“All what stupid stuff?” Tallis asked, walking towards him. Sienna followed cautiously, examining the temple as she walked along, fingers running gently along the stone wall.
“He wants me to memorize all these chants and all these hymns. He’s mad because I won’t sing for the monks anymore.”
That statement evoked a long list of questions and comments, but Tallis ignored the most obvious in favor of a slightly different one. “Why is he trying to make you learn more hymns you won’t sing?”
Brannon gave him a withering look. “It’s a punishment. It’s called irony, idiot.”
Tallis looked affronted for a moment, and Sienna let out a snort. Tallis gave her a wounded look before moving on to the obvious question. “Why won’t you sing for them anymore?” he asked, peering over Brannon to try to see what he was drawing. He got a view of dark lines and round angles before Brannon pulled the drawing up with a suspicious glare.
“I dunno,” the boy said at length. “They were all so awe-struck all the time. It was annoying. Then Brother Ibrahaim said they’d have to have me sing when the High Priests came to visit and they’d all stare, and I don’t wanna and they can’t make me.”
“I see,” Tallis said, although he wasn’t quite sure he understood. “This is Sienna,” he added.
Brannon gave her a guarded look, but the brunette didn’t bother with the usual friendly overtures an adult might offer a child. From Tallis’ description, she was fairly sure that Brannon would take such behavior as condescension. “It’s very nice to meet you,” she said briskly, and extended her hand.
He shook it gravely. “Hi.” He looked over at Tallis. “Do you want to show her the chests?”
“Yes, please,” Tallis said.
“Don’t wait on me,” Brannon said, returning to his sketching. “You know where they are.”
Tallis nodded and went up to the altar, gesturing for Sienna to follow him. She examined the chests thoroughly, noting down every detail in her perfect memory. “This is the one we can open,” Tallis said. He let her do it, to be sure that this was not like the chests upstairs, which only he and Brannon could open. It wasn’t; she lifted the lid easily and examined the interior.
She tried to open the other chest out of curiosity, but the lid didn’t budge even when she and Tallis tried some strong spells.
“At least we know what we’re looking for now,” Tallis said. “And part of its signature. We might be able to trace it.”
“Yes. Have you tried yet?”
“No,” Tallis said, a bit defensive, though he knew that Sienna was only gathering information. “I only saw all of this for the first time late last night.”
Sienna smirked at him. “You’ve been quite busy. I’ll forgive you.” She rested her hand on top of the locked chest. “So this is the Pendant,” she mused. “I have to wonder why the thief only took the one box. And why the Mirror? It’s probably the least useful to anyone who isn’t the Emperor, if we believe the old legends.”
“If I had to make a guess, I’d say he wanted all three and only got one.”
“Why so?”
“Because I bet that he came back last night to try again,” Tallis said. “I mean, really, how many unpleasant people can there be menacing a monastery?”
“Very true,” Sienna said with a snort. “But why would he have left without taking all three the first time?”
“Because he made Brannon angry,” Tallis said, glancing at the small boy, who was still hunched over his drawing and appeared to be paying no attention to them. Tallis suspected that he was hanging onto their every word, but didn’t want them to know that. “Can’t you still feel it?”
There was a pause. Then Sienna said reluctantly, “That’s what that is?” She looked at Brannon with a bit of disbelief in her expression. Brannon scowled back at them both equally.
“What?” Tallis asked Brannon.
“Don’t look at me like you’re dissecting me,” Brannon said sullenly. Tallis gave him a slightly wounded look and started to protest, but Brannon heaved a sigh that seemed to come from the tips of his toes. “Never mind. Here, I made you a picture.” He extended his workbook.
Tallis came around the altar and took it out of his hands to find a sketch of the Mirror. It was an oval, not a circle, and the frame was an intricate, never-ending coil of different pieces of metal twisted together. The drawing was similar to pictures he had seen in historical texts, although there were some slight differences. Tallis recalled from the books that it was made mostly of silver. “This drawing is really good,” he told Brannon, but the boy just muttered something.
