John cut the last letter into the flat surface. Tanash tossed her bone impatiently from hand to hand, having finished her carving several minutes before. Ji paced between the workbenches, watching her students and casually instructing them.
"You can carve any command you wish into a charm, but the blood you use to feed your commands will determine how powerful that charm will be." Her eyes flicked to John briefly, before she continued, "Remember that the blood is the charm’s life. Your commands are its purpose. You must have both if the charm is to function. The easiest way to feed your charm is to use your own blood. But keep in mind that other sources are often better. At the very least, you won’t be weakened from blood loss if you bleed someone else."
"Whose blood are we using today?" Kansa held up a small glass vial. The liquid inside looked nearly black.
"Mine," Ji responded. "So try not to waste it."
John watched Tanash crack the wax seal of her vial. She dipped in a small brush and painted the dark, sticky blood over her carved bone. John followed her example. The blood lay on the surface of the bone momentarily. Then it soaked in, leaving only a faint pink stain behind. A tiny vibration shuddered through the bone. It trembled against John’s palm.
While Ji directed a young girl in carving her charm, John waited for further instruction. Tanash dragged her stool closer to his. She glanced at his charm briefly, then returned to her obtrusive study of John’s neck.
Did someone bite you? Tanash carefully formed the signs with her right hand.
John felt his skin go warm. Kansa snapped her fingers at Tanash, and once she had the younger girl’s attention, made several fast signs. John recognized the signs for Ravishan’s name and the animal symbol that indicated himself. Tanash scowled at Kansa. In response Kansa rolled her eyes and then gave John a look of commiseration.
No one asked you, Tanash signed back. Kansa shrugged and turned back to her charm.
"What did she say?" John asked quietly.
"Nothing worth repeating," Tanash said. "She’s always accusing other people of being obscene, but I think she’s the one with a filthy mind."
John turned his charm in his hands, wondering if Kansa’s comments had been defamatory or merely accurate.
"Ushiri Ravishan is handsome, isn’t he?" Tanash asked very quietly.
"Yes, he is," John said. He knew it was useless to hope that Tanash wouldn’t have a crush on Ravishan.
Tanash frowned down at her delicate hands. She picked up a bone carving knife and then put it back down.
"He’s in love with you, isn’t he?" Tanash asked.
John paused before responding. He didn’t want to destroy her adolescent dreams, but deceiving her wouldn’t be a kindness either.
"Yes," John said quietly.
"Do you…" Tanash flushed a little. "Does it bother you?"
"What?" John was suddenly aware that the other girls were listening in.
"You’re still friendly with him anyway," Tanash said.
"Of course I am. I’m in love with him too."
"Really?" Tanash broke into a wide, enthusiastic grin.
"Yes."
"That’s so romantic." Tanash scooted even closer to him. "Have you kissed him?"
John wished the ground would swallow him up, but checked himself, fearing that he might actually be able to make that happen. Keeping his eyes on his charm, he murmured, "Yes. We’ve kissed. We’ve kissed a lot."
At this, he thought he heard Kansa snicker. It was ridiculous, but John felt a hot blush spreading across his face.
"Now." Ji’s voice carried through the room and echoed slightly. "You have only to give a spark of power to the charms and they should each rise and point to true north. Too little power and they will not move. Too much and you could burn through your charm."
Ji invited her students to the front of the room, where she had scratched a circle of protective wards into the floor, so that they could test their work.
Kansa went first. She laid her charm down in the circle and made the sign of awakening over it. The carved bone rose gracefully into the air, coming to hover just above Kansa’s palm. The bone spun once and then stilled. Its sharpened tip pointed perfectly north.
"Excellent," Ji said.
Kansa smiled and removed her charm from the confines of Ji’s wards. Other students were less fortunate. Their charms jerked weakly across the floor or soared up and whirled ceaselessly. Many didn’t move at all. Ji offered advice to each of the girls. The charm Tanash created whipped around in tight loops. Tanash glared at it intently. Dipping and jerking, the charm lifted off the floor. At last it hovered up to the height of Tanash’s hand and stabilized with the tip pointing east.
"Close," Ji said. "Check your carvings and perhaps focus a little more and chat a little less."
Eventually John’s turn came. He placed his charm in the center of Ji’s wards and signed it awake. Instantly, white fire gushed up over the bone. The flames arced high and crashed into the ceiling. Heat rolled off the burning charm in waves. Kansa lunged forward and threw a dish of water over it. The water seared to steam, leaving the charm still burning. The acrid smell of burning blood engulfed the room.
John stamped on the charm, smothering it with his boot as he silently drew the power of it back into himself. Smoke rolled up over him. He choked and coughed.
Ji shoved the door open. Students rushed out into the corridor, gasping. John crushed the last of the flames and staggered after them.
"Hold the door open. Let the smoke clear," Ji said. She sat on the floor in the hall. John sank down to the floor beside her, leaning back against the door to prop it open.
The rest of the students slumped against the hallway walls. Tanash coughed and waved weakly to John. Kansa glared at him reproachfully.
"That could have gone better," John murmured.
"It could have been worse." Ji swished her tail, fanning the still air around her. "Though I don’t think the room will be any use for lessons until tomorrow. You all might as well go and have an early lunch. Jahn, you stay. I want to talk to you about the commands you carved."
While the girls trailed away, John surveyed the training room. Pale, hazy smoke hung in the air. A black scorched circle marked the perimeter of Ji’s wards.
"You seem distracted today," she remarked.
"Sorry," John replied.
"If you can’t concentrate, you shouldn’t be performing spells. Your power is too immense to be released unrestrained."
"I know. I’m sorry."
Ji shook her head. "This is the third time I’m going to have to call a mason in."
John simply bowed his head in shame.
"So, what’s distracting you so badly?" Ji asked.
"Ushiri Fikiri," John said.
"Yes, he mentioned that you and he had a history."
"Is he here?" John could hear the alarm in his own voice. He didn’t know if he was ready to meet Fikiri just yet. He wasn’t sure he could predict his own reactions to the young man, much less Fikiri’s reactions to him.
They had done such harm to each other.
"He was, but only for a few hours last night. Sabir is using him as a messenger." Ji lifted her gaze and John could see her searching his face for any reaction. "He said that you hated him and that you might want to kill him."
"Did he tell you why?"
"Yes. Though, it required a little fathi to get the truth from him." Ji cocked her head. "He blames you for his mother’s death, you know."
"It was my fault," John said. Lady Bousim had been so kind to him as well as to Laurie and Bill. She hadn’t deserved to burn. John closed his eyes against the inadvertent memory of the sound of her piercing screams.
"Jahn," Ji said. "Let me tell you what I told Ushiri Fikiri. You did not kill Lady Bousim. The Payshmura murdered her. They are your enemy, not him."
John nodded, but the churning feeling of guilt still gnawed at him.
"And what you feel Ushiri Fikiri did to you," Ji went on, "that, too, was the work of the Payshmura. He didn’t condemn you to burn. They did."