“That sounds like a good idea to me,” said Lucy.
“Either way, I’ll take care of all healing,” said Justin. “If magic is allowed or used against us, I have an idea for that as well. Lucy will take care of anything physically thrown at us. She’s very good at that. I’ll take care of any spell put on you. Lucy will take care of attacking the opponent. I had a hard time warding off her physical effects,” he added with a smile.
“Everyone stretched out?” asked Gavin.
“Why?” asked Maya suspiciously. “Even if I am, I’m not ready for round two.”
“Round two? No, I was thinking it was time for some lunch.”
“Lunch? I saw you eat what looked like a six egg omelet for breakfast,” said Lucy.
“Yes, but I’ve worked that all off by now. Besides,” he added defensively, “meals are very important.”
They all laughed at that, but couldn’t disagree as they were hungry as well. They got up and walked to the Dining Hall where the guys started to pile large amounts of food onto plates.
“They must have amazing metabolisms,” Maya said to Lucy, shaking her head in astonishment as Gavin strategically piled eight chicken legs onto one plate, balanced it on his arm, and began loading a second plate with mashed potatoes, peas, and four dinner rolls.
“No kidding,” agreed Lucy.
“How on earth do plan to eat once you leave here?” asked Maya taking two chicken legs, three slices of melon, and a roll.
“I’ll simply have to find two or three beautiful talented women and convince them the best way to spend their lives is to constantly cook for me,” responded Gavin walking off to find a table.
“Please tell me he’s not serious,” pleaded Lucy.
“He certainly sounds serious,” responded Maya with a pained look.
“It’s going to be a sad day when he realizes how deluded that idea is,” said Lucy.
“Yes, very sad. Part of me hopes to be there to witness that,” responded Maya with a wicked grin.
Both girls shook their heads and followed Gavin.
“So, how do we spend the afternoon?” asked Gavin in between bites of chicken once they were all seated.
“With as little activity as possible,” responded Maya with a groan.
“Don’t be such a baby,” scoffed Gavin. “The training is good for you. We can’t go into a competition all soft and slow.”
“I know, but we can’t win a competition if we are too exhausted and sore from some insane training regiment inflicted upon us by a fitness fanatic,” countered Maya.
“Ok, I’ll relent for this afternoon, but tomorrow we should do some synchronized riding.”
“I weep for my derrière,” commented Maya.
“Perhaps,” agreed Justin, “but I also think Gavin has a point. We need to work on moving together as a group.”
“It wouldn’t be a bad idea to work on switching mounts and picking up riders from the ground,” suggested Gavin.
“Interesting idea, though probably more painful than interesting,” said Maya.
“Maya, I know you dislike riding,” said Justin diplomatically, “but I also know you’d feel even worse if we did poorly in an event because your riding skills weren’t up to par.”
Maya nodded.
“In all fairness then, I think we should spend the afternoon working on potions or group spells. I know I’ve had very little potions training, my voice spells are still my weak point, and it will give us all a chance to rest while Gavin forms a group horse training plan. Not to mention, eventually, we’ll have to go over Kinowenn protocol for formal occasions,” said Lucy. “The rest of you might know as much as you need to about formal Kinowenn dress and customs but I don’t know nearly as much about Salmatina as I should.”
They all agreed to this and followed Maya down to the potions lab after Gavin finished the enormous piece of cherry cheesecake he had gone back and grabbed for dessert.
Maya decided that a good thing to work on would be antidotes for different poisons. She selected some of the more obscure ones and started them working. While hers was simmering until orange, she walked around and looked at their progress, commenting as she went. When they were finished, she cleared everything up, took the books away, and had them make the same potion again, only without instructions, and she expected it to come out better than the first. While the three of them worked on this, Maya worked on creating the poisons themselves. That way, when they were done, they could test them. It was hard but effective.
“Can you do this and learn something else at the same time?” asked Justin.
“I’ll give it at try, what’s up?”
