Rebel Elements (Seals of the Duelists) Read online

Bayan watched as the six students stepped forward, eyeing each other warily, as if they’d never met, before approaching the first row of hex houses. Other Wood level hex students greeted them warmly, and after a short discussion, the new hex chose one of the empty cabins and went inside.

  The headmaster spoke again, holding his paper against the whipping wind. “Will the following students please step forward for inclusion in an Earth level hex house: Calder…”

  Bayan watched his best friend step forward and wished with all his might that his own name would be the next one called.

  “…Eward…”

  The enthusiastic young man stepped forward as well.

  “…Kiwani…”

  Bayan saw her literally sniff and raise her nose as she walked toward the other two. Good luck with her, Calder.

  “…Tarin…”

  The redheaded girl gasped at the sound of her name, then she stepped forward and stood by Kiwani, who looked as if she were trying to ignore her while simultaneously maintaining a certain distance from the commoner girl.

  “…Diogenes…”

  “Yes,” Odjin said under his breath. He walked over and joined Calder, behind the girls, and immediately became preoccupied with Tarin’s hair.

  “…And, lastly, Bayan.”

  “Aye, that’s right!” Calder made a triumphant fist. But Kiwani seemed to have a different opinion. Her face froze into a mask, eyes wide with alarm, or possibly horror. As Bayan walked over and hugged the excited Calder, Kiwani turned away, looking up toward the hex houses.

  Eward and Odjin clasped his hand, and Tarin did as well, after a hesitant moment. Bayan turned to Kiwani, willing to clasp hands if she was.

  She didn’t look at him, but merely said, “We should pick a hex house.”

  She led them up the stairs to the second level. Azhni trailed the group silently. When they reached the broad walkway in front of the six Earth houses, Kiwani stepped into one of the empty buildings, ignoring the other Earth level hex members who stood on the long balcony to greet the newcomers. Azhni followed her in.

  Someone stepped out of the adjacent hex house, bearing a lit lamp whose flame wavered in the wind despite the glass bulb that sheltered it.

  “You’re still here, are you?” Taban grinned. “Well, it’s ducats in my pocket then.”

  “You bet on whether Bayan would fail?” Calder stepped forward with an aggressive stance, despite the flame the other boy held.

  “Oh, look who found his spine this morning,” Taban replied in a bored tone. “Aye, hexling, I did, but I’ll thank you to note that I bet he’d pass, not fail. Braam’s ducats are mine to spend now.”

  Braam poked his head out his hex house door at the mention of his name, then cursed under his breath at the sight of Bayan.

  Taban smirked. “Here’s your first light for your hex house. If you’re clever enough with your Flame spells, you’ll learn to light it yourself. I think I can get Braam to wager on whether you’ll manage that before we take our Elemental exams.”

  “How long until you test up?” Tarin asked.

  “Oh, I’m ready, sweetheart. It’s Breckan who’s holding us back. Well, her and Cormaac. He has the worst bendy elbows. Canna make a straight Shock line to save his life.”

  “I heard that!” Cormaac’s voice floated from the hex house.

  “Good!” Taban called back. “Now fix them!” Turning back to Bayan and the others, he tsked. “Take the light already, hexlings. Have you no manners?”

  Eward took the lamp from him with a murmur of thanks and headed inside with the rest of the hex.

  “You.” Taban stopped Bayan. “You’re pretty good, from what I hear. But you’re angry. I used to be that way. Dinna want to be here. Had my life all set back home.”

  “Something like that. But no one thinks I can do anything because of where I’m from.”

  Taban tilted his head at Bayan. “So? You’ve just proven them wrong, with a lot of hard work. Set that rage aside, hexling, or it’ll go very poorly for you.”

  “I know what it’ll take to stay on campus, but I can’t just decide to stop being angry.”

  “Aye, you can. You just need the right reason. Mine was when I realized I intimidate my father now, instead of the other way around. He knows he took out things on me he shouldna have, and he’s scared. And that’s just the way I like it. This power in me, it makes me strong, in ways I couldna be when I was little.”

  Bayan saw the dark fire in Taban’s eyes. His anger seemed triumphant.

