“No need,” the druidess insisted. “I’m fine as I am.”
“He won’t like it,” Jessica warned her.
“That’s OK,” Mandalee, insisted. “I’ll distract him by being his star pupil.”
Chapter 21
Sara led them to Daelen’s training centre, located in a separate outbuilding, and knocked on the door before entering. Mandalee, as promised, was wearing the one-piece combat body armour that Jessica had laid out for her. She was actually really pleased with it. Clinging to her like a second skin, it was predominately white, with purple and silver highlights, matching her regular outfit very well. It was just so much lighter, far more flexible and, best of all, it seemed to give her curves that, if she was honest, she didn’t really have, and hide parts that Mandalee wished she didn’t have. Her friend, however, was dressed in her usual red robes. Jessica had taken the suit away from her room to make sure Cat couldn’t touch it by accident and suffer another adverse reaction. The druidess was giving Mandalee a wide berth for the same reason. Almost as soon as they left the portal room, she lost the connection to her world and her magic, and she felt herself losing her temper again along with it.
Once they were inside, Sara made herself scarce as quickly as possible. She knew there were going to be fireworks and she wanted to be far away when they started.
Daelen was wearing only the bottom half of a two-piece combat suit, sweat pouring from his muscular torso. He was breathing heavily when they entered, but it soon abated, demonstrating his high fitness level.
He scowled at Catriona. “Why aren’t you wearing your combat suit?” he demanded.
“When I touched it, my hand swelled up. If I put it on, it would probably kill me. Never thought about my Faery physiology, did you?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t know that would happen. Maybe if it had a natural cotton lining or something?”
“Doesn’t matter.” Cat shook her head. “I wouldn’t wear it, anyway.”
“Well, you can’t train in your robes,” Daelen insisted.
Cat shrugged and turned to walk away.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I can’t train in my robes, apparently,” she shot back. “Therefore, I can’t train, which is fine because I’ve no intention of doing it anyway.”
“I do,” Mandalee volunteered. “If it helps.”
“There you go,” Cat declared. “You’ve got one willing victim – I mean student – you don’t need two.”
“But if you want to help save your world, you have to train.”
“Not your way,” Cat countered.
“But my way is better!” Daelen insisted.
“No, it is not better, it is simply different. In many ways, it is inferior because it is crude and predictable, as I have tried to point out before, though I don’t know why I waste my breath. Our ways of doing things will always be different, and in that diversity, there lies strength. Do not presume to make me your pupil because I will have no part of that.”
So saying, she planted her feet and folded her arms, as a silent challenge of ‘move me if you dare.’
“What are you talking about, Cat?” Daelen demanded. “This is why I brought you here. To train you to fight properly! To help you be more powerful! What’s your problem?”
Cat stepped close and faced him with feral ferocity.
“My problem is you!” she yelled, pushing him back a step. “The way you just assume I will be training your way. Fighting your way. I already fight ‘properly,’” she pushed him back another step, “I just don’t fight the way you do. I will not fight the way you do. I fight my way. You keep forgetting, I am not a shadow warrior,” another step, “and I have no desire to act like one. I keep telling you I have no interest in fighting power with power,” and another, “but you don’t listen!” One more. “You never listen!” She kept pushing, her voice growing louder and louder with every sentence. “For the last time: I don’t like your training, I don’t like your world, I don’t like your weapons, I don’t like your rules, I don’t like your decor and I DON’T LIKE YOU!” With her last push, she stormed off, running away from the training centre.
She re-entered the house, darted around a corner and almost collided with Sara, but the Chetsuan girl flattened herself against the wall beside the old grandfather clock, out of Cat’s way, in an impressive display of agility. A little way further on, and Jessica, rummaging in the large linen cupboard, stuck her head around the door to see what was going on, just in time to see Catriona collapse in a heap on the floor.
*****
Catriona Redfletching woke up in a bed in the portal room. Mandalee by her bedside. Cat could tell she’d been crying.
“What— What’s going on?” the druidess croaked.
The smile on her best friend’s face was like the sun bursting out from behind the clouds. She stood over Cat’s bed and gave her a gentle hug before returning to her bedside seat.
“Oh, Cat!” she gasped. “I’ve been so worried about you. You’ve been out for hours.”
“What’s wrong with me?” asked the half-Faery. She felt so drained of energy.
“It’s my fault,” Mandalee asserted.
“I bet it’s not,” Cat returned. She knew that doubting herself was a well-worn Mandalee trait.
“It is,” she insisted. “I got so caught up in how much I’m enjoying it here, I never gave enough thought to why my best friend was so miserable. I’m a Cleric of Nature – it should have been obvious.”
“If it helps,” Cat replied, “I’m a druid, and it’s not obvious to me, so why not just explain?”
“You’re half-Faery,” Mandalee stated, as if that explained everything.
Cat made an effort to give a wry smile. “Thanks for the confirmation of my species, but I already knew that.”
The assassin shook her head in a self-deprecating way. “Sorry, explanations aren’t really my area. I generally leave them to Shyleen.”