“Look at the poisons and the antidotes. See if you can get a feel for them magically.”
“Ok,” Lucy responded. She added chopped limpasious root to her potion and then began to study them.
“Do you think you could find those poisons in a body?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Once we drink them, try.”
“Ok.”
“If you find a poison in a body, there are two ways to deal with it magically. You can try to find it in the blood stream and leach it out.”
“That sounds difficult.”
“It can be; it can also be dangerous. The leached out substance has to go somewhere. If you don’t have a container to put it in, it can be messy and contaminate things.”
“And the other option?”
“To replicate the antidote in the system of the one infected.”
“Of course, to do that, you have to know what the antidote is and what it feels like.”
“Of course. Watch your potion,” warned Justin.
Lucy checked and managed to turn down the heat just in time to prevent disaster. Maya gave her a stern look, and Lucy returned an apologetic one. What they were doing was very useful and deserved her full attention. Once they were done Maya suggested they each drink the poison that corresponded to their antidote.
“That way, you know the way it feels to be poisoned and you can also know how an antidote working feels. Perhaps, one day, that knowledge may be useful,” said Maya.
“Can we divide each poison into three potions?” asked Justin.
“Why?” asked Maya, looking confused.
“I want Lucy to try the other two ways of neutralizing poisons.”
“That’s difficult,” said Maya.
“I know, but it’s quicker than having to brew an antidote, and the practice couldn’t hurt,” responded Justin.
Maya nodded. She was a lover of the finer arts of potion making, but she understood that sometimes, speed was necessary. There was no harm in giving Lucy practice. She knew Justin could do it. It seemed he could do anything that involved healing. Gavin didn’t have any use for poisons and dismissed them. Maya could do the other ways, but it was very hard for her. She’d rather identify the poison by magic and then brew up the cure, provided there was time, of course.
“I guess that means I get to be the guinea pig,” sighed Gavin.
Maya handed him a poison, and he drank it. Lucy looked at him closely and did her best to feel what the poison was doing to his blood. Then she tried to make the blood feel like the antidote. It took a lot of concentration but she was pretty sure she did it.
“That felt right,” said Gavin.
“It looked right,” agreed Justin, who had been carefully watching in case he had to step in.
“Why can’t I just make the blood feel like normal?” asked Lucy. “Why do I have to make it feel like the antidote?”
“If you make the blood feel normal, you haven’t done anything to counteract the poison. In a sense, you convince the body that the poisoned blood is normal. It doesn’t fix anything,” said Justin.
“I’m not entirely sure that makes sense,” said Lucy, “But if that’s the way it is, I’ll work with it.”
“Now try to take the poison out and put it in here,” said Justin, handing her the empty glass vial th
at the first amount had been in.
“Bottoms up,” joked Gavin with a resigned face and swallowed the second portion of the same poison.
Lucy quickly searched out and found the poison. It was easier the second time. Now, she focused on pulling the poison out of his body and putting it into the glass vial in her hand. Gavin winced as she did this, but she did her best to ignore it. She had a job to do, and she couldn’t waste time worrying how he was feeling. Again, she was successful. They moved through the other two poisons giving Lucy practice.
“Now,” said Justin, “It’s your turn. You get to try each of the remaining bits of poison and the antidotes.”
Lucy took the red poison first and smelled it. She figured she might as well learn how they smelled since they were going through all this. It had a spiciness about it that made her want to sneeze. Lucy was apprehensive but toasted Gavin and downed the first poison. Immediately, Lucy’s entire body felt on fire. The pain was intense. Her mouth opened in a silent scream and she felt a tear slide down her face. The idea of even moving her hand to reach for the antidote was overwhelming. She was burning from the inside out, and she was sure she was going to burst if she did not drink the antidote. She pushed through the pain, grabbed the vial, and drank the antidote. It was like standing under a cold shower. The pain and fire slowly subsided from the head down. She stood there shaking for a minute.
