Traitor Savant (Second Seal of the Duelists) (25 page)

Bayan’s dry tongue drew his attention. Stepping to the window, he tried to work a bit of unfocused Water magic and instantly ran into a problem. Without using separate element invocations, he wasn’t able to distinguish between creating the Watercast v
ersion of Stormfall and the Shockcast or Windcast versions. Bayan felt an electric charge build in the air instead of the dampness he sought and quickly waved his arms, destroying the spell as it formed. Heart pounding, he shuddered at the unforeseen and dangerous problem.

Maybe I can hold the focus in my mind, instead of in my arms
, he thought, hoping he didn’t zap himself. He tried the spell motions again, trying to ignore the wrongness of jumping straight into the spell and skipping all the invocations. Holding the Water Invocation sensation in his mind, he let the spell fly out the window, then crouched beneath its rounded sill.

Water drops oozed from the air and landed in his hair. Laughing, Bayan tilted his mouth up and drank
as a tiny rainstorm drenched his face. His sopping clothes didn’t matter. He wasn’t a prisoner anymore. He was on vacation in a secluded mountain resort.

Treinfhir’s
gift had set him free.

“Your Avatar Examination is in one hour, duelists. Flame Arena. Don’t be late.”
Master witten Oost strode away from Eward and his hexmates at their breakfast table, leaving five open mouths behind him. Eward felt his mouth dry out and his mind go horribly blank.

“What in sints?” Taban breathed.

“No, I can’t,” Tarin said, eyes wide. “I haven’t found Kipri yet!”

“We’ll find him
.” Eward heard the calm in his voice and wondered where it had come from.

Kiwani stilled. The curves in her hair and tunic reminded Eward of an Akrestoi vase. He admired her ability to fall back on years of poise in rough situations. She gave her porridge and raisins a determined stir. “Master witten Oost’s announcement is aimed at encouraging our failure. We’re tired after proving we’re not wild Savants
. He knows we won’t be fully rested. And an hour is hardly sufficient time for proper mental preparation before an Avatar exam. Why do you think he waited until just this moment to tell us about our test?”

“Why would he do that?” Calder asked. “He’s been encouraging us—some of us—all along.”

Kiwani gave him a pitying look. “You’re tainted goods along with the rest of us, now. Being associated with Bayan and his public failure won’t save you from Master witten Oost’s disdain.”

Calder seemed stunned, but it quickly melted into anger.
“Bayan, always Bayan. His fault I’m in this mess.”

“His fault you’re
powerful enough to pass this test,” Kiwani shot back.

Calder grumbled and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

“Stop it. Listen,” Eward said. “Bayan’s not here, but we can’t let him down, and we can’t let each other down. This is our one and only chance to prove ourselves. The whole campus is talking about us—”

“Just like
he
wanted.” Kiwani gave Calder a dark look.

“—
and they’ve heard the hints about Savantism. They think we’re dangerous, wild. If we go out there and pass our tests, nail every single spell, and shower that arena with magic, then no one can doubt that we’re the best hex on campus. They’ll
have
to let us pass, and they’ll have to acknowledge that Duelists Savant are not dangerous, wild things to be put down. Bayan’s right. This is our future. This is our destiny. We need to step forward and demand it. Duelism has feared the Savants for centuries. They’ll all be watching, expecting us to fail. We need to show them that we expect to succeed.”

