Traitor Savant (Second Seal of the Duelists) (15 page)

“He’s being a selfish horsekiller
.” Bayan stalked away from the dining hall after breakfast.

“Can you blame him?” Tarin
tried to keep up.

“Yes, I can
, and I am! He needs to grow up!”

“Grow up?
Rebels destroyed his first avatar in the battle at the Kheerzaal, and now one of them shows up right here in the midst of our campus. You try being magnanimous in a situation like that.”

Bayan shot her a frustrated glance.
“It’s not like he wasn’t able to manifest a Flame avatar ever again. He even recreated the very same one. He just hates Treinfhir because he’s Tuathi.”

“That’s not true!”

Bayan stopped and spun to face Tarin. “Isn’t that why you don’t like him either? Because of some centuries-old cultural bitterness mixed with the arrogance of the Waarden Empire?”

Tarin jerked to a stop to avoid runnin
g into him. Face taut, she gave him an angry stare. “Nae. He lied to us. We don’t really know why he’s here. What if he’s lying? Here as a spy?”

“A spy who
allowed himself to be tortured for two seasons before we just happened to rescue him? Yes, why didn’t I see that obvious answer?”

Tarin’s chin rose.
“We only have his word on how long he was in there.”

Bayan threw his arms in the air and stalked off. If either
she or Calder had spent any amount of time talking to Treinfhir, they’d know he was telling the truth. But they didn’t even want to go near him. The prejudice they didn’t know they had infuriated Bayan.

Bayan reached Master witten Oost’s classroom ahead of all of his hexmates and
sulked in his padded silk chair.
Stupid hexmates, where’s all that teamwork now? So much for sticking together.
He’d regretted telling them the truth about Treinfhir for days, but he couldn’t undo it, not without a potion that would block memories. And the campus supplier for potions had already been booted, so he was fresh out of luck on that count.

Kiwani slid in next to him
with a letter in her hand. “Calder still giving you a hard time?”

“Tarin, now
, too. Stubborn Dunfarroghans. Where he comes from is not as important as why he’s here. Why can’t they see that?”

“Because, Bayan, they’re not you.” Her gentle tone emphasized his outlander birth.

He paused his rant and met her gaze. “Even as close as we are in this hex, we’re still very different people, aren’t we?”

“Don’t worry. He’s your best friend. I know you two will work things out.”

“We’d better, or I’ll have to start greasing his sheets. Who’s your letter from?”

Kiwani gave him a sweet smile. “Odjin.”

Bayan leaned forward. “He finally wrote to us?”

“He’s been writing all along. But his minders can’t catch a hexbird. Go ahead and read it. He’s an angry person, but I hope talking to us will help. Mind the poo stain on the envelope.”
She handed the letter over just as the other students entered the opulent classroom and settled down. Bayan tucked the letter, and his excitement, away.

Master witten Oost entered from the back and began the day’s lesson. “
When you first join a new duel den, the head duelist only makes record of your rank. He or she does not specify which elements you are proficient in or which avatars you can produce. Now, most duelists fresh from the Academy are eager to demonstrate their skills for the audience, in order to let potential clients observe their particular skill set. However, for today’s discussion, I want you to consider this alternative: keeping in reserve one or even two avatars through your first few duels, until you are engaged in a conflict that you consider far more worthy than the others. Please take a moment to recall what I have said in the past regarding doing your own research on your opponent’s clients. Now, with that in mind, does anyone see merit in such a withholding move? Does it strike you as fair play? Discuss.”

“Oh aye, I’d do it in a heartbeat,” Calder said. “Every advantage I can give to my side, I’ll do it. ‘
All’s fair on the dueling sand,’ after all. Why do you think that saying even exists?” He grinned, and several other students chuckled.

“But if you withhold an avatar for several fights,” Kiwani countered, “you’re going to appear deceptive, maybe untrustworthy, to future clients. They may actually avoid hiring you if they don’t like your tactics.”

Calder lifted a lazy eyebrow. “Clients are free to choose whomever they want from the den. I’d cater to those who expected me to have a bag of tricks to use on their behalf. I am Dunfarroghan, after all.”

Other students chimed in on one side of the debate or the other, but Kiwani didn’t add anything further. After a few minutes of following the discussion, Bayan noticed her silence and nudged her with an elbow.

“Calder’s reply bothering you?”

“No, that’s typical Calder. But Master witten Oost seems to be encouraging this
scheming in every class we attend. In my opinion, it’s all just smoke and scarves for what he’s really doing.”

Kiwani’s frustrated, serious tone drew all of Bayan’s attention. “Which is what?”

Kiwani lowered her voice and leaned close. “The noble girls in my barracks gush about him when we get together for teas and painting sessions—the ones in his classes, anyway. They embrace his philosophy wholeheartedly. They’re influencing the ones who aren’t in his classes, who haven’t studied enough to decide for themselves. It must be happening among the commoner girls and in your own barracks, too.”

