He summoned another fireball, and he’d barely got it lit before someone was soaking him again.
“Very good!” he encouraged. “Again!”
Apparently, there was nothing like soaking Summus to encourage them to hone their skills. Once he was confident they all felt better about it, he started singling them out to ensure they each had enough power. He had them work on their control, trying to target just his hands.
“Now, in an emergency, you should soak everything if that’s all you can manage,” he told them with a smile. “You can apologize for water damage later if you have to, but it’s better than things being on fire. Once you’ve honed your control, you can cause less damage. Maybe it’s a small fire. Perhaps it’s just a candle that tipped over or a lantern or lamp that someone left unattended. In those cases, you probably don’t need to flood the room, right? The more you practice, the better you’ll get at being able to do precisely what you mean to do. Let’s see what you’re capable of.”
They moved to the training room—really, Cormal should have done that to begin with—and he conjured flames around the room so the novices didn’t know exactly where to expect the fire.
He also worked for a little while with the Air novice, explaining how she should eventually be able to put a shield of air around the flame, which could cut it off from therestof the air and would eventually starve it.
“But that only works with ashieldof air, because any other attempt to blow air at a fire just does one thing.”
“Makes it grow,” she said, eyes bright.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “And shields are advanced magic. Some of us never manage to do it, or can’t make them strong enough to be effective. That’s all right. We all come in different strengths and with different gifts. If it turns out you can’t make shields, it’s important that you don’t ever try to interact with flames—unless you’retryingto make them bigger of course.” He winked at her and lowered his voice. “You think your fellow novices are ready for a bigger challenge?”
She smiled at him and nodded, her eyes twinkling.
“On three,” he mouthed, and she nodded.
He conjured three more fireballs around the room, and at the internal count of three, they suddenly gusted higher and higher into the air, leaping towards the ceiling. There was a yelp from everyone else, and then there was water pouring through the room until all the flames went out.
The Air novice had her hands clapped to her mouth, but her eyes were dancing, and Cormal grinned at her. He remembered that feeling, those moments when fire had been an amazing force, when it hadn’t been scary. It was like the Fire Festival, when he and Brannal had done their display, when everyone had been happy that he was there.
He needed to make sure that happened for all these novices, no matter what their gift was. He never wanted anyone to feel excluded.
He clapped his hands. “Well, I think that’s probably enough for the day. How does everyone feel about today’s lesson?”
They were all laughing, wringing out their clothes, and chattering about how they’d felt themselves getting stronger or more precise.
He smiled at them. “I count myself very lucky that we don’t have any Earth novices right now. Because you know theotherthing that puts fire out. It’ssounfortunate that Arvus couldn’t be here to demonstrate just now.”
They all laughed, and he felt lighter than he had in a long time. (It might not last once Arvus found out what had happened to Molun. He probablywouldbury him under all that dirt, but it was all right just at the moment.)
“Now I’ll leave you so Simiala can show you the other cool thing that Water Mages can do once they have enough control.” He winked at her. “Don’t let on to anyone else. It’s a secret.”
Simiala still looked slightly surprised when Cormal left, and Cormal just shook his head, heading back towards his room to change. He could have dried his own clothing with a flame, but he was soaked head to foot, and it was easier to simply put on fresh clothes that wouldn’tlookas though they’d been soaked and then dried on his body.
Somehow, when the Water Mages pulled the water out, the clothes always seemed to look neat. Drying them on his body didn’t have quite the same effect. Or maybe they were just better at it than Cormal was.
He chuckled to himself as he thought back to Simiala’s expression. He wasn’t sure why Water Mages imagined it was a secret that they could do that, though. Cormal had lived in the castle since he was six, and he’d played with Brannal since he was ten. Did they really think that at no point had the two of them ended up soaking wet and Brannal had dried them off? Or maybe they just remembered the occasions when Cormal was an adult, and no one dried him off because he’d been an ass.
In his bathroom, he stripped and threw the clothes in the tub. Once he was no longer wearing them, drying them with his flame was much more likely to catch them on fire. He didn’t need more singed clothes. When they were on him, his magic treated them like they were part of his body. Magic could be weird.
He toweled off, pulling out the tie from his hair and then scrubbing at it before running fiery hands through it a few times to get it dry enough to manage before tying it back again. Hepulled on clean clothes, felt his stomach rumble, and went to grab a quick meal.
After lunch, he decided to try to talk to the Princess—except he’d forgotten the most obvious of facts. It wasn’t just that she didn’t speak to him, which he’d hoped would be to his advantage. No, she tended to leave a room when he entered it. He definitely couldn’t run after her shouting his apology, and telling her that he’d really like to talk to her didn’t help at all.
It was also pretty disruptive, since he’d interrupted one of her lessons. When she walked out, her tutors were looking at him like he was an idiot. Fair, really.
He forced a smile. “Sorry about that. I’ll go, and I’m sure she’ll be back shortly.”
The Princess might not love her lessons, but she was committed to learning in order to support her brother. As far as he could observe, she was more committed now to the notion of supporting her brother than she had been to becoming Queen. Was it because she loved her brother so much? Or was it because she’d never really believed that she was going to be Queen?
He shivered. There were so many consequences of that wraith attack. He wondered if anyone would ever be able to forgive and forget.
Chapter Thirteen
