“What are you doing?” she said, trying to call upon anger and struggling. Her head grew cloudy when he stood near, and she made a silent note to herself to keep distance between their bodies.
“I was fixing your dress,” he said, taking a step back. “I didn’t think you’d want to keep the stain.”
Alizeh looked at herself as if emerging from a dream, absently patting down the bodice of her frock. The brown spatter of tea that’d so thoroughly soiled the gossamer layers was now gone. Her dress was restored entirely.
“How did you do that?” she whispered, staring up at him with wide eyes. “How do you cast spells so easily?”
“Aren’t you meant to wield great power?” he asked, browsfurrowing in confusion. “How is it you’re so unschooled in the workings of magic?”
She flushed lightly under his questioning, feeling self-conscious. “My magic, should I ever possess it, is meant to come to me without formal education. It’s meant to be intuitive.”
“Fascinating,” he said, his frown only deepening. “And you know nothing else? You don’t know what it is?”
“No,” she said, suddenly uncomfortable. She couldn’t tell whether his was an honest, casual question, or whether he was deftly mining her for information. Either way, she proceeded with caution. “As far as I’m aware, no one does.”
“Why not?”
“Because in all of recorded history, it’s never before been accessed,” she said briskly, then changed the subject. “As to more ordinary enchantments, I know only rudimentary things. Ardunia is too large an empire to rely upon magic to thrive. For us it is a very limited resource, and thus it’s used only sparingly. It’s also owned and regulated entirely by the crown. We’re not allowed to use it as we wish.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I’ve heard that Ardunians teach magic only to those interested in joining the priesthood.”
She nodded. “The same isn’t true in Tulan, though, is it? Your mother told me you’ve been studying divination and sorcery since you were a child, and it takes but one working eye to deduce there’s nothing even remotely priest-like about you.”
He froze, briefly surprised by the insult, and then laughed with his whole body, his shoulders shaking, his eyes crinklingat the edges. “Heavens,” he said. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“Take care, Cyrus,” she chided him. “If you keep laughing like that, I’m liable to think you have a heart.”
“Oh, you needn’t worry,” he said, his smile fading. “I most certainly don’t.”
The nosta went cold.
Alizeh’s own smile faltered at that, some essential armor crumbling inside her. She suddenly didn’t know what to say.
“Come along, then,” he said, quite literally moving past the moment as he strode to the door. “If you’re really so uninformed, I’ll show you how it works.”
“How what works?” She stared at him, unmoving. “And where do you mean to take me? Are we going into Tulan now?”
Alizeh saw only the back of his head when he said, “Yes.”
“Really?” She hurried after him. “And you’re no longer worried I’ll run away?”
“No.”
“Wait— Why not?” Alizeh stopped in place. “You should be a little worried, at the very least.”
“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” he said, finally turning around to face her. “For I’ve recently deduced that you’re quite charmingly pathetic.”
Alizeh stiffened, shock and outrage awakening in her body. “How dare you,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height, her fists clenching. “I amnotpathetic—”
“I have a theory,” he said, cutting her off as he walkedbackward to the door, “that if I were badly wounded, you would help me. True or false?”
“False.”
His smile widened. “Liar.”
“I wouldn’t,” she said ruthlessly. “I’d leave you there and run for my life.”
He was fighting a massive grin now, his eyes glittering with barely suppressed delight. “You would save me.”
