A Shadow Bright and Burning (Kingdom on Fire #1)(87)
“Thank you, Miss Howel,” she said, her voice soft and high. “We are most pleased by your presence. They tell us you are to be a weapon in the war against our aggressors. We dearly hope this is true.” She glanced at the army of men stationed around her throne, as if checking that she had done right. How must she feel, receiving requests and demands from these much older gentlemen day after day? I felt a brief and bizarre kinship to the queen.
With her permission, I entered a circle of seven polished stones set on the floor. Agrippa came forward as a servant brought me my stave. I’d been forced to leave it with my cloak at the entrance.
The servant moved to a long table laid by the side of the room, took up a silver bowl filled with water, and placed it before me.
“Now is the time of judgment,” Whitechurch said, his voice rising over the crowd. “This young woman comes to be commended in our most sacred and ancient arts. We shall see if she is worthy.”
Agrippa whispered, “Water first.”
With the correct stave movements, I brought the flowing circle up around my body and transformed it, from water to ice, to sleet, to snow, to rain, and then to the three different variations of attack. I delivered them all perfectly.
The queen leaned forward.
I took a large rock, broke it into sand, brought it back together, broke it again into sixteen pieces, arranged and rearranged those pieces into different orders, and then bound the rock into a neat little wall. I created the spinning vortex of flame, flew around the room five times before creating a column of wind to escort me slowly to the floor, and warded Her Majesty’s spaniel so that no man could reach him (slightly to Her Majesty’s terror). The queen seemed beside herself with delight. Once I’d freed the dog, she cuddled him like a schoolgirl, giving no thought to her regal appearance.
At last, the time had come for the column of fire. This was what the gentlemen and the queen most wanted to see, my singular ability to help defeat the Ancients. With a sweep of my stave I rose into the air, where I went up in a blaze of blue flame. The men gasped. The queen clapped her hands wildly. I unfolded my arms and hung there in pure triumph. With a thought, I brought myself to the ground, extinguished, and curtsied. My breathing was deep and my muscles ached, but I felt glorious.
The crowd went wild with excitement. Even the Imperator smiled, nodding slowly. The queen seemed eager to leap to her feet and applaud, checking about the room to see if anyone would mind. The air hummed with victory. I was a sorcerer. I had done it.
Then, from the back of the room, came a slow, deliberate clap. Palehook pressed forward through the collection of men.
“What an extraordinary talent Miss Howel possesses.” He smiled.
“Thank you.” I tensed. What was he doing?
“Shame, really. Such a shame.” He shook his head.
“What is?”
“That you’ve lied to all of us.”
The room broke out in murmurs. The queen looked confused.
“What are you talking about?” I said, attempting to keep panic out of my voice.
“Explain yourself, Master Palehook,” the queen said.
“Our prophecy calls for a female sorcerer, Your Majesty, not a female magician.”
“What?” I cried. God help me, I would not faint. The queen rose from her throne.
“How can she be a magician? She couldn’t have been trained. Such a practice was expressly forbidden by my uncle, King George.”
The Imperator signaled to Agrippa, his face white with shock. “Sir, explain this insane accusation.”
Oh, thank heavens. Agrippa would sort this out. I was almost dizzy with relief.
“Every word is true, Majesty, Imperator,” Agrippa said, without looking at me. “Her father was a Welsh solicitor named William Howel, a magician. He also possessed the ability to burn without harm to himself. He passed the talent to his daughter. She is a magician, nothing more.”
It sounded as if the shouts and cries and questions around me came from deep underwater. I should have raised my voice along with the rest, but I couldn’t breathe. When I called Agrippa’s name, he turned his back. That was the gesture that almost broke me.
Keep the pain down, I thought, forcing myself not to wail. Fight now, hurt later.
“How can a sorcerer train a magician?” the queen said.
“That is not possible.” The Imperator’s stunned look turned to anger. “Our approach to magic is entirely separate and impossible to reconcile. You should not have been able to train her,” he snapped at Agrippa.
“It was deceit, sir. She let me believe she benefited from my teaching, but she sought out a magician who could help her perfect her abilities in an effort to pass as one of our kind.”
Then I understood what was coming. The guards placed along the walls rushed me when I took a step out of the circle. I thought of fighting my way out, but if I got past the men, there were always Agrippa, Whitechurch, and Palehook to deal with. I was trapped.
“Who on earth trained her?” the queen said, her frustration apparent. As if on cue, a door at the far end of the room opened. Two guards entered, and between them, they half dragged a ragged, stumbling man.
“Howard Mickelmas,” Agrippa whispered. Men shouted in fear. The queen shrieked. The Imperator stood before Her Majesty, his stave in hand in case a battle broke out.