The Mindmage's Wrath: A Book of Underrealm (The Academy Journals 2) (30 page)

Ebon gripped her shoulders and turned her to face him. “You are a boastful person by nature, Theren, and only modest when you know you have no reason to be. It does not suit you. You may have saved my life, and we both know it. Accept my thanks.”

Her jaw tightened as she fought a smile. “Still your flapping lips, Ebon. You are so dramatic.”

He sighed and shook his head, then pulled her into an embrace. She did not return it, but neither did she push him away.

When Xain’s decree finally arrived, it was delivered by none other than Nella, who greeted Ebon with a stiff nod.

“I heard what was happening and insisted on bringing this myself,” she said.

“We came as quick as we realized the truth.” Ebon looked away, for he felt too ashamed to meet her eyes. “It was our fault this happened to her in the first place.”

Nella looked awkwardly away. “This is the second time you have proven yourself to be more than a complete bastard.” He gave her a quick look, but saw her wearing a small smile, which he easily returned.

After reading the letter, the Mystics sent two constables into the prison to fetch Lilith from her cell. They all had to wait far longer than made sense to Ebon—surely the prison could not be so vast that it took this long to fetch her.

But when Lilith finally arrived, he thought he understood better. She could barely walk, and was mostly carried by the constables who held her arms. She looked far worse than the last time he had seen her—the swelling in her face had receded, but black bruises remained, splotching her already-dark features like grisly birthmarks. The cuts on her hands and limbs had multiplied, and her lips were bone-dry and cracked. The fireplace lighting the station’s front room cast her face in hideous shadows and made her look like a demon of the darkness below.

Jia and Lilith’s parents moved to help. But Theren was faster. She seized Lilith with a piteous cry, wrapping her arms around the girl in a tight embrace. Lilith’s arms fumbled and grasped, as though she could not see Theren and was trying to feel for her presence. But once her arms were draped over Theren’s shoulders, she held her tight as she could, and tears leaked from her wild, wandering eyes.

“Forgive me,” Theren murmured into her shoulder. “Forgive me, please, for I will never forgive myself.” Lilith’s eyes still stared into an unknowing distance, but her fists tightened on Theren’s cloak.

Then Lilith’s parents were there, and they helped the girls hobble awkwardly towards the door. Jia stood back so as not to intrude. As they passed Nella, Lilith reached out a tentative hand, and her friend gripped it tight. But Lilith would not release her hold on Theren.

Before they stepped out into the cold, Lilith’s parents helped her into a cloak, lined with fur to protect against the chill. It seemed Lilith hardly noticed them as they put it on. But just before they led her outside, she blinked and looked around. Her eyes rested first on Theren, and then on Nella.

“Where ... where is Oren?” she croaked.

Everyone was deathly silent. Tears streamed from Jia’s eyes, though her face did not twitch.

Ebon stepped forwards, unable to meet Lilith’s gaze. “Oren fought for you,” he murmured. “He never believed—not for one second—that you were guilty. He gave his life trying to make the rest of us see it. I wish I had listened sooner.”

Lilith’s eyes filled with tears. Her hands twitched, as though she were grasping for something that was not there. Her parents bowed their heads, and then went to help her outside. But she seized at Theren all the more tightly. “No,” she whimpered. “No, no, no. Do not make her leave me. Do not make her leave me alone.”

Theren met their stares. One after the other, they nodded. And so Theren was the one to help Lilith out to the street, where a carriage waited for them. She climbed in with Lilith, soon followed by her parents. As the driver readied the horses, Theren thrust her head out the carriage window.

“I will return soon.” She held out a hand, and Ebon gripped it tightly. “Keep yourself whole.”

“I will,” said Ebon. “See to her.”

Theren nodded. The driver switched the horses, and the carriage set off down the street, leaving Jia, Nella, and Ebon to watch it go. Once it was out of sight, Jia turned to them.

“Now we should return, for there are many in the Academy who still need our help.”

