A Ragged Magic (11 page)

Chapter Eleven

M
orning drizzle curls and frizzes my hair as I stand on the castle wall. The carriage driving away down the coast road carries Bishop Gantry and Orrin, leaving behind a castle full of dazed servants and not slight disarray. Gantry started his morning with shouted orders that the staff hadn’t anticipated. It seems the only people informed of his plans to leave were Orrin and the kirche guards riding with him.

One of whom, I am informed, will report back to Connor. I don’t know which one. And the guard can hardly interfere, if Gantry hurts Orrin again. Fear churns in my gut, but there is nothing to do but wait and hope. Hope that the nightmares I had last night about Orrin are only that.

Nightmares of blood, and the demons I can’t speak about, and Orrin’s terrified face. I wish I never had the Sight. I wish Orrin weren’t leaving with this monster.

Father Matthew is to return to giving chapel service here in the castle. I walk down the steps of the inner wall and into the yard, heading for the front hall. On my way to service, I see more servants are heading that way than normal. The services have been thin on attendance since Gantry came. I suspect some have gone into Haverston for kirche instead of suffering through the bishop’s disconcerting stares.

But Father Matthew seems nervous, as well. Not that I knew him before. We do sing a song, one of penitence, and his homily — “Be thou vigilant” — seems shakily given. I don’t know what orders the bishop gave, but I see Duchess Marguerite shaking her head when speaking to him, afterward.

I excuse myself from the midst of her ladies. Lady Geneve smiles absently at me, but most take little notice. The six of them are from neighboring minor estates, and are of minor nobility. Since my assumed rank is of a minor family from the north, and they have some resentment I don’t understand toward Connor, they have, for the most part, snubbed me.

I am content to let them.

My duties for Julianna are few, as she wants her freedom here at her childhood home, and not chaperonage. And she wants me to concentrate on honing my Sight, and keeping safe. I attend her in the morning, bring her breakfast and help her to dress. Now that Linnet is to be her personal seamstress, which was decided late the night she arrived, no one will suffer from my uneven stitching and poor seaming.

My other duties for Julianna consist of making medicines with her in the herbarium, and bringing them to the sick. Julianna uses her Healing for those that need it most, and gives simples and medicines to others. The people of Haverston seem thankful, but the kirchemen follow her with wary eyes.

The weather is still cold, spring hardly emerging from winter. I am relieved; I can keep my hood up as we ride through town in Julianna’s carriage. Haverston seems bare and grim; few people walk the streets, and most of the bright shops look faded, and haven’t been repainted yet. Guild members snipe loudly with each other outside the guildhall when we pass, and I keep my head ducked low.

Linnet speaks little to me, and is snappish and sullen by turns. We leave her with the mending and designs for new gowns when we go out. Julianna wants to set up a small loom for her in the tower room. Linnet seems resigned to her new role, and ungrateful. But it’s hard to be grateful when your life is ruined.

I’m only grateful because I almost lost mine.

Now that Linnet is here, and Hugh has discovered our lack, we are to have lessons, which consist of beginning magics such as Keenan was taught at monastery: shielding of mind and thoughts, sending thoughts to others, drawing magic from wells that gather the wild magic and tame it to a more manageable source. This last Hugh has only a little skill at himself. He mostly uses what is in himself, or is shared with others.

I knew some of these things already, although only in theory, as I was never very strong. Keenan always did most of the magic before. But now I feel power dance along my senses all the time, and Hugh says I should be able to draw from some of the stronger lines of magic.

There is an ancient tale of the First Prophet Dorei blessing these cliffs for hiding her from her enemies, and as she stood and called on the Star Lord, the magic pooled here under her feet. The cliffs in the old language were called Seely Magan, or blessed power. The castle has always glowed a little to my Sight.

The well under the castle is so strong that Hugh says it is difficult even for strong mages to sense magic workings here: the power from the well masks it. Hugh says that our magic was only noticeable when Linnet arrived because of the combination of spells plus our magic. Normally, magic is so imbued in the stones of the castle that one cannot feel most spells.

Hugh is obsessed with barriers, however, and now so am I. I will not be caught and used again. I still don’t understand why I can’t speak about what Gantry did to me: is it fear only? Or is it part of the spell? Since I cannot ask, I’ve decided to spend my free time pouring over books in the library. Hugh commends my study habits. Linnet glowers and says unflattering things about bookworms. When I say she never minded before, she glares and denies that I was one.

