Just when Kendall was about to let her breath out in relief, the Thing changed tactics, charging toward the dining halls. It brought down one of the trees in the process and, picking it up, hurled it at its pursuers. Kellian scattered to all sides, and the tree slammed into the Arkathan as the monster scuttled straight at the Sentene mages.
A streak of golden light resolved into Captain Faille, running right between the tentacles and jumping up onto the blue-tinted shell. He thrust his sword beneath the ridge protecting the Thing’s eyes, then leapt away as a tentacle swiped at him like a fly on a horse. The monster turned for another charge.
A rock fell from the sky. More than fell – it hurtled down like someone had shot it from a cannon. The crack it made as it struck the monster’s shell was sharp enough to hurt Kendall’s ears, and the Thing staggered. The next stone went straight through one of its legs and made a black hole in the ground.
"They’re throwing bits of the Arkathan at it!" exclaimed one of the students, and a cheer went up as a third stone was followed by a positive rain of broken bits of wall. While the Kellian had been keeping it busy, the Sentene mages had cast a spell which lifted pieces of the destroyed rooms high into the air and smashingly returned them. Even the monster’s thick shell couldn’t stand up to this, and it was rapidly reduced to a pulpy mass which the Kellian went and poked swords into until it stopped twitching.
"One day you too will be able to throw rocks," Rennyn Montjuste-Surclere said to Kendall, and stood up. Everyone in the room suddenly rose a foot in the air, and before they’d had a chance to do more than gasp, the shield went away and the desks fell through the holes in the floor while all the people floated to the ground outside.
Kendall wondered if this was the spell Sebastian had been casting. It felt rather more like his sister had just picked them all up. She turned and stared back at the Arkathan, at the hole in the side of the building. This from only one Night Roamer.
"They said there were hundreds of monsters during the Black Night," she said, amazed. "How in the Hells did you kill them all?"
"I didn’t kill any of them," Rennyn Montjuste-Surclere said matter-of-factly, watching a handful of Sentene approach. "Besides, this was something rather special."
"A new type," said one of the approaching Sentene, an older version of Sukata. This must be Captain Illuma.
The group stopped before Prince Justin and bowed very formally, which was an eerie thing when most of them had yellow disks for eyes and sunshine hair. "Your Highness," Captain Illuma continued, "it would be best if you returned to the main palace."
"Do you believe there are more on the loose, Captain?" the prince asked, sounding calmer than he looked.
"None that we can divine, but if Eferum-Get are now able to guise themselves, a physical sweep will be necessary."
Princess Sera, all eyes and no mischief now, wriggled loose from her brother’s arms. "You must come with us!"
"You will be escorted, of course, Highness," Captain Illuma replied, without missing a beat. "And the circles and defensive spells around the throne room are the strongest in Tyrland. A creature such as this could not overcome them."
The princess didn’t put up any more argument, once she saw that four of the Sentene would go with her. Kendall was disappointed to be herded off with the rest of the students. She had particularly wanted to hear the discussion the Sentene would surely move on to once their audience was gone: just how had the Night Roamer been able to find, in the mish-mash of the palace, the boy who happened to be heir of all Tyrland?
Chapter Fifteen
Rennyn lay watching Seb making notes as he read. He never remembered he was holding a quill, and had managed to draw a delicate squiggle from the corner of his mouth down past his chin. Each year he grew more like their father: as soon as he was caught up in something he found it hard to focus on anything else. The shadows under his eyes had already told her that he was burying himself far too deeply in the Houses of Magic’s library, but it was hard to lecture him when she’d had to borrow his bed for a few hours to balance a night without sleep and some unexpected shield-casting.
"So why the lessons?"
Seb started, then smiled over at her, shrugging. "Kendall. I wanted to see how much she took in. And I’m trying to make her see what she’s missing."
"How do you mean?"
"She went from nothing to the beginnings of using Thought in a few days. Her memory’s almost as good as yours – she really is memorising those dictionaries they gave her, without any context. She has enough willpower for two, and the questions she asks are sharp, well-observed. But she never sees magic as anything but a means to an end. Can she really have that much potential, and absolutely no feel for it?"
"The world’s full of rote mages, Seb."
"It’s just such a waste." He dropped his quill into a stained cup and crossed to the door, smudging a line on a pattern of chalk symbols already drawn there, then putting power into it. A muffling spell.
"So what’s been happening?" Rennyn asked when he finished casting.
"Eh, they don’t exactly come and report to me. Nothing else has tried to eat anyone."
"Do you know how many–?"
"Eight, and a few injuries."
Rennyn sighed. "I keep asking how many people died, but it’s just numbers. I feel like I should find out their names, try and–"
"What? Apologise?" Seb thrust out his chin. "We’re not the ones responsible for this, Ren. We’re trying to fix it, yes, but we’re not–" He broke off, grimacing.
"Not as bad? Not the ones killing people?" Rennyn sighed and sat up, combing fingers through her hair to sort out the tangles. "Ignore me. I’m still tired, and I don’t like how this is playing out. There’s too many things we didn’t plan for."
"How do you think the prince was being tracked?"
"Hm. Why bother seems more relevant to me, but I suppose it could simply be a message, a demonstration. To do it – the link between Solace and the Montjuste bloodline is a lot weaker than the one she has to us, and the Queen has more than enough relatives to confuse any casting. Either our Wicked Uncle has found a way to track a person without any real knowledge or connection to the target, or someone’s stolen the prince’s hairbrush. The Hand are pursuing the theory of a conspiracy targeting us, of course, but that investigation hasn’t been getting anywhere. Divinations aren’t much use for events that happened so long ago." She glanced at the door, wondering which Kellian was on duty, and whether Seb’s spell was successfully keeping their conversation private.
Seb followed her gaze. "They’re really keen for you to stay here. Lieutenant Danress asked me if I could convince you, to stress what might happen if one of those things attacked when you were too far away for the Sentene to reach you."
Rennyn snorted. "Fel knows, I would rather have thrown rocks at the thing than sit behind a shield. Today’s little drama makes me want to move you out of here, not the other way around."
"I figured. They just want to – do you know what Kendall said to me this morning?"
"I’m sure you’re going to tell me." Rennyn considered her brother curiously. The girl from Falk seemed to be figuring very large in his life.
"She shares a room with Sukata Illuma. She said Sukata behaves differently around me than she does with anyone else."
"That’s hardly surprising, Seb."
"You don’t think–?"
"I think it’s hardly surprising," Rennyn repeated firmly. "I haven’t been able to work out whether they actively dislike the fact that we’ve turned up, but the Kellian would have to feel very ambivalent about us, at best. Even ignoring the fact that Solace created them, the purpose, the whole reason for existence of the originals was to protect the Montjuste-Surcleres. And Tiandel abandoned them. Wouldn’t you resent us, in their position?"