Page 59 of The Study of Magic
With a wave goodbye, they headed toward their suite. As soon as they were out of sight, Valek leaned against the wall and relaxed. The muscle tremors returned with a vengeance. He sank to the floor and endured waves of weakness as pain ringed his body.
When he could stand, he soaked in the hot water of the baths for a long time, before going to his suite. Even though it was the middle of the day, he collapsed into his bed.
* * *
Expecting to be stiff, sore, and barely able to move when he woke up, Valek was surprised his muscles didn’t scream when he sat up. For the first time since the accident, he felt good. Perhaps the fight had loosened and stretched his muscles.
The sun hovered over the western horizon. Energized, Valek fetched a plate of food and returned to his suite. After he ate, he lit two lanterns and entered his carving studio for the first time in seasons. Dust coated everything, but, then again, it was perpetually dusty. Grit crunched under his boots as he set the lanterns on the table.
He sorted through his piles of gray rocks, collected from the sea cliffs along the northern coast of MD-1. It was the location of the School of Night and Shadows, where he had learned the fine and dangerous art of assassination. And learned that carving helped focus his mind and soothed his soul. Thinking about his soul, he remembered the butterfly he had carved and how it had reminded him of Yelena. She’d admired it and he had turned it into a pendent and gifted it to her. He wondered if she still wore it or if she’d hidden it away so her new friends in Sitia didn’t ask her about it. About him. A pang squeezed his chest. Had he lost her to the south?
One of the larger gray rocks called to him. It was long and narrow. He carried it to his table full of chisels and sat down.
Turning it around in his fingers, he let his mind drift. Thoughts of Yelena swirled as the emotions he tried so hard to suppress unfurled their wings and stretched, filling him with wonder, awe, and gratitude that the most amazing woman in the entire world loved him. He’d been worried the feelings would weaken him and had been the reason for his series of missteps. But he’d been wrong. They strengthened him. By acknowledging them and embracing them, he could do anything.
Yelena and Valek might have taken different paths, but they would be together again. And if her feelings had changed, Valek didn’t know if he’d ever recover. Life would hold no appeal. But there was no sense wasting energy worrying about something he couldn’t change. Best to focus on the next challenge.
Valek picked up his medium sized chisel and chipped away the rock that didn’t belong, freeing the true shape that lurked within. Hours later and covered with a sheen of sweat and a coating of dust, he held a snake in his hands. Its body coiled as if around a small tree limb. Carefully, he polished it on the grinding wheel. The dull gray color disappeared in a cloud of dust as black streaked with silver emerged. A transformation that never failed to astound him.
For the snake’s eyes, he scraped two small divots. Then he rummaged around in one of his drawers. He hardly ever added color to his statues, preferring the black and silver, but this one needed a pop. He found his pouch of small precious and semi-precious stones. Pouring them out onto his palm, he picked two tiny sapphires and glued them in for the snake’s eyes. Perfect. Just like Yelena. He hand-polished the inside of the coils, and when it was finished, he thought she could wear it on her arm as a bracelet. If she desired. Yes, he knew he shouldn’t worry, but knowing and doing were two different things.
Over the next several days, Valek spent all of his time in his studio. He carved several rocks of all sizes and shapes. During that time, he allowed his thoughts to drift. By the end of the third day, he had a plan on how to capture eight magicians. And a dozen statues littered his table.
“Don’t worry,” he said to them. “I’ll find good homes for all of you.”
* * *
A knock sounded, pulling Valek from his work. Annoyed at the intrusion—he only had five more days before the generals arrived and there were no signs of Alea—he wanted to ignore it. But another knock, this one more insistent, rattled the wood. Valek unlocked the door, revealing a grinning Trevar on the other side.
“Hey, you look so much better,” Trevar said.
“Thanks. Come in.” His annoyance forgotten, Valek invited Trevar to sit opposite his desk. “Do you have anything to report?”
“I do. I found your girl.”
“My girl?”
“Yeah. The one that doesn’t fit. That doesn’t belong. You said I’d know when it happens. Well, it happened.”
Valek suppressed his excitement. “Please, continue.”
“Okay. Well, I’ve been chatting and been friendly to everyone, working double shifts. Doing the dishes, running errands, cleaning chamber pots—I should get a bonus for that—and commiserating with my colleagues over said chamber pots. They accepted me rather easily. Either they are used to a lot of turnovers in their ranks, or I’m just that good.” He grinned.
“The Commander insists his managers reward good work with promotions and transfers. That’s why the menial jobs are usually staffed with new hires, who tend to be young.”
That deflated some of Trevar’s ego. “Oh. Well, during the last couple weeks, I met this one girl. She wore a housekeeping uniform, but no one can say if she’s actually cleaned a room. I know not everyone in the castle is a hard worker and that people shirk their duties all the time, but there’s something…offabout her. It’s more than just laziness.”
“What’s her name? Can you describe her?”
“Her name’s Ada, I think. And she’s…hard to describe. I didn’t have much interaction with her. All I can think is black hair, usually in a bun. It’s her…bearing that’s most noticeable. As if she’s important. Bristling whenever she’s assigned a task.” He shrugged.
“Have you attended the class on the art of observation?”
“Yes. I earned full marks! But her physical details just don’t stick. Just like her name, I think it’s Ada, but no one can say for sure. And we forget about her. She’ll show up for a shift and we’re all like, ‘who are you?’ and then it’ll click. Weird.”
It could be Alea. Her magic might keep people from remembering her. “Do you know where I can find her?”
“Yes. When I’m on kitchen duty and help serve dinner, she sits at the same table. Every time, I’m like, ‘she looks familiar,’ but I don’t try too hard to figure out why. Well, I was finally able to figure out why.”
