Exile (13 page)

“Melancholy,” Ian murmured.

A laugh escaped Auryl and she placed her fingers to her lips, looking embarrassed.

Yiloch gave Ian a warning scowl.

The young creator bowed his head a touch, fighting for a serious expression, though Yiloch could see the smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

“Apologies, my lord. That was most inappropriate.”

“Indeed,” Yiloch snapped.

“Perhaps I can help with your melancholy, my lord,” Auryl offered, her smile more hopeful now.

Yiloch caught Ian’s grin before the creator looked tactfully away. Facing her, Yiloch took her hands in his and met her eyes. Indigo’s striking blue eyes and brilliant smile filled his mind. Would he ever look at another woman without seeing her?

“Do you think you can be happy here, my lady?”

She met his eyes searchingly. “Of course, my lord. Why wouldn’t I be?”

Yiloch made no reply, but instead took her hand and placed it back on his arm, turning to continue their garden walk.

CHAPTER TEN

For the next few weeks, Indigo kept herself occupied working with the Lyran adepts when she wasn’t in her regular morning classes. Serivar had her training them in healing skills while they instructed her in the skills in which they were adept. Kade had considerable expertise with manipulating fire, Galyn’s focus was illusion, and Sine was developing a mastery of physical enhancements such as creating sudden bursts of speed or transferring herself over short distances in mere seconds. Physical enhancement was something Yiloch was skilled at and Indigo, having seen it in use, was eager to learn more about it. Sine also confessed a side interest in mental manipulation, which Indigo also found intriguing.

Edan wasn’t part of her training sessions with the Lyran adepts. The headmaster chose to split the adepts up between them most of the time, setting them to training in separate rooms. Indigo appreciated the arrangement. Her encounter with Edan the night Ferin gave her the ring still lingered in her mind, carrying with it an inexplicable weight of foreboding.

“Lady Indigo?”

She glanced at Galyn. The slender young woman was watching in her quiet way, pale green eyes full of patient curiosity. She had silken, almost white hair that cascaded elegantly over her shoulders, worn long as was popular with both genders in Lyra. Combined with the pale, refined features that were a trademark of pure Lyran blood the long hair only added to her seductive beauty and power of presence, much as it did with Yiloch. She was lovely and fortunate in the love Ferin had for her.

Indigo touched the ring, twisting it on her finger, comforted by the power it held and the caring it represented.

“What is it, Lady Galyn?” She used the Lyran Trade dialect as the other woman had. That dialect was widely used in Caithin due to the active trade with Lyra and the large population of Lyran slaves, so most anyone with an education could hold up their end of a conversation in it. Indigo’s Lyran tutor had seen to it that it was almost as natural as Caithin to her. For the three adepts, it was easier than Caithin, and it reminded Indigo her of her time with Yiloch.

“I was wondering if we could go over healing broken bones again.”

“Certainly, Galyn,” Sine piped up, tossing her long hair, almost white with an odd hint of red at the roots, over her shoulder. She pinned Indigo with her gaze, her eyes as white as her hair with a line of red around the iris. “After I’m finished with her.”

Galyn crinkled her nose and made an insulting face at Sine after she looked away and Indigo bit back a laugh. The two adepts snipped at each other like siblings, which made sessions with both of them amusing and challenging. When either of them teamed up with Kade, whose patience appeared to have no limits, the sessions were more peaceful, but far less entertaining. Today, Kade was working with Edan in another room.

“Mental manipulation is easier when the subject can’t use ascard,” Sine said, resuming the conversation they had been having. “They can’t sense that you’re doing anything. With anyone who has a decent connection to their inner aspect and is even a little sensitive to ascard use, it’s much harder to put suggestions in their head without them catching you doing it and resisting or retaliating. It is also predictably hard to find people willing to let you practice on them, so the skill is a difficult one to develop.”

Indigo nodded. “What if you had an exceptional masking ability?”

“Are you and Edan planning something?”

“Edan?”

“He was asking similar questions. I thought maybe you two were planning to convince the headmaster there wasn’t any attraction between you so he’d stop interfering.” Sine winked knowingly at Galyn who nodded as though they’d uncovered a secret.