  “Carry on, hexling. Oh, and, if you ever need help with your advanced classes, look me up.” Taban grinned, a predatory show of teeth. “But there will be a price.”

  The older student returned to his hex house, and Bayan entered his own.

  The main room inside was round, with a wide archway leading to a smaller round room on the back wall. Eward had placed the gift lamp on a table situated among a ring of padded chairs with curving arms. In the center of the chair ring sat a small fire pit whose ashes were cold and gray. Bayan’s hexmates had apparently lit other lamps from the first. Two more shed their light from the edges of the room, releasing a lightly perfumed warmth. The rest of Bayan’s hex sprawled on the chairs in various poses of relaxation. Azhni leaned against the wall.

  Calder, however, had tucked his legs up, wrapped his arms around his knees, and stared at the floor.

  “Do we need all these lamps?” Bayan asked, sensing his distress. “It’s midmorning, for Bhattara’s sake.”

  “We do,” Kiwani said. “It’s dark in here with the windows shut, and I don’t want to open them and let in the wind.”

  Eward leaned forward from his chair. “All right, hexmates.” He grinned. “I have hexmates! Anyway, I think we should start planning our support strategies right away, so if any of us have trouble with one element or another, or even with elemental theory or history, we can turn to the best one among us for help.”

  Kiwani tsked. “That isn’t a very good plan, Eward. We don’t know who is good at which element yet, though I’ll be willing to help any of you out if I can. The strongest duelist is the one with the strongest hexmates. As long as we all pass to Elemental Duelist, I’ll be happy.”

  Odjin rolled his eyes and turned his gaze to Tarin. “The rumors, they say that the element you feel closest to is the one you’ll be strongest in. We could at least say what that element is, and see what sort of strengths we feel we have at the start. That way, we’ll also know if we all need to work on any weak elements as a team. What about you, Tarin? What element do you feel closest to?”

  Tarin thought a moment. “Flame, I think. My mother is a baker, and I grew up in kitchens.” She turned to Eward. “You?”

  “Wind. I’m always talking.” He grinned, and the others laughed.

  “Anything but Flame,” Calder muttered, sobering the group.

  “Aye,” Tarin said with sympathy, “that makes sense.”

  Kiwani ignored them both. “I’m sure I couldn’t choose one. I believe I’ll be quite strong in several elements: Wood, Shock, Flame, and Water.” She turned to Bayan, staring pointedly.

  “I thought you just said we can’t know who’s good at what yet,” he retorted.

  “It’s just an exercise. I’m being a good hexmate and contributing.”

  Taban must have felt this way around Braam vander Broek; Bayan decided he wouldn’t play along either. He turned to face Odjin, who had started the discussion.

  “Water and Earth, then.”

  Calder, getting the joke, snorted with laughter.

  “Shh,” Bayan said, keeping a straight face. “Serious hex discussion here.”

  Tarin giggled, which encouraged Odjin to grin along, though he looked lost.

  Kiwani wasn’t amused. “You can’t make swamp mud with elemental magic until you’re a Hexmagic Duelist, Bayan. And I’ll wager anything you care to put forth that everyone else here will learn hexmagic before you do.”

  Mirth fled, leav
ing confused looks in the face of Kiwani’s rudeness. Into the awkward silence, Bayan spoke quietly, though the blackness raged behind his eyes, clawing toward Kiwani.

  “I’ll take that bet any day. Because win or lose, with at least five Hexmagic Duelists, we’d be the best hex the Academy has put out in three hundred years. And I’d wish that on all of us if I could.”

  Kiwani’s mouth fell open, but nothing came out. Bayan was just about to get up and leave when she did it first, without a word to the others. Azhni followed.

  Once they were gone, Eward looked around uncertainly, then firmed his expression. “We’ve got work to do, then. I’m sure every hex has had its troubles. But the duelists who’ve gone before us have managed to overcome them. So can we.”