The others stared at him
with various expressions of surprise, agreement, and anticipation. Kiwani, eyebrows raised, said over everyone’s exclamations of encouragement, “It sounds to me like hope just grew a pair of massive iron bollocks!”

~~~

At the arena, Eward and his hexmates gathered in the meeting room beneath the stands. Adrenaline pumped through his system like the crashing river in the nearby valley. His ears thudded with the beat of his heart, dulling the thunderous roar from the crowd awaiting their appearance.

“He went all
out, didn’t he?” Kiwani glanced toward the tunnel to the arena. “Packed that arena so everyone could bear witness.”

“Will you stop it with those comments?” Calder said. “You’ve no idea what the Master is really like. He sees more than we could ever hope to, and he cares more than you and Bayan seem to.”

Eward detected a thread of hurt in Calder’s voice, but he didn’t have any attention to spare. Instructor Takozen, tall, sinewy, and dark, stepped into the doorway. “Duelist Tarin.”

“Oh, sints, I’m not ready,” the redhead cried. “I
spent the whole hour looking all over campus, but I couldn’t find Kipri anywhere—”

Eward took the panicky girl by the shoulders.
“That means he’s here, Tarin. He’s
here
. He’s come to watch you perform. You know what to do. And you’d better do it right,” he added, “because my magic will only work if yours does.”

Tarin
took a few deep breaths, swallowed, and nodded, a frown of desperate focus between her thin red brows.

“Get on with you now
.” Taban gave her a friendly push toward the doorway. “If you canna make it work, at least you’ll go out in a blaze of glory.”

Tarin, beside Takozen, turned around and eyed Taban with a gimlet gaze.
With the barest hint of a smile, she said, “That’ll do, Dunfarroghan.”

She vanished around the co
rner with the Flame instructor. Taban chuckled. “She’ll manage.”

“Let’s go watch
.” Kiwani’s fingers twisted together like fighting baby octopuses. “I don’t want to miss this.”

The
hex eased into the main arena tunnel and paused just short of its exit into the red-pebbled arena oval. Tarin and Takozen were still walking to the center of the arena. While Takozen looked straight ahead, Tarin’s head turned this way and that, eyes searching the stands.

Takozen
’s deep voice carried throughout the arena stands. “Our first applicant for the rank of Avatar Duelist is Tarin Hajellis. I will be her tegen for the exam. I will test her on both creation and control of all six elemental avatars under battle conditions. If she achieves competency, she will have earned her new rank. If not, she will be considered as topped out, and will retain the rank of Elemental Duelist and receive a station at a duel den in accordance with imperial law. Once the test has begun, it may not be interrupted or stopped for any reason.” He turned to Tarin. “Are you ready, Duelist?”

Tarin glanced toward the arena tunnel. Eward and the others urgently pointed to the stands. Ignoring Takozen’s question, Tarin turned toward the audience and called, “Kipri? Kipri, where are you? Kipri Nayuuti, Cultural Liaison!”

A group of newniks halfway up in the stands shouted and pointed to someone in their midst. The whole arena buzzed with confusion and amusement. Tarin cupped her hands in the newniks’ direction and called, “Kipri?”

He
waved an uncertain hand. Some of the audience cheered, others demanded that the test proceed.

Tarin
ran for the first row of seats. She leapt the fence barrier on an assist from an Earth spell, then stepped her way up to Kipri by raising foot-sized wooden platforms between the audience members. She ran right over their heads until she reached Kipri’s row. Without hesitation, she leaped into his arms, settled onto his lap, and kissed him thoroughly.

Eward laughed and cheered at the same moment. Taban slapped his back so hard it left a numb palmprint. Kiwani clapped her hands to her mouth, but her eyes sh
one. Calder could only shake his head and chuckle. Eward shot a glance to Takozen. Would he try to stop Tarin or disqualify her?

Apparently not. The Flame Instructor merely stared up into the stands with a baffled look on his face. Could he be leaning away from Master witten Oost, and thus toward Eward’s hex? Eward fervently hoped so. He felt his magic swell under his skin at the very idea.

He glanced at Kiwani, but she was looking away, and her cheeks seemed pink. Was she thinking about how she’d calmed Tarin down before their Savantism check? Or was something—or some
one
—else on her mind?

Tarin returned to the arena floor amidst some cheering and
a number of disapproving hisses. Her face was alight with an inner fire. Eward couldn’t remember seeing her so energized. She pointed at Kipri. “My name is Tarin Hajellis, and I love that eunuch. I love him so much that I can’t be arsed to care anymore what any of you think about it. So shut your custard holes, you lot, and be prepared to piss yourselves in sheer awe. My name is Tarin Hajellis, and
I am the Mistress of Flame
!”

Eward couldn’t help
cringing inside. Tarin had long wanted to use that name for herself, but she was still a student, and duelists weren’t allowed to select monikers until they—

A blinding golden glow flared between Tarin and Takozen, making Eward wince. The pebbles on the arena floor vibrate
d together, releasing a low grinding roar. The air in the tunnel heated rapidly, as if Tarin had yanked open the door to a massive oven. A fiery shape rose from within Tarin’s earthbound furnace. It seemed to feed on the very air itself, growing into the biggest version of Tarin’s Flame avatar, Bonfire, that Eward had ever seen.

The avatar’
s body, formed of dark gray embers, was lined with fiery cracks that flared and roared with fervent heat. The flaming crevices on his head, which rose higher than the highest arena seats, streamed flame in the steady wind and gave Bonfire long, fiery hair, just like Tarin’s.

Bonfire
opened his mouth to the sky and bellowed forth a pressure wave of white heat, rippling the air with a massive crackling sound. The flame veins along his body flared orange. He sank into a ready position, prepared to cast his first spell.

At his
feet, Tarin raised her chin. “Instructor Takozen, your defeat awaits.”

The audience had gone dead silent. Takozen stared at the gargantuan Flame avatar tower
ing over him. Calder, Kiwani, and Taban stood frozen in place.

Eward’s sense of hope skyrocketed. His body zing
ed with so much magic that he could barely feel his feet. Eyes full of reflected fire, he said, “Me. Me next.
Me
!”

