Free The Mage of Trelian by Michelle Knudsen

determined.”
    “He’s an idiot, is what he is,” Meg said.
    “I’m sure he had his reasons. . . .”
    “I’m sure his reasons were not nearly good enough for the choice he made.”
    Wilem took a minute before replying. “Sometimes there are no good choices. Sometimes you can only make the least terrible choice available to you.”
    “Hmm.” Meg supposed that might be so. But she didn’t care. He still should have made some other choice. He should at the very least have told her what he was doing, and why. And he should have found a way to come home by now.
    Suddenly she couldn’t bear sitting still anymore. She got to her feet. Wilem started to do the same, but she waved him back down. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re injured; you don’t need to stand up. I believe I’ve done all the not-thinking I can for the time being.” She started to walk away, then stopped and turned back. “Thank you for — for what you said.”
    He looked up at her, his gaze steady and serious on her own. “If any of my words brought you comfort, Princess, then I am glad.”
    Meg nodded at him, not sure what else to say, and headed back along the path toward the castle.
    It wasn’t yet her usual time to visit the mages, and she knew that Serek and Anders were almost certainly busy working out ways to try to contact Kragnir by now, but Meg went to see them anyway. She needed to feel like she was doing something. Maybe she could help somehow. As she walked down the corridor toward Serek’s study, she met some of the visiting mages coming the other way. She recognized them as the first group who had arrived at the castle, although there had been several others since. These men had been here for many weeks now, but kept very much to themselves — she still didn’t know any of their names. They nodded politely at her but did not stop as they passed. Meg’s parents had invited them to stay at the castle as long as they wished, as they tried to figure out what to do to solve their own problems regarding the divisions within the Magistratum. From what little Meg knew, the other mages wanted Serek to lead some sort of resistance, a group separate from the Magistratum proper to fight Mage Krelig and perhaps form some new governmental structure within their organization. Serek did not seem to want any part of this.
    Meg was glad; her parents needed him here, to help Trelian, and she needed him working to find Calen. She knew that the situation with the Magistratum was very serious — Calen had told her that much before he left — but she didn’t see why Serek had to be the one to solve it. There had to be at least twenty other mages here now. Let them be the ones to do whatever needed to be done.
    She reached the study door and knocked. It promptly swung open, revealing Anders on the other side.
    “Good afternoon, Princess,” he said. “Come in, come in!”
    Meg stepped forward, but before Anders could close the door again, they heard a voice call, “Wait!” from back the way Meg had come. Meg turned to see Maurel hurrying awkwardly down the hall toward them. After a second, Meg realized why Maurel was lumbering so strangely — she had Mage Serek’s enormous gyrcat in her arms. She was holding the poor animal under its front legs with her hands clasped around its chest, its lower body and hind legs dangling without support.
    “Maurel, what are you —?”
    Meg broke off as Maurel pushed past, walking right up to where Serek was seated at his desk.
    “I’m sorry,” Maurel said, depositing the creature unceremoniously on top of a pile of papers. “He keeps
doing
it.”
    “Doing what?” Meg asked, completely mystified.
    Serek looked like he was trying not to look amused. “Lyrimon has apparently developed a particular affection for your sister.”
    Maurel turned to Meg, half-embarrassed, half-defiant. “I keep finding him in my bed! He turns his colors off and blends in and I don’t even know he’s there until I feel