By the Morning Light_Smoke and Mirrors Read online

  “I know. I wish…” He looked away from me. “I wish she hadn’t shown us. This secret… I don’t want to keep it.”

  I joined him on the bed, my voice hushed. “But it’s magic. Do you know how many people will never get to see what we saw last night?”

  “It was amazing,” he admitted. Emile paused for a beat, as if fearing my reaction to his next words. “It’s also scary, Claudette. You could have been badly hurt if she hadn’t been able to stop the plants in time.” His gaze lowered to the floor, his expression conflicted.

  “But she did stop them,” I said. “She didn’t mean to hurt me. We both know that.” I didn’t admit out loud how scared I’d been, certain the plants were going to break my ankles or worse. If I told Emile I’d been frightened, I knew he wouldn’t let me see Aeonia again.

  “I know, but… Magic was the cause of so much evil. Maybe Michel’s right. Maybe it doesn’t belong here.”

  “What if it’s different now?” I leaned forward, my words tripping over themselves in my rush to say them. “Everyone knows what happened before—when the magicians wanted too much power. So wouldn’t the ones who have the power today do everything they can to prevent the same thing from happening again? Aeonia would never harm people with her magic. Last night was an accident.”

  Emile looked away again. That’s when I realized he disagreed with me, but didn’t want to say anything because he didn’t want to fight with me. My heart sank.

  I touched him lightly on the arm. “I’ll be careful. And besides, eventually they’ll leave and this will all be like a dream. We should be excited that we had a chance to experience something like this. I don’t think we’ll ever see something like that again.”

  “But what about your adventure?” Emile murmured.

  “You can have an adventure without magic.” I bumped his shoulder with mine. “Besides, I bet on that adventure we’ll see a dragon.”

  He bumped me back. “That’s still magic!”

  “It’s different!”

  “It is not!”

  We were still arguing when Maman called us down to help with dinner, but when Papa asked us what we were talking about, we both said, “Nothing!” He made a face but didn’t press the issue, nor did he say anything when we left the house right after washing and putting away all the dishes. I think he and Maman had given up on dissuading us from befriending Aeonia, realizing it was far too late for that.

  She smiled at us when we joined her at our usual meeting place. “I like your dress, Claudette.”

  I felt a rush of relief. On our way to the carnival grounds I’d felt overdressed; mostly everyone else was in pants and shirts. But Aeonia always wore long flowing skirts, and standing next to her, I no longer felt out of place.

  Until Emile said, “She’s just going to get it dirty.”

  I scowled at him.

  Even though I told Emile he couldn’t gawk, I found myself doing exactly that when we walked the carnival grounds. Was that strongman using magic? What about the trapeze artist? Or that fortune teller? After a half hour of whipping my head back and forth from tent to tent, my mouth agape, Aeonia elbowed me hard in the side and hissed, “Stop it!”

  Emile started laughing and I glared at him as I rubbed my side. “I’m sorry!” I told Aeonia. “But now that I know about your ma—” I snapped my mouth shut when she made to poke me again. “Fine, I’ll stop!”

  “Let’s get out of here,” she said, walking away without waiting to see if we followed her. Emile and I exchanged a baffled look as we raced to catch up with her.

  At the outskirts of the carnival, Aurora was leaning against a tree, her arms crossed over her chest. I hadn’t seen much of her lately—or Michel, for that matter. I wondered if he was lurking nearby. “Where are you going?” Aurora asked her sister.

  “To the monastery,” Aeonia said without even slowing down. Aurora stared at her before pushing herself off the tree and following.

  She was coming with us? My face dropped with disappointment. Now we wouldn’t be able to talk about the magic. Or had Aeonia told Aurora what’d happened? I decided to wait for Aeonia to broach the subject first. I wasn’t about to get her in trouble with her sister, not when Aeonia had said she trusted me.

  “What are we doing here?” Aurora asked, watching as Aeonia trailed her hand along the side of one of the crumbling monastery walls.

  “No one invited you, you know,” Aeonia pointed out as she bent over and tugged a plant free from the ground. The roots made a terrible ripping sound as they were yanked from the ground and I winced. Why was she angry? Was it because of my behavior at the carnival?

