A Shaper's Promise Page 20

  Anna had taken Seleste’s statement for a question. “Afraid so. Well, apart from stunning. I just have to push energy at an aura to do that. As if I were blowing it away. I just aim close to the body and let go. No precision necessary with that.” Anna thought a while longer on the question. “I guess I don’t need to see when I’m reversing energy either. You know, out of a crystal?”

  Seleste nodded. She’d heard Anna explain the death of the robber who threatened to take her hostage. “I do find it fascinating,” she admitted.

  Anna smiled. Seleste might be a bit strange, but it was nice to have someone to talk to. “I saw my aura for the first time when I met Finn.”

  “Mmm, yes, the mirror effect.”

  Anna looked across at Seleste in surprise. “You’re a Reader?” she asked.

  “Not a very good one, but I know the basics. I will no doubt frustrate Lady Braxton terribly with my poor attempts in our sessions with her.” Seleste told the corners of her mouth to lift into a smile and watched with satisfaction as Anna smiled back at her. She saw Anna open her mouth to answer, but she wasn’t interested in platitudes. More importantly, she didn’t want to be late. She picked up the pace, making it impossible for Anna to continue the conversation.

  Captain Laracy was yelling at some guards at the far side of the training square when the pair first arrived. He looked to be in his middle-age, very tall, very straight, very blonde and very scary. His aura was scarlet and brown. It didn’t look at all angry despite its colour, but his deafening voice reverberated around the huge, stone walled expanse nonetheless. The guards lined up before him snapped to attention and saluted before dropping to the ground. Every second man then lay on their partner’s back while the first did dozens of press ups.

  Anna was horrified. Was this the sort of thing they meant by ‘exercise’?

  Captain Laracy screamed, “Switch!” and the guards changed positions. He was up to twenty-one in his second count when the young women came up beside him. Seleste stood calmly, her legs slightly apart, her hands clasped behind her back. Anna’s heart was beating wildly. She was going to fail before she even started.

  The Captain nodded at a junior officer standing nearby. She took over disciplining the wayward soldiers.

  “You are late.”

  “Sorry sir, it’s my fault,” Seleste answered. “Miss Northcott’s boots are rubbing badly. I didn’t think to advise her to wear other boots until they were properly worn in.”

  The assassin received a stern glare before the Captain turned to Anna. “Take them off,” he ordered.

  “Yes, sir.” Anna desperately tried to undo the fastenings, but she couldn’t get them to budge.

  The Captain glared again at Seleste. She quickly bent down to help.

  With Anna now standing in her bare feet, the Captain told her there would be no use of gifts and absolutely nothing but one hundred percent effort during their sessions. It was his job to make her as fit and combat ready as she could possibly be. He would not waste his efforts on a slacker.

  The morning started with a long warm up, stretching and running around the square. Seleste kept pace with Anna, barely breaking a sweat despite the distance. Anna’s face, however, beautifully complimented the Captain’s aura by the time they’d finished.

  Next came press ups, sit ups, leg ups, pushing huge rollers across the ground, running up and down steps and numerous other exercises, all of which Anna was terrible at. She could only manage three sit ups, press ups were an impossibility and she was a wreck well before Seleste had got even partially through the number the Captain had ordered her to do. Anna felt like crying, but sensibly told herself that everyone had to start somewhere.

  The Captain looked at the huge clock hanging on the far wall. It was nearly nine o’clock. “Peyton, take Northcott to the wash room. Lord Edevan is expecting you at nine so don’t be long. I will see you here tomorrow at six. Leave your boots, Northcott. They will be returned to you later.”

  “Please tell me that you were as bad as me when you first started, Seleste,” Anna asked anxiously as they left the Captain’s side.

  The older woman looked at her charge. “No, I wasn’t, but you will improve quickly.”

  Anna realised she wouldn’t be getting any sympathy from her companion and changed the subject. “Why did he tell me to leave my boots?”

