Traitor Savant (Second Seal of the Duelists) (19 page)

“If only you could
boot his arse and make room for both of us in your hex,” Taban said in a bitter tone. He turned to Kendesi for affirmation, but she just stared at her melted spoon.

Her words were so quiet Bayan barely heard her. “We’re cursed. We’re all cursed.”

Tala slipped down the darkened corridor, listening hard, eyes alert for the faint glow that would herald the approach of another singer. She sidled down a side hallway and into an unused classroom, feeling her heart pound against her ribs.

She wasn’t technically breaking any rules by being there.
Evenings were her free time, which she usually spent with Doc Theo, though her chanter tutoring had officially ended the day she sang perfectly in class. Still, she couldn’t help feeling a wicked rush of glee for her clandestine actions.

Her crystals bumped soundlessly against each other
in their woolen wraps. They’d ridden down to the class corridors in her belt. She pressed her back against the rounded wall near the classroom door and pulled them free.

Two crystals. One to represent
Doc Theo, the other, herself. Their situations were pretty similar. Singers disliked him for being flawed. Her classmates had shifted from giggling at her hiccups to glowering at her “sudden” success. Graela had even accused her of faking her hiccups so that her miraculous comeback would be more dramatic. Tala had rarely wanted so much to slap people so hard they fell over.

She peeked out the doorway. No sign of
Doc Theo yet. She’d kept an eye on him the way Bayan asked, but she hadn’t seen him do anything dangerous, and he hadn’t been rambling to himself as Bayan said he used to. She’d been pretty worried when she heard about Doc Theo’s previous symptoms, but in the end, talking to Bayan had been a good decision. It had given her hope that Doc Theo was, in fact, improving.

Recently,
Doc Theo had suggested they explore the Temple in the late evenings. If Tala was to become a powerful Trio Singer, she should know her own campus, he’d explained. Tala had eagerly agreed. Knowing that she could portal anywhere in the empire—and even outside its borders—gave her a heady feeling of power.

It felt good. It all felt good. Such a rush of power and confidence.

Doc Theo slipped through the dark doorway. “Tala?”

“Here.” She
stepped away from the wall. “What are we doing tonight?”

“I have a challenge for you, Mistress of the Crystals
.” He swept a dark cloak before him in a courtly fashion.

Tala cooed with excitement.
“What is it?”

“I have heard that there are such things as
wardsongs. You know what they are?”

Tala had just learned about wards
ongs days ago by opening a tiny portal into a corner of a duet level classroom and listening to the entire lesson when she was supposed to be writing an essay on Tuathi scale usage. “Yes. Singers can lock an area away from everyone, even from portals, by using the wardsong and keying it to a specific note or melody. If no one knows the keynote, no one else can enter. The wardsong is advanced solo songwork, but I already know it.”

“Don’t worry
. I don’t want you to use the wardsong. I want to see if you can use that perfect pitch of yours to pick the lock on one.”

Tala felt her eyebrows jump.
“What? But… Doc Theo… ”

“No, no, I’m not
gonna make you steal anything. It’s just a test. Something to boost your confidence. No harm done. In fact, here’s another idea: we’ll choose an existing wardsong to test your songwork. If you can find the keynote and open a portal into the warded area, you pass. I have something special for you if you can do that.”

Tala
hesitated, chewing the side of her lip.
Just open a portal? That’s all?
It seemed a pretty non-invasive test. Besides, she was good with portals, thanks to all the trio exercises she’d been practicing—everything from buttocks clenching for breath extension during portal songs to the “belly waves” the trio girls complained about so much. At last, Tala knew why the more experienced students—and even the teachers—wore tunics that draped rather than tight-fitting shirts. Though their songs were mesmerizing works of magic, when they sang trio spells, their bodies rippled like stomped puddles, and so did Tala’s. Being fit and strong enough to sing complex songwork without collapsing added to Tala’s confidence. She nodded. “I’ll try it.”

“Good.” His teeth flashed in the dimness. “Now, I happen to know that a certain someone is working in her office suite at the top of a certain tower late tonight. When she leaves, she’ll sing her ward note.”