~~~

Calder leaned back against the wall of the arena and stared at the darkening sky. He was drenched with sweat, coated with soot and dust, and panting with exhaustion. His hexmates clustered around the water barrel, but he didn’t trust his legs to carry him that far. He hadn’t felt so drained since his Elemental exam. Not even the battle at the Kheerzaal had taken this much out of him. The Savantism check had drained his energy reserves, and his just-completed Avatar exam had nearly killed him, it seemed. If he didn’t eat something quickly, his backbone would start rubbing against the inside of his belly button.

A shadow fell across his face.
Too tired to move anything but his eyeballs, he looked up into the face of Master witten Oost. “Well done, Calder. I’m very proud of your efforts today. I had no doubt that you were strong enough to withstand this test, and I’m proud to welcome you to the rank of Avatar Duelist.”

Energized by the praise, Calder stood up and leaned against the wall
. “Thank you, Master. Good to know you had faith in me. At least someone did.”

Master witten Oost frowned. “
Is something wrong?”

“Nae
, nothing. I just have a disagreement with my hexmates over how to handle a private matter.”

“Does it regard Bayan? Because I’m afraid—”

“Nae, not Bayan. I’m trying to look out for him, like you were saying about using the knowledge that we gain through our research. But he’s not letting me. I’m afraid he’s going to get hurt, or worse.”

“There are few things worse than injury, but they are indeed highly unpleasant,” Master witten Oost said. “Walk with me.”

Calder stepped away from the wall on exhausted legs and followed the headmaster out through the tunnel. Though Master witten Oost headed across campus on what could easily become too long a walk for Calder’s body to withstand, he kept the pace slow. “I sense that you have a deep and troubling problem, and that it stems from your close relationship with Bayan, despite his troubling disregard for authority and procedure.”

“He’s my best
mate. At least, I want him to be. But he’s being naïve and unreasonable, and I canna talk sense into the great stupid oaf. I canna take it much longer.”

Master witten Oost adopted a thoughtful pout. “And who says that you must? Calder, if something is truly endangering your friend’s life, then you mustn’t hold back from protecting him to the fullest extent of your ability. Just because he can’t see the danger does not mean it isn’t real. It just means he’s in more danger than he knows, and that can go a long way toward explaining his resistance to your point of view. Sometimes, letting our friends choose their own paths is the worst thing we can do for them.”

Calder nodded. He’d confided his past history—his mother’s ruin—to Master witten Oost soon after he’d started taking the master’s classes, and he knew the teacher spoke the truth. If only his mother had had a good friend to warn her earlier.

Like Calder had to be for Bayan.
“I canna wait. I see that now.”

“Then I’ll let you go with my blessing. You’ve always been a fine student. I expect nothing about that to change in the future.”

Calder’s chest filled with pride as he stood beneath his instructor’s gaze. He excused himself from his master’s presence before he lost his nerve and ran to the edge of campus. The short jog left him wobbly, so once he was around the first corner and out of sight, he summoned Marblenose, his Earth avatar. The bumpy creature was formed of enormous marbles like those one would find in a child’s toy collection, and, naturally, had a large round marble stone for a nose. Calder Idled the bumpy avatar to carry him up the side of a cliff and over toward the furthermost cold houses.