The Bronze Mage (22 page)

"Tabitha? Wake up. You didn't eat anything and your soup is cold," Melanie scolded.

Raising her head from her arms, Tabitha realized she must have dozed off. She still felt woozy. The hillside looked oddly naked covered by just grapevines. It really seemed like there should have been trees.

"You didn't react like this when Mage Crandall and I were trying to break the spell. Are you sick? You don't have a fever."

Tabitha forced herself to focus on Melanie's question. "Isn't anyone here a physician? Either I'm sick or you've succeeded in doing something to the spell. I feel...off...awful." She noticed the cold soup and turned away from her sister as her stomach tried to find something to expel. Tabitha hoped the potions had already done their work, because they were gone now.

"Come on." Melanie took her arm and hauled her to an outbuilding near the school. She knocked on the door.

The physician turned out to be one of the instructors from the first day of experiments, a pale man in his forties. He was not pleased by the interruption, especially when he learned the cause. He'd been preparing his next round of experiments and was eager to try them out. If Tabitha was ill, he might have to wait. He sounded very relieved when, after a half hour of investigating Tabitha's ears, nose, throat and blood, he declared her in perfect health.

Melanie gave him a look of disbelief. "Anyone can see that she's not well. We've just told you that she's hardly eaten since the experiments started and hasn't kept down anything at all today."

The argument faded as Tabitha watched the doctor's walls begin to sprout roots and branches. These vanished as Melanie roughly shook her. Tabitha clutched her complaining stomach and grumbled "Cut it out."

Melanie looked in exasperation from Tabitha to the doctor.

He shrugged noncommittally and ushered them out. "The spell will be more visible in daylight. I suspect that her problem is magical rather than physical."

THIRTY-ONE

A Talk With James

That night Tabitha's dreams were full of trees. They were so realistic that she was surprised to find herself in Westphal the next morning. Food didn't tempt her and she refused to even try what Melanie offered. She did drink something. Juice? Tea? She couldn't remember. Maybe it was another potion.

The faculty and students had already gathered in the workroom when Tabitha perched unsteadily on her stool. Their chattering sounded like squirrels and the people kept trying to stretch into trees. A voice seemed to float by her. She recognized it and turned to see James sitting next to her. He was leaning against a tree trunk. She was lying on the ground. Evidently he'd woken her from a nap.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, then wondered where 'here' might be.

"I heard that you were taken to the College of Magic." A pause, then, "Why are you asleep in the middle of the morning? And why are you still here? You used to wake up when we talked."

"Am I asleep again? Melanie will be mad. I can't seem to stay awake and they have a schedule to keep."

"Are you well?" he sounded concerned. "What are they doing to you?"

"I can't remember. I was trying to keep track, but...anyway, I think it's the usual: potions and incenses and poultices and such. The College of Magic has instituted a special summer session to see if their combined powers are greater than yours. I'd give them better odds if I could keep anything down. You could spare my stomach by removing the spell yourself."

The pull of the spell, even in the dream, was strong enough to unbalance her. Just another reminder that it was getting stronger. She idly wondered if he'd mind her sitting on his lap. She might find out if he stayed too long.
 

"Can you stop pulling on me?"

He gave her a questioning look, then frowned. The tug was gone.

Tabitha sighed and sat up. "I need to wake up. Any ideas?"

"What if they can't break the spell?" he asked.

"If you cared about that you'd remove it yourself."

"Have you thought that there may be a reason I haven't removed it?"

"I never doubted it," she shrugged, "but since you refuse to share, I've given up wondering what your reasons for anything might be." She watched him looking at her. His gaze was focused, which seemed unusual after having everyone stare at the spell. "Can you see the spell from here?"

"It's your dream, Tabitha," he said, "if you haven't seen it, how can you show it to me?"

There was something else she'd been wanting to say, or to ask him, but she couldn't think what.

"Tell them to stop," James said.

"It's only been a few days. They have the whole season planned."

