Chosen (9781742844657) (40 page)

It was pretty easy to guess who a couple of these long-dead former councillors had most recently been replaced by. Lord Gawain and Lady Miranda were givens, obviously, but Anouk was evidently the Historian of this modern incarnation of the White Elm, Elijah the Displacer, Qasim the Scrier and Susannah the Seer. I recalled a conversation with the twins and Marcy that indicated that Emmanuelle must be the Healer. It still seemed strange to me that this should be Emmanuelle's job – she didn't
seem
like the kind of gentle, compassionate soul I'd envisioned the Healer would have to be – but later, when I knew her better, it would seem obvious.

It was Renatus that I kept wondering about, because lots of those descriptions seemed to suit him. He was so strange. Monday night's detention had been so tense, then last night's had been totally boring, back to licking envelopes. I had two left and no idea what to expect from either one.

Anouk moved on to discussing the roles in depth, and I wrote half-heartedly until she reached the third and fourth.

‘The Keeper is the White Elm's researcher and warrior in apparent peace-times,' she began, and then moved onto the Scrier without any elaboration, whereas for the previous two she'd spoken for several minutes about the expectations and a number of famous councillors former to that role. I looked around but seemed to be the only one to have noticed; I quickly forgot, however, as Anouk began to describe the position of the White Elm Scrier.

‘The Scrier is the gatherer of information both past and present, and due to the secretiveness of the job, has often been used as something of a spy,' she said while I listened attentively. ‘A great deal of the White Elm's wartime research is carried out by the Scrier, and much of our successes over the years can be attributed to the work of Scriers. This role can only be held by a natural scrier because of the demands of the job.'

She went on to list various famous Scriers through the council's history, and I promptly forgot the names and neglected to write them down. It didn't matter anyway. It was irrelevant who'd been in the role before. What mattered was that I'd be the next one.

‘Anouk.' I grabbed my pen and notebook as everyone else filed out at the end. Kendra stopped at the door and waited for me while I spoke with our teacher. ‘Anouk, is there anywhere I can read more about this stuff?'

The rake-thin Russian sorceress waved a hand across the chalkboard and the whole thing cleared itself. Chalk dust fell to the floor as she turned to me.

‘About the White Elm?' she clarified. I nodded.

‘About anything,' I agreed. ‘About the council, about the positions, about the traditions…'

Anything about the Scrier, and about how to get that job?

‘Oh.' Anouk smiled thinly, going to a small shelf behind her desk. ‘You should be so specific in speech, Aristea.' Ard-iss-tay-ya. I loved it. ‘This book should tell you everything you want to know about the various positions on the council, including the Scrier, and about the traditions and processes involved in entering the White Elm.'

She pressed an old book with a tatty dust jacket into my hands. I stared at her.
Now, I know I didn't say anything about
- 

‘I know, you didn't say anything about the Scrier,' she guessed, keeping her voice down. ‘I'll let Glen cover that one in his classes.'

I couldn't believe how un-private a place my mind had become since arriving at the Academy.

‘I love her lessons,' Kendra told me as we left a little while later. ‘She makes history so inspiring and makes the council seem so incredibly complex and interesting.'

‘She makes me want to sign up for the White Elm's waiting list right now,' I admitted. We went to the dining hall even though dinner was ages away. It was kind of the central meeting point for students. I was sure that the ballroom had been intended as a social common room of sorts, but staging a funeral there just a few weeks into term had really turned most of my classmates off that particular part of the mansion.

‘Which would you be?' she asked, taking a seat in our usual section of the table. ‘I would want to be the Seer. I think that's Susannah at the moment.'

‘I think it is,' I agreed. ‘I want to be the Scrier.'

‘No “would” for you,' Kendra noted playfully. ‘Just plain old “want”.'

I grinned back at her.

‘No harm in wanting something.'

‘Too true,' Addison said, announcing his arrival at Kendra's shoulder. He playfully tipped her chair to the side, partly unseating her, but he was quick to catch her, steal her seat and set her down on his lap. ‘What's happening? Forming a boy band?'

