Chapter Ten
The rest of the day passes in an exhausting blur.
I go to classes that cover magic, poisons and anecdotes, the royal houses and courts of Aureon, battle strategies, outdoor survival, espionage, and regional slang and dialects.
Other than espionage, which I’m a natural at after all my years of blending in and lying, I am absolutely worthless.
When I finally reach my room after the last class, I’m beyond frustrated and my nerves are wrecked.
What is the point of treating me like a normal student?
I’m not going to become a Guardian, for about a hundred reasons.
Namely, I’m human, not fae. Second, even if I did want to be a Guardian, I would need to have started six years ago.
Most trainees become Guardians by age twenty-five, after nine years of training, eight if they’re exceptional.
And finally, I have no desire to be a Guardian.
Other than Professor Julian, and maybe Toryn, every single one of them seems to be a pretentious cock.
The air of self-importance and self-righteousness is so thick I could cut it with a dagger.
When I flop down on my bed with a loud groan, my new little friend makes a purring sound and flies down from her perch on top of the curtain rod over my window.
I’d nearly forgotten she was here, so for a moment it startles me, but then I realize it’s actually…
nice. I’ve never had a pet before. Not that Trix is a pet exactly.
Or even mine to keep. I can feel her walking toward me across the bed cover, dragging her oversized wings behind her.
Once she gets close enough, she wet-noses me like a cat.
I jerk reflexively, and she jumps back a few inches.
With a laugh, I reach over and run my finger along the back of her head, which she seems to enjoy.
“What do you eat other than fruit, I wonder?”
I hadn’t had a chance to bring her anything today with all my classes, but she doesn’t seem to be hungry, so I imagine she must be able to fend for herself.
After all, I’d only just shown up yesterday.
Thinking of food makes me realize I’m absolutely starving.
The last thing I want is to see everyone again in the dining room.
Maybe I can sneak off to the kitchen with Carmeline and the others again…
As if on cue, I hear the dinner bell being rung on the first floor of the castle, and I force myself upright, which seems to disgruntle the little cat-dragon.
I catch a glimpse of myself very faintly in the glass of the window.
It surprises me, and it makes me curious.
I haven’t had a real home for as long as I can remember, and so I’ve never possessed a mirror.
The only time I’d ever caught glimpses of myself had been in the occasional tavern, or making a delivery at someone’s home.
And those times, I had been pretending to be a boy, so I’d only glanced to make sure my disguise was effective.
Now, being here in this place, it is utterly strange that I can drop the facade.
And I also find myself wondering what other people think when they see me.
I’m no longer smudged in soot and ash, and my hair isn’t pinned tightly behind my head.
The reflection looking back at me actually looks like a woman, and I’m not really sure how to process that.
I turn, a breath I didn’t realize I was holding whooshing out of my lungs, and I head for the door to my room.
When I swing it open, I nearly trip on a package sitting right outside it.
It’s long and narrow, a box made of wood.
The surface is polished and inlaid with green stone in intricate patterns.
I stare at it a moment, puzzled and entranced.
Perhaps it’s something Professor Julian dropped off for me?
I reach down and pick up the box, retreating a couple steps into the room.
I set it down on the table next to my bed and run my fingers along the sides of it, looking for a latch or release.
Trix watches me curiously from where she’s curled up on the far corner of the bed, looking sleepy eyed as if she’s about to take a nap.
My fingers find something at the back, a small button.
At my touch, the lid lifts back on a spring hinge, revealing an interior of black satin, and something silver…
There’s a shriek from Trix and she launches off the bed at me.
I stumble backward, instinctively covering my face with both hands.
In the process, I tumble through the doorway out into the hall.
I hear a yell and am vaguely aware of a group of trainees off in the distance, visible in my peripheral.
But I don’t turn to look, because I see something else quite curious.
Something that has me scrambling backward farther out into the hallway, away from my room.
Through my open doorway, I can still see the wooden box on my bed. Rising from the interior, from the fancy satin lining and the silver dagger that’s sitting inside, is a cloud of black mist.
