"Efera’s everywhere, all around us, leaking into this world from the Eferum. Mages just happen to be able to tell that it’s there, know when it’s being worked. And have a kind of muscle that allows them to do things with it. So all the time you’re smelling raw Efera, and you’re only noticing it properly when someone does something to it." Sebastian lifted a hand and a fist-sized rock rose from the hillside. "Do you feel the change?"
"Maybe," Kendall said, doubtfully. She hadn’t even known you could cast without using sigils.
"Making the link between sensing power and actually doing anything with it is the biggest and maybe the hardest step. When you start casting Sigillic, you’ll push the power into the path charted by the sigils. Thought magic is more basic: there’s a rock and you want it to move. You know it’s surrounded by Efera, so you push the Efera at the rock, wanting it to move."
"But – push it with what?"
He grinned, and flipped her book open again. "That’s the hard bit. You know that there’s Efera here. You know that you’ve got a muscle that can work it, a muscle that you can use by wanting. So move the pebble."
"You’re not a very good teacher."
"And you didn’t even try." He turned his head toward the rock still hovering in the air and this time Kendall knew a moment beforehand as the stone broke into dozens of little pieces. "Thought magic exercises. Both for precision for when you need to Thought cast, and for strength that you’ll eventually be able to push into Sigillic casting. Sigillic casting is for complex, more permanent things, but don’t neglect Thought." He turned a page, not even watching the stones spiralling above his head.
"And a show-off," Kendall muttered, but glowered obediently at the pebble, trying to picture herself surrounded by mysterious forces which she could reach out with an invisible arm and poke. Nothing happened, of course, and she began to suspect he’d been playing games with her.
"So why the shed?" he asked, after she’d been glaring at the pebble a while.
"What?"
"Why were you living in a shed?" He flushed at her expression, but continued: "We’ve lived in a few places, and the hardest thing was getting people to leave us alone. Always expecting us to help out with something, or trying to arrange things for us, and gossiping endlessly. I can’t imagine getting away with living in a shed. The Holier-than-the-Dawnbringer types would have kicked up the hugest fuss."
"Trying to take you over," she said, understanding. "I lived there because it was mine. When Gran’s house burned down, a lot of them wanted to take me in. Some of them wouldn’t have been so bad, but it wouldn’t be mine, not a place I belonged. And they would have thought it gave them the right to tell me what to do."
"Don’t people do that anyway?"
"I suppose." Kendall sighed. "I bet no-one tells your sister what to do."
Sebastian laughed. "All the time. But she doesn’t often listen."
"I’d like that kind of power. To be able to do what I want, not what other people want me to."
He looked at her, then slowly closed the book and handed it back to her. "She does that sometimes, I guess."
The rock shelf had moved into the shade, and no longer felt so comfortable. Kendall frowned, fingering the worn cover of the book. "Is there really a conspiracy to kill you?"
"A conspiracy?" The glance he gave her was wary. "I don’t know. Queen Solace is definitely returning, and I’m sure she doesn’t want us to stop her. And someone did kill our great-grandfather, so we have to assume that there’s someone willing to help her, and avoid giving them the chance."
"Do you think you’re safe here?"
"No. Yes and no. There’s an awful lot of people who pass through these buildings. The Sentene guard the door to the infirmary, but – can they really be sure of everyone? I’ve been testing my food for poison."
"You don’t believe what they say about the Kellian, then? That because the Kellian were created by the Black Queen, they consider her their god, and are secretly loyal to her?"
Sebastian ran a hand through his tangled hair, shifting uncomfortably. "We thought of it, of course," he said, after a moment. "It would be stupid not to at least consider the question of their loyalties, and it’s one of the reasons we were planning to avoid the Sentene. But – a Kellian killed the Irisian that was attacking me. And they’ve had plenty of chances to kill me since. My father used to say that the Kellian are the last people who would want the Black Queen to return."
"Really? Why?"
"Why would the children of slaves want the slave-master to return?" asked a light voice, and Kendall looked up to see Sebastian’s sister leaning on the balustrade gazing down at them. Worse still, she was flanked by two tall figures in the black uniform of Sentene.
"Ren!" Sebastian, face alight, floated abruptly upward. "Are you all right?"
"Better than you’ll be if I find you’ve been levitating yourself out of any more windows."
"You wouldn’t have stood a single day of it, Ren. Being gawked at like a bear in a menagerie."
"I’m sure. But still, you won’t recover properly unless you work your body against the effects of the poison. You can use a cane, but not magic, in any further escape attempts."
Sebastian ducked his head, then looked sideways at his sister’s escort. Not wholly oblivious after all. Hauling herself over the balcony less showily, Kendall hoped the climb would excuse her burning face. She was glad to see one of the Sentene was Lieutenant Danress, but the other was Captain Faille.
"Hello again," said Rennyn, smiling at Kendall. "I was wondering where you’d ended up." To Kendall’s dismay she then turned to the silent figure on her left. "And do the Kellian regard Queen Solace as a god, Captain? That’s not a theory I’ve heard before."
With half his face hidden by the uniform, and the midday sun transforming his eyes to gold disks, Kendall couldn’t decipher any kind of reaction in the grim Captain. "The Kellian were created without voices," he said, just when Kendall had decided he wasn’t going to respond. "Their purpose was to be tools in the hands of their Master, no more. A hammer does not worship the smith."
Rennyn Montjuste-Surclere stared up at him, then inclined her head, as if he’d done her a courtesy. "And it is the Phoenix who wields you now. Well enough." She turned back to her brother. "I brought you clothes and a fresh journal, Seb. Given the library here, I think you’ll be well supplied with study material. Now, can you walk if I help you?"
Balancing with help of the balustrade, Sebastian made a doubtful movement and began to teeter, recovering with another surge of magic. His sister gave a gesture of permission, and he steadied and began floating again. The little group headed off, Sebastian glancing back and waving at Kendall when his sister did.
Kendall watched them go, then bent to pick up a pebble.
Chapter Nine
Rennyn took the time to reassure Seb, then narrowly avoided an audience with the Queen. Another reason to stay away from the palace as much as possible. She’d been neither pleased nor surprised to hear her name on every street of Asentyr, and could only appreciate the magnitude of her failure. Three hundred years of secrecy, smashed to ruins.
The Sentene were keen to reach the next site before sunset, and she found herself being very efficiently bundled into a coach, part of a small cavalcade. The dark, over-quilted interior made her sleepy, so she curled up on the seat and dreamed confusedly of being shaken until she was woken by a light hand on her shoulder. The red-headed Lieutenant, Danress, standing in the doorway of the coach.