by Unknown
“You make those choices so enticing, my dear, I hardly know which one to choose.”
She snorted. “I certainly don’t know which one I prefer.”
“Actually, the first option is going to be the norm, come to think of it. Remember?”
Her shoulders slumped. “Busted buckets, I’d forgotten! There’s no one to teach her anyway, so she’s basically going to have to figure out how to do things on her own.”
“Garth and Chatta and the rest of her professors will safeguard her and advise as much as they can, but even they don’t really understand how her magic works. No one living even remembers that there were Weather Mages.”
“Except you,” she amended.
“And I certainly am not an expert on it.” More’s the pity. “So, I vote we give her a controlled task first, let her bleed off some of that magic.”
Aletha raised a reluctant hand in agreement. “Fine. I wonder, can Tail help her somehow? With his Jaunten knowledge and intelligence?”
I blinked at her. “I don’t follow.”
“Well, he’s basically been acting as her familiar from day one.” She inclined her head to indicate the two on the foredeck.
Becca, having nothing better to do, had grabbed a fishing rod and a pail and was trying to catch our lunch and augment our food stores. Tail sat on the railing at her elbow, eyes focused intently on the water. Come to think of it, those two were never very far apart from each other. In fact, more often than not, Becca was toting him around in her arms. I’d thought it was just because she was a little girl, and little girls liked to carry cats about, but…my eyes narrowed as I thought about it.
“He rather has been, hasn’t he?” I regarded the two thoughtfully. “Can he be one? A familiar, I mean.”
“Huh? Well, sure.” I frowned at her casual response. “Hubby dearest, think about it. What’s the main reason that magicians have familiars?”
“Hmm, to keep them on task and watch out for dangers when they’re involved in a job?”
“Don’t you think Tail is smart enough to do that?”
“Oh. Huh. I suppose he is at that. Which is good, as he wouldn’t take it kindly if Becca tried to get another familiar. He seems to think she belongs to him.” Which could explain why he and I didn’t get along at times. He certainly hadn’t liked it when I knocked ‘his girl’ out cold.
Aletha must have read as much on my face, as she gave me an evil grin. “You realize that if you knock her out again, he will exact revenge.”
“I’m trying not to think about that, thank you,” I responded with injured dignity.
She cackled, enjoying my discomfort. “Ah, that’s right, I’d forgotten that the super soldier was afraid of cats.”
Eh? What was she…oh. “Now wait a minute, the last time I ran from a cat it was a Life Mage in the shape of a great big panther. You’d run too!”
“And the reason why you’re afraid of this one is…?”
“He’s more cunning and evil? I don’t know how he’ll get his revenge, but I won’t enjoy it, and I’d rather not tempt fate.”
“Coward,” she teased.
“I pick my battles, thank you.” Wanting out of this conversation, I stood up slightly and got a look inside Becca’s bucket. It seemed she had quite a catch in there. “I think she’s caught enough for lunch. Call her up here. Let’s see if we can give her enough information about how magic works that she can help increase our speed.”
Aletha, game to try, went down and called Becca up. I aimed for a clear patch of sea that wouldn’t require my constant attention and locked the wheel into place, letting the schooner just sail itself for a little while.
When Aletha came back up and saw the strap, she frowned at me and gestured me out of my chair. What, did that make her nervous? I grinned at her as we switched places and she took up steering the schooner instead.
I sat on the ground and pulled Becca toward me, settling her on my knees so I could look her more or less in the eye. “Sweetheart, I’m not a magician, but I do know a little of how magic works, and I think it would be better for all of us if you understood it more.”
She perked right up, eyes fastened on me. “Tell me.”
“First, you know the difference between a mage and a witch?” She shook her head—I wasn’t surprised by her ignorance, all things considered—so I started with the bare basics. We must have sat there a good hour, me explaining everything I knew, her asking questions. Even Tail listened attentively, and he knew everything I knew.
Familiar, huh? Aletha was right, he certainly acted like one.
