Sorceress of Faith (21 page)

“Tuck—that’s
his name—ate an atomball.”

Jaquar’s
eyes rounded, his stare fixed on the hamster. “Remarkable,” he murmured.

“Let
us return to the point, Circlet Jaquar. Do you agree that Apprentice Marian has
passed her Testing to become of Scholar status?”

Shaking
his head, Jaquar tapped the glass. “She didn’t make Circlet level. Her control
was poor.”

“But
she
did
succeed in her Tests to name her a Scholar.”

Jaquar
sent her and Tuck a hard gaze, cradled his hand. “It’s only been a little over
two weeks since she arrived!”

“Time
is not relevant. Power and mastery of her art is. She passed the Scholar
Tests.”

“Yes,”
Jaquar agreed reluctantly. “She is no longer a mere Apprentice.”

Giddy
delight filled her and Marian was glad she was sitting. Her muscles were
relaxing so much that she might flop to the ground. That would not be very
graceful, but she was so happy, she didn’t care.

Bossgond
inclined his head to Jaquar. “We agree she is of Scholar status, then.” Her
teacher looked down at her. He was a short man, but seemed to loom over her.
“Marian, you will go to the hot spring baths in the lowest level of the Tower
and cleanse yourself while I prepare the Ritual from Apprentice to Scholar.”

She
stared. Tuck ran from her hands up to her shoulder, then said, “Let’s go, let’s
go, let’s
go
!” He patted her face with tiny claw-tipped paws that
snapped her from her amazement. She blinked, nodded and rose stiffly to her
feet. Tuck hung on to her gown.

Hesitating
at the door, she looked back at the men. Bossgond was placing a light wooden
altar in the center of the star, intent upon his work. Jaquar met her gaze from
under lowered brows, his blue eyes brilliant. From the tune linking them, she
sensed frustration, but pride in her, a touch of incredulity that she’d already
become a Scholar.

She
dipped a half curtsy and left the ritual room, then hurried to her own chambers
where she took a towel, her favorite soap that smelled of lavender, and a clean
gown and underwear to put on. When Alexa had offered to have someone make bras
and panties for Marian, she’d jumped at the offer and the garments had arrived
a few days later. Now Marian had enough underthings to last out her stay. She
kept the bras just in case her magical robes failed.

Though
she yearned for a long soak in the hottest pool, to reflect on her Tests and
what she should have done better, Marian bathed quickly but thoroughly in the
coolest pool—she had no wish to appear lobster-red before the men—and dried and
dressed in panties and robe. She was pleased that she wasn’t out of breath by
the time she climbed the five stories.

The
room was lit by indirect sunlight and candles when she entered. Bossgond stood
in the top point of the star, wearing a golden robe that matched his hair.
Jaquar stood to the south, between the two lower star-points, and had changed
into a maroon robe. Both robes were tied with belts of string and had no
ornamentation. They both wore embossed golden circlets around their foreheads.

Bossgond
bowed to Marian, Jaquar did the same. With a dull, silver-handled knife,
Bossgond indicated to Marian that she should stand at the left point of the
star, the east.

The
incense was strong, and mixed with her triumph and relief and exhilaration. She
was giddy. Giggles caught in her throat. She’d done it! She’d passed her
Apprentice tests and become a Scholar, on her way to being a Circlet. She felt
prouder than if she’d aced her doctoral dissertation. She wondered if she’d get
a robe with a hood—Marian shook the fuzzy thoughts away. She swayed. Narrowing
her eyes, she stared at the scented smoke filling the ritual room. Was that
what made her feel dizzy? Blinking hard, she turned her head to Bossgond. He
stared at her with an avuncular expression.

She
glanced at Jaquar. His eyelids were lowered so that only a deep-blue glint
showed. A flush showed under his skin, and his mouth curved. He looked as if he
was admiring her.

Tuck
squeaked loudly in her ear. His claws dug into her neck and the sharp pain
focused reality around her.