Cat reached out a hand to touch Mandalee’s. “I wish you’d give yourself more credit.”
“I’ll try,” Mandalee promised. “OK, well, you know how you told me your father couldn’t leave the forests without becoming ill?”
Cat nodded. The one time he’d tried to visit her mother’s city home, he’d collapsed.
“As with anything else, some Faery are more affected than others. Add your human half, and you’re less affected than most full Faery. In the time I’ve known you, the most you’ve ever really got is a kind of homesickness for the wildlands. Spend a few nights sleeping under the stars, and you’re right as rain.”
“Do I detect another Jessica expression there?” Cat wondered. Mandalee nodded. “I like it. Rain is good; water is life. So, what, you’re saying I’m homesick?”
“Literally sick from being away from home, yes. I guess even a half-Faery doesn’t fare too well away from her world. You haven’t just been cut off from your druid magic – you’ve been cut off from everything your Faery half needs to survive. In short, being here is killing you. Your reaction to synthetic fabrics was an acute symptom of a wider problem. I wanted to take you home, but Daelen was worried about the time difference between the two worlds and the possible stress of transition. Then I remembered that when we were chatting to Sara and Jessica, here in the portal room this morning, you quickly healed up, so I hoped letting you rest right next to the portal home would help you recover.”
Mandalee had refused to leave her friend’s side until she showed signs of improvement.
“Well, it’s working,” Cat assured her, “but I’m still a bit shaky.”
“You just need time, and the one advantage we have in being away from Tempestria is that it does buy time.”
“Yeah, that’s weird, the time thing,” Cat pondered with a puzzled frown.
“Well, don’t waste your energy trying to figure out how the cosmos works right now. Just focus on getting stronger again so we can take you back home.”
Catriona sat up quickly and immediately regretted it when the room started spinning. “Back home? We can’t go back already!”
“We have to. Cat, we’ve just been through this – this world is making you ill.”
“I know, you explained the problem just fine,” she assured her friend. “What I’m interested in now is the solution. Come on, Mandalee. How long have you known me? You can’t honestly believe this is going to stop me from achieving my goals. Besides, now that I know there are other worlds, I want to see them.”
“You haven’t been a fan of this one so far,” the assassin reminded her.
Cat dismissed that, pointing out, “I’m not a fan of anywhere when I’m sick. This place isn’t going to beat me. My body’s limitations aren’t going to beat me.”
“So, what’s your magical solution?” Mandalee asked.
“Essentially, the same thing I figured out years ago: I need our world’s nature to use my druid magic. Now I know I need it just to survive. The problem is the same, so the solution is the same. I need to carry nature with me at all times. Mandalee, I need to talk to Daelen. Where is he, anyway?”
“Taking his frustrations out on his training centre.”
“Well, that’s constructive,” she snarked, rolling her eyes.
“Cut the guy some slack – he brought you to Earth, and it nearly killed you.”
“I’ve nearly killed him twice, but I didn’t start beating up furniture. I focussed on the solution. Go to him, please, Mandalee. Tell him I want to see him, and tell him…” she trailed off, trying to remember the Earth expression she was looking for. “Tell him to ‘get his arse in gear.’”
Mandalee left the room, and a few minutes later, Daelen StormTiger took her place at Catriona’s bedside.
He immediately started to apologise, but Catriona cut him off. “No, Daelen,” she refuted softly, reaching out to caress his arm. “It’s me who needs to apologise. Don’t get me wrong, some of what I said was valid, and we’ll address those things later, but I went too far. I was unkind and unfair, just lashing out without knowing why.”
“It’s already forgotten.”
“Thank you, but there is one thing in particular…of all the things I said I don’t like…just to set the record straight.” She could see what Daelen was waiting for. “The truth is...I do quite like…” She faltered for a moment, as if uncertain how to continue. Then she grinned and finished, “your decor.”
Daelen smiled. He understood what she was saying without saying it.
“As for your training, there is one thing I want you to teach me when I’m on my feet again: your Prismatic Sphere portals.”
She wouldn’t do it the way he did, but if she could study how he made one, up close, she was sure she would be able to create her own version. A smaller, portable one that she could tether to herself at all times when on another world. With a permanent link to Tempestria, she would not only survive but also have access to all the druid magic she had at home.
Daelen agreed that he’d be glad to show her, but for now, she needed to rest.
Catriona was satisfied with that, so she lay back down. Daelen pulled the covers over her and then, on impulse kissed her gently on the forehead.
Rather than merely leaving, as she expected, he took a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it and began to sing:
Angels among us, stars in the night,
Watch o’er your sleep, shining so bright,
Safe in their light, as you close your eyes,
Love will surround you, ‘til morning you rise.
Angels among us, shed you no tears,
Bright Angels guard you, quiet your fears,
Nature’s embrace, is gentle and strong,
Love will surround you, all your life long.
Cat smiled. It was such an unexpected, touching thing for him to do. Thinking about it, she decided that, if she was completely honest, contrary to her words earlier in the day, she did like him, too. In fact, she was concerned that she was beginning to like him maybe a little too much.
