Page 7 of Sun Elves of Ardani

She glanced up at him. His eyes remained hard, boring into her.

“Yes,” she said slowly. It grated her to apologize to him, but she forced it out anyway. “Forgive me. I was… startled.”

A tall female elf snorted, closing her hand to snuff the flame she’d held. “If Ysurans began flinging fireballs with abandon whenever they were ‘startled,’ all of Ysura would be on fire by now.”

If the Ysurans found it offensive that she would attack one of them, Neiryn’s forgiveness was evidently enough to pardon her. She exhaled her relief as Neiryn released her. He smiled again, but it did not hold the warmth that it had earlier.

“The Goddess’s ways are strange, are they not?” he said. “It could only be her hand that guided me back to you, in this backwater, of all places. Imagine my surprise when I arrived here and heard talk of a mage matching your description.”

“Lady Kadaki, then, is it?” The woman who had spoken before stepped forward. She was older than Neiryn, with outlines of hard muscle visible in her bare arms, and her silver and gold hair was pulled back into a neat tail at the back of her head. She wasn’t doing a very good job of hiding how unimpressed she was by Kadaki.

She brought a hand to her chest. “I am Commander Rhian.” She motioned to one of the men beside her. “This is Sair Eliyr. And I see you already know my second-in-command, Sair Neiryn.”

“Well met,” Kadaki said flatly. Roshan was cautiously coming down the path, giving her a questioning look.

“We’ve been looking for you,” Rhian said.

Kadaki raised her eyebrows. “Me?”

“The other locals tell us you’re the only mage in Refka,” she said. “We believe you might be able to help us with something we’re investigating.” Rhian looked up at Neiryn. He pulled the metal rod out of its sheath again and held it out. The end of it glowed blue, then darkened to violet. In the brief silence that followed, Kadaki realized it was humming softly. Neiryn looked up at Rhian and Eliyr, nodding. They all seemed to be in agreement about whatever the rod had indicated.

“What is that?” Kadaki asked. The elves turned to look at her. A few of them snickered, as if they thought it a stupid thing to ask.

“It’s called a seeker,” Neiryn said. “It reacts to the presence of high concentrations of ambient magic energy.” He slid it back into its pocket, and the humming stopped. “We believe this house is sitting on an untapped axis of magic.”

Kadaki scoffed in disbelief. It was an outrageous claim. “There’s no axis here. I’d be able to sense it. I don’t need a device to know that.”

Neiryn arched a regal brow at her. “You do when the magic is too subtle to be felt by mortal mages.”

“An axis is, by definition, not subtle,” Kadaki said. “If the magic is too subtle to be felt, how is it an axis?”

“That’s what we mean to find out,” Rhian said with a mirthless smile.

An axis was an extremely valuable natural resource. There was ambient magic energy everywhere in the world, but the amount of magic that flowed through an axis provided near-infinite raw power for mages to draw upon for spells or enchantments. If there indeed was one on their land, Kadaki wouldn’t have been surprised to see the Ysurans go to extreme lengths to obtain control over it.

Roshan stepped forward, clearing his throat. “I hate to interrupt,” he said, “but this is my house.”

“You’re Roshan, right?” Rhian said. “The one who owns the mine?”

Roshan’s smile stiffened very slightly. “How can I help you, Commander?”

“I think you can help us with quite a lot, actually. I will discuss it with you and Lady Kadaki.”

“Of course,” Roshan said. As if there were any other option. He waved toward the back door. “Please come in.”

Rhian made a motion to the soldiers. To Kadaki’s relief, all of the ones wearing armor left, leaving only Rhian, Eliyr, and Neiryn. It could have been a gesture of good faith, but Kadaki was inclined to believe they were simply making a show of the fact that they didn’t see the two of them as a threat. Even when Kadaki’s magic had been stronger, she would have had trouble fighting three sun elves.

Roshan gestured toward the house, and the three elves walked ahead. Neiryn gave her another lingering but unreadable look as they passed.

Roshan moved close to Kadaki. “What in the hells is this about?” he murmured.

“I don’t know.”

“Are they going to arrest us?”

“I don’t know.”

He took a breath and gave her a tight smile. “Well, you’ll be able to protect us with your magery if things start going south, right?”

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