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“Listen carefully.” The woman still holding my arm spoke with a firm, quiet voice. “You will follow me. We are going to walk out that door, get in my carriage, and travel far away from here.”
I blinked. My mind suddenly felt a tug, as if a fisherman had dropped a hook at my brain and my brain had bitten.
She was a mind mage. And I’d just taken the bait.
Groaning, I stepped after her, no more able to deny her commands than a fish could save itself from a hook through the gills.
As we entered the hallway, my gaze swept past my mother, who stood watching me like I’d transformed into a monster from the Labyrinth. She was trembling, but her pinched lips showed more rage than fright. Even now, as this mage was bending my body to her will, my mother looked on, angry that I’d let her down. If my muscles had been under my command, I might have screamed or wilted under the sudden flood of hopelessness that swept through me. But I kept marching after the mind mage, unable to resist. My eyes roved the hall, hoping for a glimpse of Archer peeking through a doorway, his hands reaching for me or his voice calling for me.
But no one was coming to save me.
My legs stepped stiffly after the mage, testifying to the awful power of mind magic. I’d never been under someone else’s control like this; now, I fully agreed that this kind of magic should be illegal. My blood boiled in defiance, but that was the only part of me to resist. My arms and legs simply kept moving. My intentions were fragile as eggshells, and they cracked as soon as they contradicted my captor’s will.
I tested my voice, but even my throat and tongue were under this woman’s control. A low growl was all that escaped.
My mother’s presence hovered behind me, but I couldn’t turn to her. She wasn’t objecting to this.
At a door cut into the external wall of the temple, the mage paused and looked back at me, then my mother. “The crime of concealing one’s magical affinity is severe, and the Guild will not tolerate it.”
My mother emitted some garbled, trembling sound. I still could not turn to see her face. Being imprisoned in my own flesh was maddening. Sweat leaked into my lace wedding dress.
“You’ve been clever to conceal your magic,” she said to me, “but we’ve been watching you for years, and now we know for certain you’re not a fire mage. This ceremony proved what we never could.”
My eyes narrowed into slits and my heavy breathing quickened. To my shock, my mother’s cold hand descended onto my exposed shoulder, a ghoulish touch against my hot skin. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw her nod.
“She’s only a quarter,” my mother said, reminding me of my lack yet again.
“Quarter mage or not, she’ll come with me. King’s orders.”
Where are we going? screamed in my head, but my mouth didn’t work.
Then the mage nodded at my mother with a finality that terrified me. She was taking me away, and that nod meant we weren’t coming back. Rebellion surged up inside me, battering against the woman’s control on my mind.
“No!” I managed a single word. Then the control on my brain latched down tighter, my throat closing up so violently that I wheezed when I tried to draw breath.
My mother lifted her hand from my shoulder to cover her mouth once again. She looked pale as wax but said nothing as my body lurched through the door after the mage.
I followed the mind mage out a squat back door into summer sunlight that didn’t quite reach the alley floor. The shadows were deep here. My limbs were on marionette strings, moving in slow, jerkish movements that signaled to anyone watching that I was not acting of my own accord. Unfortunately, no one was watching.
I narrowed my eyes at my captor; at least my eyes were still under my own command. This woman had accused me of being a mind mage, when she was one herself.
Mind magic had been outlawed the moment the war had ended, almost eighty years ago. There would be no more schools for mind mages, no lessons exploring its depths and dangers or uses and possibilities. Those caught using it faced a lifetime in the king’s inescapable prison.
But it appeared the king still liked to employ a few mind mages, for times like this. Dragging people away was much easier when they couldn’t resist.
The woman led me to a waiting carriage, its door already open, and practically shoved my rear end inside. I flopped into the seat, the heavy lace dress adding to the stifling feeling inside this enclosed black box. Sweat soaked into my would-be wedding dress.
The large woman shook the carriage as she took her seat across from me, a satisfied smile curling the edges of her painted lips.
“Excellent. You’ve done well.” She fiddled with her skirt, smoothing it and adjusting the folds beneath her.
I wanted to scream, to beat my fists against the windows. Instead, my hands remained clasped compliantly in my lap. The only thing indicating my distress was my thundering pulse.
She knocked on the wall of the coach, and we rolled away from the temple…and from my family.
I tried once more to speak, but nothing happened. I understood now, better than from any lesson in a history book, why some people assumed the magic wielders were gods, toying with us. A flash of clarity jolted through me. My mother’s hatred of what I might be suddenly made more sense, though it still didn’t excuse her behavior.
As we bumped across the cobblestones, I nearly fell over in the seat several times, until the woman relaxed her hold on my muscles enough that I could balance.
