The angry firecat in front of me.
I drop to the ground, sitting with my legs crossed so that I become a smaller, less threatening presence. At the same time, I reach for what remains of my gift and pull it out quickly, letting it flow into the air and head toward the firecat. His energy is hot and bright and churning, and I allow my gift to just barely touch his, finding the pattern in the flow and moving along with it. I don’t use my gift to try to smother his essence or pull at his energy; I simply let mine float alongside his, companionably, the way a flower might bloom beneath a mighty tree.
The flames alongside the firecat’s spine lower and eventually die out, with only a few sparks remaining. His paws and tail are still alight, but he lowers his tail to the ground and takes a slow step toward me, more curious than aggressive.
“Hello there,” I say quietly, watching him approach. “You’re a beautiful creature, aren’t you? And it’s not fair that you’re stuck in this awful cage right now.”
The cat tilts his head to the side, ears perked.
I laugh. “You just want some food, don’t you? And you want to go home. Well, I can help you with that. But I need you to stay calm while I work, okay? And you need to let me borrow just a teeny-tiny bit of your energy.”
The firecat doesn’t move, and I wish Ari were here to tell me if he’s calm enough or not. But I’m not a naturalist for nothing, and I can tell that neither his energy nor his flames are spiking up the way they would be if he were considering, say, making me into a snack.
I reach for a little spark of his energy and let it flow into mine. He doesn’t react.
I try it again, with a large spark. This time, he sort of startles, like he’s realizing what I’m doing, and I quickly let go. “Easy,” I say. “We’re just working together, okay? You’re going to lend me a little tiny bit of magic.…”
The firecat is not remotely happy about this. As I reach for another spark, he shies away from me, both physically and magically—he takes a step back, and his life source pulls away from my gift.
“Okay, okay,” I say. “I went too fast. I’m sorry. Let’s try that again.”
Drawing on my gift hurts at this point, there’s so little left. But I try it again, just letting my gift flow alongside the firecat for a moment, not doing anything. Then I pull a tiny spark from him. And another. And another. If I try for anything larger than that, the firecat shies away.
I’m just going to have to do this one spark at a time.
I keep going, talking in a soothing voice to the firecat while mixing my magic with his and drawing on the tiniest possible ounces of his magic. At this rate, it would take hours to fully replenish my gift. But I don’t need full. I just need enough to guide him into the enclosure.
Another spark, and another, and another…
Finally, I feel like I have enough control over my gift again to give the firecat a nudge. But I’ve learned my lesson about moving too fast, so I just let my gift ease over him for a moment without giving him any directions, keeping him relaxed in my presence.
I use this moment of calm to sneak a peek at Tomas. Unfortunately, he’s doing well. His firecat is pacing nonchalantly in front of him while blue magic dances through the air. I don’t know how Tomas is keeping him calm, but I have to admit he knows his technique—he’s sitting with his head bowed just like me, to seem less threatening. He does seem to be struggling with getting the firecat to move in the right direction, though. It’s taken him several minutes just to move a few feet closer to the nearest enclosure.
But thanks to Lilja, I already have plenty of experience guiding wild creatures. I rise slowly, keeping my head low, and when the firecat doesn’t react, I give him a nudge with my gift, pointing him in the direction of the nearest enclosure.
“Come on, buddy,” I say. “We’re friends now, right?”
The firecat tilts his head questioningly at me, his tail swishing.
“I know the last thing you want to do right now is move into a smaller space,” I continue. “But it’s only temporary, and it would really help me out, okay?”
“Would you shut up over there?” Tomas shouts, and I jump in surprise. And so does my firecat, his flames suddenly whooshing higher on his back, his hackles rising.
“Shh, it’s okay,” I say quickly to the firecat, reaching out again with my gift in an attempt to be soothing.
But Tomas isn’t finished. “You’re breaking my concentration, Bryn,” he yells, even though his firecat is perfectly calm.
He’s trying to sabotage me.
