“You draw your power from the water?” Surprisingly, that came from the mage on the other side of the ward, the man who had been silent so far. He kept quiet, as well, low enough that Brandow wouldn’t hear. Not that he likely could, given the way he was pacing back and forth behind his mages, muttering furiously under his breath.
The two seemed sympathetic, but that didn’t mean Eiri was going to spill his secrets to them. The only people he trusted in this entire country were the three people on this side of the ward with him.
“Xan, do you think..?”
“Already on it.”
The quick exchange between Xan and Ellis made no sense to Eiri, but he let it pass. The longer he stood here, the more his energy drained, and only his hold on Ellis and Xan’s arm around his waist kept him from toppling over on the spot. He nearly did when Xan released him, leaving him clutching Ellis’ shirt to stay upright. There was no hiding how badly his legs wereshaking now, and he didn’t fight it when Ellis’ arm replaced Xan’s around his waist.
“What’s happening?” he whispered to Ellis. Beside him, Xan was doing something with his own bags of spell components, but Eiri’s knowledge of mainland magic was so limited that he couldn’t begin to understand what it was. The two mages on the other side of the ward didn’t like it, though. The woman’s eyes went wide, and the man beside her started sweating, focusing on the herbs in his hands with a desperate intensity.
“Something insane, but we don’t really have many options right now,” Ellis said, which didn’t answer a single thing. He felt it when Xan’s magic surged, though, strong enough that the two mages faltered for a moment.
Eiri’s experience with other mages had always been sporadic, at best. Fewer and fewer mages were born on Canjir with each generation, and now, only a handful remained. Few chose the dangerous life of a raider, preferring instead to remain on the island and use their magic to help as much as they could. With his affinity for water, Eiri tried to do the same, usually finding ways to draw whatever fresh water he could find to the pitiful fields on the island to help irrigate the crops. There simply wasn’t enough to do much good, though, so he’d quickly learned to adapt and use his abilities to help raiders. He could help Canjiri skiffs move faster while creating rougher waves in their wake to delay pursuers. It had to be subtle enough to keep anyone from discovering it was magic, but it had ensured any raiders who went with him avoided capture.
His clashes with mainland mages had always been brief, with no time to really study what they did or feel their magic. Even if he’d had all the time in the world, though, he knew they wouldn’t have been capable of whatever Xan was doing. Xan’s magic washed through the room with the implacable,unrelenting power of the tides themselves, pushing and pulling the world around them, shaping it to his will.
The glass ceiling above them splintered, cracks spreading like spiderwebs across the clear panes, reaching to every corner of the room in only a few seconds. Brandow stopped in his tracks and looked up, tracing the lines back to Xan.
“Stop him!” he shouted at his mages, stalking up behind them and grabbing the woman’s shoulder in a grip that would surely leave bruises. “Break through this fucking wardnowand stop him!”
“We’re trying!” the man protested, earning him a furious glare from the prince.
“Not hard enough, clearly.” Brandow turned his attention to the three of them, molten hatred roiling in his dark eyes. “Hanging is too good for the lot of you. I’ll see that you suffer first.”
Ellis ignored his older brother completely, instead turning his head to look at Eiri. “I need you to stand on your own for a moment. Can you?”
He genuinely wasn’t sure, but Eiri nodded anyway and locked his knees. He swayed when Ellis released him but stayed upright, if only barely. The younger prince slipped away, and a moment later, Eiri heard a quiet grunt of effort. He didn’t dare look away for more than a moment, but a brief glance showed Ellis hoisting Syrus off the cot, struggling under the sturdy weight of him. Ellis staggered back, his own legs shaking as badly as Eiri’s were. Syrus’ eyes fluttered, but he wasn’t fully conscious yet. Xan still hadn’t moved, his eyes unfocused and his breathing labored as he worked whatever magic he was attempting.
The two mages on the other side of the ward turned to each other, still holding their herbs and dust. The moment theirhands touched, the ward shimmered, wavering under the force of their combined power.
“Xan!” An edge of panic crept into Ellis’ voice as Eiri watched the ward shimmer again, the chalked line disappearing to almost nothing. They were out of time.
“I’m trying!”
Another surge of Xan’s magic washed over Eiri, followed by another sharp blow from the other two mages, and the chalked line completely disappeared.
Several things happened all at once.
Brandow and his soldiers drew their weapons, charging forward the moment Xan’s ward disappeared. The mages stumbled back, the man going to his knees, both pushed past their limits. Xan’s magic surged outward in a crush of power that sent Eiri to the ground, pain shooting up his spine where he hit the stone floor. The wall behind them shattered, the rocks falling to the ground. Without the wall to support it, the glass ceiling shattered further, sharp shards falling in a deadly rain.
Just before Brandow reached them, another wave of magic surged through the room, crashing into Xan’s and circling the four of them in a silvery haze. The world spun around him, and Eiri’s stomach lurched when the floor disappeared beneath him. For just a few seconds, barely more than the span of a breath, darkness overtook him. There was a sense of such utternothingness, a pure emptiness that he’d never imagined was possible, that his mind couldn’t comprehend it. Before he could panic, it was gone, and the darkness cleared.
What he saw brought the panic clawing to the forefront.
Gone was the old observatory, caked in dust and shrouded with neglect. The walls of this room were sumptuous, covered in gilded tapestries and antique weapons, displaying the wealth and might of Vaetreas. The hard floorbeneath him wasn’t the cold stone of the tower, but smooth marble tiles, inlaid with the crest of the Vardor family.
Shocked voices cried out around them, and there was a flurry of motion, chaos reigning as the four of them appeared.
“Silence!”
One voice cut through the commotion, and everything went still. Eiri didn’t need to look to know that voice, but he did anyway.
Eiri, Syrus, Ellis, and Xan now stood in the throne room of Vaetreas, surrounded by courtiers on all sides, facing down Queen Delia Vardor.
Queen Delia stood on a dais at the far end of the massive throne room. The throne behind her was equally huge, dwarfing the smaller seat to her right meant for her husband. Syrano Vardor still sat, eyes wide with shock as he stared at their ragged group.
Eiri took it all in as quickly as he could, his mind reeling as he tried to figure out how they’d gotten here. He didn’t know mainland magic, that was true, but he would have known if there was a spell that allowed people to travel instantaneously. It was impossible, and yet how else could he explain it? Except… Xan looked just as stunned as everyone else in the room. He hid it better, but panic fluttered in his eyes in the quick second he looked at Eiri.
