Awakened by Magic (The Four Kings Book 1) by Katy Haye (3)

Chapter Three

The fish was delicious, the taste of the picnic meal eaten with our fingers vastly superior to the same dish cooked on the stove and eaten at the table in our hut. I wiped my greasy fingers on a leaf and leaned back to watch the sky while the fire burned down, pillowing my arms behind my head.

Essa sighed. “It’s funny how a break makes returning to everyday life less desirable rather than more so.”

I huffed, although I didn’t move. “It’s all right for you, you’re going back to our warm and dry hut. I have to get back in the lake and fetch a few more fish.”

“Poor you.” I didn’t have to look to know Essa was pulling a face. “If you used magic you could dry off in a minute.”

I didn’t answer that. I was enjoying myself too much to start another argument.

“Your magic would come back, you know. If you encouraged it.”

“I don’t want to encourage it. Magic’s dangerous.”

“Only in the wrong hands.” Essa sat up, leaning towards me. The smoke from the fire swirled behind her, a drift of grey staining the air.

I sat up to match her. “In anyone’s hands. Mother was powerful, and that fooled her into thinking she was strong enough to join the rebellion, strong enough to fight the Emperor.” I shredded the leaf I was holding between my fingers. “If Ma hadn’t had magic, she’d still be alive today.”

“You don’t know that. Plenty of people with no magical ability died in the rebellion.”

“I’m aware of that.”

“Are you scared, Kyann?”

“No.” It was a lie; I was terrified. But life was better if you pretended you didn’t see your fears; if you didn’t let them catch a grip on you. “I’m practical, Essa. I want you to be safe. Your magic puts you at risk.”

“My magic has saved about eight lives so far. Would you have sent them to their graves?”

“Of course not.” The fire was burning lower, just as our conversation threatened to heat up. Perhaps it was time to return to the village and our normal lives. “You’re … you’re a wonder, Essa. I’m proud of you.”

I’d thought she’d soften at the compliment, but again I misread my sister. “If the Emperor is seeking more magic, if he’s somehow managed to use up what he had…” She looked up at me. “Then what should we do, Kyann?”

“Stay away from the man.” Keep Essa safe.

She shook her head as though I’d misread the question. “No, I mean…” She shifted. My mouth dried. I was very afraid of what she was about to say. “The Emperor is our leader, our ruler. And yet under him our fields grow fewer crops, we trade less. Taxes are higher but the country is poorer. A couple of bad harvests and the village could be starving.” She bit her lip. “How can we help?”

“We help by surviving. We help by using our skills – you heal, I hunt.”

“If I have magic, shouldn’t I do more?”

I closed my eyes. If I was like our father, she was just like our mother, giving all she had for others. “No. It’s not your battle.”

“What if I could find the four kings?”

“The four kings don’t exist.”

“Ma thought they existed.”

I shook my head. “They’re a myth, a comfort. We all want to believe that someone is coming to the rescue, but no one is. They were just stories.” I covered her hand. “It’s not for you – or us – to save the whole country. We do our bit here, keep the village fed and healthy, that’s all anyone can expect.”

“We aren’t going to run away?”

“No.” Not unless we had to.

“Hunt, fish and keep our heads down,” Essa summed up. “That’s hardly a life’s vocation.”

“You’d rather starve?”

“Of course not.” She took a breath. “This is our life, Kyann. We’re safe. I can look after myself, and you need … something in your life. Rediscovering your magic would do you good.”

“There’s nothing to rediscover. There’s nothing left. I turned my back on it, and my magic abandoned me.”

“Magic isn’t like that, it’s not … petty or vengeful. It just is. You still have it, Kyann – why else do you think you’re such a good hunter?”

I looked at her. “I’m a good hunter because I practise. Because I’m patient. There’s nothing magical about the matter.”

“There is. You just won’t see it.”

I rose to stamp out the last of the fire’s embers. “We should get back.” The half-burned fragments of wood crunched beneath my boots, cinders lifting into the air, the last of the smoke catching in my throat. I coughed and lifted a hand to wave away the fumes.

Movement caught my eye. I thought it was simply the smoke and shifted to waft it away. It wasn’t smoke. It was a dragonfly. My hand froze. I didn’t want to hit the creature by accident.

Another insect joined the first. They darted on the air, twitching from one side of me to the other. One more, and a fourth. I frowned. Dragonflies didn’t behave like this. They didn’t come this close to people. Or not for longer than moments.

“Beautiful, aren’t they?” Essa prompted.

My gaze darted from the dragonflies to her. She waved a hand and they dissipated, becoming a blur of jewel-bright colour, then winking out of existence.

“Do you remember?” she asked softly, a smile in her voice. “You used to conjure animals for me. When we were … before we found the village,” she corrected herself. “The butterflies were my favourite.” The smile grew. “When I was tired, when I said I couldn’t go any further, you would conjure a pretty redwing and tell me I just needed to follow it. The creature was so small, so fragile, I couldn’t possibly have less strength than it did.”

Almost against my will, my own lips tugged into a smile.

“And then there were the owls. They were our sentries while we slept. They would keep us safe if the Emperor’s guards found us.”

“I remember.” How strange that I’d forgotten until this moment.

“In the end, I was complaining that I was tired even when I wasn’t, just so you would conjure a bird or a butterfly. I used to say I was scared to sleep so you’d make an owl and I’d hear it hooting when I closed my eyes. I was even sorry when they made us welcome here and we didn’t need your enchanted animals anymore.” She faced me, smile fading.

“You never said.” I’d thought Essa was as relieved as I’d been to arrive here and stop running.

“Of course not. I wanted to be grown up. I didn’t want to need my big sister’s magic; I wanted to have my own.”

“And you did.” Essa’s magic had grown and bloomed as mine had withered. It might have grown because mine had withered.

Did that make it my fault if she was in danger now? I shook the thought away. I didn’t have to balance every good memory with a fear for the future. I wouldn’t offer anything for fear to catch hold of. “You’re magnificent, Essa.”

“I had a good example,” she said.

My heart swelled like the full moon.

“Who needs the four kings when you have Essa and Kyann?” She struck a pose, hand on hip. “The Stalwart Emperor should tremble before us.” She clicked her fingers and a bird sprang from her hand, rising, calling, into the blue sky.

“Yes, yes. Don’t get overambitious. Time to get back. You have patients to help.”

“Will you conjure me a butterfly to guide the way?” Essa asked, tugging on my arm the way she’d done when she was seven.

“Of course not. You’re not a child.”

“Then I’ll conjure one.” She stepped in front, walking backwards while she faced me, a sparkle of blue racing over her hand as she created the mirage of a fist-sized redwing that flitted from her hand into the trees overhead.

“Magic!”

We turned at the shout. Our smiles vanished when a guard burst out of the trees. Two more joined him, blocking our way. “A girl with magic,” he declared, with a smile that revealed teeth as sharp and merciless as those of a tiger. “The Emperor has use for you.”