Page 20 of Daughter of the Ninth Line, Part Three

Nineteen

Avalon

M aster Proxius was personally teaching our History of the Line System lecture, which was new. One of the instructors had been called home for a family emergency, and apparently, Master Proxius had volunteered.

“As you can see from the maps, not all of Ebrus was populated until after the Line system was introduced by the Vylan family six hundred years ago, when Hopus Vylan was at the family’s helm.

The most powerful family of elemental wielders, they held a great amount of control over the running of Ebrus, even prior to the Line system.

In fact, they could have set themselves up as a monarchy, rulers of the country, yet they didn’t. Does anyone know why?”

The silence around the room was deafening, and Master Proxius looked vaguely disappointed. I’d read about this somewhere, but I didn’t want to answer and be wrong. I already had too many eyes on me.

Still, no one else answered.

Finally, I raised my hand. “Because he wanted the country to be united, and believed in every person having a say in a democratically run system.”

Master Proxius gave me a proud smile. “Excellent, Miss Halhed. Yes, Hopus Vylan believed that we were stronger together, and that no one person should exercise absolute power over the lives of others. Does anyone know why this was?”

This time, I had no idea.

“No, I guess this one might have been struck from your school’s teaching materials.

It was because Hopus Vylan was in love with—and would later marry—Aurelia Hanovan.

The Vylan and Hanovan families had feuded for generations, but the marriage between Hopus and Aurelia heralded a century of peace.

The Line system was set up, giving all the major families a place at the table when it came to issues governing the country.

Trade routes were opened, with Lines moving freely across the country for the first time in memory.

It was an age of prosperity, and many of the great cities were built in this time.

Fortaare, Hamor, and of course, the war college, although the Dome and atrium were already here. ”

His face grew serious. “However, as with any age of both economic and societal growth, there is always eventual unrest. It’s a slow, insidious thing.

The idea that someone else has more than you, even though you deserve it.

The idea that more power, more magic, should come with more boons.

As if by not subjugating those around you entitles you to some kind of reward for your restraint.

These ill feelings festered between the Lines, until one event changed the shape of Ebrus again forever. Does anyone know what it was?”

Eugene raised his hand. I fucking hated Eugene on sight, though I didn’t know why. We’d barely exchanged a single word, but there was something about his slimy, reptilian eyes that put me on edge.

“The First Line uprising.”

Master Proxius nodded. I wonder if he’d chosen to have this lesson today because Vox wasn’t here. Shay was sitting in her section, surrounded by the other First Line conscripts, looking bored.

“Indeed. The First Line uprising. It was two nights of carnage, but eventually, the First Line emerged victorious, and they have led this country since. But an uprising of this brutality doesn’t just come from nowhere.

Much like the love between Hopus and Aurelia created an era of peace, it was love—or perhaps obsession—that brought low what they’d created, hundreds of years later. Does anyone know what I’m speaking of?”

Shay raised her hand. “I assume you’re speaking of Ivan Vylan and Oris Hanovan. They both wanted the same woman as a wife.”

Master Proxius nodded his head. “Correct, Miss Vylan. They had both requested the hand of Ellanora Halhed, of the Ninth Line. Despite being rebuffed by the lady herself, they both believed that it was due to the other man, and not that they personally lacked the charms to woo her. She was quite the beauty, though,” Master Proxius said softly, his eyes on me.

“Unfortunately, her life was cut short, and she disappeared, believed to have been murdered quite soon after their rejection. Both men believed the other had stolen Ellanora, or had her killed so no one could have her. They blamed each other. Tensions festered, first between the men and then between the Lines, until a few months after Ellanora’s death, it bubbled over into violence. The First Line uprising happened.”

Ephily snickered quietly. “Poor Ninth. You missed out on the magic and the looks from your ancestors, apparently. Ugly, talentless bitch.” Fortunately, no one else could hear her words as everyone was engrossed in the lecture.

Silence fell, and Master Proxius spent a moment looking at all the faces in the room.

“At the end of the uprising, every last person from the Second Line was eradicated. Whole villages were burned to the ground. Mass graves were dug all through the Second Line Barony. When it came time for the Conclave to come together, the Barony borders were redrawn and whole Lines found themselves uprooted and moved to somewhere else, especially those who were seen to be aligned with the Second Line or deemed not strong enough to protest.”

So the Eleventh and Twelfth Lines, then.

Master Proxius moved on, and I sat back in my chair, turning over his words. I was glad Ellanora hadn’t lived to see the fact that her rejection had caused the death of so many. I couldn’t even imagine the guilt that would’ve come from that.

I thought about the note that Hayle had found, addressed to the library at the Hall of Ebrus. Had she seen what would happen and killed herself in an attempt to stop the bloodshed?

There were so many answers lost to history. There was nothing any of us could do about it now; we were stuck in a reality that two men who couldn’t take no for an answer had created.

