I leaned back and rolled my eyes. “Next.”
Wynnow pointed at Loelle. “Give her a silent command, from your mind to hers, to wake up and ask what we’re having for supper tonight.”
“What are we having?” I asked.
“Kestra!”
“All right.” I focused on Loelle, my immediate goal simply being to cause her to stir. But again, nothing happened.
“We can eliminate the first cluster,” I said. “And the second, for that matter. I can’t make Loelle yawn, much less influence her to wake up.”
A vein popped out in Imri’s neck, I swore it did. “Let’s try the third cluster, then, to influence objects.” She widened her palm, revealing a single pearl earring on it. “Can you move this to your hand, without touching it?”
I tried it. And no, I couldn’t. Nor could I move it on her hand, crush it, or cause it to do anything.
I slumped back in my seat. “Enough. I’m done being tested for now.”
“My lady—” Wynnow began, but Imri touched her arm, and whispered something to her. I distinctly heard the word defect. Meaning those who are capable of magic but fail to develop it.
When she caught me looking, Imri tried to cover it up by saying, “Don’t worry. You’re probably tired, or the magic is still too fresh.”
“Of course.” I tried to sound hopeful, though I didn’t believe either of those reasons was to blame. The problem was that a part of me hoped I was a defect. Yes, I needed magic to have a chance against Lord Endrick.
But if I never developed magic, then I might still have a chance with Simon.
I doubted there was any future where I could have both.
Harlyn had certainly sparked our curiosity about how Nessel might be prepared for a Dominion attack, but then, I was equally curious about what might be inside the satchel dangling from Trina’s saddle. The two girls stared at each other a moment, silently negotiating who might announce their news first.
It would be Trina. Arching her neck, she dismounted and withdrew from her satchel a wood box, then carefully laid it on the ground while we gathered around it. She slid open the lid to reveal a roll of burlap packed in straw, then glanced up at us with excitement dancing in her eyes. “You remember the Dominion fire pellets?”
Of course we did. They were shot from shoulder cannons and exploded almost instantly upon hitting metal. We could avoid the worst of their impact if only a few came our way, but in numbers, they were lethal.
Trina added, “Packed in here is a single fire pellet, one large enough to explode a hillside. You only have to squeeze on it, then throw.”
Or have it thrown at us, should we lose control of such a device. I shook my head. “It’s a dangerous thing for the Brillians to want Lord Endrick’s technologies, his mutations. And it’s more dangerous for us to fight him with his own tools of war.”
“I disagree.” Ha
rlyn crouched beside Trina, hoping to examine the contents of the box more closely, but Trina shut the lid again and added, “This is Brillian technology, not Endrick’s magic.”
I exchanged a cautious look with Basil. “What good will that do us here?” he asked.
Trina shrugged. “Maybe none, unless it’s our last chance to stop the Dominion.”
“We’re not there yet,” Harlyn said, rising again. “Come with me and see what we’ve been doing.”
We returned to our horses, dividing into pairs to fit on the narrow road toward Nessel. Harlyn rode near me, lowering her voice to keep our conversation from the others. “If something is wrong, you can talk to me.”
I looked over at her, ready to explain that we barely knew each other, ready to lie and say that I was fine. I couldn’t say the truth, not to anyone, maybe not even to myself. It’d only worsen the damage to my heart, or what was left of it. Harlyn only nodded at me as if she knew that and understood.
I was relieved when the city came into better view, anything for a distraction from my thoughts. Since my last visit here only weeks ago, walls of tall wood slats had been built up around Nessel with what appeared to be a single gated entrance. With the advent of a new Infidante, obviously the Halderians had known war would eventually come to the Hiplands.
“You said you have ways of defending this city?” Trina asked Harlyn.
“Yes, though we’ve never had to test them.” Harlyn motioned for us to follow her through the gates. The evacuation must be ahead of us, since I saw no other people, though it was still dark enough I might have missed them in the shadows of the side roads.
Other than the high walls, Nessel was exactly how I remembered it, with cobblestone walkways and smooth dirt roads for the horses and wagons. When we’d come before, it had felt as abandoned as it was now, except then, it was because the people had gathered at the edge of town for a meeting. That was where Kestra had been named the Infidante.