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  She thought that her hearing must have been starting to recover because she could hear a whispering that wasn't quite words, and wondered if the sound came from this monstrous thing before her. It approached her, rearing up, dozens of tentacles and thick arms of blackness reaching out toward her, coming at her from every direction. She was unable to make herself move, to even close her eyes so that she didn't have to see the end coming. But the darkness suddenly flinched back from her as if struck. Before her disbelieving eyes, it pulled back and began to swirl about its center, moving faster with each moment until she was nearly dizzy and had to look away. As she turned her head, she realized that the dark cloud was shrinking as it spun. When she looked back, there was nothing where she had last seen it.

  A hand grabbed her arm and Fay shrieked. She heard it clearly and was surprised to find her hearing recovered completely. A familiar voice spoke in an alarmed tone, "Fay, it's okay, it's Ivanne. What happened?"

  Turning, she saw the professor's aged assistant and tried to calm her racing heart. She breathed in long, slow breaths. "Something came out and... It got the professor and that other man."

  Ivanne's eyes went to the shelf and the broken jar, glass shards radiating outward from it and she seemed to deflate. She let go of Fay's arm and went over to the side desk in one corner of the room. She rummaged around in one of the drawers and came up with two items, a white crystal the size of the palm of her hand and a packet of letters, tied together. She returned to Fay and held them both out to her.

  "You need to leave, Fay, right now. The professor showed these to me weeks ago and made me swear to give them to you and send you away from the academy if anything happened to him. You know how to use a caeldar, don't you?" The woman's voice was frantic with worry and grief.

  Fay could only nod, staring at the impossibly broken bell jar on the shelf and the object that still lay in the center of the destruction, unable to take her eyes from the familiar shape. In a distracted tone, she said to Ivanne, "Of course, I'll go right away, as soon as I've grabbed some things and food."

  "Listen to the message before you go. The professor said it was important that you listen to it before you leave unless you were immediate danger. I have to go tell the headmaster what's happened." Ivanne left the room and Fay was alone.

  She was still staring at the pendant on the shelf, feeling that same pull toward it and more. It suddenly felt as if the pendant belonged with her, that it was part of her in a way she didn’t understand. That’s silly, she thought, even as she slowly crossed the room to stand closer to it. She knew it must be dangerous, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that it wasn't dangerous to her. Finally, the need to keep it with her overcame all the more rational arguments about why she shouldn’t. She dashed around the table, reached out and carefully plucked it from the nest of broken glass. A warm tingle spread up her fingers for a moment when she touched it, and she thought it must be the remnants of the protective spells in the shattered jar. She turned and fled from the room and apartments, clutching the caeldar, pendant and letters to her chest as she headed for her own room.

  Chapter 3

  As soon as she closed the door, she wove a sealing spell into it. She felt a little foolish for that when she turned and looked around her room. The only window was too narrow to get through and even if she did somehow manage that, it was a sheer drop from three stories up with no ledge to speak of. There was also nowhere in the room to hide, as the lower bunk of the bed was nearly on the floor. Beyond that, there was only a chest of drawers and a table and chair that served as her desk. At least no one will be able to listen in, not even with magic, she told herself.

  She went to the lower bunk and tucked the bundle of letters inside the pack she had left open there, deciding that they could wait until she had more time. She held the pendant in the palm of her hand for a moment, trying to figure out what had come over her to take it. For all she knew, that darkness might come pouring out of it again. Only the black cloud hadn't touched her, had pulled back instead and disappeared. She thought that meant she wasn't in any danger from it. She tucked the pendant into a pocket on her bag, surprised at how reluctant she was to be parted from it even that much.

  She sank to the bed and held the caeldar in both hands. Ganson had led her through a study of these ancient crystals once over a year ago, though he had never mentioned possessing one. She had thought at the time that he was indulging her interest in obscure applications of magic, but she now saw purpose in his suggestion of them. The making of caeldar was lost and few existed after so many centuries. Now they were used for only the most important messages. Because of their scarcity, she had never seen or used one before, though she knew the method for triggering it. She stared intently at the crystal, holding the image of her mentor in her mind and the sound of his voice, then let her magic infuse the thoughts. The caeldar brightened and warmed in her hands, Ganson's voice rolling out of it. The sound made her heart ache with worry over what had happened to him.

  "Dearest Fay, I have prepared this message, hoping that you will never need to hear it, but I fear that events move in such directions as to frustrate my wishes. Know that, whatever has happened to cause this caeldar to be in your hands, I felt privileged to know you and be part of your life. It has been an experience beyond my expectations when I was asked to take on this task. You are the daughter I have never had, and the source of my greatest pride in a long life that has been graced with many achievements.

  "You have asked me many times in the years since you came to Voleno why it was that the Council elected to transfer you here, a move so unusual that I know of no previous precedent for it. I have been able to avoid answering you in the past, though I think you have suspected most of my diversions and evasions on the subject. Now is the time for you to know at least some part of the story. Your father's behavior toward you came to the attention of powerful people several years after your mother's death and it caused some concern. His decisions regarding you were closely watched until it became apparent that his plans would put you in unconscionable danger. An application was made to the Council Magicia to have you transferred to another school, one far enough from Iondis and your father that his plans might be disrupted.