“You mean the First Singer?” Tala was aghast. “I can’t go up there and spy on her! I’ll get caught. All the Octet members live in that tower.”

Doc Theo
only nodded. “What do you think you could do to get around that?”

Tala frowned, a sarcastic reply
hovering on the tip of her tongue. She squinted in thought and reached for one of her black crystals. “I think I have an idea. Do we have time to portal to the Chantery?”

~~~

First Singer Liselot de Vosen was still in her office when Tala opened a tiny portal around the corner from her door using one of her black crystals and another liberated from the Chantery’s stock. Tala pushed her unused black crystal through the portal and propped it up against the wall at an angle, leaving its long, slender body exposed to the open air. She closed the portal and waited.

Three checks later, her portal opened onto a vibrating crystal. She widened
the bright oval and stuck her head through, listening intently with her eyes shut. Once she was sure that the First Singer’s hallways were empty, she softly sang an amplifying song to the black crystal. It vibrated with a clear soprano note. Tala winced at the note’s amplitude and clapped a hand over it, silencing its high-pitched wailing. She yanked it back through the portal and pressed her hands against the portal crystals. The glowing ring winked out.

Doc Theo hunched down beside her in the unused classroom. “Did you get it?”

Tala studied the black crystal. “Yes, but the First Singer was clever. She makes the keynote so high that most people can’t sing it.”

Doc Theo
’s face registered instant worry. “Can you sing it?”

Can I? I think so. But not without some practice.
“
I’ll need to warm up my voice first. I should do that back in my room. Can you wait here?” Doc Theo nodded, and Tala portaled to her room, balancing the crystals on two fingers each.

She set her crystals atop her quilt and
ran up and down the soprano scales.
Thank Bhattara I’m a soprano like my mother!
Her throat loosened and warmed, and soon that elusive ward note emanated from her mouth.

As she sang the portal that would return her to
Doc Theo, a part of her mind marveled at her circumstances. As the outcast student, her future had seemed bleak. Now she had a trusted mentor in Doc Theo, and together they were stepping outside the rigid singer lifestyle and having—dare she think it?—fun!

She stepped into the dark classroom in front of
Doc Theo. “I’m ready.”

Her first portal opened right in front of the First Singer’s office door. Resisting the strong urge to try the door’s handle, Tala took a deep breath
and sang the wardsong. She focused on the memory of the note from her black crystal. The first sound out of her mouth had to be the keynote, and not a half-step off, or she would set off an alarm. Closing her eyes, Tala imagined the note she needed, golden and liquid, waiting in her throat. Then she set it free.

With her eyes closed, though, she couldn’t see if anything had happened. There was no resultant sound. But
Doc Theo said, “I think it worked. Did you see that light? All around the door.”

Tala hadn’t, but she closed her portal anyway
, leaving herself and Doc Theo in the lower classroom. “One more portal to go.”

“Make it big. It could be dark in there
, and I’ve only been inside once. I’ll need to see if it’s actually the right place.” When Tala looked at him with mild suspicion, he said, “Have you spied on any portaling lessons in trio class lately? Do you know what happens if you try to portal into a warded room? For all I know, wards bounce portals to other rooms.”

Tala sighed.
She was becoming aware of a massive downside to memorizing all kinds of songwork ahead of schedule—sometimes a year earlier than she should have, as with portals. All the interim knowledge she’d have acquired wasn’t there. Shifting her spell’s notes just a fraction, she opened another portal, this time into a dark room.

“Bigger, please.
” Doc Theo leaned forward and peered through the portal. Tala sang the portal wider. Then, to her shock, he scuttled through the portal into the First Singer’s office foyer.

“
Doc Theo!” Hands hovering protectively over her crystals, Tala stared helplessly after him. Shock quickly segued into a sense of betrayal. Could he have set her this test just to slip in there? Was he more ill than she’d come to believe? Was he relapsing? “Doc Theo! Come back!”

H
e vanished into another room, leaving Tala to hold the portal open. She waited, feeling her frustration rise. She had refreshed the notes in her crystals twice when a sudden noise near her portal made her instinctively clap her hands onto her crystals, cutting off the portal, leaving her in the darkness of the empty classroom. Alone.

And abandoning
Doc Theo to whomever had just opened the First Singer’s office door.