‘Close. We're joining the White Elm,' Kendra informed him. ‘We're just discussing the various spots and taking the best ones for ourselves.'

‘Well, as long as you leave the “hot, bad-boy guitarist” spot open for me,' Addison warned.

The rest of our friends filtered in over the course of the afternoon and evening and I enjoyed the conversations, but I was still thinking about scrying for the White Elm the whole time, even as I walked into Renatus's office, still holding the book.

‘For that to happen,' he greeted me as I walked in, ‘Qasim would need to rise to High Priest.'

‘And I'd have to hope that you wouldn't want that spot,' I added, because I'd guessed by now that he was a scrier, too. Why else would he have countless books on scrying lying about his office, and how else would he have been receiving those images I'd channelled through him?

‘That wouldn't be an issue,' he told me. I sat down and put the book down on the desk in front of me. ‘I have a position I can't step down from.'

‘What's that?' I asked. ‘Like Lord Gawain?'

‘Similar. I'm actually not allowed to discuss it.'

He looked up and met my gaze. The challenging look in his violet eyes was unmissable. I wasn't sure what he wanted me to say to that.

‘I see. Perhaps I should stop discussing it, too.'

‘You can discuss whatever you like.'

I paused, trying to understand what he was
really
saying. I decided I had no idea, and that I'd just cycle back to this conversation later if I worked it out. I noticed the list I'd accidentally stolen last week sitting in front of him. It was different now.

‘I'd like to discuss why some names have been crossed off that list,' I decided, not sure why. Renatus turned the paper around so I could read it easier.

‘I suspected you would.'

‘Why are you crossing our names off?' I asked, noting that Dylan, Isao and Joshua were all scratched off. Khalida Jasti was at the top now, followed by Constantine, then me, Xanthe and Iseult.

‘This is your scrying class, with Qasim,' Renatus said, which I knew already. ‘How well do you know these people?'

‘Um, Xanthe and I are friends, sort of,' I said, pointing to her name. I made no attempt to pronounce her surname. ‘The others I know only superficially. Why?'

‘To overcome Lisandro in a conflict, I will need access to magic and power that I don't currently have,' Renatus explained. ‘I will need to become a master.'

I stared at him. He wanted Lord Gawain's job? He shook his head, as always, answering my thoughts before I could ask them.

‘I knew when I was initiated to the council that I'd never be the council's Lord,' he said. ‘That became certain when I took my current role last year. It is not possible to go from…what I am, to High Priest. That isn't what I mean. I need an apprentice.'

‘Oh,' I stated, understanding. I looked back at the list. ‘And these are your first choices?'

I couldn't believe that
I
was in that top eight. Admittedly, I was sixth, but I was before Xanthe. That had to count for something. But seriously. Were Khalida and Constantine really that much better than me?

‘It's listed by age,' Renatus informed me, with a slight tone of amusement. He laced his long fingers together. ‘Qasim tells me that these eight are his best students. Realistically, as scriers, it makes sense for him and me to choose apprentices who show early promise in scrying. So we're both considering this same group.'

‘And…you've already removed some from the running.'

Renatus seemed to sigh as he took the list back. I wasn't sure what I expected but it wasn't what followed.

‘I overheard Isao Tanaka talking with friends this morning in the dining hall, and I realised that I have no time to untrain stupidity,' he admitted bluntly. ‘I observed Dylan Wright briefly and realised I require someone…slightly less…' Renatus struggled to think of an appropriate word.

‘Soft?' I suggested, thinking of the nice blonde boy.

‘That'll do. I need someone less soft. What I do…it isn't for the light hearted.'

I sat back, forgetting totally that this was my teacher.

‘Are you the White Elm's Keeper?' I asked, thinking of Anouk's lecture. ‘The “researcher and warrior”?'

‘I'm not allowed to discuss it with you,' Renatus said automatically. He paused. ‘But yes. The true title is Dark Keeper. It's my job to defend the White Elm in times of crisis.'

