In The Beginning by Gail Daley (top 100 books of all time checklist .TXT) 📕

to Geri and ask about it. She wanted to find out more about the other worlds Rebecca had shown them the day they had exiled the McTavishes.

On one of her forays, she found Serle in front of the Gate. It was obvious he was trying to open it, but she pretended she didn't know what he was up to, and asked him, "What are you doing?"

He jumped and whirled around, a guilty expression on his face. "None of your business, little girl!" he snapped.

"You're wasting your time, you know," she told him. "Most of the magi stuff in Ironlyn only works if you are blood related."

He snarled at her. "Well, they must be useless to you, since you aren't truly family. Go away, you little brat."

"You're looking for a Gate, aren't you? I bet you plan to run to the Magi Proctors to tell them if you find it."

The child's unwelcome words hit home and Serle lost his temper. To teach her a lesson, He lashed out at her with a spell to smack her across the face. It would have hurt and might have left a bruise, but it wouldn't have been fatal. Unfortunately for Serle, Selene's protection spell snapped into place, and he found himself slapped back against the tunnel wall at three times the force he had hurled at Selene. He dropped like a stone, out cold, with the arm he had used to cast his spell bent at an unnatural angle.

Selene stood there gaping at his prone body. Had she killed him? Horrified, she turned and ran back down the tunnel to get Catrin.

Catrin looked up from putting a seal on a potion bottle as her sister burst into the room.

"I think it killed him!" she gasped.

"What? What killed who?" Catrin demanded.

"Serle. I saw him down by the Gate trying to open it. When I asked him what he was doing, he told me to go away. I asked him if he was planning to tell the Magi Proctor about it if he found a Gate, and he—he threw a spell at me. My amulet lit up and bounced him back against the tunnel wall. He didn't get back up."

"Show me," Catrin said.

Serle was still unconscious when they returned. Catrin checked his pulse. "He isn't dead," she reassured the girl. "It looks like he's just been knocked out. We will need help to move him though. Go find Sarsee Jinks and tell her I need a couple of footmen to take him to the infirmary."

Selene found Andre instead. He listened to her garbled story and followed her back down the tunnel. He looked Serle over with a grin before grabbing his unbroken arm and pulling the man over his shoulder. Hanging on to Serle's legs with the man's head dangling over his back, he walked him back to the Infirmary, where he dropped him none too gently on one of the beds.

"Let me know when he wakes up," he told Catrin. "he and I need to have a chat about how he treats our girl here."

Catrin frowned at him. "With a broken arm, he'll be in no shape to fight you," she warned.

Andre laughed. "I won't need to do anything to him, I doubt he would try to fight me, but if a simple slap spell did this, what do you think a stronger one aimed at me would do? Rebecca gave me one of those stones too."

Serle woke up in the infirmary a few hours later with a raging headache and his arm in a cast.

Lela, who had been given the task of watching him, fled the room as soon as she saw his eyes open.

"He is awake, Draya Catrin," she said. "Shall I inform Drake Andre?"

"I suppose so. I want to have a little talk with him myself."

Entering the room, Catrin surveyed her patient with a frown. "How do you feel?" she asked briskly.

He scowled. "My head hurts. What is this thing on my arm?"

"You have a headache because you smacked your head against the tunnel wall. That is a cast on your arm. You broke it at the same time."

"Well, fix it. What kind of a healer are you anyway?"

"I'm sorry, but you are suffering from magical backlash. Nothing can be done to heal you until your body has recovered."

"Magical backlash? From what?"

"The spell you flung at Selene ricocheted back at you and tossed you into the tunnel wall. I would appreciate it, if you would not throw spells at my sister or threaten my staff. You have no say as to who goes or stays in Ironlyn, and I suggest you remember it."

"That isn't the only thing he needs to remember, Catrin," said Andre from the doorway.

Serle glared at him. "What do you want, Merc?"

Andre walked up to the bed and stood looking down at Serle. "You say 'Merc' as if you think it's a mark of shame. It isn't, but attacking little girls is. Selene is off limits to you Corkian. She is my family. If you raise a hand to her again, you're a dead man."

"I didn't intend to hurt the little brat," Serle sounded sulky even to his own ears. "She was being nosy. I was just trying to get her to go away. You don't scare me Benoit. You got lucky with McTavish."

Andre just smiled. An unwilling chill ran down Serle's back, and hated Andre even more because of it.

"Magi blood bleeds red, like anyone else, Corkian. McTavish and his son weren't the first Magi I've put down. Selene is off limits. Remember that."

"I'm tired and my head hurts. I want something for the pain." Serle told Catrin.

"Sorry, no medications either, I'm afraid," Catrin said, with no sympathy. "I will dim the lights however. Try to sleep if you can."

She nudged Andre back from the bed. "You had your say, now leave my patient alone. The sooner he gets better, the sooner I can get him out of here.

Truth Or Consequences

REBECCA WAS FILLING the supply cabinets