First Apprentice

Chapter 23 Part 3

Pinching the bridge of my nose, I repeated the breathing exercise, shoving my emotions down into a dark corner of my mind with each breath. I didn't dare lose my temper, not when Selim's wounded gate was less than ten steps away.

"The challenge, yes," Tessa said. She eased back a step as if expecting an attack at any moment. Strands of ultramarine magic undulated around her — another illusion or had my vision evolved yet again. "I didn't know about the other gates. My objection stands."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Your objection stands!" I repeated. Ice crept towards Tessa's position as I stalked toward her. "You set me up!"

Gravel crunched underfoot as Helen rolled to her feet. Her eyes never left me and her posture remained hunched, not her usual shoulders back with a book balanced on her head stance. "I thought, and Master Guardian Tessa agreed with me, that you needed to a challenge before you encounter the other Seven or your candidates. You have to feel the compulsion to understand it, Alannah-dae. You're powerful enough to ignore most challengers, but you can't ignore what you haven't experienced. I'm low risk, probably the lowest risk of anyone."

"Low risk! Guardian bonds don't make you immortal, Helen. We could have killed each other."

"We didn't." Helen's face twisted into a grimace as she rubbed her arm. Blood smeared her tunic sleeve — a minor wound and one easily tended. "Bloody Ivers and their thrice-cursed concoctions. How long before I get my magic back?"

Adopting my most innocent expression — despite many hours practicing it in front of a mirror and on Endellion and Uncle Manfred, it never worked on Grandfather — I shrugged. "Who says I did anything?"

"Manfred's right. You're my sister Hilda reincarnated. She invented magus bane, passed it on to her descendants — the Ivers — and never missed an opportunity to test it on me."

"Hilda lived during the First Clan War," I said as I tried to reorder what little I knew about Helen and failed. There were no notable Helens dating back to the First Clan War. Guardians were all notable. Unless...a stray thought crossed my mind. I narrowed my eyes. "You're Uncle Manfred's cousin, War Chief Helene-dae of Clan Marstow, the Ferryman's Mistress."

"She died four-thousand-years-ago when Endellion and Rainer chained her to the gates. Now, I'm just Helen, a sometime protector guardian and an average guardian administrator."

Tessa's snort echoed off the mountainside. "An average guardian administrator who practically ran the Border Guard during the Second War. If memory serves me correctly, you were so good at your job that Katia wouldn't take the chieftainship unless you came with it."

"Guilty," Helen said with a shrug. "I'm also Manfred's cousin and your many greats aunt, a double relationship if you will. I was the safest challenger because we're kin. Although challenges between family are rather common, deaths during them are almost unheard of."

Fire pooled in my stomach as my anger cooled to a simmer. Still present, but no longer deadly. I added Helen's presence to the long list of things I needed to discuss with my family. "Terry didn't assign you," I said, seeking confirmation. What I'd do with her answers I didn't know.

Confront Uncle Manfred and ask him to stop interfering in my life. Or thank him for recruiting the most capable guardian administrator he knew. Perhaps, I should do both.

"When Katia left us, I returned to the Gates. Joel had a competent administrator. He didn't need me."

A half-remembered lesson with Uncle Manfred tickled my mind. Something about Asha's ascension and a barely averted guardian revolt. I narrowed my eyes. "Asha," I whispered to myself. "You disagreed with her appointment."

Tessa sniffed. "Border Guard Chiefs are made, not appointed. The strongest rules. Asha was a decent journeyman sealer with a gift for politics, not combat. All of the Seven were more qualified for the job. They accepted Asha they preferred a weak, malleable chief to Joel."

"Grandfather said Joel didn't want it."

Helen heaved a sigh. "You'll find," she said delicately, "that Joel does not trust himself with power. It doesn't matter if he wanted it, how much he chaffed under Asha's restrictions, or what he now knows is coming. He won't trust himself."

Filing that information away, I squared my shoulders and turned my focus back to the most pressing issue. "You said Terry had guardian administrators maintaining my gates. Where are they now?"

"Gone," Helen said. Her even tone didn't match the red gemstones strewn throughout her aura like fog rising off the mountains. "This isn't a paperwork mistake, Alannah-dae. Within six hours of your assignment, they were all transferred off world. Three returned to their gates. The others are now clan liaisons and teachers. A few were even assigned as farmers. They didn't just send them to another sealer. They transferred them to another corps."

The charter spelled out my responsibilities to my gates in such crystal clear language that most five-year-olds could understand it. Failure to maintain a gate ended with the supervising master and any assigned journeymen fed to that gate. The charter trumped all. Even Katia's prohibition on soul sealing wouldn't stop a charter dictated execution. Someone wanted me dead.

Terry? I turned his name over in my head, thinking back to our last meeting before I set him aside. While a suspect, as my master Terry was just as responsible as I was. If I failed to maintain my gates, his head would be on the block beside mine.

"My candidates?"

"The healers moved all their patients to Shedi this morning."

Skepticism leaked into my voice. "With aura poisoning? That could kill them."

"My source said they had four fresh poisonings last night, all from the Well's magic. The Well's leaking like a sieve. The ritual chambers are so contaminated with its magic that cleansing them will take six months. I don't believe they had a choice," Helen said. "With shields, they might survive the Shedi Gate. If they had stayed, you'd be writing letters to their next of kin."

The amulet hung around my neck like a yoke. Each second, its weight doubled as what I must do sunk into my consciousness. Terry allowed this situation. Either through inaction or indifference, he allowed it to happen. Regardless of my personal feelings, I must hold my gates. Unfortunately, I needed Terry.

My hand rose to the amulet. Cool metal met my fingertips. Magic twined around them like vines and butterflies danced in my stomach before I pushed Joel's magic away. I wondered if his magic lingered because he made the amulets or because he once wore mine around his neck. Either way, at random moments his magic leached into mine, screwing with my vision and wrapping me in a warm embrace. It never lasted long, a few seconds at most. Then everything went back to normal, including my vision.

"Tessa, please dismiss your gate. There's no need to waste your energy on my account," I said.

I hooked the amulet's chain with a fingertip and lifted it. It swung in the air, the setting sun turning its burnished silver color into a deep orange. Magic spun off my fingertips, seeped into the amulet, and lightly tapped the spot that felt most like Terry. Needles stabbed into my eyes and my temples throbbed as the telepathic connection wrenched open.

Step one, notify Terry. Step two, refresh my understanding of the charter. Before I could work around Terry, I needed to know my options.