Free Daughter of the Disgraced King by Meredith Mansfield Page A

but that was something she’d think about later.
Right now, the thrill of her magic was too strong. A grin spread across her
face.
    Jathan strode over and took her hand, bowing over it in a
courtly fashion, but at the same time both fluid and casual. “Hello. I’m Jathan.
As the only two green mages in training, I expect we’ll be studying together a
lot.”
    She looked up and met his eyes. “I’m Ailsa.” Here, she didn’t
have to introduce herself as Lady Ailsa. She didn’t have to carry the burden of
King Ewart’s paranoia about her family. It was like a weight being lifted from
her shoulders.
    He grinned and winked again. “I know.”
    Ailsa cocked her head and watched him saunter away. She’d
never, ever been winked at before. Now this young man had winked at her twice in the space of a few minutes. What a strange mixture he was, reminding her at
the same time of the best of Sav and the worst of Cergio.
    Ailsa shook her head to clear the fog out of it. Too many
things had happened in just two days. She couldn’t begin to sort out what it
all meant, yet. She had time for that. A whole year. Something tickled her
wrist and she looked down to see that the newborn vine was still twining around
her arm, more slowly now that the magic had been withdrawn. Ailsa smiled and
very gently pulled the tendrils free.
    ~
    Ailsa’s studies began the next morning, right after
breakfast, with a knock on the door.
    Grandmama picked up the last of the breakfast dishes and
headed for the small kitchen. “Go ahead and answer that, Ailsa, while I clean
up.”
    Ailsa stood up from the polished cherry-wood table and
started across the main room. The largest room in the small house was divided
between the dining area next to the kitchen and a larger area on the opposite
side that was furnished more like Papa’s study—lots of shelves full of books
and comfortable, over-stuffed chairs in which to read them. The kitchen and
this multi-purpose main room were the only two rooms at the front of the house.
A narrow corridor led to the two bedrooms and a tiny bathroom squeezed between
them.
    “It’ll be Jathan,” Grandmama called from the kitchen.
    Ailsa stopped halfway to the door, remembering the
impertinent youth from yesterday. “Jathan?”
    “Until yesterday, there was only one student of green magic,”
Grandmama came out of the kitchen and headed straight for the tall bookshelf in
the corner. “It didn’t seem worthwhile to take up a whole classroom for that
when I have everything we need for your beginning studies right here.”
Grandmama laughed at the look on Ailsa’s face. “Don’t worry. You’ll get plenty
of time at the Institute, too, for more general classes. We’ll have to get your
robes, first, of course. Students are required to wear them. Maybe we’ll do
that this afternoon. Then we’ll discuss what other beginning courses you’ll
need and get you started.”
    Ailsa opened the door. It was, indeed, Jathan. She stepped
aside to let him enter. “Good morning.”
    “Good morning,” he responded. “Told you we’d be studying
together.”
    There was something about his cheerfulness that drew a smile
from Ailsa. “So you did.”
    Moments later, Jathan and Ailsa sat on opposite sides of the
small dining room table. Grandmama sat at the head of the table, thumbing
through a large book.
    “All right, Ailsa, how much did your tutors teach you about
botany?” Grandmama asked.
    Ailsa’s brow furrowed. “Botany? I thought I was going to
study magic here”
    Jathan laughed. “You don’t study magic.”
    Grandmama gave him a withering stare and he sat back without
looking the least repentant. “In fact we will, eventually, conduct training in
your magic. But first, you must understand your medium. Heat mages, like your
mother, study thermodynamics. Water mages study hydrology. Green mages, like
you and Jathan, study botany. Magic, as you’ve already found, tends to flow
naturally. Knowledge of botany will