White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (13 page)

“I am kind of surprised that my brother hasn’t scooped you up already.”

Katya frowned and gestured with her head towards his brother still dancing with Cheleya. “He seems to have found a partner that he likes.”

“I think that Cheleya might be a partner everyone tends to like,” he stated without humor as the boy thought on what he had heard listening with the sparfinch. “She seems to have a way with people that is almost magical.”

Looking at him questioningly, the girl appeared unsure of what to say in response to that. Katya thought of Cheleya’s secret and wondered if the perfume of her human form was a large part of why Niklaus had been enrapt with the dragoness the whole evening. Of course, she couldn’t take away from the girl’s beauty and the fact that she was very nice and sweet as well.

He wanted to tell her that he knew the dragon’s secret as well, but that would mean telling her how he had found out. Using his magic to peep in on the two girls undressing to nearly the point of being completely naked was unlikely to go over well with any girl. Piotr was no expert on young women, but even he could figure that out.

“So you like Iris?” she asked changing topics to his partner for the early evening up to this point.

“Sure, she’s nice; but so are you,” he nodded. “We had time to talk while riding here all day. Unfortunately, you went with the earlier group so we never saw each other until we reached Calamira.”

“Your brother found the time to talk to us before dinner at least,” she countered.

“And you two ran to your room leaving him all alone,” Piotr chuckled in response turning it around on the girl.

Katya frowned at him and responded, “It wasn’t like that. We needed to change rooms and get dressed for dinner and dancing.”

“Well, still I think he was traumatized by you two leaving him like that.”

Looking at the glint of humor in his eyes, the girl looked over to see Niklaus grinning at Cheleya as the two talked in hold. “Yes, I can see that. I guess that Cheleya has found a way to nurse him back to health.”

Katya looked to the other side of him as if using her partner as a shield to snoop on the others. “The other two recruits seem to be getting along pretty well.”

“Job and Briahnna, yeah, I think Job really likes her. He may have a crush on her from being in town and going to school together. Niklaus and I had to stop going regularly a couple years ago to help around the farm. I don’t actually remember her giving him the time of day when they were younger, but then again Job has actually started slimming down since being a kid.”

Katya evaluated the other boy as he danced and thought that Job wasn’t nearly as lean as Piotr or his brother. If he had slimmed down, she wondered if the boy had been much larger or just slightly heavy for his age. Of course, she refused to be rude enough to ask, but the thought was in her mind.

“So your magic can make people do whatever you want them to do?” he asked trying to change the topic. Having seen the demonstration the night before, Piotr wondered how similar his ability to make animals do what he wanted differed from working with humans. Kel’lor and the other men he had tested had all been like stone walls to his thoughts.

Katya winced at the question and replied, “I’m not sure exactly. I used to get my way with my parents and brothers most of the time even as a child. While it may have been magic recently working on them, I shouldn’t have had the power when I was younger. Still, when I accidentally told my father to go jump in a snow bank, and he did; it really scared me.

“Thankfully my brother Sebastian was there with his friends. He took me to see the tournament and was supposed to bring me to school himself, but he had to go on another mission with most of his tournament team.

“I had another episode when I found out he was leaving me behind. That was even more frightening. There were wizards, mages and sailors echoing my thoughts moving towards Bas and me. Putting a shield around us, my brother protected me from everyone who had been nearby. They told him to take me with him, but they kept coming trying to crush us as they kept pushing into his magic shield.

“Darius used his magic to stop it all and placed a spell on me to prevent it from happening again.”

“You pushed Falther though.”

“Darius loosened the chains and my power slipped out with a little more control this time. I only affected the person I meant to push at least, but he also started it by trying to manipulate me. That jerk actually tried to use his magic to make me like him and dance with him.

“If he had just asked first, I would have danced with him; but he had to go and be a jerk.”

Piotr couldn’t help laughing as the girl started to pout without realizing it. Taking her hand from his shoulder to give him a little thump as she frowned, Katya complained, “Don’t laugh about that.”

“I’m not,” he replied still sounding amused. “Your face is just so cute when you pout.”

Pursing her lips a moment, the girl couldn’t stop from sticking her tongue out at him briefly before looking away to the swirling crowd around them. Trying to be funny in turn, Katya warned him, “Don’t try buttering me up now.”

Again he chuckled at her, but as the music changed to a slower song, the girl leaned her head against his shoulder as they mostly swayed back and forth with the music. Looking over the girl as he turned, he noticed Iris being pulled to the dance floor by one of the men from Magnus’ team of wizards. A man named Wellas, he wore the light blue clothing of an air wizard and Piotr wondered if being a fellow air wizard meant that the two would have more in common. Of course it didn’t really matter, he realized, since it wasn’t like he had known her for long or had any claim on the apprentice.

The evening continued and he danced with both girls off and on, until Piotr decided to head up to the room he shared with Niklaus, Job and Wizard Qeyr. Being a little smaller town, this inn was only two stories tall with less rooms even on each floor, so he guessed that the wizard probably had little choice but to room with his new recruits here. That and he was probably there to keep an eye on the young boys to make sure that they stayed out of trouble.

Instead of moving to the bed, Piotr opened the window looking to the building across from the inn. Lights were on there on the second floor of the shop. He guessed that the shopkeeper and his family lived above the town grocery. With Calamira being relatively small, both the inn and grocery were simply named for the town they were in with no other creativity needed for the only one of either business there.

