Page 30 of Acolyte (Tempris #2)

The Queen dropped the crystal she’d been inspecting and rose to her feet. “Still,” she said, pulling Taly from her thoughts. “Your spells are consistent from crystal to crystal, and the penmanship is good. The enchantment is robust despite the oversaturation of magic. Overall, I’d say not bad.”

For reasons she couldn’t begin to fathom, Taly found herself smiling at the praise—but then quickly cut off the expression mid-way.

She didn’t want this woman’s approval. It was just…

nice to do something right for once. Azura was always fi nding her lacking in one way or the other.

It was almost laughable. In a very depressing sort of way.

Azura gave the coin palace one more look, throwing a pointed glare at Calcifer lounging in the courtyard, then snapped, “Well, come on,” as she turned and exited the room. “We haven’t got all day.”

Taly cursed under her breath—the Queen had left her waiting for two hours, after all.

She was still cursing as she ducked to retrieve her boots from underneath the desk and slipped on a blue brocade vest over her tunic before following Azura out of the apartment and down the stairs.

She was wearing far too many layers for the weather, and the fabrics made her skin itch, but Leto.

.. Well, the fairy had an eye for fashion, and Taly had learned to pick her battles when it came to the wisp and clothing.

Taly jogged to keep up with Azura’s brisk pace as they passed from hall to hall, each one draped with silks and hung with paintings and decorated with those same rich furnishings that seemed so commonplace to her now.

“Where are we going?” she asked when they came to an unfamiliar part of the palace.

The windows and doors were all closed tight, and the air was near sweltering.

She was suddenly very glad she had let Leto fuss over her hair while she yawned into her coffee that morning.

The coiled braids kept her hair from sticking to her neck.

Azura clicked open a fan. “I thought we could both use a change of scenery this afternoon. Classrooms have their place, but for this lesson, I have something special in mind.”

“What about my weapons training?” Taly asked. She actually enjoyed that part of her day .

“Canceled.”

“And my—”

“Also canceled.”

They approached a wide set of double doors at the end of the hallway.

The wood was nearly black, and the crests for each of the Shards were carved in even intervals.

Crystals of every shape, size, and color flickered, flanked by circles and runes that had been etched into a delicate geometric pattern.

Azura raised a hand, and the fairies that had been bouncing along behind them rushed forward, pushing against the wood. The doors slid open on silent hinges.

From stifling heat to open air, the room beyond was breathtakingly large, big enough to fit an airship and still have space left over, and Taly gasped, looking around with wide eyes.

There were no windows or walls, just staggered rows of ivory columns holding up a gray ring of stone.

Set around a central altar were pews carved from ivory and inlaid with long strips of that same black wood.

They fanned out to the far reaches of the room in ever-widening circles, the aisles like the spokes of a wagon wheel.

Taly grinned, craning her head to stare up through the wide wooden rafters at the clear blue sky. The ceiling had been left open to the elements, protected by a dome of air magic that shimmered if the light caught it just right. “You brought me to temple.”

“Obviously,” Azura muttered as she strode down the main aisle.

“Close your mouth, dear. You look like a fish.” Avoiding the row of golden thrones off to the side—one for each of the Genesis Lords—Azura took a seat in a pew near the altar.

“ Come now. Hurry up. I was hoping to get an earlier start than this.”

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Taly made her way to the front of the temple, smiling at the fairies that bounced off the dome, seeming to make a game of it.

But wait… No. They weren’t bouncing off the dome. They were ping ponging through the rafters, throwing down dust and splinters and—

There was a loud crack . Then another as one of those long beams buckled in the middle.

It was solid wood, at least three feet thick, and there were countless others like it all stemming from a massive marble column at the center of the room and terminating in that gray ring of stone.

All of them cracking and bowing as the fairies ricocheted back and forth.

Mortar and stone ripped free.

“Catch, dear.”

And then every single one of those dark wooden beams came crashing down.

Instinct kicked in, and Taly fell to the floor as splinters and dust and debris rained from up above. She raised her hands, the gesture futile against the hundreds of pounds of broken wood that were hurtling toward her.

