AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The structure had overtaken the entirety of their largest courtyard, and she felt a bit giddy when she thought of everything she could grow here. She had already set out the plants that would be safe enough under Mak’s spells for the time being.
In this little pocket of wildness, with fewer people surrounding him, Kalos relaxed as she had hoped. He sat down on one of the iron benches and obliged Knight with more attention. “Now it makes sense, Cassia. That’s why you were able to make a liegehound accept Hesperines. Your liege bond with him helped, of course, but it was also your sleeping magic, I suspect.”
Lio took one of the iron chairs and drew Cassia near him. “Have you had many encounters with Lustra mages, then?”
“Well,” Kalos began, “you know what my former profession was.”
Solia propped her hip against a stack of stone blocks Apollon had yet to haul away. “I’m afraid I don’t. Would it be intrusive of me to ask?”
Kalos hesitated. “I was a heart hunter.”
“I haven’t been in Tenebra in years,” Solia replied without censure in her tone, “so correct me if I misremember. Don’t the heart hunters live in warbands on the border with Orthros to hunt down Hesperines?”
“That’s right.” Kalos sighed.
“How you became a Hesperine must be quite the tale.” Solia sounded impressed.
“Now I use everything I knew as an enemy to teach our Hesperines errant how to fight heart hunters. And their magic...Lustra magic.”
Cassia needed to sit down. Fortunately, Lio’s lap was very close. “Kalos, are you saying you are a Lustra mage yourself? The only Hesperine in existence who shares my magic?”
Within the shelter of the greenhouse’s spells, a new flavor of magic rose and stretched. It felt like a howl, solitary and yet so familiar, a cry from the wilderness that made her ache to answer.
This was Kalos’s aura, she realized, unconcealed by Hesperine veil spells.
“I won’t be so alone with my magic after all,” she breathed.
“I’ve only got one of your three,” Kalos said, as if that were something he ought to apologize for. “My tracking abilities are a form of beast magic, you see.”
Cassia truly wanted to throw her arms around him. “You’re a changer?”
“Nothing so important as that. It’s not like what it used to be when the Silvicultrixes reigned. Heart hunters only have remnants, and I can’t say our ancestors would be proud of us. But what we practice is indeed a surviving form of Lustra magic.”
“Why isn’t this documented?” Lio asked. “The implications are incredible. I cannot believe we had no knowledge of this.”
“That’s my fault,” Kalos murmured. “I, ah…rather prefer to keep my origins and my magic to myself, and my comrades are kind enough to respect that. I never thought that would cause trouble for anyone.”
Cassia had been shamed her whole life in the Tenebran court. She hated that Kalos believed anyone here in Orthros would treat him that way because of his past. “I shall be the one who causes a great deal of trouble for anyone who dares complain.”
Kalos blushed again. “Thank you. You know I’ll tell you anything you wish to know.”
“Would you consider giving me magic lessons once my affinities awaken?”
Kalos blew out a breath. “That’s rather like asking a mountain mutt to show a royal liegehound how to sit.”
Cassia couldn’t help but laugh. “You do yourself far too little credit. I’m a mutt myself, remember.”
He gave her a half grin. “I suppose. Even so, I know so little about your other affinities.”
“It sounds as if you know a great deal,” Lio countered. “You’re able to channel animal abilities in human form?”
“That’s right.”
“A specific animal?” Lio inquired.
Kalos looked sheepish. “Well, yes. This one right here.” He patted Knight.
“Oh, Kalos,” Cassia cried, “if only you were a changer! How marvelous it would be to turn into a liegehound.”
