The Heart Forger (The Bone Witch #2)(30)
The Illusion rune was more complicated. After I learned to bend the spell around an object instead of pouring magic into its essence, I was able to successfully hide it from view. I tried it on Fox.
“I don’t feel any different,” his disembodied voice reported. “Although it’s disconcerting to see that I have no reflection in the mirror.”
“Stop moving around or you’ll be invisible forever.” The spell was a little too good. It took me a dozen tries to draw it right, and I got it just as Fox was beginning to worry.
“The next time we practice this,” he growled as he finally came into view, “we’re going to use a blasted potted plant instead.”
We couldn’t practice the Dominion and Strangle runes given their implications, but I studied them regardless. I also found myself going back to the lightsglass and shadowglass spells, though I knew we couldn’t—shouldn’t—do anything with them. The same held true with the Resurrection rune. “We need to find another way, Tea,” Fox said curtly, and that was that.
Spell practice was a good means to keep me distracted from Prince Kance’s impending engagement. Fox never spoke of Inessa, but every now and then, I would catch a thought, a vision of him and the princess walking down Kion’s market district at night or sharing mint-seasoned doogh at a teashop. I also sensed he would much rather not talk and so kept my silence. Because of all the preparations leading up to the engagement party, Polaire and Althy were constantly busy, much to my relief. I wasn’t quite ready to talk to Polaire after our fight.
Fox had returned to the barracks after our last practice, still keeping a firm hold over the Veiling barrier I’d drawn. I went through Aenah’s book again, but every time I became too engrossed, I felt the barrier starting to slip from my grasp, much to my irritation. It’s odd how the spells that seemed easiest were always the ones that required the most discipline.
I switched to Scrying, determined to master that one. I was still leery of spying on anyone else in the palace, but I finally decided on a target that wouldn’t affect my conscience.
I was wondering when you’d try this on me, Aenah’s voice drawled in my head, speaking from her dungeon. For all her bravado, I could feel her discomfort. That gave me satisfaction.
Why tell me about this book? I asked her. There was nothing for you to gain.
She chuckled. I suppose it was my last card to play. Oddly enough, I like you. You’re clever and resourceful and not yet set in the ways of the asha, though several more years in Kion will surely erode your independence. There are many things asha cannot do that I can, and your problems will not be solved by the paltry runes your asha-ka teaches.
There is more to you sharing this than you taking a liking to me.
True, Aenah replied. I know now that I cannot win you over by guile—that mistake is the reason I am imprisoned here. So I turn to truth where deception has failed. I ask for nothing, Tea. Not for my release from this prison and not for you to join my cause. All I desire is to show you how the asha have deceived you. I have done many terrible things in my life, sweet child. But your asha have done worse, and it is time you look at them with new eyes. If you are willing to listen to me, then I will tell you more about the elder asha, their machinations, and the more powerful of the runes in my book.
What have the elder asha done that make your transgressions pale in comparison?
It was your asha elders who conspired to hide your sister’s heartsglass.
You lie!
And for what reason? The truth should be easy enough to ascertain. Ask them why they abandoned the search so easily. Ask them why the young King Vanor refuses to speak, even in death. Ask them why shadowglass interests them so. Ask how Blade that Soars and Dancing Wind’s story truly ends. What secrets can you find when you step into Mistress Hestia’s study?
I quickly broke off the link, more shaken than I want to admit. That wasn’t possible. She was lying. Why would the elders withhold Mykaela’s heartsglass?
A sudden barrage of emotions that were not my own flooded into my mind, at once unexpected and familiar. The Veiling dissipated; Fox had broken his barrier.
I scried again and reached out to him, prepared to tease him for the sudden lapse, but it was not the practice fields or straw dummies I saw when my vision refocused. It was the angry, teary-eyed face of Princess Inessa.
She was exceptionally lovely, beautiful from her delicately curved nose to her high cheekbones and smooth flawless skin. Her bright-blue eyes were perhaps her most arresting feature, a rarity for a Kion, proof of the royal house’s ancient ties to the old kingdom of Arhen-Kosho, and a devastating contrast to her chestnut-colored hair.
“I can do whatever I want, now can I?” I’d never heard the princess speak like this; her normally pleasant alto was loud and harsh. “You have no say over where I go and who I marry!”
“But it’s not your decision, is it?” Fox sounded different too. His voice was too even from holding back his anger with great effort. “Why can’t you be honest for once in your life?”
“You are the last person to talk to me about honesty!” She shot back. “We have nothing! We had nothing!”
I hunched over, the pain in my chest catching me by surprise. The jolt soon passed. Fox responded without any change in expression. “And that’s why you’ve been watching me at practice for the last three weeks.”