Chapter 28
Ididn’t have a whole lot of time to think about Noria’s upcoming trial the next morning—I was back to work in the Mages Guild as an apprentice.
Now that I was Iannis’s fiancée and he’d given orders to include me in all magical tasks, I was no longer doing paperwork for the Agricultural department.
I actually got to spend the morning out with one of the maintenance crews, checking on the various spells that helped regulate the city’s water and sewage systems. It was educational, if rather gross at times, and I came back with a healthy appetite.
Unfortunately, Fenris wasn’t available to tutor me in Loranian in the afternoon—he had an appointment somewhere. So I found myself in my rooms, studying my primer and getting bored out of my mind that I wasn’t doing any actual spellcraft.
“Screw this,” I said, closing the book and tossing it onto my side table. I wanted to practice some magic! Closing my eyes, I tried to recall some of the spells I’d recently seen, figuring if I could remember the Words well enough, I could recreate them.
The image of a glowing ether pigeon popped into my head, and I opened my eyes with a grin.
That was perfect. I’d seen both Elnos and Iannis use magic to create the glowing magical birds that could be used to send messages.
They seemed really useful and fun, and I wanted to try my hand at making one.
Grabbing a piece of paper and pen, I sat cross-legged for a moment and tried to recall the exact Words.
I checked them against the primer, but unfortunately, at least half of the incantation’s Words weren’t in there, so I had to guess at those as best I could.
Oh well, if I didn’t get the spell right, then it just wouldn’t work.
It wasn’t like I would blow up the Palace.
Would I?
“Whatever,” I grumbled, scanning the Words again. Iannis had safeguards set up around the Palace to prevent that kind of thing from happening. Besides, I was ninety-nine point nine percent certain that I had the incantation right.
Taking a deep breath, I focused in on the glowing ball of energy in my center that was the source of my magic. Since Iannis had taken the seal off it completely—a seal I now knew had been set by Ballos, not my father—it was much bigger, and I had to be careful not to draw too much too fast.
Once I was certain I had a good hold on it, I held up a palm and spoke the incantation.
Wisps of magic floated up from my palm, twisting together to form a glowing blue ball.
The ball rose higher and higher into the air as it slowly shaped itself into a bird, and I grinned.
Yes, it was slower than the other times I’d seen the spell performed, but it was working!
My grin faded as the shape kept changing, the feathers growing longer, the beak becoming much bigger and more hooked than that of a pigeon…
“Oh shit,” I breathed as it fully formed into not a pigeon, but a parrot. An honest-to-Magorah fucking parrot.
“Oh shit!” the parrot squawked, perching on the footboard of my bed.
It cocked its head at me, then swiveled around to regard me with one glowing eye.
Damn, but it looked incredibly real—I could see each individual feather cover its glowing body, and man did the claws curling around my footboard look sharp! “Oh shit!”
I groaned, flopping back against my pillows. “No!” I whined at the parrot, flicking my hand in a shooing motion. “This is wrong. You’re not supposed to be a parrot! Just be gone already.”
The parrot cocked its head to the opposite side, then vanished in a flash of light.
I let out a sigh of relief that I hadn’t had to resort to using magic to get rid of it.
Clearly, I’d been a little too optimistic about my memory of the incantation.
I was lucky my pigeon had turned into a parrot and not, say, a hippopotamus.
Those things were mean as hell, from what I’d heard, not to mention downright huge.
Oh well, I thought, curling up on my mattress. I might as well take a nap until my lesson with Iannis. With any luck, he’d never find out about this little incident.
After our usual warm-up exercises, Iannis took pity on me and offered to do some combat training.
We suited up with magical armor, and with Fenris acting as referee, we launched into three-minute rounds of magical combat.
As in our previous mock fights, we stuck to fire and ice, but this time, we added shielding to our arsenal, which enabled me to deflect Iannis’s ice blasts.
Of course, I quickly found out that since he could also do the same, our fights devolved into something more like a match of tennis, with the two of us bouncing balls of fire and ice back at each other.
“This is so frustrating!” I shouted as I shielded against another ball of ice. “What is the point of doing this if we’re never actually going to hit each other? Why do mages even duel in the first place?”
“Good question!” Iannis shouted as he lobbed the ice ball back at me.
I shot a fireball at it to melt it, then another one directly at his head, hoping to catch him off guard.
No such luck; he simply bounced it back at me again.
“Mage duels are difficult and frustrating, and should never be undertaken without good purpose.”
Growling, I changed tactics. Instead of shielding against the ball, I ducked and allowed it to hit the force field protecting the wall.
I shot out two more fireballs, hoping that three missiles would be more than Iannis could comfortably deal with, or at least enough of a distraction that I could figure something else out.
