“I can’t tell you that.”
“What did you do to try to pass the Thirteenth that stole your magic?” Kaelen asks.
“Iwon’ttell you that.”
I say nothing, searching my memory for anything—anything at all—I’ve read about the sorcery trials, but there’s so little. The Guild keeps its secrets well.
Except …
Slowly, I turn toward the defiant sorcerer. “The Last Kiss of Breath? You tried the Last Kiss of Breath without another Air Touched there to rescue you if it failed?”
The horror in my voice has every eye turning to me.
“What is the Last Kiss of Breath?” Kaelen asks, but I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or Elianna.
She glares at me, but I’m done with secrets and lies. “The Last Kiss of Breath is one of the deadliest weapons to ever exist. The sorcerer must achieve a perfect vacuum of air in a magically delineated space.”
Elianna sighs and drops her head to drink more wine, but everyone except Kaelen and Andras looks confused.
“What does that mean?” Sergeant Neville finally asks.
Kaelen puts a hand on my arm when I try to explain and shakes his head. “I’ll take this one. We’ve five warriors here, so they’ll understand when they think about it. Aperfect vacuum of air.”
Chitai narrows her eyes. “You can do this?”
“I think we’ve established that I can’t,” the sorcerer says bitterly.
When Bern and Neville still look blank, the Sylvan leans forward and points at Bern’s chest. “Think about breathing. Then think about your lungs and what would happen if an enemy could magically create a perfect vacuum. No airinside your body.”
Bern’seyes widen with shock. “What?”
I feel sick. “This is a goal? Every Air Touched tries to achievethat? That’s horrible!”
Elianna gives me a wry look. “And yet the Sorcerers’ Guild Deeded Territory has kept the Zhagarn incursions back for the past forty years.”
“You said you worked on this for two years. On whom did you practice?” Kaelen’s voice carries the steel of deadly command. “Were you harming the servants? Others?”
“You should know me better than that, Prince Kaelen Valourian.” Elianna’s face is drawn, and exhaustion suddenly seems to weigh her down because she slumps in her chair. “No. I didn’t practice on other people. You learn the Last Kiss by practicing on yourself.”
The delicious stew becomes a congealed lump in my stomach, and I’m afraid I’m going to retch right there in front of everyone. “You magicked all the air out of your own body?”
She shrugs, but a shadow crosses her face. “Yes. Again and again and again. The perfect solution enticed me, just a shade beyond my understanding and reach. Until the day, just after last year’s Harvest Fest, when I was sure I had it. I was so confident.”
Her laugh is bitterness iced over with despair. “Instead, I lost control and knocked myself out from the loss of air. When I woke up—and I was glad to, believe me—my head bloody from where it struck a table, I tried to heal the wound and couldn’t.”
She bows her head, but not before I see the ache of loss on her face. “Most of my magic—all of my advanced ability—was gone. Sometimes, it can happen that way. A rebound effect, of a sort.”
Nobody says anything for a minute while we take this in. But then Sergeant Neville taps the table to get her attention. “Okay. Your magic went away. What we need to know is, when will it come back?”
Elianna’s laugh is high and wild. Tears shine in her eyes, though she brushes them away before they can fall.
“I have no idea. The most likely answer is never.”
Eliannasweeps out of the room after that, Chitai in her wake. Andras, Sergeant Neville, and Bern follow them.
After a bit of awkward conversation—Kaelen gives me a handful of coins when I mention the maid, apologizing for not thinking of it before—the prince, Trick, and I are the only ones left in the room.
“I’m exhausted,” I finally say after watching the two of them glare at each other for nearly a full minute. “I’m going to find my room. We’re on the road again tomorrow, right?”
