The Orphans' Promise (19 page)

He cleared his throat, as much to get his voice back as to force himself to swallow, which he was having trouble doing.

“Hmm, well… as I told you earlier, after Zlek went after them, I left the palace and paid Darlane a little visit. He eagerly agreed to place his men at the city gates and along the docks. They saw no sign of the fugitives. So for a start, we already know that.”

“You know how unreliable the Guild’s reports can be,” Zamerine reminded him, irritated. “A sighting would have been a useful piece of information. A non-sighting, what good is that? I hope that you didn’t base your entire search around this witless idea.”

Zeanos heard this rebuke as a blow. He was scrambling to prove his usefulness, but if Zamerine refuted all of his arguments, this was going to be a difficult task.

“Indeed, Judge. But I
really
made a point of convincing Darlane of how important the mission was. And I was present when he gave directions to his subordinates. He, too, was very convincing, promising a large reward for whoever spotted them. Moreover, my description was very precise. I think that, this time, we can trust Darlane’s word.”

“Admittedly,” Zamerine conceded after thinking about it for a moment.

Zeanos relaxed a little and said more confidently, “So they haven’t left the city. I had someone visit all of the inns, and I still have people on watch at the largest ones. Of course, they haven’t turned up yet. There are no records of them registering under their real names, nor the ones they used at the Small Palace.”

“Of course not. Do you think I am such an imbecile that you have to explain such obvious details? Do you think they are idiots too? The Ramgrith has eluded us for nearly four dékades. Did you really think that he would check in to an inn under his real name?”

Zeanos could only mumble, “No, Judge. I agree. I just wanted to make sure. To be methodical about it.”

“And I have to say that your speculation still doesn’t hold. They didn’t leave through any of the main gates. So what? Getting out of Lorelia isn’t that difficult. Dozens of smugglers do it every day. We ourselves come and go as we please without telling anyone. What exactly are you trying to say?”

“I mean there’s no way they can escape now, no matter what they do. If they are still in the city, as I believe they are, they’ll be spotted coming out of an inn or at one of the gates. If they’ve already left, they will come back, whether it’s to return to the Small Palace or to board a ship to Junine. All we have to do is station a few men on the docks.”

Zamerine appreciated this idea, if only because he had already thought of it himself long before. The sole reason for this interview had been to verify that his subordinate was competent. Zeanos had disappointed him. He hadn’t reacted to the situation quickly enough. If he had waited any longer, the fugitives would have had a chance to escape.

The Accuser had already informed him that they would head for the Baronies. Where he got this information was a mystery, even if Zuïa spoke through his mouth. But all of his predictions
had been true up to this point. The fugitives were planning on crossing the Median Sea, as sure as the sun would rise at dawn. They would never get the chance to set foot on a boat.

“You will station men in Bénélia as well. There’s a chance they will try to leave from there,” the Judge ordered.

“Understood,” Zeanos agreed, happy to escape with his life.

“I will come with you to the next session at the Small Palace. I am curious to see what these aberrations look like. If they are crazy enough to come back, that is. But you will let me speak for you, this time.”

“As you like, Judge.”

“Yes, exactly.”

Yan had never seen Corenn so nervous. It was almost as if she were the one about to take the magician’s test, not him. The Mother had asked Yan to pass it a second time. He wasn’t sure he could.

“It took me almost three days the first time,” he reminded Corenn. “That means it should take me at least two for the second. I’m guessing we’re not going to spend two days hidden away in the forest…”

It was more of a question than a genuine guess. Yan wondered if the Mother would really force him to focus on the test for two days. After all, it was really important to her.

“No, rest assured, if you’ve already done it before, it should go a lot quicker the second time. Each time that you call on your Will, you reinforce it, stimulate it, train it. Exactly like a muscle. And the first time is quintessential. After the first time, we say that your Will has been ‘revealed.’”

From all that she said, Yan took special notice that Corenn still wasn’t completely convinced of his ability. Faced with her skepticism, he caught himself doubting too. Then he remembered the flash of hot air, blood throbbing in his temples, and the power flowing through his mind. This thing that Corenn called Will, he
had
felt it before.

They took position in their usual spot, a few hundred yards from Raji’s farm. Yan had spent many decidays there, and it felt like home to him. This patch of forest was his.

“Let’s get started right away,” Corenn decided. “I would like to join back up with the others as soon as possible.”

Yan could tell that Corenn had another motivation for urgency. She truly was impatient to see Yan at work. Just like he must have been a few days earlier when he witnessed her demonstration.

“Um… can I use the queen moon?”

“It’s up to you, Yan.”

Naturally, he decided to use the pendant: It had brought him luck the first time. He set the coin upright and laid down flat on his stomach right in front of it, like he had done so many times before. He had trouble concentrating at first, aware of an observing presence, despite Corenn’s stillness and respectful silence. Then he slipped into a hypnotic state he had learned to create, deeper and deeper still.

His mind closed itself off to everything but the queen moon. He lost his sense of taste first, and his tongue was heavy behind his lips. Then smell. He forgot the wild smells of the Lorelien forest, the sweet odors of the lush grass and the moist soil, and the musky odor from the decaying leaves. His awareness of the world outside himself gradually faded. He forgot about his own body, ignoring the weight of his legs on the ground, the heaviness of his waist, and the strain his elevated torso put on his elbows. He lost touch.