~~~

Doc Theo knew what he was doing was wrong—not just breaking into the First Singer’s office to look for evidence, but convincing Tala to help him. His career had had a long run, but hers was just beginning. His guilt for involving her weighed on him, but not as much, nor had he been carrying it as long, as his burden of suspicion. It had started years ago at the Duelist Academy, but over the past summer, events had come to a head. Before he could find any proof for his theories, however, the man he suspected managed to promote himself to headmaster and exile Doc Theo from the Academy, effectively cutting off his investigation.

Until
Doc Theo met Tala and realized what extraordinary singing power she possessed.

Even Doc could see that
the best place to exile an unstable chanter was the Temple of Ten Thousand Harmonies—out of sight, out of mind, as far as the the new headmaster of the Duelist Academy was concerned. The cold and harsh treatment he had experienced probably had more to do with who his enemies were than with the fact that he was merely a lowly chanter. Which meant that witten Oost had some influence, somehow, at the Temple. If there was a connection between the only two magical centers in the empire, Doc Theo definitely wanted to know that it was.

He skirted the sung-wood chairs fac
ing Liselot’s office desk—a beautiful work of dark, gleaming wood with arcing shelves that curved upward, tulip-like, on both sides—and tried the drawers. He found nothing of import on the papers inside them, so he turned his attention to her filing system, which was lodged within a massive wooden sculpture that ran the entire length of a separate room. Flowers, leaves, vines, birds, and small mammals made the room look festive and tropical. He pulled open drawers fronted by petals, wings, and vine curlicues, finding little more than invoices, student progress reports and assignments, and orders for supplies from Alini.

H
e located a small, secret drawer, almost by accident. Its face was a veined portion of a large leaf down in a corner. He couldn’t pry it open, meaning a separate ward likely guarded the small compartment. Tala already looked at him like he was an eccentric. If he asked her to break this ward as well, it might push her too far. Despite his concerns, he cared too much about her to do that.

Doc Theo
realized he had hit a dead end. He had just entered the main office room, intent on slipping away and coming up with a new plan, when Liselot herself strode in from the main door. She jerked to a halt at the sight of him, but her face displayed no surprise, only frustration.

Tala. Where’s her portal?
He flicked his eyes toward the short hallway behind Liselot, but saw no ring of light.

“Your conspirator has abandoned you, Theo
.” Tall and stately, Liselot wore her long, light brown hair across the back of her head in a gleaming, tightly twisted swirl that mirrored the linked circles embroidered up and down her long white sleeves and around her hem. She folded her long, slender fingers together. “Ignaas warned me that you might continue with your conspiracy fallacies, but I trusted to the healing atmosphere of the Temple. I thought that being home would draw you closer to us, that you would remember your place. Apparently, you haven’t.”

Trying a bluff,
Doc Theo said, “My conspirator wouldn’t want you to find out which side he’s really on, now, would he?”

Liselot’s poise shivered, like a scream passing through a pane of glass. “What do you mean?”

He’d hit a nerve, one he hadn’t realized existed. His mind scrambled to guess who she might suspect of disloyalty.
Has to be one of her coterie.

“No matter,” she continued, when
Doc Theo didn’t speak. “I have you, the ringleader. He will come forward eventually, or I’ll catch him on his own. I will know who amongst my singers is helping you, mark my words, Theo. Your futile plan of petty retaliation has failed. You were such a good chanter, too.” She shook her head with a pitying expression. “I’m sorry to see you fall this far, and in this manner. I’m sorry that we weren’t able to correct your views. And I’m sorry that stronger measures are all I have left. I can’t have you wandering free, subverting my authority. Not now. We’re on the cusp of a great new adventure. I can’t allow doubt to hurt my singers’ willingness to change their paradigm and embrace a better future. It’s time we stepped out of our mountain stronghold and let the empire embrace us. Your issues will have to wait, I’m afraid, until that’s complete. You’ll be given adequate lodgings, but you cannot have any further contact with anyone in my Temple. I can’t risk you swaying anyone’s opinions any further.”