When has he ever? I wondered. ‘As summoned, so do I appear before you, Lords Magi,’ I said, using the formal mode of address as Osia’phest had taught us when we’d begun preparing for our trial. The old man looked slightly relieved at my passable attempt at etiquette.
They’re all old, I thought. Te’oreth, An’atria … all of them. If you’d asked me even a day before to describe the lords magi, I’d have told you of their specialities in magic, of their strength and power, of the stories of wondrous spells they’d cast. I would have described warriors, shining on the battlefields of this world, protecting our people from the military hordes of the Daroman and the religious zealots of the Berabesq along with all our other enemies. Now, in this stifling, ill-lit room, what I saw were old men and women hanging on to power through nothing more than ancient stories and dirty secrets.
‘Kneel, boy,’ Te’oreth said, motioning to the supplicantia, a set of heavy wooden stocks set into a flat, circular stone surface in the centre of the courtroom. The initiate, or prisoner, or whoever else had come to plead before the council, would place his or her wrists, palm up, in the semi-circular grooves. A guard would then slide the block in place. This had both a practical purpose – a supplicant who disputed the council’s verdict would be unable to attempt any spells – and a symbolic one: it meant you spent the entire trial on your knees with your hands out like a beggar.
‘I’m fine standing,’ I said.
One of the council members started to object, but Osia’phest cut them off. ‘Let us not waste time on ceremony. Greater matters attend us.’
‘Perhaps,’ An’atria said, her dark eyes peering out from a thick halo of grey hair as she stared at me, ‘but do we still pretend this one comes to pass his mage’s trial?’
‘Why not?’ I asked, folding my arms across my chest and doing my best impression of someone entirely disinterested in the outcome of these events. ‘Today is the last day of the mage trials, I am an initiate and, as it turns out, it won’t be my sixteenth birthday for several hours yet.’
‘You truly believe we would give you a mage’s name?’ Te’oreth demanded. ‘You have proven nothing during your tests other than that you are a liar, a cheat and a weakling.’
‘He has proven himself worse than that,’ added Ven’asp. ‘He has been directly involved in a conspiracy to destroy this clan.’
Osia’phest rose in his seat. ‘He is the one who stopped the conspiracy against the clan!’ he insisted. ‘At great cost to himself he put an end to Ra’meth’s attempted takeover.’
Te’oreth gave an unconvincing laugh. ‘You would paint this coward as a hero?’ He shook his head. ‘No, until Ra’meth recovers from his wounds sufficiently to answer for himself, this council will refrain from making any judgments in the matter. I for one find it hard to believe this boy did the things his mother would have us believe. I suspect there is much more at work here than we yet know.’
‘An excellent assumption, Magus Te’oreth,’ I said. ‘I’ve recently discovered that people rarely tell the whole truth.’
‘Is that what you’re here to do then, Kellen?’ Osia’phest asked hopefully. ‘Tell the whole truth?’
I smiled. ‘No, My Lords Magi, I’m not here for that.’
‘Why do we waste our time then?’ Ven’asp asked. ‘Put him in copper bindings and lock him up until we’re ready to deal with him. The boy hasn’t passed a single test; he has no business being in this hallowed place.’
‘That’s not quite true, Magus Ven’asp,’ I said. ‘In fact, I do believe I’ve passed all four of your tests.’
Te’oreth spat. ‘You make a mockery of these proceedings. I will not—’
‘Let the boy present his evidence,’ Osia’phest said. ‘As my student, he has that right.’
I looked up at my old spellmaster, grateful for his intervention but also curious as to his motives. Had Osia’phest been part of the Sha’Tep conspiracy, tired of watching arrogant and cruel children rise to become initiates and then mages year after year? I decided it wasn’t my problem any more and, besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer. Instead I turned my attention to the men and women staring down at me in preparation for judgment. ‘Four tests, My Lords Magi. Four corners to the initiate’s trial. I passed the first when I won a mage’s duel with magic.’
‘Liar!’ Ven’asp said. ‘Your own sister revealed your trick. You used Tennat’s—’
‘I never said it was my magic.’
There were more complaints after that, but again Osia’phest raised a hand. ‘We will get through this faster if we simply let Kellen make his case.’
‘Thank you, teacher,’ I said. ‘The second test was to find a source of power. I’m not sure if you all heard, but I secured a power animal that no other Jan’Tep mage has in all our history.’
‘A nekhek,’ Ven’asp said. He turned to the others. ‘We should put the boy in the stocks for that reason if no other. He made a familiar of our most ancient enemy.’
‘To be completely honest, Reichis is more of a business partner than a familiar. Either way, you have to admit, he brings power with him.’
I wiped my hands on my trousers to get rid of some of the sweat that came from both the heat of the room and the fact that I was still more than a little terrified of what might happen next. Mostly, though, I needed my hands to be dry. ‘Now, as for the third test, I combined two very different disciplines to create a new spell.’
Te’oreth peered down from his perch at the bands on my forearms. ‘You have sparked only the breath band. What is this “second” discipline you used?’
‘Chemistry,’ I replied, and slid my hands into the pouches inside my pockets, letting a pinch of each of the powders combine in the air before I formed the somatic shapes and uttered the words. I ended up burning the tips of my fingers and had to suck in a breath to keep from letting out what would have been an embarrassing squeal of pain, but fortunately no one was paying attention to me. They were focused on the supplicantia that I had just blown up into a thousand pieces. ‘Not bad, as initiates’ spells go, don’t you think?’
Te’oreth’s eyes turned to me, his hands ready to cast something that I suspected would be particularly nasty if I moved again. Part of me – no doubt the part that was already taking on too many of Reichis’s less polite qualities – wondered if I could outdraw the old mage. Probably best not to find out. I knew it had been stupid to show off, but it mattered to me that these people understand there might be a cost to messing with me in future.
‘The fourth test then,’ Osia’phest said. I think there might have been a hint of a smile on his face at everyone else’s discomfort.