Storm Glass (36 page)

  Surprised by the odd question, I needed a moment to collect my thoughts. “No. Why?”

  Zitora looked at Pazia. She moved her fork to her mouth as if it weighed a hundred pounds.

  “You must have used Pazia’s energy to channel her own magic.”

  “Is that why she collapsed?”

  “Not the whole reason. Pazia?”

  She finished chewing, then paused as if summoning the strength to speak. “You stole everything from me. Every bit of magic. I have none left.”

23

“WHAT DO YOU
mean none?” I asked.

  Pazia dropped the fork onto the tray and fell back against her pillows. The effort of eating and talking was too much for her. I turned to Zitora. The Master Magician’s worry alarmed me.

  “Her magic will come back, won’t it?” I asked.

  “We don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Don’t do any more channeling until we know for sure.”

  Ulrick and I left Pazia’s room. We returned to my quarters in the apprentice wing, but I had no memory of the trip. When Ulrick suggested we eat dinner, the thought of food soured my stomach. What if Pazia’s magic never returned? The possibility frightened me to the core.

  “If you can strip a person’s magic with those orbs,” Ulrick said, “we don’t have to worry about Tricky anymore. I wonder if you could take Master Cowan’s power.”

  “Ulrick, I don’t want to talk about it. I may have destroyed Pazia’s ability to use magic. There is no positive side.” I entered my bedroom and shut the door.

  I lay on top of the bed and stared at the ceiling. Unable to stop my thoughts, I watched as they replayed the series of events over and over and over in my mind. Filling the orb with Pazia’s bees felt effortless and I had been fine when Tricky had attacked with the spiders.

  What else had I done with the orbs? I had helped Kade with the storm. But then exhaustion claimed me as soon as we finished. In that case, Kade’s energy was depleted-he struggled to control the bubble of calm keeping him from the storm’s fury. I had given him my energy to use as he harvested the storm’s essence. If he had tried to attack me with wind, could I channel it? I shied away from the answer.

  I must have fallen asleep, because Ulrick woke me in the morning. I picked at my breakfast, letting the drone of conversation flow around me. Mara joined us and we headed for the glass shop.

  Excitement and pride used to bloom whenever I saw the new shop, but not this time. Mara and I helped Ulrick create his vases. Beautiful long-necked pieces with swirls of color. He had purchased a number of different colored crystals to dip the molten glass into. The crystals melted when heated, coloring the glass.

  I couldn’t tell if he used magic while working with the pieces. Only when the vases cooled and I could touch them would I know if he had trapped magic inside.

  “Opal, you haven’t said a word all day. You shouldn’t worry so much. I’m sure Pazia will be fine,” Mara said.

  Cracking off Ulrick’s last vase, I transferred it to the annealing oven.

  “No sense moping about it until you know for certain,” Ulrick said. “Come on.” He gathered a ball of molten glass. “I saved you some of my mix to play with.”

  Outnumbered, I worked at the gaffer’s bench. The glass moved as if made of silk. It was easy to shape and fun to manipulate. It didn’t take long for my dark mood to lighten.

  “Is the flexibility due to the Krystal Clan’s gold sand?” I asked him.

  “Nice try, but I’m not telling you the mix ingredients.”

  The next day the vases cooled down enough to handle. Popping in my hands, they held Ulrick’s magic within them. But Mara couldn’t “feel” the vibrations at all.

  When Ulrick and I both held the vase, it sang a sad tune. Mara heard nothing when she tried holding it with him.

  A few of our student helpers had arrived. We tested a vase on each of them. No one could feel the pops, but they heard a song with Ulrick’s touch. The song was different for each person. We puzzled over the discrepancy. After a few more tries with different vases, we discovered a person would hear his unique song no matter which vase he touched.

  “Piecov, how are you feeling?” Mara asked him.

  The first-year student frowned in confusion. “I feel fine.”

  She shook her head. “Are you happy, sad, lonely?”

  “Oh. I’m rather glad. I found out this morning I passed my history test.”

  “Touch the vase with Ulrick again,” she instructed.

  Piecov complied.

  “Does the song you hear match your mood?”

  He considered for a moment. “Yes.”

  She asked the others and they agreed. We strolled around the Keep’s campus and tested the vases on the other students. Even going so far as to interrupt an argument. In each instance, the student’s song reflected his or her mood. We also couldn’t find any other magician who could feel the vase’s vibrations. Not even Ulrick felt it-only me. Even when I held the vase with another, I couldn’t hear a song and the vase remained inert. We returned to the shop.

  “A mood indicator,” Ulrick said in disgust. “And not even
my
moods, but others. A useless parlor trick!”

  “I wouldn’t say useless,” I said. “You might be able to use the vases to interrogate criminals, find out if they feel guilty or are lying.”

  “Not the job I hoped for.” He snatched a broom and swept the floor with hard strokes.

  “We might still discover other uses for your pieces.” I straightened the workbenches, replacing the tools.

  He didn’t comment as we finished cleaning up the shop. I understood his disappointment. Four years in the Keep had been one letdown after another for me. But the Keep’s instructors had been trying to teach me to use magic in the traditional ways. Only when I had been in dire situations did my other abilities manifest themselves. While I wouldn’t recommend that method, perhaps Ulrick would have other opportunities to find out more.

  Before dinner, Ulrick, Mara and I stopped at the infirmary to ask Healer Hayes about Pazia. She was only slightly better. In the hallway, we encountered Zitora. The magician sent Ulrick and Mara on to dinner and asked me to accompany her to her office. Usually Ulrick would fuss about leaving me alone, but he shuffled after Mara without saying a word.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Zitora asked as we climbed the stairs to the fourth floor.

