Heir to the Shadows

ever believe you're the High Lord's daughter."
    "Get the tea, Roxie," Luthvian snapped.
    The girl flounced down the hall to the kitchen.
    Jaenelle stared at the empty hallway. "Look beneath the skin," she whispered in a midnight voice.
    Luthvian shivered. Even then she might have dismissed that sudden change in Jaenelle's voice as girlish theatrics if Saetan hadn't appeared at the parlor door, silently questioning and very tense.
    Jaenelle smiled at him and shrugged.
    Luthvian led her new pupil to her own workroom since Saetan had insisted the lessons be private. Maybe later, if the girl could catch up, she could do some of the lessons with the rest of the students.
    "I understand we're to start with the very basics," Luthvian said, firmly closing the door.
    "Yes," Jaenelle replied ruefully, fluffing her shoulder-
    length hair. She wrinkled her nose and smiled. "Papa has managed to teach me a few things, but I still have trouble with basic Craft."
    Was the girl simpleminded or just totally lacking hi ability?
    Luthvian glanced at Jaenelle's neck, trying to detect a recent healing or a faint shadow of a bruise. If the girl was just fresh fodder, why bother training her at all? No, that made no sense, not if he was going to instruct Jaenelle in the Hourglass's Craft. Something was missing, something she didn't understand yet.
    "Let's start with moving an object." Luthvian placed a red wooden ball on her empty worktable. "Point your finger at the ball."
    Jaenelle groaned but obeyed.
    Luthvian ignored the groan. Apparently Jaenelle was as much of a ninny as the rest of her students. "Imagine a stiff, thin thread coming out of your fingertip and attaching itself to the ball." Luthvian waited a moment. "Now imagine your strength running through the thread until it just touches the ball. Now imagine reeling in the thread so that the ball moves toward you."
    The ball didn't move. The worktable, however, did. And the built-in cupboards that filled the workroom's back wall tried to.
    "Stop!" Luthvian shouted.
    Jaenelle stopped. She sighed.
    Luthvian stared. If it had just been the worktable, she might have dismissed it as an attempt to show off. But the cupboards?
    Luthvian called in four wooden blocks and four more wooden balls. Placing them on the worktable, she said, "Why don't you work by yourself for a minute. Concentrate on lightly making the connection between yourself and the object you're trying to move. I need to look in on the other students, then I'll be back."
    Jaenelle obediently turned her attention to the blocks and balls.
    Luthvian left the workroom in a hurry, her hands and teeth clenched. There was only one person she wanted to look in on, and he'd damn well better have some answers.
    She felt the chill in the front hallway before she heard the giggle.
    "Roxie!" she snapped as she caught the doorway to stop her forward momentum. "You have spells to finish."
    Roxie waved her hand airily. "Oh, I've just got one or two left."
    "Then do them."
    Roxie pouted and looked at Saetan for support.
    There was no expression on his face. Worse, there was no expression in his eyes. Hell's fire! He was ready to rip out that lash-batting ninny's throat and she didn't even realize it!
    Luthvian dragged Roxie out of the parlor and down the hall, finally shoving her toward the student workroom.
    Roxie stamped her foot. "You can't treat me like this! My father's an important Warlord in Doun and my mother's—
    Luthvian squeezed Roxie's arm, and hissed, "Listen, you little fool. You're playing with someone you can't even begin to understand."
    "He likes me."
    "He wants to kill you."
    Roxie looked stunned for a moment. Then a calculating look came into her eyes. "You're jealous."
    It took all of her self-control not to slap the ninny hard enough to make her spin. "Go to the workroom and stay there." She waited until Roxie slammed the workroom door before returning to the parlor.
    Pacing restlessly, Saetan was swearing under his breath as he raked his fingers through his hair. His anger didn't surprise her, but the effort he was making to keep it from being felt beyond this room did.
    "I'm surprised you didn't give Roxie a real taste of your temper," Luthvian said, staying close to the door. "Why didn't you?"
    "I have my reasons," he snarled.
    "Reasons, High Lord? Or just one?"
    Saetan snapped to a halt and looked past her. "Is the lesson over already?" he asked uneasily.
    "She's practicing by herself." Luthvian hated talking to