Sienna peered over Tallis’ shoulder to examine the picture. “When did you see it?”
Brannon gave her a suspicious look, and Tallis wondered for a moment if he might have to repeat the question to see if Brannon would answer. Then he shrugged. “I see it at the yearly ceremony, but only for a few minutes.”
“Still, this will help,” Tallis said, “especially if the thief has somehow managed to get it out of the chest.”
“He can’t,” Brannon said. “No one can open the chests except the high priests.”
“I doubt he would have stolen it if he hadn’t had some plan to get it open,” Sienna said dryly.
“He may have plans, but that doesn’t mean they’ll work,” Tallis replied.
“Hm.” Sienna went back up to the altar, muttering about what a tangle it was.
Tallis turned his attention back to Brannon, who had drawn his knees up to his chest and was pretending to study. He murmured something, and Tallis walked over to sit beside him. “’m sorry,” Brannon said. “About last night. If I hadn’t gotten scared, you could have gone after the man who took them.”
“It’s all right,” Tallis said. “I took you out and promised to protect you, so that came first. And if I hadn’t taken you out, we might not have known he was here until he got into the Temple and stole the Pendant.”
“I’m still sorry.” Brannon looked away, his cheeks flushed pink, clearly ashamed of himself. “You could have gone out after him, but I asked you not to.”
“It’s all right,” Tallis repeated. “Honestly. I wouldn’t have caught up with him, and the trail was still there this morning.”
“Where did it go?” Brannon asked curiously.
“It stopped. It just disappeared like it had been cut.”
“What does that mean?”
Tallis spent a moment marveling at Brannon’s utter lack of a magical education. “It means that he or someone he is working with can Gate.”
“What’s ‘gate’?”
“It’s like . . .” Tallis tried to think of a good way to explain. “It’s a magical doorway from one place to another so you can cross the distance in a only a few seconds.”
“Oooh.” Brannon looked interested in this, his eyes gleaming.
Sienna glanced over, seeing that his interest had been piqued, and spoke up. “Gating is a very difficult skill. Most of the time Gates are created by several mages working together. Out of the three of us that were sent here, only Tallis can do it on his own.”
“Really?” Brannon looked at Tallis in open admiration.
Tallis blushed, one hand coming up to rub at the back of his head in embarrassment, ruffling his tawny golden hair. “Yeah.”
Sienna blinked at her companion. “Now then, if whoever did this can Gate, we should contact the Warder Academy and ask for a list of people who can build Gates on their own. They must have gotten training somewhere. There was only one magical signature, so it must have only been one mage.”
Tallis nodded and fished in his packs until he found some crumpled rice paper. His brush and inkwell were nowhere to be found, so he borrowed Brannon’s, scrawling a quick message.
“How far away is the Warder Academy?” Brannon asked, still interested.
“It’s about a three-day ride,” Sienna told him.
“Then how are you going to send a message there?”<
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Tallis finished writing and waved the paper around slightly to dry the ink. “These can fly,” he explained. “It’s like the dragon I made for you, only this will be a bird. They can fly much, much faster than a horse can travel. It’ll only take a couple of hours for it to reach the Warder Academy. We can make them fly to any other Warder.” For Sienna’s benefit, he added, “I’m sending the request to the Archivist.”
“Can you teach me how?” Brannon asked, and then deflated a moment later, before Tallis could answer. “Never mind, you couldn’t even teach me how to make it fly.”
“I’m not a very good teacher,” Tallis said apologetically. “I take too many short cuts and don’t really know how to explain things. But you could learn if you had someone who was a better teacher.”
“I just don’t have magic, that’s all,” Brannon grumbled.
Sienna gave Tallis a rather incredulous look, as if she couldn’t quite believe the words that had just come out of Brannon’s small mouth.
“You do have magic,” Tallis said patiently. “It’s just that no one ever told you or tested you for it.”
Brannon shook his head, looking stubborn. “I asked Elder once because he was acting all funny about it and he said I didn’t.”
