Ellery couldn’t decide if their nonchalance about their magic was an act or not. If it was, it was a convincing one.
“And what about after primary school?” she asked.
“I didn’t pass the Order academy’s entrance exam. And then Nordmere fell.” Kester grimaced. “But when my family stayed behind, I stayed with them.”
“Why? When I left, Nordmere was in ruins. It was…” She trailed off, trying to shake the memories.
Kester took a long draught of their beer. “I won’t pretend my family’s had an easy time sticking it out. But Nordmere’s my home. I’m glad we didn’t abandon it.”
Ellery, who’d never felt such a devotion, only nodded.
“Eventually, we started to rebuild. And as time passed, my magic felt stronger. At first I thought it was because I was getting older, but then I learned aboutyou,a Winter Chosen One with a Winter wand. And it all started to make sense. I mean, we’re in Winter’s territory, aren’t we? You must feel it, too.”
Ellery thought of earlier in the day, when her spell to clear the road had been so unexpectedly powerful. She grasped Iskarius more tightly in her lap. Ice crusted the top of their seats, then flared out through the bar, until the interior of Altitude Sickness was gilded and garlanded with icicles. People elbowed each other and laughed, marveling at the sudden décor change.
“I do feel it,” Ellery said breathlessly. “It’s like my magic ismore.”
Kester grinned. “Exactly.”
Ellery decided in that instant that she believed Kester was truly a Winter magician.
She wasn’t alone.
For a moment her pulse quickened with the wonder of what that might mean for her, for Alderland, for the winterghast heartsin her pocket. Then she pushed her hope aside. She couldn’t get distracted.
Kester might still be Summer’s traitor.
“What about all the others here?” she asked. “Are they convinced they’re Winter magicians, too?”
“Most of them at least suspect it, although it’s not like we can truly prove it. But that’s why so many of them have come up here, some older, some more like us.” Kester nodded around at the bar.
“Julian said people are also coming here because they heard aboutyou.”
“Yeah, that wasn’t really on purpose. But after the first few magicians showed up, word got around fast. Some of them were confused. Some were really scared. And I became the person who explains why they don’t have to be. Because someone has to, right? We live in a country where being a magician means dreaming of a Living Wand and a destiny to go with it, but every Living Wand except yours wields Summer magic. So even if a Winter magician makes it to the national academy, none of us would stand a chance at bonding with one. The best we can do is be hedge magicians with a little more power.”
Kester’s easy demeanor seemed strained now. They fiddled with their rings.
“So that’s what you and your friends want to do?” Ellery asked. “Stay up here and haunt some bar?”
“There’s not much point in doing anything else.”
Summer’s traitor surely had a motive and a goal that involved hurting Alderland. Yet Kester wasn’t describing anything of the sort. If anything, Ellery admired what they were doing. They could still be lying, but Ellery was running low on reasons why they would.
“All right. I can see why you’d like it up here,” Ellery pressed on. “But there’s plenty of people in the fallen—in Winter’s territory who aren’t magicians. Why wouldn’t they move south?”
“In the beginning, I think most people were like my family. There was a lot of worry going around about repeating the Thirty Years’ Chill. But we didn’t know for sure if that was what would happen to our home. And as it turns out, losing a bit of territory to Winter isn’t the same as surviving a cataclysm. For the last seven years, we haven’t been bothered by a single scurge or ghast. It’s colder, but it’s peaceful. And besides, it’s been really good for the land.”
Ellery furrowed her brow. “What do you mean, good for the land?”
“You know how we’re taught in school that Living Wands handle most farming? Apparently it’s because Aldrish soil is hard to work with. But since this region became Winter territory, the land’s changed. Every year, more and more crops grow without needing any magic at all.”
Therehadbeen more farms than Ellery had expected surrounding the city. But the idea that they flourished without magic was so strange, she didn’t know how to feel. Kester made it all sound so idyllic. Too idyllic, maybe.
“Why haven’t you tried to tell the Order about this?” Ellery asked. “Why haven’t you tried to tellme?”
“The NDC’s sent people up here, but they don’t know we’re Winter magicians. They just think we’re Order rejects with a death wish. As thoughthey’renot the ones all excited to die on some battlefield.” Kester snorted derisively and set down their glass, now empty. “And as for you, do you have any idea how hard it is to reach a Chosen One? All your correspondences and appearances are screened.”
“Julian could’ve gotten through.”