“That hurt!” she exclaimed. She looked at Gavin with horror and sympathy. They had made him drink that twice. She never wanted to experience that again.
“Yes,” he responded. “It was necessary for you to learn, and it doesn’t hurt me to work on building up a tolerance to pain.”
She smiled at him weakly.
“Now you know why we had him go through all the poisons before we had you drink any. We didn’t want you to be distracted or worried about how he felt,” said Maya.
“That’s also why we had him take them. Not only did I need to watch in case you needed help of any kind, but if I would have taken that one, I might have screamed,” said Justin reasonably. “Drink the next one.”
Lucy looked at him in fear.
“The next one won’t hurt,” said Maya.
Lucy nodded and picked up the second poison. It smelled slightly of pine needles and was clear in color. Lucy shrugged and drank the next poison. Sudden euphoria exploded through her system, and she smiled. She would not have even known this was poison. She wanted to feel like this forever. It was like floating and feeling really happy at the same time. Her eyes weren’t registering reality in front of her. Instead she was seeing sunsets, sandy beaches, stars, waterfalls, flowers. The images were pleasant, but they shifted so fast it was starting to feel overwhelming.
“Lucy, take the antidote,” a voice said in her head. She didn’t recognize it nor did she have any idea what it was talking about.
“No, I don’t think I will,” she thought back to the voice. She felt too lovely to be bothered with doing anything at the moment. Blue, everything was blue. She liked blue. The world should be blue forever.
She gasped and choked as the antidote hit her like a slap in the face. It took her a minute to register that Justin was behind her, holding her body in place, and her hand, forced to grasp the antidote, was held in his.
“Sorry,” he said letting her go as soon as she seemed stable. “We had to force you to drink that. You showed signs of wanting to stay that way until death, which was imminently approaching. We tried talking to you, but you didn’t respond.”
“Thanks,” she said.
“See,” said Gavin, “Not all poisons feel bad, and not all antidotes feel good. Since I knew you were going to fix everything, I just sat back and enjoyed the feelings of happiness.”
“I suppose I have to drink the third one too,” said Lucy, hoping they wouldn’t make her. She felt she had learned enough of poisons for one day.
“Yup,” they all said simultaneously.
Lucy sighed and drank the third one. It was odorless as well as colorless.
“I don’t feel anything,” she said. She felt completely normal.
“You won’t,” said Maya. “I’d drink the antidote though; you have about five minutes before you die.”
Lucy didn’t need to be told twice.
Later that night, Justin walked Lucy to her room, as usual.
“Good work on the poisons today,” he said.
“Thanks. I feel like I should work on learning how most antidotes feel or carry a small glass vial with me everywhere I go. Not to mention, carefully inspect everything I eat or drink for the rest of my life.”
“Not a bad idea. Probably not necessary around school, but something to consider once you are on Kinowenn.”
“That lesson today was a good way to turn a normal person paranoid,” she said accusingly.
“You’re claiming normalcy?” asked Justin laughing.
“No, but you know what I mean.”
“I know what you mean. We weren’t trying to make you paranoid so much as give you a crash course on poisons and all of us some practice at potion making. Maya is the only one who currently takes potions classes. Gavin and I are a little rusty.”
“I feel like there is always so much to learn,” she said with a sigh.
“Yes, but I like that as well. Learning is fun for me, and I think it is for you to.”
“It is,” she agreed, “but part of that is due to you. You help make it fun.”
“Thank you, I try,” he responded with a grin.
They walked in silence until they reached her door.
“Goodnight,” said Lucy.
“Does it have to be?” he asked.
Lucy looked at him, her blue eyes curious and slightly afraid.
“I meant we could go for a walk or something,” he recovered quickly. “It’s probably beautiful outside.”
“Oh,” said Lucy, with a sigh of relief. For a minute there she had wondered if he had gotten hit too hard today during one of the sparring sessions. “I’m sure it is beautiful outside, but we had a busy day and I’m tired. Besides I’m sure it wouldn’t be a good idea to be tired for Gavin’s workout tomorrow.”
