Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
“ W hat if the palace wants to outlaw sorcery?” asked Lumi.
Caryn shrugged. “We’ll curse them.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” replied Lumi with an eye roll. “Doesn’t the palace frequent your father’s jewelry workshop?”
“Aye. My little brother loves being the one to greet the royal guards when they come by with trinkets for repair. The guards are like real-life toy soldiers, he says. Not to their faces, mind.” Caryn turned to Neve. “Why do you think a royal envoy is touring Starlight Gardens?”
She looked up from her parchment and quill at the table where she was studying with her friends. Her mind was elsewhere, and she forced herself to concentrate on the conversation. “When Fouzia announced the tour at breakfast this morning, she didn’t look worried. The High Magus wasn’t even present. I doubt the palace would be foolish enough to outlaw sorcery so soon after Meliohr became queen, let alone come into our territory to do so.”
“I don’t know,” replied Caryn. “The Garstangs are nothing if not brazen. Leonid has never toured Starlight Gardens. He leaves us well enough alone, and that’s the way it should be.”
“Change is inevitable,” murmured Lumi, sorting the dried sage leaves on the wooden table. The earthy scent mingled with the copious fragrances of the potions parlor, including the lavender and wormwood tincture Neve had made. It now sat cooling in a jar, issuing a slight amethyst mist. “But they’ll be here any minute, so we might get some hint soon enough. Remember, Fouzia said to keep our hoods off all day and study like normal.”
Caryn craned his neck at the open door for the hundredth time. The room was full of apprentices, huddled around their respective tables and whispering among themselves in much the same way as Neve and her friends. The gray sky cast a gloom over the parlor, offset by pillar candles burning brightly orange at each table.
“From Klatos to the Gardens is half a day’s ride, through mountains,” said Caryn. “This is no incidental visit. They definitely want something .”
“King Reynard was so rude to the High Magus at the wedding,” said Neve, fiddling with the edge of her hood. She felt uncomfortably exposed without it.
Caryn tutted. “If you’re going to marry your sister into a kingdom that is friendly to sorcery, like Reynard did, surely you must accept the Zermes way of doing things. They are supposed to grant us freedom.”
“It’s the palace,” replied Neve mildly. “They aren’t supposed to do anything, except whatever they like.”
“We ought to give Queen Meliohr a chance,” said Lumi, staring at the flame of the candle. “It’s in our best interests to be on good terms with the palace. Did you know they still burn mages at the stake in Morktland?” She shivered.
“Ha. They attempt it, at any rate.” Caryn poked the melted wax pooling around the wick of the candle. “Ask King Reynard how trying to burn Levissina went for him. Beneath that mask he wore at the wedding, he apparently has half a face, plus nubs for fingers. He’s lucky Levissina was young and not at full power.”
He withdrew his fingertips, letting the wax set on his skin, then groped at Lumi’s bare arm. “Hello, my pretty. I am King Reynard and these are my nubs!”
She winced and slapped his hand away. “Don’t be horrid.”
Neve toyed with the hawk’s feather of her quill. Would she ever reach full power? Worse, had she already?
After age twenty-one, apprentices were eligible to leave Starlight Gardens, but the notion confounded her. When she arrived four years earlier, she’d hoped to uncover her life’s purpose. But she felt more uncertain about herself and her life than ever. Everyone spoke about the importance of following your purpose, but nobody ever said what to do if you didn’t have one.
Neve had always felt strangely unfinished as a human being. Once, she’d confessed to her mother that she thought she hadn’t been put together right. That some essential part of her was missing, but she didn’t know what it was. The broken-hearted expression on her mother’s face was enough to prevent Neve from ever sharing that thought with anyone again.
Many older sorcerers lived in a settlement farther up the mountain, still within the Gardens. They devoted themselves to their magical specialties. Some simply chose to sit and look at the stars, night after night, and were fulfilled.