“There will be plenty of distractions in the Realm,” I call back, trying to maintain a cheerful tone for the sake of the agitated firecat in front of me. “A real Seeker could work through them.”
“A real Seeker wouldn’t talk to a firecat like it’s her pet kitten,” Tomas sneers. “It can’t understand you, you know.”
“It can understand my tone,” I call back, still in my most cheerful voice.
Abruptly, Tomas turns and walks toward me. His own firecat watches placidly, making no attempt to move thanks to whatever spell Tomas has cast.
My firecat, however, spins toward Tomas, the flames along its crest rising higher in warning. It doesn’t like this new intruder, not at all.
“Stay back,” I say. “What are you doing?”
Tomas stops right in front of me and lowers his voice. In the softest of whispers, so low that no one in the arena could possibly hear but me, he says, “You should’ve stayed home, Bryn. I thought Johann’s rocks would be enough to scare you away, but I guess he’s too stupid to even do that properly.”
I take a step back from him, all thoughts of the firecat forgotten. “The rocks were your idea?”
“You didn’t think he was smart enough to come up with that on his own, did you?” Tomas rolls his eyes.
I remember how close one of those rocks came to Elisa’s head, and my fists clench. “Why are you telling me this?”
Tomas shrugs, almost lazily. “You might want to check on your firecat, Bryn. He seems to be a bit upset.”
I spin around. My firecat can clearly sense my anger. His crest of fire is rising still higher. Heat rolls off him in waves.
Grinning, Tomas turns and strolls away, back to his own firecat.
While mine bares his teeth and takes a menacing step toward me.
TWENTY-SIX
Nice kitty,” I mutter under my breath, reaching for my gift as the angry firecat advances. “Nice firecat. We’re friends, remember?”
The firecat doesn’t react, and I grit my teeth. Tomas made me angry on purpose. I have to get myself, and my firecat, back under control and win this competition.
But just as I reach out with my gift to soothe it, the sound of footsteps reverberates from the tunnel.
Ari bursts through the door, followed closely by Johann, who seems to have been chasing him. Ari skids to a stop when he sees the firecats, but Johann doesn’t. He almost barrels straight into one of them, which lets out a loud, threatening growl.
Across the arena, all four of the other firecats respond with a similar growl. All of them are agitated now.
Instinctively, I look at Ari, only to find him looking back at me.
“I’ll calm them down if you guide them?” he asks.
At this point, I could use his empathy gift more than anything. I nod in agreement, and we both get to work.
Sparks of yellow dance across Ari’s fingers as he sends his gift out, targeting both my firecat and one of the ones to our right that seems less agitated than the others. I copy him, mixing my gift in with the life spark of both cats, moving alongside their energy, letting them get used to the feel of it. I’m still running low on magic, but I might have just enough left.…
Whatever Ari’s doing with his empathy gift is working much faster than anything I could ever do. The flames along the cats’ spines start getting lower and lower before dying out completely.
“Careful,” I say to Ari as the f
irecats’ energy starts to feel almost droopy. “We don’t want them to go to sleep yet!”
“Right, sorry,” he says, dialing his energy back a little.
Now that the firecats are calm, it’s my turn to act. I nudge each one with my gift, guiding them toward the enclosures. “Come on, guys,” I say cheerfully. “Don’t you want to take a nap now? Don’t these little rooms look like the perfect places to sleep?”
I walk toward the nearest enclosures, and the two firecats follow. When I get close to the enclosures, I stop one of the cats and beckon the other into the nearest space. It’ll be easier to direct only one at a time for this part.
Unfortunately, now that the firecat sees where I want him to go, he’s much more reluctant to move. “Come on,” I coax, “just a few more steps.…”
Finally, the firecat moves forward and enters the enclosure. He looks around warily, but Ari raises his hands and casts more magic. In seconds, the cat’s wariness turns to drowsiness, and he curls up in the middle of the space, looking ready for a nap.
We repeat the process with the second firecat, moving him into the enclosure next to the first. When he, too, curls up inside, Ari and I grin at each other. “Nice work,” I say.
