I held my breath and got down on my knees for a closer look. I didn’t see anything on her upper body and the tree lay across her waist. I almost gave up looking, and then realized I had been stupid. I could see magical stones from a distance and that how I had located the stones Trey and I carried. I had been so intent on trying to hide that I hadn’t even looked for a magical object on the woman. I could have done that from the top of the hill as easily as doing it on my hands and knees by her side.
Still on my knees, I rocked back on my heels and eased off on the magic I was using to hide Trey and me. Immediately, a bright spot of magical power glowed on the woman. It was stronger than the Guldur Stone still in Glendale. I adjusted the magical levels so I wasn’t half-blinded by the glare and reached toward the woman, wondering why the Vassago hadn’t seen the magical stone.
The bright spot was on a metal necklace. I tugged on it and one end came free, however, a limb stub had impaled the woman, and the wood pinned part of the necklace to her body. I yanked harder and the necklace came free. It was broken in one place but the stone dangling from the middle wasn’t damaged. I turned my back toward the dead woman and used magic to clean the blood from my hands and the necklace.
The stone was the size of the end joint of my thumb, but it wasn’t what I expected. From what Zephyr had said, I thought all magical stones were opals. This stone was a dark blue that sparkled in the sunlight. Someone had taken the time and effort to shape the stone so it had lots of small flat faces. I had once seen a woman in Glendale wearing a ring with a cut stone. My opal was nearly round without any flat faces.
Now that it was in my hands, I checked the stone using magical senses. It contained power, although not much more than my opal contained. On a whim, I tried to store magical power in it. To my surprise, a torrent of power poured into the new stone. It was storing power many times faster than even the bigger opal that someone had stolen a few nights ago.
Ara’s voice from the side of the road broke my concentration. “Did you find anything?”
“I’m done here,” I replied loudly and rose to my feet. I coiled the necklace in one hand and used the other one on limb stubs to steady myself as I climbed up on the tree trunk.
“Did you find anything?” Ara repeated when I neared where she and Trey were now sitting on separate rocks. Her eyes followed my hand and her wide eyes indicated interest.
“A necklace,” I replied with more than a hint of smugness before I glanced at Trey.
“You were partly right,” I said to him as I held up the necklace and let the blue stone dangle in the air. Blue sparkles of sunlight glinted off it.
“That’s beautiful,” Ara gushed and rose from the rock. “May I see it?”
“Sure,” I replied, holding it still as Ara reached out with both hands. “Be careful. The metal string is broken.”
“You should call it a chain rather than a string,” Ara said as she looked, mesmerized, at the blue stone.
“Why chain?” I asked.
“Mother and I talked about jewelry.”
“Yes?” I prompted when Ara stopped talking and continued to look at the necklace. Trey had moved over so his head was close to Ara’s and he was also studying the necklace. “What did she say?” I asked Ara.
Ara looked up but she still held the stone where Trey could see it. She said, “Do you remember I told you that great-grandmother Janice had a really good bow and Mother learned to use it when she was small?”
“I do,” I growled. “You also said Grandfather Clayton sold it after Janice died.”
“Janice also had very nice jewelry. Rings and necklaces, mostly, but some earrings.”
A sinking feeling indicated I knew what her next words would be.
Ara continued, “Grandfather Clayton also sold her jewelry. Mother said he took it to Falkirk because people there had more money.”
“Mother didn’t have any money,” I muttered. “Did Grandfather spend it all?”
“Mother didn’t say,” Ara said and then switched her attention to the necklace in her hands. “Too bad this one is broken.”
Trey tapped gently on the necklace with his fingertip. “It just needs to be healed.”
Ara gave him a surprised look. “What? People heal, you fix or mend other things.”
“Call it what you want,” Trey said and then looked at me. “Why don’t you heal it?”
“What are you talking about?” Ara asked, looking from Trey to me and then back at Trey. She had that expression she used when she was getting ready to spout questions faster than I could think.
I had noticed a partly healed scratch on the back of one of her hands and decided to intervene before she started with the questions. “I’m learning more about this magic stuff. One of the things a few people can do with magic is to heal other people.”
“Really?” Ara clenched the necklace in one hand and cupped her other hand under it. She gave me a disbelieving look. “Are you one of those people?”
“Yes,” Trey said with a grimace. He tapped on his chest with the fingertips of both hands. “That Hunter who just ran away shot me right here. I was almost dead when Reuben arrived, pulled out the arrow, and healed me. That was just a few days ago.”
“Really?” Ara repeated and swung around to look at me. “I hurt my leg really bad and you could have healed me.”
“This is new stuff,” I said so smoothly I surprised myself. I wasn’t used to making half-truths sound like the full truth. I pointed to her hand. “You have a scratch. Hold out your hand.”
“Yeah?” She sounded dubious but she stretched out her hand with the scratch exposed.
