Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nobody knows what to say after Elianna’s revelation. Chitai puts an arm around the sorcerer’s shoulders and gives me a dirty look.
I shrug. We needed to know.
“Maybe you should back up and tell us what happened,” Kaelen says, frowning.
Elianna takes a deep drink of wine and then looks around the table at us.
“There’s a procedure by which one rises from apprentice to sorcerer or sorcerer to sovereign.
If you survive—pass the test, in most cases, since death is not all that common anymore—then the tattooists ink the marque of your Guild onto your skin in a strictly dictated pattern.
We have to prove mastery of the Twelve Pillars of Magic to a panel of at least three examiners. ”
“Death is not common anymore?” I’m appalled.
“The examiners are sovereigns, I’m guessing?” Sergeant Neville asks.
“Yes. And they must be sovereigns in the Art you claim. So, Air Touched for me, Terra, Fire, or Water Touched for others.”
“So far, so good,” I say, impatient. “What happened?”
She examines her empty cup. “I need more wine.”
Chitai slides over her own untouched cup.
Elianna nods her thanks and takes another deep drink. “For the Air Touched, there are actually Thirteen Pillars of Magic. I never passed that final trial before the Council posted me to Pallanhold. Once I arrived in Pyrrh, I spent two years trying to figure out how to do it myself.”
Andras finally stirs from his post by the window and walks over to take a seat across from Elianna. He gives her a hard stare. “What’s involved in these trials?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“What did you do to try to pass the Thirteenth that stole your magic?” Kaelen asks.
“I won’t tell you that.”
I say nothing, searching my memory for anything—anything at all—I’ve read about the sorcery trials, but there’s so little. The Guild keeps its secrets well.
Except …
Slowly, I turn toward the defiant sorcerer. “The Last Kiss of Breath? You tried the Last Kiss of Breath without another Air Touched there to rescue you if it failed?”
The horror in my voice has every eye turning to me.
“What is the Last Kiss of Breath?” Kaelen asks, but I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or Elianna.
She glares at me, but I’m done with secrets and lies. “The Last Kiss of Breath is one of the deadliest weapons to ever exist. The sorcerer must achieve a perfect vacuum of air in a magically delineated space.”
Elianna sighs and drops her head to drink more wine, but everyone except Kaelen and Andras looks confused.
“What does that mean?” Sergeant Neville finally asks.
Kaelen puts a hand on my arm when I try to explain and shakes his head. “I’ll take this one. We’ve five warriors here, so they’ll understand when they think about it. A perfect vacuum of air.”
Chitai narrows her eyes. “You can do this?”
“I think we’ve established that I can’t,” the sorcerer says bitterly.
When Bern and Neville still look blank, the Sylvan leans forward and points at Bern’s chest. “Think about breathing. Then think about your lungs and what would happen if an enemy could magically create a perfect vacuum. No air inside your body.”
Bern’s eyes widen with shock. “What?”
I feel sick. “This is a goal? Every Air Touched tries to achieve that? That’s horrible!”
Elianna gives me a wry look. “And yet the Sorcerers’ Guild Deeded Territory has kept the Zhagarn incursions back for the past forty years.”
“You said you worked on this for two years. On whom did you practice?” Kaelen’s voice carries the steel of deadly command. “Were you harming the servants? Others?”
“You should know me better than that, Prince Kaelen Valourian.” Elianna’s face is drawn, and exhaustion suddenly seems to weigh her down because she slumps in her chair. “No. I didn’t practice on other people. You learn the Last Kiss by practicing on yourself.”
The delicious stew becomes a congealed lump in my stomach, and I’m afraid I’m going to retch right there in front of everyone. “You magicked all the air out of your own body?”
She shrugs, but a shadow crosses her face. “Yes. Again and again and again. The perfect solution enticed me, just a shade beyond my understanding and reach. Until the day, just after last year’s Harvest Fest, when I was sure I had it. I was so confident.”
Her laugh is bitterness iced over with despair. “Instead, I lost control and knocked myself out from the loss of air. When I woke up—and I was glad to, believe me—my head bloody from where it struck a table, I tried to heal the wound and couldn’t.”
She bows her head, but not before I see the ache of loss on her face. “Most of my magic—all of my advanced ability—was gone. Sometimes, it can happen that way. A rebound effect, of a sort.”
Nobody says anything for a minute while we take this in. But then Sergeant Neville taps the table to get her attention. “Okay. Your magic went away. What we need to know is, when will it come back?”
