Heir of Spells and Academy Secrets

Chapter 1

Talisa

“My dearest, what’s wrong?” Mama asked as she joined me at the ferry’s railing. “Homesick already?”

I glanced over to make sure my younger sisters, Mira and Juno, were safely out of earshot.

The twins stood at the front of the large river ferry, excitedly pointing out the first white spires of Neapolis Capitola rising slowly ahead of us from a gently rolling landscape of fields golden with ripe wheat and barley.

“No, of course not,” I lied. “It’s just…” I looked away from Mama’s shrewd gaze and pretended to study the landscape passing by on either side of the canal that connected the port of Felicitas Victoria to the imperial capital. “…not what I expected.”

After being so excited about the prospect of finally leaving Bernswick and traveling to the capital, I’d rather die than admit I missed my best friend Elfrieda, the cooper’s daughter, and our cozy house. And Papa. And my older sister, Jacinthe.

Especially since I was now officially of marriageable age, and no longer a child. We’d celebrated my sixteenth birthday yesterday at our inn in Felicitas Victoria with a delicious dinner of roasted duck and vegetables in spiced honey, followed by apple pie with custard sauce.

Mama’s arched dark brows rose. “And what exactly did you expect?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Something more exciting. But this looks… boring. It’s just farms and fields. Like home without the forests.”

“There are over a million people in the capital who need to be fed,” Mama pointed out, reasonably enough. “As for excitement, I’m sure you’ll get plenty of that once you start your classes at the Imperial Academy.” She touched the gold mage-healer’s badge pinned on her bodice over her heart.

Our journey from our home on the Isle of Abbonay had been more tiring than I’d expected. It was late in the season for shipping, and we’d been lucky to catch one of the last passenger ships departing Herrewick.

Unfortunately, it had been a rough voyage across the wide stretch of sea that separated the Western Isles Province from the continent.

In another fortnight, the autumn gales would roar down from the north, and all shipping would halt until spring. As it was, Mama and I had been kept busy working anti-seasickness charms among the passengers because there hadn’t been any other mages aboard.

Of course, I wasn’t a mage, not yet. But Mama had trained me and my sisters to help her and Papa run our clinic back home in the village.

Mama turned away from me and studied the canal’s high stone embankments sliding by.

“Talisa, my dearest,” she said without looking at me, “there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you, and I hope you will not be too disappointed.”

Something in her tone made my gut clench with worry. “What is it?”

She’d been acting strangely since we arrived in Felicitas Victoria.

More than once, I’d caught her looking around nervously as we disembarked the mail ship and booked passage on one of the many ferries that traveled the wide canal linking Felicitas Victoria to Neapolis Capitola.

Is someone following us?

And if so, why?

We didn’t know anyone in Felicitas Victoria. Neither I nor any of my sisters had ever been to the continent before, though Mama was originally from somewhere in the Imperial Capital Territory.

Watching Mama duck into a shop to avoid a pair of city guards patrolling the streets near the docks, I’d wondered for the thousandth time why Mama had left the capital and settled in the Western Isles, the remotest and wildest province in the Human Dominion.

I was proud of being an islander, but I also knew we lived far from anywhere that mattered.

Over the years, I’d occasionally wondered if Mama was a wanted criminal or some kind of fugitive. She never talked about her past. I didn’t even know the name of Jacinthe’s real father or of my grandparents on Mama’s side of the family.

Then I’d watch her treat patients who came to our clinic, or teach me and my sisters how to prepare one of the many herbal remedies we sold, and realize how far-fetched my speculations were.

Mama was a skilled Mage-Healer who’d graduated from the Imperial Academy for the Magical Arts before coming to live in Bernswick and marrying Papa.

Licensed mages were in demand everywhere.

It wasn’t uncommon for them to travel far and wide to take up positions.

Maybe she’d just been seeking a quieter life far away from the bustle of the continent’s cities and towns.

Mama sighed. “I—I don’t know how to tell you this. But I bought a return ticket on a mail ship before we left Felicitas Victoria yesterday. I’ll be departing for home next week on the last ship of the season.”

I stared at her in shock. “But you were supposed to stay with us in the capital for the winter!”

The words came out louder than I intended. Mira and Juno turned to face us with identical expressions of shock and dismay… likely the same look on my face right now.

They rushed over to join us. “You’re leaving us, Mama? Why?” Mira demanded.

