A Kiss of Magic: A Kiss of Magic Book One (24 page)

They burst out into the night, right into the middle of a hailstorm. The balls of ice were small, stinging their skin as they went, but it provided them good cover as they hurried out of the building and through the town. There were cries, shouts and screaming everywhere around them, but no one paid them any mind. Just as they reached the edge of the town, Henni stopped and looked back. The men urged her forward.

“Granio,” she whispered.

“You can’t help him. If he’s still alive he’ll be here when the army breaks up and falls apart. But it’s still too dangerous for a girl like you to be left alone here. With no one to control them they’ll be even worse than before.”

“A-all right,” she said at last. She moved forward with them.

Ky had to help Dendri up into his saddle. Then he put the girl on his horse and swung up behind her. Jal turned his horse away from the encampment and the three horses dashed off in the opposite direction. Dendri was slumped over the neck of his horse, barely leading the animal, barely able to keep his seat. Eventually Ky had to take the reins of his mount and lead him as Dendri leaned against the neck of his horse and struggled to stay awake.

Awake and alive.

Chapter Nineteen

The group stopped after a pair of hours of traveling when Jal though Dendri was going to fall from his horse.

“There’s a town a little way ahead. We’ll stop there,” he said.

“No. Home,” Dendri said, his voice a tired rasp.

“Dendri, you’re in no condition to ride the rest of the night.”

“We can’t be sure we’re not being pursued,” Dendri said hoarsely. “Besides, I want to be with Yasra.”

“Dendri—“

“I said
home
,” he said, shifting his weight higher in the saddle.

“Then at least let Jal ride with you,” Ky said. “We’ll otherwise be at a crawl if we walk the horses the entire way. If, as you say, we might be pursued, then we need a little speed.”

“Very well. I don’t care as long as we go home.”

Jal dismounted from his horse, handing the reins to Ky, who tied them to his saddle. Jal mounted in front of Dendri, giving him a strong body to hold onto and lean against. He spurred the horse ahead at a canter and they began to pick up speed.

Soon the miles were speeding by them.

Yasra had taken to pacing the house nervously. It had been two days since Dendri had left. She continually tried to reach out to him with her mind, but she received no response. Of course he was too far away, she thought. And even if he weren’t, he certainly didn’t need to be distracting himself trying to reassure her. So she didn’t ask for him to respond. She merely sent him as many feelings of support as she could.

Bess was sitting watching her during one of her pacing bouts. They were in the main parlor. Bess was on a chaise lounge sitting with her feet tucked up under her, and Yasra was moving from window to hearth and back again. Every time she reached the window she looked out of it. The main parlor was at the front of the house and provided a perfect view of the long drive leading up from the main gate to the house.

“We should do something,” Bess suggested. “It does you no good staying cooped up in this house all day. We should go riding around the estate.”

“You can’t ride, Bess,” Yasra said with a sigh.

“We can take one of the light carriages. Or you can put me on a horse and lead me around. It’s high time I learned to ride.”

Yasra sent her a dubious expression. “You don’t like to wear breeches and you don’t have a riding dress.”

“I’ll wear breeches. I’ll borrow some of yours.”

“Bess, I don’t feel like going out!”

“So what will you do all day? Stare out that window? He will come when he comes. Pacing and glaring out the window will not make it happen any sooner.”

Yasra went still.

“Do you suppose I’ll feel it right away?”

“Feel what?”

“If he dies. Do you think I will feel it right away? Will it be like a sucker punch or will it slowly wear away at me?”

“I don’t know,” Bess said, frowning at the thought. She didn’t want to see any harm come to her best friend. For a moment she was angry with Dendri for risking his life and Yasra’s well-being like this. Still, she understood the reasons why her friend had allowed him to go, and why Dendri had felt compelled to help. “Don’t think so morbidly, Yas.”

“What else am I supposed to do?” Yasra wrung her hands in front of her belly. “What if he never comes back?”

“Are you afraid for him or for yourself?” Bess asked, watching her friend’s expressions carefully.

Yasra was immediately overcome with outrage.

“How can you ask me that? I am worried for him! I don’t care about myself. I admit I was a little in the beginning, but…I am a thousand times more afraid for Dendri than I am about anyone else, including myself.”