  Bayan looked toward the open doorway after Kiwani. I hope so. I really hope so.

  ~~~

  Eward pushed open the door to the second-floor room in the boys’ barracks; Bayan peeked in over his shoulder, lugging his duffel against his shoulder. The room was spacious, yet his favorite parts were the walls and the privacy they afforded from other students’ eyes. The downside was that he might not enjoy being shut up with Diogenes and Eward for the next few months.

  “Trainees no more!” Calder lunged past the others into the room. He dropped his bag and held out his arms in triumph. “We’ve arrived, boys.”

  A large black bird flapped down from atop a broad platform in a far corner and tangled its talons in Calder’s hair, cawing.

  Calder yelled and tried to get the bird off his head, but it slapped its wing against his face as it tried to balance atop its moving perch.

  Bayan wasn’t sure whether to laugh or help. Odjin opted to run to the far window and open it in an attempt to let the bird out.

  Eward, however, had another plan. “It’s a hexbird.” He pulled half a leftover honey roll from his pocket and held it out with one hand, while offering the other as a landing spot. The bird left Calder’s head and settled heavily on Eward’s wrist, flapping as it tried to reach the bread.

  “What’s a hexbird?” Bayan asked, finally coming into the room and tossing his duffel on the nearest bed.

  “Looks like a crow to me,” Odjin said.

  “They’re cousins of the crows.” Eward let the bird fly back to its platform with its prize. “They’ve lived among duelists for millennia. People say they’re smarter than crows, and even that they’re magic.”

  Calder, shaking a fist at the black interloper, suddenly grinned and lowered his hand. “That must mean my magic is strong, then. He landed on me first, after all.”

  Eward gestured to the platform. “He’s chosen to live here in the room. It’s supposed to be lucky to get a hexbird. Be nice to him.”

  Calder turned to the bird up in the corner. “What’s your name then?”

  “Kah,” the bird replied.

  “I bet that’s a popular one,” Calder continued. “Like ‘Ian’ back home. I was nearly an Ian.”

  “Kah!”

  “All right, Kah it is,” Calder said.

  “Better than Ian,” Odjin added with a smirk.

  “Aye well, that’s not hard. ‘Ian’ is the ‘Diogenes’ of Marghebellen, aye?”

  Odjin glared at Calder, but Eward intervened. “It’s our first night as hexmates. Let’s wait until later to fight about things.”

  As Bayan crawled into his new bed beneath Eward’s top bunk and listened to the contented squawks of his new winged roommate, he wondered how soon that “later” would arrive.

  ~~~

  Kiwani clutched her pillow, curling into a ball around it and listening to the midnight patter of fat, cold drops against her window. Tarin slept in one of the other beds in their new room on the second level of the girls’ barracks, and Azhni snored lightly in the other. Being as the rooms were made to accommodate six students, in case a hex was made of all the same gender, there was plenty of space for their things. Kiwani wondered if she could arrange for a set of padded chairs like the ones in the hex house; those had been surprisingly comfortable.

  Unlike the way that Bayan had made her feel. What an oaf. How dare he throw her words back at her like that? She couldn’t imagine how he’d managed to pass his tests. Sure, the brute was good at throwing people around, so it hadn’t been any sort of shock when he passed his form classes. But he’d been clueless in history classes until recently, and he’d been up to some sort of trick with the meditation instructors, fooling them into thinking he’d reached the Void early on. She didn’t believe it for a minute, not the way he walked around with those smoldering eyes. Like he wanted to burn down all he saw.

  And she was stuck in a hex with the rude beast! The ignominy put an ache in her chest. She couldn’t bear the thought of writing home to tell her parents about the thick little muckling who had fooled everyone around him except her. Yet she forced herself to write about inanities and trifles, anything to fill the page, lest they suspect something was wrong.

  There was no help for it. She would have to get Eward to motivate Bayan to do his work. Perish the thought of doing it herself. Besides, she had other goals now.

  Gone, discarded, were her earlier dreams of a beloved life of noble service. They had been hard to let go. But now, she realized her true calling: she would be a humble yet powerful Hexmagic Duelist, able to command her own assignments due to sheer prowess, yet beloved by her clients for her delicate grace and accepting demeanor. She could change her location whenever she wanted to go somewhere exotic, like the old ruins of the Western Empire capital in Tallacht, or the resort town of Muggenhem on the small strip of northern Helderaard coastline, which she had visited only briefly during her childhood due to her father’s heavy workload.

