The Castrofax (2 page)

The reply was so high-pitched and faint
Gabriel had a hard time making it out. “—calls him brother and has
a nasty habit of hiding in remote locations.”

Cordis laughed heartily. “He still does that.
Don’t hesitate to break him of it.”

“You have an unusual grasp of contractions.
Is this common here?”

Cordis’ laughter was Gabriel’s departing
music as he returned to his position in line. Dagan put up a brow
in question.

“They’re discussing contractions and ponies,”
Gabriel answered.

“Let us not do something like that again. The
General reached for his sword and gave you a most venomous
look.”

“He’s a General?” Gabriel scoffed, glancing
at the stout carriage driver who fixed him a sour glare.

“That is General Calsifer, the man in charge
of the Queen’s Wing.”

“Ah, yes, and are these women heirs to
Arconia and Cinibar?” Gabriel asked, and Dagan chuckled.

The carriage door swung open, and Cordis
descended with a smile. His sweeping gaze did not miss the vines
wrapped around the wheel, and he glanced over it as if it was the
most natural thing. For Mages, it was. He extended his hand into
the cab and slowly drew out the creature within. “Contractions and
all,” he said.

Princess Robyn curled a hand around the
doorframe and stepped out, bathing her pale features in the faint
light of the overcast day. She must have been terrified, but her
heart-shaped face was void of emotion as she followed Cordis out.
Thankfully, she looked nothing like Balien except for the pale
golden hair a tint lighter than her brother’s. She bore hazel eyes
that stood out on her pale skin, little lips void of color, and the
traditional small nose of pure-bred Anatolians. Her dark gray dress
wrapped to her neck and elbows which had no embroidery or gilt.
Without the finery of a Princess, she looked as normal as any in
the courtyard. If it was not for the way she clung to Cordis’s
hand, Gabriel would have believed the act.
‘She doesn’t want to
be here.’

Cordis swept his free hand over the servants.
“These are my friends, and they are here to make you feel at home.
Please give them reasons to do their jobs. I hear Madam Evelen can
be easily persuaded to make a strawberry tart if you pick them
yourself.” The stout cook gave a curtsey.

The girl shot Cordis a glance of surprise,
and Gabriel realized she must have spent her entire life cooped up
in Kilkiny Palace. “My boy can show you the best places to pick
berries and mushrooms since he usually spends his time avoiding his
studies.”

“Try not to look an idiot,” Dagan whispered
and elbowed Gabriel in the back.

“Only if you enjoy shirking lessons,” Gabriel
stated to the girl. She almost came up to his ribcage and had to
crane her neck back to look at him. “You look like someone who has
never skipped out on a lesson.”

She looked back over her shoulder at the two
women accompanying her as they instructed where the luggage went.
“I have never known the pleasure,” she said with a curl of her
upper lip. “Nor have I learned to climb the rafters.”

Dagan swallowed a laugh and cleared his
throat.

“I assure you, my boy will be on his best
behavior in your presence,” Cordis said with a nod and a pointed
look at Gabriel.

The girl released his hand. “You
misunderstand me,” she smiled. “I would like to learn.”

Gabriel slowly grinned. “The beams in the
great hall are the very best.”

“No, no, Gabriel, I cannot have such precious
cargo falling to her death because you can’t keep your feet
grounded.”

“Trees, perhaps?” Gabriel posed.

“Try not to push your luck.”

The girl chuckled. “My brother has told me
much of you, though I expected you to be shorter.”

“You are as short as he described.”

Cordis gave him a wide-eyed look, but she
laughed and extended her hand. “Please, call me Robyn.”

He took her hand and held it, not sure what
to do until Cordis made a motion. “I am Gabriel,” he said and
stooped to put a kiss on her knuckles.

“Are you a Mage as well?” she asked as he
released her hand. She had a unique way of speaking as if she had
control of the conversation. Had he not known her age and seen the
childish face, he would have suspected she was much older.

“No, I have not yet tested for my Class. I
will in another five years.”

She nodded. “At twenty years of age? Yes, I
remember the little I have learned of Mage culture. I should like
to understand it better.”