Hugh sits in front of the tower’s narrow windows, resplendent in a dark blue doublet of silk. It’s been more than a week since Orrin left, but there has been no word of him. I try to concentrate on Hugh’s words about magic flowing, and not the thoughts running in circles in my head.

Also the fact of Hugh’s unconscious beauty and conscious charm is distracting enough. I think he knows it. His smiles flirt without meaning to, and his manner is familiar for a duke speaking to daughters of the guilds. But our rank has changed, as he keeps reminding us when we stammer.

Linnet is discontent to be the orphaned daughter of a knight, as Hugh is presenting her — the child of a dear friend, killed in battle. Which means she ranks below me, as the orphaned daughter of a Lord. This is still considerably higher in the instep than our parents’ births. We chafe under unknown rules.

I worry we will betray ourselves as imposters, or sisters. We certainly fight like sisters — more than we ever did before. I worry we’ll fight in front of strangers. I worry about Linnet’s anger and grief. I worry about Orrin. I worry about my magic. I am exhausted with worry.

“Lady Rhia, do pay attention,” Hugh says.

I snap my gaze back to him from the window and paste a smile on my face. “I’m sorry, your Grace. What were you saying?”

“I want you to let your barriers down just enough to receive a sending from me, and then raise them again. But don’t lower them until you feel me ask.”

“What does that feel like?” asks Linnet. She can’t send yet. Hugh thinks she might be able to, but it isn’t something she’s figured out. I feel some relief at that.

“It feels like an internal nudge,” he says, and then I feel it. Although to me it feels like a tingle, a shiver, a plucked thread puckering in my mind. Keenan’s sends were softer, but I knew him better. I lower my barriers from the tight lockdown I put them in, after Hugh showed me where I was leaking before. I need much tighter barriers than I ever used to.

Hugh’s sending comes to me as a feeling — expectation — along with the words from a children’s rhyme. I snap my barriers shut again — I feel so much safer with them shut — and recite the rhyme back to him.

“Very good. I know you used to do this with your brother. But you and I should get used to each other, if you’re to help Juli and me out. Why don’t you send me something back. Anything is fine.”

Linnet mutters something about showing off. I roll my eyes and ignore her. I decide to send Hugh a memory of Linnet throwing a tantrum when she was a baby. For perspective, I think. Although she outgrew them after toddlerhood — until recently — she was a champion tantrum thrower in her day.

I lower my barriers again, and try to nudge Hugh the way I would have Keenan.

Hugh rocks back in his seat, hands to his head. “Not so hard, Lady Rhia! That hurts!”

I pull back on the power, but it seems to push at me. It pushes harder the more I pull it back, and suddenly I’m in a vision that rolls through my lowered barriers, rolls through my mind, and takes over.

Orrin lies strapped to a table in a dark room. Above him, Bishop Gantry chants sharp words that tear at my memory, tremble through the vision. Gantry holds a knife. Orrin’s eyes are bleak and empty, and I am frantic with fear for him.

I have to get him out, stop this. I come to myself, yelling, trying to run out of the tower room. Hugh holds me hard by the waist, and Linnet pulls at my arm.

I go limp, panting in Hugh’s grip. He stops his own shouting, and turns me around.

“Rhia, where is that? I got some of it, is it a true sending?” His hands clench hard on my shoulders. “Do you know where that is?”

Shaking, crying, I can only shake my head. I need to find Connor, Connor must know where they are.

“I had to shield myself from most of the vision; you were wide open and sending. I shielded the entire room, just in case. Your Sight is that powerful, I thought the whole castle might feel it if I didn’t, Lady Rhia.”

I shudder, sick with reaction and fear. “Don’t call me that,” I say, suddenly tired of pretend, tired of everything. I want to lie down on the cot. I stumble toward it, flinching away from Hugh and Linnet. I want desperately to be alone.

“Don’t call you lady?” Hugh asks. “Lady — Rhia. It is your title now. You —”

“Well, she doesn’t like it,” Linnet snaps. “Just leave her alone.” Her face is tight and angry, which means she’s worried. I feel a little grateful she could be worried for me.

