Much of the plot has changed from the book, but that's because the main plot points from the book haven't had room to happen. Details will come out in the next few chapters, but three of the main characters she interacts with while in Carthak (Kaddar, Rikash, and the Graveyard Hag) aren't around. This is also called the chapter where I start to get angry reviews, but I've been leading toward this scene from the very beginning.

Next chapter: Now

The Emperor's Mage
Chapter Nineteen: Effort

Daine barely paid attention to the frighteningly expensive dessert Varice set in front of her at the end of the dinner. She politely ate all of it, but she was waiting for the dismissal. Daine was on her feet the very instant that the emperor released them all, and in her rooms just two minutes later. She hurriedly changed out her fancy clothing for something more practical. She didn't want to destroy the pretty silver robe, no matter how much of a hurry she was in, and she would be much more comfortable in her own breeches and boots.

For the first time since coming to Carthak, she set aside the fancier clothing that Thayet and Alanna had planned out. Even the breeches and boots she had been wearing to the aviary were a touch fancier than what she'd wear with the Riders, comfortable clothing more like any Tortallan commoner would wear. For all that Jon kept threatening her with a title, she'd avoided it so far. She was a commoner, for all that she'd occasionally neglect to use the king's title, and she'd dress like it when she had a big project to finish. Arram would be dressed just the same, if he had the time to change, and it wasn't like she was going to let all of the fancy nobles gawk at her when she had a mind to go heal the birds.

She brought her book with her as she headed for the aviary. Alanna had spelled it to resist all sorts of damage, and bird droppings would roll right off of the pages without leaving the slightest mark. The pages would even turn without being touched if Daine said the right words, a very tricky bit of magic that might help a lot if her hands were full with an animal to be healed. She might not need the libraries, but if she did Arram would be able to help her find the right things much faster.

She was flipping through the pages herself when she heard the door open. She looked up long enough to see Arram hurrying in, all of his jewels and finery conspicuously absent, and then went back to her pages about the effects of common toxins in birds.

Arram had been waiting for two minutes at the end of the bench she'd appropriated for a desk. He didn't look bothered that she'd been ignoring him, and he was ready when she pushed her book toward her. It was a tiny note in the middle of a long, dry stretch of words, and she'd not paid enough attention to it the first time that she read the chapter.

"Lead," Daine said, pointing at the right passage. "It changes the droppings. I was hardly paying attention to them before, with the way that the sicker birds had the thick droppings, and I didn't know how to heal something when I didn't know what was wrong." She opened her mind to her magic, letting the copper fire course all around her as she reached out to find the birds that were still weak. She bathed every last one of them in her magic, strengthening even the birds that were well. With her magic still whirling out from her, the healing finished, she asked all of them what they had been eating that wasn't the seed.

"Check the water, please?" she asked Arram, most of her mind still sorting through the many, many responses from the birds. He started scanning the entire aviary after examining the water, and the two of them found the source at the same time. The birds told her about the 'green food' just as the decorative green enamel lit under Arram's spell. When she looked closely at the trim, she could see where the birds had chipped at the enamel for food that made them thirsty—salt, mixed in with whatever else had gone into the pretty green trim.

Arram was tracing the lines of the enamel with his hands when she finished reinforcing her command to the birds that they weren't to touch the green food again. "Have them back away, please," he said. The birds listened to him, still linked through her magic, and she could feel the remnants of a copper bridge stretching to Arram when he spoke to them. She didn't need to say a word to reinforce the direction he'd given. All of the birds had landed in the trees and on the bushes.

Arram said a word that made the air hum with power. Between one heartbeat and the next, all of the green enamel running through the entire aviary had turned to bronze. Daine looked from the new strip of metal to the mage. Arram barely looked tired, after transmuting quite a bit of a rock-like substance right into a metal, and he'd done it without protective circles or chanting or even any of his opals.

"Goddess," Daine breathed. Her ma had needed circles and chanting just to get a fire going, some days, and had mostly used herbs and tonics when she was working as a midwife. Daine thought that Arram looked a little wary, but she couldn't imagine why anybody with that much power could be nervous about her. "I keep hearing that you're a great mage, and I'm sure that you're very impressive, but I know how hard that is. I think you'd've been the equal for Alanna's brother."

Daine thought that Arram had relaxed when she kept on sounding calm, but she might have been influenced by the mood of the birds as they adjusted to the change in their aviary. "Master Thom of Trebond was the youngest mage to ever reach my rank," Arram said. "Educated rumor has it that Lady Alanna and King Jonathan are the strongest remaining mages in Tortall. The late Duke Roger forgot the strength of his opponents."

