Canavan Trudi - The Traitor Queen

But the boy had obediently followed. He was pale and frowning. Worried, she thought, smothering a smile. I would be too. What on earth does Kallen want with him?

Kallen opened the door and ushered Bokkin inside. Lilia followed. Kallen pointed to a seat. Bokkin sat down, his eyes downcast.

“Thank you for volunteering,” Kallen said, taking the other chair. “Lilia has explained that it will not hurt?”

“Nnn-” Bokkin began, his eyes widening.

“Not yet,” Lilia injected. “I haven’t had time to explain much.”

Kallen looked at her. Though he was frowning in disapproval, she caught a glint of something else in his gaze. What is he up to?

He turned back to the young man. “In fact, done correctly the subject cannot sense their mind being read at all.” Bokkin’s eyes went very wide, but Kallen didn’t appear to notice. “Now, I did arrive a little late, and don’t want to delay your arrival at your first class, so we’d best begin.” He beckoned to Lilia. “Stand behind him.”

She was glad he’d given her a reason to move out of Bokkin’s sight, as she doubted she could have resisted smiling much longer. As she obeyed, Bokkin tried to turn to look at her.

“This wasn’t… I didn’t…”

Kallen leaned forward and fixed Bokkin with a challenging stare. “Changed your mind, have you? I guess we can always put the word out that we need someone else.”

Bokkin stilled. Lilia could imagine him weighing up the options. Be labelled a coward or have his mind read by one of the feared Black Magicians and Lilia. To her amusement, Bokkin stayed put.

“You won’t go looking through my memories?” he asked.

Kallen shook his head. “Of course not.”

Bokkin nodded. “All right then.”

Standing up, Kallen nodded to Lilia. “I will connect with your mind; you connect with his.”

Taking a deep breath, Lilia placed her hands on either side of Bokkin’s head and, as she felt Kallen’s hands press against her temples, started a simple exercise to clear and focus her mind.

— Lilia, Kallen spoke.

— Kallen.

All she sensed was his presence and mind-voice. In other lessons involving mind-to-mind instruction, he had discouraged her from imagining her mind as a room. Sometimes it made the lessons harder, but it meant her grasp of concepts was less conscious and more instinctive. It made using magic feel like moving a limb — as much reflex as deliberate.

— Bokkin will report us if you search through his memories, but I doubt he has much control of his mind. He’ll probably show us what he doesn’t want us to see anyway. If you remain alert, you may see something you can use to stop him harassing you.

Lilia could not hide her shock from him.

— But… we ought to ignore those memories!

— Yes. However, the Guild does allow some bending of the rules, in exceptional cases. We have learned that it is better to do so and stop the harassment of novices, than ignore it and risk those novices breaking rules and laws later.

— Because of Sonea?

— And conflicts brought about by opening the Guild to lower-class entrants.

— I’m not sure I could bring myself to use anything very private…

— You may not need to. The threat of it may be enough to deter him.

— I hope so.

— Now, focus on Bokkin’s mind. Sense his instinctive resistance to a mind-read.

She did as he instructed and sensed a surge of triumph from Bokkin as she failed.

— Now watch…

Kallen’s presence expanded and weakened, like a beam of light softened by passing through a window screen. Bokkin’s mind did not sense a focused effort at intrusion, and did not fight it. A moment later Kallen’s presence sharpened again.

— Now you. Clear your mind of everything but the one intention: to drift into his mind like smoke.

Smoke or light, it seemed easy enough, but it took Lilia a few attempts before she was no longer detectable by Bokkin’s mind. He must have sensed something in her approach changing, because by the time she did manage to enter his mind he was worried about her succeeding.

It’s not right, he thought. She broke a law. She shouldn’t be allowed to learn these things.

A memory rose. A face. Lilia instantly knew it was Bokkin’s father. “ Someone will always grow stronger than you — if you let them. You have to sort them out while they’re weak. Stop them getting strong.” Bokkin caught himself, forcing himself to stop remembering, but not before Lilia caught three quick flashes of emotion-laden images. Love and hurt. Beatings. Anger. Grief.

She understood, then, that Bokkin believed this fiercely and completely, and thought it the best piece of wisdom his father had taught him. After all, his father had proven it by beating his own son into obeying and fearing him. Then his father had been killed by a man he had admitted he should have been harder on.

That’s what he’s trying to do to me, she realised. He is thinking about the future. I’m going to be stronger than him, so he’s trying to weaken me now. She shuddered at the thought of the kind of magician he would become. By then he’ll be stronger than most people. It’s only other magicians he’ll be threatened by. Like me.

— Lilia? Kallen spoke.

She moved out of Bokkin’s mind.

— Yes?

— You have done well. That is enough for now.

She felt his hands leave her head, so she opened her eyes and released Bokkin. Kallen moved around to the chair and sat down. The door behind him opened.

“You can go now, Lord Bokkin. Thank you for your assistance. Tell one of the others to be here tomorrow morning, at the same time.”

“Yes, Black Magician Kallen.” Bokkin bowed and hurried out of the room.

The door closed behind him. Lilia leaned against the back of the chair, delaying sitting down. She didn’t even want to feel the residual warmth of Bokkin from it.

“What did you learn?” Kallen asked.

Lilia grimaced. “That he believes anyone who might grow stronger than him is a threat, so he has to find a way to dominate them before they dominate him.” Then it occurred to her he was probably asking about mind-reading. “Which is the opposite to how mind-reading works. You don’t succeed by trying to dominate.”

Kallen nodded. “Yes.” He shook his head. “Magicians like Bokkin are the reason we do not teach this level of mind-reading to all magicians.”

“Wait… you mean anyone can learn to do this?”

“Unfortunately, yes. High Lord Akkarin was the first Guild magician to learn how to read the mind of an uncooperative person, so it has always been assumed that it was a skill that required black magic. He revealed to Black Magician Sonea that this was not true by teaching her how to read minds before he taught her how to take and store magic. Sonea agreed to keep that fact to herself. You must do so as well.”

“Oh. Definitely.” The thought of what Bokkin might do with such knowledge sent a shiver down Lilia’s spine.

“You have a fresh and interesting way of approaching things, Lilia,” Kallen said. “Like this idea of using a quick, strong stab of forcestrike as a substitute for a knife when performing black magic. It is ingenious. I have described it to Lady Vinara, and we have discussed ways we could experiment safely.”

She felt her face warm at the praise and looked down. “Well… I hope it works.”

“Even if it doesn’t, it’s worth trying. Well, that’s all for today. You had best get to your first class.”

As the door opened again, Lilia bowed and murmured his name. She made her way to her first class of the day feeling alternately cheered and worried. I’m learning so much from Kallen, and he seems to approve of me more now that our lessons aren’t all about Warrior practice.