“You too. Ready to cast a boundary spell?”
“Just a minute,” I say. “I’m really running low.” Now that the firecat is in his enclosure, I can risk drawing a bit more from him to replenish my gift. “How’d you get past the healing without using up all your gift?” I ask Ari.
“Patience,” he says, with a slight smirk. “I did it more slowly than you did.”
I glare at him. “Ready now,” I say, pulling my gift away from the firecat. I step toward the first enclosure to cast the spell that will keep the firecat from leaving it, and Ari steps toward the second—
A scream reverberates through the arena, and both of us whip around. We were so busy that I forgot about Tomas and Johann. Tomas is still guiding his firecat into an enclosure, but while we’ve been preoccupied, Johann has been getting himself into trouble.
The red glow of his warrior magic silhouettes his figure, surrounded by flames. The two remaining firecats near him are clearly upset, their crests flaming, their backs arched. Even as I watch, one of them shoots a fireball in Johann’s direction, and he lets out another scream. Luckily, his magic catches it and sends the flames careening to the ground near the tunnel entrance, where they soon extinguish.
But diverting the firecat’s flames only makes it angrier, and as soon as it gathers enough fire, it shoots another ball of flame in Johann’s direction. He’s expending a ton of energy just trying to avoid the flames, and he can’t possibly guide the firecat into an enclosure while it is attacking him. As much as I should enjoy seeing Johann fail, I’m worried about the firecat. I hope it isn’t too scared and that Johann hasn’t done anything to hurt it. Have the Seekers been monitoring the situation? Would they step in if a creature were being abused by a competitor? Surely they would.
Johann dodges another ball of flames, and Ari turns to me. “We should—”
BOOM.
I’m knocked to the ground by a blast of heat and throw my arms over my head. The explosion rings in my ears, and for a moment I can’t hear anything. I open my eyes and blink at the wall of fire racing through the center of the arena, scorching everything in its path.
Was this supposed to happen? Did Johann’s firecat manage to release this much flame? Or has something gone wrong?
I scramble to my feet, checking that no part of me is on fire, and spin around, assessing my surroundings. The ringing hasn’t faded from my ears, and the shouts and cries of the spectators in the arena are only a distant hum. But I’ve been lucky—I’m far enough away from the blast that I don’t seem to be hurt. But what about—
“Ari?” I yell. “Ari!”
Someone coughs, and I spin around. Ari is behind me at the firecat enclosures, his gift swirling wildly around his fingertips. Both of the firecats we were trying to tame are now more agitated than ever, their energy spiking all over the place, and it seems to be taking all of Ari’s strength to keep them from firing more flames into the arena. I race toward them, coughing as smoke fills the air.
“Have you got them?” I call, reaching out with my gift.
“Barely,” he shouts back.
“I’m going to try to put out the flames before someone gets hurt. Make sure they don’t attack me from behind, okay?”
“I’ll try!”
I turn back to the center of the arena, reaching for my gift. I can’t see any of the other competitors through the smoke and flame, or any of the other firecats, either. I’ll just have to hope they stay out of my way.
I was already planning to use water to make my boundary spell—it’s the one thing firecats hate. I use the energy of the firecats behind me to anchor my magic just like Mama taught me, then reach for the particles in the air the way Elisa suggested. I try to picture the spell I want as clearly as I can, imagining a spray of water dousing the flames. My magic is so low, but I don’t dare draw on any of the firecats in case it makes them more upset. I grit my teeth and dig deep inside myself for my gift, using as much of it as I can spare.
The green light of my magic races toward the flames, and water bursts from the air. The flames directly in front of me are drenched, and some of them are extinguished. But the air is dry and full of smoke, and my magic is too low, and it isn’t nearly enough. I can’t put them all out by myself.
I take a deep breath and cast my magic toward the fire. Naturalist gifts are supposed to be good with fire, though I’ve never tried it myself. Maybe I can—
Something is wrong. The energy of the fire doesn’t feel natural at all. An undercurrent runs through it, something dark and thick and heavy. An energy that shouldn’t be there.