“In ten years you will be as learned as if
you were a Mage yourself,” Cordis chortled. “We must get you
settled; you’ve been on the road too long. Lady Beatrice, Professor
Magin, will you join us?” he asked Robyn’s companions and led the
way into the house.

Gabriel lingered with Dagan and absently
watched the unloading. “Ten years,” he whispered. “Will she stay
here the entire time?”

“As long as we can keep her safe, she will,”
Dagan answered with a low stern voice. “Though, I am concerned.
Lailee is pregnant with our second, and I must return to Castle
Jaden in time for the birth. I plan to stay for a few months, so we
will be short a Mage here. However, I want you to consider
furthering your training in Castle Jaden and return with me. You
are showing great potential in Earth, and there are better teachers
in Jaden that can do more for you than I. If you choose to leave,
you would be gone nearly a year—provided you do not come into
another Element. It would be a great advantage in attaining a high
Class if you train earlier than age sixteen.”

Gabriel flicked his eyes to the main door
searching for his father. “I am needed here.”

“They need a trained Mage, and while you know
many patterns, you do not yet bestow the strength to handle the
bigger ones. Castle Jaden will increase your endurance and your
ability. The sooner you go, the sooner you return as a force to
truly protect if needed.”

Gabriel bit his upper lip and gazed through
the door at the faint outlines of servants milling forth. “Balien
would be most cross if I endangered his sister.” He sighed as he
debated inwardly until finally raising his eyes. “I will go with
you.”

Dagan nodded. “I will make arrangements. We
will leave at the end of the month.”

He strode off into the manor, and Gabriel
followed. The maw of the manor drew him in. Inside the dark gray
stone and warm polished wood were almost kin to him and the smell
of books and tapestries their essence. The atrium echoed with
far-off voices, the sounds of creaking leather from chest handles,
and the scuff of boots on carpet mingling together. Gabriel’s room
resided in the right wing, but the new sounds came from the left,
so he shouldered a bundle from the large pile of luggage at the
door and made his way upward.

While long, Urima Manor was not unusually
tall. The first floor held the entertaining rooms, the second
sleeping chambers, the third bore servant’s quarters, and the twin
parapets made up the forth level of look-out rooms. It was shaped
like a boxy “S”, with the courtyard in the front and a magnificent
garden in the back. Cordis tended to all the plants and had a
special love of everything growing.

Urima Manor had been his father’s since
Gabriel’s birth, and Gabriel had known no other home. It was a
remote place outside Hollow Downs and many days’ ride from the
capital, which made it ideal for privacy. The closest neighbors
were ten miles east, and the nearest main road skirted around them
to avoid the forest. As far as Gabriel was concerned, the manor was
the safest place to be. Of course, everyone knew Castle Jaden was
safer with the thousands of wards and Mages to contend with.

Gabriel followed the feminine voices down the
long hall, passing between the beams of sunlight breaking through
the clouds. Each burst of light threw bright reflections of his
white blouse against the walls. He squinted through each window,
unable to avoid the beams. The plump woman had a unique, boisterous
laugh, and he followed it to the threshold of a door where servants
bustled by.

“Tea, Master Gabriel?” a woman asked as she
glided up with a tray full of cups and dishes.

“No, Haddie, thank you.” She bowed her head
and slipped inside.

The room was one of the finest Urima boasted,
with rich furnishings, a large hearth, and enough space to dance.
The older woman stood in the center pointing and instructing where
things went as Cordis circled around her, insisting she should rest
and stating supper would be ready soon. “Honestly, Professor, my
cook has nearly lost her fingers twice chopping vegetables for this
event.” The woman hardly cracked a smile as she twirled a servant
around and pointed him towards the dressing chamber.

“Professor, where would you like this?”
Gabriel asked as he walked in. She stopped to survey him with a
calculating gaze and smiled with a pinched expression. Her
old-fashioned, pressed garb and the absence of gilt other than the
silver chain gave him the impression of a woman who rarely enjoyed
herself and sought the solace of tradition.

“Lady Mage Aisling told me much of you, young
man,” she said with a husky, respectable voice that offered no
love. “It seems she did not do you justice.” She folded her arms,
and the tension went out of the room as if she had sheathed
weapons. “She informed me you were showing progress in the Element
of Earth.”

