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“No.” I followed her to the opposite side of the hall, watching over my shoulder as Kage and the others helped Hugo and his men drag the creatures into the corridor. I blinked, still in a bit of stun. “I felt heat in my body, like something was about to burst out. Is that it?”
Gwyn offered a small smile. “I believe your magic was screaming to slaughter them. It was the Soturi in you. Did you feel it across the brand on your spine?”
“Yes.”
“That is what is called the Soturi burn. An instinct within each battle mage that ignites against a threat. Some common mages call it thedimmur, which means going dark.”
Kage’s eyes, his expression, if I had to describe the way he, Cy, and Asger appeared when they realized what was happening, it would be that—they’d gone dark.
“How did he know?” I whispered. “Prince Kage.”
Gwyn peered around a corner first, clearly trained. Clearly more than a maid who helped women don their gowns. At her step, I followed her into the corridor with my chamber. “He grew uneasy and insisted they needed to find you. I was sent to find Kappi Hugo and his unit. They’re the innermost guards, and most trusted.”
Gwyn opened the door to my chamber, but I hesitated, mind reeling. “I don’t want any guards at the door unless it’s Hugo.”
“You’ll have better. Me. I will see to it no one even sees your corridor until you leave your chamber.”
“How?” I wasn’t foolish enough to think Gwyn would use magic, but could not help the need to ask and wonder about all the different spells and talents.
Gwyn turned around and pulled her braids off her neck. From beneath her dress black lines peeked over her skin.
“You’re a battle mage.”
“We all must make a living when war isn’t in bloom.” She snickered and gestured to her gown. “I serve the tyrant of a seamstress when we are not needed on battlefields. Coupled with my Soturi brand, I’m skilled in what we callofskyspells—hallucinations. I’ll ward your door so anyone who searches for it will be led astray until you break the seal. You’re safe tonight.”
From a pigskin pouch on her belt she removed a glass vial filled with a murky liquid and a second corked vial with powder that looked like shaved rust.
“Go.” She said, popping one of the corks free with her teeth. “I’ll ward your door.”
There was a rush of heady relief with her words. If Lloyd were here, he’d tell me not to be a dupe and trust so easily, but there was the familiar tug at my heart. The sensation Cy spoke of—I did not know how I knew, but I believed her.
With a quiet thanks, I closed the door and fell onto the massive bed, spinning from the whole night, and slipping into dreams of bones and blood and a body holding me close as we danced.
Beneath a gleam of gray dawn,I returned to the corridor into a rush of words and strong arms around my throat.
“I was about to force my darling Gwynnie to break the ward, Cricket.” Cy pinned me to his chest. No longer the fierce, glowering battle mage from last night. He was dressed simply in a pale tunic and half cut trousers. “It is time to cross blades.”
“What?” I pulled back, still rubbing sleep from my eyes.
Asger was there, as was Gwyn. Both dressed like Cy, less formal, as though they’d rolled from bed but had time to pull their hair out of their eyes. A thing I was not being afforded.
Cy pulled my hand, dragging me forward. “We’re to spar. See to it you can handle the blades your memory wishes to conceal.”
“We’re going to use swords? I think you should know, swords aren’t really used in the mortal realms anymore, so?—”
“But we’re not in the mortal realms,” Cy insisted, leading us down a spiral staircase. “You are Soturi, I saw it in your stunning eyes that shall never be plucked. Do what is familiar, remember? Tell me there was not a draw to that arm ring you now claim, and that was the reason you stepped into the great hall last night?”
I kicked a look at the bear heads around my wrist. “I can’t tell you differently, or it would be a lie.”
“Exactly,” Cy said with a laugh. “Sorturi mages spar. We battle. We will do what is familiar even if you do not know it is yet.”
I could feign indifference, insist it was ridiculous, that I would not even know where to begin with a sword or dagger. I said none of it, and in truth, I could not keep a grin from the thrill of it from creeping over my mouth.
“Again.”
Asger was a fiend, a damn wretch. He stood straight, circling melike a shark about to attack, while I doubled over, gasping over my knees.
“Do you not believe in water breaks?”
