I quickly ran through a series of possible explanations for my vision: another silk mage? Unlikely – there couldn’t be that many of them wandering around the borderlands. Besides, now that I’d experienced what it was like when they got in your head, I was pretty sure I’d recognise the sensation. I could be crazy of course – that seemed like a pretty natural reaction to having people try to kill you over and over again. But somehow that felt too easy.
There was a third possibility of course, though that was even more troubling.
‘It’s me, dummy,’ Shalla said, the particles of sand shifting to make her mouth assume a slight smirk.
‘How …? How are you doing this, Shalla?’
The smile shifted to become even more self-satisfied. ‘Do you like it? I devised the spell myself. Well, I mean, there are precedents of course, but I’m fairly sure I’m the first mage to successfully project my image across this kind of distance.’
I’d been a pretty good student of magical theory, back when I was an initiate, so I couldn’t help but try to figure out how she was doing it. At first I thought the fact that I was hearing her voice meant she was using silk magic to make the words appear in my mind, but silk spells don’t travel well, and besides, Shalla sounded like she was whispering to me. ‘Breath magic,’ I said at last. ‘You’re using the wind to carry your image and voice to me.’
The face in the sand nodded. ‘Breath and a touch of sand magic to deal with time of course. Otherwise there would be a delay whenever we spoke, and that would be annoying. Locating you was the hard part. Fortunately I found a bit of your dried blood on father’s worktable, which meant I could key the spell to you.’
The casual way she spoke about the time my own parents had strapped me down to a table and permanently counter-banded me – forever denying me access to five of the six forms of magic – reminded me of one of the reasons why I’d left home in the first place. ‘What is it you want, Shalla?’
‘Don’t be like that. It took me ages to make this spell work. It turns out the winds have to be moving just right, so I’m not sure how often I can do this.’
‘Then why go to all the trouble?’
The sand shifted again, making my sister’s image look oddly hurt by my words. ‘I’m worried about you, Kellen. I need to know that you’re okay.’
‘I’m fine.’
Suddenly the wind picked up, and Shalla’s voice became angry. ‘You’re not! Mother’s been dosing herself with potions so that she can look for you with scrying spells – did you know that? She watched you getting beaten up by that boy. She cried for hours, threatening to leave if Father didn’t go find you and bring you home.’
‘And what did the great and noble Ke’heops say to that?’
A pause, and a shift in the breeze that made the image start to fade. I thought the spell was broken, but a moment later the sands came together again. ‘You know he can’t risk leaving right now, Kellen. The council hasn’t made him clan prince yet. He needs to be careful, bide his time until the other lords magi finally give our house the prestige and power it deserves.’
‘Well, I wish him luck,’ I said, knowing it would annoy Shalla. My people don’t believe in luck.
The sand forming her eyebrows arched. ‘Don’t you care about us any more? You haven’t asked how any of us are doing. Ra’meth is still alive, you know. He’s weak, but he’s still got friends on the council. Tennat and his brothers have sworn to destroy you and everyone who helped you.’
‘Nephenia …’ I hadn’t meant to say her name aloud, but now I needed to ask, ‘Is she all right?’
Shalla hesitated for a long while, and I knew she was contemplating what she might be able to make me do by threatening to withhold the information. But my sister is not nearly so cruel as she likes to pretend. ‘Mouse girl is fine. Her name is Neph’aria now, remember?’
Neph’aria. I’d forgotten that she’d received her mage’s name when she passed her trials. Now she could start her life, take care of her mother and be free of her father’s rule.
I hope you find happiness, Neph, even if it’ll never be with me.
Shalla must have sensed my weakness. ‘She’s seeing Pan’erath now, you know.’
‘Pan?’ Panahsi had been my best friend – my only friend really. But all that had changed when I’d sided with Ferius and uncovered the truth about our people. The Jan’Tep don’t take betrayal lightly. Panhasi had been almost like a brother to me, but now he was Pan’erath: a loyal Jan’Tep mage, and I was a traitor.
‘His family is more powerful than they were, and his grandmother has offered … protection to Neph’aria and her mother in exchange for a uniting of their two houses.’
‘You’re saying Nephenia’s going to marry Pan?’
The image in the sand nodded. ‘In a year’s time … unless you do something about it.’ The soft whisper of her voice became almost pleading. ‘Come home, Kellen. It’s not safe for you out there in the borderlands. Come back and serve your own people so we can protect you.’
That almost made me laugh. ‘Protect me? How exactly are “my people” going to protect me when someone on the council of lords magi invoked a spell warrant on me?’
‘What? That’s not possible. No one would—’
‘I saw the warrant myself, Shalla.’
‘That …’ The image in the sand seemed to waver. ‘I’m going to find out what’s going on, Kellen, I promise. If Ra’meth or one of his allies did this, then he’s in violation of the council’s edict against our two houses feuding. He’ll be dismissed from the council.’ A faint smile started to appear. ‘In fact, if I can prove it, his entire family will be exiled from the Jan’Tep territories.’
‘Shalla, don’t do anything stupid. Ra’meth is dangerous. If he finds out you’re looking into his affairs he might—’
She gave a faint snort, and grains of sand rose up from the ground as though carried on the breeze. ‘I’m not afraid of Ra’meth, Kellen. After all, you beat him, didn’t you?’
Without waiting for a reply, Shalla’s image disappeared, leaving me standing alone like an idiot talking to the empty desert.