Memory's Wake - Book One of the Memory's Wake Trilogy

Chapter 2

Earlier.

Why has it become so hard just to keep my mind on a simple book? Focus, Eloryn ordered herself. Her eyes skimmed over words without absorbing any meaning. She pinched her forehead and flicked back a page, trying to find the last information she’d actually retained from The Principles and History of Infantry Warfare. Alward no doubt had his reasons for making this dull book part of her syllabus but she couldn’t see how it would ever be much use to her, either for her teaching or in practice. If she was learning things she couldn’t share with her own students, she’d prefer to be studying magic.

Learning used to be easy. As a child, Eloryn already knew everything Alward taught the farmers’ children. She went to classes with them anyway, enjoying being with the other students. They stopped coming at age ten, schooled enough for their lives tending fields. She became a teacher herself after that while her own education continued. Now at sixteen, teaching felt repetitive, and she rarely saw anyone her own age. Apart from her small clutch of young students she rarely saw anyone at all. They lived alone, just herself and Alward, here in the fortified old monastery high in the wooded hills, set apart even from the tiny rural hamlet; a place where no one might recognize Alward, or herself, for who they really were. A place they could be safe.

Eloryn brushed against the pink flowers that spilt over the garden wall where she sat. They released a syrupy fragrance and she breathed it deeply, hoping to quell the unnamed ache in her chest.

“Riddip.”

Grateful for a distraction, Eloryn smiled to the speckled frog who hopped up onto her knee. “Kiss you? Why do you want me to kiss you?”

“Riddip.”

Eloryn giggled. “Oh, a handsome prince under a curse, and just one kiss from a beautiful princess will set you free? I’ve known you since you were a tadpole, little fool.” Eloryn poked him and imagined he smirked bashfully in return. But really, he always looked like that. “I shouldn’t have read you that story.” Eloryn sighed. Night approached, stealing away the friendly light. The high stone courtyard walls loomed over her. “I shouldn’t have read me that story.”

“Riddip.”

“I don’t know. There might be romance like that out there, and adventure and charming princes, but not here. Those things happen in places far, far away.”

“Riddip.”

“Shush! Really.” Eloryn dropped her voice to a scandalized whisper. “Owain only comes by to deliver produce for us. I’m sure he’s taken little notice of me.”

But she couldn’t say she hadn’t noticed him, with his feathery brown hair and strong wide shoulders. Eloryn closed her eyes and turned her face into the sun, enjoying the last few warm rays. Rather than focusing on infantry warfare, Eloryn found herself developing tactics to be the one to greet Owain on his next visit. She wondered what it would be like to hold his work-worn hands, and the heat from the sun’s touch spread through her whole body.

“Eloryn!”

Eloryn jumped and a deep blush bloomed on her face.

Alward bellowed from his chamber window overlooking the courtyard. “In here. Quickly!”

The urgency in his tone made her bolt to her feet, dropping book and frog from her lap. She whispered a sorry to her friend and puffed her way up the stairwell to Alward’s quarters.

Inside, Alward had shoved all the furniture aside to clear the space, knocking precious books off shelves in the process. Shards of a broken porcelain cup lay ignored in a puddle of still steaming tea, and the floor mat had been lifted and thrown over an armchair. Alward wore his normal grey suit, the top buttons now undone and sleeves rolled up. He hunched over the floor, scrawling magical symbols and words in charcoal. Eloryn recognized with excited fear what he was doing. The workings of a Veil door.