First Apprentice

Chapter 3 Part 2

A hooded figure stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. He started to step towards us. I twisted my hand, drawing a strangled cry from the assassin. "Move and he dies," I said, forcing magic back into my eyes. I examined the hooded figure. Nothing, not a single spark of life. Taller than me by half a head - and I towered over most Vinettans - with broad shoulders, I wondered how I missed him earlier. Even shrouded with his magic suppressed, he stood out. "Unsuppress yourself. Now!"

"Easy," he murmured, holding up his hands as if calming a spooked horse. "We mean you no harm."

"Remove your suppression and drop your weapons on the floor." My prey wiggled. I glanced down and spotted a small catch on the side of his cane. Make that sword, I amended. "One more twitch out of you and I'll skip the interrogation and feed you to the gates."

"I need to unfasten my cloak," the other man said.

I nodded once. With one hand, he freed the clasp at his throat. The brown fabric slipped off his shoulders and pooled at his feet. He made no move to catch it, simply standing there with both hands extended. Mottled indigo and midnight blue with occasional dark gray clouds. My stomach flipped as an unfamiliar sensation rushed through me. Sapphires, amethysts, and rubies spread across it like a starry sky. Beautiful and complex. I shook myself. "Weapons?"

"Just a dagger sheathed in my left boot."

"Leave it," I said when he started to get it. A suspicion niggled in my mind. A midnight blue base like his indicated a ferepris dae. An almost ancient, Endellion called them when she tried explaining the difference between my future abilities and hers. His aura was too powerful to fake. The last thing I wanted was a weapon in his hands.

"All right."

"Name, rank, and clan," I ordered.

"Joel, Fourth of the Seven, Marstow." Damn, Border Guard. Even worse, he was Grandfather's old partner. Of all the Seven, I had to get him.

I could take the others. It might be difficult, especially against someone as experienced as Lady Natalie, but between my seals, sword, and magic, I stood a chance against them. But a three-thousand-year-old ferepris? Even if I was the better sealer, doubtful, until my First Transformation his magic surpassed mine and I couldn't beat his sword. Few could. Worse, he could counter my usual tricks. Still, I doubted he'd do anything as long as I had my hand buried in his accomplice's chest.

"I thought you already knew David."

I glanced back at my prey. "Never seen him before."

"This is ridiculous!" My hand vibrated as David spoke. "You've seen me every weekday for the last two years," he said in a voice that sounded eerily like Director Nease's after he discovered someone, me, had glued all the pages of his score, The Sealing of Endellion, together. I refused to play a piece that glorified my mother enslaving herself.

"I don't know who you are, sir," I said with a sneer, "but I assure you I would remember an aura like yours." I twisted my hand for emphasis.

"Hid it," he gasped.

What? I thought I was the only one who hid my aura. "Why?"

"It made my students uncomfortable, especially the Dracons."

Joel snorted. "They were uncomfortable, as you put it, because you killed their kin. What I don't understand is why you continued suppressing yourself after you left us."

"At first, I didn't want my boys to feel my emptiness. They'd already lost their mother. They didn't need to know how close I was to following her. Later Mitchel asked me to."

The poor fool. Obviously he didn't know Grandfather very well. I loved him dearly, but Grandfather sometimes forgot the distinction between people and quads pieces. When Grandfather insisted I master aura masking and then practice it at the conservatory, I asked him why. Then I verified his answers with both Endellion and Uncle Manfred. Of course, mentioning my grandfather's name didn't prove this David actually knew him. "You claim you're Director Nease. Prove it," I said.

David's breaths turned shallow as his magic began struggling to hold his soul within his body. If I withdrew my hand without healing him, he'd die within ten minutes. If Grandfather's stories were accurate, Joel would save his friend rather than chase after me. But I wasn't willing to bet my life on a bedtime story. His heart fluttered under my fingertips then paused before sputtering back to life. I coiled my magic around his broken anchors, creating a temporary connection between his body and his spirit. His breathing eased.

"How?" he whispered.

Good question. I needed something only the real Director Nease and myself would know. Something everyone else either considered unimportant or we only discussed in his office. Just in case the assassin watched his office for a few days, I needed something memorable, but not recent. I smirked. "What did you tell me when Archer cut Irene's violin strings?" I asked.

"Archer was with his roommate in their dormitory, which is on the opposite side of the campus from the practice rooms." Even pained, his clipped tone was classic Director Nease. "I do not understand where this animosity comes from, Alannah, but I will not have you slandering another student."

"Correct, director," I said, cutting off his lecture. Jacob Archer, the current second violin and reigning bully, was Director Nease's biggest blind spot. When he cut Irene's strings the day he challenged her for her seat and then paid his roommate to lie for him, the director told me a suspicion isn't proof. When I reported overhearing him blackmailing other musicians during an audition, Director Nease said I felt threatened. According to the director, it was always he said, she said. Which explained why I quit reporting him and started publicly humiliating him. Equally effective and entertaining.

"Will you release him?" Joel's quiet question pulled me back to the present.

"It depends," I replied.

"On?"

"You."