“She
is here, she is here, she is
here!
” Tuck’s high, piping voice hurt
Marian’s ears.

A
neon-purple bat swooped through the window.

Marian
blinked.

It
hadn’t swooped through an
open
window.

The
bat zoomed around the Tower room, dizzying Marian again. She couldn’t watch.

Very
good
,
Sinafin broadcast mentally. Everyone turned to her. The magical shapechanger
stood by the planet globe in fairy form. Leaning toward it, she stared inside
and nodded.
Very good, indeed
.

“You
are here!” Tuck hopped up and down on Marian’s shoulder.

Vaguely
she recalled that he’d said something about becoming a feycoocu like Sinafin.
Marian wanted to lift her hand to him, catch him close to her heart and keep
him, protect him from any major change. Any
further
major change. But
her limbs were too heavy. Was it the incense?

She
stared fixedly at Sinafin, seeing a huge golden aura surround the fairy,
mirrored in small glitters that floated in the air of the chamber.

Sinafin
flew from the table to perch on Marian’s other shoulder. She was lighter than
Tuck. The hamster scrambled around her neck to meet the fairy.

Turning
her head, Marian watched as Tuck held up bloody paws to Sinafin.

You
have blooded the new Sorceress. Good
, Sinafin said approvingly. Dipping her
head, the fairy lapped blood from Tuck’s paws. He did the same.

Blood.
Her blood
, Marian thought. Eeeew.

13

S
inafin sent
mentally,
Bossgond and Jaquar, let us proceed with the ceremony raising
Marian from Apprentice to Scholar. I will witness for the Marshalls, since
Marian will be working closely with Exotique Alexa
.

Marian
stood at the altar, Sinafin on one side of the platform, Tuck on the other,
Jaquar watching from the eastern star-point. Bossgond gave her a chilled golden
goblet with thick yellow liquid she was supposed to drink.

Marian
eyed it warily, but whether it was the smoke from the incense or the
aftereffect of her Tests, her mouth was dry and her thirst horrible. So she
braced herself and glugged.

It
was the best orange juice she’d ever had, and she coughed to cover her nervous
giggle.

So
many strange events—like the ceremony—and so many familiar things used in
different ways—like the orange juice. She’d congratulated herself on being
flexible, on going with the flow, but now wondered if that had all been a lie
and she’d wake up crazed one morning from the stress of it all.

Before
she could grab on to the thought, Sinafin was brushing a kiss against her cheek
and it felt suddenly as if she were drinking a mimosa.

It
is done!
Sinafin said, a big smile on her fairy face. Marian sensed the feycoocu spoke
only to her.
An Apprentice could not have handled any trouble, any fearsome
magics aimed at her or demanding responsibilities. But you are now a Third
Degree Scholar
.

Oh
yes, there were certainly things to be wary of, and one of them fluttered just
beyond her nose. Marian hadn’t forgotten that Alexa had said the shapeshifter
had her own agenda.

“I
don’t know what you are talking about,” Marian said stiffly to the fairy.

There
are five degrees of apprenticeship and scholarship that you must master before
you become a Circlet. You are already a Third Degree Scholar. It is good
.

Marian
licked the last traces of the juice from her lips and gave Sinafin a hard look.
“What about the rest—the trouble, fearsome magic and demanding
responsibilities?” She didn’t mind the last, but the first two were definite
causes for concern.

“Time
for you to discard the old robe of apprenticeship and don the new one denoting
a Scholar,” Bossgond said, a proud note in his resonant voice.

That
dragged Marian’s attention away from Sinafin. Bossgond held up a robe—this one
with a new symbol on it, an open book with a whirlwind coming from the pages.
And the symbol was stitched around the hem and the ends of the sleeves. Marian
liked the symbols, but would have preferred to have chosen her own icons.

Then
his words sank in. She was supposed to strip? Here? Now?
In front of
everyone
?