"They'll do more harm than good. They could kill you." He stood, motioned for her to stand, too. When she did, he stepped closer. She tensed as he grabbed her shoulders, not sure what the grim look on his face portended.
 

"Wake up," James commanded, shoving her backwards.

Tabitha tripped and fell through the forest floor. She opened her eyes to a ring of faces crowded over her. She lay on the floor of the lab. The transition left Tabitha shivering. Or maybe that was a reaction to James's warning. She sought out Melanie's face.

"What's going on with the spell? Why can't I stay awake? Why is it so much worse this time?"

"I don't know," Melanie replied, glancing at her teachers.

"No one here could possibly know, girl," Mage Edgar broke his silence from across the room.
 

Tabitha struggled to a sitting position with help, so she could face him better. At least he hadn't called her 'stupid'. "Because affinity is so rare?" she asked.

"Exactly. That's why you're such an important case study. That the original spell is so strong and so tightly woven makes you even more unique. Whatever we learn from you will be enormously helpful to our understanding of both affinity and how spells interact with their targets. If we could get James to cooperate, we could see how the magic moves between the two of you much more clearly than can be seen by the usual weak temporary spells people place on each other. We could advance the science of spellweaving exponentially."

Tabitha's stomach clenched at the prospect of James showing off his control of her for the edification of other mages.
 

Melanie reacted with more heat. "Princess Tabitha is not a laboratory specimen, nor an academic case study. She is the child of the King of Valstadt and will be treated with respect and dignity."

'Dignity' seemed a stretch, since Tabitha was still sitting on the floor, but she appreciated her sister's loyalty. Mage Edgar did not.

"You have two more years of training before you are a full mage, girl. Whatever your parentage, your future in magic is tied to this school. Whatever her future," he pointed at Tabitha, "it is also tied here. Affinity is not like a headcold. You can't just ignore it and hope it goes away. It's strong magic and getting rid of it is guaranteed to be unpleasant. But we don't have a choice, because her time is running out."

Melanie glared at the mage, but didn't argue. None of the other instructors disagreed. Tabitha quickly re-evaluated her situation. "Mage James said that you were more likely to do harm than good trying to remove his spell. He said it might kill me."

"Another belated revelation from your tete-a-tete last fall?" Mage Edgar scoffed. Then his eyes narrowed. "Or have you seen him more recently? Rayner mentioned he might be able to enter your dreams."

Tabitha clenched her jaw. Angry and suddenly afraid of the older mage.

He stalked over and inspected the spell. "He might have been at that," he muttered. "You actually look a little better. Good. We'll take a break for lunch. You," he pointed to Melanie, "take her back to the dining hall and find her something she can eat. You," he pointed back at Tabitha, "don't fool yourself into thinking that our attempts to break the spell are what's killing you. Whatever he started two years ago, he nearly finished last fall. I don't know what gibberish he has you believing, but he's got a heart as black as a smith's oven. Don't you forget it."

Tabitha followed Melanie back to the dining hall in silence and parked herself at the picnic table there. She really was feeling better, steadier, not nauseated. Her stomach growled. Melanie brought her a loaf of bread, butter, milk, juice and tea. Tabitha could see that her sister was anxious to rejoin the others who were hotly discussing the morning's events.

"I'd feel better if you were over there. For you, I'm not just a school project."

Melanie nodded in relief and left.

Tabitha slowly ate a fraction of the food Melanie had brought. She was definitely feeling better. It would be quite a joke if she just had a flu and had been hallucinating.

When she finished and saw that the larger group had broken into smaller ones that showed no sign of needing her, Tabitha went for a walk. She wouldn't go far and would be easy enough to spot on the hillside. Now if she'd had her mare... Well, it probably wasn't a good idea to go riding when she kept blacking out.

Tabitha managed to stay conscious and keep her food down the whole afternoon. It felt like an accomplishment. At dinner, she ate in the dining hall. This proved to be a bit embarrassing, since everyone kept staring at her in that unfocused way mages had. Still, the smells were bearable and she ate a little.

