The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (17 page)

Gavin shrugged. He would never understand Maya’s political skills or concerns. He relied on weapons rather than sweet words and empty promises. A good warrior was always needed, and as long as he had the respect of whoever he was in charge of, he didn’t care two figs about who ran the country. Maya believed politics were important and did her best to understand them and the workings of them.

“You’ll come with me won’t you?” Maya asked Lucy.

“What? No, I wasn’t planning on it,” said Lucy suddenly dismayed.

“Why not, it will be good for you.”

“Won’t he get the wrong idea?”

“Not if you don’t let him.

“Only if you want me to come,” said Lucy as Maya nodded in approval, “but let’s keep far away from the man on his left.”

“Definitely,” said Maya in agreement.

The man on Althric’s left could only be described as smarmy. He was a little man with dark hair, a goatee, and a mustache that curled up at the ends. He was dressed fancier than Althric and had an air of deceit about him. He looked like the kind of advisor that was waiting to poison the correct amount of people to be allowed to take control. However, at the same time, you could tell he deferred to Althric. So, he respected Althric, feared him, or simply did not have enough support yet to be openly condescending. In fact, it happened to be fear that kept the man in check, but he was still a man to watch out for.

After dinner, the tables were moved to the sides to allow people to interact with Althric. Most people lined up to be introduced and then milled around pleasantly while Althric went from this group to that. Maya and Lucy were about half way down the introduction line. When their time came, they were polite and Althric kissed both of their hands. His eyes, however, were cold. In one look he assessed Maya’s talent with politics, but his eyes lingered on Lucy making her uncomfortable. Then they moved on.

Maya was unimpressed. They stayed awhile and then left to one of the study rooms. There were plenty of willing or curious women, more than Lucy would have thought, and there was no point in staying. They assumed that their exit had gone unnoticed. It had not. Althric watched them leave and turned to the little man who had sat beside him during dinner.

“I want her,” was all he said and the other man nodded.

Lucy sat on the floor and Maya sat in a chair behind her braiding her hair while Justin worked on teaching her control. He knew she could make a ball of water so they worked with that to start with. They got two bowls of water. Justin would raise a little ball of water and Lucy would try to raise one that was the exact size. Then, they would float them through the air and place them in the other person’s bowl. Sometimes they kept the balls whole and floated them on the water while making the next one. It was relaxing and challenging. Gavin and Maya were impressed. Neither of them had the inclination nor the skill to do the exercise, however they did not mention that to Lucy. Everyone had their strengths and weaknesses. They were all tired from the day’s events and went to bed earlier than usual.

The next day was not nearly as taxing. Justin, Gavin, Maya, and Lucy went out for a ride. They kept it an easy one to be kind to Maya’s sore muscles, but it was still a long one. Maya winced every now and then but did not complain.

Lucy loved the ride and had a lovely conversation with Ash as they went. Lucy told her about her potions exam. Ash told her what she had overheard from Maya’s horse from yesterday post-ride. Lucy tried hard not to laugh. Ash had a way of making any story seem funny. They both commented on the beautiful weather and simply enjoyed each other’s company.

After the ride and after lunch, Maya and Gavin sparred, while Justin worked with Lucy again. First, they finished going through all the simpler spells in her book. She would get tested by Maryn, when Maryn had the chance, and then she could get the next book, provided she passed satisfactorily. Then, they went back to water exercises. Justin thought they were good because there was a lot they could do with water and it at least had Lucy working with an element. Working with elements was useful, important, and not everyone could do it. Learning how to control one element could make it easier when learning how to control another. Playing with water was less potentially harmful and less scary than playing with fire. He thought about working with air, but water was easier to see, so he decided to stick with that. This time they were juggling balls of water that were different sizes and colors. When Justin got bored with this, he tossed them in the direction of Gavin. Gavin laughed it off.

Justin decided to try something. There was a dandelion white and ready to go to seed a few feet away and Justin floated it to his hand. He blew it at Lucy and she laughed.

