The Mage of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen Read Free Book Online Page B

girl snorted. “Is he your apprentice or your servant?”
    Krelig turned slowly back around. He looked at her until her smirk disappeared. Then he said, “He is whatever I need him to be. You would do well to follow his example if you desire a permanent place in my little army, my dear.”
    She looked down and away, not speaking. But she didn’t seem very chastened; her smile didn’t return, but her mouth twisted slightly, and Calen could see one of her eyebrows arched in a somewhat skeptical expression. He felt a mean little smile tug at his lips. That was definitely not the right response.
    “Do you?” Mage Krelig asked softly.
    Her eyes snapped back up. She looked around, confirmed that he was talking to her, and asked finally, “Do I what?”
    “Do you want a permanent place here?”
    “Sure. Of course.”
    “Sure of course what?”
    The other mages were beginning to look even more uncomfortable. Calen stood patiently, knowing he should be worried that the girl was ruining Krelig’s good mood, but he was too glad to see her getting taken down a peg.
    She looked around again and uttered a defensive-sounding laugh. “I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t want to be here. It wasn’t easy, you know! I don’t really know what you expect me to say —”
    She broke off with a gasp and clapped a hand to her arm. When she took her hand away, Calen saw a deep red line across the skin there. She stared at it, then back at Mage Krelig.
    “Do you think I care what you had to do to come here? Do you think anything you had to endure could possibly compare to hundreds of years of exile, having to claw your way back to this world by casting across time and space and relying on the assistance of incompetent, unskilled, ignorant —” He broke off, seeming to recognize for once that he was sliding into a rant. He took a breath, then continued. “Now. I’m going to ask you one more time. Do you desire a permanent place here, Mage Helena?”
    She finally seemed to start to understand. She glanced again at the red lash on her arm, then back up. “Yes. Yes, Mage Krelig. I want a permanent place here. I — I desire that very much.”
    He didn’t answer at first, just gazed at her with his deceptively calm eyes. “Good,” he said at last. “I was beginning to wonder if you really wanted to be here at all. You don’t ever want to make me wonder about you again.”
    “No,” she said at once, all swagger and scorn gone from her voice. “No, Mage Krelig. I won’t. You won’t need to wonder about me. I promise.”
    He nodded, then smiled. “Excellent!” He gestured carelessly at her, and Calen saw the healing energy fly toward her a split second before she gasped again and the wound closed itself up, disappearing as though it had never existed.
    “Now, Calen.” Krelig nodded toward the door Calen had so recently entered through.
    “What rooms should I give them?”
    “I don’t care. Any rooms you want.”
    Calen turned and walked out, not waiting to see if they were even out of their chairs yet. Soon enough he heard their hurried footsteps on the stone floor behind him. He led them to the opposite side of the castle from where his own room was. He wanted them as far away from him as possible.
    When he reached the entrance to the long hallway he’d selected, he waved vaguely in the direction of the several closed doors that lined each side. “You can take any of these rooms you like.” Then he started back the way they’d come.
    The obnoxious girl — Mage Helena — stepped up beside him. “Is he always like that? So — so volatile? I didn’t —”
    Calen whirled to face her. “Don’t speak to me,” he said coldly. “I’m not your guide or your ally or your friend. You’ll figure out what it’s like here soon enough. Either that, or he’ll probably kill you. But don’t expect me to make your life any easier. Or to be any part of it at all.”
    Her mouth opened, but he strode off before she could say