It occurred to Laha that before she went in search of the Kengian woman again, she should try to find some clues to the stranger’s identity – or at least her kind of magic. Unfortunately, there was only one person who may have answers – the Governess – and Laha wasn’t about to ask her for help. She would have to access the Governess’s knowledge another way.

She hovered in the shadows outside the Governess’s room, waiting for her to leave for the feast in the Great Hall. Sure enough, at the appointed time, the Governess hobbled from her room, leaning heavily on her walking stick, fashioned from a branch of Kengia’s sacred yew tree.

She stopped for a moment. Laha’s heart caught in her throat, sure that the Governess was aware of her presence. But she had stopped to rub her leg in the spot that Laha knew was marked by a fist-sized scar. The Governess grimaced, then took a deep breath before continuing.

Laha slipped into the room and quickly found what she was looking for. The Firemaster’s book: the Governess’s record of all of her spells and discoveries – her way of preserving the most powerful Kengian magic for future generations.

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Laha surveyed the red leather book in front of her. Her fingers traced the cover with its embossed phoenix rising from flames – the symbol of the Firemaster.

She opened the book to reveal blank pages and murmured the Kengian protection spell, not expecting it to work.

‘Thoughts to words

Words to action

Reveal thy words

Speaketh your secrets.’

To her surprise and delight, words appeared before her. Of course, using a simple Scholar spell wasn’t the same as having her silver-eyes’ powers back, but it was something. She went to the most recent entry – musings about how the Governess might be able to create colourful bursts of light in the sky. It was vaguely interesting, but wasn’t what Laha was looking for. She went back a few pages and found another entry: scribbles in shaking handwriting about the future being clouded and ‘a carousel of shifting shadows of possibilities’. It was slightly more interesting, but still provided no clues about the mysterious Kengian woman.

Laha flicked through the whole book, looking for any mention of a prophecy, but found nothing.

She murmured the protection spell again and closed the book with a resigned sigh. She would have to find out who the stranger was all by herself.