Nella nodded and set off down the street. But Ebon stayed where he was, staring at his feet. Jia cocked her head at him, waiting until he met her eyes.

“If it is all right, Instructor, I would rather not return just yet. I feel the need to stay in the open air a bit longer. To clear my head.”

She studied him long enough to make him wonder if she knew the truth of his mind. “Very well.” She nodded. “Only do not stay out past your curfew. And you should know, tomorrow’s classes will be cancelled.”

“Thank you, Instructor.”
 

She gave a final nod, and then went off to follow Nella back to the Academy.

Ebon turned his steps west, seeking the blue door.

Though she greeted him with startled delight, Adara could see at once that something was wrong. She drew him to her room as quickly as she could. He tried to smile, but it was a broken thing. She sat him at the edge of her bed and held his hand.

“What is it? What is wrong?”

“There has been another murder,” Ebon managed to whisper.

Her brow furrowed. “I thought Lilith had been caught.”

“Lilith was not the murderer.”

“Oh.” It was a tiny sound, full of understanding. “Do you wish to speak of it?”

“Yes.” But then he said nothing.

She waited a moment, before tracing a finger along his neck. “Do you wish to not speak at all?”

That made him smirk. “Not just now.”

“For the second time, you have refused me. You might as well save your coin, for I fear you waste it by visiting me here.”

He lifted her fingers to his lips, planting a tiny kiss on each in turn. “I never waste my time when I spend it with you,” he murmured. She smiled, and then leaned over to kiss his cheek.

“Come, then. Lovers know many arts.” She had him slide down to the floor, resting on the soft rug, and then sat on the bed behind him. With her fingers she kneaded at the muscles of his shoulders and neck, working out the knots. He moaned at the skill of her hands, rolling his head back and forth in pleasure.

For some time they sat like that, Ebon enjoying her ministrations. With each kink smoothed, he felt his worries lessen in strength. Yet they would not vanish entirely.

The Academy must be a madhouse now,
he thought. When he realized the truth, freeing Lilith had seemed the only important thing in all the nine lands. But now the Academy had a murderer on the loose yet again. He could not stop seeing Oren’s body sprawled on the dining hall floor beneath a blood-spattered cloth.

“Lilith’s cousin. A boy named Oren. He nearly scuffled with us in the tavern. Do you remember?”

“I do.”

“It was he who was killed. He was hoisted in the air before the entire Academy, and nearly throttled to death. Then the killer struck him with a flurry of knives.”

Her hands stilled for a moment, and he heard her gasp. “That is awful. But that means you must have caught the murderer, have you not? Everyone would have seen the culprit.”

Ebon shook his head. “They remained hidden. How, we do not know. And now Lilith weighs like an anvil on my conscience.”

Adara lifted a hand from his shoulder to stroke his hair. “You did what you thought was right, Ebon. You were not the only one who thought you saw her kill a child.”

He shook his head. “She was put to the question. I saw what the Mystics have done to her. It may have driven her mad. Yet this whole time, she was never to blame.”

“Nor were you. Your friends acted the same as you. Do you blame them?”

Ebon barked a sharp, bitter laugh. “I could not if I wanted to.”

She scooted over and leaned down to look at him. “What do you mean?”

“I told them, Adara. Of Cyrus, and the truth of what happened when the Seat was attacked. Kalem has not spoken to me since.”

Fear shone in her eyes. “Ebon, that may not have been—”

He shook his head. “He will not tell anyone. And Theren does not think I did anything wrong.”

Adara snorted. “That sounds like Theren. But Kalem is royalty.”

“He will not tell anyone. You may trust me.”

She kissed his cheek, and then leaned back to keep rubbing his shoulders. “Then I will. In all things.”

“The worst of it is that I cannot deny Kalem is right. He says I should have trusted him and told him what happened from the first. I think he is right, I
should
have. He would have believed in me—indeed, he
has
believed in me, but I have not returned the courtesy. And now I know not if he will ever place his faith in me again.”