  And somewhere, against one such exotic backdrop, she would finally meet the love of her life. Theirs would be a romance of daring glances and stolen embraces, for she would be a famous duelist, known for her ability to embrace the Void at a moment’s notice. Her inner passion would remain a secret she would share only with him, until the emperor gave her marriage his official approval.

  Thoughts of the emperor gave her pause. He’s already my godfather. Now he’ll be my employer, though not the way I always imagined. That gives him double cause to approve my choice of mate. I suppose that means I must choose a full-blood Waarden man, with curly mane flying and pale muscles glistening.

  Kiwani amused herself with that train of thought for some while, before reality crept in and reminded her that she still had to endure Bayan’s presence for the foreseeable future. The stronger he is, the longer he’ll be on campus. It’ll be winter again before we test for Elemental Duelist. If he passes—sints forfend—then I suppose my only hope is that he won’t be able to manifest an avatar at all.

  Somewhere between romantic fantasy and reality’s unpleasant facts, Kiwani drifted off to sleep, never once wondering why she hated Bayan so much.

  The Forbidden Metal

  “The library and the history books regarding the War of Steel, I followed. But why are we in the kitchens?” Philo smelled the air appreciatively.

  “You’re hungry. Stop and eat something, darling.” Eirene stole a fresh lingonberry tart from a wire rack and turned to him with such speed that her shell strands clacked and slapped her cheek. She offered the tart, eyes flashing.

  “I don’t want to be right, Lady Eirene, any more than you want me to be right. But, like a forged coin, this ring poses a threat to the empire. We need to determine how large a threat.” He accepted the tart and bit it.

  She shot him an icy look before leading him through a back doorway.

  They entered a room sharp with the pungent tang of metal. Sharpening stones, leather straps, and a large sandstone grinding wheel sat among tables and racks of knives, grape hooks, prongs, scythes, and other sharp implements needed in the kitchens and gardens.

  “Go turn that crank.” Eirene pointed to a thick wooden handle that goosenecked from the side of the heavy sandstone wheel.


  “Me?” Philo asked.

  “Yes, darling. You’re the one who wants to crack this secret. If you’ve changed your mind, tell me now, and I’ll fetch a kitchen boy to spin it for me.”

  “No, no, I’ll do it. How fast should it go?”

  “Fast.” She stood in front of the stone, thumbing its texture with a critical eye.

  Philo cranked. The stone was heavy, but once he managed to get it turning, the pushing got easier. By the time he had reached what he considered full speed, sweat poured between his shoulder blades.

  “I said fast, you lump.”

  With a worried glance at the doorway and a single, fleeting regret for the delicate silk of his tunic, Philo cranked for all he was worth. The wheel whizzed around in a blinding blur.

  “Iron first,” Eirene said over the trundling of the stone wheel. She pressed a stub of dark gray iron against the surface of the wheel. Moments later, short-lived orange sparks leapt from the friction. She held it there for several heartbeats, watching the brief sparks die before reaching the floor.

  “Now the ring.”

  For a moment, only the gritty buzz of metal on stone reached Philo’s ears. As the gold wore away and the inner metal of the ring touched the whirling grindstone, however, trailing, pale yellow sparks arced in all directions from Eirene’s hand, bouncing along the floor, skittering around Philo’s shoes.

  Eirene dropped the ring and backed away from the grindstone, staring at her fingers in horror and disgust. As she fled the room, Philo let go of the crank and fetched the damaged ring from the floor.

  Forbidden steel.

  Who would wear such a dangerous item on purpose? Possessing steel brought a death sentence. How had a supposed vagary gotten hold of Karkhedonian steel down in Marghebellen, and what did that have to do with Lord Eshkin? The Lord Minister of Ways was hiding something. In fact, the Lord Minister’s position might be directly involved.

  He hurried to catch up with Eirene and found her scrubbing her hands in a large sink basin. Philo slipped the ring into his pocket.