“No. Of course not. There isn’t… I just…” Indigo sputtered before Sine’s teasing grin.

Galyn laughed.

“Masking would help,” Sine answered, taking mercy on her. “I couldn’t do that. My connection isn’t strong enough to split beyond my existing skill set and the healing your teaching us. Besides, healing is complementary to the physical enhancements.”

There was a knock on the door then and Indigo caught Galyn’s frown of frustration at the prospect of further delay. Reaching out with ascard, she touched on Kade’s signature and an unreadable barrier she suspected was Edan. He was getting much better at masking.

Giving Galyn a quick smile she hoped was encouraging, she used a flick of ascard to unbolt the door and smiled a welcome to the two men. “Kade. Edan. Are you joining us for more training?”

Edan shook his head. He looked tired, as though even the effort of responding were a drain. She’d barely seen him of late, so the worn look surprised her.

“Lord Serivar has some task for me. I’m dropping Kade off with you for the remainder of the afternoon.” A sigh whispered across his lips and his gaze focused past her, his weary look fixated on something not in the room.

“That’s too bad,” she offered, making a small effort to cheer him. “I haven’t seen much of you lately.”

There was some power in her words. His focus shifted, settling on her and a warm smile curved his lips, the tiredness in his eyes replaced by a fresh spark of interest. “Indeed. Which reminds me, I had hoped to interest you in coming to supper tomorrow evening.”

Misgivings or no, she had evaded him as long as she could without becoming insulting about it. She felt the eyes of the other three adepts on her, curious as they awaited her answer. She twisted the new ring on her finger and forced a nod. “I would be delighted,” she lied.

His expression brightened more, life returning to his features, and she felt some gratification that she had at least improved his day, even if she had added stress to her own. “Would seven be acceptable?”

“Yes.”

“Wonderful. I look forward to seeing you then, Lady Indigo.” He turned to leave the room, his steps quicker and lighter now, then stopped, glancing back at her hands. He tilted his head, looking puzzled, and met her eyes. “That ring is new, isn’t it?”

She started to cover the ring with her other hand and caught herself. He’d already seen it and asked. Hiding it now would only make it look suspicious. Forcing her hands to stillness, she said, “This? Not really. It belonged to my mother. Uncle Theron had it cleaned up and gave it to me a few days ago.”

Edan regarded the ring for a long moment and she began to wonder if he believed her. She probably wouldn’t, given her faltering explanation.

After several tense seconds, he nodded to himself. “It is quite beautiful.” He met her eyes again. “Tomorrow then,” he reconfirmed and strode from the room.

She wondered, as she bolted the door behind him, if any of the three Lyran adepts knew the truth about the ring. It was likely Galyn did, given her relationship with Ferin. When she turned, she met the lovely young woman’s eyes. Galyn gave her a small, clandestine wink and she bit back a smile. Yes, she knew, but she wasn’t going to bring it up.

“You’re too good for that one,” Galyn commented.

“Leave off, Galyn,” Sine snapped. “Her relationships are none of your affair.”

Indigo ignored Sine’s attempted intervention and held Galyn’s gaze, bothered by her judgment. “What makes you say so?”

Galyn stepped closer, her expression solemn, which made her more beautiful somehow. “He’s hiding things.”

Indigo frowned, reaching out with a tendril of ascard to touch Edan’s careful barrier as it moved away from them through the building. “Aren’t we all?”

“Perhaps. Though some of us carry darker secrets than others.” Then Galyn smiled, the expression countering some of the warning carried in her words. “Regardless, you are a woman who has won the affections of an emperor and his men, you should never settle for less.”

Indigo searched the other adept’s eyes a moment, longing to believe that what she said mattered. “You are very dear, Lady Galyn,” she said, fighting to keep the intense longing from her voice. “But one must be practical.”

“Perhaps you’re right.” Her gaze flickered to the ring and back to Indigo’s face, sending a message contradictory to that passing between her lips.

Indigo huffed and rolled her eyes. “Romantics.”

Galyn only grinned and shrugged, happy to accept the accusation. “About healing bones…” she prompted.

