Soul Blaze (27 page)

As I’d hoped, the servant to answer the summons was
Larni.
“Could you please bring me two of your staff, and
Seffina?” I requested.
She nodded her head, confusion written all over her
face.
“May I ask why? If there’s any task you need done,
surely I could take care of it for you.”
I smiled warmly at her, feeling my heart thaw slightly.

“I fear you’ve already completed this specific task for
me, love,” I told her. “You’ll understand soon. Can you
also bring me Dena?”

I knew that my friend was still in the palace. She’d
arrived late at the party last night due to a shift at the
hospital, and instead of going to her quarters in the city,
she’d remained in one of the many guest rooms.

Larni trotted from the large hall, and in her absence, I
stared out across the stone floor, not seeing the large door
through which the public would spill to bring their
troubles to their monarchs, nor the enormous tapestries on
the pillars. While I waited, my hands twisted my hair up
into a messy bun, not really fit for a queen, but I was past
caring. I knew what I was about to do would drive a rift
between my soul mate and I.

I knew I still had to do it anyway.

Larni came back sooner than expected, towing with her
two servants, a man and a woman, and Seff, who peered
up at me curiously.

I stood and headed down to meet them. They bowed
and curtsied respectively.
“Your Majesty, this is Janson and Freida. And Seffina, as
you requested.”
“Thank you, Larni. Dena?”
“She’s on her way. May I stay?”
“Of course.”

I turned to Janson and took his hands in mine. He
wasn’t much older than me, with curly blond ringlets and
dark golden eyes. He would have a stunning shade of
magic.

“Janson, are you a non-magi?”
“Of course, Your Majesty.” He responded, dipping his
head modestly.
“And if you have the chance to be a mage, would you
take it?”
He looked up, meeting my gaze, obviously confused.
“I… I’ve never thought about it before, Your Majesty. I
guess I would… Yes. But-”
“And you, Freida?” I asked the middle aged woman
standing next to us.

Her eyes were almost silver, similar to the hue of the
house of Lyon. Right now, she’d narrowed them at me
suspiciously like I was making fun of her.

“Non-magi from birth, yer Majesty. And if yer askin’
me the same question, yes I would quite like t’ be a mage,
would certainly help with scrubbin’ pots and the like.”
“Seff?”

The little girl was bouncing on the balls of her feet
excitedly.
“Yes! Yes I would!”

I heard a door open and close as Dena entered the hall.
She looked from me to the servants and back again as she
reached us.

“What’s going on?” she asked.
I turned her away from the group and walked a few
paces.
“I need you here if something goes wrong,” I said, my
voice low.
“Goes wrong? What are you talking about? Sky, what
are you doing?”

I ignored her questions and headed back to Janson who
was looking at me apprehensively. I took his hands in
mine again, inhaled and closed my eyes. When I opened
them again, I could see his spark of magic nestling next to
his heart. I heard those present exclaim, but I continued
on, too caught up in the moment. I called a thin thread of
my magic up and fed it slowly into his skin. I felt him jolt,
but he didn’t pull his hands away.

My magic wound itself around his. The spark suddenly
bloomed, awakening, and then fire was racing down his
veins, soaking into his blood. He gasped as I blinked my
vision back to normal and I could see small golden sparks
dripping from his fingertips.

“What did you just do?” Dena demanded, sounding
frightened. Janson was looking at his hands like he’d never
seen them before.

“I awakened his magic. You’re a mage now, Janson.”
He met my gaze, trembling.
“How?” he managed to whisper.

I turned to Freida, who held her hands out, her gaze
stony. I twisted my vision to locate her magic, and again
heard murmuring from the others. I prodded her magic
into being as well, and when she broke away, a small grey
fire was sitting in her palm.

“Everyone has magic,” I said finally. “The Testers were
lying to us.”

Larni covered her mouth with her hand, and Dena
didn’t move. I knew what was running through her head,
all of the implications and complications that I’d spent
most of the night churning through. Freida and Janson
were looking at the fires in their hands, disbelieving. Seff
grabbed a hold of my hands eagerly.

