As Zayaka predicted, the Governess went to her sickbed soon after Laha put the drops in her tea. She complained of light-headedness, saying she was going to take a brief lie down, but shortly after she fell into a deep sleep, punctuated by incoherent muttering. Laha had seen her try to get out of bed several times only to collapse back onto the mattress. The master of the King’s household had called on a physician, who’d shaken his head, perplexed as to the cause of the Governess’s condition. He said he would visit each day and ordered a maid to keep watch on her.

A moment of guilt-induced doubt afflicted Laha, but Zayaka assured her the Governess would make a full recovery. In any case, Laha’s mind soon became fully occupied with her training.

Her silver-eyes’ powers had returned in a sudden rush. It was as if the act of inhabiting the mouse had opened a floodgate for her magic. She was attuned with everything in nature again, hearing the voices of the grumbling stone walls in her rooms, the crackling calls from the fire in the hearth. They spoke of a reckoning. The culmination of the past and present. Destinies awakened. Frustratingly, they revealed nothing specific.

In her training, Laha revisited all of the basic skills she had learnt at the Institute. She spilled a mug of water by merely imagining it so. She shifted stones with the flick of a finger. She made a flower bloom at her touch.

Zayaka watched with a critical eye and pursed her lips when Laha was done. ‘They are simple tricks,’ she said, ‘and all that most silver-eyes will ever be capable of, because the Institute’s teachings are flawed. They ask you to speak to the natural elements, connect with them, ask them for their cooperation, but true power isn’t a partnership. It is you taking control.’ She held up her gloved hands and clenched them into fists. ‘Like I taught you with the mouse, lean into your darkness. Embrace it!’

Laha took her advice, remembering the anger she had tapped into. She seized the darkness within her and repeated the same exercises. But instead of spilling the mug of water, she used her mind to make its contents boil. Instead of shifting a stone, she lifted a boulder the size of a large dog from the hillside by the tent and launched it through the air, propelling it a dozen feet before it landed in a spray of dirt. Nearby, Chaos cowered in fear. Finally, instead of making a flower bloom in a pot, she made the whole plant shrivel and die. Chaos disappeared at that point.

‘Well done!’ Zayaka cried, as Laha stared at her hands, wondering what she had done.

‘I don’t understand. How is this even possible?’ In all her time at the Institute, she had never seen anyone do what she just did.

Zayaka’s hands went to Laha’s shoulders. ‘It’s possible because you’re not like anyone at the Institute…You’re special.’

Laha took a step back so Zayaka’s hands fell away. Was this what she wanted? The ability to extinguish life? Who exactly was Zayaka? And why was she teaching Laha these things?

Laha jutted out her chin. ‘You said you were at the Institute, that you were exiled. What happened?’

Zayaka’s beautiful face contorted for the briefest of moments before she gave a practised smile. ‘I told you – they didn’t understand me. They said there was something wrong with me.’

‘Why would they say that? What did you do?’

Zayaka waved her hand dismissively. ‘Should we move on to something else?’

Stolen novel; please report.

Laha stepped forward, so she was just inches from Zayaka’s face. ‘What…did…you do?’

Zayaka’s nostrils flared. Silver flames erupted in her eyes. ‘Fine! You want to know? I fell in love, that is what I did.’

She strode back to her chair and lowered herself slowly into it. She spoke in an even tone.

‘I fell in love with the Head Scholar at the Institute, Jidwya.’

‘Jidwya?’ Laha knew the name from Kengian history. ‘Wasn’t he the Kengian King’s brother?’ He had died in some kind of accident.

Zayaka nodded. ‘He was the King’s younger brother, and was tired of always being second best. Jidwya was the smartest man I’d ever known.’ A whimsical note ran through her voice. ‘It was he who should have been King, not the goose of a man currently acquiescing to inferior nations like Lamore. Jidwya had a vision for Kengia. A vision where his country, our country, would be the undisputed leader of all of Kypria. Where we would never need alliances. It would be all the other kingdoms paying homage to us. He tried to speak to his brother, influence him, but the King wouldn’t listen to anything Jidwya had to say.’

Laha didn’t know where this story was going, or how it explained why Zayaka was here teaching her, but she did hear the genuine hurt in the woman’s words. And if there was one thing Laha understood, it was hurt. She sat down in the chair opposite Zayaka and nodded for her to continue.

‘So when Jidwya met me and saw what I was capable of, as well as how his sister, the High Shaman, and the other instructors treated me, he took me under his wing, nurturing my abilities. We believed that together we could bring Kengia into a new age…We had a plan…’ A mischievous smile tugged at the corner of Zayaka’s mouth. ‘We would use my powers to storm the Kengian capital. We would take the crown by force.’

Laha edged forward in her seat. ‘What happened?’

Zayaka sighed, a sigh filled with the sound of a thousand breaking hearts. ‘Love is what happened. We spent many months together, meeting in secret, working on my powers – making sure we would be ready when the right opportunity arose. Soon, we couldn’t bear to be apart. It became harder and harder to keep our meetings and relationship hidden, and inevitably…we were caught.’

‘How? By who?’

‘By Aya – the Governess, as you call her. We were…’ A long pause. ‘Well acquainted, let’s say. When we were younger, we were the best of friends. I looked up to her. Everyone did.’

The Governess and Zayaka had known each other. Not just known each other – they’d been best friends. Laha couldn’t imagine the Governess having any friends, least of all someone like Zayaka.

‘But as we grew up, the differences between us became vast. She couldn’t understand why I wasn’t more like her…and why I no longer wanted to be.’ Another sigh.

Not wanting to be like the Governess – that too was something Laha could understand.

‘One day Aya came to visit me at the Institute, and she discovered Jidwya and me in a…compromising position. I swore her to secrecy, and at first she seemed happy for me and was supportive of our relationship, but then she discovered our plans. She tried to dissuade me, claiming she had seen our future, and it was filled with death and destruction…’

Death and destruction. The phrase sounded familiar to Laha.

‘She said drastic action was needed to alter future events. That I needed to leave Jidwya and never use my powers again. Of course, I refused…There was a great fight…Things happened…Awful things.’ Zayaka’s voice caught in her throat. ‘We nearly killed each other. I attacked Aya with everything I had.’ The smile was back. ‘That limp she has is because of me.’ A laugh, fading away into a cry. ‘But I wasn’t strong enough. I nearly died. Jidwya did die.’

The last part was said with an indifference Laha suspected was necessary for Zayaka to protect herself from the pain.

‘I lost everything that day. I saw what my powers had brought to those I cared about. Aya convinced me that the only choice, the only way to save Kengia, to save myself, was to leave.’

Laha exhaled heavily. ‘But you came back?’

Zayaka interlocked her fingers and stared at Laha. Flames flared in her eyes again – an explosion of silver embers. ‘Because I was wrong. Because I was deceived. And now I will have what has been denied to me. There will be a reckoning.’

Laha knew the determination in Zayaka’s fiery stare wasn’t aimed at her – it was for the Governess – but she felt no less terrified.

She gulped. ‘Are we done for today?’

Zayaka blinked rapidly, as if she had been in a different time and place. ‘Yes…’

Laha backed her way out of the tent, only turning when she was clear of the doorway.

And then she ran.