The Royal Wizard Read Free Page A

turned her away or shunned her? Women, as all mothers, shared a connection with the earth, and female witches with gifts of foresight, truthsense and the like were common enough. But it was rare for any woman to carry raw magic like Nia did, let alone so much of it.
    She would have to prove herself, if the king deigned to allow it. If even one of her spells went awry…
    Nia set aside the scroll she’d been studying and took another tome from the shelves. Yawning, she read spell after spell, committing it to memory. She wiggled her fingers, playing with magic while she read. Not enough to work the spells, only enough to create sparks in the palm of her hand. It helped her concentrate. The ancient language was no longer a mystery to her. The words were clear, and she understood their meaning no matter what dialect they were in.
    To learn magic is the same as learning anything else , Nico’s voice guided her, You need only open your whole self to it. Open your mind and let the words in. Their meaning will follow.
    She immersed herself in her studies, allowing nothing else to distract her. She read the spells and repeated them to herself, letting her voice echo softly all around her. Once she knew she’d not forget one incantation, she moved on to the next one, and the next.
    She shifted in her seat when it became uncomfortable; stood to walk back and forth. The words came faster and faster as she chanted with her eyes closed, her concentration absolute.
    Then, all of a sudden, a strong wind whirled around her, raising her hair and making her cloak billow. Just as quickly, it was over. Nia opened her eyes to total darkness and sighed, listening for the sound of all her scrolls and parchments fluttering to the floor. But she couldn’t hear the rustle parchment. All she heard was the walls whispering in rushed words she couldn’t quite catch.
    At the very least, their voices assured her she was still inside the castle. Scowling, she clicked her teeth together, trying to remember what incantation she’d been saying to make all the torches and candles go out.
    It made no sense. Recalling the symbols in the scrolls, she tried to match them to the words she’d chanted. She couldn’t. The spell she’d chanted wasn’t the one she’d read. One small mistake in pronunciation and something like this happened. “Bah,” she whispered. This was precisely what she was trying to avoid!
    Something stirred in the darkness, and she turned her head toward the sound. Had she conjured something else besides the wind?
    It stirred again and this time, Nia was certain she heard cloth swishing.
    “Who’s there?” a male voice demanded and Nia started. The man sparked a flame on one of the candles and brought it around to look at her. Without thinking Nia blew lightly and the candle across the room went out.
    But it had been enough for her to see she was no longer in her study and for the man to catch a glimpse of her. She was in someone’s bedchamber!
    “I wish Father had told me he was sending someone to me,” the man said, a grin in his voice. “I would have been better prepared.”
    Nia drew back a step. What?
    He was moving again. He’d risen from bed and was coming toward her in the darkness. His step was somewhat unsure, but he seemed to know which way to go. Nia had no such advantage. She didn’t know where she was, or what was around her, and she didn’t dare conjure light. It would make it too easy for him to find her.
    Closing her eyes, even though it was dark in the chamber, she tried to create an incantation to take her back. Nico had said something about reversal spells a fortnight ago, but she couldn’t remember his exact instructions. Frantic words slipped over her lips in a hushed whisper. A transportation spell needed words to be voiced, not thought. Nia needed a place to appear and a way to get there, and neither of those would help if she didn’t know where she was in the first place!
    He must have followed her