“Me next!”

I grinned and touched my magic against hers, the little
spark I’d observed the night before. Immediately, flames
burst into being on her arms. My smile vanished as Dena
gasped again.

Her magic was green.

I knew some other mages that had green-shaded
magic’s, but they were few and far between, and the green
was usually mixed with another colour like Theresa’s pale
yellow green.

Seff’s green was exactly the same hue as mine, a mossy
green which made one think of forests. There was no
mistaking it.

“Mine’s the same as yours,” she announced, completely
missing my consternation.

What could this mean? Was she the next Queen? No, it
was a line of reincarnation, and unless I was grossly
mistaken, I was still alive. How was this possible?

I shook myself out of my thoughts. I had to continue
this. I couldn’t stop now.

“Larni, Janson and Freida, if you would be so kind as to
round up the servants in the palace who would like their
magic reinstated, please arrange for them to come to the
throne room immediately. I will help those who arrive.”

Larni stayed behind as Janson and Freida nodded
sharply and headed from the room.

“Do you know what this means?” Larni asked, her voice
low. I’d seldom seen my friend so serious. “This means
everyone has soul mates. Not just you lot from the
Academy. Everyone.”

Of all of the thoughts that had raced through my head
since Icarus’ visit, the soul mate issue had been one that I
was yet to be able to answer. I knew that we’d had to have
a special ceremony to find ours, is that what everyone else
would need? How would we go about organising
something that big?

“I know,” I replied. Dena looked incapable of speech.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“How long have you known about this?” Dena finally
managed to ask.

I quickly explained to them the events of last night. I
held nothing back, not even Phoenix’s decision. They
listened in silence.

As I finished the story, servants came filing into the
hall, and I turned to greet them as my two closest friends
mulled over what I’d just told them. Shoving Phoenix to
the back of my mind, for he was weighing heavily, I
instead drank in the excitement of the non-magi as they
eagerly lined up to have their magic ignited.

After the first dozen, I began to feel the drag on my
magic, but I pressed on. When one non-magi came
forward wearing glasses, I got to see what had caused such
a stir when I twisted my vision.

My irises glowed white when I looked into someone’s
skin to pinpoint their magic. It caught me by surprise the
first time I saw it, but fifty new mages in, I forgot about it
again.

Finally, near the end of the day, the palace staff had
been converted to mages. As my vision returned to
normal, I staggered, and Dena was there to catch me. She
guided me to the throne as the new mages filed from the
hall, bowing and curtseying as they did so.

“Drink,” Dena said, holding a cup to my lips. I drank
the water greedily, uncaring that it trickled down my
cheeks and neck. I’d just wiped my mouth with the back
of my hand as Phoenix opened the main door to the
throne room.

Larni and Dena exchanged a look and then left
hurriedly. Phoenix was looking dark, and I stood as he
approached.

“What have you done?” he said quietly.
“What I felt was right. You were so sure of yourself,
you wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Don’t try to make excuses for yourself.”
I let anger flash through my eyes.
“I’m not. I mean what I say.”
“You will stop what you are doing.”
I clenched my fists.
“I won’t. I refuse to.”

We stared at each other across the room for what felt
like an age. When it became clear that neither of us were
going to break, he spoke again.

“Then you leave me no choice.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, my heart heavy.

“If you won’t stop what you’re doing willingly, I am
forced to stop you myself.” His eyes were pleading with
me but his mouth was hard. “I’m returning to Norrimoor.”

I felt my heart shatter, but stood unmoving on the
throne dais.
“I wish you a safe journey.” I heard myself say.

He nodded formally and then turned to leave. I could
tell that both of us were waiting for the other to cave and
call out, but when he reached the doors and continued,
then disappeared through them, it became clear that
neither of us were going to. When the doors closed with a
final thud, I felt the tears growing hot in my eyes. I didn’t
stop them from cascading down my cheeks as I sank to the
floor, clutching my head.

For a moment I’d allowed myself to think that
everything was perfect. For one glorious moment I’d seen
Phoenix and I ruling Lotheria in peace. I’d seen us
married, a loving husband and wife and a fair King and
Queen.