“Why do you care so much about him?” Bess asked. She wondered if Yasra knew the answer to that yet.

“It’s not that I care…I mean, of course I care. He’s another human being for God’s sake. And after knowing him so…so…”

“Intimately?” Bess provided her.

“Yes. After knowing how vital and alive and kind and giving he is…I know the world would be a much darker place without him.”

“That is to say nothing of what will happen to us should he not come back to this villa. We will have to find somewhere to go. We will no longer be protected by Dendri. All of this will be passed on to his heir…whoever that may be…and we can’t expect they will want a couple of women wandering aimlessly around the place. We will have to take care of you…hope you can come through it.”

“Stop being so selfish on my behalf!” Yasra snapped angrily as she whirled to glare at Bess. “I don’t care about any of that! I just want him to come home to me!”

“Home? This is home?” Bess asked.

“I…I don’t know. You know what I mean!”

“Yes,” Bess said thoughtfully. “I think I do.”

Bess stood up, brushing her day dress into place. It was a simple white gown, but it was clearly threadbare in places. Bess needed new clothes, Yasra thought absently. They were still poor. If Dendri did not return their circumstances will have changed very little from what they had been before. The only difference was that she was now a Necromay majji and she would have to find someone to apprentice under as she developed her skills enough to earn a living. Apprentices were completely dependent on their mentors for everything. Food. Shelter. Clothing. Then in return for their training the apprentice would work earning back the money the mentor had put out for the apprentice’s care, plus an additional fee for services. A process that could take years.

What would happen to Bess? Would they let her keep her as a lady’s maid? Or would Bess have to find work elsewhere during the years of Yasra’s training. Provided Yasra survived the loss of Dendri. Provided she could function as a normal person. It had all been so vague. She had spent the past two days looking up everything she could find on the Gestalt pairing, Dendri having a varied collection of tomes on the subject. Including his own dissertation on why he had felt there had not been a Gestalt pairing in so long.

Dendri’s theory had been that, historically, majji were very insular beings. With the exception of sex majic, they rarely exercised their majic in concert with other majji. By not working majic while in contact with another being, there was little way of discovering the Gestalt pairing. Also, genetically speaking, majji tended to marry within their own houses. Aspano to Aspano. Padoni to Padoni. While this concentrated the genetic power of their offspring, often creating powerful children in their own image, it allowed for little cross mingling of genes. This reduced the odds of something as all-encompassing as the powers of the Gestalt being born. The Gestalt allowed for power from all of the houses. Inbreeding in the houses prevented the ability to use majic outside of the house the new generations were born into, making the Gestalt impossible.

Yasra and Dendri’s existence flew in the face of those theories. Her parents were both Vendii majji, and her grandparents on both sides had been Vendii majji. From what she knew, Dendri had come from Aspano parents. She wasn’t certain what his previous bloodlines were, but she suspected they were similar to hers.

But she wasn’t Vendii. She was Necromay. So she and Dendri did not fit his reasoning…except that they had come into contact and worked majic together. It had been sex majic at first, but it had been unintentional. Dendri had not touched her trying to induce sex majic. He had only intended to relax her mind. It had been her inexperienced power and deep-seated desires that had thrust them into that sexual haze and given birth to the Gestalt.

But in all her research, she had found nothing satisfying on the topic of what would happen if one of a Gestalt pairing were to die. All accounts said it was a bad thing for the surviving member of the pair, but it was vague on how strongly the survivor was affected. Some accounts said the grief of the loss was so absolute that the survivor often died shortly after. But the accounts said very little about what happened should the survivor make it through that kind of grief. Was the grief because of a lifetime of working and living together, or did it happen even after as short an acquaintance as she and Dendri had had?

No one seemed to have thought it important enough to put it down on paper. Either that or, because it was so long ago, all accounts had been lost. A hundred years was a long time and methods of records keeping had improved and changed a great deal since then. A hundred years ago only the monk’s in the temples of God had written down records. The volumes had been written on heavy vellum, often with artistic renderings on the pages. But they had taken lifetimes to write and had often been only a single copy. Any number of things might have happened to those tomes over the years. They were now protected in the great library in their capitol city. Only a select few were ever allowed access to them.

