“Could we instate sanctuary?” I asked, earning questioning gazes. “The Hall is big. Maybe families will be too afraid to leave their homes. Perhaps they would feel safer here, with battle mages all around. A wing could be opened for these families.”
Reagan considered me, eyes hard as he dipped his chin.
“We can try,” Cerridwen added. “It’s a manner of support we can arrange.”
“Every time I rescued human captives,” Gwinifer said, “the people in the towns where they were found stayed rattled with fear for a long time. One thing that helped calm their nerves was organizing community watches, especially in the villages.”
A long look passed between her and her brother.
Reagan sighed. “Fine. You’ll oversee the community watches as Liege and help keep the panic at bay. Just until we find and seize the vermin responsible for this.”
Chapter 26
Jane
That bloody hourglass had become the worst part of my days. I often wondered if Seraphyn had cursed it or altered its duration, because that minute couldn’t possibly still be a minute.
Joy was years ahead.
She had mastered minor charms, summoning forks or glasses into her palm. It had started clumsily. One glass had slipped and splashed berry wine across Gwinifer’s lap, but after a month of tutoring, the command had become natural. She had managed to hold a ward over herself for a few fleeting seconds, her delicate hands shimmering with a buttery light.
She’d even begun to practise how to fling.Fling.
She looked lighter somehow, less tired. It made me wonder if I had grown used to the wearied version of her, and this eager person, striding intently to practice, was the natural version of herself. A version where she wasn’t worried about episodes, because she understood they were just a flux and kept the pendant ready at her neck if needed.
It also made me wonder why our experiences were so different. If I could manage a ward, it would change everything. Icaught myself imagining it. The hourglass finally moving or one of Hildegard’s weekly examinations showing a different result.
Sometimes, when I imagined that happening, I found myself having some indulgent little fantasies. Slipping a folded result paper in front of Reagan’s plate at dinner. In my mind, he picked it up, thinking it was just another petition, then lifted his eyes to mine. Surprise would shine there before he would smile.
I didn’t know which I wanted more: the result, or for him to look at me. Just look. It bothered me that he didn’t anymore, and I knew it shouldn’t.Ihad told him I didn’t want him. Lie or not, I had no right to demand his attention now.
He and Finn were still trying to secure an invitation to Banfgaard. Based on the irritated looks I had seen at dinner, there seemed to be bad blood between them and Finn’s uncles, some grievance that not even Finn seemed inclined to explain.
Everyone was tensely focused on the recent tragedy, which had sown unmistakable fear throughout the city. The Audience was full, and the Hall’s doors were open to anyone seeking shelter, yet so far, citizens had preferred to remain in their homes.
Though I wanted to help the staff, I forced my focus onto the tutors and onto trying to draw from my access. The sentence mark on my arm, shaped like Mountheim, was a constant reminder that I had a deadline.
Kellan’s lessons were less frequent but still regular, leaning toward theory rather than practice. He spoke to Joy and me about Mountheim’s long history and its mageborn traditions. Rituals of bonding and union. Fields of study they pursued, from law and defence to research and craft. Magisters and battle mages. Arcanists and alchemists who enabled the estate’s power sources. Technical paths too, like runesmiths, seamstresses, and healers.
For divination, I still relied on Laerune to siphon her mana to me as I grew used to the Sight. Each lesson felt like splitting my head apart, though the headaches hurt less now. It was like falling asleep and dreaming of a freezing abyss with threads made of light. I knew I was close to fainting when the petals fell, sealing my eyes shut.
Joy and I trained combat with Gwin and Astrid when we could, though not every day. I barely slept and had to save what little energy I had for when Seraphyn siphoned her mana through me. That left pain blooming in every muscle in my body.
We spent the evenings by my father’s bedside until Joy fell asleep. After that, I tried to sleep and when I couldn’t, I would either move or read a volume on estate governance, since the order had come out that flinging to Mountheim was suspended. It was so tedious that eventually my body just gave out. Even then, I managed to find useful protocols, like a system of sigils for estates on alert that worked like a magical signal flare. In some cases, with additional approval from the other end, they could even open portals.
Then the next morning, I would wake with a book on my pillow, and it would all begin again.
???
“It’s still dripping,” someone said.
“Bring more cloth,” Laerune ordered, her voice carrying an unusual edge of urgency.
My eyelids felt heavy. It took effort to prise my eyes open, and when I did, the room swayed. My head rested in someone’s lap, steady hands cupping the sides of my face.
“Jane, can you hear me?” Joy asked.
“She can. Give her a moment,” Gwin said. From the closeness, it was her lap beneath my head.
