White Hall (The High King: A Tale of Alus Book 10) (16 page)

Thinking of the restrooms and baths of most of the inns, Magnus mused, “Maybe sending out wizards to do improvements that only magic can bring would be another good idea. A half frozen water tower feeding individual buildings or outhouses, could be easily converted with both the magic of the wizards and the science that we have achieved. The big cities often have amenities that the smaller towns do not.”

Shrugging, the fire wizard looked at Katya and finished, “But not for us, right now, Katya. A single event can’t make people like you when their minds and hearts are closed to you. I know that you wish to make these people see you as one of them still, but unfortunately you are not like them anymore.

“Perhaps once you have learned how to use your magic properly, you can lead a team here to make Mera better and make them love you again. For now, they just choose to fear us or hate us for taking children away from their homes, even though most would likely lose control and destroy them anyway.”

With a complaining, little growl, the girl turned on her heels and went to go sit with the girls and Kel’lor. She wasn’t happy with his answer; but if he did go to the other wizards to bring change, maybe becoming a trained wizard so she could be the one to bridge that gap was more than worth her time going to White Hall.

When Katya neared the table, she could tell that something was wrong with Cheleya. The girl looked upset, which meant Kel’lor looked grumpier than ever because he didn’t know how to fix whatever was wrong with her.

Before she could sit, Cheleya stood up to grab her hand and asked, “Would you mind going up to our room to help me fix my hair? It feels too messy and maybe I should change my clothes as well.”

Looking surprised, Katya merely nodded even as the other two girls looked like they might stand and want to follow. “Sure, we’ll be right back, everyone,” the younger girl said trying to cover for her friend who obviously had something to say to her.

When they entered the room, Cheleya didn’t speak right away and instead began to pace nervously.

“What’s wrong?” Katya asked after a moment. The door was closed and even locked by the girl to prevent being interrupted. Only Iris had a spare key, so it was unlikely to be a problem if the dragoness had something momentous to tell her. If anything could be bigger than telling your friend that you were a che’ther in disguise, the younger girl wasn’t sure that she could take it, however.

Emerald eyes met green looking flustered. Katya thought of their similar features. Both had green eyes, though Cheleya’s seemed more like jewels with extra sparkle. Both had blond hair and were the same height. While their figures were similar, Katya feared that she would take after her sister and become disgustingly busty with more curves than Cheleya. She actually wished that her figure would remain more like the other girl’s being slender and graceful; which was kind of funny since Cheleya wasn’t a true human girl but what her mind said was correct for her spell.

“Piotr tried his magic on me and... we switched bodies for a moment, I think. He says that he was just testing how it felt on people. Most have minds that keep him out like brick walls, though he said yours is like slippery steel or something to that affect.

“We were both surprised that he could contact my mind like that... I think,” she finished looking down as she thought of how Piotr acted. “Actually, he acted more like he expected it to happen though he was surprised that I could see through his eyes also.”

Looking at Katya worriedly, she asked, “Do you think that he knows about me?”

“How could he know?” the other girl questioned. “I haven’t talked to him about you certainly and only Kel’lor knows besides me correct?”

Cheleya shook her head slowly as she answered, “High Wizard Darius might know of it as well. He helped save Kel’lor from poison in Hala. It is a long story, but he knows that Kel’lor is a mar’goyn’lya for sure. He may have suspicions about me as well, though he has never discussed it with me.

“You don’t think Darius would have said something to him?”

“To Piotr?!” Katya scoffed. “First off, I don’t think Darius would give up a secret easily and he certainly wouldn’t be going up to some unknown boy, who isn’t even trained in magic. Besides he has four other wizards with him or even those with me, which he knows better than Piotr.

“No, if Piotr suspects anything, I am not sure how he could have discovered your secret.”

The younger girl tapped her lips as her right arm supported the left elbow as she tried to consider their options. Certainly no one seemed to have told the boy of Cheleya’s curse and she didn’t visibly wear an amulet to make a connection between the two for an educated guess if he knew that Kel’lor was transformed by it. What she couldn’t figure out was how he could be on the verge of discovering that Cheleya was different.

“Would he believe that you have similar magic and that might be why you two might be compatible in that way?”

Cheleya sat on the bed and shrugged.

After a moment, Katya sighed in annoyance and decided, “Fine, tonight we’ll grab him and take him to our room to try and figure out what he knows. You can still act mad that he tried to get into your mind. Even I can, if I say that you told me he has been messing around testing his magic on people without their permission.”

Cheleya leaned forward seeing a plan coming into the younger girl’s eyes, “Do you think that we can make him tell us more of what he knows? I don’t know that I can trust him with my secret. Maybe it isn’t that important anyway. No one can seem to change the fact that I am stuck like this and in all other ways I am just a human girl like you. Well, except for my scent defense or whatever it is called.”

As the girl lapsed into quiet, Katya shook her head and retorted, “No, you shouldn’t have to tell anyone, if you do want to; and you might be right to keep it secret at least for awhile. It is hard enough to get to know people, especially changing over to somewhere new like White Hall. I am kind of scared of going there too and I am just a human girl.

“I don’t really know anyone who will be there. Well, maybe Magnus and his wizards to a point, but Brenner plans to go to Windmeer again and I am not sure that I will see Vord and Ardost once we get there, since they’ll be teaching battle mage magic...”

Her voice trailed off as she realized that she was putting her own worries onto the other girl and getting off the point. “Anyway, get to know people and they will certainly love you like I do with a little time. Once you know who your friends are, then you can begin letting others know. Get settled first.

“But for now, we need to deal with Piotr.”

