A Trial of Sorcerers: Book One by Kova, Elise (universal ebook reader .txt) 📕

“If they did, all the better. Groundbreakers will likely hunker against the cold. But Firebearers may continue. They can make light in the darkness and keep themselves warm with their flames.”

“We’re not competing against them though,” she needlessly reminded him. Though her thoughts wandered to Alyss spending the night alone in the cold.

Only the illusion of danger, she reminded herself. Alyss may be frigid, but they were all being trailed by people, just out of sight. Weren’t they? Even her and Marcus…unless they’d somehow given their trackers the slip when they’d moved quickly off the beaten path.

“The other Waterrunners will either settle for the night because they don’t have light, or they’ll continue on because they’re impervious to the cold. Do you want to take the risk?”

Eira looked up to the sky. It was a full moon tonight. That would give more than enough light to see by. There were eight Waterrunners left. But two would be cut. That meant they couldn’t risk coming in last. And nothing sounded more horrible than arriving in Solarin together and finding only one slot left.

“You’re right, we should keep going,” Eira decided.

“That was my thought,” he said as they pressed ahead. “If I’m right about the cutoff we took, we should be well away from any of the other little tests they could throw our way. We should make it back to Solarin before dawn if we walk all night.”

“If we walk all night,” she repeated and added a groan at the end.

“You could always stop here.”

“I’m not stopping here.”

“Just saying.” He shrugged with a grin.

“You and me, together at the end.” Eira stared into the darkening forest ahead. Every tree looked like the last. She was grateful her brother had his bearings. “I should tell—warn—you…I know that the last trial is going to be a duel. We will have to actually fight each other.”

“And that’s different from when we were kids, how?”

She laughed at his deadpan tone. “We really did tear up Mom and Dad’s kitchen that one time after my powers manifested.”

“Absolutely destroyed it.”

“You can’t go easy on me, all right?” Eira glanced in his direction.

“Only if you swear to not go easy on me.” He ruffled the hair on the top of her head. “I thought we established earlier—we want to earn our spot from the other.” Eira nodded. “By the way, how did you get all this information, really?”

“I…” Eira bit her lip. “I sort of know someone who is helping organize the trials.”

“Other than Uncle Fritz?”

“Higher up than him.”

“Who?” Marcus whispered as though there was someone to overhear their suddenly scandalous discussion. “Was it someone you met at court with Cullen? He said you ran into Prince Romulin.”

“Not the prince. It’s Ambassador Ferro. I might have been meeting with him in secret.”

“What?” There was a protective edge to Marcus’s voice. But unlike in the past, it didn’t make Eira immediately want to shout about how she could defend herself. This tone made her feel warm, safe. “What exactly have you been doing? Has he done anything inappropriate?”

“No! Of course not…” She filled him in just as she had Alyss. Marcus listened just as intently, but asked much fewer questions than Alyss had. Eira finished just before her last meeting with Ferro, keeping the kiss to herself.

“So, you like him, then?”

“Yes, I think I do,” Eira said, softer than the pastel tones that were quickly being painted over by a starry brush in the sky above them.

“Do you love him?”

She thought about the question a moment, trying not to let her cold and defensive walls immediately shut her off from her feelings. Those walls, placed around her heart from having to survive Adam’s cruelty and her subsequent life as the Tower outcast, had slowly come down over the last few weeks. They didn’t seem like they needed to be as thick. The incident from three years ago no longer had a hold on her. Perhaps what Aunt Gwen had said was right.

Life went on. She could let the mistakes she made along the way, however grave, define her or teach her.

“I think I do,” Eira admitted to both herself and her brother. “I know it may be silly, but—”

“It’s not silly at all,” he said softly, once more throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her in for a hug. “My sister, courting the elfin Ambassador to Meru. Well, I guess it’s not that surprising.”

“Stop.” A scarlet blush burned her cheeks.

“There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” He chuckled. “Just promise me when you go off and move to Meru to be with your new elfin lover you’ll come back and visit from time to time.”

“I’m not moving to Meru.” She tried to laugh off the wriggling, uncomfortable feeling the thought put in her stomach. Part of her was here, born and bred from the salt air of the sea in Oparium and the mountain frost of Solarin. The other part of her…was elsewhere in the vast unknown of the world beyond.

“We’ll see about that.”

Before Eira could object again, the forest opened up, surrounding a massive lake. The top of the lake was entirely frozen over, but thin at the center. Marcus approached and put his foot down on the edge of the ice. Magic pulsed out from him and Eira watched the ice thicken into an even consistency. When he lifted his foot, a blade of ice formed underneath it. He stepped out onto the lake, gliding over its surface on two frozen skates.

“Skiing and now ice skating?”

“I know, it’s a crime we’re having this much fun on a trial.” He did a lazy loop. “Come on out.”

Eira laughed with a shake of her head and stepped onto the ice as well. Making ice skates was one of the first things her brother had taught her to do. They’d sneaked out that night, too. It was the first winter after she’d manifested her magic in full and he