Not wanting to push her luck, she retired shortly after the meal.

James was waiting in her dream. She followed the pull of the spell until she was less than a yard away.

"Are you real?" she asked.

"Are they sending you home?" he countered.

"They're discussing what to do next, I think. They say you're the one killing me."

"Don't just blindly trust them. Be part of the discussion."

"I don't even know what they're saying."

"Melanie will explain it. She's your sister. Or Mage Crandall. Show some interest and he'll talk your ear off."

"He's not here. I'm in Westphal, remember?"

James seemed concerned by this revelation. "You're his king's daughter. He should have come. Find out why he's not there."

"How about you? If you know what's going on why don't you come?"

"You know why."

Tabitha concentrated. She was pretty sure she didn't. The feeling she'd had earlier that there was something else she wanted to say was stronger, though. In surprise, she blurted, "I'm mad at you. What did you do?"

"If I'd known about the affinity..."

"That's not it. It has nothing to do with the spell. You said something..." But trying to remember drew her out of the dream. She lay staring at the ceiling of her sister's room, fully aware now that she'd wanted him to explain his actions at Cameron's wedding. Why did he ignore her, then call her, then reject her? Then show up here like she was important to him. What did he actually think of her? And why did it fluctuate so much?

THIRTY-TWO

Mage Crandall's Solution

At breakfast she asked Melanie if she knew anything about Mage Crandall's absence.

"No, I was surprised he didn't come. He'd written me just a few weeks ago and made it sound like he and Father had worked out a solution. He was going to explain it to both of us when we arrived home."

"Melanie, Father isn't even a mage. What kind of a solution could they work out?"

"I don't know."

Tabitha was wondering what non-magical "fix" would have greeted her return. If the "cure" was to avoid James, then the obvious fix was to forbid her to enter Xentia. Though, since she had run into James in Westphal, maybe they would simply forbid her to ever leave Valstadt. As assistant to the field marshal, she wasn't likely to be traveling out of country much anyway. She wished she could have seen the Xentian mountains first, but at least she had seen the ocean.

That solution would have seemed functional then, because the spell had only bothered her when James was around. Now, such cures seemed moot. Although she was definitely feeling better than she had, eating was still a chore and she was constantly fatigued. Something had definitely changed for the worse.

Tabitha stayed with Melanie throughout the day. Listened to the faculty's different theories, occasionally asked questions. Although they differed on what might break the spell, they agreed on two things: potions were unreliable because of Tabitha's stomach and they needed to pick one solution that would work. The affinity reacted to attempts to break the spell. They weren't sure how many more tries they would get before something really bad happened to Tabitha. No one knew what the "really bad" thing would be, nor what might undo it if it did happen, so they were hoping to avoid it altogether. Tabitha wholeheartedly endorsed that part of the plan.

That night James again appeared in her dream, but as soon as she recognized him, she woke up. She decided that was at least a sign she was feeling better, rolled over and fell back to sleep.

At breakfast, Tabitha spoke with Melanie. "I need to speak with Mage Crandall or Father. I'd like to know what they were thinking before this all started."

"You can write them and I'll deliver it. That's part of what we learn, how to transfer things magically. Letters are easy, especially sending them home. That's how Mage Crandall and I communicate while I'm here."

That reminded Tabitha of something.

"Was that how Ja...Mage James delivered my letter? Then why did he wait until he went into town?"

"He didn't send it from where you were because transfer magic leaves a kind of trail, at least for a few hours. He was clever. He transferred it to the postal center in a village a few miles east of Siegen. By the time someone received it who recognized its importance, the trail was lost. If he sent it from somewhere far from the cabin, it was doubly secure."

Tabitha wrote her father when she returned to the room. She explained in detail what had occurred so far and what the options appeared to be going forward. It took about an hour to write, but by then Melanie was off discussing the spell with the other mages, so it didn't get delivered until just before dinner. The sisters didn't expect an answer until the next day at least.