I touched the scratch with the tip of my finger and summoned the strong magic. The level of magic in the stone in the necklace already felt much higher than it had been when I had found it. Apparently, it had continued to store magic. I touched the beautiful stone with my other hand and focused on healing Ara’s scratch. Moments later, the red pucker of the scratch turned into smooth skin and the scab dropped off. I considered whether any problems remained from her previously bruised leg and gave free rein to the magic a while longer to completely heal any other problems in her body before pulling my hand back. “See?” I said, wishing that she could also do the same things.
Her eyes were wide as she raised her hand and examined the spot that had been sore just moments earlier. “Wow! You really did heal it.”
Still trying to keep her from spouting a series of probing questions, I asked, “Do you still have bruises on your leg?”
She cocked her head and looked at me. “They’re still there, but they are just faint discolorations. But you touched my leg several times after I was hurt and we were still in the cave. Were you trying to heal it?”
“I was learning new things,” I admitted.
Her eyes narrowed. “Who told you about these things?”
I pointed at her leg. “Check for a bruise.”
She wrinkled her nose and then slowly reached down and pulled up the hem of her skirt. She looked at her leg and then ran her fingers up and down it. “I can’t see any bruises and there aren’t any sore spots.”
“This is all very interesting,” Trey interrupted, “but shouldn’t we move on before someone comes along the road?”
There was time during my answering nod for me to check for other travelers. “You’re right, but no one is close by at the moment.”
“More magic?” Ara asked.
“Yes,” I muttered and held out my hand. “I can put the necklace in my pouch.”
“Can you heal it?” Ara asked.
“No,” I said without pausing to think.
“Can’t never did anything,” Ara shot back with a glare what was only half mock. “You haven’t even tried.”
“I don’t know how,” I muttered, starting to feel foolish. I had decided I was goi
ng to change my approach from giving an immediate negative response to one of trying to make new things happen, but I had slipped back into the old ways.
She held out the necklace in her palm and tapped on it with one finger. “Here it is. Fix it.”
“Okay, okay,” I said and pointed at the rock she had been sitting on. “Put it on the rock and push the broken ends together.”
I knelt beside the rock after Ara laid out the pieces and studied them. The flexible chain, as Ara called it, was a complex weave of six strands, each of which consisted of six thin strands woven together. The small individual strands weren’t any bigger than the stiff hair on one of the marmots that lived in the rocks near our old house.
Thinking of the marmots gave me an idea. Could I really think of mending the braided chain like healing hairs in an animal? If I sliced off small pieces from each smashed end so the weave on the remaining pieces already matched, then I simply needed to join the hairs back together.
I could feel Ara and Trey’s eyes on me as I reached out for the necklace. I rested one finger on the blue stone and smiled inwardly at the amount of power available. I needed to be careful I didn’t do something foolish like I had with the bowls of oatmeal and melt the metal. The first two fingers of my right hand touched the chain at the two positions where it looked like the ends would match.
There was plenty of power available, but nothing happened. I thought back over the times I had learned to do new things and reminded myself that brute force wasn’t the solution. I needed to align my wishes with the power and then the magic did the work.
The thought that the necklace would look wonderful around Ara’s neck helped me relax. She could wear it after I fixed it and the magical power would still be close enough I could access it. I closed my eyes and felt power start to flow through my fingers.
“Wow,” Trey muttered. Ara hissed with a sharp intake of air.
The power was still flowing, so I didn’t open my eyes. Moments later, it quit flowing, even though there was plenty more still in reserve. I lifted my hands and opened my eyes. The chain was entire again and I couldn’t see where I had mended it. I had intended to cut off the end of the metal, but apparently, the magic had decided otherwise.
Ara pointed at the necklace with a shaky finger. “May I?”
“Sure.” I picked it up and held it so she could pull it over her head.
She tugged it into place around her neck and then fluffed her hair over the chain. She held the stone in one hand and peeked at it through her partly closed fingers. “It’s beautiful.”
“Tuck it out of sight and wear it,” I said and rose to my feet. “It’s expensive and the family or friends of the woman may be willing to do anything to get it back, so don’t show it to anyone.”
Ara looked at the blue stone again. “Taking it feels like stealing when you say it that way. We should try to give it back.”
“Really?” I asked as my eyebrows arched. The statement was exactly what I had expected her to say. “The woman who wore it sent a man to kill us. Do you want to try to find her family or friends and give it back?”
Ara shivered and shook her head. “No,” she whispered.
Trey looked at me as Ara slipped the stone inside the front of her dress. He used magical speak, “The blue stone holds magic.”
“Right,” I answered in the same way. “I think it can store more magic than both of our opals combined. It is storing power right now.”
After settling his pack in place, Trey looked at the mess in the road one more time. His voice was somber, “This woman worked with other magicians. They will want revenge.”
