the different strains of power mages.”

  My eyes widened slightly. That sounded perfect for my purposes. I nodded decisively and turned back to Darius.

  “Yes, I intend to study energy compositions with Bryony.”

  He gave me a hooded look I couldn’t read. “Do you indeed? How…interesting.”

  I tried to guess what he could mean but could make little sense of it. The choice seemed a natural one in my circumstances, especially when it allowed me to remain with my one ally at the Academy.

  “Perhaps we will learn the—” Darius cut himself off and shook his head, glancing quickly around the room which had emptied somewhat while we talked but was not completely cleared.

  I frowned at him, trying to restrain my curiosity, but he merely shook his head again, and moved back toward his brother. Jareth raised an eyebrow at him, looking past him at the two of us and saying something in a quiet murmur.

  “What was that about?” Bryony asked.

  “I have no idea,” I whispered back. “Crown Prince Darius is not at all easy to read.”

  “An important skill in his position, I’m sure.”

  I nodded slowly, still watching the two princes as they finally moved up to the instructor behind the desk. Jareth made no attempt to modulate his voice as he chose the discipline of the royal guards. Darius spoke more quietly when he selected law enforcement, but in the near empty room his words were still audible.

  So the crown prince wished to learn more about the laws of the kingdom and how they were enforced. Because he approved of them? Or because he wished to see them changed? I watched him leave the room with his brother, a crease between my brows.

  “That makes sense.” Bryony nodded approvingly. “Darius will rule the kingdom, and his brother will keep him safe.”

  “Is that the role of the second child after the heir?” I asked, not entirely able to keep the despondence from my voice. “How unfortunate for Lucien. I suppose Stellan will have to step up.”

  Bryony grimaced and gave my arm a supportive squeeze. “Lucien and Stellan are lucky to have you,” she said loyally.

  The instructor still waited at the desk, her pen poised above her piece of parchment. We moved close enough that I could read the binding composition at the top of the page which allowed it to be used as regular paper. Any words she wrote on it would be safe from unleashing power.

  Her eyes moved between the three of us, settling on me. “You wish to study with the energy mages, Princess Verene?”

  I nodded.

  “Very well.” She wrote my name down along with Bryony’s and Tyron’s.

  I couldn’t imagine it mattered much to anyone what I studied. Not given my limitations. But I was still glad not to encounter any opposition to my choice.

  “You’ll be in room eleven.”

  I told myself I was imagining the faint look of pity on the woman’s face. What was wrong with room eleven?

  Tyron led the way back out of the room, turning further down the corridor and stopping at one of the doors at the far end. It had a small number eleven burned into the wood.

  He smiled back over his shoulder at Bryony and me. “Ready, ladies?”

  Bryony rolled her eyes and pushed past him. “I’ve been waiting for this for years.”

 
Inside, we found a single instructor waiting for us. She had a thin, sharp face, and her expression darkened at the sight of us. I had a sudden inkling as to why the previous instructor had looked sorry for us.

  “Three of you.” Her tone was flat. “So I’m to have the pleasure of instructing you, Princess of Ardann.”

  Her voice and face indicated it was anything but a pleasure, but I could take no exception to anything in her actual words. I settled for giving her a regal nod.

  She turned her gaze on Bryony and Tyron.

  “No, I’m not an energy mage,” she said, in response to a question no one had asked. “But no, that doesn’t mean you’re the experts here. I’m the senior discipline instructor at the Academy, and I’ve been here a long time. I’ve personally tutored all of our previous energy mage graduates. They may have been few in number, but they achieved levels of proficiency you are far from possessing in your current unschooled state.”

  Tyron pressed his lips together and glanced sideways at Bryony. They both looked taken aback at her combative approach, but neither spoke. She might not be pleasant, but if she spoke truthfully, she had knowledge to share. And, at the end of the day, that was the only thing that mattered.

  “You may call me Instructor Amalia,” she added. “Or Senior Instructor.” She paused to look balefully between us all, but again no one spoke. “We will begin by finding out just how little you all know.”

  An indeterminate length of time later, the beautiful sound of a bell set us free. After the grueling session of verbal testing, my brain rejoiced at the sound. Thanks to my parents, I wasn’t completely ignorant, but I couldn’t equal the knowledge of Bryony or Tyron who had grown up among energy mages.

  I was only glad I had put in the work at home to become proficient with a sword. At least there was one out of three lessons where I wouldn’t be the most useless in the class.

  But my words to Royce about my lack of recent training had been true. It was a number of days since I had last practiced in earnest, and my body was aching from the combat lesson almost as much as my mind reeled from the intensity of the day. I could only be glad our new discipline instructor hadn’t given us any assignments to occupy our first evening. It was an unexpected reprieve given her obvious belief that we were ignorant children in much need of instruction.

  When I bid Bryony goodnight and retreated to my private sitting room, I stripped off my white robe and sank onto one of the sofas with a sigh. Rubbing my head, I reviewed the day. In retrospect, it had been something of a failure.

  As much as I wanted to learn more about composing and energy mages in general, I couldn’t lose sight of my purpose here. It didn’t matter how much knowledge I gained; I would never be able to compose. So while I didn’t want to disgrace my family or Ardann by performing terribly in my classes, I couldn’t let learning become my main focus.

  My aunt wanted to understand the allegiances of my year mates, but that was only a step toward her eventual goal. The time had come for Ardann to forge deeper ties with Kallorway and begin to truly heal the damage of the long war. But when it came to the well-being of Ardann, Aunt Lucienne was cautious. She wouldn’t commit the kingdom to any sort of alliance until she knew who and what would best serve our interests. She was hungry for information to inform her next move—especially information on the future king—but I wanted to deliver more than that.

