First Apprentice

Chapter 31 Part 2

I forced a smile on my lips and stepped forward to greet him, clenching my jaw to stop my teeth from chattering. "I thought I canceled."

Terry held up a thumb-sized quartz crystal. "Interesting thing about memory transference, Alannah. Once mastered, acquiring the memories from the crystal takes the same amount of time as needed to load it. Ten minutes in this case. Please tell me they checked with a healer before teaching you a technique that could easily turn you into a vegetable if your mind and magic weren't both mature enough."

When I nodded, Mei snarled underneath her breath. "I want the healer's name and records."

"Xian. I'll ask for my records next time I summon the Central Keystone."

The anger bled out of Mei's aura, replaced by a muddy orange mottled with silver: disappointment and concern. Why did the technique bother her but not Xian, her master? Maybe it did concern him. Uncle Manfred told me Xian approved it. Uncle wasn't above lying, especially if he felt the benefits outweighed the risks. The technique freed six hours per day for practical lessons and also let them accelerate my academics. Both things my family felt would keep me alive.

"Find me before your next summon," she said. "I will speak with Xian."

"When Helen delivered this" — Terry turned the crystal over in his palm — "I nearly set it aside for tonight. Then Joel contacted me from the morgue where he discovered the bodies of fifteen candidates, including one of his, after the healers said they relocated all the candidates to a hospital on Meteus and expected them to make a full recovery. When he said he was acting on a tip from you, this jumped in importance. It may interest you to know this was the first time I heard about you putting a bounty on your gates.

"I forgot to transfer my guardians to you. I admit that. It was an honest mistake made when I hadn't slept in twenty-four hours and one I rectified when you reported it. My former secretary Sabine brought the paperwork to the Well for me to sign and promised to send them to Helen. Each time you asked, I checked with Sabine. She said there was some confusion as to whom they should report to, but assured me they picked up where they left off and the gates were being maintained. When you stopped asking, I assumed she straightened everything out. She lied. It's no excuse. You're a new apprentice. I should have kept a closer eye on things. I didn't. That's my fault. When I followed up with Sabine this afternoon, she handed me a memo supposedly from you, stating you were dismissing the guardians in favor of Shedu sealers."

"I didn't —"

Terry cut me off with a dismissive wave. "You're a guardian-raised Vinettan. You wouldn't send a memo favoring inexperienced whelps over guardians nor would you favor the Shedu. You wouldn't write that memo. When I pressed her for details, she spun this elaborate tale of you storming in, slamming the memo on her desk, then standing over her while she reassigned your guardians. Quite the rousing story save for one thing. When the memo was delivered, Tessa has you maintaining the Central Keystone. I've known Tessa since I was eight. She wouldn't lie, which left Sabine. After following up with three guardians, I discovered they hadn't received anything from Sabine in over a month. I executed her two hours ago. Her actions endangered the gates."

"Article Twenty-seven," I whispered to myself. Despite threatening Amit with it, I hoped and prayed I never used it. I had enough blood on my hands. "Do you know why?"

"I am both the first seat and interim chief," he said, weighing each word before he spoke it. "Although I have no more authority than any other war chief, the clans view my apprentice seat as a stepping stone to the chieftainship. The Shedu and Pundarikam want Caed as my apprentice and later Border Guard Chief, giving them control over the Border Guard. I finally agreed six weeks ago. Then Joel nominated you for the seat that Sabine thought belonged to her cousin."

A violent shiver tore through me. I pulled my oilskin cloak tighter around my body and rubbed my hands together, wincing when I accidentally popped a burn blister.

"Go get warmed up, Alannah," Terry said softly. "Send the first candidate out. He can brief me on the current situation as well as you can."

A smirk tugged the corners of my lips as I pointed to Kevin. "He's your first candidate. I planned on asking Joel to correctly evaluate his aura. It is his junior partner's mistake, but since you're here and you're half Marstow why don't you handle it?"

Terry ran an appraising eye over Kevin, eyebrows ticking up with each second. He whistled under his breath. "I see," he said grimly. He pointed towards my study. "It wasn't a suggestion, Alannah. Dry off, change into something warm, and put on socks and shoes that aren't soaking wet."

My eyes narrowed as fangs pricked my lips. Snarling, I stalked past him and entered my study, wet footprints trailing behind me. I wasn't obeying his orders. I merely placed a higher priority on dethawing my toes than demanding answers, starting with when he arrived and ending with whether Terry requested Mei's presence or she inserted herself in the situation as a buffer between my sealers and Terry. Whether she was preventing an outright challenge or a poisoning attempt was anyone's guess.