AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I catch Stavros’s gaze. “You should warn the king that it’s not just rats. Maybe the clerics who’ve been watching for more daimon antics would be able to pick up the magic in these creatures and ‘discover’ them on their own.”
Stavros’s mouth tightens as if he doesn’t love taking a suggestion from me, but he can obviously recognize it’s a decent one. “I’ll pass on word to him as soon as I can.”
Casimir frowns, picking up the snake’s clay head and examining it. “What real purpose would these serve? Who would the scourge sorcerers want to be spying on? It seems like a totally different tactic than what they were attempting with the daimon.”
It does, which unnerves me more than I’d like to admit. “Maybe they feel they need to use a more subtle approach after how things turned out before.”
“At least we know,” Benedikt points out. “That keeps us one step ahead of them.”
I’m not sure we’re ahead so much as not as far behind as we could be. But before I can decide whether to put that depressing thought into words, a creeping sensation spreads across my palm.
I jerk my hand toward me in time to see the words flicker across my skin.Tonight, same place and time. Alone.
“What?” Stavros demands, taking in my reaction.
I let out a raw chuckle. “It looks like I’m going to get another chance to dig into the scourge sorcerers’ plans directly—tonight.”
Twenty
Ivy
This time, I don’t have to remind Stavros to head to his bedroom and turn off the lights. After Casimir finishes touching up the false godlen brand I haven’t needed to show off yet, the former general simply casts his gaze toward me and says, “Be careful.”
From his tone, it’s obvious what he’s actually saying is, “Don’t you dare burn the school to the ground with your crazy riven magic.”
“Good night to you too,” I call after him, and flop onto the sofa to wait until it seems like a reasonable time to head out.
Julita gives a resigned sigh.I didn’t think it’d take him this long to come around. It’s not as if you’re a different person from who you were before he found out.
I grimace. “In his mind, I am.”
He’s got to see that you have a handle on your magic eventually… I suppose being stubborn was an ideal quality in a general.
I chuckle under my breath. “Good thing I’m awfully stubborn too.”
I pause for a moment, debating how much of a conversation I want to get into even with my voice low when Stavros is in the next room. But what I want to ask Julita about isn’t anything I’d dare saying out loud anywhere else on campus.
“Is there anything else you can remember from your brother and Wendos’s rituals that I should be prepared for? There’s the blood-letting and the appeals for power, but we’ve already covered those.”
Julita is silent for a moment before she answers—long enough that I wish my current mission didn’t require that she dredge up those awful childhood memories.
That was most of it,she says.There were things like drawing symbols with different materials like the dartling eggshell powder, and odd chants similar to the things Wendos was saying in the tower—but not quite the same. I don’t think they had the full picture. Which doesn’t mean this bunch of scourge sorcerers does either, but they seem to know more.
“And they want more. Your brother never said anything about undermining the royal family, did he?”
I have the impression of Julita shaking her head.Nothing on that large a scale. I mean, they were barely teenagers while I was involved. Stupid boys, dabbling with magic they didn’t understand, hoping they’d get some extra power that’d make them feel special. I never got the impression they even thought all that much about politics or religious ideals.
“Nothing along those lines came up around the family dinner table?” I can’t help asking.
Julita snorts.My parents didn’t—don’t—care much about what goes on beyond our county either. Frankly,Iwouldn’t have if I could have gone back to Nikodi and simply focused on running things smoothly there. You know, all the territory we managed from our estate only contained about a quarter of the people who live just in this city. When you spend all your time in a place like that, the world feels… smaller.
“That makes sense.” I doubt many intrepid merchants or travelers bothered to linger within Nikodi’s far-flung borders either.
I might have spent most of my life struggling to keep food in my belly and find any sense of home, but my world was far larger than Julita’s until she came to the college.
“Is there anything you’d like to see?” I say abruptly. “I mean, when we’re done here—you’ve missed out on a lot of things—andIwouldn’t mind taking in more of Silana or even farther abroad. The king’s got to offer a good enough reward that we could do a little traveling with plenty left over.”
Before she moves on for good, that is. My stomach knots when I consider saying that part.