  "They settled on Voleno and I was asked to come here to teach, that I might be your protector as well as mentor, should your father's plots find a way to reach this far. In order to make others less suspicious and avoid drawing attention to my true reason for being at the academy, the plan to transfer you here was held for a year as I settled in. It was done to protect you, but I fear that the delay might have been ill-advised. I hope I am wrong, and that it did not give Calder the opportunity to begin his most desperate plan, but I fear it did. I imagine that I will never know for certain.

  "That you are listening to this means that you need help and possibly protection I am no longer able to provide you. I can think of only one person you will be able to freely seek out whom I would trust. You need to speak with Eliar, one of our oldest living scholars. He was retired in recent years, but if I know him, he will be unable to refuse to help you. He lives near Rianza, just outside the town of Harkol. Go there now, immediately, whatever time of day it might be. If for some reason he tries to refuse you, give him the packet of letters that you should have received with this caeldar. That should settle the matter, if age and bitterness overcome his good sense somehow. Do not remain in the castle a moment longer than necessary if you are at the academy and tell no one where you are going. Ivanne will cover your tracks if she can. Her magic might not be strong, but her mind is one of the sharper I have known, among her many other strengths. Take Rain, he will get you to Eliar safely.

  "Be careful around your father from here on, Fay, and under no circumstances should you allow yourself to be alone with him, no matter the place. It would not be safe, and I fear the advantage Calder or his confederates might take from such a situation." The crystal returned to its dormant state, cooling quickly in h
er hands and the silence in her room weighed on her. Her mind crowded with questions but she pushed them all aside. She packed the crystal carefully, though she knew it would not be damaged easily. There wasn't any point to taking the crystal with her now that she'd heard Ganson's message, but she couldn't shake the worry that it might be all she had left of him. She pushed that idea aside too, letting the urgency of the message override her fear. She changed into the linen tunic and divided skirt she had laid out for the next day. Then she hesitated for a moment, her hand returning to the pocket where the pendant lay. The thought crossed her mind that she should keep it with her. She was puzzling over this need to have the pendant close even as she slipped it from the bag and into the pocket of her skirt. Feeling a little better, she grabbed her pack and slung it over a shoulder.

  Standing by the door, she glanced around and saw nothing out of place. She pressed her hands to the door, released her spellwork and left the room after making sure the hall was empty. She forced herself to walk, though more quickly than usual, though every sound made her want to jump. Anyone who saw her running would remember it and wonder why. Deciding to be discreet, she took the back staircase, normally used only by the servants in the academy. She came to an intersection of corridors and hesitated. One led to the kitchens,

  the other would take her toward the stables. Knowing she needed provisions for the journey, she turned for the kitchens, trying to ignore the voice in the back of her mind that screamed about the delay. She wouldn't get far without food and water, and it was only a short detour, she told herself. She was passing an archway that opened onto the main hall when she heard a commotion by the large front doors of the castle. She froze and watched as two guards rushed across the large space flanked by the main staircases to the upper floors of the castle. Another raced from the hall in the direction of headmaster's tower, his halberd left beside the door in his haste. She couldn't hear what the guards were saying, but didn't believe it was a coincidence. It was enough to spook her and she turned, running for the stables, no longer caring if she was noticed.

  Fay stopped in the darkness of the corridor before entering the stable yard, pausing to catch her breath. She tried to listen over the thunder of her own racing heart. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary from where she was and the only sounds she heard were those of horses and a single person working somewhere inside the stable itself. She stepped out when her breathing was almost normal again and to her surprise, Rain was already picketed to the post outside the stables, a sack tied to the back of his saddle. The torchlight glimmered off his black coat and mane as he turned his head to regard her, as if he knew she was there for him. One of the men who worked in the stable came out with a wheelbarrow of dirty straw and stopped when he saw her.

  "There you are, Fay. I was starting to doubt Ivanne's note. Rain's all ready to go. You take care of him while you're gone, okay?" Woll said, smiling at her.

  "Um, sure. Ivanne sent the note then, good," she said, trying to act like this wasn't a surprise to her.

  "Yes, just a little bit ago, came with the supplies. Said to saddle Rain up right away. Professor Ganson's sending you out on some important trip to Bershan, is he? Must be urgent. Note said you had to leave right away. Hope you have a good trip, Fay." Woll nodded to her and started off with the wheelbarrow.

  "Thank you," Fay called after him, then rushed over to tie her bag behind the other one, mentally thanking Ivanne. Suddenly she felt a small twinge of guilt for how she had treated the woman during her years in Voleno. She took the reins and ran a hand down Rain's neck to settle him, her fear for Ganson trying to overwhelm her again as she did so. The large black stallion bumped her shoulder with his head. She decided to lead him out rather than ride right away, because she was still concerned about the commotion at the front door. She needed to make a clean escape from Voleno, which meant no one could be allowed to see her leaving. They made their way up the lane that led around to the front of the castle. She was absurdly grateful it was packed dirt instead of the cobblestones that lined most of the streets in the city.