Simulating the call of an owl, the boy was rewarded with a flapping of wings breaking the darkness of the sky with light from the room reflected on the creature’s wings as it landed on the sill. Though Piotr wondered if he should try his magic again, he was curious to see if Cheleya would be willing to tell the other girls her secret. If enough people knew, then at some point he could acknowledge it by accident without the girls turning on him. They would likely think one of the other girls had accidentally said something in case he should ever bring it up.

His magic linked him to the bird and he sent it across to the other building once more. Finishing undressing for bed, Piotr dimmed the light for the others to enter; but lay in the bed closing his eyes to send his mind to the owl.

No one had gone to the girls’ room so far, he could tell with the owl’s excellent eyesight as he strengthened their link to see through its eyes.

Time passed and Piotr simply traveled where the bird wished to go. A mouse in a nearby field was caught and eaten. While the boy didn’t enjoy seeing this part of nature, he wasn’t squeamish either. At that point, he exerted control enough to bring the bird back to the inn.

The music had ended and feet could be heard in the hall and voices kept low talked as the various guests went to their beds. Lights were turned on and extinguished, but finally the one he watched for was lit.

Iris led Briahnna into the room and began to pull out their night dresses. It was still too cold to think to sleep in less, but he was slightly surprised to see that Iris’ night dress was simple white and just a little shorter than her apprentice robes. If that was all they provided for their apprentices, he thought that the school allowed for little individuality.

Thinking that he should ask the girl what White Hall was like tomorrow, the owl noticed the door open again letting the two blondes in before the other two had even began to change.

Another door opened, but this one he could hear.

“Are you already asleep, Piotr?” Niklaus asked in surprise.

Shaking his head, Piotr mumbled a response to his brother, “Not yet.”

Sounding more excited, his twin asked, “Are you using another bird to watch the girls?”

“No way,” Job added in surprise.

“Can you link us in?” Niklaus asked even as boots were kicked off to get into bed.

Moving the owl back to see their room, he said, “Just look out the window.”

From the owl’s vantage point, he could see both boys looking out the window and used his magic to link their sight with the bird.

“Now be quiet and don’t say anything to Qeyr that will get us caught,” Piotr warned thinking once more that he should just let his link go and get some sleep.

Instead of heeding his own advice, the owl took flight to land in line with the girls’ window. All three gasped seeing Cheleya naked except for her bottoms again, but the other three were in various states of undress. The boys got their wish to see the girls topless as they changed into comfortable sleepwear, though the owl could only see some of them through the two windows at once.

Knowing that there was a building across the way, he supposed they were avoiding giving anyone an easy look at their bodies as they changed.

Piotr had hoped to pick up some of what they were saying, but the owl’s vision was better than its hearing and voices didn’t carry well in the cool air of early spring. Winter might be over on the calendar, but northern Southwall was still feeling the affects of a winter that wasn’t ready to end.

The owl was too big to risk landing on their window sill, Piotr thought in disappointment.

A nudge to his arm from Niklaus, alerted his brother of Qeyr’s approach and he released his magic before rolling away from the door. As the light from the hall shone into the room, his eyes remained closed, but the wizard asked, “You boys are worn out already? Man, they do not make recruits like they used to.”

“Just readying for an early ride tomorrow, sir. There’s no one too wait for, I’m guessing?” Niklaus questioned as if nothing had been happening.

“Well, we don’t have to wait for you anyway,” the wizard retorted and quickly was ready and in the other bed.

Piotr couldn’t stop his mind from trying to replay the pictures from the owl as he tried to fall asleep. Though he hadn’t meant to be a peeping Tom, his hope of hearing Cheleya confess her secret to the other girls hadn’t happened. He would just have to do his best to remember to say nothing of the dragoness’s secret.

With the weather continuing to cooperate, the large group heading to White Hall stopped in Mera only two days later. Katya rode into the town with a smile on her face. She had friends here and hadn’t spent time in Mera since the previous fall.

“My home is less than an hour that way,” she told Cheleya who was riding beside her. Briahnna was riding on the other side of Katya after the two girls had begun to bond on their trip. It was amazing how close people could get when they were stuck together for a long journey. From Mera, the girl knew that they were less than three full days' ride away from White Hall.

Cheleya smiled back and replied, “How long has it been since you were home?”

“Sebastian and his wizards stopped at our farm a little over a week before the tournament started.” Katya paused to think and realized, “Wow, that was about a month ago already. We passed through Mera early before anyone was really up and the last time I really talked to anyone in town was last fall at one of the town dances.”

As they rode into Mera, people seemed to scatter before the procession of wizards. With them all disappearing inside their stores and homes, Katya barely had a chance to see anyone she knew.

“Leyra, hi!” she called to a girl with brown hair. They were the same age and Katya had known her all her life, but the girl barely made eye contact before disappearing through the doorway of her home.

As her friend turned away from her like she had some disease, Briahnna confided, “People were already shunning me as soon as they found out the wizards had chosen me to go to White Hall. Don’t take it too personally. They just don’t want the wizards to find out they have magic as well.”

“They’re acting like magic can rub off on them as if we have a cold that we can pass to them,” Katya complained. The girl fought the urge to jump off her horse to pound on Leyra’s door. She couldn’t believe that her lifelong friend would shun her as Briahnna had put it.

The other girl nodded, while Cheleya looked confused. “Your people hide from wizards?”

“Just during the harvest time, as they call it,” Briahnna replied looking at the nearly empty street. “When a large group of wizards comes through in spring, people expect the worst. Wizards look for children and take them if they have magic like we do. So people tend to fear the wizards coming to take their children.