I finally reached the end of my knowledge and stopped, watching Becca. Her forehead was creased as she tried to wrap her head around everything I’d explained. Finally, she ventured, “So I don’t need a wand or anything to work my magic.”
“Right,” I confirmed patiently.
“And my magic likes to be used.”
“Right.”
“And when I use it, it feels like it did that night, like there’s a fire inside of me, right here.” She put both hands over her heart. “And if I want to calm my magic, I try to make my chest feel cool again.”
“That’s how Garth explained it.”
Becca’s head cocked. “You’ve mentioned him before. Lots of times. Who’s Garth?”
“Rhebengarthen, an Earth Mage from Chahir,” I explained. “He’s the first mage discovered in over two hundred years, so he’s often called the Advent Mage. You’ll meet him very soon.”
Her eyes went wide. “I will?”
“Sure! He built the magical academy on the Isle of Strae—you know where that is? Yup, waaaay north of here. Anyway, he helped us get down here in Chahir to find you, so he knows about you, and he’s researching right now all about your magic so that he can help train you.”
Becca seemed a little overwhelmed by all of this.
“He’s a very nice man, Becca,” Aletha inputted from the side. “We worked with him for almost two years, rescuing the magicians out of Chahir. You’ll find he’s rather quiet, but he’s charming too, and he adores children. He and his wife Chatta are very good friends of ours.”
“You’re friends?” she asked in amazement.
“Sure. Who do you think got me out of the crystal?” I grinned at her, amused at her reaction.
“Whoa.” She didn’t seem to know what to think about that.
What was it about Garth anyway that made him so awe-inspiring to people? Becca barely knew who he was, and she was already impressed.
“I think we got sidetracked, kiddo.” Not that it was bad she learned all of this. It would ease her worries about where we were going. “Now, what’s the first rule of magic?”
“Ah….”
“It follows intent,” Aletha answered promptly, lips curling up at the corners.
I applauded. “Give the girl a cookie!”
Aletha groaned. “What I wouldn’t give for a cookie….”
After eating nothing but fish and bread the past two days, I had to agree with her on that one. “So, Becca, let’s work a little magic. Your intent should be just to make more of a tailwind for us. Push the ship to go a little faster.”
Her eyes nearly crossed. “NOW?!”
“Sure. Nothing to be afraid of. Just be careful, and don’t knock us overboard. Tail isn’t a fan of being dumped in the ocean, are you, Tail?”
The cat’s ears went flat, and I could hear his evil thoughts from here.
I put a supportive hand on Becca’s back. “Deep breath, honey,” I advised. “You’ll be fine.”
She took in a deep breath, but her worried expression didn’t ease. “Do I have to say something?”
“Like a magical incantation? No, not for this. There’s a few spells you’ll learn—I’ve seen Garth use them for wards—but most of the time, just imagine what you want to happen and will it to do so. That’s all it takes.” I thanked all magic that I had inherited my Jaunten blood from Night. He knew a lot about magic
from his mother, after all.
Actually, Tail now knew everything from that magical bloodline too. Maybe him being Becca’s familiar was a really good idea.
Becca took in another deep breath, but this time a hint of steel came into those blue eyes. She raised her hands, like she was trying to grasp the heavens, then she slowly lowered them. As she did, the wind started to pick up from behind us, and the sails snapped taut, the schooner picking up speed.
“Perfect!” Aletha approved. “Is it hard?”
Shaking her head, Becca smiled, although she looked a little bemused. “No. It’s…easy. Like the wind wanted to obey me.”
“It did,” I assured her. “When you call to your natural element like that, it will respond readily. Just make sure to keep in mind exactly what you want.”
Becca nodded soberly. I think the mother storm she’d called by accident still scared her. Maybe having her do this was good in more than one way.
“Just keep that up for a while,” Aletha requested. “Don’t strain yourself, though.”
“Quit when you get tired,” I backed her up. “But do it for as long as you can. We want to reach Movac as quickly as possible.”