But then somehow—from somewhere—there was another instinct. A reflex that hadn’t been there before. Her aether exploded out of her, flickering threads of golden magic spindling the air and shooting towards the sky.

The world went quiet. Still. And for a moment, it was all Taly could do to lie there, listening to the thunderous beat of her heart and the fairies’ giggling overhead .

“Not bad,” the Queen remarked, almost bored.

She hadn’t moved from her seat at the pew, and she stared up at the cloud of chaos overhead, frozen midway down.

Covering the whole of the temple, it was like a nebula interspersed with scores of jagged beams and pieces of stone and crystal.

Sunlight glinted off each suspended mote of dust, casting strange unmoving shadows.

“Finally, a situation suited to just how much aether you like to throw around.”

“What the hell?” Taly panted, still crouched defensively on the ground.

But Azura just continued to look up. “A bit sloppy, though.” Her fan flicked closed, and she gestured to the web of threads crisscrossing the temple. “I shouldn’t be able to see the spell. You’re still using too much aether. Fix it.”

Sweat beaded on her brow as Taly fought to keep the spell steady. Her magic simmered beneath the surface, restless. “Are you joking?” she said through gritted teeth. “I’m holding up the damn ceiling.”

“Fix it. Believe me—you’ll thank me later.”

Taly exhaled through her nose and pushed against her power, shuddering when it tried to snap back at her, like a child that had just been told it couldn’t go outside to play.

Slowly, the flickering threads began to dim until the air was clear.

“Better?” she asked breathlessly.

Azura eyed the cloud of splinters and shattered beams, then looked to Taly, pursing her lips at the dull glow that still surrounded her fingertips. She gave a slow nod. “Much.” She patted the pew beside her. “Come. Sit. ”

No way. Taly didn’t trust herself to breathe, much less move.

“My dear,” Azura said, twisting in the pew, “are you in any danger of losing the spell?”

Taly looked up, then back to Azura. She tentatively prodded at the spell. “No,” she said after a moment. Her aether was bucking at the reins, still wanting to fan out. But her grip on the spell was surprisingly steady.

“Then sit down.”

A command from her High Lady, and Taly obeyed, slowly, carefully, easing herself off the ground. Even though she tried not to, she kept glancing up as she slid into the pew beside the Queen.

Azura said, “I want you to hold the spell until I say stop.” That fan flicked back open. “This afternoon’s lecture—”

Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me, Taly thought, eyeing a portion of the spell that was beginning to warp, allowing a few splinters to trickle down.

“—will focus on crystals. Every facet of our lives involves crystals in one way or another. They’re in our homes, our businesses.

They’re used to grow food and power our plumbing.

Even the fabrics we use to clothe ourselves were likely woven on crystal-powered looms. Crystals form the cornerstone of our very way of life, and yet, very few take the time to understand just what they are.

Tell me, dear—do you know where they come from? ”

“They’re mined,” Taly replied automatically.

“True. But I didn’t ask you where we find them. I asked you to tell me where they come from? How are they formed?”

“I…” Taly hesitated. “I don’t know. ”

“And what is it that allows them to focus and refine aether.”

“Um…” Taly frowned. “I’m not sure.”

“What is it that makes them go dark?”

Ah! That one she knew. “The Genesis Shards. Crystals need their respective Shards to function, so if the Shard suffers, so do the crystals.”

“But why is that?”

Taly felt herself deflate slightly. “I don’t know.”

“And this is precisely why I always like to devote at least one lecture to this particular topic,” Azura said, giving Taly a knowing look.

They always did this. The Queen would start each new subject by proving to Taly just how little she knew before finally making her point.

It was like she took some sort of sadistic pleasure out of making her feel stupid.

“Now then.” Azura settled back in the pew. “What do you know about the Genesis Lords?”

“I know that one of them is one Shard short of a full Council.” Taly flinched when that fan whacked her on the back of the head.

Wood groaned overhead.

“Answer the question,” Azura said, frowning.

“The Genesis Lords are the six men and women chosen to wield the Genesis Shards,” Taly answered mechanically. “Together, they form the Council—the highest governing body in the Fey Imperium.”

“And the Sacred Six?”