“I don’t follow.”

She exhaled in frustration. “Don’t you see, Bayan? He’s separating the best and brightest duelism students from the rest and trying to indoctrinate them with his own opportunistic point of view.”

“And that’s bad because…?”

“Because most of them seem to believe it. They head out across the empire, taking his concepts with them. He affects the whole system with these classes of his.”

“Isn’t that the idea? He’s training us to think for ourselves.”

Kiwani’s nostrils flared. “No, he isn’t. That’s exactly the problem. He’s training us to think like
him
. A thousand witten Oosts, cheating and tricking their way to success.”

Bayan blinked
and raised his eyebrows.

She continued.
“These tactics are nothing more than political maneuverings. I’ve seen them all my life. They’re what the nobles do for entertainment. They’re not the sort of thing a duelist should embrace. Our job is to uphold the law, not take it into our own hands.”

“Is that what you believe, Kiwani?” came Master witten Oost’s
calm voice. The other students quieted their discussion and looked around in confusion. “That a duelist must be a mindless fighter, doing only the will of others?”

Bayan’s eyes flicked between the master and Kiwani. He expected her to demur, but instead she lowered her chin and met the master’s eyes with a look he’d only seen her give
opponents in the arena.

“Master witten Oost, I merely wonder when you’ll get around to teaching me something I don’t already know.”

All the heads in the room whipped toward Master witten Oost, whose eyebrows raised. “I’m certain that I have much to teach you, on a variety of subjects, if you will, but be patient. Advanced students of Waarden society such as yourself may initially suffer some lack of interest as I cover the basic materials for beginners. In time, you will come to see that there is much in the world that you do not yet grasp, Kiwani.”

The
students’ heads turned back to Kiwani. “I’m sure you’re right, Master.” She stood and gathered her things. “But given the results of my investigation into your past behavior, I have little faith that the things you have to teach me will be things I’ll consider worth learning. Good day.”

Kiwani
glided from the classroom. The blast of cold air that entered while the door was open flowed over Bayan, entering his mouth as it hung open. He shivered, snapping it shut, and looked to his hexmates in the row in front of him.

“Did you know she wa
s going to do that?” Eward said over the buzz of voices in the room. Bayan shook his head.

“Master,” Taban called, “is there a penalty for dropping out of your class like that?” To Bayan’s irritation, he sounded more curious than concerned.

“Of course not, Taban,” the master replied. “Every student is free to choose their own path. I’m merely trying to make the path I offer you as broad and smooth as possible. Just as no one is
required
to complete their duelism training at the Academy, no one is
required
to walk my path.”

Class continued, but Bayan wasn’t listening to the discussion. When the
campus bells rang and everyone rose to go, he stepped outside and waited for his hexmates, but kept an eye out for Kiwani. She was nowhere to be seen. Tarin stepped out after Eward, joining Bayan, but Calder didn’t exit.

“He got asked to stay after,”
Tarin said. “Some special project.”

Bayan sighed and nodded.
It figured. Just when the hex was pulling together to work on their Savantism, they started to split up everywhere else. He wondered if the golden days right after they all passed their elemental duelism tests were going to be his best hex memories.

“I have a gift for you.”
Doc Theo sat on the fallen log and held his hands behind his back in dramatic fashion as he and Tala took a break from their hike down past the timberline of the valley. “But you should probably keep it a secret.”

Tala’s eyes lit up, and she leaned forward on the sun-warmed granite rock. “What is it?”

“You have to guess which hand it’s in. And no cheatin’ with magic.”

Tala made a face. She’d been about to sing a quick mirroring song, but as usual,
Doc Theo knew what she was thinking. “I pick your right hand.”

Doc Theo
’s mitten came into view, revealing a long, slender crystal, black as night.

Tala’s eyes widened. “Is that for me?”

“Sure is. But you might want what’s in this other hand to go with it.” He brought his left mitten around, too. It held another black crystal.

“Two? But
… why?”

“You’ve got a powerful gift, chil
d. Your perfect pitch means your songwork will be flawless every time. I want you to try some of the duet and trio spells. I think you’ll find you’re just as competent with them in the secrecy of your room as you are with the solo spells. And I know that’ll give your confidence a mighty boost. You’ll be needing to show your alton some kind of singing progress soon, or she’ll give you over to me permanently. And as much as I enjoy your company, I don’t think either one of us want you shunted off into the Chantery for the rest of your life.” He handed her the crystals.

Tala accepted them reverently. She
couldn’t keep her eyes from their rich, gleaming facets. Their impenetrable darkness made her feel as if they were packed with secrets. “You made these, didn’t you? Just for me. I’ve never been so happy in my life, not even when I learned I could do song magic. Thank you, Doc Theo!” She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, nearly knocking him off his log perch. Then she settled beside him on the log. She hadn’t felt this warm and happy since her mother died.