Becca sat quiet and still, concentrating, for quite a long time. Eventually, though, she became comfortable with it. I knew she had, because she climbed off my lap and scampered back down to the lower decks where she went to pet the horses. I blew out a covert breath of relief.
Hopefully that would deter any magical accidents.
With Becca’s determined help, we made good time. Far better than what we would have managed the normal way. Cheating with magic had its advantages. Becca would take breaks, now and again, as her concentration faltered, but she kept it up steadily for hours at a time.
Without a sea chart at hand, I had to rely on my memory and landmarks to determine where we were, but within five days, we had reached Aboulmana. I estimated that at this rate, we’d make it to Echols in another two days.
Everyone agreed that the sooner we got off the schooner, the better.
The problem was there wasn’t much to do. We could fish, and eat fish, and clean up the decks, and sleep. Oh, did I mention we could fish? After eating nothing but fish and bread, I was thoroughly sick of both. It would be a good year before I could face fish again after this.
For lack of anything better to do, I stood at the rail with a fishing rod in my hand. Idly, I watched Becca roam around the decks. Her wind was coming in good and strong, but it no longer required her absolute concentration, and now, she would putter around doing other things while she kept the wind going. I took it as a good sign.
She meandered over to my side and peered into the bucket at my feet. “Tail is kind of tired of that fish, Shad, I think he wants to eat something different, and isn’t it funny that cats can get tired of eating the same thing over and over, I thought it was just humans that did that, but apparently cats do it too, because last time I cooked it for him, he flattened his ears and stared at it for a looong time like he was trying to decide if he was going to eat it or not, and he eventually did eat it, but I don’t think he really wanted to, he was just being nice about it, so I think we should try to catch him something different, do you think you can do that?”
It never ceased to amaze me that she could say all of that in one breath. At first, I was worried that she would run out of air and faint right in front of me, but it hadn’t happened yet. Becca was apparently one of those people that just thought out loud. She had no filter for her mouth whatsoever. I found it completely entertaining.
“Sure,” I told her, as she had paused and looked expectantly, as if waiting for an answer.
“Really?” She gave me a doubtful look, mouth pursed judiciously. “Because Aletha said you weren’t really good at fishing, that you barely knew the basics, and it’d be better if I didn’t ask you.”
“She lies, kiddo. Lies, I tell you.” I drew myself up, affronted, and shot my companion a dirty look. The schooner was too small to have a private conversation, so Aletha could hear every word we said, but she steadfastly refused to look in our direction. “I’m a master fisherman. I catch fish whenever I throw a line in.”
“But you only catch one kind,” she responded, still with that suspicious look on her face.
“Like you can control what you catch.”
“You can.” Now she looked at me with outright pity, as if I had said something stupid. “If you know how.”
“Ho-ho, is that right?” I stared right back at her, but she didn’t seem to be pulling my leg. “You think you can?”
“I can. I can even catch more than you.”
“Them there’s fighting words.” I pointed to the other fishing rod leaning up against the side. “I hereby challenge you to a duel!”
A wicked, feline grin crossed over her face. “Loser has to clean all the fish for a week.”
“You’re on.”
Normally, I slept like a dead man on a boat. Any boat. It was the rocking motion that did it, I think. Being gently rocked back and forth was akin to being in a mother’s arms again. Aletha told me once that she could do a countdown. By the time she hit five, I would be snoring loud enough to wake the dead.
It was unusual for me to wake up in the middle of the night. I went from sound asleep to looking straight up into a starry night sky. I rolled instinctively onto my side to check on Becca first. She’d snuggled in next to me a few hours before, Aletha on the other side of her. As I rolled, I saw that Aletha was waking up too, although she wasn’t moving as fast I as was.
Tail sat up near Becca’s head, his paw gently batting at her face, ears flat with worry. I saw why instantly. She had tears streaming down her cheeks and, soft whimpers were coming from the back of her throat.