"Did you know him? Duke Roger?"

"Barely." Arram had stepped close to the walls to examine his work. "He had the reputation for stalling the careers of any mage who would end up too powerful, so Lindhall kept me near the birds and the more academic ends of magic while Roger was staying here. He and Ozorne were close, as I recall, and I would not be surprised if Ozorne had encouraged Roger's attempts to take the Tortallan throne." He whistled when he stepped away, and the parrot-finches were the first to examine the bronze edging.

Daine might have asked more, because Arram might have finally been able to prove that it was Roger that had sent the fever that nearly killed Jon all those years before, but she was surprised to find herself swaying on her feet. Arram wasn't, though, because he caught her when she might have fallen right over.

Before Daine had time to protest that she might be able to walk, Arram had her picked up in his arms, and she was a little embarrassed at how nice it felt to be cradled against his chest. He had more muscle than she'd usually expect on a mage, and his big hands were gentle. "Sorry, Arram. I didn't mean to call you over just to fall on you."

"By all means, fall on me all you like. You could fall on anyone in Carthak if you saved the emperor's birds first." His voice sounded even nicer when she could hear it rumbling in his chest. "You've exhausted yourself. You have a nearly unlimited amount of power with wild magic, as you can hypothetically draw it from the animals around you when your own supply is exhausted, but you'll need to remember that all of it is channeled through you."

Daine couldn't have stopped her yawn if she tried. "I'll remember," she promised. Her eyelids felt too heavy to lift fully, but she could still see him through her lashes. "Thank you for fixing the enamel. Most of the grand mages back home think anything practical's beneath their dignity or somewhat."

Arram chuckled. "The truth of it may be that the grand mages don't know practical spells. Most of my useful magic was picked up years after I earned my rank. There's rarely a call for transmutation."

That sounded about right, but not all of the really powerful mages were like that. Harailt and Lindhall had been the only academic mages that she really knew, and the few times she'd really worked with Harailt he'd been fun. He told jokes a lot, and he'd kept her company on the way over whenever Lindhall was trying to soothe Alanna's seasickness. Arram seemed to have a lot of ways of seeming quite impressive to folk, but the People had been sure that he was pretty good, for a two-legger.

Daine frowned. Even with her eyes just half-open, she knew that the mural with the flame-haired woman wasn't on the way to her room. That one was on the way to the deeper parts of the palace. Moving seemed like it would take more effort than she had in her, but something in her expression must have been clear enough. Arram had slowed down, and close as he was she could barely see him through the heaviness of her eyelids.

"Don't worry, magelet. Nobody can see us." She might have protested that he hadn't understood at all, if he thought that was her worry, and that she would rather go sleep in her own rooms. She wasn't interested in seeing his cat's-eye rock, or the explanations about how a little bit of shiny stone could make them invisible to anybody. Kitten would have seen right through it, if the dragon wasn't staying back in Tortall with George.

Just like a mage, she thought uncharitably. Even Harailt and Alanna and Jon could get so distracted with the little details of what they were doing that they didn't talk about anything important. All of that was too much effort to explain, but the rush of irritation gave her the energy for one word. "Arram?"

He stopped completely, and she realized for the first time that he was holding her with just one arm. She knew because she could feel the arm all along her back, up to where it bent to hold her knees, and his other arm was free. His hand looked a little unsteady, and didn't feel much more stable, but it might have been her own tiredness getting in the way. Whether he was shaking or not, his fingers were very gentle when he brushed a stray curl behind her ear.

When Arram spoke, his voice was so quiet that she could barely hear him. "You'll be okay, Daine. I promise."

She might have protested that he was being cryptic, or repeated her issues with mages, but he had caught her with his eyes again. She didn't think it was intentional. There was a little wrinkle between his eyes, and he looked so unhappy that she would have told him that it would be alright. He looked like Jon did when he heard that one of his young knights had died, or when George heard that a spy's cover had been broken from somebody else's carelessness. Arram looked like he'd lost her, for all that she was right there and he was holding on, but she couldn't comfort him if he was going to go catching her with his Gift again.

Daine thought that he might say something else, but he looked away abruptly, breaking eye contact. Her eyes closed the instant that he released her from his magic. She was too tired to think about all of this anymore. The last thing she felt as she drifted off to sleep was the thin chain sliding along her neck, and the soft scrape of the badger claw as it slid out from the neckline of her shirt.