How could Neve live such a life, though? Her ability couldn’t be disclosed to her fellow sorcerers, let alone specialized in. Perhaps her fate was to be a middling magician, working for wealthy landowners to improve their crops, or merchants to conduct trade. Even then, her special ability wouldn’t be particularly helpful for most trades. Not unless that trade involved?—
“Here they come!” crowed Caryn, hopping off his stool. “Get up!”
Neve stood, along with Lumi and the other apprentices.
A portly man with cropped black hair headed the royal envoy. He strode into the room, glaring around at the apprentices. His blue and red uniform was a more elaborate version of the regular royal guards. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he stepped aside for the rest of the party to enter.
Caryn swore under his breath and Neve gasped. Queen Meliohr herself glided into the parlor, flanked by four royal guards. Her golden hair was arranged in ornate curls on her head, beset by a diamond tiara, and silver thread enhanced her plum silk dress.
Neve straightened her shoulders, her mouth going dry. Fouzia hadn’t said anything about the queen attending the tour. Why would she want to come to Starlight Gardens? Either she wished to forge connections with the sorcerers, or Caryn was right and she wanted something from them. Perhaps both. After all, she had worked with Polinth before his death, although no one knew what he’d been doing for her.
The last member of the envoy was a short, round-faced woman who lugged a brass case. A lady’s maid, Neve supposed. The woman puffed with the effort of heaving the brass box, yet she wore a friendly smile. Without thinking, Neve stepped forward to help the woman.
Lumi caught Neve’s wrist and tugged her to an abrupt stop.
“Are you deranged?” whispered Lumi. “You’re a mage. Don’t charge at the queen .”
“I wasn’t?—”
Caryn hushed her, his eyes on the High Magus, who was entering the room. Like all Starlight Gardens residents, he wore black robes, except with a red hood to distinguish him as the leader. Today, his hood was down, offering a rare glimpse of his face in full.
His eyes and hair were pale gray, and his tanned skin was smooth. Thin and very tall, his skeleton was pronounced, particularly his high cheekbones. He regarded the apprentices with an impassive expression.
“May I present Her Royal Highness, Queen Meliohr Nikolaou of Zermes,” he said in his clear, crisp voice.
When he spoke, even the queen became very still, giving her attention to him in totality. If a sorcerer was powerful enough, every word from their mouths held perceptible energy. So much so that some sorcerers chose never to speak at all unless conjuring.
The apprentices curtsied and bowed in unison. The queen moved from table to table, her bejeweled hands folded in front of her, gazing at each sorcerer in turn. She asked their names and chatted with them briefly.
Neve first assumed the queen wanted to witness them performing sorcery, or at least studying the mystical arts, but she seemed content to simply meet them. Perhaps the tour truly was a gesture of goodwill. With her hateful brother back in his native Morktland, Meliohr would be free to consort with whomever she pleased.
“And where are you from, Neve?” asked Queen Meliohr with polite interest.
The apprentice swallowed. It was difficult to engage in small talk in front of an audience. She didn’t know which was more distracting: Caryn frantically picking the wax off his fingertips to her left, or the High Magus gazing imperiously at her over the queen’s head.
“I grew up in Klatos, Your Majesty.”
The queen smiled, showing very white and even teeth. She was beautiful in a way that hardly looked real—like she was an oil painting enchanted to walk and talk and give dazzling smiles. “Your parents are from Klatos?”
Neve’s heart skipped a beat.
“My mother, yes. She still lives there. My father was from—” She took a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. The Magus’s eyes bore into her. “My father passed away when I was a child, Your Majesty.”
“Ah.” The queen’s face was exquisite with sympathy, her eyebrows drawn together. “My condolences, dear.”
Neve inclined her head, praying the queen would move on. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Were either of them sorcerers?”
“No. Magical ability can be passed through bloodlines, but not necessarily. It usually emerges in people at random.”
“How fascinating! See, these are things we do not learn in Morktland. Well, if nothing else, Neve, you doubtlessly inherited great beauty from your parents. You have the most striking dark eyes.”