Hugh’s mouth sets in a grim line. “It doesn’t matter if she likes it. That’s her title. She needs to get used to it. As do you,” he says, then he sighs. “But it isn’t important if we’re alone, I suppose. It’s not as though we’re following the rules of strict propriety in any case.” He sits gingerly beside me on the cot.

My breath is coming easier and with less pain.

Linnet glares at us both. “Well, what did you See? I didn’t get any of it,” she says. “I felt you being scared, but I didn’t see anything.”

“Rhia, can you tell the whole vision?” Hugh asks.

I close my eyes, wipe my face, try to gather my breath. “Orrin is in trouble. The Bishop —” and I can’t breathe again; I can only shudder and cry.

“I saw him strapped to a table,” Hugh says quietly.

“Who is Orrin?” Linnet asks, her voice sharp.

My eyes fly open. I didn’t tell her yet.

Her eyes narrow when I look at her, feeling guilty.

“He’s a friend of your sister,” Hugh starts.

I open my mouth to tell her about Keenan, but she erupts in outrage.

“Your friend? You made a friend here already? After our parents were killed because of you, and Keenan too, and you’re up here making friends?” She is yelling fit to rouse the castle. I hope Hugh shielded this room for noise, as well.

“Linnet, he was Keenan’s friend first, from seminary, and he —”

“So you thought you’d just endanger everyone by making friends with him too? Or does he not know about you?”

I can’t take her tone anymore. “He recognized me! I was going to tell you, but he left two days after you got here, and you’ve been sulking and not talking to me, so when was I supposed to mention him? It’s not like you want to listen to what I have to say!” I yell, overcome with everything, with the unfairness of it all. “And the important thing is we have to go rescue him! Not how hurt you are!”

She stands a moment, her jaw grinding in fury.

Hugh tries to make a soothing noise over our harsh breathing.

Linnet shoots him scathing glare. “Like you rescued me?” she snarls quietly, and storms out of the tower.

Trembling, I fight more tears. My head and eyes ache, which is becoming very familiar, I cry so often now.

Hugh pats my back, tries to speak to me, but I’m not listening.

“You have to tell Connor,” I say. “He has to find them. He said he would know where they were. I knew this would go wrong, I told Orrin not to go.”

I hear the tower door open again. Looking up, I see Julianna framed in the doorway. She takes in the scene — my pinched face, Hugh’s attempts at comfort, and shakes her head.

“Hugh, why don’t you find Connor and tell him what happened. Rhia is right about that.” When we look at her in surprise, she smiles. “I caught Linnet on the way down. I sent her to your room, Rhia, so she can calm down. She told me some of it.”

Hugh stands after patting my back again. “I hope no one else heard her,” he says, furrowing his brow.

“Not today. And with Gantry gone, I don’t fear spies in the corners so much,” she replies.

“We should.” Hugh raises his brow at her.

She shrugs. “We’ll have another conversation with her about discretion. Do send Connor to me once you’ve had a word,” she says, a clear dismissal.

Hugh shakes his head as he leaves. Julianna sits where he vacated.

My breathing is better, but I snuffle into Orrin’s crumpled handkerchief. At this rate, I should carry more than one.

“My poor Rhia. Magic hasn’t been so kind to you lately, has it?”

I shake my head. “It’s not me we should worry about right now. Orrin —” and I take a breath, fight the paralysis that creeps onto me. “Orrin needs help. He’s in so much trouble, your Highness. Please, please send Connor to help him.”

“I promise we’ll do what we can for him. Can you use your Sight to see anything else? Anything that might help Connor find Bishop Gantry. Or help us to convict him, when it comes to it.” She looks steadily at me. “I need proof of his actions, Rhia. Moreover, I need proof of conspiracy. If anyone else was there, is helping him in this — if you can help me prove it, I can stop him all the sooner.”

I let go of my barriers a little, but the power whirls around me like a top, and dizzy exhaustion drops over me. I drag my barriers to me again with what energy I have left, feeling bruised. “The visions won’t come now,” I say. “What I saw, what I saw was … ask Hugh. But there wasn’t anyone else there. Just the bishop and Orrin. And the room is dark, and I can’t tell you anything else. I’ll try later, I will, but Connor said he’d know where they are. He had someone with them. He promised.”