Perhaps a man as powerful as Dendri was could gain access to those works. Perhaps they could learn more through them.

Or they could learn it the hard way, Yasra thought anxiously.

No! Enough! Yasra stopped her pacing and gave herself a mental shake. She had to get out of the house and occupy herself with some kind of activity. Maybe Bess was right. Maybe they should do something…go out somewhere.

Yasra froze as she looked out the window and saw a figure on horseback riding up the white gravel pathway. Her heart leapt into her throat, her breath seizing in her lungs.

“It’s him!” she cried before the horse and rider came into full view. She bolted for the entryway door, throwing it wide open and running outside, her steps crunching loudly on the crushed stone of the path.

But it took only a short bursting run before she was close enough to see the rider clearly. Her breath caught.

It wasn't Dendri.

It was Wil.

Seeing her suddenly crestfallen expression, Wil chuckled as he dismounted. He stepped forward and picked up her hand. He kissed her knuckles warmly, looking down on her with his soft coffee colored eyes full of understanding.

“Sorry to disappoint you, love,” he said gently.

“No. It’s all right,” Yasra said. She forced herself to smile at him. “It’s good to see you, Wil.”

“Even though I’m not the man you were hoping for?”

“Even so,” Yasra said with a lift to her chin. “You’ll do in a pinch.”

He laughed at that. “Ever so glad to hear that. It’s nice to be wanted.”

“You are wanted,” she insisted.

Wil handed his reins to a stable boy who had run out to meet them and turned to walk beside her.

“Good. Because I have come to entertain you,” he said.

“Entertain me?”

“Yes. Dendri asked me to come to you while he was away and see that you were well taken care of and that you weren’t left to simply fret and worry about him. So what shall it be? A carriage-ride through Capitol Park? Everyone can stare at you in envy and we can be mobbed by the upper crust of society. But don’t worry. I won’t let them anywhere nearer to you than calling distance. Close enough to shout a greeting, not close enough to touch.

“Or shall we ride the estate? You can ride can’t you?”

“I can but—“

“Good,” he pushed on. “Some exercise might do you good. Or we can go shopping on Haverton Street. They have all the best clothes there now don’t they? We can dress you in style. Find you a good dressmaker. Someone who can flatter these pink cheeks and this warm golden skin. I think you would look best in a nice ice blue. Something in silk or satin. Only the best of fabrics. Or perhaps a tailor,” he said, taking in her breeches and shirtsleeves. “I daresay this is a most fetching getup on you.”

Yasra blushed under his regard.

“I’m sure I don’t need a dressmaker or a tailor. Surely they have things already made—“

“Off the rack?” he cried. “Never. I won’t hear of it. Dendri would never forgive me if I didn’t get you the very best of everything.”

“I don’t have money for shopping,” Yasra said.

“Ah but Dendri has said we are to charge anything you need to his accounts. Come, let’s go spend his money, shall we?”

“But Bess…” she trailed off.

“Bess must come of course. We can stuff her into muslins and velveteens and cottons. Dendri said to care for you both and that is what I will do.”

“I can’t speed Dendri’s money. I wouldn’t feel right.”

“Nonsense,” Wil said breezily. “You’re his apprentice aren’t you? It’s his duty to provide you with clothing and such.”

“Is that what I am? His apprentice?”

She supposed it was better than his mistress. She didn’t like the idea of being a kept woman. At least as an apprentice she knew she would earn back the money he spent on her today and pay him back.

“But he’s an Aspano. I’m Necromay. My mentor should be a Necromay.”

“The usual rules don’t apply when it comes to a Gestalt pairing, love. Surely you can see that? You will have to apprentice under every house of majic.”

“That’s only if…”

If he made it back to her alive. She didn’t need to say it. It was written in her facial expression. Wil looked at her with compassion in his kind eyes.

“He’ll make it back to you,” he said softly, an arm going about her shoulders as he turned her back toward the house and encouraged her to walk with him. Her limbs felt numb and heavy, as if she were walking in a fog that left her devoid of all feeling.