"What I normally do is run, unless they catch me and hold me, like last time." Toff tucked the gray jewel inside his oatmeal colored tunic and patted it against his chest.
"I put the best spell I could make on it," Nissa said with a modest shrug. "I hope it helps." She reached out and patted Toff's arm. Toff blinked at her in surprise. Nobody touched him. Not because he didn't want them to—it was because they didn't want to touch him. Redbird and Corent hugged him sometimes, but that was all.
"We have to go," Tory insisted. "I'm sorry we can't stay longer and talk." Toff's visitors turned to leave.
"Wait—will you come and see me again?" Toff blinked hopefully at Nissa as he asked the question.
"I train at Grey House so I can't come very often, and Tory has to bring us or we'll be found out," Nissa offered Toff a sad look.
"But when can you come again?" Toff pleaded.
"Toff, I only get to come home once a month, on an off-day," Nissa said. Toff nodded, disappointment showing in his face.
"Thank you for the jewel," he lowered his eyes. When he looked up again after only a moment, the three were gone. Toff turned back to searching for the elusive clay Mother Fern demanded.
* * *
"How did he end up there?" Nissa asked the moment Tory skipped them back to his bedroom. Ry and Tory were busy gathering comp-vids before rushing off to class.
"Don't know. We'll talk later." Tory opened the door and he and Ry raced down the hall, leaving the door open and their sister staring after them.
* * *
"Mom, what will happen to those two boys in the dungeon?" Nissa knew she wasn't supposed to know about those two boys, but the comesuli did tend to gossip inside the palace. She could have come by the information in any number of ways.
"Honey, I'm going to stop trying to figure out how you three know about anything," Queen Lissa gave her daughter a hug. Nissa sat next to her mother at a private lunch inside the arboretum.
"You're not going to tell me?"
"We don't know yet. Everybody is still discussing this." Nissa's mother sighed and stared out the tall, glass windows overlooking the city of Lissia. A table had been set up and lunch had been served only minutes earlier, just for the two of them.
"You're not going to send them to Evensun, are you?" Nissa worried about that. Sentencing a criminal to Evensun was often a death sentence.
"I don't know, baby." The Queen's blue eyes were worried about that, too, Nissa decided. "With the ones who are already on Evensun, those two boys won't last a day. The final decision on this rests with the Council, and I only have one vote in that. I'm trying to find a place where they can't cause trouble for a while and their parents can go with them, if they want."
"Their parents will still face judgment, when the time comes." Kifirin appeared, blowing smoke from his nostrils.
"Honey, calm down," Lissa stood and took Kifirin's hand. "Nobody's trying to get around that."
"Avilepha, I grow tired of this. They should have turned the boy over to you when he was injured. Yet they did not. How can they think this will improve their lot in my eyes?" Kifirin was darkly handsome and Nissa watched him closely. She, like her brothers, was wary around Kifirin, though he wore an angel's face. Nissa didn't think Kifirin would harm any of them, but there was a dangerous edge about him that couldn't easily be defined.
"Little one, you should not be frightened." Kifirin turned his nearly black eyes on Nissa.
Nissa was too frightened to speak, so she nodded at Kifirin instead. She wondered if Kifirin would stand by his statement if he learned she'd given a protection jewel to Toff. She assumed he was the boy Kifirin meant.
"I was thinking about suggesting we send those boys to the southern continent on Harifa Edus," Lissa found another chair for Kifirin and shared her plate with him. There was more than enough food.
"Wolves are there, now," Kifirin remarked as he dipped into the lasagna Cheedas had made for them. "If that is the Council's decision, I will not help them if they are attacked."
"I don't expect you to—I was thinking about placing a boundary around their farm."
"You will build a farm for them?" Kifirin was back to blowing smoke.
"I don't think those two were the only ones involved in the attack." Nissa looked up sharply at her mother's words, and then quickly dropped her eyes. She should have known—not much got past her mother.
"Yet the others have made a vow of nonviolence." Kifirin drank from the Queen's glass. Kifirin liked to eat—when he did eat.
"That's what worries me," the Queen grumped. "It's hard to pinpoint something like this."
"Yes." Kifirin agreed around a mouthful of food.
Kifirin didn't stay long—he ate, discussed the disposition of the two young prisoners a little longer and then left, disappearing just he always did. Someday, Nissa would be taught to fold space, but that wasn't allowed until a wizard was at least twenty, achieved Fifth-Tier status in their training and been certified by Great-Grampa Glendes, who was Eldest of Grey House.
She felt a twinge of jealousy at times because Tory was allowed to skip. That's how the High Demons got around—it was a series of jumps—like skipping rocks on a pond. Tory had been able to skip since he turned twelve. Now, everybody was waiting to see if Tory could turn Thifilathi. Uncle Gardevik was practically holding his breath over it. That ability, or lack of it, would determine much of Tory's future upon the High Demon planet named after Kifirin.
"What do you really want to do with those boys?" Nissa often acted much older than her nearly twelve years, but then she was surrounded by those older than herself most of the time. Nissa studied under Calebert, Master Wizard of the Weapons Division of Grey House. Nissa was learning to remove rust from old weapons using her power. The work was deadly dull. Her father, Shadow Grey, worked in the K'Shoufa Jewelry Division. Both he and Grampa Raffian were Master Wizards and jewelry makers.
Great-Grampa Glendes had stuck her in the Weapons Division as soon as she'd gone through the rite to manifest her power instead of allowing her to work with her father and grandfather. Nissa wasn't even supposed to know how to make a protection jewel, yet she'd done it. The one she'd given Toff was the third she'd made—the first two had gone through a testing phase to make sure they were effective. Nobody else knew that—not even her brothers. If Great-Grampa Glendes found out what she'd done, she would certainly be in trouble.