“Pick up one of the seeds,” said Justin.

She did.

“Now, put it on the ground with your hand on top of it. I want you to concentrate on feeling inside of that seed and make it grow.”

“Make it grow?”

“Yes.”

Lucy shrugged and did as Justin asked. The worst thing that could happen was nothing. So she concentrated. She reached down into the seed and found that it needed earth and water to grow so she gave it earth and water. It needed to be warm so she gave it the warmth of her mind and the earth, and she asked it very gently to grow. Lucy wasn’t too sure if anything was going to happen, but then she felt something moving under her hand and moved it out of the way. There, where the seed had been, was the beginning of a dandelion. She sent her mind to it and encouraged it to keep growing, and soon it was bright yellow and open. Lucy looked up at Justin and smiled.

“Very good,” he said and smiled back. They were making progress.

After dinner, Lucy went back to her room to read her intro to healing assignment. She could have done that in a study room with the others, but she thought she wanted some time alone. Lucy was used to spending time alone, and it felt weird but good to spend so much time with other people. Still, she needed some time to be alone with her thoughts. A lot had happened in the last few days. Lucy decided she could be overwhelmed by it or accept it and go on. She decided to accept it. The fire incident had been scary, but Justin had been careful to go slowly since, and she appreciated it. She formed two balls of water from the glass on her window sill and rolled them in her hands like Chinese Meditation balls. She was learning control, and that was what was important.

For awhile, she thought about her family. She missed them, but not as much as she thought she would. Perhaps she would miss them more if she was unhappy. But she wasn’t unhappy. In fact, this was the happiest she’d ever been in her life. She was taking classes that fascinated her, and she was good at it. The school was implying that there would be a place for her in another world when she was done with her training here. That was certainly not something she had where she had come from.

She knew her family wasn’t worrying about her and that helped too. Not enough time had passed yet for her family to wonder where she was, but maybe it was time to talk to Eric about what they should do. When she had fun in a class, she thought about how much she would love to tell her brother about it. Peter would have laughed hard at the pumpkin escapade. She wasn’t sure how she would explain all this to her parents or what their reaction would be, but she was sure Peter would support her. Lucy shrugged, whatever her options, she wasn’t going to get any answers tonight so she opened her book and began to read. After finishing her reading, she decided to go to bed, even though it was early. It wouldn’t hurt her to get some sleep, and tomorrow would be a busy day again.

What no one at the school knew was that Althric had a little stone that could sense power levels. It was not an extremely specific device, but it was accurate enough to point out which students had more or less raw power. If the student had below average power for the people in the room, it was cold. Average, nothing, and if the student was above average, the stone was hot. He had held it in his hand while he had been meeting people, and when he met Lucy it had almost burned his hand. Many others made the stone warm, but her looks intrigued him as well. He was also sure she had no desire to come with him and would most likely turn him down if he asked. Some of the other women he might be able to woo or romance into coming with him. Lucy also didn’t seem like the kind of girl who had queenly aspirations so that wasn’t an inducement either. Thus, Althric and his contingent were wandering around the school at night using the stone to try to find Lucy’s room. When it burnt Althric’s hand, they tried the door and found it locked. Well, thought Althric, he could always try asking her.

Lucy awoke to light knocking on her door.

“Who’s there?” she asked groggily. She had been having a pleasantly dreamless sleep.

“Althric.”

“What do you want?” asked Lucy, curious and slightly worried at the same time. What was he doing knocking at her door this late at night, and how did he know which door was hers?

“I want to talk to you.”

“About what?”

“Please open the door.”

“Why don’t we talk in the morning?” asked Lucy. Preferably with witnesses…and perhaps an armed guard. Lucy was becoming increasingly nervous.

“I’d rather talk to you now,” said Althric, beginning to lose his patience. He was a ruler not some servant. He was used to getting everything he wanted when he wanted it, and he felt she had no business making him wait in the hallway and talk through a door.

“Please, tomorrow,” said Lucy, wondering at his insistence that they talk now and dreading his motives.