  Maybe I should go. Maybe Aeonia wanted to be alone. But then I remembered how she’d looked the night before and how upset she’d been.

  How lonely she was.

  I won’t leave unless she tells me to, I decided.

  Aurora was watching Aeonia with a scowl on her face. She crossed her arms over her chest, her stance tense. “I came because I haven’t seen you at all lately.”

  “Whose fault is that?” Aeonia snapped. “Where’s your boyfriend, anyway?”

  “He’s not my boyfriend.” Aurora said the word like it was a curse. Like it disgusted her. “And I don’t know where he is. He wanted to spend some time with his friends. They’re probably drinking and acting like idiots right now.”

  Aeonia began ripping the leaves off the plant she’d pulled from the ground, smirking. “You’re jealous.”

  “I’m not!”

  “We should go,” Emile whispered to me, looking highly uncomfortable. He never liked to see two people fighting, but he especially hated it when it was family members. Considering how close the two of us were, he thought all siblings were like that, and it was always an awful blow when he realized that wasn’t the case.

  He had the right idea. As Aeonia and Aurora began bickering in earnest, I started backing away. “So we’re just going to go…”

  “What?” Aeonia looked up. “No, don’t go! Aurora should leave, not you two. She’s the one who abandoned us all this time. The moment Michel vanishes, she comes slinking back like an alley cat looking for a scrap of food.” Aeonia threw a handful of leaves to the ground with more force than necessary. “Who needs that?”

  Aurora glared at her. “I’m here because I want to make sure you don’t do something stupid.”

  “Like what?” Aeonia’s lips curled into a mischievous smile. Around us the plants started rustling. Emile grabbed my arm in alarm. Under his shirt I could see the disc had begun glowing. The blue light was blazing strongly through his tan shirt.

  “Aeonia,” Aurora said in a warning tone.

  “Stop worrying, dear sister. They already know!” She threw her hands up in the air and the plants reacted to the movement, shooting to the sky. Aurora let out a squawk of surprise and leapt out of the way of a thorny rose bush.

  Emile and I pressed our backs to the monastery wall, watching as the plants overtook the courtyard once more. Aeonia laughed, twirling in circles, and the plants reacted to the movement, surrounding her until we couldn’t see her.

  “Aeonia, stop it!” Aurora cried. “You’re going to hurt yourself!”

  “Never!” Aeonia called from inside her green cage. “The magic likes me! I’m invincible!”

  “Don’t be an idiot! No one is invincible!”

  We were so focused on their bickering that we didn’t even hear the sound of footsteps until it was too late. Someone rushed past me and Emile with an unsheathed sword, its blade reflecting the moonlight as it slashed out toward Aeonia’s cage.

  There was a scream, and then silence.

  Chapter Twelve

  “No!” Aurora shouted, throwing herself at the attacker. He grunted, and that’s when I realized it was Michel. He must have followed us and attacked Aeonia when he saw her using magic. As Aurora and Michel fell to the ground, his sword went flying and Emile rushed to pick it up before Michel could use it on Aeonia again.
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br />   I dove for the plant cage. I could hear Aeonia sobbing from inside and I prayed she was just scared and not hurt. “Aeonia!” I called. Thorns scratched at my bare arms, but I ignored them as I tried to part the plants. They had grown so densely together that I couldn’t even see Aeonia and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get to her with just my hands. “Aeonia, you have to make the plants retract.”

  “I can’t,” she sobbed.

  “Yes, you can.” I gritted my teeth as hot blood flowed down my arms. Noticing, Emile dropped the sword and yanked me away before I could hurt myself again. “Aeonia, you can do it! We saw you do it last night!”

  “But I’m scared.” The plants twisted at her words, and I watched in horror as the cage began shrinking. Aeonia let out a shriek. I couldn’t tell if it was from pain or horror.

  “Aeonia!” Aurora pushed Michel away and ran to the cage. “Get out of there!” She turned, spying the sword on the ground. Lifting it easily, she began hacking at the cage with practiced swings.

  Nursing a bloody lip, Michel joined us, his face a mask of hatred. “That’s magic. Your sister is an abomination, Aurora. You should let her rot in there.”

