Fate of Dragons

Chapter Ten

The bars across Tesa's window were strong metal and well anchored into the stone wall. Tesa tried the door, too, even though she knew it would still be locked.

Orrie, she called again, hoping to feel his mind touch hers in response. Or maybe that magic was hampered by the protections on this place too? No. She shook her head. They had spoken just this morning. At least that was one thing they couldn't take away from her.

Once again Tesa tried to access her magesight, but even if the shields hadn't been in place, the panic and urgency that now gripped her would have made it difficult to shift.

She stopped in the middle of the room and forced herself to breathe deeply. There was still no answer from Orrie. Tesa wondered how far away he had flown. Usually, she could still talk with him from pretty far away.

After she had calmed down a bit, Tesa sat down to think. Blindly rushing to escape from here wouldn't solve anything. It had gotten her stuck in here in the first place. She allowed herself a wry grin. Neither would trying to fly away with Orrie in broad daylight. If they had shields blocking them from flying at night, what else could they do with their magic?

This set Tesa to wondering about the Yennar Lei mages and their magic. She knew that the Karume's spellstone spells were derived from the Yennar Lei system of bound magic, where the magic was locked into an object. The mages here must have even more sophisticated bound magic than the Karume, judging from what she'd seen just last night. They had shields just like the Karume did, but she hadn't seen a thing. And blocking her own magic? She hadn't heard of anyone being able to do that indirectly.

If she hadn't tried to break the rules, to go out on her own again, she probably would be with everybody else right now, learning about some of these things that she wondered about. Tesa sighed and pouted.

Voices in the courtyard drew Tesa to her window again and she saw that her companions were returning. As they drew closer, she ducked out of the window so they wouldn't see her watching.

A knock sounded on the door and then it opened. Neela came in, followed by a mage in much plainer roes than the ones their welcoming party had worn last night. They were mottled tones of gray, with white at the hems of the sleeves and white trim down the front.

Tesa glared at both of them and waited for one of them to speak. The man stared with calm interest but made no sign he wanted to say anything. Something was strange about his eyes. They were wide and round and, Tesa realized, yellow. She couldn't remember if she'd ever seen a person with yellow eyes. He continued to stare and she looked away.

Neela cleared her throat. "This is Mr. Mao," she said. "He's going to be your guard, so you can come out with me."

"Oh, so I need a guard now?" Tesa said.

"Hey, don't take it out on me," Neela said, raising her hands in protest. "I didn't make the rules and I didn't break them."

"Sorry," Tesa said. "So where are we going?"

"To get our licenses."

"Our what?"

"Licenses. To practice magic. Every mage here needs to have one. There are all sorts of different levels, and even people who aren't mages can use magic."

"What? How?"

"Just come on. You'll see."

Reluctantly, Tesa followed Neela out of the room. Mr. Mao waited until they had passed and then followed at a distance. Tesa glanced back at him only to catch sight of those unnerving staring eyes once more. She looked away and whispered, "Does he ever say anything?"