“No now. Open the door.”

“No.”

“No?”

“No, we can talk tomorrow,” said Lucy, sure now that the last thing she wanted to do was open the door.

“Open the door!” Althric practically shouted, and he began pounding on it.

“No,” said Lucy beginning to get worried.

“Open the door, or we’ll break it down,” he warned. Then, he and one of the larger men on the counsil began to ram their bodies against the door.

The noise was so loud, and Lucy was scared. How strong was the door? What would happen if it broke? The bodies rammed into the door again. Could anyone else hear what was going on? The bodies rammed faster, and it sounded like a third man was adding his weight. Would anyone come if she screamed? Would anyone hear her if she screamed? She wished she had taken the time to meet whoever was in the rooms on either side of her. What could she do? Could she brace the door with her bed? Could she move her bed? Of course she could move her bed. They kept pounding on the door, louder and louder.

“STOP!” screamed Lucy tears of fear and frustration starting to run down her face.

And everything did. She took a step towards the door. She could not hear anything on the other side. Was the pounding going to start again? She wondered if they were trying to trick her into opening the door. She couldn’t do that she decided. They were waiting for her, and she had no idea how many of them there were or even what they wanted. Then she thought of something. She could talk to Ash with her mind. Justin could talk to animals too, she thought. Perhaps, she could talk to Justin. She had never thought to try before. She had never needed to before. She was not sure how loud she had to think so she thought she would be thorough.

“Justin!” she screamed in her head as loud as she could, “HELP!”

Justin was startled awake by the sound of his name screaming in his head. What was going on? Then he heard the word help and recognized Lucy’s voice. He didn’t bother to think; he jumped out of bed, grabbed some pants, and ran out of his room. He ran up the stairs three at a time. He reached the hallway the same time Eric did who had also been awakened by Lucy’s mental cry for help. Eric and Justin looked at each other and then at the scene that greeted them in the hallway.

There was Althric and three men frozen in mid air while ramming their bodies against Lucy’s door. Behind them was the rest of Althric’s council, also frozen, and it should be noted, not one of them appeared to be trying to hold Althric back.

Justin and Eric moved through the frozen men to Lucy’s door.

“Lucy?” Justin said softly.

“Justin?”

“Yes, it’s me, and Eric is with me.”

“Are they still there?”

“Yes, but you seem to have frozen them. It’s ok to open the door.”

Lucy did and took a step back in fright at the rage frozen on Althric’s face. Lucy explained what had happened. Eric nodded and levitated the men, still frozen, to go see Quinn, letting them know he would be back shortly. Now that the immediate threat was over, the adrenaline and relief kicked in, and Lucy began to shake and cry. Justin simply put his arms around her and held her while she cried. He was warm and strong and safe.

“Just for future reference, they would not have been able to come in. They could have pounded until they broke their hands, but the door would have held. The doors are magical of course, and someone can only come in if they are invited.”

“That’s good to know, but it was still scary.”

“I’ll bet.”

Lucy calmed down, and Justin stayed with her. Lucy had the presence of mind to notice that Justin looked very good without a shirt, but she did not comment on it. Eric came back.

“Are you ok?” he asked Lucy.

“Yes, what happened to them?”

“Quinn and I discussed it. Quinn was in favor of sending them back as they were to see how long your spell kept them frozen. I was in favor of chucking them out the window to see if they would shatter when they hit the ground. However, it is never good to anger or mortally offend rulers of nations no matter how evil they are, so we found a more diplomatic solution. We will modify their memories. They will not remember ever seeing Lucy. Then, we will put them to bed. We will let all the students know what has happened but to keep it quiet when around Althric. If any of the women want to be his wife after this, there is nothing we can do, but I don’t think that will be an issue. He is supposed to leave tomorrow afternoon. I think it would be best if you stay in your room until he is gone. If he sees you, he may or may not remember, but it might set in motion similar events. I’ll let your professors know what is going on, and I’ll have some books sent up for you to study. Does this sound ok to you?”