  “I assume to have them made more practical. Guard Williamson has a Leather gift. You will find them more comfortable tomorrow.”

  “And Guard Williamson couldn’t have made them more comfortable for today?” Anna asked, her blisters making her peevish.

  “Two seamstresses and one bootmaker stayed up all night making you those clothes and those boots. Guards do not typically come in your size.”

  Anna felt ashamed. She hadn’t even thought of how the leathers would suddenly be found to fit her tiny frame.

  Seleste didn’t wait for any response from the Shaper. The leathers were irrelevant. It was much more important not to keep Lord Edevan waiting.

  “We’ll have to run. Lord Edevan is meeting us in the library.”

  Anna groaned, but tried valiantly to keep up with Seleste. Her feet stung as they slapped on the stone floor and she realised how she’d managed to get sore feet on the day of the false attack. She’d probably have a few more blisters before the day’s end.

  Lord Edevan was as blunt as Lord Cassidy and Captain Laracy. “Take a seat. I have put together a selection of books that I want both of you to read. You are to focus on any reference to Shaper abilities. You will make it a priority. I expect you to have a book with you at all times.”

  Anna looked at the small pile of books. On the top were the two hysterical tomes she’d discarded just the other day. “Milord,” she began tentatively, “can I please ask what I might learn from these?”

  Two beady eyes pinned hers. “You are impertinent, Miss Northcott.”

  “I’m sorry, Lord Edevan. I really don’t mean to be. It’s just… well, it’s just that I found these distressing when I looked at them the other day. If you believe it will be beneficial for me to read them then of course I will. It’s just that they seemed full of fantasy to me rather than fact.”

  Lord Edevan’s golden circle gave him a pang as he was about to overrule his student. Finn had warned him that the Shaper had more of a backbone than one might expect. There was little point in banging heads. He continued in a more conciliatory, confiding voice. “Miss Northcott, these books are written by the foremost authors of the period and are held to be largely accurate. The rhetoric may be overly dramatic and there are certainly exaggerations, but I ask you to read them not to critique the contents, but to identify possibilities. Together, we must make you the most powerful and adept Shaper there has ever been. You can only become this if you keep an open mind. We will scour every text we can find to build your skills. No matter how distasteful the material.”

  “Yes, milord. I understand,” answered Anna. Her voice was quiet, her mind daunted by his expectations. She’d heard some of the stories about Shapers. She couldn’t believe she’d be able to do even half the things they were supposed to have done. She was sure she didn’t want to.

  “Now, I propose that we compile a list of every different type of effect and method you have employed to date.”

  Anna felt drained when Lord Edevan finally noticed the time and allowed Seleste and her to escape for some lunch.

  Every servant vanished when they made it to the kitchen. For the first time, Seleste felt a mild and rare sense of pity for the girl. She had a Healer’s instinct which meant that people were important to her, but her gift made them shun her. She would have to harden her heart or change their minds. Seleste doubted either would be easy.

  Anna looked at her schedule as she chewed on a piece of leftover boar pie. They were expected in Lady Braxton’s office at half past twelve o’clock. That gave her only twenty minutes to finish her food, get comfortable shoes from her room, visit a privy and
make her way to Lady Braxton’s. “Seleste, would you mind if we go and get my shoes? That or see if we can find Finn.”

  “Finn isn’t here, Anna. He left this morning. He’s not expected back for at least two weeks.”

  Anna’s hope of fixing her feet vanished. “Shoes then, please?”

  Twenty minutes later, Seleste and Anna, now sporting thick socks on her feet, knocked on Lady Braxton’s door. The Reader took one look at Anna’s aura and ordered her to sit down and put her feet up to ease the swelling. She gave Seleste an enquiring glance.

  “The new boots rubbed,” was all that she said.

  “Why on earth haven’t you Healed yourself, child?”

  This was getting repetitive, thought Anna. “I can’t see my own aura. I can do things that affect my whole body, like warming myself up when Mystrim near froze me, but I can’t see to do things that need a more subtle touch.”