Sine started to protest, but Kade spoke faster. “I would love to learn more about mending breaks and fractures.”

Sine’s shoulders sank in defeat and she gestured for Indigo to proceed.

•

Indigo pondered what to wear for a long time the next evening. She had considerable reservations about Edan, especially after Galyn’s dubious judgment of him. As a result, she didn’t want to dress in a manner that he might consider inviting. However, her usual attire, when she wasn’t wearing her student’s robes, tended toward flattering and playful in an effort to distract from the sorrow she carried. Any attempt to downgrade that look below her usual was going to draw more attention than if she overdressed for the occasion.

Perhaps I am being unfair again
.

Her easy acceptance of and willingness to trust Galyn was certainly influenced by the woman’s association with Ferin and, thereby, with Yiloch in her mind. In contrast, the mistrust she felt for Serivar was coloring her attitude toward Edan. If she were to be honest with herself, her absolute trust in Yiloch was probably misplaced given how ruthless he could be in pursuit of his goals. There was little doubt in her mind that he would set her aside for his ambitions, or so she liked to tell herself. It made his absence from her life less painful.

“You’ll die an old maid in love with a memory,” she told her reflection in the mirror.

Is that so bad?

She cast the thought aside and considered the three dress options she had remaining after an extended process of elimination. Torn, she settled on a pale blue gown that opened at the chest and below the waist to expose an ivory layer beneath. There was some sparing silver embroidery and lace at the bosom, waist, and the lower part of the sleeves. It was shapely and fashionable enough to suit her usual style, though the colors were more suited to Lyra, but not revealing enough to suggest intimate intentions. Over this, she donned the pale gray cloak Yiloch had given her on her last morning in Lyra, drawing it around her as though the fabric were his arms enfolding her.

For a moment, she struggled with the desire to sit down in one of her Lyran influenced chairs and wallow in the recent past for the rest of the evening. She gazed at the comfortable chairs for a minute, perhaps more, lost in the memory of a gentle touch she would never feel again, of his lips, his arms, his strong naked body moving against hers…

Her heart began to race and she shook herself.

Not only Edan, but also Serivar and his somewhat caustic wife, Vera, were expecting her. She would be paying them all a considerable insult by not showing up. Drawing a deep, bracing breath, she cleared her mind of distracting things and left the residence. A carriage waited outside. Edan had sent it to pick her up, as appropriate, and she nodded polite acknowledgement to the footman when he gave her a hand up.

It took less than five minutes to reach Lord Serivar’s home in the palace district, not far outside the education district. Much too quick a trip for her to puzzle through any of the reservations she had about going. Could it be her devotion to Yiloch alone that stood between her and Edan, driving her to come up with excuses why she couldn’t be interested in him, or was he harboring some sinister secret?

The carriage pulled up into a small courtyard before the handsome multi-story home. The front door, framed by broad pillars wrapped in a flowering vine, opened as she stepped down from the carriage, accepting the footman’s aid though she hardly needed it. Formality required many unnecessary actions.

Edan stepped out and strode over to take her hand as the footman released it. “I see your time in Lyra had considerable influence.”

She parted her lips, ready to defend her color selections, but he disarmed her with a quick, teasing smile.

“You look stunning.” He transferred her arm to his elbow to escort her in.

She hesitated, resisting the light pull on her arm, and he glanced at her in question. “I apologize. I’m a little nervous. Lady Vera has never been that fond of me. She all but accused me outright of seducing her husband at one point. How is her temper this evening?”

Edan chuckled. “I would never have expected you to hesitate in the face of Serivar’s snippy housewife.”

She gasped and put her hand to her chest, giving him a look of mock offense. “This is quite serious. That snippy housewife is cooking the food I’m supposed to eat,” she replied with affected alarm, though she couldn’t help be a smidge worried that the woman might really do something wicked to her meal.

Edan donned a repentant look. “My sincerest apologies, my lady. If it will put you at ease, I’d be happy to inspect your food with ascard before we dine.” A grin tugged at the corners of his lips.

She shook her head, smiling as the banter eased her misgivings, and gave his arm a light pull. “I think I can manage. Let’s go face the terrifying lady of the house.”