Chapter Six

Rapping at my door dragged me from sleep. To judge from the light in the curtained room, dawn was barely upon us.

“What is it?”

“We’ve got something to show you.” Fon’s voice. “Can I come in?”

“No!” Heat rushed through me. I didn’t want him to see me in my nightwear. Especially after … last night. “Give me a minute,” I called back.

“Hurry up.”

That meant nothing. Fon was always in a hurry. “Is something the matter?” I reached for my clothes, finding underwear and then pulling on leggings and a tunic. My heart beat hard as my imagination conjured what might be bothering Fon.

“We want you to be the first to see this.”

“We” again. Did he mean all the kings, or had Fon got together with Essa for some kind of mischief? “To see what?”

“It’s a surprise. Come on.”

Both impatience and happiness were clear in his voice. Whatever it was, it was a good surprise – or one Fon considered good. My heart leapt with hope that I’d misunderstood their rejection the previous night. But my heart was clearly not a reliable indicator of anything right now. I had to remember to play it cool when I was around the kings. I wouldn’t burden them with my crush just because I didn’t want to bear it. I was the guardian, not a silly girl. “I’ll be one minute.” I stamped my feet into my boots. I was rather afraid that the guardian could also be a very silly girl.

When I wrenched the door open, my breath caught. Fon was leaning against the jamb of the door, arms folded. His hair was bright in the light from the corridor windows. And when I appeared he smiled and it was like the sun coming out. Cool, I reminded myself. Cool.

“At last!” While I was trying to gather my scattered thoughts, Fon straightened and grabbed my hand. “Come on, we can’t keep it a secret for long.”

He almost dragged me along the corridor to the stairs, his hand firm around my wrist. “What have you been up to?” I asked.

“You’ll see.” He wasn’t facing me, but I could hear the grin in his voice.

We reached the bottom of the stairs and Fon towed me to the main doors, stepping out to the dawn’s sunlight. Vashri and Axxon were waiting just outside. They were grinning, but I still wasn’t sure what about. Rey stood on the bridge, arms raised as he conjured a wall of water from the lake, obscuring the view across the lake to the mainland.

“Are you ready?” Axxon asked.

“I’m not sure. There’d better not be a shadow army on the other side of the lake,” I joked.

“She’s ready!” Fon yelled to Rey.

I caught the flash of his teeth as he smiled. Then he let his enchantment drop and the water fell back into the lake.

And I saw it.

I gasped a breath, sure I must be seeing a mirage. “Is that for real?”

“Do you like it?” Fon was as urgent as ever, the happiness in his voice revealing a thread of worry at my silence.

I blinked, and the beautiful building on the other side of the lake stayed where it was. This was no mirage. The structure was enormous, at least as big as the Silent Castle, although its design was entirely different. There was nothing defensive about this long, three-storey building littered with windows. It was elegant and decorative and… “It’s…” Amazing, remarkable, impossible… I swung to my companions, not wanting to make any assumptions. “What have you built?”

“It’s the academy,” Vashri told me. “Your school for magic.”

I gasped, swinging back to look at the building through new eyes. The academy. The edifice in front of me merged into the ideas that had been circling my brain. “That’s the academy,” I breathed. And abruptly, it was. It was built as three sides of a square, open in the middle with a fountain in the courtyard. I could almost see students walking from place to place or sitting by the fountain to read a book or argue over a lesson with their friends.

Tears blurred my vision. “You made this for me?”

“Of course. It’s not just foreign kings who think you’re precious,” Axxon told me, his arm going around my shoulders.

“Why do you think we had to get you out of the way last night?” Fon demanded.

“I thought—” I was ashamed of doubting the kings now. “I didn’t know what to think,” I admitted.

“This seemed like the perfect gift,” Vashri said.

I nodded, incapable of speech.

“Kyann?” Fon leaned closer, alarmed by my silence. I sniffed and croaked something incomprehensible. “Goddess, Kyann, I’m sorry. Don’t cry, please.” Another croak from me just set an expression of panic on his face. “I’m so sorry. We’ll take it to pieces if you don’t like it.”

“Don’t you dare!” Finally, a sentence made it safely past my lips. I wiped impatiently at my eyes.

“You … like it?”

“It’s the most amazing, beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

Fon nodded as the tension drained from his face. “So why are you crying?”

I blurted a laugh. “Because … because this is the most wonderful thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

His face became one big frown all over again. “And that’s bad?”

“No!” I slapped his shoulder, then slipped my hand through his arm. “No, that’s very, very good.” I leaned my head against his shoulder. I would have been mad to accept the offer of the Shah of Torval. Nothing was going to tear me away from my kings.

An uncomfortable lurch turned my stomach over. I was going to have to do something about my crush – my crushes – soon.

But not just yet. I turned my face up to the kings. “Will you show me around?”

