Page 138 of An Archer's Redemption

Hour after hour, I poured myself into the Mage. Stitch by stitch, his body mended.

The building trembled, and stones fell from above.

As badly as Atikus needed rest, we could not remain, lest we win one battle only to lose ourselves beneath its rubble.

I grabbed the staff, hooked my arm through the crown to carry them both, then returned to grip the Mage’s arm and Traveled to the refuge of the Queen’s Palace.

Chapter 60

Atikus

Weeks had passed since Thorn fell and Irina was banished.

The Palace Healers declared me recovered, though I still used my brush with the void to skip heavy lifting or enjoy special treatment at every turn, mostly in the form of extra meals.

Declan teased me relentlessly.

“I feel like I could eat for days,” I said as I stuffed another corn muffin into my mouth.

Declan laughed. “And that’s different from any other day how?”

“Son, you know better than anyone how grave my wounds were. It was a close thing, you saving me. Any Healer worth their blues would command a patient to eat solid food to recover their strength. I am only doing what ismedicallyprudent. Now, pass me that bacon again, and maybe those eggs.”

Declan shook his head . . . but passed the bacon.

Keelan and Jess strode into the room, their fingers interlocked.

“You two are in a good mood these days. I cannot remember the last time I saw Keelan smile this much—or showanyemotion, for that matter,” Declan teased.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t be jealous.”

Jess had barely settled into her chair before the team of lurking servants leaped into action. Her charger vanished, her teacup was filled, and fresh plates of every breakfast food imaginable appeared on the table near her.

In the past few weeks, the absence of Gifts had made itself keenly felt.

For a millennium, magic was engrained in daily life. Simple tasks that previously only required one Gifted person with Enhanced Strength might now involve an engineer’s mind and the muscle of twenty stout men.

Spring had yet to bloom in its fullness, but farmers dreaded the planting without Gifts of horticulture to speed up and enhance growth and ward away pests.

Royal advisors were sent to every corner of the Kingdom to gather information on the impact and assist with what everyone hoped were temporary solutions.

Midway through breakfast, Declan set his fork down and looked at me. He spoke in my mind.“I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. Mother talked about the spell used to create the Gifts. I think she referred to it as the Sundering Spell or Spell of Sundering, something like that.”

“Spell of Sundering. That is right.”I looked back at my plate and kept eating, not wanting to alert anyone to our conversation.“I have had the Mages here in Fontaine looking through the library and vault, but they came up empty. Our own Mages in Saltstone should also be looking for references to the spell, but they have no Telepath to report progress, so I do not know if they have found anything or not.”

“Mother said there’s a copy of the spell in her library in . . . that cave.”

The fork slipped from my hand, clanked against my plate, and fell to the floor. Jess and Keelan looked up.

“You all right?” Keelan asked.

“Fine, fine. My fork slipped. I must have had too many of those buttered rolls.” I grinned.

Keelan grinned and turned back to Jess.

“You mean there is a copy of the spell in the cavern where Kelså lived? A whole copy?”I said, taking a replacement fork from one of the ever-diligent servants and trying to contain my excitement.

“Yeah, that’s what she said, though I never saw it. There really wasn’t a need, and I was still so new to magic it wouldn’t have meant anything to me. But there’s a problem.”

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