I’ve only felt something like this once before: the mystery figure in the Realm. The one Ari said was a Vondur.
But I don’t have time to think about what that means. The energy is fighting me, resisting the flow of my gift, and I can’t connect with it the way I should be able to. I try to take a deep breath, but smoke sticks in my throat, and I cough. There’s not enough moisture in the air, not enough anywhere—
A jet of water arcs through the air, streaming toward the flames. It’s followed by another, and another, and another.
The Seekers have arrived.
Purple shields burst into life, encircling what’s left of the flames and creating a barrier between the crowds in the stands and the arena floor. Sparks fly across Seeker Ludvik’s hands as he casts them. Following him through the arena doors are Seeker Freyr and Seeker Agnar.
And leading the way through the smoke, casting water onto the flames as they go, are Seeker Larus and—
“Papa!”
He turns and rushes toward me, limping, his cane nowhere in sight. I’m guessing he forgot it in the stands in his rush to get down here. “Bryn!” he shouts, wrapping me up in a hug. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” I say. “But we need to find all the firecats and make sure they’re okay. And Ari—”
I glance back toward the enclosures, where Ari is still standing over two of the firecats. Who are now, incredibly, both curled up on the floor of the arena like they’re about to take a casual nap.
“Actually,” I say, “I don’t think Ari needs any help. But Johann does, and I don’t know where Tomas and his firecat went.…”
“Tomas is in one of the tunnels,” Papa says. “We could see from the stands—he managed to duck into one after the explosion.”
“And Emil?”
“Never left the other half of the arena,” Papa says. “But I didn’t see the other boy—there was a lot of smoke up there.”
“Contestants!” shouts a booming voice. Papa, Ari, and I both turn toward Seeker Larus, who is now standing in the center of the arena, having doused the flames. “Report to Seeker Freyr immediately if you have any injuries. If not, follow Seeker Agna
r out of the arena.” He turns to Seeker Ludvik, who is still holding up his shields, and they exchange a few words too soft for me to hear. Then Seeker Larus raises his voice again. “We ask all spectators to remain in their seats for a few more moments. You are all safe—the flames have been doused, and Seeker Ludvik’s shields will protect you.”
Papa takes a step toward Seeker Larus, who nods at him and adds quietly, “Jakob, if you wouldn’t mind helping me with the remaining firecats?”
“Of course.” Papa gives me another quick hug. “Out of the arena, Bryn,” he says. “I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
He and Seeker Larus stride purposefully away, and I walk over to Ari, who appears to have constructed some kind of boundary spell around the two sleeping firecats.
“Did you feel it?” I whisper to him. “The magic in the flames?”
He nods once. “It wasn’t the firecats that caused the explosion, was it?”
“No,” I whisper back. “The Vondur were here. And we have to tell the Seekers.”
“But—”
“I know. I know you think one of them might be involved. Maybe you’re right. But there’s no harm in describing what we felt—we can pretend we don’t know what it means, but then at least any Seekers who aren’t working for the Vondur will know what happened and be on high alert. This is bigger than us now, Ari. That fire could’ve killed someone.”
“I know,” he says. “You’re right.”
Together we walk to the side of the arena, where Seeker Agnar waits for us at the door. Beside him, Tomas is talking to his father, Seeker Freyr, who is also tending to what looks like a burn on Johann’s arm. The sparks of Seeker Freyr’s healing gift dance around his fingertips.
Seeker Agnar grunts an acknowledgment at us as we pass. Outside the arena, Emil is leaning against the wall. His face is streaked with tears, and he wipes his cheek with the end of his sleeve.
Tomas steps outside next, followed by Seeker Agnar. Tomas scowls at all of us. There’s a streak of ash on his forehead, but otherwise he seems fine. After a moment, Seeker Freyr and Johann walk outside as well. Johann is carefully examining his arm as if there’s still something wrong with it, even though the skin now looks fully healed.
Seekers of the Wild Realm Page 23