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Though, why would Lord Elal have sent one of his best wizard minions to Sammael?Gabriel couldn’t shake the creeping certainty that Elal was behind all of this, just as his Elal ancestors had been behind the fall of House Phel.
“Take the magic, Alise,” he ordered, just in case he hadn’t been clear.She frowned but complied.
“At least we have plenty of water,” Jadren noted, passing around the ever-replenishing flask.
“Too bad we only have my brother’s prototype,” Selly replied, taking another jab at the El-Adrel wizard.“It would be good to have more, in case we get separated.”
“I’ve been busy,” Jadren snarled, defending himself.“And I didn’t have access to Lord Phel’s half of the magic for the better part of a week, if you’ll recall.”
Gabriel walked down the road to get out of earshot, needing some peace and quiet to brood.The track they followed should lead to House Sammael via a back route, according to Alise’s spies, but it was overgrown with disuse, meandering through the countryside and seeming to be going nowhere.Gabriel chafed at the slow progress, his thoughts turning down dark, twisted corridors of vengeance should they arrive too late to save Nic.Whatever plan they were trying to bend her to, she wouldn’t cooperate.He knew her that well.She’d break first, and that was what worried him most.
Realizing that he was stalking furiously along, he made himself slow and take a few deep breaths, grounding himself again by studying the huge old trees of the forest.They’d thinned in this area, opening onto a barren meadow.Real spring had not yet made it this far north, though the land had freed itself from winter.Across the meadow, on a crag above, rose an unsettling edifice that could only be House Sammael.
Built of rock as black as the volcanic stuff of the surrounding peaks, the house seemed to be mostly a series of towers, sharp spikes spearing the overcast skies.Nic had commented sardonically about the Sammael aesthetic, and how their affinity for causing pain was mirrored by their ancestral home.Gabriel smiled to himself, appreciating her insight, missing her with a crazed intensity.His magic kept reaching for her of its own accord, snarled and miserable when it failed to connect.
Was she up in one of those towers?If so, why couldn’t he feel her?
“Not very welcoming, is it?”Jadren asked, walking up behind him.Before Gabriel could growl that he’d walked this way to be alone, Jadren pressed the water flask into Gabriel’s hand.“Selly says you need to hydrate.”Then he gazed up at the forbidding citadel.“Downright menacing, that castle.Makes House El-Adrel look like a pretty beachside cottage by comparison.”
“You’ve never been here?”Gabriel had assumed the other wizard had.It seemed like the head families of the High Houses had a custom of visiting each other, and he was sure Jadren had implied as much.
Jadren squinted at the towers.“Not me.I never got out much.Not until Mother darling brought me to Meresin.”
“Explains your poor social skills.”
“You have no idea,” Jadren agreed.
“You ever going to tell us why you didn’t attend Convocation Academy?”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I didn’t know any better,” Gabriel replied equably.
“Ignorance is bliss, they say.”Jadren took back the flask and took a healthy swallow, grunting in displeasure.“We need to make one of these with whiskey.”
“I have water magic, not whiskey magic.”
“We’d have to brew the whiskey, but if you could figure out the replenishing part, we’d be rich.Think of what we could charge for it!”Jadren smacked his lips in anticipation.
“Nic wants to grow grapes,” Gabriel offered, not sure why he was mentioning it, except that it made him feel closer to her to talk about her.“To make wine.”
“Wine flasks would be great, too.”Jadren nodded sagely.“We’ll keep the entire Convocation too drunk to realize how miserable they are.”
Gabriel laughed, realizing as he did that it wasn’t funny.Sobering, he turned back.The horses should be rested enough.Jadren walked alongside him.
“So what’s your plan for approaching House Sammael if you’ve never been there?”he asked.
“Myplan?”Jadren looked around as if one might appear.
Gabriel set his teeth, so as not to snap in sheer frustration.“Yes.Remember how you argued to come along because you know how to approach a High House and I don’t?”
“Ohhh…thatplan.”Jadren nodded thoughtfully.
Gabriel waited pointedly.The rest of the group, spotting their approach, got up and prepared to ride on.“And?”he prompted Jadren.
“I’m sure something will come to me.”
Wonderful.His mood blacker than ever, Gabriel checked Vale’s tack.Vale twitched an ear, swinging his head to gaze at him in mild astonishment when Gabriel yanked too hard on the cinch.Apologizing to the steed, he went to check on Salve, too.He’d brought Nic’s mare along in a burst of determined optimism, so she’d be able to ride home.That was the fantasy he clung to: that Nic would be fine, able to ride, and would return to House Phel beside him.