“We all will.”

We crossed the bridge, collecting Rey as we went.

Up close, it was even more impressive, stretching high to the heavens and glowing as the sun rose, the strongstone walls radiant, light winking off the windows. “How did you manage this overnight?”

“Magic.” Fon grinned.

“Along with a chunk of hard work,” Rey added.

Axxon led me towards the broad doors in the middle wall opposite the fountain. “When you’re determined enough, you can achieve anything. We wanted to surprise you.”

“You succeeded.”

We crossed the threshold into a wide hallway that ran the full length of the building. What first met my eyes was the ornate shrine set between the windows on the far side of the room.

“The goddess will be honoured in everything we do here,” Rey said. I nodded, admiring the ornate carving and decoration. It was a beautiful tribute.

“The room should hold all the students and staff for assemblies,” Vashri said. My boots echoed on the wooden floor as I stepped farther inside, looking past the shrine to the windows that flanked it. The view was of a wide swathe of norgrass, and then the forest began again, a sheltering fringe of trees. When I closed my eyes, I could picture students sitting in clusters on the grass, practising what they’d learned.

“It’s perfect,” I breathed.

“There’s more. The classrooms are upstairs.” A staircase at the back led to the upper floor. A long corridor gave onto rooms on either side. They were empty now, but I could picture desks on the polished floors.

“It needs to be furnished,” Rey said. “We thought we should give work to some of our craftsmen, rather than using magic for everything.”

“You thought of everything,” I said.

We followed the corridor to its bend. “The wings on either side have dormitories for the students. If they’re going to come from all parts of Charnrosa they’ll need to board at the school.” We walked through the rest of the rooms and I pictured beds in the dormitories, staff in the kitchens, and books in the long library on the top floor.

“We didn’t have time to move the books from the Silent Castle,” Vashri explained, as though concerned that I might make a complaint about the fact.

“It’s perfect.” I smiled, sharing my gaze between all of them. This was everything I could have pictured. And more. Tears of happiness brimmed again, but I blinked them back for Fon’s sake.

I wanted to serve Charnrosa. I wanted the Empire’s future to be secure. I wanted to make sure that no one like the Stalwart Emperor could seize power in the future. Encouraging as many people as possible to learn how to use magic was the ideal solution. And the kings had made it easy.

“It just needs students. And teachers.”

“We’ll guide the students,” Vashri said immediately. “And you will too, won’t you?”

“I’ll do my best.” I spread my hands. “But I don’t think I know enough to teach others.”

“Your magic saved Charnrosa,” Axxon pointed out.

“You can do more powerful magic than anyone else,” Rey added.

“I know, but that wasn’t fully under my control. The gems, and you four, and maybe even the goddess…” I took a breath. “I never fully learned how to control my magic. My parents died before they could share their abilities with me.”

“You demonstrate exactly what we want people to know,” Rey said. “If you can feel magic inside you, then you can use it. You’re the perfect example for potential students.”

“It’s instinctive to you,” Vashri said. “And with time, those instincts will become conscious.”

“How much time do we have?” I looked at each of them. “When do we plan to start lessons?”

“It will take time to gather the students, and complete the finishing touches to the academy,” Axxon pointed out. “The autumn solstice would be a good marker.”

Fon grinned. “And I know how we should spend the time until then.”

I blinked. He was too cheerful to be thinking of employing craftsmen to make tables and chairs, or writing lesson plans.

Axxon folded his arms. “Enlighten us.”

“So much has changed in the Empire. We should be the ones to spread the news around the land,” Fon said. “We can carry news of the academy and recruit students as we go.” He nudged my shoulder. “Another quest for the four kings and Kyann. Plus, this gives the ordinary people of Charnrosa the chance to meet our new Empress.”

“No, the guardian.” I wasn’t going to take the title Empress, that was too much.

Fon huffed.

I held up a hand, piercing him with a sharp gaze. “Are you telling me the title guardian isn’t good enough for Charnrosa? That the title used by the woman who brought the land and its people back to life is somehow lacking?”

Fon’s mouth worked, trying to find an argument. Behind him, Rey laughed.

“Guardian it is,” Vashri said firmly.

As easily as that, the matter was decided. We had a little more than three weeks until the council would meet again. Leea and Essa would spend that time recruiting staff and ensuring the academy was ready to begin teaching, while Lord Hullar and the other lords would deal with everyday matters in their own lands. If they needed us they could get in touch. But if not, I had nearly a month ahead of me to do nothing but enjoy the company of the kings and develop my knowledge of Charnrosa as I travelled around the Empire.

For a girl who hadn’t taken a day off from responsibilities since she was ten, the idea was almost overwhelming. At least, I hoped it was that making me feel giddy whenever I contemplated the idea of spending the next month with the kings as my close companions.