Seliah slid Jadren a triumphant look.Yes.Yes, indeed.It could be that someone applied an enchantment to Daisy, or removed a block, allowing her to conceive a new generation of magical Phels.
“We should do that again,” GF declared.“When the kids are back and our grandparenting duties are discharged, let’s take a little holiday and you can be pampered again.”
“But in the middle of growing season?”she protested.
“They don’t really need us,” he pointed out.“Gabriel and Nic have everything steaming along.We should take advantage of that.”
“Maybe so.”She beamed at him.“And we could try for that same room at the inn, reenact our honeymoon.”
“Well,” Seliah said, “we should be going.”
Relief coursing through him at being able to finally get on the road, Jadren sprang to his feet.
“Oh, do you have to?”Daisy complained.“Stay the night, at least.”
“Sorry, Mom.”Seliah stood and handed Bria to her mother and kissed them both on the cheek, then dropped one on her father’s.“We can sleep in the carriage and we need to get to Convocation Center.”
“You’re a good boy,” Narlis said, appearing in the doorway.She pointed at the bag Jadren had attached to his belt for safekeeping, as he wasn’t letting the key books out of his possession.Narlis, with surprising speed, darted toward him and snagged the bag off his belt.Before he could react, she had it open and had withdrawn one of the little silver books.
“Narlis,” Jadren said, trying to sound calm, “give that back.”
She stilled, looking younger somehow, her aged body less stooped.“You’re a good girl,” she repeated, then handed Seliah the book and the bag.“Iblis remembers.”
Seliah looked startled.“What does that mean, Narlis?That Iblis remembers.”
“Iblis remembers,” Narlis repeated.“A Phel can open the lock,” she added.
Once again, Jadren and Seliah locked gazes, lightning excitement ricocheting down their bond.House Iblis was a second-tier house, the one Narlis had belonged to before Gabriel liberated her from a cruel and neglectful wizard.Nic had been reportedly furious with him, for exposing House Phel to litigation for his theft of valuable property, but in true idealistic fashion, Gabriel hadn’t cared.Now Jadren wondered… Had Gabriel been prompted by intuition fed from his Phel ancestors?It would be a fine thing to witness Veronica Elal Phel’s face when she discovered that Gabriel’s “gaffe” with Narlis had been his wizard’s intuition all along, leading them to solve this riddle.
“Is there anything else you want to tell us, Narlis?”Seliah asked gently, holding open the bag and jingling the little moonsilver books against each other.
“What have you got there?”Daisy asked, but GF quickly shushed her, saying they didn’t want to know.
Narlis simply patted Seliah’s cheek, her face wreathed in a beaming smile as innocent as Bria’s.“You’re a good girl,” she said.“Iblis remembers.A Phel can open the lock.”
And that was clearly all they were going to get.After enjoining Seliah’s folks to send a courier if Narlis said anything else, anything at all beyond her usual refrain, Jadren hustled Seliah into the carriage and set its course for top speed to Convocation Academy.“Wait until they all hear we’ve solved the puzzle,” Jadren crowed.
“We haven’t solved it yet,” Seliah cautioned, but her excitement shimmered down the bond between them.
He seized her in an enthusiastic kiss.“Yetbeing the operative word.We’re on our way, Seliah darling.”
She seemed to understand he meant more than on the road, kissing him back, the passion between them heating, as it always did.A miracle he never ceased to appreciate.“Yes,” she breathed, hands caressing him.“Yes, we are, Jadren darling.”
~22~
Cillian could understandAlise’s mixed feelings about returning to Convocation Academy, the scene of so many tumultuous events for the both of them.On the one hand, this was where he’d first seen Alise, gliding through the Convocation Archives late at night, pale as a ghost and lovely as the moon.And this was where they’d fallen in love—even if Alise had only admitted it to herself and out loud to him later—the setting for so many firsts for them.
It was also the scene of many crimes and harrowing events, culminating in that midnight fire in the archives and battle with Gordon Hanneil—and their subsequent flight to House Harahel, Cillian feeling so broken in mind, heart, and magic that he thought he might never recover.
And yet, somehow they’d survived to this point.Perhaps arguably stronger than ever.Alise could wield her Elal spirit magic with ever greater skill, and he’d discovered aspects of his own magic he’d never before imagined.And the lovely, elusive Alise held his hand as they walked into the workroom set aside for their project by Provost Uriel.Sensing him watching her, Alise slid him a look, not a sharp one, her eyes instead full of sparkling amusement.
“Who knew?”she murmured to him and he smiled in agreement.
Cillian recognized the workroom as one of many in the wizard’s wing of the academy designated for students learning to master their magical skills.Not that Cillian had ever practiced in one.This sort of heavily shielded and privacy-protected workspace was for amateur wizards learning fire magic or other similarly dangerous and potentially explosive techniques.Not library magic.Still, Cillian found it interesting that the provost had sent them to this space.Surely no one expected the decryption process to pose a threat to the structure or denizens of the academy, so Provost Uriel must be concerned about Hanneil spies, even though she’d supposedly cleaned house following the debacle with Gordon.
The fact that the unflappable and meticulously thorough Tandiya Uriel worried that she’d missed something—or someone—that could pose a danger to them inside the secure walls of Convocation Academy gave Cillian pause.Not that he’d expected House Hanneil to give up on stopping them from decoding Anciela Phel’s data, nor was he naïve enough to hope that they’d escaped notice from those plotting against them.But with the formidable houses that might belong to that conspiracy, he was deeply afraid that their side might not be able to withstand a united attack from the others.
No shielded workspace could protect them from that kind of concerted might.