I’ve never been given a gift before, most certainly nothing arriving in a polished box inlaid with crystal, but I’m fairly confident it’s not supposed to spew noxious fog that looks like…
“Poison!” shrieks a woman behind me.
“Get one of the professors!” says one of the other trainees.
Hands slide under my armpits, shaking me from my shocked stupor as someone hauls me up off the ground. I look around, suddenly horrified at the thought that I’ve crushed Trix in my fall, but then I catch sight of her perched on one of the rafters down the hall.
“You need to go to the healing ward.”
I realize the person that lifted me is Toryn. He turns me around and his eyes search mine, as if trying to determine my wellbeing with a look.
“You seem dazed. Let’s go.”
I don’t protest physically as he practically drags me down the hall, but I mumble, “I—I think I’m fine,” to which he doesn’t respond. His lips are set in a grim line.
The healing ward is on the first floor, on the opposite side of the building from the dining hall. A small crowd follows behind us on the way, and I can hear people whispering loudly.
“Black magic…”
“…someone wants her dead…”
“Only one person here would do such a thing…”
Funny how suddenly everyone seems to care when you’re nearly murdered.
I’m beyond grateful when the healer beckons us inside the ward and pointedly shuts the door in everyone’s face.
“You, too,” she says to Toryn.
He frowns but does as he’s told.
“I’m Gemma,” says the healer. “Sit down over there.”
She points to the closest examination table and begins pulling things out of a nearby cabinet while I walk over to it.
The room I’m in is fairly small, with two exam tables and two walls of wooden cabinets.
There’s an open door on another wall that leads into the healing ward, a long room with tall ceilings and high windows to let in lots of natural light.
Dozens of beds line the walls on each side.
Exactly how many people do they think they’d need to treat here?
That number of beds could only be used after a battle. Or during times of war…
I shiver and look away.
Gemma approaches with a metal scope, which she uses to examine my eyes, one at a time.
Then she asks me to stick out my tongue and makes vague mumblings about the color of it (which she seems satisfied with).
She examines my hands and my fingers, asking if I feel any numbness anywhere.
Lastly, she summons her magic and circles me, hands outstretched, palms facing toward me, as if sensing for traces of poison or dark magic.
It creates a strange hum in the air, like bees in a meadow, and the air grows tighter, warmer.
A metallic tang tickles the back of my throat.
She’s just finishing when Professor Julian rushes in. “How is she?” His voice is panicked, his face stricken.
“Fine. I find no traces of poison in her system,” Gemma says. “She’s very lucky.”
Julian turns to me. “Tell me exactly what happened.”
I tell him how I opened my door and found the box there, when I’d only been in my room a few minutes.
Which means, of course, that whoever was trying to poison me—kill me—had walked right past without me even realizing it.
And had no doubt still been in the castle when I opened the box. Perhaps still is…
“How did you manage to not inhale the poison?” he asks.
For some reason I can’t explain, I don’t want to divulge that Trix is staying in my room. To him, or anyone. I’m not sure if I’m allowed to have a pet, and the idea of her being taken away, my only comfort in this strange place, is untenable.
“I—just luck, I guess. I had the box on the bed, and I stumbled backward right after I opened it.”
“That is lucky,” Gemma says, her tone implying she knows I’m leaving something out.
But the professor doesn’t seem to pick up on it. “Well, thank the goddess.”
Of course, the bigger question is how this happened.
“Do you think it’s possible that someone got onto the castle grounds?
” I ask, trying not to sound accusatory.
This place is supposed to be one of the safest in Aureon.
It’s beyond unsettling that someone was able to get to me, less than three days after I’d arrived.
A fine tremor runs up my arms, and I cross them to try to hide it. I thought this place would be different. Not that I’d come here willingly. But I’d thought, if my whole life had to be flipped upside down, that at least I’d be safe for a while.
And now, apparently, that isn’t the case.