Elianna’s laugh is high and wild. Tears shine in her eyes, though she brushes them away before they can fall.
“I have no idea. The most likely answer is never.”
Elianna sweeps out of the room after that, Chitai in her wake. Andras, Sergeant Neville, and Bern follow them.
After a bit of awkward conversation—Kaelen gives me a handful of coins when I mention the maid, apologizing for not thinking of it before—the prince, Trick, and I are the only ones left in the room.
“I’m exhausted,” I finally say after watching the two of them glare at each other for nearly a full minute. “I’m going to find my room. We’re on the road again tomorrow, right?”
“Yes,” Kaelen says.
“More chances to get Soli killed,” Trick says quietly, but his eyes burn. “If you had any decency at all, you’d set her free.”
“I am free,” I say, exasperated at having to revisit this subject yet again. Men and their posturing, I think with an internal eye roll. “I am free, and I choose this. Please consider the subject closed.”
With that, I leave the room to find the maid from earlier and give her probably the hugest tip she’s ever had.
Then she shows me to my assigned room, babbling out her thanks until I smile and escape inside.
Younkin described the space fairly as “snug,” since it isn’t much bigger than the bed and chest of drawers that fit inside.
Snug, maybe, but more of a room than I’ve ever had to myself, so I’m content.
For a long time, I sit on the tiny window seat and stare out at the town, trying hard not to think about Elianna’s magic, Trick’s overprotectiveness, Kaelen’s …
everything … or even the goddess, the amulet, and the keys.
Instead, I focus on how amazing it is that I have my own room.
And a window through which I can watch the sun dropping behind the world to begin her night-veiled slumber, painting shades of my favorite wine-dark purples—exactly the shade of Kaelen’s eyes—across the sky.
I wonder what it would be like to see the stars dancing their way through the darkness but dismiss the thought as frivolous. Time enough to think of stars when the goddess of nature and balance has been restored.
The journey so far has brought danger and terror interspersed with moments of unbelievable sensation, like when Kaelen kissed me.
Even on the ordinary days, when we rode along, seeing nothing but fields and trees, I was tense with worry about what might jump out at us from behind every tree.
Anxious about how I could live up to the crushing burden of carrying Altarra’s hopes on this impossible quest.
All but sure I’d fail. That I wasn’t good enough for any of it.
But here—now—I finally start to believe, in a tiny corner of my soul, that I might be.
Might be good enough.
Strong enough.
Just … enough.
I try to force myself to sleep, but it’s impossible. After an hour of tossing and turning, despite the comfortable bed and my first time wearing the nightgown since Pallanhold, I hear the strains of music from outside and decide to wander through town a bit.
All on my own, after so long surrounded by so many companions.
I throw on clothes and head down. When I reach the common room, only a few townspeople are there, drinking, playing Spires, and talking quietly. The innkeeper looks up from polishing the long wooden bar and smiles at me.
“Can’t sleep?”
“Not really,” I confess. “I thought I might take a walk.”
He pours amber liquid from a jug and beckons me over. “Best apple cider in Khyrrus. Take a cup with you.”
I reach in my pocket for a coin, but he waves it away. “On the house, young lady. A Harvest Fest treat.”
“Thank you so much! I love apple cider.” I take a sip and sigh with delight. “It tastes like cinnamon and fall and happiness.”
Thanking him again, I take my cup and slip out the front door. The streets are mostly empty, but a few oil lamps give off enough light that I can see. I think about visiting Cloud, but I don’t want to disturb the horses’ rest. They went through a horrible ordeal, too.
I can still hear the music but decide to walk in the opposite direction. I’m not in the mood to put on a cheerful face for townspeople who would not—could not—understand what I’ve endured.
I drain my cup, then put it on a bench by the door to retrieve on my way back inside. Before I can take the first step, though, a figure shrouded in darkness strides around the side of the building.
I gasp, but before I can shove the door open to escape into the inn, I hear Kaelen’s voice.
“It’s me.”
Closing my eyes, I blow out a breath, trying to shake off the panic that shot through me at what my mind told me must be one of the Zhagarn.
“Soli?”
“I thought—” I stop. I don’t want him to think I jump at every shadow.
But when he reaches me, I can see by the lamplight that he knows. “I’m sorry. I was checking on the horses. I guess you can’t sleep, either?”
“Are they okay?”