  She slowed to a stop when they reached the broad gate at the end. With one hand on Rain's neck to keep him calm, she listened, and heard the sound of people standing around in the square outside the entrance to the Academy. They had to be wearing some kind of armor, because she could hear the clinking and creaking of it. Praying that the stallion wouldn't make a sound, she took her hand from his neck, reached out and very slowly raised the latch on the inside of the gate, ready to stop at the smallest squeak from the hinge. It moved smoothly and silently. She opened the gate a fraction, just enough to peer through.

  Several men in leather armor sewn with small metal plates stood around the bottom of the wide steps that lead to the double doors at the front of the castle. Pacing in front of those doors was Neoro, her father's steward. Fay didn't think she had ever seen him go any further from Iondis than the village of Wyver, on the edge of the estate. She had a good idea what must have brought him here but the right door opened a moment later, revealing the headmaster himself, and Neoro's next words confirmed her fears.

  "Well? Will you produce my lord's daughter or not? We don't have all night to wait here for her." She had never heard Neoro sound so impatient.

  Professor Siveth frowned. "We would have to discuss that privately. There are circumstances to consider, and I was given to understood that this had already been made clear to Viscount Derrion when he was here for Fay's graduation. In any case, I have no intention of discussing such delicate matters here in the doorway of my academy, nor will I allow you to bring soldiers in with you. There is no danger here, so I will allow you to come in only once you have dismissed these men."

  For a moment, Fay thought she saw the headmaster's eyes flick over toward the gate she hid behind, but it was so fast that she decided she must have imagined it. She watched Neoro wrestle with his obvious desire to do her father's bidding, as always, against his concern about dismissing the soldiers with him. Finally he gave a curt nod. He turned to speak a quiet command to Horner, the only man she recognized among the guards. Horner listened, then led the men away as the headmaster conducted Neoro into the castle, firmly closing the door behind them.

  From behind the gate, she could no longer see Horner or the soldiers he was leading away. She didn’t want to open the gate until she was sure they were gone, though every nerve in her body was now screaming with her need to flee the city. Her father had sent these men to take her back to Iondis, by force if necessary, she was certain of it. She didn't think they would stop looking for her when they realized she was no longer within the walls of the academy. She threaded her senses with magic to amplify them and suddenly she could clearly hear the retreating soft jingle of their armor. She waited with increasing impatience until the sound became muffled as they turned a corner and went behind another building. She swung the gate open, led Rain through it and then closed it quietly behind her. Better if there's no clear indication of where I went or how, she thought, fighting her ever-increasing agitation. She mounted Rain and then turned him in the direction of the main gate out of the city, only a short ride away. The lightest pressure with her legs got him moving.

  She had never ridden Rain before but knew him well from the infrequent journeys she had gone on with Professor Ganson. The large black stallion was one of the finest horses in the Empire. He had been a gift to her mentor from the current Emperor, though the professor had never said why. It dawned on her that protecting her might have been the reason, but she dismissed it as unlikely. The Emperor could have no interest in her, having only met her once in her whole life. She pressed Rain for speed through the nearly deserted streets, and was grateful to have such a fine horse for this desperate flight. She only hoped she'd be able to return him to his owner one day.

  They turned a corner into the wide boulevard that led to the gates and Fay slowed him to a trot, not wanting to alarm the gate guards or give them cause to stop her. As she approache
d, she saw two soldiers that stood out from the others, in familiar armor, leather sewn with small metal plates instead of the burnished breastplate of the gate guards. She cursed as she realized that Neoro must have left them at the gate to stop her in the event that she slipped by him. Knowing that she couldn't let them take her, she booted Rain into a full gallop. The gate guards hardly reacted, and Fay was certain they expected her to slow down and stop for them, but the two men Neoro had left stepped forward as if to block her path. She was nearly upon them when the guards finally realized she wasn't slowing at all and began to move into position. She pressed Rain for more speed, hoping that the men ahead would get out of the way but resolved to ride them down if she had to.

  The gate guards held their ground, but her father's men panicked as she drew close enough to see their eyes widening in horror. She angled Rain toward them, not letting him slow at all, and then she was riding through the gap created when the two men dived to either side out of the way of the large horse. She let their speed carry them across the bridge and down the road into the dark night. She would have laughed at the look on the guards' faces, but she was too weighted with grief and fear to be able to manage more than a weak smile.

  She didn't stop for the night, though she did let Rain slow to a trot. His long legs ate up the road and dawn found the walls of Voleno no longer in her sight so she slowed him further to a walk. Her eyes felt as heavy as her heart and she wanted to stop, to hide in a stand of trees and cry, but she knew that they would most likely ride after her soon, if they weren't already. She had to keep going, so she laid her head down, cheek against Rain's silky black mane, trying to draw solace from the only being left to her, and let her body sway with his walk. She was unaware of her eyes sliding closed as the sky overhead steadily brightened.