The cracking of branches, birdsongs, the song of thousands of limbs and wings moving every which way, the noises of his own breath, and the beating of his heart fused together into a soft buzz, which got quieter and quieter until it completely disappeared. He forgot sound.

The horizon blurred, the trees were erased, the grass was no longer anything but an imprint of color, which faded into a forgotten forest and sky. Yan no longer saw, he no longer felt or smelled, he no longer heard anything except for the small blue shell. Soon it disappeared too. Now, Yan only focused on the idea of the queen moon. Its essence. Its spirit.

The hardest part was next. The young man was overjoyed to have made it this far on his first try, without losing his concentration and having to start over. Now he had to act on the shell with nothing but his Will.

This was the true magic.

He drew the necessary strength from within himself, and he gathered this power around an image of Léti once again.

This was the stage where the heart would beat faster. Breathing became heavier. Hands shook. His body warmed, tensed, and then lost all control.

Yan didn’t feel any of it. He was anticipating it. He knew it was coming, and that he wouldn’t experience it physically until after unleashing his Will, when the rest of the world would impose itself on him again. And even then, after he came back out of the dark, it would only be a memory. What his body knew right at that moment, Yan didn’t feel, for it didn’t exist anymore.

He finally unleashed his Will and maintained enough control of the emotions that flooded over him to regain awareness of his eyes first. The queen moon quivered, and then toppled over before being lifted by an invisible current that tossed it a foot farther away from him.

Yan then embraced reality’s wholeness, but too soon. Swept up in a wave of joy, he awoke to his surroundings all at once: Taste, smell, touch, and sound all came back to him in one painful moment during which all of his senses were amplified. His mind recalibrated them before he let out a cry of pain. Then it was his body’s turn to bear the torture as it swung from a fevered state to a horrible languor. If he had complete power and control the moment before, he now found himself exceptionally weak and felt a frozen cold creep down into his bones, his body no longer able to hold any more energy.

He had felt this way before, on the edge of the cliff on Ji. And also after the first time he accomplished the feat. He knew that he had to just wait for his mind to regain control and for his heart to bring order to the chaos. If he were to stand up, make the slightest abrupt movement, his head would spin and he would vomit, there was no doubt about it.

Once he had warmed back up a little, he sat upright and leaned against the nearest tree trunk. It wasn’t until then that he remembered Corenn.

The Mother looked grave. She held his wrist to check the beating of his heart. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Yan smiled in agreement. He was feeling better. Better and better, actually. He gauged himself strong enough to talk. “Actually, that depends,” he said, out of breath. “Do I get my diploma, or not?”

“You are officially an apprentice-magician! That is, if you want to be, of course…”

“Yes. I do want that. Can we tell Léti now?”

“Right away!” She helped him up, and they made their way back to Raji’s farm in a slow walk.

“How long did it take? I don’t remember,” Yan asked

“A few centidays at most. Not three days, anyhow!”

Yan nodded and thought. While he had been so focused on the task, he had also lost any perception of time. If Corenn had claimed that a deciday had gone by, he would have believed her without the slightest doubt.

“Umm… what am I supposed to call you now: Master or something?”

“No, of course not! Just address me as you normally would!”

“Okay. Um… Lady Corenn, I don’t mean to offend you or anything, but… what are you going to teach me exactly? I mean, I know how to use my Will, don’t I?”

The Mother let a big smile flower across her face. Yan was smart and talented, but he would forever keep his naiveté, which wasn’t a bad thing.

“Many, many things, my young friend. What you know about magic is only a drop of water in the sea. I’m going to make you drink so many cups that some of them will taste like the sand at the bottom!”

Yan didn’t ask any more questions. If Corenn’s goal was to impress him, she had succeeded.

“No! No, Bowbaq! What kind of move was that? It’s like you’re afraid of breaking your staff!”

Now that he had many students, Grigán was taking his role as master-at-arms very seriously. While Léti was still motivated and driven, Bowbaq needed to be goaded, encouraged, and sometimes scolded. The giant followed the rules of the exercise without any vigor, and he clearly had a hard time handling weapons, despite his great strength. He was using a heavy hardwood log like it was a sleeping snake that shouldn’t be woken.

“I’m scared I will hurt you, my friend,” he confessed, combing through his large beard with his clumsy, fat fingers. “What if you can’t block one of my blows in time?”

The warrior shook his head, discouraged. The staff was the first weapon that he had learned to use, like all Ramgriths, since Griteh’s laws forbid a child under the age of ten to use a blade. It was highly unlikely that Bowbaq could catch him off guard, but this argument wasn’t enough to convince the giant.

“Too bad then! It would be my fault, not yours! In fact, I would be proud of you.”

“Maybe he could train with a mannequin?” Rey, who was watching the scene, suggested.

“I’ve never seen anyone get attacked by a scarecrow. I doubt that he could learn anything from a sack of straw. Except for how to whack away at an opponent like a brute.”