quickly, but she found herself blocked by another, and another. Her heart sank as footsteps signalled the approach of novices in front and behind. In the next moment she was shielding a relentless shower of strikes.
Novices blocked her escape. Trapped, she could only wait as they wore her down. With so many attackers, her strength failed rapidly. As her shield began to waver, Regin stepped to the front and smiled broadly. He held a small bottle in his hand, filled with a dark liquid. At a signal from him the attack stopped.
“Sweet Sonea,” he said, sending a bolt of power at her shield. “How my heart lifts to see you.” Another strike. “It has been so long since we met.” Her shield began to crumble, but she drew up more power from somewhere. “Absence does nurture regard, as they say.” The next strike broke it easily. She braced, waiting for the stunstrikes to come.
“I have brought you a gift,” Regin continued. “A perfume of the most exotic variety.” He plucked the cork from the bottle. “Urgh! Such sweet fragrance. Would you like to try it?”
Even from a few steps away, she recognized the smell. Her class had extracted oil from the leaves of the kreppa bush for a medicine project. The remaining juice smelled like rotting vegetation and could cause stinging blisters.
Regin waved the unstoppered bottle carelessly. “But one tiny bottle is too small a token of my regard. Look, I have brought more!”
Bottles appeared in the other novices’ hands. They opened them gingerly and the corridor filled with the sickening odor.
“Tomorrow, we will know where you are by your sweet perfume.” Regin nodded to the others. “Now!” he barked.
Hands thrust forward, sending several streams of the vile juice toward her. She threw up her hands, closed her eyes and from somewhere managed to draw together a last surge of power.
No liquid touched her skin. Nothing. She heard someone cough, then another, then suddenly the passage was filled with curses and exclamations. Opening her eyes, she blinked in amazement. The walls, the ceiling, and the novices were splattered with fine brown droplets. The novices were wiping at their hands and faces frantically. Some were spitting on the floor. Others were rubbing their eyes and one had begun to wail with pain.
Looking at Regin she saw that, being the closest, he had suffered the worst. His eyes were streaming, and his face was raw with red spots.
A strange feeling was bubbling up inside her. Realizing she was going to laugh, she covered her mouth. Hauling herself away from the wall, she swayed, then made herself straighten.
She started walking through the group of novices. Regin’s head snapped up. “Don’t let her get away,” he growled.
A few novices looked up, but the rest ignored him.
“Forget it. I’m getting these robes off now,” one novice said. Others nodded, and began to move away. Regin blinked at them, his face darkening with fury, but he did not argue.
Sonea turned her back and forced her tired legs to carry her past the novices and away.
32
A Little Side Trip
Rothen yawned as he climbed the stairs of the Magicians’ Quarters. Even a cold bath hadn’t done much to wake him up. He found Tania waiting for him in his guestroom, laying out plates of cakes and buns.
“Good morning, Tania,” he said.
“You’re a little late this morning, my lord,” she replied.
“Yes.” He rubbed his face, then started making sumi. Realizing she was still watching him, he sighed. “I’ve cut down to a tenth of the dosage.”
She didn’t say anything, just nodded approvingly. “I have some news.” She paused, and when he gestured for her to continue, she grimaced apologetically. “You won’t like it.”
“Go on.”
The University cleaners were complaining this morning that some foul-smelling liquid was splattered all over one of the passages. I asked them what they thought had happened, and they started grumbling about novices fighting each other. They were a bit reluctant to say which novices - reluctant to say in front of me, that is. So I bribed it out of one of the serving girls who had already heard the story.
“Regin has been gathering together other novices and waylaying Sonea at night. I asked Viola about it, and she said she hadn’t seen anything to suggest that Sonea had been harmed at all.”
Rothen frowned. “It would take a lot to wear Sonea out.” He felt a spark of anger as he realized what this meant. “Once she had, though, Regin could do anything to her. She’d be too tired to even fight him off physically.”
Tania drew in a sharp breath. “He wouldn’t dare hurt her, would he?”
“Not in any way that would do lasting damage, or have him expelled.” Rothen scowled at the table.
“Why doesn’t the High Lord put a stop to it - or hasn’t he heard about it? Perhaps you should tell him.”
Rothen shook his head. “He knows. It’s his place to know.”
“But—” Tania stopped at a knock on the door. Relieved at the interruption, Rothen willed it open. A messenger stepped inside, bowed, and handed Rothen a letter, before retreating from the room again.
“It’s for Sonea.” Rothen turned the letter over and felt his heart skip. “It’s from her aunt and uncle.”
Tania moved closer. “Don’t they know she isn’t living in your rooms anymore?”
“No. Sonea thought Regin might get hold of her mail if it came to her in the Novices’ Quarters, and she probably hasn’t contacted them since she moved to the residence.”
“Would you like me to take it to her?” Tania offered.
Rothen looked up, surprised. It was easy to forget that others had no reason to fear Akkarin. “Would you?”
“Of course. I haven’t spoken to her in such a long time.”
Akkarin might grow suspicious if he saw Rothen’s servant delivering a message to Sonea, however. “She’ll want to read this as soon as possible. If you deliver it to her room, she won’t get it until tonight. I think she spends Freedays in the Novices’ Library. Could you give it to Lady Tya?”
“Yes.” Tania took the letter and slipped it into the front of her uniform. “I’ll drop by the library after dropping these dishes off at the kitchen.”
“Agh! My legs hurt!” Tayend complained.
Dannyl laughed quietly as the scholar collapsed onto a boulder to rest. “
“But Dem Ladeiri made them sound so interesting.” Tayend pulled out his flask and drank a few mouthfuls of water. “And closer.”
“He just neglected to say we’d have to scale a few cliffs to get here. Or that the rope bridge wasn’t safe.”
“Well, I suppose he did tell us it had been a long time since he had come up here. Levitation must really come in handy at times.”
“At times.”
“Why aren’t you breathing hard?”
Dannyl smiled. “Levitation isn’t the only useful trick the Guild teaches us.”
“You’re
