Sharon Shinn - Reader And Raelynx

“And don’t you think that this is the most terrible secret anyone in the kingdom can possibly know?” Valri shot back. Amalie just stood there looking miserable and stricken, her hands in fists at her sides. “Don’t you think it has cost me something every day to conceal it? I have kept it to myself too long to be offering it up to every random acquaintance, whether mystic or king’s guard! Who can be trusted? The heir to the kingdom is a mystic! Surely that would bring war down on us if nothing else would! And you wanted me to tell you? I have been afraid you would discover Amalie’s secret from the day you first met her! And now that you know, I’m even more afraid!”

It was deliberately unkind. Cammon stood straighter, trying to make his expression stern, not wounded. “Who else knows?” he asked in a dignified way.

“No one,” Valri said. “Except the king.”

“Not even her uncle?”

“No,” Valri said, and Amalie shook her head.

“I find that hard to believe,” Cammon replied. “She told me she spent months at his house when she was a child. Surely he noticed something then.”

Finally Amalie looked at him, and her expression was lost and sad. “No,” she said. “My mother and my grandmother were always there, and they kept my magic in check. And they were always very secretive about their own powers. I’m not sure he ever realized what they were capable of.”

“Pella was a mystic, too? Like this?” Senneth had been right in her speculations-though neither of them had suspected the whole truth.

Amalie made a small hopeless gesture. “She didn’t have much power, not nearly as much as my grandmother did. And my grandmother never considered it magic-at least, she didn’t talk about it that way. I don’t think my mother actually realized that she was a mystic until she came to Ghosenhall and began to understand what magic was, and how much people hated it.”

“So what could she do?” Cammon asked.

Amalie shrugged. “Small things. It’s hard to explain. Mostly she could learn quickly. Like you said, it’s a thieving kind of magic. It puts on other people’s colors. The funniest thing my mother could do was learn accents. She could spend five minutes with someone and perfectly copy his patterns of speech. When I was a little girl, I loved to hear her talk like the maid from Fortunalt or the lord from Brassenthwaite. She could imitate anyone.”

“And what can you do?” he asked in a rather hostile voice.

She lifted her eyes, huge and brown and pleading, and for a moment he felt cruel. That shocked him, because he was never cruel. But he crossed his arms and awaited her answer, for it was desperately important to know.

“I don’t think you have the right to question the princess in that tone of voice,” Valri said.

But Amalie answered. “I’m a mockingbird,” she said. “I can repeat magic. From Valri, I learned how to control the raelynx. From you I’ve learned how to communicate without words. I haven’t been around Kirra and Donnal enough to learn shape-shifting, but watch-” Her face screwed up in concentration, and suddenly her red-gold hair turned a dull and listless brown. Valri’s exclamation of distress led Cammon to believe this was the first time the queen had witnessed that particular trick. “I can’t call fire, though,” Amalie added, allowing her hair to revert to its normal color. “Maybe Senneth is too strong for me-she resists without even knowing it.”

“Maybe if you wore that moonstone necklace you’d be able to steal anything you wanted,” Cammon said, still in a hard voice. He had to admit part of him was impressed, though. What a versatile skill! Justin and Tayse would already be figuring out how to turn it into a fine weapon. “What about ordinary people? Can you steal from them?”

Amalie flinched a little at the word, even though she had used it herself just a moment ago. “I think so, yes. Janni and Wen told me today how quickly I was learning self-defense-although perhaps they were just praising me because I’m the princess-”

“No, you seemed to be catching on faster than most people would,” Cammon admitted. “Although, who knows? Maybe there’s a god of war who watches over gifted fighters. Justin says he’s starting to believe it, anyway. You may have been imitating more magic, you just didn’t realize it.”

Amalie offered a tentative smile. “It didn’t seem like Janni and Wen were touched with magic, but I might believe it of Justin. And Tayse. And Tir.”

Cammon shook his head and began pacing again. “I don’t know what to think. I don’t know what to say. This changes everything.”

“It changes nothing,” Valri said sharply. “No one else must know.”

Cammon gave her an incredulous look and just kept walking.

“I mean it,” the queen insisted. “ No one must know. None of your special friends among the Riders! Not Senneth-no one.”

“If you cannot trust Senneth, if you cannot trust the Riders, then you might as well set the princess outside the gates of Ghosenhall and let her be murdered by the first Gisseltess soldier who rides into the city,” Cammon said. “Do you expect to keep this secret forever? For her whole life?”

“Perhaps.”

“Then you certainly need allies, because once she is queen she will need far more protection than you are able to offer. Do you think you’ll keep this a secret from her husband ?”

Valri was silent.

“Well, then, you’d better choose even more wisely than you had planned, because it will have to be an awfully stupid man who doesn’t find it strange that you are hovering behind his wife night and day, never leaving him alone with her for a moment! There’s a fine way to make sure Amalie bears the next heir to Gillengaria!”

He hadn’t meant it to be funny, but Amalie laughed, and even Valri permitted herself a wintry smile. “Perhaps her husband will have to know,” Valri admitted. “But-”

“And Senneth will have to know, and Tayse,” Cammon said. “I’ll let them decide who else is informed.”

“Cammon, you cannot-”

“I cannot keep this secret myself! It’s too big for me! I don’t know what to do ! But what I do know is that this secret puts Amalie in greater danger than ever before. And I know-” Thank you, Justin, for this insight . “I know that my task is to keep the princess safe. And I cannot do it alone.”

“Cammon, the more people who know, the greater danger she is in,” Valri said sharply, taking a few steps across the room toward him. “Please. Say nothing to them.”

“Tell them,” Amalie said in a soft voice, and both of them swiveled to stare at her. She looked pale but decisive. “Tell them. Cammon’s right. They are my defenders, and they deserve to know what they’re defending me from.”

“Amalie-” Valri began.

But the princess nodded firmly. “And what they learn about me may help them understand Coralinda Gisseltess, who is an enemy to all of us,” she added. “Valri, we will keep the secret longer if we can-but not from those who must know.”

Valri rubbed her hand along her forehead. She suddenly looked, Cammon thought, very young and very troubled. What a burden for her, all these years! No wonder she had been so fretful, so afraid, during their whole journey last summer. She had had even more to fear than the rest of them realized.

“What about that benighted necklace?” the queen demanded almost petulantly. “You’ll have to wear it when the young lord comes calling. But that means Cammon will have to be a mile away from here, or he’ll be on his knees vomiting from the shock!”

Both Amalie and Cammon laughed aloud at that. Suddenly he was back in a good humor. “Perhaps if we practice a little in the next few days, I will learn how to shield myself from your rapacious magic, or you will learn how to hold it at bay,” he said. “Not today, though. I’m not up to the task.” He was struck by a sudden thought. “But if you want to learn how to control your magic better, my friend Jerril-”