He was not sure if it was a question, but he
nodded, “Yes, Professor.”

“I hope it impresses me. We will be observing
the Mages in depth as soon as we are settled, and you will make an
excellent case study.”

He hid the uncomfortable sneer his lips tried
to skew. “The package, Professor?”

“Ah, yes. It goes in the sitting room,” she
said pointing down the little hall that adjoined the chambers. His
relief was palpable as he exhaled obnoxiously. He pitied his father
before pitying himself.
‘A case study?’

In the small sitting room, Gabriel found
Haddie pouring tea for the golden-headed creature in gray. Robyn
cast her eyes down at the table, looking like a bird with broken
wings.

“I think I’ll have that tea, Haddie,” Gabriel
whispered as he stepped in and set the package down. Robyn raised
her eyes as he seated himself across from her in a handsomely worn
crimson chair. The room smelled like parchment and old fabric, with
the mellow aroma of cinnamon and apple from the tea. The servant
quickly finished doctoring his tea the way he liked and slipped
out.

Robyn picked her tea up holding his gaze as
he reclined back in the chair, his long legs thrown out and crossed
before him.

“You’re not happy to be here, are you?” he
asked, though it was more a statement.

She screwed her lips as if humoring him and
took a sip of her tea, casting her gaze outside the window. “You
are rather stupid if you think I am.”

“I lost my own mother,” he stated, leaving
his tea untouched. “I never knew her, or really anything of her.
Father doesn’t speak of her, but I know the absence of a
mother.”

Robyn’s lips thinned and trembled and hid
them behind her tea cup. Gabriel once heard royalty never cried,
and Balien proved so in the two years spent with them. Robyn
lowered her cup to reveal a sturdy expression. “I am sure I will
enjoy it here.”

“It’s boring. There’s not much to do besides
grow things and learn histories.”

“I enjoy my histories,” she said, all trace
of trembling emotion lost.

“Well I hope you enjoy Mage history. Because
the frightening woman with the eagle stare informed me I am to be
studied by you.”

“Is that all she told you? She told me she
will send for a dancing instructor since I now have a partner. It
is a shame you are not a Water Mage. It is said they are the most
graceful.”

Gabriel pointed a finger on the armrest in
protest. “I do not dance.”

She gave a childish laugh. “You will.” He
would have argued but once again she was thoroughly in charge of
the conversation. Instead he leaned forward and lifted his teacup
from its saucer with a look of acquiescence. “Though, you may not
have the chance. Mother sent me away for fear I would be killed. I
might have been followed, and you would no longer have a dance
partner.”

He stared at her befuddled. “That is a bleak
attitude to have. You are safe here. There are two Classed Mages
and I am not untrained myself. Are these dark thoughts something I
will have to deal with for the next ten years, or is this a
fleeting feeling?”

For a second the stern façade cracked with a
snicker, and he saw her eyes sparkle. It seemed Balien had left out
details about his younger sister. For a moment she appeared as the
ten year old girl she was, not the royalty she had been shaped
into. “I would like to see you plucked from your life and do
better.”

Feeling accomplishment in breaking her mask,
he smiled and nodded. “I doubt I could.”

Robyn was not a girl to be trifled with or
underestimated, though most people insisted on doing so because of
her youth. Her tutors always treated her with a certain delicacy
that taught her to despise them. It was no different in Urima
Manor. It was not long before she learned Gabriel’s hiding places
and vanished into the woodwork to avoid her lessons.

They usually sent Gabriel from his training
to find her, but she was getting more stealthy and quieter as the
weeks progressed until finally, Gabriel could not find her. She
grinned as she watched his bemused face search the dark corners. It
was only after he passed her that she stretched a hand out from
behind the marble statue and rapped his shoulder.

“You missed me.”

He turned his surprised face to see her in
the shadows. “Impressive. As reward for your winning, I will not
tell them where I found you.” With a firm hand he guided her back
to her studies in the library. “You’re more like your brother than
he let on,” he whispered before closing the oak door.