Now he returned to the North in opposition to me.

The floor was hard and cold but I didn’t feel it. When
my friends came in, hours later, I was still sitting on the
stone dais with tears running down my face. Only them
would I let see my distress. They surrounded me, and as
Dena held me in her arms, leant against me or rested a
hand on my arm to let me know they were there.

After a while, I refused to show anymore tears, and
wiped my eyes on my sleeve, uncaring for the material.
“He’s returned to Norrimoor,” I whispered croakily
sometime later. “I think Lotheria is going to war again.”
~Chapter Twenty-Five~

I told my parents and the council of the turn of events,
and Phoenix’s abandonment. My mother told me later that
I’d been twisting my engagement ring around my finger
the entire time.

My ladies in waiting had been informed before I got the
chance to tell them myself. Arianta and Nillia were on the
verge of tears when I saw them, but Sojaya merely patted
the hilt of her broadsword.

“If you need me to cut off his head, I will.” She told me
earnestly.

Nemoidia had disappeared as soon as she heard that
Phoenix had returned to her homeland. When I thought
about her ‘comforting’ him, I had to adjourn to the
training arena, where I practiced controlling my lightning,
as well as reducing several training mannequins to ashes.

A week later, reports began flooding in from the North.
Citizens en masse were fleeing to the South, as Phoenix
instated himself as King of the North. When they realised
what was happening, and after hearing the tales of those
out of Castor – the new mages – they packed their bags
and headed South for the safety of my leadership and my
army.

But Phoenix had an army as well. It seemed as though
more mages than Iain and Netalia had previously thought
had remained in the Shayde Mountains, training under
the tutorship of rogue mages. My stomach churned as I
remembered Aloysius, Phoenix’s step-father and his attack
on the Academy to get Phoenix back. He must’ve known
then that his step-son was going to be king. I didn’t doubt
that I’d be seeing a lot of the older man in my future, as he
would be a sure campaigner in the war; it was everything
he’d dreamed of, after all.

Every day, citizens poured into the throne room to
receive their magic. At the end of each day, I headed into
the small garden where Phoenix had proposed. On the
tenth day of doing so, I was laying on my back in the long
grass, looking up at the sky and wondering if the clouds
above would gift us with yet another storm, when I felt a
weight on my foot. I sat up quickly and spied a small mud
person sitting atop my boot.

“Hello,” I said, feeling only mild surprise at seeing them
here. Not much could stir a reaction from me lately. “Is
the rest of your clan around?”

They were. They emerged from the long grass and
shrubs to come and sit on me as I sat up. The little chief
greeted me with a salute of his leaf hat, which had
changed to a small red leaf similar to those of the area. I
shook his little arm/hand gently, one leader to another.

“I suppose you’ve heard about what has happened.” I
told them. A chorus of shaken heads informed me that
they hadn’t.

I told them the shortened version of the events that had
transpired. While I was talking, I couldn’t stop the tears
that filled my eyes as I recalled Phoenix leaving the throne
room. Another mud person, a female from her attire,
patted my hand solemnly, her little eyes sad. The chief
expressed his feelings by pounding one small fist into the
other, making it rather clear what he wanted to do to my
ex-fiancé. The female who had patted my hand punched
the chief gently in the shoulder, and I gathered from their
interaction that she was his wife. They confirmed this
when I asked it of them.

“Here,” I told her, pulling my engagement ring off of
my finger and holding it out to her. “I should’ve gotten rid
of this ages ago.”

She took it gingerly in both hands, and then sat the
diamond ring on her head, where it made a circlet similar
to mine. The mud people clapped their hands together,
making a sound like wet dirt hitting the ground.

I continued my story, rubbing the spot where my ring
had been. When I told them about the war, the chief
immediately lifted his spear in support. The other mud
people did the same.

“Are you offering your allegiance?” I asked, trying not
to sound too amused. The chef nodded fiercely. “I thank
you. Will you stay here in this garden?”

More nods. Already they were wandering towards the
stream to start setting up camp.