A loud crack sends Echo, Paige and me recoiling back against our seats as a flash of blue light bursts from Fallon’s wand. The sound jars me to the bone, and I gasp as the light quickly coalesces into a whirling, glowing sphere that floats just above the wand’s tip, its rhythmic, deep whoosh a jagged scrape to my ears, the carriage rapidly cooling, frost forming on the windows.
“Stop it, Fallon,” Echo snaps as she glares at Fallon with annoyance, all of us cast in sapphire light. “You’ll freeze us to death.”
Fallon lets out a contemptuous laugh but relents. She murmurs more strange words and the iceball instantly morphs into a roiling, white vapor that quickly explodes into a frigid, odorless mist and disappears.
Fallon sits back and grins, a triumphant gleam in her eyes.
“That’s amazing,” I breathe, swallowing hard, fighting back a shiver.
“That’s nothing,” Paige says, eyes wide. “You should see what else she can do. She’s a Level Five Mage. One of the best of the whole Guard.”
“It sounds like you and Lukas Grey are well suited for each other,” I tell Fallon placatingly, wanting to be struck clear off her list of potential enemies.
Aunt Vyvian needs to abandon her absurd dream of matching me with Lukas Grey. All she’s going to do is place me directly into scary Fallon Bane’s line of fire.
Fallon seems pleased by my comment. She nods approvingly, sets her wand back into her belt and relaxes against her seat.
Echo shoots Fallon a look of mild disapproval, then glances down at my unmarked hands and frowns. “I don’t understand why you’re not fasted.”
“My uncle wants me to wait until I’m older,” I tell her, increasingly put off by Echo’s judgmental approach. And besides, Fallon looks to be about the same age as me, and she isn’t fasted, either.
“Oh, what fun you’ll have,” Paige enthuses with a dreamy look of longing. “All the parties and dances and your first kiss!”
“Have you met anyone you’re interested in?” Fallon probes, sizing me up to see if I’m competition for Lukas, no doubt.
“No.” I shake my head. “I haven’t really had a chance to, being from Halfix. It’s so isolated there. And this is only my first full day in Valgard.”
Fallon regards me with renewed interest. She narrows her eyes. “Have you ever been around any men...other than Gardnerian men?”
My brow knits tight and I feel myself growing defensive over my sheltered upbringing. “What do you mean?” I ask guardedly.
Fallon spits out a short laugh. “I mean, have you ever been around Keltic boys? Or Elves? Or... Lupine?”
I eye her with astonishment. “There aren’t Lupines at the University, are there?” That strikes me as incredibly dangerous. Lupines are vicious wolf-shifters. Stronger than the strongest Gardnerian, and completely immune to our magic.
“I’m afraid there are,” Echo replies, a grave expression on her face.
“That’s rather shocking,” I say, shaking my head. “I’m really surprised.” But then I think back to Aunt Vyvian’s conversation with Uncle Edwin, and her outrage over the University’s misguided racial integration—even Icaral demons are allowed to attend.
Paige is worriedly chewing at her bottom lip, her eyes round as two saucers.
Fallon leans in toward me with obvious relish, her voice a scratchy whisper. “Lupines don’t ever marry, did you know that? They simply grab whomever they like and mate with them in the woods.”
“Like animals,” Echo chimes in, with great indignation.
“Really?” It’s all so scandalous. And troubling.
“I’ve heard,” continues Fallon, “that sometimes they grab young women, pull them into the woods and mate with them...as wolves!”
Paige gasps, one hand flying up to cover her mouth.
“Is that even possible?” I question, aghast.
Fallon laughs and settles back into her seat. “Stay away from the Lupine boys.”
“They don’t always mate in the woods,” Echo informs me darkly as she fingers her sphere pendant.
Paige shrinks down, clearly apprehensive to hear what Echo is about to say, as Fallon eyes me with gleeful anticipation, everyone waiting for me to ask the obvious question.
I blink at them. This is the most outrageous conversation I’ve ever had and, despite myself, I’m overcome by lurid fascination. “Where...um...where do they...” I motioned with my hands to finish.
Echo seems to approve of my reluctance to just come out with it. She leans closer. “My father used to be the Council’s ambassador to the Lupines, and he’s actually visited the Lupine Territory. I overheard him talking to my mother about them, and he said that when Lupines are about our age they get their whole pack together—that’s what they call their societies, like a pack of wolves—and they stand up in front of everyone, pick out someone to mate with and mate with them right there, in front of everyone. Even the children.”
My face is growing very hot. This is the most sordid thing I have ever heard in my entire life. “Won’t it be sort of...dangerous? To go to University with them?” I wonder.
“There’s only two of them.” Fallon flicks her hand dismissively. “Brother and sister. Twins.”
Well, that’s a relief. Only two Lupines. How dangerous could only two Lupines be?
“What about the Elves?” I ask. My brothers have told me they make up about a quarter of the scholars at the University. “What are they like?”
“Complete opposite,” Fallon says with a shake of her head. “Very prissy.” She snorts in derision. “It’s amazing they ever get around to ever having children. They’re extremely protective of their women, though. If a boy of another race so much as touches one of their women...”
“Like anyone would want to,” scoffs Echo.
“I think the girl Elves are pretty,” Paige confesses sheepishly. Fallon throws her a quick, withering glance. “They are!” Paige insists. “They have those dainty pointed ears. And white hair, and white clothes...kind of the opposite of us...”
“Very much the opposite of us,” Echo cuts in. She looks to me. “They’re idol worshippers.”
“Aren’t they our allies?” I put in, keeping my voice carefully neutral.
Fallon pins me with her eyes. “For now.”
Well, that’s interesting. “And the Kelts?” I wonder, looking to Echo. “What are their men like?”
Fallon snorts derisively as Echo regards me somberly, her fist closed tight around her Erthia sphere. “Their blood is polluted with all types of filth—Fae blood, Urisk...even Icaral.” Echo waits to see if I’m appropriately horrified before continuing.
Sage’s Icaral baby immediately leaps to mind, casting a pall over everything. I remember how troubled and terrified she was. A Kelt. The demon baby’s father is a Kelt. And she met him at University.
“Priest Vogel says the Kelts are cast out and no longer First People like us,” Echo continues stridently. “They’ve secretly aligned themselves with Evil Ones, like the desert heathens and the Urisk.”
“Look out for the Urisk women,” Fallon warns as a side note. “They may look all innocent, but they love going after our men.”
I’ve heard Warren Gaffney going on about this on more than one occasion. The fact is, Urisk women don’t have any men of their own to go after. The Gardnerian government killed all their males during the Realm War.
Urisk males are powerful geomancers, able to harness the full, destructive powers of stones and gems. Their existence would pose a serious threat to our country. The women, on the other hand, are completely devoid of magic and are allowed to live in Gardneria as guest workers.
It’s a horrible thought, though—the Urisk boy babies being killed. It’s a subject I’ve never been able to discuss with Uncle Edwin, as he becomes visibly upset if I try to broach the topic, once to the point of tearing up and clutching at his chest.
Male Urisk warlords viciously attacked our country when they had power, seeking to wipe us out, but still, it’s all so troubling.
Echo sighs. “At least Urisk half-breeds only have weak magic, at best.”