“True,” he agreed. “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight. Some other night perhaps?”
“Perhaps,” he smiled and walked away.
Lucy went into her bedroom, closed the door and sighed. She was exhausted.
Chapter 28
Lucy awoke the next morning ready to work with horses. As she got dressed for the day, she took a moment to study her body. She’d been so busy that she hadn’t paid much attention to the changes that were happening. Her hands had calluses from weapons, training, and riding. For the first time in her life, her arms were muscled. She flexed her arm in amazement. She had never been able to do a pull up. She had tried every now and then, but her attempts had always ended in failure. She was pretty sure she could do one now. Maybe even two. Her stomach was flatter than it had ever been despite the sit ups she had always tried to work into her daily routine. She pulled on her green tunic. Lucy had always been semi athletic, but now her legs had muscles in places she didn’t even know muscles existed in. She admired the definition in her legs as she pulled on socks and leggings. Lucy noticed her hair had gotten longer as well. Normally she was in such a hurry to get to class that she didn’t pay much attention to it. A brush and a binder were her normal routine. She braided her hair out of her way and went to find breakfast.
After breakfast they saddled horses and rode. Lucy always felt a sense of happiness on a horse. Any stress seemed to melt out of her body and into the wind. Gavin ran them through a whole series of drills he had thought up the night before. They practiced walking, trotting, and galloping in a straight line, four abreast, zig zagging through trees, over jumps, and worked on turning as a group and individually without causing all chaos to break loose. It was all complicated and fun. Maya rode fine even though she didn’t particularly seem to be enjoying herself.
“Ok, next, I thought we could work on fighting as a group on horseback,” said Gavin.
“Somehow, I don’t think we’ll have to know how to do that,” said Maya.
“Why not?” asked Gavin, looking slightly disappointed at the thought.
“Not that we won’t necessarily have to do that, but it’s unlikely. Not to mention, if we do, I think we already have enough advantages over our opponents that it’s not going to be an issue. I am totally ok winging it when the time comes.”
Gavin looked crest fallen.
“On this one, I think I’ll agree with Maya,” spoke up Lucy. “People in my class are catching on to the idea, but no one is very good. It’s a hard skill to master. You’re so good, you’ll be able to take on most groups of four single handedly. I think I’d serve you better in that instance by staying out of your way and maybe throwing some magic into the mix.”
“I think I’ll agree with them,” said Justin, nodding towards Lucy and Maya. “We’ll be fine. We have other things to work on. Besides, if we slaughter every group in every challenge, it will take some of the fun out of it.”
“That’s true,” agreed Gavin suddenly looking worried about that thought. It was obviously something he hadn’t contemplated. “What if we are too good?”
“No such thing. Don’t worry; I’m sure we’ll be challenged. They’ll think of something amazingly hard for us to do. I think we can let fighting on horseback as a group be our wildcard event.”
“Ok,” agreed Gavin. “I think we should still practice grabbing each other off the ground onto our horses, taking each other to a free horse, and helping them mount. That could be useful, and I’ve never done it.”
They agreed to this plan. The guys decided that, being naturally stronger, they should be the first to lift. Justin trotted up to Lucy, hooked her arm, and pulled as she jumped, and she managed to end up on the horse behind him. She had no idea if she would be able to duplicate what had happened, but at least they had managed to do the first part once, which was better than she had expected. She wondered how many times Gavin was going to have them practice this one. A useful skill to be sure, but what were the odds they were going to need it? She wrapped her arms around Justin, and he continued on to her horse, which Gavin was holding further ahead. Once they got closer he began to run while holding Ash’s bridle so she was moving pretty fast when they reached her. This is insanity, thought Lucy as she took a deep breath and pretty much jumped. The saddle horn jabbed her in the stomach as she landed hard. Winded, she managed to right herself and ride on beside Justin.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 20