"Being once chafed, he cannot be reined again to temperance; then he spans what's in his heart, and that is there which looks with us to break his neck."

—From Coriolanus,
By William Shakespeare

"SO ATLAN MAGIC was recently discovered in Hartfall? How fascinating," Kaiden Thorne said, swirling his cup of spiced mead before gulping it down. "Do you know if the culprit has been found?"

"I'm afraid not, good sir," the barmaid replied, refilling his cup and putting down his supper on the scratched wooden table. She was pretty enough, with curling, brown hair and dimples that appeared when she smiled at one of the inn patrons' jokes. "Can I get you anything else?"

"How about a dance later?" he suggested, shooting her the charming grin that had managed to make many girls' dresses simply... fall off. "When your shift is over."

She gave him an appraising glance, her amber eyes raking him from crown to heel. He had been staying at the inn since his departure from Hartfall, disguised as a Mordanian merchant's son. "I suppose I could spare a dance or two."

Then she sidled off, her generous hips swaying as she took a tray and began filling it with empty glasses. Across from him sat Kaiden's personal guard, Holly Brown. Her amber eyes, glowing against her dark skin, peeked out from beneath the tan hood she wore to disguise her uncommon features. Well, her features were uncommon this far north in Mordania, just as his red hair was—the red hair that he had taken pains to dye brown. Holly loosed a soft chuckle, her fingers reaching out to clutch a glass and lift it to her full lips.

"What have you found so amusing, mon âme?" he asked her, using a Mordanian nickname he knew she detested. He also knew that she laughed every time he demonstrated his womanizing ways.

His childhood friend slammed down her glass and her eyes flashed with irritation just as he had expected them to and she replied in one of the minor dialects spoken in Othar, one that was an offshoot of the same language that Mordanian was descended from. "No soy tu alma."

"Mon ange, then?" Kaiden suggested, suppressing a shiver as the door opened behind him with the jingle of a bell and more people filed into the Blue Bull Tavern along with a chill breeze.

Holly rolled those deep brown eyes now, picking up her fork and knife as she leaned forward and spoke in quiet Otharian--a neutral language here, not the polarizing tongues of the Atlans or Mordanians. "Do not look now, but the men who have just entered here are holding swords."

He gave a languid shrug. "So? They do not allow weapons into the tavern."

Not that it mattered. The inn's owners could not control magic; not when he could summon poisonous plants with his hands and Holly could set things on fire with barely a blink. Not when many of the tavern's patrons were capable of manipulating blood and bone in unnatural, barbaric ways that required no tempered steel or forged iron.

"Perhaps not for other men, but for these ones..." Her teeth dug into her lower lip, a gesture that should not have attracted his gaze as much as it did. "They still have not been stopped."

Holly looked tense, which was quite a feat for a girl who usually maintained a calm, unruffled composure--one cultivated from having grown up in Atlan court with him. Her slender fingers moved from the table to her sides where he knew hidden weapons were sheathed--vials of acid, smoke, and chemicals that could enhance the effects of their magic. They were not weapons to the Mordanian eye, but certainly to the Atlan one, able to render a room full of people unconscious.

"When I give you the signal," she murmured, leaning across the table so that her lips brushed his ear. "You know what to do."

He nodded as she shifted back into her seat. Holly and Kaiden had been in dangerous situations before, countless times in fact, and had thus created many strategies for escaping from them unscathed. This one, however, was most frequently deployed and therefore the most practiced. A simple plan, but it had proven to be highly effective.

One of the men passed their table, bumping into Kaiden's chair. He noted the sigil pinned to the man's cloak: a pair of crossed swords over a blood red teardrop. Dusang colours. His shoulders stiffened and he almost wished he had a blade of his own to draw. One of those heavy, foreign Mordanian weapons that separated a man from the earth, from the act of the kill, from the intricate harmonies that bound men to one another and to the world.

"Excuse me," said the interloper as his shaggy fur coat brushed against Kaiden's arm.

