“She had somewhere she had to be.” Cyn said it smugly, for some reason, as she slid onto the bench. Breakfast today consisted of some sort of strongly scented thin noodles, already heaped into ceramic bowls. Next to each bowl lay three oddly shaped sticks. Ileni eyed both the noodles and the sticks doubtfully. “Don’t worry, Evin. Apply yourself at practice today and you just might catch up to us.”
“Tempting.” Evin twirled noodles onto the sticks with practiced ease. Ileni tried to pay attention to how he did it. “But I’m going to be practicing with Arxis today.”
Ileni’s gaze shot from Evin’s hands to his face. Cyn scowled. “Arxis is barely a second-level.”
“At magic.” Evin slid some noodles into his mouth and spoke around them. “But at kobi, he’s a master.”
Before Ileni could say, What is kobi?, Cyn said, “Karyn will get back eventually, you know.”
“And then I will be very, very contrite.” Evin’s grin included Ileni. “You could both come. We’ll play with only three dice, for low stakes, to ease Ileni into it. And apparently you’ve had all the combat practice you need today.”
“Say that when you’re facing an assassin.” Cyn flicked a strand of hair away from her eyes. “Besides, not all of us get the benefits of being the headmistress’s nephew.”
“More to the point,” Evin said, “not all of us know how to act contrite.”
There were so many things Ileni should ask. But when she opened her mouth, what came out was, “You shouldn’t spend so much time with Arxis.”
Cyn picked up her own sticks, all three in one hand, and said, mildly, “I think he’s probably harmless if you don’t fall in love with him.”
Ileni snapped her jaw shut. “I didn’t—”
“Attack him when you first met? With a dagger? We all heard about it.” Cyn sounded amused, but it was Evin she was watching, not Ileni. Ileni braced herself for one of Evin’s quips, but he was suddenly quite focused on his noodles.
She bent her head over her food. Let them believe it. It wasn’t as if she had a better explanation.
Or as if Evin would believe her warning, anyhow.
Besides, what did she care? She wasn’t one of them. She was on a mission, too. The real question might be whether Arxis killed Evin before she did.
When they stepped out onto the mountain ledge after breakfast, cold droplets pelted Ileni’s face. A gray-white sky spread across the mountains, spitting rain, and fog wreathed around the craggy peaks, softening their harsh edges.
A jolt of homesickness took Ileni by surprise. She hadn’t even wanted to go home, back when she’d thought she had to. But in the Renegai village, rain was a nearly everyday occurrence, though it was usually swept swiftly away by the mountain winds. With a day of training ahead of her, with magic flowing through her and the rain forming a cool mist against her face, she could almost have been home.
Almost. With just a few slight differences. The loneliness reared up within her, threatening to overwhelm her, and she shoved it down fiercely. She didn’t have time for that.
On a ledge on one of the farther peaks, a line of people walked slowly alongside the mountain, holding rain shields in tight formation. Someone else—an instructor, probably—flew next to them, directing the raindrops in torrents against the shield. A training exercise.
“Well,” Evin said, “you know what I call this? Napping weather.”
“You would,” Cyn said, with the same disdain Ileni felt.
Evin laughed again. Even after only two days, his laugh was starting to grate on Ileni, like a wrongly accented spell. He seemed incapable of taking anything seriously. She waited for Cyn to put him in his place.
But Cyn just sighed, and a moment later Evin soared away, a speeding black line against the roiling gray clouds.
Cyn held a hand out to Ileni. “Want to fly?”
Ileni hesitated. But it was too damp and too early for noble gestures. She took Cyn’s hand.
Her shoulder was nearly jerked out of its socket as Cyn leaped upward, pulling her along so fast the wind split in front of them. After the first moment of terror, Ileni used a touch of magic to hold herself streamlined, the wind beating at her face and whipping her hair back. The distant treetops sped beneath them, and Cyn laughed, wild and exhilarated.
They slowed down at the last moment and landed gently on the plateau. Ileni let go of Cyn’s hand and swayed unsteadily. She was breathing hard, even though she hadn’t been the one doing the work, and a laugh bubbled out of her.
Cyn’s expression was sheer joy, and Ileni’s laugh died. Her own exhilaration was tainted by envy, deep in the pit of her stomach.
“What does someone have to do,” she said, “to get one of those lodestone bracelets?”
As soon as the question was out of her mouth, she was struck with horror at herself. But Cyn, of course, found it perfectly natural. She ran her fingers through her hair and shook it out. “First you have to test for eighth-level, of course, and do the containment training.”