Alex Lidell - The Cadet of Tildor

Alec’s face reclaimed it usual introspection. “Break a mage’s concentration and he’s useless. Pain, fear, distraction, anything like that and, well, you saw Jasper and Ivan in that alley. As for shielding . . . ” His eyes scanned a large bookshelf and returned apologetic. “The Keraldi Barrier provides natural protection, but it’s no better against force than skin against a knife. Not much help there.”

“Better than nothing.” Renee rested her forehead against her arms.

“I don’t know. It’s like holding off a sword by gripping the blade with your bare hands; the steel will win anyway, just later and more painfully.”

The description nauseated her. “If Jasper were registered—”

“The Crown could ship him off to disarm Devmani mage traps. Or kill him.” Alec’s shoulders tensed. “Good solution.”

Her temper gave way at last. “If he were registered, the threat of punishment from the Mage Council would keep him from puppeteering people to begin with!”

Alec rose. “People commit crimes every day, Renee. It’s not fair to single us out for special penalty.”

Renee looked at him for several heartbeats before shifting her gaze to the fire. “ Us used to mean you and me, Alec.”

Alec said nothing.

The stallion Renee had hired for her ride to Atham snorted his discontent as she reined him to a walk on the Academy grounds. Gray clouds dimmed the late afternoon sunlight, washing the color from buildings and people alike. A cool breeze lifted Renee’s sweaty hair and dried the foam hugging the horse’s flanks. Patting the stallion’s neck, Renee yielded him to a stable boy’s care and rubbed her face.

Palan. Sasha’s message had gnawed at her for the last two days’ ride. So the fat lord was the one behind Savoy’s return to Atham. Who did Palan manipulate to get the leader of a specialty unit pulled from the field? And why? And how? Did Palan’s labors to befriend Diam have anything to do with it? Renee’s skin felt tight. Rubbing her arms, she made her way to the main courtyard. For now, she would focus on the facts she had. She knew where Savoy was. All she needed was Verin’s help to get him out.

The courtyard rolled out in a crunchy carpet of frozen yellow grass. Renee looked around. It was strange to be back. Stranger still to have cares beyond school walls. Despite having braced herself, the sight of the Academy’s grounds squeezed her chest. She could practically hear the fire crackling in her room, could see Rock Lake’s glass surface, could smell the mix of sand and sweat in the salle. All was the same and yet . . . Renee frowned.

Something was off.

The cadets moved faster between buildings, and uniformed guard seemed to have tripled in her fortnight away. It was fortunate she knew most guardsmen by name; their faces suggested they’d have evicted a stranger.

Seaborn was not to be found, either in his office or his quarters. A sentry guarding the cadets’ barracks, another novelty begun in her absence, hesitated to let her inside.

“Very well,” she told the young guardsman. “Could you tell Cadet Sasha Jurran that I would welcome her company out here?”

His gaze dropped to the ground.

“You know me, Chad.”

He shook his head. “It is not that, Re—” He cleared his throat. “My lady. It’s . . . ” His voice faltered again. “Sasha will not leave her room. Or let anyone in.”

Renee jerked straight. “What?”

“A few days ago . . . She . . . ” The guard took a breath and collected himself. “I was the one who found her. Beaten half conscious and discarded naked at the Academy’s gates. Someone had broken three of her fingers and carved a pair of puncture marks on her neck.”

Renee’s face went cold, as if doused with ice water. She pushed past the guard to the door.

His hand gripped her shoulder. “There is more. The following day, King Lysian’s little cousin disappeared. A wee toddler.”

“Claire?” Renee rubbed her eyes, remembering the giggling girl rocking her chair at the Queen’s Day dinner. It seemed the Vipers were finishing what they started, terrorizing the royal family until King Lysian had no choice but to turn a blind eye to their business. Twisting on her heels, Renee found the guard’s eyes. “Let me by, Chad. The Crown’s cousin cannot spend her life hiding.”

He glanced from her to the building he guarded and stepped aside.

Renee strode down the long corridor of the Academy barracks, each stride a painful echo of the life she’d left behind. She trailed her fingers along the uneven walls and stopped beside the door that once held her name. She knocked.

“Leave, please,” came a voice from inside.

“Sasha, it’s me.”

“Great gods.” Sasha opened the door a crack and stood frozen for a moment before grasping Renee’s hands and pulling her inside. Her left eye was swollen, the purple bruises pushing against her hairline. A bandage swathed her right hand, a silk scarf her neck. Sasha opened her mouth, cringed, and instead of speaking, buried her face in Renee’s shoulder.

“It’s all right,” Renee said, steering them to the bed. But it wasn’t all right. It was as wrong as having Alec as an opponent instead of an ally. As wrong as seeing Savoy in shackles, flinching from Jasper’s glance. Perhaps worse. Sasha wasn’t a fighter. She reasoned and discussed and debated, and she never hurt anyone. The thought of a Viper—of anyone!—abusing Sasha made the blood heat in Renee’s veins. Nostrils flaring, she smoothed her friend’s hair. “Do you wish to speak of it?”

“No.” A sob escaped. “The Vipers took Claire.”

“I know,” Renee whispered.

“Who’s next?” Sasha’s voice broke. “My aunt? My mother? What if the Vipers get my mother? What if—”

“It will stop.” Renee pulled back to look Sasha in the face. “Lysian is a good king. He will make it stop.”

Sasha shook her head, wiping her eyes. “No, Renee, it won’t. The Madam does not have armies, but she has mages. If Lys marches on Catar with too few soldiers, he’ll be impotent. If he brings many, the fighting will turn the whole city to blood. The whole city.” Her words shook. “And then the Family will press for its advantage. And when Tildor’s neighbors in the Devmani Empire find out, they will attack us in our weakness. Tildor will be back at war. And”—Sasha’s words poured faster, each one upsetting the next—“and if Lys does nothing, the Vipers will keep coming after my family.”

Renee drew a breath. Sasha was likely right. She usually was. “And will staying locked in the room change any of it? The Vipers want you terrified. Don’t aid their quest.”

“I’m not like you, Renee,” she whispered. “I can’t just order myself unafraid.”

“Neither can I. But we can try.”

Sasha studied the bedspread. “You found Diam,” she said finally, and straightened. “Then you can stay a while, here with me?”

Renee sighed. “No.” Taking a breath, she described what took place since she left, leaving out only Alec’s mage nature. If the story implied that veesi use spurred his decision to leave, it was the lesser of the evils. As she spoke, the fear in Sasha’s face dampened, and became focused on the dilemma at hand.

“Seaborn is at the palace,” Sasha said when Renee finished speaking. “Lys has him in chambers with other officials, divining options for the crisis. Perhaps that sheds light on his delay.”

Renee frowned, opening her mouth to protest Seaborn’s failure to send word, but halted when Sasha sighed.

“Don’t be angry, Renee. For better or worse, Lys settled the weight of Tildor’s safety on Seaborn’s shoulders.”