Tuck,
of course, had seen her naked both lately and when he was a mere hamster. And
of the beings in the room, he was the only one she felt comfortable seeing her
naked and vulnerable. How could she bare herself to everyone’s—to
Jaquar’s—stare?

Bossgond
shook the robe impatiently. “Come, Marian, undress that I might robe you.”

“Couldn’t
you just
give
me the gown?” She reached for it, but he whisked it away,
narrowing his eyes.

Alexa,
too, has a problem with nudity
, Sinafin announced to them all.

Heat
crept up Marian’s neck, her face.

Alexa,
too, does this changing-color thing
, Sinafin transmitted.

Grim,
Marian snatched off her gown and dropped it to the floor, then grabbed at the
new dress Bossgond held, missed. It was already too late to be ladylike,
unconcerned and dignified.

He
stared at her panties. “You aren’t naked under your robe!” he said indignantly.

Alexa,
too, wears such strange garments
, Sinafin chirped.

Marian
wanted to strangle the little being.

“Nice,”
rumbled Jaquar from somewhere at Marian’s left.

Of
course she hadn’t forgotten he was there. She leaped at Bossgond, wrenched the
new dress from his grasp and pulled it over her head.

When
it slipped down she felt respectable again. “Is the ceremony now over?” she
asked.

Bossgond
huffed, then went to the altar and picked up a long, sharp knife. He dipped it
in a bowl of earth, then water, held it over a flame, then incense. The
Sorcerer chanted as he did so, words stirring the air.

Marian
stared in horror. Surely she wouldn’t be cut or branded! Why hadn’t he told her
he’d—

He
took her left wrist—the one both he and Alexa had cut—and laid the flat of the
blade on her arm, beneath the tattoo that had appeared on her arm after she and
Alexa had blood-bonded—a crossed wand and jade baton.

But
the knife was warm, not hot, and when he lifted it there was a small red
triangle.

“When
this fades, you will be a Circlet,” he said. Then he nodded to Jaquar. “She is
your pupil, now, formally under your care and protection.”

Marian
yelped as if the knife had burned her. “What?”

No
one answered her, they all concentrated on finishing the ceremony. A moment
later Bossgond, Jaquar, Sinafin and even Tuck clapped their hands once. The
sound echoed like thunder through the room.

“It
is done,” Bossgond said.

This
time Marian believed it. The room dimmed, then brightened.

Bossgond
addressed Jaquar. “Teach her Weather but
not
plane-walking. Her bond
with Amee is not strong enough to keep her here rather than lost in the planes.
I will speak to both of you each evening. Separately.”

Jaquar’s
face turned impassive. He jerked a nod at Bossgond.

A
sound like a foghorn came.
That’s the boat with the cook
, Sinafin said.

“Stay
in the pentagram, Marian. Jaquar, join with her and I will send you to Mue
Island,” Bossgond said conversationally.

“No,
wait—” Marian objected.

“Will
you help me, feycoocu?” asked Bossgond.

Yes
.

“I’ll
send your volaran home, Jaquar,” Bossgond said.

Marian
didn’t see him, but Jaquar moved behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist.
“We’re ready,” he said.

Tuck
ran to her and crawled up her dress to a low pocket.

“No,
I’m not ready,” Marian said crossly. “What’s going on here?”

“I’m
a Weather Sorcerer, Bossgond isn’t. He can’t teach you what you must learn.”
Jaquar’s breath ruffled her hair and Marian shifted away. His arms tightened.

He
was too close. Too…dangerous. And though she didn’t experience the same flash
of foresight she had now as when they’d first met, warning bells rang in her
ears.

She
wanted to change her major.

Marian
and Jaquar arrived in his Tower with a soft
pop
of displaced air. Marian
stumbled, but Jaquar held her and she didn’t fall. She was all too aware of his
fast heartbeat. From the trip? Or from proximity to her? She’d like to think
the latter, but didn’t flatter herself.