“My mother would be so proud if she could see me now. She taught me to sing when I was just a toddler
. She knew songs no one in our town had ever heard before, and we sang them around the house. I don’t know where she got them. Some sounded Akrestan, some sounded Shawnash. But her favorite was a Nunaa harvest song. She said she used to sing it with my father all the time, and she was always so happy singing it with me. I miss her. But I know she would love to see me now, with an amazing tutor and my very own singing crystals. She’d be so proud.”

Tala hugged
Doc Theo again, even more tightly. As she let go, she caught a glimpse of his expression shifting into a happy, if distracted, smile. “I’m proud of you, too,” Doc Theo said.

Over the next several days, Tala spent all of her free time lurking around the advanced classroom doorways and windows, listening to the students practice their duet and trio spells. Using a common silvered glass, she spied around
the corner at their movements and memorized how they held their crystals while casting songs. Each night, she tried the techniques in the privacy of her room. No longer did she cry from sorrow while she sang. She cried with happiness.

~~~

The day after Tala mastered her first trio spell in her room, Alton Bessia selected her as one of the students to attempt a new melody, a simple summer song. Ignoring the rolled eyes and sighs of boredom from her quarton partners and the patient but hopeless look on Alton Bessia’s face, Tala closed her eyes and recalled the sensation of holding her black crystals and singing an acorn into a sapling as it hovered in midair. The thrill of creation filled her mind, the power of song thrummed through her veins. She opened her mouth and sang.

Flawlessly.

The room brightened against her eyelids. The air temperature rose. Graela let out a tiny, startled scream. Tala held the last note of the spell as long as she could. Finally, dizzy for lack of air, she had to gasp for breath. As she did so, she opened her eyes and saw the whole room staring at her. Daen’s mouth hung comically open, and Tonn stared, starry-eyed and grinning, as if a coconut had just cracked his skull.

“My dear girl
… ” Alton Bessia stared at her with a hand against her chest.

C
ircling so that everyone had to meet her gaze, she had but one thing to say. “I am a
singer
.”

When Tala told
Doc Theo about her success in class later that afternoon, he merely grinned and nodded. “Never had a bit of doubt. Now, since you’ve proven yourself to be a quick study, I have a test and a reward for you.”

Tala
gasped in anticipation. “What is it?”

“You sneak out and learn that there portal spell the
altons use to jump around. If you learn to sing it right, there’s someone I want you to meet.”

Tala frowned.
“You want me to learn portaling?” It was the most complex trio spell in existence, and only the altons were allowed to use it outside of class. A ripple of determination shot up from her middle. She
wanted
to learn that spell, to show them all what she was capable of. She leaned forward. “Who is it you want me to meet?”

“That part’s
a secret, until you can sing the spell proper-like. I know there’s some kind of echo klum-jum the trio singers use to make the portal open where they want it, so make sure you learn how they do that part ‘sides the pattern to the song itself.”

Tala nodded, but her mind was already trying to decide the best way to learn that information. Peeking around corners with a silvered glass wouldn’t get it done this time. She’d find a way somehow. As badly as she wanted to prove she could handle a complex trio spell, there was one thing she craved even more:
Doc Theo’s approval.

~~~

Acquiring the portal spell itself hadn’t proven difficult. Tala lurked outside the classroom belonging to Cedric, the Primumo to First Singer de Vosen, and begged Cathal and Sjaak, two Waarden trio students who were handsome and knew it, to help her with an assignment she’d not really been given. They were so far ahead of her in Temple classes that they didn’t know about her hiccups, and the unfeigned envy and awe she showed them stroked their overlarge egos. They’d been happy to show off their portaling skills for her, even though it had ostensibly been so that she could write a report on the sharp mental acuity of advanced trio students.

In the space of an
evening, she learned not only the destination sequence, which determined where the portal opened on the other end, but the complex three-part harmony of the portal spell itself, which involved singing different notes into each crystal at specific intervals during the duration of the spell song. The trio boys even showed her the locator notes that let them open their portals near a specific person—each other, even her. Tala felt exhausted just thinking about performing the enormous song spell, but she had what she needed for Doc Theo.

Late that night, Tala
sat on her floor and tested her portal songwork. Her first attempt was an abject failure. She transposed the note patterns for distance with those for height and kept seeing solid rock through the light-edged oval that opened in the middle of her room. After mentally reviewing everything the trio students had bragged about, she realized her mistake and managed to get the destination sequence right. That portal lasted less than three heartbeats.

Only after two futile hours of
portaling did she realize that she was gripping the crystals all the way around while she sang. The notes with which they were supposed to be resonating were unable to ring long enough to support the portal for longer than a few moments.