  If I was Aurora, I would have turned around and swung the sword at Michel’s head. But she ignored him as she continued to hack at the cage. Finally, there was a loud crack and Aeonia’s hand emerged.

  “Can you crawl through it?” Aurora asked. Letting go of the sword, she dropped to her knees and began ripping some of the branches and vines aside. After widening the hole, she reached forward and seized Aeonia by the shoulders to pull her out.

  Aeonia’s tear-streaked face had a long scratch running down one cheek, but otherwise she appeared unharmed. “Aurora!” Her relieved expression changed to alarm as she shoved her sister aside.

  Michel had picked up his sword again and narrowly missed slicing Aurora on the arm. The tip of the blade grazed Aeonia’s chest and she let out a cry of pain.

  “Michel, don’t!” I cried, but horror and fear prevented me from moving.

  He ignored me as he grabbed Aeonia by the front of her dress and hauled her to her feet, his sword against her neck. “I should kill you right now!”

  “Get your hands off my sister,” Aurora snarled, springing to her feet.

  “Don’t!” Michel pressed the sword’s edge into Aeonia’s throat. When a spot of blood appeared, trickling down the blade, everyone froze.

  Emile was the first to speak. “Michel. Stop.”

  “You are in training to become a Knight!” Michel’s bellows echoed off the monastery’s walls. “You don’t defend magicians, Emile! You kill them.”

  “She’s not even from Ayres,” Emile protested. “You can’t kill her. Just send her back to her family.”

  “She wasn’t doing anything wrong,” I said tearfully. “She was just playing.”

  “Lies!” Michel’s eyes narrowed in hate. “She could have killed you, Claudette.”

  “She wouldn’t—”

  “How do you know that? She’s an abomination.” Michel was beyond the point of listening to any of us. He’d already made up his mind about Aeonia, and if we didn’t do something—fast—he would kill her right in front of us.

  I had an idea. “A trial,” I said quickly. “She deserves a trial, doesn’t she?”

  Michel cocked his head, the only indication that he was listening to me.

  “That’s right,” Emile said. “We take her to the castle and judge her. Isn’t that what the Knights do?” It’s what the Knights did, back when magic users weren’t in hiding. None of us had witnessed a trial. I was certain even the elders of the city hadn’t seen one. But Michel was obsessed with becoming a Knight. He would have studied their methods and would want to do this the right way.

  I curled my hands into fists. He couldn’t kill Aeonia in cold blood. He wasn’t like that.

  Or was he?

  Everyone held their breath as Michel mulled over our words. When his posture relaxed slightly, I felt a sense of relief. He was listening to us.

  “We’ll take her to the castle,” Michel said. He nodded toward Aurora. “Don’t follow us, or else I will kill her.” With the sword still at Aeonia’s throat, he hauled her toward the path that would lead us back to Ayres, snapping at me and Emile to hurry up and follow him.

  “Get help,” I breathed to Aurora, not daring to look at her as I stumbled after Michel.

  I hoped Emile and I could distract Michel long enough for Aurora to rally enough people to rescue Aeonia. We couldn’t count on Aeonia to do anything, that much was certain. With the sword pressed to her throat, she was shaking so hard her teeth were chattering together. The magic that had surrounded her only minutes earlier had gone silent, and I couldn’t see the disc glowing through Emile’s shirt anymore. I wished I could grab Emile by the arm and pull him aside so we could discuss our next course of action, but Michel kept barking at us to hurry up as we passed first the dog cairn, then our farmhouse, and finally reached the city. He sheathed his sword so as not to draw the attention of anyone we passed as we traversed the winding streets to the castle. If anyone noticed my scratched arms or the blood marring my now ruined white dress, they chose not to comment on it.

  The castle was alit, its doors open, and sounds of laughter wafted from the windows. The other squires are here, I thought with a sinking feeling.

  “How lucky for you,” Michel hissed in Aeonia’s ears. “Everyone is here to judge you. Will you cower before them, witch?”