  Lady Braxton paused to think on the issue. “This is really something for Lord Edevan to explore with you, but I feel it too important to put off. You can’t be taking a whole troop of Healers with you on the King’s Service, even if you wanted to.”

  “No, milady.”

  “I’ve read the boys’ accounts of their time with you. They all make mention of you learning to Heal yourself.”

  “I learned to do general things, but I can’t pull blackness out of a particular place in my aura if I don’t know where it is and what it looks like.”

  “Ah,” said Lady Braxton, smiling. “It is not a matter of seeing, it is a matter of knowing. Well, that, Anna, is precisely what I can teach you. It’s a shame Finn isn’t here, but we’ll muddle through regardless. Right, tell me everything you know about aura anatomy.”

  CHAPTER 25

  A nna felt slightly less of a failure when she and Seleste left Lady Braxton. Rather than point out the holes in her knowledge, Finn’s mother had commended her on what she’d managed to learn without tuition and given her a wonderful book packed full of diagrams to master. The hour and a half in her rooms had flown by.

  The final session of the day was with Lord Witheridge. Seleste and Anna arrived at his office just in time only to be told that he was waiting for them in the outer bailey. The socks helped, but Anna’s feet felt like they were on fire by the time they arrived. The awe she’d felt at her first sight of the castle’s immense proportions had changed to wonder at the stupidity of people for building such an immense, ridiculously impractical edifice. She daydreamed about somehow turning herself into a long-legged giant with padded feet as she followed Seleste across the bailey. She was miraculously shrinking the length of the castle in her mind when she bashed into a suddenly stationary and annoyingly easy-breathing Seleste.

  “Ah excellent! Shaper, come right in, come right in,” Lord Witheridge bellowed from below ground level. Anna shuffled around Seleste and joined the young woman in gaping at the sight of the old noble on his hands and knees at the bottom of a very large hole.

  “Come on, don’t mince about, young lady. Snap to it!” he ordered.

  Seleste gave the Shaper a tiny shrug and pointed at a ladder poking just over the top of the far side of the hole.

  Anna climbed down the narrow rungs, wincing as each thin wooden crossbar dug painfully into the soles of her feet. Lord Witheridge didn’t notice her winces or her lack of suitable footwear. He was on all fours and apparently completely absorbed by the watery bottom of the hole.

  “See?” he asked the soggy socks next to his head. “It explains everything.”

  “I’m sorry, Lord Witheridge, but I don’t understand,” Anna said gently, concerned for the old man’s mental health.

  The old man sat back onto his knees and opened his arms wide. “Aurovian crystal!” he shouted. “The whole place is riddled with it!” His mud-smeared, wrinkly face looked up at her, its blue eyes dancing with excitement, a huge, contagious grin on his face. “Here,” he said, presenting a pair of filthy hands to the girl, “help an old man up. My knees aren’t what they once were.”

  Seleste watched from above as Anna pulled Lord Witheridge up onto his feet and the pair of them began to rub and chip at various layers of rock revealed by the hole. There was no room for another body down there so she sank down into a cross-legged, meditation pose and allowed her body a rest.

  Far above on the battlements, a pair of dark brown eyes watched the crazy old man and his two companions closely. Their owner took in the Shaper’s lack of proper weapons and smiled. The chaperone was another matter, however. Two good blades were clearly visible and there was no doubt she would know how to use them. It was there in the way she moved, in the way she held herself even though she was sitting. The spy heard footsteps and took up the broom that had been lying idle.

  Two children appeared from a nearby doorway. The ginger-haired Braxton boy was laughing and promising the other that he’d love it up here. The blonde boy was quiet, his face lifted to the sudden breeze, a smile on his face as if he were a million miles away. Suddenly he stopped, his hand lost to his friend. He looked straight at the servant and his nose twitched. A confused look came over his face but was once again replaced by a smile as the redhead grabbed the escaped hand and pulled him along once more.