‘Why aren't you allowed to discuss this, if other councillors use their positions as public titles and Anouk teaches it in class?'

‘Nobody but the council, and now our students, knows that my position exists,' he explained. He nodded at the publication in front of me. ‘It isn't even properly described in the book you've found – and I'm glad you found it, by the way. I couldn't find my copy to share with you. The creation of the Dark Keeper was a precautionary measure. A council of well-meaning, decent sorcerers all practising only white magic is beautiful in theory, but in reality, as soon as somebody comes along with knowledge of darker arts, they stand no chance of holding their power.'

‘But good should overpower evil,' I argued. Everyone knew that. It was a common theme of modern storytelling, and one that I liked to believe in. Our conversations were so deep and academic that, as usual, I forgot to feel embarrassed for my outburst.

‘Maybe in
Cinderella
,' Renatus answered, ‘but Lord Philip felt – and I happen to agree – the world is very rarely as simple as good and bad, right and wrong, black and white. There are shades of grey, and many of them. His council structure resembles what we now think of as the yin-yang concept. Nothing is inherently good or bad. There is flaw in everything light; there is beauty in everything dark. A White Elm council that was only light could not be balanced and could have no understanding of the dark. We cannot hope to compete against that which we do not understand.' He sketched a faint yin-yang in the corner of the list as he spoke. ‘So, Lord Philip chose his cousin, Nathaniel Tynan, another councillor, to be the first Keeper of the Dark Arts. His job was to study dark magic and remain up-to-date with dangerous spells as they became popular, so that the council was able to effectively combat uprisings of dark sorcerers. The secrecy of the position has also allowed the White Elm to be continually underestimated during conflicts.'

I allowed this new information to sink in and assimilate itself with what I'd read and learned earlier in the day.

‘And now that's
your
job,' I said. He nodded, and things started clicking into place. ‘That's why, on that Thursday night, Qasim came and got you, instead of just going ahead by himself?'

‘That's right,' Renatus agreed. ‘I am much better suited to a confrontation with Lisandro than he is, and he knows that. It didn't help us much, though. Lisandro knew to expect us.'

‘If you study dark magic, are you evil?' I asked before I could think about how awful that sounded. I shook my head quickly and added, ‘I mean, people. Not
you
.'

‘No one answers that question with “yes”,' Renatus said immediately, ‘regardless of the true answer. No one thinks himself evil. Academically: yes, if you use dark magic, if you do bad things, you will do damage to your soul and the more you use it, the further and faster you'll fall. There's no coming all the way back, either. Some scars can't be erased. Reading about it or talking to people about it, though, that doesn't hurt you.'

I started to think on what I'd just learned (the White Elm had a secret weapon, a
person
, someone they trained to use dark magic, and that person was
Renatus
, and he was my headmaster, and he was
well-suited
to a confrontation with Lisandro, and that meant he could easily kill people, and he was sitting right in front of me, perfectly capable of blowing my head off with a click of his fingers if he so wanted…) and decided to ward off my imagination's wanderings by quickly changing the topic. I took the list back.

‘All of the people you've left on here are pretty good scriers,' I reported.
Including me, obviously
.

‘You're friends with some,' Renatus noted. ‘Like Xanthe Giannopoulos.'

‘We're
sort of
friends,' I corrected. ‘Some days she's chatty, other days she won't look at me.'

A bit like Qasim's behaviour towards me, really, except that I always knew
why
he was angry. Xanthe would just switch off me for no apparent reason.

‘I think perhaps I just don't understand her,' I finished diplomatically.

‘And Iseult Taylor?' Renatus asked, indicating the last name on his list. I considered the tiny, self-powerful blonde who hardly ever spoke. She was in my wards class with Emmanuelle, and my illusion class with Teresa.

‘I've never spoken to her,' I said truthfully, fiddling with the strap on my watch, ‘but if I were you, looking for an apprentice, I would choose her.'

Renatus sat back, seemingly surprised.

‘What makes you say that?' he asked.