  She didn’t answer him, her eyes wide with fear. Her skin had gone sickly pale and I was afraid she was going to faint. We entered the castle and Aeonia tripped. Snarling, Michel yanked her upright, pulling on her arm so hard that she let out a cry of pain. Next to me, Emile’s face had gone blank, but his eyes were brimming with anger. I put a hand on his arm, shaking my head slightly. As much as I wanted my brother to swoop in and rescue Aeonia, I knew he was no match for Michel. He seemed to understand what I was trying to say, but his hands remained curled into tight, shaking fists.

  We climbed the stairs of the castle, Aeonia’s whimpers and our footsteps echoing off the walls. The sounds of celebrating and laughter grew louder as we walked down the corridor that led to the training room. But the moment Michel entered, shoving Aeonia in after him so her knees hit the floor with a painful thud, the others fell silent.

  “Ladies and gentlemen,” Michel said, unsheathing his sword once more and pointing it at Aeonia. She crouched in the center of the room, trying to make her body as tiny as possible. “I brought you a witch.”

  Everyone in the room leaned forward to get a better look at Aeonia. There were ten others gathered here that night—seven boys, three girls. Luckily, these were all of Michel’s squire friends. If the actual Knights were here, would they put a stop to this and send Aeonia back to her family, or would they also want to take matters into their own hands like Michel was doing? The laws of Ayres applied to Ayrens, not travelers, and I was ashamed to admit that even though I was a squire, I wasn’t sure what the Knights would do in this case.

  Regardless, there wasn’t any time to find the Knights. I wouldn’t even know where to look. They could be in the city or at the carnival, and I would waste the entire night trying to locate them while Aeonia’s life hung in the balance. I hoped Aurora would come with help soon.

  Gilbert hopped down from the windowsill where he was sitting with one of the girls. The torchlight made his long blond hair, worn loose tonight, gleam brightly. “What’s this? Isn’t she your girlfriend’s little sister?”

  Michel sneered. “Aurora is not my girlfriend.” Normally those words would make my heart sing, but not after what he’d done at the monastery, and what he was doing right now. “I would never taint myself with people like that.”

  “Are you sure? I seem to recall you bragging about doing just that the other night,” Gilbert said lewdly, his blue eyes twinkling. Some of the other boys laughed while the girls made faces. They whispered to one
another and left the room quietly. No one stopped them, and I felt a few stares on the back of my neck. They expected me to leave, too, but I wouldn’t. Not while they circled Aeonia like a pack of hungry wolves.

  What did I expect to accomplish by staying? Fighting them was out of the question. No, I needed to continue to stall them until help arrived.

  If help arrived.

  Come on, Aurora. We need you. Please, hurry.

  Michel was filling the boys in on what’d happened. “She made the plants grow! They were violent things, and they struck out at us. Look what she did to Claudette!” He grabbed one of my arms with his free hand, raising it above my head with a sharp tug. I gasped. With Michel’s fingers digging into the cuts, they screamed with pain.

  “She didn’t do that!” My eyes burned with unshed tears. “I did that myself, when I was trying to rescue her!”

  “You mean stop her from attacking us,” Michel said.

  “No! She wasn’t going to hurt any of us.” I wanted to stomp my foot in frustration, but I knew that would only make them laugh at me. “You’re twisting everything around, Michel. Tell the truth! Or, better yet, ask me and Emile what happened. We were there!”

  His green eyes grew hard. “That’s right. You were there. Just what were you doing with Aeonia, Claudette? Were you practicing magic too?”

  I yanked my arm from his grasp, ignoring the stabs of pain as I did so. “Don’t be an idiot. We can’t use magic. You know that.”

  And I should have known not to call Michel an idiot. His face reddening, he lifted a fist and moved toward me. Emile stepped between us, his hands also curled into fists.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Gilbert came over and planted a hand on Michel’s shoulder. “You’re letting your anger guide you, Michel. Claudette and Emile are not our enemies tonight.”

  The other boys nodded. Paul stepped forward, pointing at Aeonia. “Besides, we have a witch to deal with.”

  Michel exhaled loudly and some of the redness faded from his cheeks. “You’re right. Apologies, Claudette. You’re obviously upset by Aeonia’s betrayal, and it’s clouding your judgement. I forgive you.”