It also briefly occurred to her to wonder where he’d managed to find that Faery lullaby, considering they were on another world, but sleep overtook her before she could think any more about it.
*****
Later that evening, after a strenuous training session with Daelen, Mandalee found Jessica in the magnificent great hall at the heart of the mansion house complex. Seeing the White Assassin come in, the Chetsuan girl greeted her with her customary, “Heya, love!”
“Jessica,” Mandalee began, “do you mind if I raid your kitchen? I need to do something for Cat.”
“Sure thing, but are you sure it’s not something that I could do for you? Sara and me, we’re here to help, you know.”
Mandalee smiled at the helpful, eager girl. The Cleric of Nature couldn’t imagine she’d be so chipper if she were cut off from her world with no prospect of ever seeing it again without killing everyone she met.
“No, thank you,” she chuckled. “I just want to bake some cookies for my friend. I’m sure the end result would be a lot better if you did it, but—”
“—But that’s not the point, is it?” Jessica finished. “They wouldn’t be from you, then, would they?”
Mandalee smiled and shook her head.
“Aww, that’s so sweet!”
Linking arms, her broad grin wrinkled her nose as she led Mandalee out of the hall. “Just come with me, dearie, and I’ll show you where everything is.”
*****
A couple of hours later, deciding her friend had slept long enough, Mandalee stumbled back into the portal room, her clothes soiled with flour and egg white, with some hot tea and a fresh batch of half-burnt cookies.
Seeing that her friend was indeed awake, she set the tray down on the bedside table.
“Here, Cat,” she croaked, having made herself hoarse while swearing at her inability to cook, “I made you something.”
She banged one of her cookies on the table, to demonstrate how hard they were, then throwing one across the room, it broke a vase. “They’re completely inedible, but as you can see, they make brilliant weapons.”
She threw another one at lethal speed right through a pillow.
Catriona sat up and burst out laughing.
“Oh, Mandalee!” Cat beamed, once she managed to calm down. “Whatever did I do without you? I’m so glad you joined Daelen and me.”
Mandalee smiled and hugged her friend.
Just then, Jessica entered with a fresh plate of cookies.
“Heya, loves!” she greeted them. “These ones you can eat,” she assured them. “Good to see you’ve got some colour back in your cheeks, Cat. Your friend tried – a lot – but in the end, I had to step in before she ran out of ingredients…or burned down the house.”
“It was only a small fire!” Mandalee protested. “I had it under control!”
“Yes, dear, of course you did,” Jessica replied, voice filled with sarcasm.
She was going to clear away Mandalee’s attempts at baking, but Cat stopped her. “Leave them. Like Mandalee says, they’re great weapons. I want to practice throwing them from my bed, ready for the next time Daelen annoys me.”
Jessica cocked her head to one side as she considered that. “Tell you what, love,” she remarked, conspiratorially, “I reckon you should aim for his ego.”
The other two could see where she was going with this and laughing together, they all chorused, “It’s certainly a big enough target!”
Then Jessica taught them an Earth custom called a ‘high five.’
*****
After another full day of bed rest, Cat began to feel strong enough to try out a few simple druid spells, starting with fixing the vase and pillow that Mandalee had broken with her cookies. While she was in the portal room, she was once again able to access her pocket dimension and resume studying, which alleviated the boredom that had begun to set in.
The day after, she decided she was rea
dy to leave the confines of the portal room. She told Daelen she really wanted to spend time in his library, so it would be best to learn to open a portal there. She’d figure out how to make a small, portable version later.
When Daelen showed her his technique for opening a portal, she realised it was not unlike opening her pocket dimension. By analogy, she compared it to using her stoneshaper magic to create a tunnel, rather than a cave. The only difference was that the tunnel needed to penetrate through to the other side, which meant she needed to know where she was going. The other way of looking at it, she supposed, was a dressed-up teleportation spell. Teleportation was something she hadn’t attempted herself, but from her technical discussions with Dreya, she was reasonably sure she could do it if she put her mind to it. It had just never been a priority for her. She’d rather fly.
At first, Cat found she needed to pop back to the portal room to recharge with the magic of her world, in between attempts to open a portal of her own. After a few hours, though, she could open and close portals at will. After another couple of days of experimentation, she reduced the size of her portals until they were so small, they could not be seen with the naked eye, beyond a point of blue light if one was acutely observant. But she could still feel Tempestria on the other side.
She experimented with going outside into the garden to practise more druid magic, including shapeshifting. Everything worked well – at least after the first time when she narrowly avoided a potentially nasty accident.
Cat was in leopard form when she gave Sara a bit of a shock, enthusiastically jumping out of the bushes at the Chetsuan girl who thought she was about to be mauled to death. Quick as a flash, she brought out a pair of daggers from her boot tops. Cat knew Sara and Jessica weren’t just domestic help – they were security. They trained a lot, both with and without Daelen and were perfectly capable of defending themselves and Daelen’s home. Cat hastily jumped away from her and shifted back.
“What the—?” Sara began. “Cat?”
Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) Page 18