Brightly Woven(43)

North dropped off into a heavy sleep, and there was no waking him after that. I sat straight up, watching the dark landscape roll by and trying to recall every word of their conversation. The only unfamiliar word had been jinx, and North had spat the word out so heatedly that it had goaded my curiosity.

Carefully reaching for my bag, I retrieved Proper Instruction for Young Wizards and flipped it open to a list of words in the back.

Jinx, I read. A man or woman able to exude magic, as opposed to conveying it, said to appear once a millennia. Jinxes are very dangerous. Their inability to harness their magic is seen in their ability to cause, but not control, storms as they interrupt the natural balance of magic that exists in the world.

The book slipped from my hand, thudding against the wagon bed. North shifted in his sleep. I felt shocked, almost as if the book had burnt my fingers.

“All right, lady?” Peter asked, looking over his shoulder.

I nodded my head. “Yes, I’m fine.”

It was a long while before I could touch the worn leather binding again. By then, the words had settled into some dark recess of my mind, hanging there until I acknowledged them. I opened the book and realized there was still a bit left to the entry: However, no records of jinxes reside in the capital, and many believe them to be nothing but popular lore.

“A man or woman able to exude magic?” I mumbled. And able to cause a storm—like a snowstorm, or a rain shower? No. This definition didn’t fit me at all; it didn’t touch on the strange threads of light. Exude magic. From everything I had learned, wizards could only channel magic, not create it.

It wasn’t possible—it couldn’t be—because Astraea never would allow it. Never.

I snapped the book shut on the impossibility of it all, tossing it down into my bag. But the words weren’t banished from my mind, and it was nearly sunrise before I was tired enough to rest.

I never had the chance to drift into sleep. The wagon came to a sharp halt that threw me forward, and James turned around and shook North awake.

“I think we have a problem,” James said, as North and I stood for a better look.

Standing at the opening to the valley, hands shoved into his pockets casually, was a wizard, and his smirk was visible even from our distance. North shook my arm roughly to get my attention, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the flashes of sunlight against the other wizard’s long dagger.

CHAPTER NINE

I’ve been waiting for you, Wayland,” Dorwan said.

Both boys turned to look at North, but he only let out a disgusted snarl, jumping over the side of the wagon.

“Take her back up to Arcadia,” he said in a low voice. “Tell Pascal what’s happened.”

The boys nodded, and before I could protest, the wagon began to turn around on the narrow path. He’s leaving me behind again, I thought. Watching him walk toward Dorwan, I felt sick, but not paralyzed.

I climbed out of the wagon, and Peter reached for my arm. I pulled away.

“Go back to Arcadia and tell them what’s happened,” I told the boys. “I need to stay with North. Lady Aphra will understand. Tell Pascal.”

I waited until the wagon had cleared the pass before I took a deep breath and walked toward the two wizards. Dorwan’s eyes bore into mine, just as penetrating as I remembered.

“Why are you here?” I asked, already knowing the answer. My hand came to rest behind North’s back.

“To see you again, of course,” he said. Oh, that disgusting smile, that thinly layered malice. “I was so sorry to lose you in Dellark.”

“Sorry enough to poison me,” I said. I looked at North, but I couldn’t read his expression.

“The poison wasn’t meant for you,” Dorwan said in his quiet, silky voice. “An unfortunate mistake. If he had taken it, we could have been together without this trouble.”

North finally moved, blocking me from the other wizard’s view. “You’ll have to find your own assistant, Dorwan,” he said.

Dorwan clucked his tongue. “Assistant? I take it she doesn’t know, then?”

“Know what?” I asked.

“If I had your affliction, I would have experimented, too,” Dorwan said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Though I don’t think I would have stopped so short of a cure. Your magister had the right idea.”

“You don’t even know what you’re talking about!” North’s voice exploded through the pass. I winced.

“So you deny that you took her because you wanted to study her?” Dorwan peered around North’s shoulder.

Don’t believe that, North’s look seemed to say. But why couldn’t he just say that aloud? What did he mean, study me?

“Sydelle, you’d better come with me now,” Dorwan said. “It would be a shame for you to witness what I’m going to do to Wayland if you don’t.”

“You disgust me,” I spat. “I’d lie in a bed of snakes and spiders for all eternity before leaving this place with you. We’re going to Provincia to stop this war, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“Are you honestly stupid enough to think you have a choice?” Dorwan said. “There’s no stopping the wheels of chaos now that they’ve been set in motion. It’s a glorious time to be alive in this world! I’ve seen to it that the wizards will be destroyed in this war, and you, dear girl, will help me to establish the new regime.”