Chapter 25 – Warning
We skirted the downed trees and walked along the road in the direction of the intersection with the King’s Road, talking nonstop about the woman, the magic she had used, the attacking Vassago, and the Hunter who had run away rather than attempting to defend the woman. We left the road before we reached the next farm and headed south through the woods. It was slower traveling than when we were on the road, but no one was there to see us. At least, I hoped no one saw us other than squirrels and small birds who watched us pass.
We ate snacks from the packs rather than stopping to make a midday meal and continued walking through the afternoon. Finally, we stopped on the edge of a knoll and looked down at the King’s Road.
“Do we follow the road?” Ara asked.
“Only part of the time,” Trey replied. “In places, it is the only good way through rough terrain.”
Ara looked at me with raised eyebrows as if I was in charge.
I pushed aside feelings of inadequacy and tried to act like a smart big brother. “Trey’s right. We’ve been about a half-day further along this road. There’s a small town just beyond where we stopped before.”
“What were you doing down here?” Ara asked and then jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “You went back to Glendale. Why?”
“It was the wolves,” Trey said as we started along a game trail leading down to the road.
“Wolves?” Ara sounded startled, “What wolves?”
I heaved a long sigh, knowing the conversation would get to this point at some time. “We already talked about Sorcha, the dragon who can do magic. Well, there are also intelligent wolves who can use magic.”
Ara snorted. “And I suppose you have talked to at least one of them. Really?”
“He did more than that,” Trey continued. “He befriended one that was badly hurt and then he healed it.”
“Just like in the stories for children?” Ara asked with disbelief.
“She, her name is Zephyr, showed me how to use the strong magic and she helped me improve my initial attempts at healing you.”
“You have to tell me more,” Ara said excitedly. “However, this is all weird.”
“You can say that again,” I responded, glancing back at her, trying to figure out what she really meant. However, I understood her reluctance to believe much of what we said. If I were in her shoes, I’d have a hard time believing any of what Trey and I said. A sinking feeling gathered in my stomach. I wanted Ara safe–no, I wanted Ara safe and with me. With me, and accepting that I could do magic. I hadn’t asked for any of this to happen. If she didn’t believe me, she would soon leave, and that thought was terrible. I couldn’t…
She shook her head. “No, no, I don’t think you understand. What did Mother and Father tell us about magic?”
“What Father said is easy,” I shot back, glad she had interrupted my black thoughts. “He didn’t tell me anything until the day before he died. I think he was going to tell me more, but he just … died.”
“Mother was the same,” Ara responded. “Oh, she told us children’s stories about pretend magic, but nothing about the real thing. Did she know anything about real magic?”
“I think she did,” I answered. “I think people stopped coming to see us because I did a small magic trick one summer when we were visiting in Glendale.”
Ara shook her head again. “That’s all interesting, and we need to talk more about it, but I meant something different. These creatures, the Vassago we saw and the Effigia you described, have been using magic for a long time, but we never heard of them before the last few days. Now, you say there are also magical dragons and wolves. Why did they all leave humans alone for a long time and then come out, all at the same time?”
“I don’t know,” I growled.
Trey clucked his tongue in disagreement. “You know something.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Your grandfather sent people every year to inquire about your health.”
“That was nice of him,” I said sarcastically. “Did the people he sent ever talk to us or ask questions about my father?” I started thinking more and stopped talking. Father said he had fled with me when I was six months old rather than face m
y grandfather and confess that he hadn’t protected my mother from a Hunter. Was that the only reason he had fled?
I didn’t want to think about those topics, so I focused on one of my other memories about discussions with Father. “The wind changed direction.”
Ara quickened her pace on a wide spot in the trail and came close enough she looked up at me. “What does that comment have to do with my question?”
“Everything,” I replied, thinking furiously. “Things happen, such as a change in the amount of rain or sunshine, when the winds change. We never see what causes the winds to change, but we see the results. Maybe something changed out there in the world and we are only seeing part of the result.”
“Mitanni is the world,” she protested.
I disagreed. “No. Zephyr talked about things happening outside of the kingdom. Things that happened outside the mountains that surround us.”
Ara chewed gently on the end of her thumb before replying, “Do you really believe what a wolf says?”
“I don’t know what to believe and Trey tells me I should expect everything a stranger tells me to be a lie,” I huffed and then remembered Mother talking about the distant past. “The history book Mother let us read talks about people coming here from outside the kingdom.”
She took a deep breath and nodded. “I remember the book. People came up the Brizo River Valley and settled where Falkirk is now.”
“Zephyr knew I still had the book before I told her about it,” I added when the hill grew steeper and Ara moved in behind me.
“Interesting, but there’s something more important right now,” Ara said.
“What’s that?” I asked when she didn’t keep talking.
“I’m getting hungry. What’s for dinner?”
The change in topics took me by surprise. I thought for a couple of moments and magically scanned the surrounding region. We had seen evidence of rabbits underfoot and more were nesting in the small valley on the other side of the road. “How about roast rabbit?” I asked.
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