AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She smiled, too, moved in an unexpected way.“They’ll have black hair.Between the two of us, that’s inescapable.”
“And your green eyes, I hope.”He lifted a hand to caress her cheek.“Ready to brave the monsters?”
“I certainly have a nice reserve of magic built up.Though I think if anything was going to try to eat us, it would have the night we blundered in here without light.”Just in case, though, she took his hand and opened herself, ready to give him all her magic if necessary.
“Blunder is a good word for it,” he agreed, turning the key and pushing the doors open.
Inside was as impenetrably black as that first night, and Nic gamely picked up one lantern, handed it to Gabriel, then took up the other.“So exciting!”
He grunted, sounding not at all excited, taking another step into the gloom.Nic immediately spotted the low bench she’d barked her shins on during their previous visit.It, along with a circle of similar benches, ringed what appeared to be a pit, even blacker than the general gloom of the huge, windowless room.“Is that water in the pit?”she asked, as Gabriel would know.
“Yes.A lot of water.”His magic streamed out as he used his water senses to test the pit.“Very deep.I think there are things living in it.”
“Given that this was all underwater until recently, it would be more surprising if there wasn’t.”
“Good point.But this is… something unusual.”
She was quiet, letting him concentrate, although her curiosity burned bright, wanting to know what he sensed.
Finally, he shook his head.“I don’t know what it is.I can tell it’s huge, possibly as big as this house.I can feel it displacing the water, but I can’t determine more detail than that.How could a pit this deep and a creature that huge possibly fit inside this space?”
“Magic,” Nic answered with a resigned shrug.“Sometimes there’s no explaining it.
This almost looks like an arena.Are there family stories about Phel wizards having water-based battles?Magic tournaments, maybe?”
He raised a brow at her, his hair a pale flame in the dimness.“Not that I ever heard, but I can ask Mom if she…” His face fell.“No, I suppose I can’t.”
“It would be a good excuse to talk to her,” Nic prodded.“I know she feels terrible that you overheard what she said.She needs to know that you forgive her.”
Gabriel studied Nic for a long moment.“What if I can’t forgive her?”he asked quietly.
Her heart ached for him.“Oh, Gabriel.Then you do your best to forget what you cannot forgive.And over time, you might find that the careless words of a fraught moment don’t matter as much as the fact that your mother loves you.”
“Ifshe does.”
“Gabriel!Of course she does.”
His lips twisted, not quite a smile.“How can anyone love a monster?”
“Are you questioning my taste, integrity, and judgment?”she retorted, not quite annoyed, but close.“Because I love you.”
Now he did smile, wistfully.“Yes, but possibly because you, my heart, are also a monster.”
She surprised them both by laughing.“This is a legitimate point.You, me, and the swamp monster in yon pit.”
Making a face, Gabriel looked back at the pit.“Did you say you decided against recruiting a House Ariel wizard?”
She sighed, mentally rearranging her delicately balanced—more accurately, unbalanced and teetering on the edge of disaster—budget.“I thought having an animal wizard was low priority.I have since moved that up very high on the list.The last thing we need is a rampaging swamp monster.”
“I think I can keep it confined to the pit using the water,” Gabriel said thoughtfully.
“Oooh, that’s a good idea.”
“I can just thicken the surface and monitor it.That way I’ll know if it’s trying to emerge.”His magic surged, and the black surface of the water turned less shiny.“Other than this, is there anything else you see to prevent us from opening the workshop to our minions?”
“Let’s do a circuit.”
They explored the rest of the room, which was saliently empty of much else.Lots of high workbenches and lower tables for seated studies.The cabinets built into the walls were empty—they checked every one, just in case—and nothing else jumped out at them, figuratively or literally.Not even submerged swamp creatures.She pointed out to Gabriel how each cabinet had a separate lock, so individual wizards could privately store supplies and equipment.They’d had a setup much like it at Convocation Academy.That was, the wizards had.Familiars didn’t really need any tools but themselves.
