What will you make of it?his eyes seemed to ask Lory, who did her best to ignore the burning heat in her stomach as she refused to look away.
No one was paying attention to her anymore with Falcrest dominating the room. Even Dunveil appeared insignificant next to the captain’s powerful presence.
“Heener, Ngala, you come with me.” Without a warning, he prowled from the room, leaving Brycon and Tabi to scramble after him, and Lory wasn’t proud to admit the spark of jealousy flaring in her belly as her name wasn’t called and she had to watch the three of them disappear.
“I have no idea what happened between the two of you,” Thal whispered so only she could hear, “but one of you is going to murder the other one of these days.” He gestured at where Falcrest had just vanished, then at Lory. “I’m still trying to figure out who’ll strike first.”
“If stories are to be believed, I’d rather fuck him than kill him.” She couldn’t help but smother a smirk at the realization she wanted both of it in perhaps equal parts.
“I’d rather you fucked him.” Thal returned her grin. “It would be a shame to see you executed for treason after all we’ve gone through.”
He didn’t need to specify the deaths they’d witnessed every morning or the brutal training they’d experienced every day. He didn’t even need to refer to the shy magic they shared. It was all there in his eyes as he directed them to the front of the room once more, waiting for Dunveil to continue his class.
Fourteen
“Stop it.”Tabi chuckled as Thal sent yet another splash of water flying across the blue common room two weeks later, a broad grin on his face.
“Only if you tell me what your magic does.”
The two of them had been freakishly close since they returned from Falcrest’s training, Thal with a smile on his face and Tabi with a half-annoyed expression, telling Lory she actually enjoyed whatever happened there. Just like with Aiden and her situation, both Tabi and Thal didn’t speak about details. Only that Thal’s magic had finally reared its head and spat some water at the captain.
The image alone made Lory smile whenevershe thought about it.
Her own magic hadn’t made a reappearance, though, despite the multiple times she’d been summoned to train with Dunveil, the Master of Knowledge suspiciously curious about her light magic.
At least, no one doubted that was what she had. Dunveil had told her the first day of her magic training that assaulting a superior in any way could end with a death sentence, and how lucky she was that Falcrest wasn’t pressing charges, which had made her want to tell him that Falcrest was an ass and Dunveil was ignorant not to notice the flaw in his precious captain’s story.
Why would a machine like Captain Falcrest need to defend himself with fire when he could simply knock her out with a punch or threaten to execute her the way people were executed for nearly any misstep at this academy?
Those were the moments she wanted to ask the Master of Knowledge how so many ashlings could be loyal to an academy that kills their recruits. How they managed to ensure and maintain that loyalty based on threats and fear. But she never had the guts to ask because that could lead to her imminent death, she supposed. So, Lory kept her thoughts to herself, glancing out the window at the guards standing by the edge of the yard. She’d observed them before, their nondescript black uniforms, the empty silver squares on their shoulders defining them asashmarked, the final rank at Ashthorn. Sabers hung at their hips, and the hilts of silver knives blinked from their boots, two human weapons, ready to destroy anyone who dared breach the walls of Ashthorn Ward.
A part of Lory kept figuring out ways to get past them, wondering if the narrow path behind the guardhouse at the edge of the yard would be wide enough to slip through and reach for the saber of at least one of them. She could sever the tendons in his knees before he could notice her, and then she could climb up the side of the guard house and escape over the wall.
Designed to keep people in as well as to keep them out those walls were, and a part of her wondered if it was worth risking her life to escape and be on the run for the rest of her life; because, if she was certain of one thing, it was that if they had tracked her down once, they’d do it again. Another part of her wondered how powerful her magic really was. Maybe sticking around to find out wasn’t the worst of options. If she trained hard and learned to control what she still told herself could have been light magic, she might one day kick Falcrest’s ass up and down that very yard, and laugh in his face—a girl could dream.
With a sigh, Lory dug her nose into a book about breeds of magic, including all the types King Ulder didn’t consider forbidden as long as they happened under the supervision of the academy.
“I’ve told you, I’d need to kill you.” Tabi’s chuckle as the water hit her face brightened the atmosphere of the otherwise dull, dark space—even with the afternoon sun burning through the small windows, the dark stone swallowed anything warm or cozy.
“Come on, Tabi,” Jarek called from the bench in the corner, where he was memorizing the details about theGreat Purge and how Ulder’s ancestors had supposedly cleansed the lands of all magic. They couldn’t have been particularly thorough, though, with the number of magic wielders still roaming the lands. What the king needed an army of magically gifted soldiers for, Lory had yet to understand, but whatever Ulder had planned, they’d sure give him a solid advantage. “You know all our magics. I’ve shown you mine; now show me yours.” The scar above his reddish-brown eyebrow distorted its wiggle as he gave Tabi a suggestive grin.
“Not happening, Grivor.” Tabi shot him a toothy, sweet smile, suggesting they were no longer talking about their magic.
At least a few of them were getting some fun time at this Guardians-forsaken place.
“Lory hasn’t shown us hers either.” Thal wove a string of water from the jar he carried with him practically everywhere so he could work on his skill now that he had access to his water magic. “Light magic sounds so freaking brilliant.”
“Only if you can actually use it.” Frowning, Lory dug her nose back into her book, making slow progress, but her reading had become faster, and she didn’t feel like a complete idiot taking notes at a quarter the speed the others did.
“It will come,” Thal encouraged, the only one among them who actually knew what it was like to know the magic is there, yet not being able to access it. “Maybe it will take another session with Falcrest, though.”
Lory’s frown deepened, earning a laugh from Thal.
“You can think about the prick of a captain what you want, but he’s got some serious skills.”
“With being a deadly moron, perhaps,” she murmured under her breath, earning a soft laugh from Tabi, who was sitting down next to her, eyes on the passage in the book Lory was reading.
“Couldn’t agree more, but he’s also the youngest captain in the common military and now the youngest hand ever at Ashthorn Ward for a reason.”
