Chapter 14
Fourteen
“Stop it.” Tabi chuckled as Thal sent yet another splash of water flying across the blue common room two weeks later, a broad grin on his face.
“Only if you tell me what your magic does.”
The two of them had been freakishly close since they returned from Falcrest’s training, Thal with a smile on his face and Tabi with a half-annoyed expression, telling Lory she actually enjoyed whatever happened there.
Just like with Aiden and her situation, both Tabi and Thal didn’t speak about details.
Only that Thal’s magic had finally reared its head and spat some water at the captain.
The image alone made Lory smile whenever she thought about it.
Her own magic hadn’t made a reappearance, though, despite the multiple times she’d been summoned to train with Dunveil, the Master of Knowledge suspiciously curious about her light magic.
At least, no one doubted that was what she had.
Dunveil had told her the first day of her magic training that assaulting a superior in any way could end with a death sentence, and how lucky she was that Falcrest wasn’t pressing charges, which had made her want to tell him that Falcrest was an ass and Dunveil was ignorant not to notice the flaw in his precious captain’s story.
Why would a machine like Captain Falcrest need to defend himself with fire when he could simply knock her out with a punch or threaten to execute her the way people were executed for nearly any misstep at this academy?
Those were the moments she wanted to ask the Master of Knowledge how so many ashlings could be loyal to an academy that kills their recruits.
How they managed to ensure and maintain that loyalty based on threats and fear.
But she never had the guts to ask because that could lead to her imminent death, she supposed.
So, Lory kept her thoughts to herself, glancing out the window at the guards standing by the edge of the yard.
She’d observed them before, their nondescript black uniforms, the empty silver squares on their shoulders defining them as ashmarked, the final rank at Ashthorn.
Sabers hung at their hips, and the hilts of silver knives blinked from their boots, two human weapons, ready to destroy anyone who dared breach the walls of Ashthorn Ward.
A part of Lory kept figuring out ways to get past them, wondering if the narrow path behind the guardhouse at the edge of the yard would be wide enough to slip through and reach for the saber of at least one of them.
She could sever the tendons in his knees before he could notice her, and then she could climb up the side of the guard house and escape over the wall.
Designed to keep people in as well as to keep them out those walls were, and a part of her wondered if it was worth risking her life to escape and be on the run for the rest of her life; because, if she was certain of one thing, it was that if they had tracked her down once, they’d do it again.
Another part of her wondered how powerful her magic really was.
Maybe sticking around to find out wasn’t the worst of options.
If she trained hard and learned to control what she still told herself could have been light magic, she might one day kick Falcrest’s ass up and down that very yard, and laugh in his face—a girl could dream.
With a sigh, Lory dug her nose into a book about breeds of magic, including all the types King Ulder didn’t consider forbidden as long as they happened under the supervision of the academy.
“I’ve told you, I’d need to kill you.” Tabi’s chuckle as the water hit her face brightened the atmosphere of the otherwise dull, dark space—even with the afternoon sun burning through the small windows, the dark stone swallowed anything warm or cozy.
“Come on, Tabi,” Jarek called from the bench in the corner, where he was memorizing the details about the Great Purge and how Ulder’s ancestors had supposedly cleansed the lands of all magic.
They couldn’t have been particularly thorough, though, with the number of magic wielders still roaming the lands.
What the king needed an army of magically gifted soldiers for, Lory had yet to understand, but whatever Ulder had planned, they’d sure give him a solid advantage.
“You know all our magics. I’ve shown you mine; now show me yours.
” The scar above his reddish-brown eyebrow distorted its wiggle as he gave Tabi a suggestive grin.
“Not happening, Grivor.” Tabi shot him a toothy, sweet smile, suggesting they were no longer talking about their magic.
At least a few of them were getting some fun time at this Guardians-forsaken place.
“Lory hasn’t shown us hers either.” Thal wove a string of water from the jar he carried with him practically everywhere so he could work on his skill now that he had access to his water magic. “Light magic sounds so freaking brilliant.”
“Only if you can actually use it.” Frowning, Lory dug her nose back into her book, making slow progress, but her reading had become faster, and she didn’t feel like a complete idiot taking notes at a quarter the speed the others did.