She waited and Cheleya stood up feeling better as the two girls had come up with a plan. They would figure out what Piotr knew whether he liked it or not, Katya decided. Until then, they had to continue the charade of why they had left. “Well, what do you want to do to your hair? It always looks perfect and you mentioned changing clothes.”

When Cheleya stepped out of her boots and dropped the short pants to the floor before rummaging in her pack for the skirt she had in mind, Katya wasn’t surprised. The dragoness had no body issues and didn’t seem to think anyone else did either.

Shrugging, she asked, “Do you want to put your hair up with one of those gold pins?”

Piotr had felt Cheleya’s eyes on him from time to time as the evening moved from dinner to dancing. Only one man on a guitar played and an older woman would sing. Compared to the previous evenings at the other inns, they were pretty bad; but those traveling tried to make the best of a bad situation.

To the boy’s surprise, Katya came to him this night and asked to dance. While he remained wary of the dragoness, who was already suspicious of the boy; the other pretty blonde had been nice to him and talked to him as she had from the first night. She would smile and Piotr couldn’t help smiling back. While he certainly liked Iris, who looked at his back with a small frown; Katya was certainly charming and pretty as well. Many boys, like his brother, would probably say that Katya was actually prettier; but many boys simply preferred girls that were shorter than them and became intimidated by a taller girl.

Iris was little taller than he was, but Niklaus was her same height. Since the twins were both likely to continue growing, even the inch she had on him now wouldn’t be an issue for long.

Catching himself in the thought as he danced with the petite girl before him, Piotr let down his defenses. While a man was supposed to lead according to Southwall dance etiquette, the boy was still new to it and found Katya driving him back towards the stairway when Cheleya suddenly touched the back of his shirt. In an instant, his arms were trapped in what felt like stone, but the cloth looked no different than before. He simply couldn’t move and felt Cheleya pull him back as Katya covered his mouth with one hand and took the other frozen arm as the two girls forced him up the stairs.

Katya had known that Piotr was unlikely to accept an invitation to her room by either girl. Even Iris was unlikely to have convinced him, though the younger girl had a feeling that he liked her more. It wasn’t a blow to her ego, but it seemed true enough when they spoke.

After unlocking the door and forcing him inside the room, the boy looked at the two girls crossing their arms before him and wondered what to say. His brother would have certainly come up with something suggesting the three were there for a reason different than what they planned. Niklaus probably wouldn’t have needed to be kidnapped either.

“Um, can I ask why you have brought me here? I don’t think the wizards would appreciate you taking a boy up to your room, do you?”

Katya’s eyes narrowed and she seemed to be concentrating as she demanded, “Ok, Piotr, tell us why you were trying to get into Cheleya’s mind with your magic. You are supposed to have nature magic, but that shouldn’t be something that you try on people.”

“I was just curious how the difference felt. It wasn’t supposed to work on Cheleya at all,” he confessed while holding onto the real truth of the matter.

Trying to summon her magic, despite Darius’ hold over her power; the girl stated, “I don’t believe you. Now confess!”

As if yelling should tap into her power, Katya was left to frown as it forsook her yet again. Other than the one try as Darius had loosened the seal on her magic, Katya hadn’t been able to tap into that power for her magic before or after. Piotr merely shook his head glad that the girl couldn’t break the wizard’s seal on her powers. He didn’t doubt that unleashed, he would have trouble saying no to Katya.

“It was just an experiment because I was bored. I can use birds or just look through their eyes, the same goes for dogs and rabbits. I’ve even helped settle cows or reached inside to make a calf switch positions in the womb to make it birth safely. Humans are different, but I just wasn’t sure how different.”

Looking at him closely, Katya glanced to Cheleya after noticing something.

“He’s lying,” she proclaimed sounding almost disbelieving that she knew that.

“How do you know?” Cheleya asked in confusion. While she had always had the feeling that the boy was withholding something from her, the dragoness couldn’t say without a doubt. Though the other girl sounded surprised to know that she knew, it wasn’t because she doubted that fact.

“His pupils changed. Even his breathing felt different from when he was trying to play off that he was trapped. When he said that he only tried his magic because it was an experiment, he was holding something back.” Groaning in exasperation, Katya complained, “If I could just have thought of a good reason to get Darius to loosen his seal on my magic, I could make him talk, I bet.”

Sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead and not just from trying to break free of the stone shirt. “This is a little tight,” the boy said trying to think of a way to escape the girls trap. “Do you think that you could loosen it up or just let me go?”

Going over what he had said, the younger girl tried to see if she could piece together what he was omitting or concealing with his answers. People could sound truthful, she thought, especially if they masked a lie in a half truth. “So you were able to tell a baby calf to turn around in the womb? How was that possible? Don’t you have to see what you control?”

“Most of the time, but I touched the mother and sent my magic through her to calm the baby. It was in breach, but my thoughts were able to touch it and make it turn,” Piotr confessed easily. This had nothing to do with what he knew about Cheleya, so he felt safe enough to speak truthfully.

“Aw,” Katya made a short sound as if she thought his actions were cute or maybe noble. He wasn’t a healer, but he could help. Well, at least he could help animals anyway. “So you’ve been helping around the farm with animals? How long have you been able to use that kind of magic?”

“I’m not positive, but I think late in the fall I began to really feel that I could do more than I should. A rabbit that kept trying to get into our garden was always bold enough to try even when someone was sitting there.

“When it looked my way, I found that I could look through its eyes and even make it turn around.”

Katya nodded with a slight smile on her lips as if she was charmed with his abilities or perhaps the girl was still thinking of how he had saved the calf and Cheese her mother. He hadn’t even told her the cow’s dumb name given by his little sister.