  The spy had moved one hand down the broom handle to better use it as a staff. He absent-mindedly returned it to the more traditional upright position as he wondered who the boy was. He was familiar. Surely it wasn’t Elona’s pet? How then did it come to be wandering around Alsham Castle? The spy frowned. He’d made use of the boy on more than one occasion at Elona’s home; he’d be remembered. Why then had there been no uproar? Why had two brats not had to end up on the stone floor of the outer bailey? The spy followed the pet and his friend cautiously. He nearly laughed out loud when he worked out why it hadn’t recognised him. His mind wandered to the memory of its beautifully soft mouth. Perhaps he might fit in a short visit to its quarters before he left. He’d be long gone before the body was found.

  “You, there! What are you doing skulking around?”

  The spy turned sharply to see two guards bearing down on him. He bent over the broom and made like a lowly servant, all the while castigating himself for his distraction. He would know his master’s displeasure if he were to be unveiled so easily.

  “Sorry sir, sorry. I were just takin’ a short breather. Not gettin’ any younger, like. It won’t ‘appen agin, sir.”

  “Don’t be giving me any ‘sirs’ old man, do I look like an officer? Now get yourself back to work. Mistress Manson wouldn’t be assigning it to you if it’s too much so no slouching.”

  Just then, the third bell rang: fifteen o’clock, the end of his working day. The old man gave the two guards a cheeky grin, put his broom over his shoulder and scarpered.

  The guards looked after him, shaking their heads, but duty called and they rushed off to their posts.

  Far below, Anna and Lord Witheridge had passed several bucketloads of rocks up to Seleste and were now clambering out of the hole. The three sat in a huddle as Lord Witheridge made Anna hold and describe each piece.

  “They all feel the same as my dagger, Lord Witheridge. Its handle is clear, uncut Aurovian crystal.”

  “But, here, this piece is blue and this piece is red. Surely they have different properties?”

  “They feel the same to me, I’m sorry.”

  “Humph. Perhaps it is a cumulative effect. Or specific to the task. Hmm,” the old man mumbled, speaking to himself.

  Anna looked to Seleste for guidance. None was offered. The two sat quietly as Lord Witheridge muttered what sounded a lot of gibberish to himself. Anna watched a rapid series of surprisingly orderly thoughts race over his otherwise still lavender aura. His mind worked at an incredible pace.

  “Right! Nothing for it but to try!” the old man suddenly exclaimed. “Anna, tell me, what can you do that will be pleasant and short-acting?”

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Come on, there must be something. Think, c
hild. What can you do to an aura that will be pleasant and short-acting?”

  Anna wracked her brain. She could think of only two things: one was the satisfaction she’d witnessed on numerous occasions in the brothel and one was the way almost everyone was affected when they were listening to Luciado. There was no way she was going to reproduce the former, but if Aibreann was correct that music appreciation was often in different aura locations, anything she did with that could go horribly wrong. She felt her face redden. She needed to think of something else, but her mind was blank.

  “How about you ease a few bruises?” Seleste suggested.

  “Healing’s very different to other kinds of Shaping,” Anna replied.

  “In what way, child?” asked Lord Witheridge.

  “To Heal, I pull energy out of an aura and channel it into crystal rather than absorb it into my own aura. To Shape, I pull energy out of crystal and channel it into an aura. I guess they’re opposites.”

  “Well, it’s a good enough place to start, but we need to think on how to experiment with Shaping too,” said the old man. He looked around the bailey to see a contingent of guards marching in formation a few hundred yards away. “Seleste, be a good girl and run over there. Tell the person in charge that I’d like a word and to bring his troops with him. Anna, give me a hand up please.”

  The Shaper and the Scientist watched side by side as Seleste led the marching troops over. The Sergeant in charge snapped to attention before Lord Witheridge but snuck a curious look towards the now infamous Shaper and the deep hole behind her.