“I know I should have said something earlier, my dearest ones.” Mama’s smooth olive cheeks flushed as she spread her hands.

“But the more I thought about it, the more I realized your father needs me to return as soon as possible. I know Jacinthe is doing her best to help him with the clinic, but you know there’s only so much she can do without… ”

Her voice trailed off, but I finished the sentence in my head. Without magic.

Lady Adalburga, the new Provincial Magecraft Aptitude Examiner, had tested me and my sisters a fortnight ago. Mira, Juno, and I had shown enough mage potential to qualify for both admission to the Imperial Academy and an imperial scholarship.

But poor Jacinthe hadn’t shown the smallest spark of magic. My older half-sister had put on a brave face, but I knew she must be crushed. I’d seen how diligently she’d studied Mama’s books on magecraft. And how hard she’d tried to work spells, only to fail, over and over.

So, she’d stayed behind at home to help Papa run our family clinic. Even without the ability to cast healing charms and spells, Jacinthe was skilled at brewing potions and compounding medications.

Earlier today, I’d wondered how things were going back in Bernswick. Papa was always harder on Jacinthe than on me and the twins. I suspected it was because Jacinthe was another man’s daughter. She’d been a baby when Mama and Papa got married.

For her part, Jacinthe had a fiery temper and wasn’t always as respectful to Papa as she ought to be.

Maybe Mama is worried that they’ll kill each other if she stays away from home all winter.

“It’s all right, Mama,” I forced myself to say. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. And busy with classes and homework, and other things. Waiting around the capital until spring would probably bore you.”

She looked relieved. “I knew you’d understand.”

“But I don’t want you to go,” Mira complained, sounding younger than her thirteen years.

“We’ll be all alone with a bunch of mainlanders,” added Juno. “What if they’re mean to us?”

Mama gave them each a long, level look. “If you two are old enough to leave home and apprentice yourselves somewhere, then you’re old enough to attend the academy without someone to hold your hands,” she said, her tone crisp.

“And if someone is mean to you… well, I’ve seen you both stand up to Eadwin Fugolson.

And if you can defeat that hulking lout of a blacksmith’s son, then a mage-student shouldn’t be much of a challenge. ”

Eadwin Fugolson was the village bully. We’d all had run-ins with him before Juno cast a charm that gave him green, warty skin for a week.

He hadn’t come anywhere near us since.

“Plus, your big sister will be there to look after you.” Mama turned back to me. “Talisa, I know you and your sisters will shine at the academy. And I also know I can trust you all to be there for each other.”

“Of course,” I said, feeling half-proud and half-panicked at the weight of the responsibility Mama was entrusting me with.

“Good,” Mama said. “Now, I can see where the canal joins the river up ahead, so we’re almost there. Just another hour or two to go.”

∞∞∞

“Surely this meets some of your expectations, Talisa,” Mama said dryly an hour later. She pointed at the largest building I’d ever seen. “The Temple of the Divine Mother, protector of Neapolis Capitola and the imperial family.”

The temple sat in the middle of a vast, paved square that opened onto the riverbank. It was raised on a high platform with wide steps leading up to giant gilded doors.

Looking at those doors, a mage could’ve slid our house back in Bernswick through the temple’s doorway without touching the top or sides.

The temple’s outer walls were surrounded by a double-row of fluted marble columns topped by carved and gilded capitals in the shape of imperial eagles with their wings spread wide to support the vast roof with its gilded tiles.

The afternoon sun dazzled off the polished white stone and gold leaf, making my eyes water.

“And if that doesn’t impress you, my dearest, how about the imperial palace?” Smiling, Mama pointed at an enormous park on the opposite bank. It surrounded a sprawling edifice of purple stone walls topped by another gilded roof.

A row of golden flagpoles topped the walls facing the river, sapphire-blue banners bearing the imperial golden eagle flapped in the breeze, and a long, gilded barge was tied up to a roofed dock.

Mira and Juno took in the sights, their mouths formed into identical O’s of wonder. I glanced at Mama and saw she was laughing at us.

“You win,” I said. “Neapolis Capitola isn’t boring. In fact, it’s even more amazing than I ever imagined.”

Felicitas Victoria had been a larger version of Port Herrewick back home on the island—bigger, busier, and certainly dirtier, but not any grander than Herrewick.

But the capital resembled nothing I’d ever seen before.