The class was eventually dismissed, and Quarry hopped from my desk to my shoulder. I scratched his head, and he made a soft cooing sound by my ear. Hayle’s animal companions had accepted me wholeheartedly, which made me feel, well, special.

I missed Hayle, though. And Vox.

Stepping out of the classroom, I smiled. It was a beautiful day, clear with only light winds. If I were a raven, it would be the perfect day for flying. “Go and stretch your wings. Leviat will be here soon to walk me to dinner.”

Cawing, Quarry launched himself into the sky, but I saw him circling around. He wouldn’t go far.

The Twelfth Line had some kind of religious festival today, so they’d been excused from all their classes, and I missed them. In such a short amount of time, I’d become accustomed to not being alone anymore.

Someone grabbed me from behind, and clearly, I’d also become complacent because I smiled as I turned, thinking it was Viana or Acacia. But when I spun, it was Eugene Rovan.

His grip on my arm was almost painful. “Can I help you?” I hissed, and he swung me against the wall, pressing his forearm to my throat.

“No. You can’t help me, or anyone.” He was looking down at me with such barely contained venom, I wondered if I’d accidentally pissed in his eggs this morning.

“I just wanted to see what had turned Hayle Taeme into a pussy, but quite frankly, I don’t understand it.

” He leaned closer, his hand going from where it was clenched around my bicep to being wrapped painfully in my hair.

“You’re ugly, fat, and magicless. You must have a fucking amazing vagina to make him go all starry-eyed.

Master Proxius was eye-fucking you too. Are you spreading those legs for the Headmaster, Ninth? ”

His face was briefly overlaid by my father’s, and my knees turned to water. Old fear made my body numb, paralysed by wounds that were deeply entrenched in my soul.

“Weak and useless. It makes no sense,” the person above me said, not with my father’s deep baritone, but with a nasal whine.

This man wasn’t my father. He was nothing. It was enough to shake me from the fear that had a hold on me.

“Get the fuck off me,” I hissed, pushing at his chest. Quarry was suddenly there, his huge claws aiming right at the side of Eugene’s face, scoring deep cuts as if he was trying to fly off with the flesh of Eugene’s cheek.

The man in question screamed, not just at Quarry slicing open skin, but the fact that Leviat had arrived and was tearing flesh from his ass muscle. The giant war cat snarled as she swung her head, ripping him away from me and onto the ground.

Clouds quickly formed over the school. Fuck. He was going to use his weather abilities. No one knew the perils of bad weather like someone raised in the North, and I didn’t want to see what Eugene would conjure if he feared for his life.

Leaping toward Leviat, I trusted that she wouldn’t take my arm off as I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck. “Leviat, stop! He isn’t worth eating. Goddess knows where he’s been,” I said cajolingly. “Come on, drop him now. I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

To my surprise, Leviat dropped him. Huh. I’d thought it would be harder to get her to give up her prey. Maybe he tasted as vile physically as he was mentally.

A low growl behind me made my heart pound in my chest. “Oh, the trouble has already arrived,” a familiar voice purred, and I spun to launch myself straight into Hayle’s arms. He’d returned.

Braxus and Alucius stepped between us and Eugene, and Braxus took Eugene’s throat between his jaws. Hayle held me gently as he glared down at Eugene.

“One wrong move, and Braxus is going to rip your throat out. I’ll call it an accident.

It happens.” He set me down, and Leviat immediately curled around my thighs.

We watched as Hayle prowled closer, squatting down in front of the bleeding man.

“Your time is done, Eugene. You can live, and swear on your own pathetic life that you won’t so much as look in Avalon’s direction again, or you can be the brainless fucker I know you are and mouth off at me so I can end you now. Your choice.”

There was hatred in Eugene’s eyes when he looked at me, but eventually, he showed what a coward he was, turning his face away.

Hayle gripped his chin. “You’re going to swear it on your life, Eugene.”

“I swear it,” he spat out, ripping his face from Hayle’s grasp.

Standing, Hayle kicked him in the ribs. “I almost hope you’re lying, so I can put you down like the rabid animal you are.

” Then, like someone had flicked a switch, he gave Eugene his normal charming, cocky grin.

“You might want to get that bite checked out. War cat bites can cause some seriously nasty infections.”

With that, he picked me up in his arms and carried me away.

He didn’t stop until we were through the atrium, down the stairs to the lower levels and in my dorm room.

I didn’t argue. Being pressed into his chest eased an ache that I hadn’t even known was there, like an injury that just festered before it was cut out.

What was surprising was that Vox was sitting on my couch in the middle of the day, looking disheveled. Something about his demeanour seemed… off.

Hayle walked to the couch and dropped me down beside Vox. I looked between them. “Is everything okay?”

Vox dragged me into his lap, burying his face in my hair. “It is now.”