Banging her head against
her bed frame, padded though it was by her quilt, Tala prayed to Bhattara for patience. It was hard to remember just how incredible it was that she was able to attempt the spell at all, thanks to Doc Theo’s crystals, some arrogant trio students, and her own natural talent.

In the darkest hour of the night,
when Tala’s mind was running on adrenaline and determination, she finally managed a decent portal. Supporting the crystals atop two fingers each, she held them close to her mouth, near each cheek, as the trio students had. She sang the complex song, directing loud notes into each crystal whenever the spell required them to sustain a note.

The portal opened, and Tala’s
tired eyes lit on the sight of the Teresseren Sea beneath a waning moon. She watched its waves wash against the pale sandy beach for some while, reveling in the sights and smells of her faraway home. She found herself so thirsty for familiarity that she sang renewing notes into the crystals when their resonances began to wind down. Finally, she let the view vanish. She slept hard for what remained of the night, dreaming of portals into her past.

The next day,
she asked Doc Theo to wait for her on the mountain overlook. He agreed. She hid behind a corner and watched him head up the mountain trail as the time of their meeting approached. Then she hurried up to her room, stomach fluttering with anticipation. Her window faced the wrong way to see the overlook, or even the mountain, so she knew her notes would have to be perfect.

Standing in the middle of her floor
with crystals balanced on her fingertips, she closed her eyes and sang. It took two tries, but she managed to open a portal a few strides from the overlook. The wind whipped through the portal and into her room with a fierceness she hadn’t anticipated. Unable to set down the crystals in order to pull on her heavy coat, she had to endure the chill as it whipped past her and blew her papers and pens onto the floor. Why hadn’t she remembered to dress for the weather on the overlook? She could have stepped through and everything. But not now.

A figure hurried to the overlook’s edge, blurred by the sharp wind against her eyes.
“Tala?” Doc Theo called.

“I did it,
Doc Theo!” She wondered what she looked like to him, still as a statue in a midair room.

“That’s my girl!” he shouted back. “I brought something to give you.” He tossed a small package
toward her portal. It rolled past her feet, and Tala heard it bounce against the base of her bookshelf. “Bring it to supper.”

The crystals’ resonance fad
ed. She bade Doc Theo farewell and let the opening close naturally. The glowing outer rim of the portal imploded silently, winking out. As she turned around to pick up the item Doc Theo had tossed through, she realized how tense her entire torso was from holding the crystals and singing so precisely. She tipped her neck from side to side, rolled her shoulders back, and let out a relieved breath. “Any more of those trio spells and I’ll need to start using a singer exercise routine.”

She bent to retrieve the rounded
package from near the bookshelf. To her surprise, the shape inside the cloth padding was an avocado. A ripe, freshly picked avocado, like the ones grown in the dry orchards in Balanganam. Had Doc Theo bribed a trio student to pick it for him?

If a trio can do it, so can I. I can get anything I want
now. From anywhere.

She shared the avocado with
Doc Theo at supper. No food ever tasted better.

~~~

Doc Theo led Tala into an unused storage cellar two floors below the kitchens while she hummed under her breath, creating just enough light to see by. She carried her precious black crystals wrapped in protective wool. Between hums, she asked, “What are we doing down
here
?”

“We’re
busy not getting caught. It’s time for your reward. Let’s sit over here on these barrels.”

Tala sat. “You’ll have to tell me who I’m portaling to now, so I can locate them.”

Doc Theo grinned at her as he struck a match and lit a fat candle so Tala wouldn’t have to concentrate on lighting the room. “Bayan Lualhati.”

The famous duelist?
She’d heard about his successful battle at the Kheerzaal not long after she’d arrived at the Temple. Tucked away in the mountains as they were, few other students seemed to care much about Bayan’s rescue of the emperor or the battle’s implications, but Tala felt a fierce pride for her fellow Balang’s accomplishment. She smoothed her hair back with a nervous hand, then got her crystals ready, laying each across the curve of a barrel top. She sang the locator notes into them, then spoke Bayan’s name in neutral pitch. Following up with the trio note, she let the spell wash over her, showing her exactly where Bayan was at that moment.

Frowning in concentration, she closed her eyes and sang the portal song, using Bayan’s trio resonance as her destination sequence.

“Bloody hell, what in
sints
—?” cried a frantic male voice.

Tala popped her eyes
open in surprise and saw a pale Dunfarroghan boy with light hair and no obvious clothing. He clasped a wide pillow to his lower front. He stood in the middle of a narrow, well-lit room that poured its light into Tala’s dark cellar. Next to him sat a bed with a night shirt spread out on it. Opposite the single bed rose a bunk bed, and further behind the boy sat three desks heaped with books, papers, and various oddities. A large, dark bird on a platform in the far corner of the room squawked and flapped its wings.