Tallis opened his mouth to respond automatically that the Elder was a liar and a fool, but decided that a more mild approach might be more prudent. Whether the Elder was a good man or not, he was still the closest thing to a father that Brannon had. “Well, maybe he didn’t realize,” he suggested. Brannon looked dubious.
“Tallis, may I speak to you outside for a moment?” Sienna asked sweetly.
“Uh . . . all right.” Tallis, looking hangdog, followed her out into the hallway. Sienna only used that tone of voice when someone was going to be in big trouble, and it was usually him.
“Tallis, this boy can’t stay here,” Sienna said, as soon as the temple door was closed behind them. “I mean it. To keep this child hidden here is a crime, and it’s a dangerous one at that. Magic as strong as his needs proper training. We have to tell the Elder that when we leave, we’re going to take him with us.”
Tallis perked up, realizing that Sienna wasn’t going to yell at him. “I was already planning to. Leaving him here could be very dangerous for him in a few years when he starts to reach magical maturity.”
“He’s got a very strong gift, doesn’t he,” Sienna mused.
“Yes. There aren’t even many Warders who can leave an emotion in the very stones of a building the way he did. And this building is already filled with centuries of magic.”
“The Elder’s going to fight us on this.” Sienna smirked. She looked as if she might enjoy this.
“I’ll try to give you the pleasure of the argument,” Tallis said with a laugh. “In the meantime, do you think you could teach him something small? Even just how to make a light?”
Sienna frowned slightly. “If he doesn’t believe he can do it . . . well, I’ll give it a try. I take it your way of explanation didn’t go over very well? What were you trying to teach him, how to make one of the origami birds?”
Tallis nodded. “He folded one himself after watching me once. And I wasn’t trying to show him. He’s a quick learner.”
“Why start him with something so complicated?” Sienna asked, rolling her eyes. “You never did know your ass from your elbow when it came to teaching.”
“I didn’t mean it to be a magic lesson,” Tallis said. He wanted to be offended, but he knew that Sienna was right. “Now shall we go back before Brannon thinks he’s done something wrong?”
“It may be too late.” Sienna sobered slightly, looking at the temple door. “He seems awfully ashamed of himself for being afraid last night.”
“I was afraid last night.”
“Then tell him that.” Sienna turned and went back into the temple without another word. Tallis sighed and followed her. Brannon had gone back to pretending to study, and his eyes darted up to them when they came in, and then away.
“Sorry about that,” Tallis said.
“S’all right,” Brannon said, chewing on the end of his brush. “Adult talk. I’m used to it.”
Sienna walked over to the altar and sat down next to him. He gave her a suspicious look, but did not move away. “So,” Sienna said, “you think you don’t have magic, hm?” She gave him an expectant look that was met by a shrug. “Want to try something?”
“Elder says I’m not to let Warders touch me,” Brannon said, looking very intently at his book.
“I’m not going to touch you, Brannon. I just want you to try something.”
“Fine.” Brannon sighed, looking quite put upon.
Triumphant, Sienna said, “Now, hold your hands out for me. Cup them in front of you, like so.” She demonstrated, as if she were holding a bowl, and he mimicked her. “Now think about being warm, and wrapped up snug in blankets, hot drinks, the way this place must get in the summertime, maybe. Anything that’ll make you think of warmth. All right? Just close your eyes and concentrate.”
Brannon nodded and closed his eyes in concentration. Sienna gave it several moments, then held one hand above his, smiling in satisfaction when she felt the heat radiating from his skin. “Tallis,” she said softly, so as not to disturb the boy, “can you get me my packs? I left them by the altar.”
Tallis nodded and retrieved them for her. She pulled out an old wooden bowl and a flask of water, then filled the bowl. Her voice was smooth and steady; a teacher’s voice. “All right, Brannon, I’m going to put this in your hands. I just want you to keep thinking of whatever warmth you’re thinking of.” She smiled as he nodded, his brow creased in concentration. She put the bowl in his hands. He grasped automatically, and almost immediately the water began to boil. Sienna let out a low whistle. “That’s a quick reaction.”
