Page 55 of A Crown of Darkness

The young man’s dark eyes flicked to the sword and back to Roland’s face. He wore an expression which said that he had never been so unconvinced by any statement in his life. Roland was still the Grandmaster and that was that. He opened hismouth to speak, shut it again and dropped his gaze to the floor. He was ashamed of something.

Before he could say another word the door to the antechamber opened and Anselm slipped inside. Of course he did. He was never going to be far away and he and Olivier…

Oh, Roland thought, was that it? But there was no need for them to confess that to him. Even if he had not already guessed, there was simply no need.

‘Olivier—’ he began.

Olivier held up both his hands and they glowed, bright and remarkable, flames on his skin. The air shivered around them as the magic flowed through him. Not quite witchfire but something like it. In truth, Roland didn’t have a clue what it was or what it might mean.

‘I tried…’ Olivier began and his voice failed. Swallowing hard, he tried again. ‘I tried to stop it. But ever since we left Pelias, if we’re in danger especially… The witchkind knew as soon as they saw me. The children…they said as much. Tried to make me admit it.’

Roland swallowed hard. Knights of the Aurum did not work magic. They were filled with the Aurum’s light, fought in its name, defended it. But they gave all to the Aurum and held back nothing. This was not normal.

But what was normal anymore? The Aurum was gone.

‘You are a knight and a Paladin,’ Roland said. ‘Touched by the Aurum, blessed by…’

By Wren. Not actually by the Aurum. And that had to have ramifications too. Suddenly he couldn’t finish whatever he had been trying to say.

Olivier shook his head. ‘I was born with it. Mostly it showed itself in small ways, cuts and grazes that healed quickly, headaches that cleared when I touched someone. Vivienne says that it has marked me again, that I’m a healer, but I’m not. I can’tbe. I gave it up when I took my vows,’ he protested. ‘I gave it back to the Aurum. What does it mean? If it’s come back, what does it mean?’

Roland had no idea. As he watched, Anselm came to Olivier’s side and wrapped his arms around his torso, pulling the other man into an embrace, holding him close. The flames guttered and went out and finally Olivier dropped his hands to rest against the other man’s arm.

‘All will be well,’ Anselm said. ‘It has to be. Healing is a noble calling, Olivier.’

‘We could ask the chancellor,’ Roland said, though he couldn’t hide the doubt in his voice. ‘The College is meant to have answers.’

‘Are they?’ Anselm asked, with more than a touch of bitterness. ‘They haven’t been very impressive so far. Only Vivienne managed to hold onto her own will, I think. Maybe Tobias but I think that was down to her. The rest of them… Gullible fools and pompous?—’

Olivier cast him a look which reduced his complaints to a grumble.

Light, Roland wished Elodie was here. She’d know what to say, and what to do. And she…she was back in Pelias, trapped in an enchanted sleep with the Aurum and…

With a groan, he buried his face in his hands. ‘The Aurum…’ he growled. ‘It has to be because of the Aurum. Tobias said the old magic was rising, even in people only slightly sensitive to it before, filling the resulting void, but what that means…I don’t know.’

The answers were meant to be here, at the College, the solution to all their problems, a cure for Elodie… Instead, all that seemed to be cascading down upon them were even more problems.

He looked up, at the two men who served him and obeyed him, who had given up almost everything to follow him. He couldn’t let them down.

‘We will find an answer,’ he said at last. But even he didn’t believe it. ‘You should get some rest. And talk to the healer Vivienne, or Tobias. They may be able to guide you, Olivier.’ Because the light knew, he didn’t have the first idea how to help.

‘Knights don’t work magic,’ Olivier said, his voice wavering when he tried to make it strong. ‘How can I do this and still?—’

‘You are still a knight,’ Roland snapped. ‘That will not change. You made vows. You protected Wren. You are more than a knight. A Paladin. Remember that.’

Olivier looked stunned, his eyes wide, but Anselm just nodded. ‘You see?’ he said. ‘I told you.’

At least they had each other. They were lucky in that.

A moment of peace would have been nice, but Roland knew that such wishes were far more than he deserved. Something trembled in the air, something new and unsettling. He looked up, over the heads of his knights, sensing the change. Something was coming, something else, something which made those old instincts for danger stir yet again.

An unnatural wind ripped through the room, even though the doors and windows were closed, bringing Roland to his feet, his hand already on the hilt of Nightbreaker. The two knights broke apart, drawing their weapons as well, the same sense of alarm firing through them. Instincts like flames in each of them, like those rippling over the length of Olivier’s fingers again.

They were Knights of the Aurum, all three of them.

‘Outside,’ said Roland. ‘Something’s happening. Another attack or—’ Or something worse.

Screams echoed through the College corridors and the three men ran towards them, out into the formal gardens where a ring of witchkind were trying to hold back something whichcame swirling through the clustering shadows. Something huge, powerful, something that rose in a wave and tossed them aside as if they were no more than flowers before a storm.

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