“You might be right. And I wish I had not advised you otherwise. It seems I was wrong about Kalem.”

He reached back and took her hand. “It was not your fault. I did the deed, and so the blame is mine.”

She squeezed his fingers. “We did it together. We share all consequence. But from what I have seen of Kalem, I think his mind will change. Your friendship will be stronger for it. No longer will you have to keep everything to yourself—and to me, of course.”

He pushed himself up from the floor, taking his place on the bed beside her. His heartbeat thundered in his ears, and spots danced at the edge of his vision as he clutched her hands. “There is one thing I have kept to myself all my life,” he whispered, afraid to meet her eyes, “but which I gave you the moment I saw you. My heart.”

For a moment she did not answer, and her hands went still. Inside, he winced, certain he had made a mistake. They had spoken easily of love for some time, but it had been a game to her, as it should have been to him. His cheeks burned, and now the thunder of his heart was a roar, savage and angry as an ocean storm.

Their eyes met, and hers were shining. She lifted a hand to his cheek. “I have discovered myself feeling the same way,” she whispered. “And it is as surprising to me as anything ever has been in this life. Sometimes love springs forth unbidden, you said, and it has for me.”

His hand covered hers on his cheek. “Adara ...”

Her mouth worked, the muscles in her jaw spasming. Then her words spilled in a rush, as though she wished to rid them from her mind. “Ebon, you may come to see me here behind the blue door—always, every day, if I had my way. Or we could see each other ... elsewhere.”

Ebon frowned. “In taverns and the like? I ... I should love to do that again, if that is your wish.”

Quickly she shook her head. “Not in taverns, Ebon. In my home. I do not mean ... I do not mean as your lover, and you my client. I mean together. A binding of the heart, and not of coin.”

The world froze about him. A voice in the back of his mind screamed
lover’s words, lover’s words,
and it sounded terribly like his father’s. But from the depths of his heart poured unadulterated joy, and it cast aside the shadows of Oren’s death and Lilith’s torment like the sun burning through the clouds.

He fought for words. But he had been silent for too long, and Adara’s cheeks flooded with color. She rose from the bed and walked to the side table where a pitcher of wine waited, her hands shaking. “Forgive me,” she said, her words quivering and threatening to break. “It was a foolish jest—something I thought you wanted to hear. I know this is all a game, of course. I do. I—”

Ebon went to her and, turning her by the shoulders, covered her mouth with his. They melted into each other, her fingers buried in his hair, and his arm pressing her tight against him. A long while that kiss lasted, an eternity, and when it ended it left them breathless.

“It was not a game, Adara. It has never been, and it is not now. If I hid my words behind smiles and laughter, it was not because I thought them jests. I have been told of lover’s words, and felt sure you were only saying what I wished to hear. I did not mind—I never could, for you are a lover, and that is what I came for. But always I wished it could be real, though I felt sure it never would be.”

She seized his robes, her grip fierce, a fire burning in her eyes. “It was. It is.”

Then she pushed him back upon the bed, and no more words were spoken.

It was a long while later before Ebon was ready to leave. He had certainly missed his curfew, but he would take any penalty gladly. As he cinched his belt over his robes, Adara gave him a final kiss. Ebon smiled as he looked over the room.

“It is a strange thought that I will not see this room again—or at least, not so often.”

“Mayhap I will bring you back here on occasion, for the memories if nothing else.”

“I will send word when I can see you next.”

“And I will tell you where to find me.” She smiled, a bit nervous, and clearly embarrassed. “It is strange, but I am anxious about showing you my home. It is senseless, considering how well we know each other in ... other ways.”

He chuckled and kissed the top of her brow. “I think I understand.”

But then her eyes went wide, and she placed a hand on his chest. “I nearly forgot, for you were so solemn when you first arrived. Though I no longer know if it will be important. It concerned Lilith. Or rather, her family.”