Page 79 of The Shadow Wand

“When are you to meet with Vogel?” I ask.

He frowns and glances at a clock. “Now.”

It’s odd how dismissive he is. His whole demeanor is strangely brazen, and I have the sense that something significant within him has changed.

“Then you should go,” I prod, worried that my only ally here with any real power might be flirting with a dangerously open rebellion.

Lukas makes no move to leave. “Let him wait,” he says in a harsh, subversive tone that leaves me wondering. No one leaves a High Mage waiting.No one.Not even an incredibly gifted Mage. Not even a military commander.

“Don’t make him wait,” I caution, my own tone now one of undisguised warning.

Lukas considers me closely, a tendril of his fire loosening and flaring toward me. I can tell he understands that I sense how he feels about Vogel and that I agree, and it feels good, this meeting of our minds. Lukas nods, as if in acknowledgment of it.

“I’ll find you after Vogel’s address,” he promises.

“I’ll look for you.”

He holds out his hand. “Give me one of the hairs from your head, Elloren.”

Confusion flares and I draw slightly back from him. “Why?”

His mouth tightens. “I have a Noi tracking rune,” he says. “I can amplify my wand magic with it to cast a search spell.” He gives me a poignant look. “It might be a good idea for me not to lose track of you.”

I consider this, my brow lifting at his use of Noi sorcery. It’s flatly forbidden for Gardnerians to mix their magic with the sorcery of other lands. And Lukas can’t charge runes, since he’s not a Light Mage, so a Vu Trin with runic sorcery must have charged whatever runes he’s using.

“Are you allied with the Vu Trin?” I ask him boldly, my pulse speeding up as I wait for his answer.

Lukas looks as if it’s his turn to try to stamp down a lie that he’s unable to voice. “We share similar aims,” he answers, a cagey look flashing over his expression.

Emboldened by this and by Lukas’s defiance of Gardneria’s magical strictures, I reach up and pull a hair from my scalp, wincing slightly at the sting, then hand it to him.

Lukas places the hair in his tunic’s pocket, shoots me a look of fervent, unspoken solidarity, and leaves.

CHAPTER SIX

SHADOW WAND

ELLOREN GARDNER

Sixth Month

Valgard, Gardneria

Ironflowers.

They’ve been brought in for Vogel’s address, the blossoms rising from countless black lacquered vases that now ring the Mage Council’s entire Main Hall and the foyer it spills into.

The lights have been dimmed to enhance the sacred flowers’ ethereal sapphire glow, and the darkness provides me some measure of anonymity as I weave through the overflow crowd of Gardnerians. They’re gathered just outside the packed Main Hall’s open, arching doors, white-armbanded Mages straining to get a look inside as they murmur with bright anticipation.

Waiting for Vogel.

The scarlet of my dress has been muted to black by the deep-blue light, the green glimmer of my skin heightened, muting my individuality and subsuming me into the great sea of Mages.

A nightmare of conformity.

Rattled by how well I blend in, I reach for the vase beside me and pinch off one of the delicate Ironflowers, holding it between my fingers as I rub my thumb and forefinger against it in an effort to soothe my storming emotions. Soft as velvet, the petals move in a lazy spiral, their soft blue glow momentarily carrying my thoughts back to a gentler time.

There was a large Ironwood tree grove near my family’s cottage in Halfix, just behind our horses’ small stable. Every year, as spring became gloriously entrenched, the floor of the forest beneath the Ironwood trees would erupt in a carpet of small, glowing blue flowers, the trees flowering days later. I remember how happy and entranced Rafe, Trystan, and I would be when the flowers were finally in bloom, and can almost hear little Trystan’s voice—Ren! They’ve bloomed! Come see!

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