The Traitor Queen

not want me to betray them.

He clung to that thought, and tried to put out of his mind that she might not even be a Traitor, as the interrogator set about undoing everything Lorkin had mended the night before.

* * *

Like most novices, Lilia had learned early on that a complex of inner passages and rooms lay within the University building, reached through short passages made to look like small storage rooms. They weren’t forbidden to novices, however. Hundreds of years ago the Guild had grown so large that the need for teaching space outweighed whatever purpose the inner rooms had been designed for. Now, specialised or private classes were held in them.

The passages under the Guild were no great secret either. Everybody knew they’d been used during the Ichani Invasion. Though they were forbidden to both novices and magicians because they were deemed unsafe, the threat of cave-ins was never going to deter the more adventurous of them, so all of the passage entrances in the University had been sealed not long after the war.

Lilia wasn’t the only novice who suspected the Guild might have kept a few open, just in case. Anyi’s explorations had revealed that the Guild had been telling the truth, however. All of the passage entrances had been bricked up. Lilia had been hoping that her friend would find at least one access point into the University. It would be a lot easier than climbing down the narrow gap inside the Magicians’ Quarters wall.

Not to be deterred, Anyi had been working on making a new entrance. The night before, she had announced that she had broken through the brickwork at one entrance. Lilia had gone to inspect it. The hidden door in the panelling beyond had needed a little oiling before it would open smoothly. Beyond it was one of the inner passages of the University. When it was time to leave her friends, she’d used the door and then made her way back to Sonea’s rooms.

Now she was heading back to the hidden door, hoping it was too early for other novices to be in the inner passages. Jonna had brought a large bottle of lamp oil with the morning meal. Lilia was all too conscious that her friends were fast running out of sources of light – especially since Anyi had used lamp oil to loosen the secret door’s hinges. The new route into the passages would be much faster, since she didn’t have an awkward climb up to Sonea’s rooms, and when she returned she would be closer to her first class of the day.

Entering the University, she turned into one of the narrow corridors between the classrooms, and headed for the small room at its end that led to the inner passages. Somewhere behind her Lilia heard the sound of echoing footsteps following her. Probably a novice heading for a private class. The inner passages were usually quieter than the main part of the University, but she’d have to be careful nobody saw her slip through the secret door.

The odd little room that divided the main and inner parts of the University contained a wall of locked cabinets. Apparently these rooms had been bare until the former University Director had died, and his replacement had decided that no storage space should be wasted. Lilia pushed through the door opposite and entered the inner passages.

She had taken ten or so steps when she heard the door to the other side of the little room open and close, muffled by the door behind her. Whoever followed was gaining on her. She lengthened her stride in the hope that she would turn a corner before this other person would emerge and see her, but the distance was too great. She heard the door open behind her, then a laugh.

“Hey, Lilia,” a voice called. “Where you going?”

Her heart sank. Bokkin. From the menace in his tone she knew he had been tailing her. She stopped and turned to regard him. How stupid can this boy get? He doesn’t know how strong or weak I am. He doesn’t even have any friends with him to gang up on me. If he’s hoping I’m up to something that he could turn me in for, he shouldn’t have called out to me before he found out what it was.

Even so, he had messed up her plans. Perhaps that was all he was aiming for.

“Come to offer me your powers, Bokkin?” she asked.

He sauntered toward her. “You’ve got big ideas about yourself now, haven’t you? Think you’re better than anyone because you know black magic. It’s the other way around, you know. You’re the lowest scum of the Guild and everyone hates you. That’s why you’ve got no friends. Everyone knows Naki’s death was your fault.”

She felt something shrivel inside her, but instead of it making her cringe away from him it left a void that quickly filled with anger.

Be careful, she warned herself. Show anger and he’ll know he’s got to you, and accidentally injuring another novice will only add to the reasons people don’t like you.

She smiled. “Glad you got that off your chest, Bokkin?”

He moved closer, trying again to intimidate her with his bulk and height. “Yes. But I’m not done with you. I want you to apologise – no, I want you to beg me...”

The door behind them opened and he quickly stepped back.

“Lady Lilia.”

Confusion and relief rose as Lilia recognised Jonna’s voice. She peered past Bokkin to see the servant approaching. The woman bowed briskly at them both.

“A message came for you,” Jonna said. She pushed past Bokkin. “Excuse me, my Lord.”

Jonna placed a hand on Lilia’s arm and guided her along the passage, away from Bokkin. The novice remained silent, and Lilia didn’t dignify him with a backwards glance. She and Jonna turned a corner. When they had continued far enough Jonna glanced back.

“He’s not following us. Was he bothering you?”

Lilia shrugged. “He’s a troublemaker, but a pretty thickheaded one.”

“Don’t dismiss him too quickly. He may come back with others. Sonea had enemies among the novices when she was learning here, and they made her life here a torment.”

“Really? Who was the leader?” How humiliating to live your life known as the novice stupid enough to have picked on the famous Black Magician Sonea.

Jonna looked amused. “Lord Regin.”

Lilia stared at her in astonishment. “Really? He’s not dumb.”

“No.”

“I guess novice bullies were smarter in those days.”

Jonna patted her arm firmly. “What I want to know is, where are you going with a bottle of lamp oil in your bag?”

Lilia looked down at her bag then back up at Jonna. “What bottle? I left it in the room.”

“You most certainly did not, and it’s obvious from the way that bag is bulging and swinging that you have it in there.” Jonna frowned in a motherly, disapproving way. “I told Sonea I’d keep an eye on you. I helped raise Sonea’s son, Lorkin, so I know how to spot when a novice is up to something.”

Lilia gazed at the servant in dismay. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell Jonna about Cery, Gol and Anyi living under the Guild, but she had agreed not to. But if I don’t, Jonna won’t get me the things they need.

Jonna had lived in the slums before she became Sonea’s servant. She would surely empathise with Cery’s situation. Even if she didn’t, perhaps she would help out of sympathy for Anyi.

But am I being too trusting?

“Tell me, Lilia,” Jonna said. “I may not like it, but I promise I won’t report it to the Guild.” She frowned. “Well, unless you’re teaching someone black magic. Though I suppose I wouldn’t have turned Sonea and Akkarin in, if I’d known what was really going on.”

“I’m not teaching anyone black magic,” Lilia told her, and winced at the sound of protest in her voice. She drew in a deep breath, lowered her tone to a whisper. “Anyi is living under the Guild.”

Jonna looked thoughtful. “I see. I guessed that she’d been travelling that way to visit you for a while already. Is it safe?”

“We’ve been making it safer,” Lilia assured her.

“So... why is she there?”

Lilia shook her head. “It wasn’t safe in the city. Skellin’s people nearly killed Cery—”

“You mean Cery is down there as well?”