“I – what?” Brannon opened his eyes, and they were hazy and distant. After a moment, they focused on the bowl and he let out a slight cry, dropping it in his surprise. Sienna reached out with both hands, using her own magic to catch it and right it before he could spill boiling water all over himself. The water immediately calmed.
“Don’t be frightened,” Sienna said. “It just means that you have a strong magical gift. Everyone has a few magical mishaps in the beginning. I singed off all my eyebrows when I was eight. Tallis, didn’t you turn a teacher’s nose purple for three days?”
Tallis nodded sheepishly. “And when I made my first Gate I got lost. It took them two days to find me. It rained the whole time.”
Brannon giggled at his mournful tone. “Elder Edrich says that magic is very dangerous.”
“It can be,” Tallis agreed. “But the more you learn to control it, the less dangerous it is.”
Brannon sighed and looked down at the religious text in his hands with a dull expression. “I have to study . . . shouldn’t you be out investigating or something?”
“Most likely,” Tallis agreed. Brannon seemed unhappy, and Tallis wasn’t sure why. It bothered him in a way he didn’t really understand.
Sienna cleared her throat and apparently decided to tactfully vacate the premises. “I’m going to get a head start on you, Tallis. I’m going to go outside and see if I can trace any of the magic from the missing chest.” She rose to her feet, gave Tallis a look that was laden with meaning, and left the temple.
For a few moments, Tallis waited to see if Brannon would tell him what was on his mind, but the boy stubbornly kept his nose buried in his book. Finally, Tallis gave up and asked. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing . . . I just hate it here,” Brannon muttered.
“You know, I meant it when I said I’m taking you with me,” Tallis said. “I don’t care what the Elder says.”
“I don’t want him to be angry with me,” Brannon said in a small voice.
“I’ll try to talk to him,” Tallis said, although he doubted that this endeavor would go over very well.
“Is learning really hard?” Branno
n asked.
“It’s hard work,” Tallis told him. “But it’s worth it.” He let the silence rest for a few minutes. “Are you still upset about last night?”
“Shouldn’t I be?” Brannon’s voice was neutral as he studied his book. “He got away. He wouldn’t have gotten away if you’d been able to chase him.”
“He might have anyway.” Tallis decided to try taking Sienna’s advice. “And you know, I was scared too.”
“You were not,” Brannon scoffed, but he sounded unsure of himself.
“Yes, I most certainly was.”
Brannon looked away. He spoke again reluctantly. “But . . . you’re so strong.”
“Yes,” Tallis agreed. “But so was he, whoever he was. And so are you. That doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to be afraid of. One of my teachers once told me that fear can sometimes be a good thing. It can help keep you alive.” Brannon looked skeptical, so Tallis added, “It tells us to be cautious. It tells us to hide sometimes, too. And it tells us when running really might be the best thing to do. You don’t always have to give in to what fear makes you want to do, but it’s always good to at least consider the option.”
Brannon sighed heavily. “I didn’t mean to be a burden. I’m sorry.”
“I know,” Tallis said, and patted his shoulder. “It’s fine, really. I think things worked out pretty well. We learned some things about him anyway, and he won’t be able to come back and steal anymore.”
“He will be after you’re gone.”
“I’ll stop him or catch him before I go. And I’m taking you with me, remember?”
“Elder won’t let you.”
“Then I won’t ask his permission.”
“He’ll get really mad,” Brannon said, shifting uncomfortably. “I don’t want him to be angry with me.”
Tallis gave this a little thought, and then said gently, “Well, I think maybe you should take some time to decide what you want, and what you think will be the best for you and make you happy.”
He wasn’t sure what to expect from the sometimes-adult-boy in reply to this, but he wasn’t surprised when Brannon just sighed, hunched his shoulders, and said, “Yeah. I guess so.” He looked up at the altar for a few long minutes. “Do you think I was wrong to refuse to sing for the high priests?”
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