“Oh shit!” a familiar voice squawked, and my mouth dropped open as I saw the ether parrot materialize right next to Iannis’s head.
“What in the world—” Iannis exclaimed, startled, and he missed one of the fireballs. It slammed into his chest, and he grunted as the force of the blow knocked him against the wall.
“Time!” Fenris called, and I lowered my shield. He rushed over to Iannis. “Are you all right?”
“I’m perfectly fine,” Iannis said, barely even looking at Fenris. His attention was firmly fixated on the parrot, who was now perched on his shoulder. “Although I would very much like an explanation for this creature.”
“Um, that’s kind of my fault,” I said sheepishly as I crossed the room. To my annoyance, the parrot turned his head up at my approach. “I was trying to create an ether pigeon, but I created this guy instead.”
“Did you really?” Iannis laughed. “I suppose you didn’t get the Word for ‘pigeon’ quite right.”
“That would be my guess,” Fenris said, who also looked highly amused. “Does it usually drop in on you at unexpected times?”
“I don’t know,” I groused, annoyed that my blunder had been found out after all. “This is the first time it’s happened. I created him about an hour ago, and he disappeared immediately afterward. I thought I’d seen the last of him, but I guess I was wrong.”
Iannis and Fenris both laughed this time, and I felt a smile tug at my lips even as my cheeks reddened.
It was good to see them together like this again, without tension between them.
Fenris must have laid his misgivings about staying at the Palace to rest for now, and hopefully for good.
He belonged here with us—that much I was certain of.
“Well, I must say, he makes for an unusual pet.” Fenris passed a hand along the parrot’s ghostly foliage. His fingers went right through, of course, as the parrot wasn’t corporeal. “At least he shouldn’t produce droppings.”
“Yeah, that’ll make me feel a lot better when he wakes me up in the middle of the night yelling ‘Oh shit!’”
Iannis and Fenris burst into laughter again, but it was cut short by a knock on the door.
“May I come in, Lord Iannis?” Director Chen called, and I stiffened.
She had a bad habit of breaking up my lessons with Iannis early, and I was becoming less and less willing to tolerate it.
I leveled a glare at Iannis, who nodded and mouthed that he understood.
“Yes, come in, but make it quick,” he called.
Director Chen stepped inside and closed the door behind her. “Thorgana’s convoy was attacked on its way in to Dara this evening.”
“What?” Iannis and I both shouted at the same time.
“Did she escape?” Iannis demanded. “And what of the guards? Are any still alive?”
“No, she did not escape,” Chen said, and I sighed as a wave of relief washed over me.
“There were a few casualties, as the party that attacked our convoy was very large—over twice the number of guards. If not for the mages accompanying them, the attackers would have been able to successfully free Thorgana. In any case, she has been checked into the prison facility, and is safe once more.”
“Well, that is good to hear,” Iannis said, sounding much calmer now.
“And after this, her air of injured innocence will look much less credible. It’s all the confirmation needed that she is indeed the Benefactor.
Did the attackers make contact with Thorgana in any way?
And did our people capture any of them?”
“Unfortunately not.” Chen shook her head. “The ones who survived fled, and the guard captain sensibly decided it would be foolish to pursue them—his top priority was guarding Thorgana in case there was a second attack. Also, they had several wounded to look after.”
“Very well,” Iannis said, sounding disappointed. “I will contact the Minister to ensure that she is thoroughly searched and isolated for a time— we must be certain that the attackers did not manage to slip any sort of weapon or disease to her.”
“I think you will be discussing that with him in person,” Chen said. “The Minister wishes for you to return to Dara immediately. To discuss the Garaian matter, he said.” She looked at him questioningly, and I surmised that Iannis had not yet told her about the other Resistance lab.
“I cannot,” Iannis said firmly. “I have a hearing tomorrow morning. But I shall leave immediately after that.”
“I will let him know, sir, and I will convey your suggestions regarding the prisoner as well.” Chen bowed, then swept from the room, closing the door behind her.
“Damn,” Iannis muttered when her footfalls had receded. “I had hoped to have at least a week at the Palace before being called away again. I have much to catch up on.”
“I’m sure Director Chen will help you pick up the slack while you’re gone.
And Fenris and I will do what we can do to help.
” I took off my armor, then cupped his face in my hands and kissed him.
“Try to get some sleep tonight, okay? I don’t want you to smite Noria because you’re too grumpy to deal with her attitude. ”
Iannis smiled at that. “I think if I’ve managed to deal with your attitude for this long, I can survive Miss Melcott for a single morning.”
I snorted. “I sure hope so,” I said as I left the room. Because if not, Noria was going to be in big trouble.