  I was determined to forge real ties with Kallorway and win allies for Ardann. But all I had learned so far was that my year mates appeared to perpetuate the divisions that crippled the Kallorwegian court, and that neither faction seemed interested in a connection with Ardann. Hardly encouraging news to suggest my time here would be worth the sacrifice.

  Somehow I had to find a way to connect with the other trainees. And with one trainee in particular. I had to discover what kind of ruler Darius intended to be and convince him that Ardann and Kallorway were better off together.

  A scraping sound, loud in the stillness, jerked me from my thoughts. I sat upright, staring at the left wall of my sitting room where the noise had originated. The tapestry that hung there fluttered and moved before being thrust completely aside by an opening door which had been hidden behind it.

  Chapter 9

  I leaped to my feet, my hand thrusting instinctively toward one of my hidden pockets as I had been trained. But my fingers hadn’t even closed on one of my father’s shielding compositions before I recognized the figure who strode through the door.

  Prince Darius.

  My hand stilled, and I slowly lowered it again without retrieving a shield. He carried neither parchment nor weapon, and I had no reason to suppose his intent was to attack me. Using one of my compositions would both deplete my stores and potentially offend him. At home I had been trained to respond to even a hint of danger, but I had to think differently now.

  The prince came fully into the room, stooping to pick something up from behind the other sofa. When he straightened, he held a stray downy feather.

  “I heard some among us were overly enthusiastic in their welcome.” He regarded me with a closed expression.

  I shrugged, hiding my spark of interest in this evidence that he knew of the incident in my suite. Did the servants keep him apprised of events within the Academy, then? Or had his information come through Duke Francis? I was here to learn about my own generation, but if I could discover something about the attitude of the commonborns toward their future king, that would be worthwhile.

  “I only wish they had given some thought to the extra work they caused the poor servants,” I said. “And now that I have arrived, my door is shielded, of course.”

  He glanced at my main door, although he didn’t have to look to feel the power coating it. I, however, focused on the open door behind him, frowning at the disrupted tapestry and the glimpse of another sitting room through the opening.

  “But I would have appreciated being told about a hidden entrance into my receiving room.” I let my displeasure sound in my voice for once.

  Darius turned his attention back to me, raising his eyebrows in a look of faint surprise. “Were you not informed? The Academy doesn’t usually host so many royal trainees at once. These suites are more commonly used for visiting guests of high rank. Many of them are connected.”

  I refrained from giving an anxious look around the room. “Don’t tell me there are other hidden entries into my suite!”

  “No, indeed. These are the two suites used by my parents on their occasional visits. They connect to each other but not any others.”

  I raised an eyebrow. The king’s and queen’s suites. It couldn’t be coincidence that Darius and I had been given them instead of Darius and his brother. A seed of hope sprouted. Had Darius himself been responsible for the room placements? Did the crown prince have more interest in Ardann than he was publicly willing to acknowledge?

  During our one true conversation so far, Darius had cut himself off. Had it been because we weren’t alone? Had he ended our interaction intending to continue it later in private? Perhaps he had organized from the beginning for us to have a way to speak alone—freely, royal to royal. That suggested he might have some interest in building ties, after all.

  “Well, you can be sure I’ll be shielding that door as well after this.” Thankfully Layna had been generous in the number of compositions she had provided.

  He gave me a half-bow. “Naturally.”

  Of course, I should have noticed the power of his own door shield lurking behind the tapestry. I could feel it now. But I had grown up in a palace full of compositions. I didn’t pay attention to power felt through a wall.

  “I will make certain to knock next time,” he added.

  “Be sure you do.” I eyed him, remembering the strange abruptness of the servant who had shown me to my room.

  She had barely given me any information, fleeing before I had the chance to ask questions. And yet she had later seemed genuinely surprised by the chaos wreaked by my unknown harass
er. Had I now discovered what she had been avoiding telling me? It had surely been her role to inform me of this door so that I could secure it as I did my main door.

  As soon as the thought formed, it hardened into certainty. Of course I should have been informed of all entrances to my suite and given the opportunity to preserve my privacy, as Darius had taken steps to preserve his. Ordinarily my servant would certainly have done so. Unless someone with enough influence wanted me kept in ignorance. Someone who might have wanted the opportunity to catch me off guard. There could be only one person. The only one who could access the door in question—the crown prince of Kallorway.

  How much sway did Darius hold here in what was supposed to be the neutral domain of Duke Francis?

  The prince looked me up and down slowly, a puzzled look slipping onto his face. I let him finish his perusal, meeting his gaze defiantly.

  “It was a…surprise when I heard you wished to study at our Academy,” he said at last.

  “It is my aunt who wishes me to study here.” I couldn’t help the truthful reply slipping out.

  After all his coldness, I didn’t want him thinking I had been eager to spend four years in his cold, formal kingdom. And it might do good to remind him that while I was merely a junior princess, barely in the line of succession, I came as a representative of my family.

  “That also surprised me,” he admitted, saying the words almost reluctantly.

  I raised an eyebrow. “Do you not think she values rebuilding Ardann’s relationship with Kallorway? It’s been more than twenty years since the war ended. It is time for a new beginning.”

  “The war is not forgotten here,” he said.

  “Yes, that’s the problem.” A caustic note slipped into my voice. He seemed determined to be difficult. “But might I remind you that Kallorway were the aggressors, not Ardann.”

  For the first time since I had met him, he looked uncomfortable, although the expression quickly passed.

  “That is also not forgotten, although my grandfather, the old king, is long dead.”