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~16~
It took anotherfull day for Gabriel to escape the infirmary.Despite being a broken and guilt-riddled man, Asa continued to find his spine where his patient was concerned.In all truth, he didn’t have to fight Gabriel at all.When Gabriel insisted he be released, Asa simply stood back and gestured for Gabriel to leave.Gabriel made it two steps before the room spun and his vision went black.
At least Asa had the grace to catch him before he hit the floor.
After that, Gabriel ate and drank everything handed to him with grim determination.He allowed Asa to work his healing magic as often as he was able.He even suffered his parents’ fawning attention, figuring letting them pet him gave Selly a break.
As for Selly, she wasn’t exactly lucid—definitely not articulate—but she wasn’t crazed either.No longer needing to be strapped down, she was allowed to get up as she pleased—which meant she often sat on the bench beneath the tall windows, sniffing the spring breeze like a cat when the windows were open.Wizards Wolfgang and Dahlia collaborated to expand the bench into a deep window seat padded with pillows.Selly beamed her happiness, even hugging the pair of wizards.
Gabriel watched Selly through the long hours of doing nothing but convalescing, recalling how she’d spoken in the mist they’d been lost in, her mind as sharp as ever.He hadn’t told their parents about the conversation, as he wasn’t sure if they’d understand that it hadn’t been a dream.Sometimes Selly came to sit at his bedside, holding his hand and smiling sweetly at him.She seemed happy to simply be together like that, and he wasn’t certain if she remembered the mist at all.
It also occurred to him that she’d been lost in that formless mist for a very long time, and he understood why everyone warned him that her mind might not recover from it.His own thoughts had a tendency to grow vague and formless.When exhaustion overwhelmed him, he wondered ifhewould ever be the same again.
When he managed to walk out of the infirmary under his own power, he climbed the stairs to the rooms he shared with Nic, ready to bathe and put on real clothes.He’d been braced for her lingering scent and vitality to hit him in the gut, but worse—there was no trace of her presence.Only her things, left behind, an open book discarded face down to mark her place.Her embroidery neatly folded on a side table.Her gowns, most of which he’d never gotten to see her wear, hanging like eviscerated ghosts in her wardrobe.
Afraid he might stand there fingering the fabric of her gowns, weeping like a child, he forced himself to walk away.Reasonably clean, shaved, and dressed, he went to the library and sent for Alise.She hadn’t wanted to summon Iliana and Han—along with the inevitable vicious pack of hunters on their trail—until Gabriel was able to fight.Jadren had been working on weapons to be enchanted, also refusing to show them to Gabriel until Asa gave approval.
Meanwhile, Nic was out there, somewhere, suffering and slowly losing her mind.
“Are you sure?”Alise asked dubiously.“Not to gainsay you, Lord Phel, but you’ve only just arisen from your sickbed.You’re still replenishing your magic and—”
“That’s why I need Han and Iliana,” he interrupted.“I can’t go after Nic without their help.Every day that passes is another day that—”
“I know that!”Alise nearly shouted.“You’ve been asleep for most of this, but I’m the one who’s been counting the days, sick with worry.I even wrote to Papa, that’s how desperate I was.”
“You did what?”Gabriel asked, astonished.
“I wrote to Lord Elal,” Alise answered, lifting her chin in stubborn pride, exactly as Nic would.“I offered to return as his heir if he would ransom Nic.”
“What did he say?”
She laughed bitterly.“He didn’t reply.I think I know why, too.”
“And?”
Dropping into a chair, she put her face in her hands, then looked at him, black eyes haunted.“When Sammael took Nic, I sent a spirit with them, to keep an eye on her.Just in case.”
Gabriel sat straighter, galvanized with excitement.“Then you know exactly where she is.”If he could find a way to sneak into Convocation Center, he could break her out without confronting the multitudes Jadren warned of.
But Alise was shaking her head.“It vanished.Because it was taken away from me.”
Gabriel urged his still sluggish brain to think.“What can do that?”
“Whocan do that is the correct question.It would take an Elal wizard, and a decently powerful one, too.I’m not hugely powerful, but I’m no weakling either.”
“Your father sent a wizard to assist Sammael in Nic’s capture,” Gabriel realized.
Alise nodded grimly.“Or someone is acting without Papa’s knowledge.I know where I’d bet my coin.”
Elal, up to their conniving noses in this, as usual.“Call Han and Iliana back, please.Don’t make me make it an order.”
She nodded in resignation, not entirely unhappy.There were no good answers to the situation they found themselves in.“Just be ready.”
“I will be.”He had to be.
Therefore, he visitedthe arcanium.Alone.It felt hollow and wrong to walk the long tunnel under the lake without Nic.He sorely missed her running commentary of sardonic comments.Hesitating when he reached the final, round door, he recalled how Nic had said the arcanium required a mix of their magic.Would he be able to open it?He was no longer drained to the point of death, but his magic hadn’t yet fully rebounded.
Still, Nic had also theorized that the arcanium stored magic they’d combined.If any residual of Nic’s powerful magic remained, it would be here.And he needed it if he was going to rescue her.