“Every Guardian within these walls is now trying to determine just that,” Professor Julian says. There’s a grim set to his jaw that’s at odds with the worry in his eyes. He seems as unsettled as I am, which isn’t exactly comforting.
He’s quiet a moment, then he looks up at Gemma in a way that makes it clear he wants privacy. With a small huff of indignancy, she turns and strides into the other room with all the beds. When we’re alone, he reaches out, tentatively, and touches my hand.
“I know it was a shock coming here. And I’m sure it’s hard to trust anyone after what you’ve been through your whole life.” Another pause. “But, now that you’ve settled in a bit, is there anything you’d like to share? Anything at all that could shed light on why someone seems so determined to… to…”
“Kill me?”
He nods and makes an apologetic gesture with his hands.
“Trust me, Professor, if I knew I would gladly tell you.” I shake my head. “Maybe I do know. But since my memories are gone…” A shrug. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything that could help.”
“What is your earliest memory?” he asks, eyes bright and imploring. “When you… woke up, so to speak, eight years ago, what was the very first thing you remember?”
Tension spikes through my body, a reflex I can’t suppress. That memory… that’s something I’m not willing to share. A memory I’ve never shared with anyone.
But I can offer him the next best thing. What happened next.
“I just—I came to awareness in a street. It was the middle of the night, there weren’t any people around. I wandered around until the sun came up.”
“You were fourteen, yes?”
I nod.
“What city was this?”
“Terlian.”
“Oh.” He looks surprised. “In Kierevale. And when did you first realize someone was—” He pauses, clearly rephrasing for delicacy. “—looking for you?”
“About a week after I woke up.”
Professor Julian paces back and forth, chin down, gazing at the floor with unfocused eyes. “It doesn’t make any sense. Why you? All these years?”
I let out a mirthless laugh. “Welcome to the thoughts that plague my existence.”
“You don’t speak like a commoner,” he says, then his gaze darts up to me sheepishly. “That is to say, your vocabulary is advanced. You must have been raised in a wealthy family.”
I’d had people make similar comments over the years.
Working at forges, I’d been told I had a fancy mouth many a time, at least early on.
I’d quickly learned to talk as little as possible, and occasionally threw local slang or an accent into my conversations.
Since I’d traveled all over the eastern half of Aureon, I knew them all.
“No more questions?” I ask after a long pause.
Professor Julian shakes his head. “Not at the moment.”
“My turn, then.” I lock gazes with him. “Will I be safe here?”
“I’ll ensure a guard is posted at your door, and we’ll double the guard around the perimeter wall. This won’t happen again.”
I’m not sure I have as much faith as he does, but I suppose that’s as good as it’s going to get. There’s still one thing I have going for me here. For the first time, I have someone determined to find out why I’m being hunted. Maybe, after all these years, I can finally get some answers.
“I suppose you don’t want to dine in the hall tonight?”
I sigh. I don’t, but the rumors are only going to grow more wild if I hide myself away in my room. “I’ll go,” I say, though my voice isn’t at all confident.
“Good. I’ll escort you.”
I get off the bed, and we head for the entrance. Professor Julian opens the door, stepping back and gesturing for me to go first. But someone is standing there, blocking the path.
“Daemon!” Professor Julian says. “You shouldn’t be here.”
But Daemon isn’t looking at the Professor.
He’s looking at me, his eyes burning with strange intensity.
Our gazes lock, and I feel that same heat and connection I’d felt in the garden.
The same familiarity and the same thrill of trepidation.
The same sureness that his eyes are the ones I’d seen two nights before.
“Daemon?” Professor Julian asks, this time a warning in his tone.
Finally, Daemon tears his eyes from mine, mumbles something that might be an apology to the Professor, and then strides off down the hall.
The words of the students from earlier ring through my head. “Only one person here would do such a thing…”
My heart pounds as I watch Daemon’s dark cloak billowing behind him as he stalks away. Why had he come to the healing ward? To see if I was okay? Or to see if I wasn’t?
Maybe no one had broken into one of the most secure castles in all of Aureon.
Maybe my enemies are inside the walls.