'Besides, it was the records of the Council itself I was after. I figured if I could find a record of a female Mage in the Council Histories, that would be enough precedent for my own training, and if I could find no record that any woman had ever been apprenticed and failed, I could always argue that if there had never been any female Mage- candidates, how could the Council possibly know that women didn't make good Mages and couldn't control their emotions?
'That was when my Books came to me. I found them there on the shelves, crammed in among a bunch of bound copies of minutes from some ancient meeting.'
'Your Books?' Kellen gaped at her. 'There? In the Council Records Room? What did you think they were?'
She gave him a sidelong look. 'I knew exactly what I had of course— I'd read all the way through Father's library by the age of twelve and I knew the Ars Perfidorum practically by heart. I knew they were supposedly Anathema, but I didn't care. If the Council and Father were so wrong about females, why should they be right about this? And unlike High Magick, I wouldn't need tutors, or textbooks, or special equipment, or years of practice before I could become a Wildmage. I started practicing Wild-magery before I even finished reading The Book of Stars.'
'You did?' Kellen felt his estimation of his sister rising again. Brave and fearless Idalia!
Idalia finished her tea, and put the empty cup down on the table. 'Yes. Stupid of me, I know. Of course the Council caught me, and pretty quickly, too. I was lucky not to be executed out of hand, but the Council does love its pretense of fairness and mercy. Just as you did, I found myself tried and Banished, standing outside the City walls, waiting for sunrise and the release of the Hunt. Since I was a female, and not terribly important to them or to Father, I wasn't given the option to recant, either, just a half-chime trial, a couple of bells in the cell, and out the gate like the trash I was.'
Kellen winced, imagining the scene very clearly. Idalia didn't see it; she was looking down at her empty cup.
After a moment, she went on. 'Unlike you, I'd done a little more digging in the Council archives before I'd found my Books. I knew exactly what was going to be coming after me when the Outlaw Hunt was released, and I had no intention of being anywhere that the Hounds could go. So I did a more specific spell. I asked for the power of flight, so that no matter what happened, the Hounds couldn't possibly reach me.
'Of course, since I'd made such a specific request of the Powers, things didn't work out quite the way I expected them to.'
He saw a tiny change in her at that moment, a subtle relaxation. Well, the painful part of the narrative was probably past, now.
'It never does, you know. You'll find that out soon enough if you haven't already. I found myself transformed into a Silver Eagle, and the price of the spell was that I must remain in that form until I could find a mate and raise a brood of chicks before I could transform back again. What made that difficult—other than having to wait for mating season— was having to find a Silver Eagle mate. Silver Eagles live in Elven lands, and even there, they are very, very rare. It took me three years to accomplish the task. But—oh!—being able to fly… '
Idalia stared off into space, her expression dreamy as she remembered. Then her eyes focused on Kellen's face again, and she smiled teasingly, reaching out to pat his hand.
'I rather enjoyed it. Once I got used to it, of course. Eggs are certainly a better way of having children than the way we do it. At any rate, once my price was paid, I was free to change back whenever I wished, so I went to the Elves, made my situation known, and changed back to myself— which is a lot better than ending up stark naked on a cliff in the middle of nowhere, don't you think?'
'Better than I did,' Kellen said glumly, staring into the dregs of his now-cold tea. He'd almost gotten himself and Shalkan killed. All Idalia'd had to do was spend three years flying around Elven lands as an eagle, probably having all kinds of interesting adventures.
'I don't think so,' Idalia said, putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. 'The essence of proficiency at the Wild Magic is economy of price. Your price was rather minimal compared to mine. It's hardly your fault or Shalkan's that the Council lost their minds and sent so many Hounds after you. I've read their records, after all. A regular Outlaw Hunt is thirteen Hounds, one for each member of the Council, and from what you've said, it sounds like they sent five or six times that number after you, and Shalkan said—and he should know—that they were preparing more. You ought to be flattered.'
'But I got Shalkan involved, and I almost got him killed!' Kellen burst out.
Idalia held up her hand. 'Wait a moment. Think. These things don't happen by accident. There are no accidents in the Wild Magic. Now, I don't know anything about Shalkan, and it's impolite to ask, but I suspect that helping you was his price, either for something that Wild Magic did for him in the past, or for something that he's asked for in the future.'
Once again, Kellen stared at Idalia in surprise. That notion had never even occurred to him.
She smiled. 'In any event, you ought to be flattered that the Council cared enough to try to kill you so thoroughly. Father must be furious, losing both his children to the Wild Magic this way. I guess Wildmagery runs in our blood. I really do wonder if Mother practiced?'
