First Apprentice

Chapter 16 Part 3

Selim mentioned a price. For whom, I wondered.

Me personally? Selim? The Border Guard? The people Melantha swore to protect?

I understood the implication. At one point, Melantha suppressed Endellion. Until my magic fully matured, she could suppress me.

Theoretically. It might work; it might not.

Without her, the Dracon lacked the capacity to lock my magic away. Her death guaranteed my freedom, but was that guarantee worth the millions who would die when her death rendered their gates unstable and the subplanes collided?

No, I realized with startling clarity.

"I understand," I whispered, "but my freedom isn't worth millions of lives."

The ground quacked under my feet as the Central Keystone slid towards me. A physical impossibility as the gates' subplane was simply empty space, lacking a sun, earth, up, and down. Nevertheless, a tremor rocked the area I stood on. I didn't back away or flinch. I schooled my features and firmed my stance, not allowing any hint of weakness to escape.

Cold stone touched my nose. The gate stopped. "Putting the gates before yourself," Selim said in an emotionless voice, "is what it means to be first apprentice. Our first duty is to the gates then the worlds they protect then the people, not to our families, the Border Guard High Council, the clans, or even the Border Guard Chief." His magic turned warm and approving. "That said, little sister, please try to avoid sharing my fate. Summon me and I will answer."

Me, not us. A summon I'd only played twice before, a counter melody hidden by the gate itself.

In theory, every gate had three possible summons: the seal's song, the oversoul's personal song, and the song used when the gate was created.

The seal's song served as a compulsion. Play it with the proper amounts of magic and blood and the gate appeared every time unless something, like the Dracon Gate currently in the Well, disrupted the magic.

The oversoul's was different. The requirements varied with each summon. He or she also had a choice.

They could ignore the summon, materialize fully human and take their summoner's head as payment, or materialize and call their gate to them.

Playing the third temporarily turned the summoner into the gate's oversoul, a position that could easily become permanent. The third was for people with a death wish. The second was inherently risky and rarely tolerated by the gates. Without the familial bond between us, I wouldn't dare summon Selim himself.

Caressing the seal with bloody fingertips, I laid my ear against the stone and listened. My magic thrummed inside the seal. A hard tap and it connected.

Within seconds, a jet black violin and bow formed in my hands. Blood suspended within my magic twisted into a faux wood grain. Flames danced on my strings and bow, waiting. I took a deep breath and drew my bow across the strings.

I lost myself in the music. Magic tugged me towards the gate while pushing me back into my body. For a moment, my vision doubled as I saw both the gates and the parade ground. Drum beats thudded in time with my heartbeat as I drew out a trill. For once, I wasn't playing a story. I couldn't. I only knew bits and pieces, not the entire picture.

Fog rose from the earth, magic-laden and heavy without being damp. It clung to my skin, sucking magic directly from my core as my blood dissolved into a red mist. A drawn out note. A man-sized tornado formed in the center of the parade ground.

Selim stepped out of the tornado with the same ease I walked through a doorway.

Tea-colored skin glistening with magic, Selim raised his head. Ageless eyes, so dark they appeared black save for random sparks of color, bored into mine. A smile graced his lips as he bowed his head.

"Well done," he whispered then turned and stuck his hand back inside the tornado. One by one he pulled his guardians out fully materialized, starting with Master Guardian Tessa – Selim's mother. Each stepped back until forty guardians, including six members of Rainer's original Seven, stood shoulder to shoulder in a circle around us, blocking us from view.

The storm dissipated as Selim strode towards me. When my fingers faltered, he hummed a few bars and waited for me to continue. I resumed.

The melody crescendoed then faded away into nothingness as if he lost himself when he became the Central Keystone's oversoul.

"Don't talk. Listen," he said when I opened my mouth. "In two minutes, I will shift back into the Central Keystone. I will lead the merge, not you. You feed your magic to me. I filter it and send it to the Well. No arguments, Alannah. If Melantha tastes your magic, she will have an even greater hold over you." He looked over my shoulder. "We can handle yours as well," he said to Saar.

When Saar hesitated, Selim added, "I know you don't trust me. I wouldn't trust me either, but Melantha's your ancestor. She will take from you to the exclusion of all others. If we are to help her, we need her to accept all the available magic, not just what you can safely channel."

"The strain?" Saar asked in a hoarse whisper.

Selim jabbed his thumb at me. "It can't be worse than her combined with Aunt Endellion."

I winced as another secret came to light. At least he didn't say Endellion claimed me as her child. My teacher was bad enough.

Saar nodded once. "If it's too much, drop me. She doesn't touch the girl, understood?"

Selim smirked in answer and walked backward, hands extended as if presenting a sword. The grass smoldered as he began channeling magic into the seal buried under our feet. Flames erupted in three concentric circles. Any remaining vegetation turned to ash and Selim shifted. One moment a man, the next an obsidian gate four times taller than the conservatory walls and wide enough for a hundred men to march through abreast. I noticed he positioned himself on a diagonal. Otherwise, he wouldn't have fit inside the seal.

"Blood, magic, and song, Alannah," Selim whispered in my head. His voice merged with a choir, distinctive but part of a greater whole. "Play our summon."

Once again, I put bow to string and let the world melt away.

What I'm Reading:

A Game of Crowns by francoba90