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“But why?” I cried. “Why would they want to move against Tartora after all this time?”
Grey shrugged. “They have the power to rule over anyone. They seem to have decided it’s time to wield that power.”
“Rule?” I glanced down at the wooden planks under my feet. Could Nik hear through the dead wood of a house, or did it have to be a living network of roots? Was he hearing this? “Are you saying they intend to overthrow the king and take Tartora for themselves?”
“It’s a supposition on my part, but I believe it to be a real possibility.”
“Who are these people?” I asked, horror in my voice.
“They’re mages,” he said. “Powerful ones who don’t answer to any Guild or tribe.”
I swallowed. Amara was frustrated with the way the Guild ruled over all the mages in Tartora. But this was the reason Tartora maintained the Guild—the reason Calista was recreating theirs. The nomad tribes, located in the mountains north of Calista and the grazing lands west of Tartora, lacked a guild, but their tribal system had its own ways of keeping their mages under control.
“But where did they come from?” I asked.
“Calista,” he replied.
“When it fell?” I asked slowly, trying to work out how they could have split off without anyone knowing.
He nodded. “A century ago, after the attack, most of the ordinary people fled to Tartora or the nomad lands, and some of the mages managed to find sanctuary among the tribes. Others were killed, of course, but not as many as everyone believed. Because of the chaos and destruction, no one ever even knew some were missing.”
“So some of them escaped east while the others fled west,” I said slowly. “And that was a hundred years ago, so they must have grown in number since.”
“I see you appreciate the danger,” he said. “They’ve been living peacefully on their island until now, attracting no attention. But they have never forgotten the route back to the mainland, and the time has come when they’ve decided to use that knowledge.”
I jumped to my feet. “We have to warn the rest of Tartora! We have to warn the king!”
I raced toward the cottage’s door, but Grey sprang to his feet, catching my wrist and pulling me to a halt.
“Do you want to see a mage war lay waste to Tartora like it once did to Calista? As you said, it’s been a century, and Calista is only starting to be rebuilt now.”
I stared up at him, my brain whirling in confusion. Of course I didn’t want a war, but we couldn’t just let the islanders take over unopposed.
“We have to—”
“We have to stop them, I agree,” Grey said. “But we have to do it with as little disruption and bloodshed as possible. Which means I have to do it.”
“You?” I stared at him, my brows lowering. “What do you have to do with the islanders?”
“Everything,” he said simply, the single word ringing with truth. “On the island, a single family rules over the others. The Constantines. If the islanders are seeking war now, it’s at the instigation of this family.”
“And what does that have to do with you?” I asked.
“I’m part of that family.”
“What?” I ripped my arm free of his hold, but I didn’t try to flee again, instead waiting for his answer.
“My father was the oldest son of the family and should have been their next leader. But he wanted to run things differently—to give the people of the island more say in their own governance. He intended to change things, so his younger brothers turned on him. They murdered him while I was still an infant, but my mother escaped with me. She made it to a small boat and set out for the mainland. But she didn’t have time to gather proper supplies, and by the time she arrived…”
He lowered his head in grief, and unwilling sympathy squeezed me.
“She was weakened to the point of death by the time the boat washed ashore,” he said. “Since I was only an infant, I would have died as well if there hadn’t been an old couple here who cared for me and raised me.”
“Here? In the middle of the desert?”
“When the group of mages set sail for the island, a small handful chose to stay behind. These two were the last remaining of that group. My mother lived just long enough to tell them what had happened to my father and to sketch out the route to the island. She hoped I would have the chance to return one day.”
“And you believe they’ll accept you as their true leader if you do?” I asked.
