Page 30 of Sun Elves of Ardani

“It did. I stayed on that mountain for a month. On the thirtieth day, I cast my first flame.”

She was quiet for a long moment, then she snorted. “Do you think this is a joke? You’re making this up.”

It wasn’t the reaction he’d hoped for. Frowning, he stepped away from her and summoned a flame in his hand, lighting the room again. It came to him as easily as breathing now. It was hard to believe it once seemed impossible. “I’m not.”

She looked at him hard, still trying to decide whether he was telling the truth. “You think Aevyr took pity on you? Or that praying for thirty days proved your devotion to her?”

“I don’t know. She did not speak to me. But I felt the change. Something happened to me there.”

Firelight flickered across her dark, contemplative eyes. “It’s not the same as my situation,” she said.

“No,” he admitted. “It’s not. But it reminded me of something. Large Auren-Li settlements like this always have a central obelisk through which the magic of the axis can be channeled. The axis in Kuda Varai had one as well.”

“You think there’s one here, too?”

“Most likely. And I wonder if you’d be able to draw enough magic from it to shift us back to the surface.”

She did not look enthusiastic about the idea, and for good reason. Drawing from an obelisk was no easy task. “We have to try something,” she conceded.

“Agreed.” He started up the stairs, hoping a magic-eater wasn’t waiting at the top of them. Kadaki’s soft footsteps trailed behind him.

“They said you were defective?” she asked. “That was the word they used?”

“They used worse words than that, I’m afraid.”

“I was under the impression that Ysurans were kinder to the less fortunate among them than Ardanians were.”

“Maybe they are. But that doesn’t mean it’s respectable to be less than fortunate. Mediocrity is frowned upon in Ysura. Parents expect a great deal from their children. Especially if they only have one.”

“I was an only child, too.”

He smiled back at her. “Were your parents as demanding and unforgiving as mine were?”

“Possibly. We grew apart when I started showing signs of magical aptitude as a child. They sent me off to the Conclave the day I turned thirteen. They would have sent me sooner if it had been allowed. I’ve only seen them twice since then.”

Neiryn shook his head. He would never understand Ardanians. “What parents wouldn’t be delighted if their child turned out to be a mage? Surely it’s an avenue for making good money, at the very least.”

“My parents are followers of Paladius. They believe that people who use magic are inherently corrupt.”

He choked on a laugh. “You come from a family of Paladius worshipers?”

Kadaki didn’t reply. When he turned to look back at her, her face was scarlet. He didn’t blame her. He would have been embarrassed, too. Followers of Paladius were known to be some of the most stubborn, foolish Ardanians one could encounter.

“So we were both embarrassments to our parents,” he said. “You because of your magic, and me because of my lack of it.”

“I suppose I could go back now,” she said forlornly. “Maybe they’d be happy that I’ve become almost normal.”

His eyebrows twitched inward. “You aren’t defective either, Kadaki. You were strong and intelligent and compassionate when I met you, and you still are now.”

She looked up at him sharply, her expression guarded.

Her words echoed back to him again.Pathetic. Villain.

Chagrined, he turned and stepped through the doorway at the top of the stairs.

Chapter 9

They explored seemingly endless caverns and tunnels and dead streets, always listening for that telltale clicking of the magic-eater’s steps. There was no sign of it. Either this part of the ruin was cut off from the others, or it had stopped searching for them.

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