First Apprentice

Chapter 28 Part 3

"Why?" Kevin asked.

Strange man. He sounded curious, not wary. "Hectographic ink contains crystal violet, which is poisonous. It's safe enough against unbroken skin."

Kevin did as directed, watching as the seals spun on his skin, interlocked, and activated. The tension bled out of him. "The third seal?"

"Waterproofing. The worst thing about healing seals is when they wash off in the bath. Now, why are you really here? I thought you were cataloging supplies."

"The tyrant you hired as a healer kicked me out. Apparently, my magic isn't stable enough to be around her patients, which is utterly ridiculous. My magic stabilized when I was thirteen. Stefan," he bit his lip and glanced toward where I last summoned the Central Keystone. "I ran the numbers four times last night. We'd be safer sleeping on top of the Well than here. It will never work."

"Have you told him that?"

"A dozen times, but he won't listen to me unless Dev or Tylar make him. Dev's still out of it. Tylar's terrified he'll lose Maria. They mated three months ago. He shouldn't have to mediate a family squabble on top of everything else."

Not a politically correct suicide, I thought as pieces of Tylar's and Maria's files rearranged themselves.

Although a life bond came with candidacy, the seal work required at least a journeyman sealer—currently Mitra—and a master guardian. Mitra's office set aside one day each month for the bonds and sent the candidates an appointment.

Maria's file listed dozens of life bond appointments. They were always rescheduled. After five years of being rescheduled each month, I doubted she bothered to show up. Under the recently revised standard, she'd be too old in six months. Tylar likely assumed Maria wouldn't receive one in time so Tylar asked to have his removed so he could age with Maria. Then they used the same regulations to deny Tylar's request.

Bastards.

My eyes narrowed. Without chaos surrounding me, I noted the deep blue of Kevin's aura and the tri-colored flames and Marstow sparkles: rubies, sapphires, and emeralds. Quite soothing after I got past his clan affiliation, but definitely not the weak powder blue indicated in his file. There was no way his magic stabilized at thirteen.

"Who told you your magic was stable?"

"The academy healer and Mitra-dae."

They lied.

My mind turned back to the kiss, Joel's thumbs rubbing my hipbones through the fabric, warm breath tickling my neck. Butterflies danced in my stomach as a dreamy smile graced my lips. The butterflies turned to ice when I recalled what Joel said about Mitra and his plans to replace him. Mitra was a firm three on the power scale, making him stronger than Amit but weaker than the Seven's only two Diane.

Color-coded charts Grandfather and Uncle Manfred drummed into my skull swam in front of my eyes. Kevin's saturated ultramarine base was a shade lighter than Terry's navy, placing Kevin in the two to four class dae power band. Any darker and the clans would be debating whether a false lord should be called a ferepris or if they should make up another title. Tri-colored markers indicated a firm class two dae.

If Kevin was half as intelligent as his academy instructors believed, he could match Terry in battle. Yet, he never received the training or equipment needed to do so because Mitra labeled him a class three lord, which kept Kevin out of the candidate pool and well away from Joel, who was openly looking for an alternative to Mitra.

My breath hitched. Mitra, like Grandfather before him, handled candidate affairs. It was a simple task. He set aside a few days a month to help them create life bonds with a gate of their choice. His administrator scheduled advanced training, seminars, and private tutoring with either guardian or clan trainers and mediated disputes between candidates, freeing Mitra to assist Joel with the anchor points.

I shook myself. No. Had I entered Amit's office with Terry's support, I might not have needed the contract. I might not have the sixth seat as my enemy. I wouldn't act without proof.

Kevin was part Marstow. Everyone knew the Marstow defense hid markers. Even Grandfather and Uncle Manfred weren't certain if I was more Marstow or Dracon until I shifted into my half-state and they were both Marstow. It wasn't unheard of for the protection to linger for several years after maturity. Kevin was only twenty-one. I just met him. I had no way of knowing if his magic recently settled or not.

"I thought you might appreciate some help with the wards," he nodded towards the fist-sized cubes I cut from the mountainside.

Silver flames edged in plum littered his aura, an odd combination I couldn't interpret without knowing Kevin far better than I did. I paused, silently repeating his explanation.

Kicked out by the healer. True, every instinct I possessed screamed, especially with his foster sister at death's door. That would make anyone's magic act out.

Numbing seal, likely a test.

Like aes, numbing seals were a rite of passage. Knowing them meant your trainers ground you into the dirt and left you there. Eventually, you learned a few healing techniques out of self-preservation. I learned my first one before I met Endellion. Admittedly, Uncle Manfred caught me doodling pretend seals on Martha's cat and taught me out of fear I'd blow up half the town making one up. After that incident, Martha moved every inkpot in the house to the top of her wardrobe.

As for the wards, I never said I was warding the area. It was a logical assumption though. I should have warded it the first day, but didn't. My gates took priority just as my sealers did now.

"A ritual chamber is a more immediate need than wards. When the cruju wears off tomorrow night," a lump rose in my throat. After I poisoned Grandfather, Xhian personally lectured me on aura poisoning.

Treating the final stage before death, after the base color turned white and the poison consumed their markers, was impossible without a ritual chamber. The ritual chambers in the valley were already inundated with the Well's magic, prompting the healers to send out a Border Guard-wide memo, stating their chambers were unavailable until further notice. Even if the clans had one available, moving them through the gates would kill them, cruju or not. I couldn't take my sealers to a ritual chamber, but I could bring one to them.

Brown flames outlined in green dancing in his aura, Kevin crouched beside the stones and brushed his fingertips over the vitrified surface. The green roiled higher as his curiosity grew. "From start to finish, how long?"

"Six to seven hours."

He hefted a stone in his hand. "How many seals?"

"Not including wards, six."

"Six," he repeated the number in disbelief. "Power requirements? Please don't say souls," Kevin muttered under his breath.

"Keyed ambient." Anticipating his next question, I added, "The seals must be recharged for nine hours every two weeks. Otherwise, they fail. Sleeping inside the subplane suffices."

"So you don't need to enter the testing chamber as long as you sleep inside the study because it draws from the study's ambient magic."

I grinned. If someone chiseled a fist-sized chunk out of my study walls, they'd find thousands of runes etched into the rock, facing inward. Thus, they used my magic when I was inside the study, not outside. My testing chamber worked in the same fashion. The carved surface faced my study. Ergo, they used the study's ambient magic. Even Endellion missed that detail the first time around. Maybe there was hope for my gates after all. "Exactly."

"I know I have no right asking you for original seals, especially ones worth a chief's ransom, but you know as well as I do the cave isn't an option. The Well's leaking magic like a sieve. Even if we rig slings and fly everyone back down, it's a death sentence. Your den is amazing, but it's not equipped for thirty-two people. Teach me the seals, Alannah-dae, and I'll build what we need while you deal with your gates. I'm a quick study. As long as it's not keyed to me, my small reserves won't matter."