Kaiden nodded in response, trying to coax the tension out of his body. Atlan magic worked best when one was calm and relaxed, with a great deal of mental focus. In his effort to stretch out, hands behind his head, his knee knocked against Holly's beneath the table and her eyes widened in panic. He guessed that the movement must have caused her to break one of the emergency vials.

A moment later, the room filled with blinding, choking smoke and shouts of fear. Kaiden no longer had to guess. He felt Holly grab his hand, her slender but capable fingers weaving between his as she guided him out, perfectly able to see through the fog. It was one of her gifts as a fire wielder; neither smoke nor flame could harm nor bother her.

"Well, at least we will never know if those men were out to attack us or not," Kaiden muttered, leaning down to be heard in the commotion. He made contact with her face in the attempt, feeling her frizzy hair against his cheek where he knew it was neatly plaited into two thick braids.

Holly said nothing as she dragged him up a flight of stairs to their shared room at the inn. She grabbed her bag and tossed him his, the leather trunk heavy in his arms. Kaiden heard glass breaking and imagined that she had heated a window to the point of shattering. He didn't have to ask her why she wasn't taking the regular exit: it would allow people to follow them. Quickly, she climbed through the window and dragged him through as well.

They landed in the snow, Holly somersaulting and then standing much more gracefully than he did. The coarse fabric of her hood was now on her back, no longer shadowing her huh cheekbones. Kaiden saw his trunk a few feet from him along with Holly's leather bag. He picked up both and they dashed toward the stables.

"Where do we go from here?" he asked.

Holly said nothing. He sighed, knowing her well enough to read her emotions from what she wasn't saying.

"I... I know you are upset because I didn't bring you to the betrothal... And I caused you to—" his voice trailed off, uncertain of how to proceed. He rarely apologized, being the crown prince of Atla. And he even more rarely revealed his true emotions to any woman, not even the one whom he considered his closest friend.

"I am not mad at you," she said in that controlled voice—one that told him she had restrained all her fire but could at any moment unleash it in a powerful blast if she so desired. "I am not upset with you. Now, we need to find another place to hide before we—"

"Wait!" He put a hand on her arm. "The men with the swords. They escaped."

She bit her lip. Again. When had that started affecting him the way it did? Then in no time at all, she was steely, prepared for any attack. They moved instinctively until they were back to back as the men strode towards them, their boots crunching through the snow. Kaiden took off his gloves, ready to summon some vines to strangle one or both of them.

"You have been summoned to the Durand Estate in Hartfall," said one of the men in perfect Otharian. He was taller with dark hair. "The Lord Regent requests your presence."

"And if I decline?" he retorted warily.

The other one, a blond, unsheathed his sword. "Then we will have no choice but to take you by force."

"Why does the Lord Regent want to see him?" Holly said.

"That is for you to know once you reach Hartfall," the taller guard replied.

"So you won't tell me why I am being summoned until I reach the place which you are summoning me to? That makes very little sense, boys," Kaiden said.

The tall guard bristled at being called a boy, which had the effect Kaiden had been hoping for. He hadn't practiced his magic in a while and was eager for a fight.  "What did you call us?"

He beckoned the guard over with a crooked finger. "Perhaps your hearing needs help. If you come closer I can repeat it for you."

The guard charged at him, sword drawn.
Kaiden smiled and let the ground split open between them, a ravine forming. Clumps of snow fell into the abyss as the other man skidded to a stop, inches from his death, and... threw down his sword. Holly was at his side, no doubt holding spheres of fire in her hands ready to be launched or snuffed out as necessary.   Kaiden thought the men were giving up until he felt himself slipping, sliding. He looked down and saw that the snow he was standing on was turning to slush before his eyes, propelling him into the pit he had created himself.

Before he could fall in, Holly grabbed his arm and melted the snow completely so that they were standing on dry ground. His breath came in heavy pants, his heart hammering against his ribs. He had been near-death before but never like this. That could not have been Holly, could not have been his childhood friend and personal guard, who had melted the snow beneath his feet. So that had to mean...

One of those Mordanian men possessed Atlan magic.