  “Difficult day.” I explained about his power.

  “When I first met him, I didn’t think he had any. His magic may include only one trick, but it’s better than nothing.”

  I kept quiet, remembering my own frustrations. Once you get a taste, sometimes it’s hard not to crave more.

  “How’s Pazia’s progress with magic?” I asked instead.

  “She’s regaining her strength little by little, but it’ll be a good week before we know about her magic.” Zitora stared at me with a pained expression. “Opal, if you have truly taken her ability to access the power source, the Sitian Council will view you as a threat.”

  Her words failed to sink in. I expected her to tell me the Council was livid, upset, horrified or all three. Pazia had the potential to become another Master Magician. “A threat?”

  “Think about it. You can strip magicians of their powers. What if you decide Master Bloodgood should not be First Magician anymore? Or you don’t want the Council to be in charge anymore. You can take everyone’s powers and build an army of glass creatures.”

  It sounded like a fairy tale. “I wouldn’t do that.”

  “Really? What if Bain Bloodgood attacks you and you suspect he is working with Sir?”

  “That’s ridiculous.”

  “No, it isn’t. The most powerful magician in Sitia attacks you with his magic. Will you die or use your magic to save yourself? Or if he attacks Mara or Ulrick? Will you save them?”

  “What’s the reason?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes.”

  “So now you get to decide if the reason is good or bad? What if he has a very good reason, but you don’t know about it?”

  “I…”

  “See? With this new power, you could be a danger to Sitia.”

  I bristled. “I could be an asset, if anyone would trust me.”

  “Aha! But what have you done to earn this trust? You already robbed Sitia of Pazia’s considerable talent just by experimenting with your own.”

  “We don’t know that for sure. Besides, she attacked me with an illusion. It might not work against another type of attack. And it was a genuine accident.”

  “Could you drain a person’s power who isn’t attacking you?” Zitora asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “
That’s
why the Council would consider you a threat.”

  And I wouldn’t want to try another experiment and risk losing another magician. I had wished to do more with my magic, but this wasn’t what I desired.

  “Is this why you wanted me to come to your office? Another lesson?”

  “Part of the reason. And not quite a lesson. I want you to be prepared for the ramifications if Pazia doesn’t recover. The Council could incarcerate you in the Keep’s cells while they decide what to do with you. You remember how long the Council needed before they trusted Yelena and she saved them from the Daviian Warpers.”

  I had thought I felt terrible
before
talking with Zitora. The air in the room pressed on my body, stuck in my throat and pounded in my ears, matching the tight compressions in my chest.

  Locked in the Keep’s cells would be horrible. The special magical barrier wasn’t needed for me, unless someone wanted to rescue me. I imagined Kade trying to blow the door down and the loop of protective magic, channeling his energy to trap him.

  All the Council needed to do was keep me away from glass orbs and Sitia should be safe. The thought of not being able to work with glass terrified me more than spending time in the Keep’s prison.

  “But what about my messengers? If I’m in a cell, I can’t make them for the Council or for you.”

  “The Council would have to decide how important they are. The magicians are used to having them so we would be the most…inconvenienced.” A slight smile touched her lips.

  “Inconvenienced? So good to know how heartbroken you’d be.”

  “And the Council would have to disband the messenger committee. Another inconvenience,” she teased.

  “They put together a committee?”

  “Yes.”

  I imagined the endless political wrangling and debate that would occur and was glad all I would have to do is supply the messengers. That I could do without hurting anyone. “Is there another reason you wanted to talk to me?”

  “I’ve received a message from Kade via Yelena. He’s made a few interesting discoveries in the Moon Clan lands and she would like you to join them.”

  “Me? Why?”

  “I don’t know the full details, but it has to do with the fake diamond merchant, Chun.”

  “What about Mr. Lune? Did your magician track him?”

  “Yes, but lost him at the border of Ixia.”

  “At the Moon’s border?”

  “No. At the Krystal Clan’s border.” Zitora slouched in her chair. “It seems the people selling the fakes and the real diamonds are not working together. I want you to follow the fake lead and I’ll have another magician watch the border, see where Mr. Lune goes when he comes back.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “I also think it’s a good idea for you to get away from the Citadel for a while.”

  “Are you coming with me?”

  “No. Irys and Yelena will both be there.”

  “What about Ulrick? He’ll want to come.”

  “That’s fine. Do you want me to assign a few soldiers to go with you?”

  I hadn’t seen a sign of Tricky or Sir in weeks, but Ulrick’s warning about getting complacent echoed in my mind. I really didn’t want to travel with an armed escort. “How about Leif?”

  “I can check his schedule. What if he can’t make it?”

  “Then I guess we should have another guard along just in case.”

  “Only one?”

  “I’ve been practicing with my sais. Besides…”

  Zitora waited.

  “I can bring a handful of my glass spiders and bees along. Keep them in my pocket in case we’re ambushed.”

  “Now you’re thinking.” Zitora moved a few papers on her desk. “You should leave in the morning. I’ll contact Leif.”

  “More secret magician stuff,” Ulrick said.

  “It’s not…” I sighed, no sense arguing. “It’s not-”

  “Important because I’m allowed to go?” His joke was weak, and he couldn’t maintain a light tone.

  “We leave in the morning. You’ll need a horse. This time you might want to
ask
Stable Master about borrowing one.”

  He rubbed his hands in anticipation. “If he won’t let me, I can steal Moonlight again and then placate the Stable Master with Avibian honey. Mara told me he loves the stuff.” He seemed determined to keep upbeat, but I knew by the tension in his body he still wasn’t happy.