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“Yes, wizard,” she replied calmly, her eyes full of perfect trust, her magic a billowing counterpoint, summer roses, fiery heat, and spiced wine filling him with heady power.
He reached for the silver strands of his magic that connected them, following the rich, wine-red channels of her magic that flowed back to him.Gathering them gently, he held her hand, feeling as if he’d leashed a wild horse by fragile silver ribbons.Wrapping them around his mental fist, he tugged, sharp and swift, willing her to become somethingelse.
If she thought he didn’t sense how it pained her, she was wrong.He was also aware that she attempted to conceal it from him, but nothing could disguise the convulsion of self that disrupted her, that pulled the internal to the external, a wrenching dislocation of her human skin.
Their audience gasped, murmurs of surprise and speculation rising into louder conversation.Gabriel ignored them, his attention trained on the proctor’s reaction—and on the glory that was Nic’s alternate form.
A majestic and shining silver bird, she stood with her head level to his.Without the erotic haze clouding his brain, without the cloying worry that he’d perform the magic wrong or somehow harm her, he was able to observe her more closely.Though clearly not equipped for standing on flat ground, her silver talons dug into the soft lawn, gripping with strength to allow for her poised posture.A crest of shimmering shades of crystal crowned her proud head, cascading down her long, arched neck.Wings that looked large enough to carry even her considerable mass in flight were folded sleekly along her body, and a long tail flowed to the ground, trailing in glittering argent shades.Here and there, he caught a shimmer of rose red.He got the impression that, if she chose to spread her tail like a peacock might, that the fan would show more of those rosy shades.Perhaps her wings, too.
Nic cocked her head, turning it so one emerald eye was fixed on the proctor, her lethally curved beak in profile.She trilled a question at the obviously flummoxed wizard, seeming to ask if the proctor was satisfied.
The proctor seemed to be momentarily incapable of speech.“That… This…” she stammered.“This isnotan appropriate alternate form,” she nearly screeched.
Uh-oh.Nic had worried that Gabriel’s insistence on reciprocal bonding would manifest in odd ways.And here he was, too ignorant of the arcane information taught in the academy’s advanced wizard studies to know if this form truly was a problem.
“A point of order, if I may, Lord Phel?”Asa asked in a raised, polite tone.At Gabriel’s nod, the Refoel wizard strode forward, coming near Nic, but not touching.He held up his hands, his healing magic palpable to Gabriel as it condensed over Nic.“She is perfectly healthy,” Asa announced.
“She is a mythical creature!”the proctor hissed, appalled and affronted.Gabriel was especially glad his parents had left.
“Unusual,” Asa replied placidly.
“A monster!”she retorted.
“I realize you are not a high-level wizard, proctor,” Asa said, not without sympathy.“So you would not be aware of the information we have access to in the more advanced classes.This alternate form is not monstrous.”
“So youclaim,” she muttered.
Asa eyed the proctor, then beckoned to his familiar, Laryn, without looking, but with an unconscious expectation of obedience that set Gabriel’s teeth on edge.He wouldn’t make an issue of it now, however, especially as Laryn complied immediately, coming to Asa’s side to slip her hand into his, lending him her magic.Asa looked to Gabriel.“May I conduct a more in-depth examination?”
He had to bite back the retort to ask Nic herself, and simply nodded, not trusting his voice.The sooner they got through this, the sooner he could restore Nic to her native form and they could move on with their lives without Convocation interference.
To his credit, Asa approached Nic slowly, holding up a hand that contrasted darkly with her shining silver.She curved her neck, dipping her beak, and the healer smiled.Laying a hand against her feathers, he closed his eyes, a reverent expression transforming his face.“Oh, you are a beauty, indeed,” he murmured, and Gabriel fought the irrational and wildly jealous urge to wrench the other wizard away.
It’s in a wizard’s nature to be possessive, he heard Nic observe in his mind, and her emerald gaze, the same color as her human eyes but foreign to him in their avian shape, seemed to sparkle with amusement at his expense.
“The alternate form is sound,” Asa informed the proctor.
“But whatisit?”she hissed, fingers digging clawlike into the tabernacle.
Asa dipped a chin at the tabernacle.“Why not ask?”
“I will!”The proctor busied herself with unlocking the tabernacle doors, and Asa took the opportunity to slide Gabriel a dark-eyed look.One he couldn’t interpret, however.A warning?
“I have to say,” Jadren El-Adrel drawled in a bored tone, “I’ve never read of precedent for the Convocation questioning a familiar’s alternate form.It’s well known that the shape a familiar takes is innate.I can’t imagine what you believe Lord Phel may have accomplished here.”He grinned at Gabriel.“My mother will be most interested, however.”
House El-Adrel would no doubt eat up every scrap of information Jadren fed them.
The proctor paused.“Wizard El-Adrel, I do not question the alternate form itself, but whether this inconclusive bonding is legitimate.”
Jadren raised a supercilious brow.“That’s not how it sounded.You stated that demonstration of alternate form would be proof of bonding.”
“The alternate form is irregular,” she protested, but her argument lacked force.
Jadren and Asa exchanged glances, then shook their heads in unison.“That’s not in your authority to decide,” Jadren informed her, pity in his tone.
“If Lord Phel does not have control of this… this beast,” the proctor persisted, “imagine the damage it could do.”
“But Lord Phel obviously has control,” Asa inserted.“As he can demonstrate by returning the familiar to human form, fully dressed.”