“It will come,” Thal encouraged, the only one among them who actually knew what it was like to know the magic is there, yet not being able to access it. “Maybe it will take another session with Falcrest, though.”
Lory’s frown deepened, earning a laugh from Thal.
“You can think about the prick of a captain what you want, but he’s got some serious skills.”
“With being a deadly moron, perhaps,” she murmured under her breath, earning a soft laugh from Tabi, who was sitting down next to her, eyes on the passage in the book Lory was reading.
“Couldn’t agree more, but he’s also the youngest captain in the common military and now the youngest hand ever at Ashthorn Ward for a reason.”
Lory paused her reading to listen to Tabi’s explanation because, no matter how much she intended not to care the least bit about what Falcrest did or thought, she couldn’t seem to stop herself whenever his name came up.
“Khayrivven Falcrest is unmatched in Veiled and Steel. The only reason they didn’t make him Steel Hand is because he refused to take Sil’s position, and Veiled was open.”
Khayrivven? Ignoring the sound of Falcrest’s full name, Lory grumbled to herself, pretending that curiosity wasn’t eating her up from the inside. “Or it’s because he’s a sneaky bastard by nature.”
“Just because he rejected you doesn’t mean he isn’t good at what he does.”
Lory wouldn’t have needed the reminder of what everyone believed happened between them, but it hurt even more when it came from one of the few people she more-or-less trusted. But Falcrest’s orders had been clear. Deal with it.
“I know.” A sigh escaped Lory’s nose. “And that’s perhaps worse than if he were an impostor. At least, then I’d have a reason to be upset with him.”
“You do have a reason to be upset with him,” Thal objected with a boyish grin, his chocolate brown eyes shimmering with mischief. “Anyone who doesn’t fall at your feet when you offer a kiss is a stupid fool.”
“Shameless flirt,” Lory threw at him, a half-grin tugging on her mouth.
“Always happy to be of service.” With a mock-bow, Thal summoned another splash of water and sent it her way, smacking it to her cheek in a wet facsimile of a kiss. “Besides, I get why you’d give it a try—he might be a prick, but he’s the best-looking prick I’ve ever seen.”
“Will the three of you shut up?” Jarek complained from his corner. “I’m trying to actually remember some of this before I go to my death at the practical exam in a few days.”
Just like that, all lightheartedness left the room, and Lory’s chest tightened at the thought that, even if her magic showed, there was a good chance she’d be executed on the spot if it chose to present as flames once more.
While Thal went back to weaving strings from water and Jarek dug his nose back into his book, Tabi brushed her braids back and asked in a whisper, “Why did you throw yourself at him to begin with?”
No one had asked her that, all of them probably wanting to spare her the awkwardness.
“I mean, yes, he’s gorgeous and unparalleled at any combat discipline I’ve seen him perform, but why try to kiss him?” Tabi’s eyebrows rose in her typical fashion. “Did anything happen between you two? Did you get … close?”
“Guardians, no.” Lory instantly regretted not being able to control her impulse to deny any such thing might have occurred.
“So, you simply threw yourself at him?” The disbelief in Tabi’s tone told Lory she’d need to get her story straight, and perhaps learn what Falcrest had already told leadership about the supposed incident.
And she didn’t mean the general side of things but the exact events leading up to him feeling assaulted enough to set her on fire.
“Sure.” A small shrug and the innocent expression that had earned her a piece of bread here and there when she was a child did their part in getting Tabi to let the topic rest—for now.
“So, three more days until the test,” Thal stretched his legs under the plain wooden table and leaned his back against the wall the bench was situated at. “Perhaps it’s time you throw yourself at the captain one more time.”
Perhaps it was hope, perhaps desperation—Lory didn’t know what exactly made her climb the stairs to the higher levels of the pyramid that afternoon after training on the parcours with the others, her dagger fastened to her belt and her heart pounding like a war drum.
She hadn’t been up there, only heard about it from Tabi and Eira, who had been summoned to Falcrest’s office before.
A line of torches illuminated the windowless hallway, giving the place the same dungeon-like atmosphere as the two basements Lory had already seen.
The offices left and right might as well have been prison cells for all that she knew, and if she didn’t watch out, she’d end up locked behind one of the steel doors.