Mist and Memory: The Heartwood Chronicles, #2 by Rabia Gale

Author:Rabia Gale
Format: epub

Amber was wandering through the Kitchen Gardens, lost in thought, when Troi appeared next to her in a smooth, controlled current of air. His feet touched ground, the wind dissipated with nary a flicker of her hair, and Troi matched her pace, sauntering with his hands in his pockets.

Amber was in no mood to admire his magical skill. She glanced sideways at his handsome profile, wind-tousled hair, intense eyes, and broody mouth.

“I should punch you,” she commented.

Troi ignored this. “What did you and Ilaan talk about?” he asked, as if he had every right to know.

“This and that,” said Amber shortly. She scowled at him. “You’re lucky I came by just then. He’d have caught you otherwise.”

“Not if you hadn’t disabled my warning spell,” Troi pointed out.

Given how Master Ilaan had moved, Amber didn’t share his confidence. A master of covert operations wouldn’t blindly walk into a warning spell.

“How’d you get out?” Amber asked. “Those windows were closed, locked, and bespelled when I went into the room.”

Troi shrugged. “I have my ways.”

Amber’s teeth clicked together in annoyance. “And why were you inside Master Ilaan’s room in the first place?”

“Looking.”

“Looking for what?” Getting anything out of Troi was like pulling teeth. Why did he show up at all if he’s just going to be laconic and unhelpful?

“Looking for clues to what Ilaan is really up to. There’s no way the Imperators just sent him here for some good-will mission.” Troi’s mouth tightened. The two blades he wore burned brighter in Amber’s mage sight.

Tension radiated from him in waves. All it did was chafe her own nerves, already rubbed raw by the events of the day. “What do you have against Master Ilaan?”

His mouth worked, as if he’d bitten into something nasty. “My grandfather mentored him, trusted him. But in the end, Ilaan betrayed him. He testified that the storm that swept White Rock Island was my grandfather’s magic.”

Maybe he was right? Amber didn’t say that part out loud. Not with Troi’s face so bleak, his eyes so stormy. He was convinced of his grandfather’s innocence.

“Does Naia know?” Amber asked. “She’s convinced there’s a big misunderstanding between you two.”

“Naia is—” Troi broke off, obviously controlling himself. “No. She doesn’t know a blasted thing. My grandfather was tried in the Zephyr Court. The proceedings were kept secret. I wasn’t there, but my father and Aivaan were.” He looked away. “They shouldn’t have let them do what they did to Grandfather.”

“How’d you find out what happened if you weren’t there and the proceedings were secret?”

He gave her a think-about-it-stupid look.

This was the guy she had caught breaking into someone’s office and rifling through private possessions. Amber sighed. “Look, I’m not going to argue with you about things that I don’t know anything about. Just… be careful.”

Troi blinked and tossed back his head in exaggerated surprise.

“What?” Amber asked crossly. “I don’t want you to get expelled from Heartwood. Things are already too unsettled around here as it is.”

Troi looked back at the academy building. Something flickered in his eyes.

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