“Oh, uh—” stuttered a bewildered Neve. Was she supposed to thank the queen? Compliment her in return? Would that be proper? “Thank?—”
But the queen had already moved on. She’d turned her rapt attention to Lumi and engaged her in conversation. Neve exhaled a quiet sigh of relief. When she woke up that morning, she hadn’t bet on having to entertain a monarch. Not that Neve had been very entertaining, to be sure.
The High Magus continued to watch Neve, despite the queen moving on, his eyes narrowed.
He couldn’t read minds, Neve reassured herself. No sorcerer could do that.
Meliohr progressed around the room, pausing to inspect books on the shelves. Finally, once she’d met everyone, she gave a genial wave to no one in particular and the envoy left the room. The High Magus swept after her.
The woman with the brass case was the last to leave, having tailed the queen and her guards around the room. In her haste, the woman tripped, close to Neve. The case crashed open, its contents spilling. Cosmetics, pillboxes, and medicines skittered across the stone floor.
Neve crouched to help her collect the items.
“Oh, I’m the biggest butterfingers that ever was,” said the woman on her hands and knees, her face reddening. “This box becomes as heavy as lead as the day wears on. The queen won’t be pleased if I’ve ruined any of her belongings.”
“It’s alright.” Neve slipped a seashell comb and a handful of hair slides into the brass box. “I don’t think anything is brok— ow!”
She gasped and dropped the silver snuffbox she’d picked up. Droplets of blood ran down her fingers and flicked onto the stone floor. The snuffbox clattered upside-down, showing a razor-sharp edge on the bottom.
The woman moaned. “Oh dear, I’m sorry!” She plucked a white lace handkerchief from the case and pressed the fabric to Neve’s hand to stem the blood flow. “Are you alright?”
Caryn and Lumi gathered around.
“The cut isn’t deep,” said Neve, pulling her hand back. She didn’t like touching other people for too long. It could be dangerous. “I’m fine, really.”
“Are you sure? Goodness, the queen would have my head if I cut her hand like that.”
“Yes, well,” said Neve, softening. “I am no queen. And my hand will be alright, I promise.”
Lumi returned the last of the trinkets to the brass box along with the handkerchief, which was now more red than white.
The older woman let out a shuddering breath. “It’s been an adjustment,” she said, lowering her voice and glancing at the door. “The new queen getting accustomed to her new home, I mean. Everyone at the palace is on edge.”
Lumi straightened, looking at the woman with interest. “How do you mean?”
“They’re having trouble in the bedroom,” said Caryn with a knowing nod.
“Caryn!” Neve whacked him and Lumi stifled laughter.
To Neve’s relief, the woman chortled. “Oh, I’d know nothing about that. I only meant that it’s been King Leonid alone for so long. And he was never any trouble at all. Queen Meliohr, long may she reign, keeps us on our toes. No rest for the wicked!”
“Can we help you carry the box?” asked Neve.
“No, no, thank you, dear. I best catch up with the group, though. Sorry again.”
With a dutiful nod, she hurried from the room.
“Is your hand really alright?” asked Lumi once the apprentices had retaken their seats.
Neve flexed her hand, the crease of her fingers smarting. “Yes. The bleeding’s stopped.”
“Well, if you’re sure. That poor woman,” said Lumi, gazing at the doorway. “You’d think the guards would help her.”
“The guards don’t exist to help a lady’s maid,” said Caryn with a snort. “They exist to protect Her Majesty from undesirables, like us.”
For the rest of the afternoon, the apprentices chatted nonstop about the royal visit. The envoy departed on the cusp of hazy bronze dusk, the residents of Starlight Gardens assembling in front of the castle to bid them farewell. The woman with the brass case gave Neve a little smile.
As the envoy descended the uneven stone steps, Neve sincerely hoped the bloodied handkerchief would cause no trouble.