A soft chuckle. “Did I ever tell you of my older brother?”
“No.”
Shamino gently turned me around, and I found myself with my hands on his chest, his hands on my back. Exhaustion still lined his face, but the anger and frustration had softened. Even his green eyes seemed tender.
“Rogan was a year older than me. Father called him perfect in every way.” Pain in his eyes, just a flash. “Rogan was a skilled Generalist who could cast anything. His manifestation was spectacular. We went riding with friends, and a horse threw twelve-year-old Tressa. Rogan caught her with Telekinesis—his very first spell. They were betrothed the next day.”
Tressa… betrothed to Shamino’s brother. Pieces began to click. Shamino’s brother, dead. Shamino inheriting. His father urging him to honor a marriage contract… to Tressa. Who changed the subject anytime anyone mentioned the Seneschal.
“Father began to anticipate my Gift,” Shamino continued. “Problem is, how does a dragon healer manifest without any dragons?”
I had no idea. “You didn’t manifest?”
“I think my magic came in at fifteen—same age as Rogan’s—but I didn’t heal my first dragon until I was sixteen. Until then, I was a failure. Even after that day, Father called me worthless because I couldn’t heal humans.” Shamino pressed his forehead against mine. “I know how you feel, Adara. And despite that, I attacked you, just like Father attacked me. I promised myself I’d never be like him, yet here I am hurting someone I…”
He stepped back and picked up my mop. “Makes me a poor Seneschal, and an even worse friend.”
The cave felt cold and massive. Lonely. He held out my mop, but I hugged my arms to my chest. His words helped, yet they didn’t.
“The problem is, I did manifest,” I told him. “Your Gift worked after you saw that dragon, didn’t it? I’ve cast a handful of spells, but I didn’t plan a single one. I’m broken. Without a Gift, I can’t bond.”
Without bonding, I would have to leave the Kyer. I would have to leave…
Shamino still held out the broom. “I’ll write Merram and petition the Elders. Ask them to let you stay on as long as it takes. If I can get the unbonded dragons to support me… What do you think?”
Once Shamino had fought to keep me out of the Quarters; now he’d fight so I could stay. I took the mop and smiled through my tears. “Write him after you take a nap.”
He broke into a grin. The cave warmed. “After a nap.”
I continued mopping as he left to rest. With every stroke, I grew more certain. Shamino would write, but Merram would say no. He couldn’t afford anyone asking why he’d made an exception. Even if she worked hard. Even if the dragons and the Seneschal liked her—Dragonsridge would question it even more, Shamino asking to keep a girl at the Dragon Quarters.
You must make your Gift work, Adara. Hopelessness made the mop as heavy as stone. Zoland couldn’t help me. The First One clearly wouldn’t. I’d tried and tried and tried…
I finished late and stopped by the empty dining hall for some bread, meat, and fruit. I planned to eat after I soaked in a hot bath, but when I got to my rooms, my door hung ajar.
My appetite vanished. I lit a candle and went straight to the desk.
Another white box with a silver bow sat there. I exchanged it for my dinner and brought the present to the sofa. With trembling hands, I lit a few more candles before removing the bow.
My blood turned to ice.
Under the wooden lid, nestled in straw—
A box of pure crystal rests in my hands. I lift the lid and pull a silver chain. Out tumbles a shard of sapphire, it glints in the candlelight as I dangle…
… it from my fingers.
First One, the vision was real. It was happening right now.
I held a solid, real necklace of sapphire.
I dropped the necklace, and it bounced once on the rug. The box stayed in my lap. Paper lined its bottom. More letters. I smoothed them flat, recognizing the angry, slanted writing. So much writing.
My Dearest Adara,
It seems you do not trust me, and I commend the wisdom of caution even as I yearn for our meeting. Perhaps this gift will convince you of my sincerity. No, I do not take you for a silly girl to be lured by trinkets. This sapphire is more than a gemstone. It is a key.
With it, you can unlock your Gift.
I rushed to the bathroom where I became thoroughly sick.
How does he know? How does he know? I tried to calm myself, but it was difficult to picture a lake with my face in the privy. Thorkel knew I couldn’t work magic; a secret I kept from everyone but Shamino and Zoland—and Sylvia, and Byron, and anyone who might have noticed my uselessness in the Infirmary.
But who would have told Thorkel? The thought of a spy made me sick up again. To think of someone watching me, betraying even more vital secrets…
When my stomach finally calmed, I rinsed my mouth and returned to the living room. I found the paper on the floor with the sapphire.
It’s shamefully simple, really. So simple that every mage doesn’t realize why he can cast spells from the start. You see, a jewel is necessary. As a follower of the First One, surely you’ve heard the stories of the first mages? Did not the First One give them both a ruby created from the dragon’s heartblood? Within fiction, fact.
I digress. Read my enclosed instructions and embrace your Gift. On the last sheet, you’ll find directions so you can thank me in person. And remember, this is knowledge I share with you and no other. No one else is worthy.
The letter ended without a closing. I glanced at the other sheets. I didn’t take the time to read the ones about the sapphire, but
