The Traitor Queen

“Why now?”

Kallen’s brows lowered still further. “While Sonea is absent, many would rather that you were taught to use black magic than we have only one fully trained black magician in Imardin.”

No wonder he’s grumpy. The implication of that is that he needs watching. That he can’t be trusted. She felt a small surge of triumph that he experienced the same suspicion and distrust that she did. Though people distrust me because I broke a rule when I learned black magic, even though I thought I couldn’t succeed. But I suppose they distrust Kallen because he’s a roet addict. She felt triumph fade. It was replaced with sympathy. And he probably didn’t think that could happen, either.

She nodded. “So... what first?”

He straightened and took something from within his robe. Light reflected from the polished surface of a small, slim knife. Kallen lifted his other hand so that the sleeve fell back, then placed his arm on the table. He looked at her.

“I will cut myself. Place your hand over the wound and try to recall what you did to... Take enough that you can sense your own strength has increased.”

To Naki, Lilia finished. She pushed away a memory of a library, and the words that had seduced her into learning what was forbidden. “I’d do anything for you.” Kallen ran the blade across the back of his arm. She obediently placed her palm over the shallow cut, and closed her eyes.

The trick was to see that my own magic is contained within my skin, she remembered. The awareness came back to her slowly, but once her mind recalled it the sense of magic within her body was suddenly clear. She paused to marvel a little at it, but the call of an otherness nearby drew her attention. Shifting her focus to her hand, she detected Kallen’s presence and saw the gap in his defences.

She hesitated. To draw magic from Kallen, whom she had half feared most of her life and who was one of the Higher Magicians, seemed presumptuous. But he’d told her to, so she gathered her will and drew.

Magic flooded into her body. Immediately she slowed the pull. He would be able to sense it, she guessed, and know if she was overdoing it. He’d said to take magic until she could feel it had added to her own strength. Concentrating, she realised that she was already aware of being stronger. Halting the draw of power, she opened her eyes and withdrew her hand.

Kallen stared at her intently. “Take more.”

This time she was immediately aware of the break in his barrier, and she found that she didn’t need to sense the containment of her own power to do so. She forgot to close her eyes and realised she didn’t need to. Kallen’s face had gone strangely slack, she noted. He looked sad and tired.

When she stopped, expression returned to his face. He looked at her again, and this time he nodded.

“Good. I can sense that you are storing power now.” His lips thinned in grim approval. “Whenever we hold more power than we naturally possess, a little of it escapes our barrier. Focus on the natural containment at your skin until you sense this leakage, then send a little magic to reinforce your barrier.”

This time she did close her eyes. Drawing her attention within, she noted that she could feel that her power was enhanced. She concentrated on the barrier at her skin, which was the border of her control. Sure enough, magic was seeping through it, more in some places than others.

Exerting her will, she tapped a little of her magic and sent a steady trickle of it to thicken and harden the barrier. At once the leakage stopped.

Kallen nodded when she opened her eyes.

“I can’t sense it any more.” He almost smiled. “Now, it is also possible for another magician to sense the taking of magic. This is a similar problem of leakage, but it happens at the site of the wound. You need to extend your barrier a little to overlap that of the, ah, donor of magic.”

Following his instructions, Lilia managed to succeed in this lesson after a few attempts. After that, Kallen had her attempt to take magic so slowly that he barely noticed, then as quickly as she could. He was able, haltingly, to speak to her during the first, but obviously had trouble staying upright during the second.

“You should experience the weakening effect of being drained,” he told her. “Black Magician Sonea was not careful enough to avoid being cut during one fight with the Ichani because she hadn’t appreciated how disabling it was to be subjected to black magic. It is something you certainly don’t want to experience again, once you’ve felt it.” He waved a hand. “But it can wait until another lesson.”

“I remember something like that, from when Naki tried it on me,” Lilia told him. “She said it didn’t work, but I think she was lying.”

Kallen’s expression darkened, but then his lips thinned in sympathy. “In descriptions of the higher-magic rite between magicians and apprentices of old, the apprentices would kneel before their masters. They must have been able to remain upright. Perhaps the apprentices grew immune to the weakening effect.”

“Or the masters knew how to draw power without it affecting them.”

He nodded. “We could experiment, if you are willing. There is much about black magic we don’t understand, and I fear that our counterparts in Sachaka could use that against us.”

Lilia smothered a shudder of reluctance. Though experimenting with black magic with Kallen didn’t sound like much fun, she had to agree that the Guild couldn’t allow any holes in its knowledge of magic to remain unexplored.

Kallen ran a hand over the cut, which had now closed to a pink line. “Of course, you’ll only have to acquire magic this way from non-magicians or an enemy magician. Normal transferral of power can be done without cutting the skin. The weakening effect is also an advantage in battle. I can’t see many situations where taking power forcibly while avoiding the weakening effect will be of much use.”

“Perhaps... if you have to take power from an old magician who is dying but for some reason – perhaps they’re unconscious or senile – they can’t will their power to you.”

Kallen grimaced. “Yes. It would be kinder if they didn’t have to experience the weakening.”

She looked at the knife. “What do you do if you don’t have a knife? Could you use magic to make the cut?”

He shook his head. “Even if a magician is too weak to shield, so long as they are alive they still contain some energy and a barrier at their skin. At its most basic, that barrier is a shield against another’s will and must be broken.”

“But if you shaped magic into a sliver of force and send it out from yourself like a strike, overcoming the barrier, would it work?”

His eyebrows rose. “Perhaps. I guess if a strike is strong enough...” He frowned. “It would be difficult to test. The subject would have to be willing to be harmed, perhaps quite badly... though if you first gained some skill in forming a small, stabbing strike that only penetrated a tiny distance it would be no worse than a small cut.” His eyes narrowed in thought, then he looked at her appraisingly. “It is an interesting idea. We should explore it.”

She nodded, before the idea of letting him stab her could overcome her satisfaction at thinking of something that hadn’t occurred to him before.

“Well... that will do for today,” he said. “Tomorrow I will begin your training in mind-reading. We will need a volunteer for you to practise on. Once you have satisfactorily achieved that skill, I’ll teach you how to make a blood gem.”

A blood gem! Lilia resisted a smile, not wanting to seem too eager to learn more about what had once been forbidden magic. She rose as Kallen stood up and followed him to the door.

“Should I meet you here?” she asked.

He nodded, then gestured to the corridor. “Yes. Until tomorrow, then.”

She bowed and set off toward the outer rooms of the University, and her next class, unable to help feeling a thrill of excitement.

For the first time, knowing black magic doesn’t feel like a... a punishment – or a disease. The Guild wants me to learn it. And it’s actually interesting.

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