Nightmare? I put a hand on her shoulder and shook her awake. “Becca. Sweetie. Wake up.”
“Nightmare?” Aletha murmured.
“Looks like it.” Not getting any results, I put an arm under Becca’s shoulders and physically lifted her, jarring her out of her bedroll and directly into my lap. This snapped her awake, arms flailing a little before settling in a white-knuckle grip in my shirt. Even with her eyes open, the tears didn’t stop, and she buried her face into my shoulder and kept crying. Aletha came in closer, one arm going around my shoulders, the other hand smoothing Becca’s hair back from a too-flushed face, the movement steady and soothing.
I didn’t ask for an explanation. I didn’t need one. She’d been faced with far too much, for too long, and as a child, she didn’t know how to handle it all. Becca wasn’t the first magician to be forced out of her home and told to travel across the country and into the unknown. But every other magician who’d done so was a teenager. Becca was eight. For teenagers, it’d been risky and dangerous, and sadly, not all of them had made it. A child wouldn’t stand a chance. What had her parents been thinking, sending a child off on a journey that even an adult would find hard to face?
That didn’t even account for the Star Order Priests that doggedly tracked her down, time and again, trying to kill her.
She’d lost everything she ever knew in a day. She hadn’t cried before this, but I didn’t think it’d really sunk in until now. Or perhaps it was more that she didn’t have the luxury to think about it, not with everything else that had happened. But now, she had two soldiers that had proven they could protect her from even the boogeyman himself, she was safely aboard a ship and heading for a world that would accept her with open arms, and had a dedicated furry familiar. Her new world was far from perfect, but it gave her everything she needed.
By doing so, it gave her the time to think of everything she’d lost.
“You’ve lost a lot, kiddo,” I whispered against her hair. “It’s alright to acknowledge that. Cry it all out. But don’t think your family is forever lost, alright? Chahir is changing so fast, you might still be able to see them. I’ve seen other magicians manage it.”
“R-really?” she asked around a hiccu
pping sob.
“Yup. Garth is a prime example. You know, he did what you’re doing now—he left Chahir all on his own. He even made it to Hain without help. But after he was fully trained, he returned to his hometown and rescued his family, taking them out and bringing them to Hain.”
Becca gave a giant sniff, lifting a hand to wipe at her cheeks. “You think I can too?”
“Not right now,” I cautioned her. “It will work a lot better when you’re fully trained, because then you can beat up those priests if they try to attack you again. But in a few years, when you’re at full-strength, I’ll come down with you and help move them up.”
This made her pause, and she looked up at me thoughtfully. “I’ll be strong enough to beat them?”
“Honey, even if twenty of them rushed you all at once, they wouldn’t stand a chance. Not after you’re trained and know how to use that power of yours properly.”
Becca’s mouth stretched into a feral smile that scared even me a little. “Promise?”
I held up a pinky. “Promise.”
She took my pinky with her own and shook it solemnly.
“Good? Then back to sleep.”
She settled back down into her blankets, the cat curling up near her chest, his head tucked under her chin. I stroked her hair gently, trying to soothe the worry away. Still, it was a long time before she fell asleep again, and even then, she frowned a little.
“Her world is so unstable right now,” Aletha murmured, disturbed. “I’d thought she was taking this all a little too well.”
“I think it took time for her to relax, not be on edge, before the emotions hit her.” I remembered that feeling all too well. I’d felt the same after being taken out of the crystal and realizing that everything I had ever known or loved was gone, and nothing I could do would ever bring it back.
Aletha’s frown deepened. “The only things permanent for her are you, and Tail, and I suppose, Cloud. Even I’m temporary. I’ll return to Ascalon when this is all over.”
Those words mentally tripped me up. I stared at her with growing dismay as I realized she was right. I’d been so focused on getting us all safely to Strae that I’d failed to think about what would happen after we got there. My chest constricted hard, hurting me, as I realized that I didn’t want her to go.