“I’m going to make the best of the next two weeks and learn everything I can from Magda about witchcraft,” Isabel said. “I suggest you focus on healing. Once we leave, there’s no telling when we’ll have a safe place to rest again.”
“I wish I knew what Alexander was doing,” Abigail said. “I can only assume he’s raising an army on Ithilian and preparing to lead it through the Gate, but knowing when he plans to attack would be helpful.”
“All we can do is be ready as soon as possible,” Isabel said. “If we can win over the coven, we can send scouts to Ruatha and make contact with your father and the wizards. Alexander will try to coordinate his attack with them.”
“I’m still worried about Gabriella,” Abigail said. “You need to be really sure about this before you take such a risk. I suggest you take some of the time you have to make certain your plan will work.”
After lunch Abigail went back to her bedchamber to rest while Isabel went out onto the balcony to practice her connection with the wyverns and other beasts. She started with the seagulls, reasoning that they were smaller and stupider so they would be easier to control.
Her first attempt to touch the mind of one of the seabirds was successful. Even though the thoughts and instincts were very different from Slyder’s, she was able to gain control of the bird and soon had it flying to her command. After an hour or so of establishing control and then relinquishing it, she decided to focus on more than one bird at a time. Two were more difficult and five required a level of focus that she couldn’t maintain for very long. She also discovered that she could only send a single command to all of the birds she was controlling at any one time. She couldn’t make one bird dive and the other climb at the same time but she could make them all act together. She also discovered that the more she practiced, the easier it got to establish control and to maintain it even while focusing on other things.
She linked to a single bird and made it fly in a circle just below her balcony, then focused on creating a feeling of intense love and made a link to the firmament. The lure of the infinite was intense, especially with the distraction of her connection to the bird. Before she could form an image of her desired outcome, she felt like she was falling into the limitless possibility of the firmament and she broke off her connection in a sudden panic. She checked the position of the sun to assess how long she’d been attempting her spell and felt a sense of relief when she realized it had only been a few minutes.
She sat down and cleared her mind. One thing at a time, she told herself. With clear focus she reached out into the fortress island and found the mind of a wyvern. He was napping in the large cave that served as his home. His mind idly drifted on thoughts of the wind and the sky. Isabel moved into his mind and focused her will, infusing the beast with her presence. Once she felt firmly established in his mind, she commanded him to roar. A moment later she heard the faint echo of a wyvern’s roar reverberate through the stone of the island. She sat back and smiled to herself with satisfaction, then just as quickly chided herself for congratulating herself too soon.
Gabriella was formidable and Isabel couldn’t come up with a reliable way to test her battle plan that didn’t completely violate her own sense of morality. She needed to know if she could command a wyvern to kill for her. What’s more, she needed to know if she could command a wyvern to kill its own rider, but she had no idea how to test such a thing without killing someone who was completely innocent. She’d made wyverns change course while their riders struggled to correct their flight path but that was such a minor thing next to killing. From Abigail’s description of her relationship with Kallistos, there was a very definite bond created between rider and wyvern. Isabel’s life rested on knowing if her magical command of the beasts was greater than that bond.
With grim resolve she stood up and looked out over the ocean. Perhaps another kind of test would help her get closer to the answer she needed. She reached out and found a seagull. With a bit of a struggle she overcame her conscience and took command of the bird. She weighed the consequences of failure both for herself and for Alexander and hence the rest of the Seven Isles and made her terrible decision. She needed to know the truth of her power. The life of one bird was a small price to pay for that knowledge, even though she felt a pang of guilt for what she was about to do.
She commanded the bird into a fast and steep dive to gain speed and then turned the seagull into the side of the fortress island. She felt an instinctual resistance from the animal as it struggled to veer away from a fatal collision with the stone wall but she kept a firm grip on the creature’s will. A moment later it crashed into the side of the fortress island and tumbled away, falling into the sea. Isabel felt her bond with the dead bird break and a heaviness settle on her soul.
She sat quietly for a long time, evaluating her own moral character. She’d just killed an innocent creature—the thought made her sick to her stomach. She decided she didn’t like the demands that power placed on her but she had to admit her terrible experiment had proven the extent of her power, at least with more simple-minded creatures. But the nagging question still remained: Would it work with a wyvern?
Isabel called Slyder to her. A minute or so later her forest hawk landed on the balcony wall, then hopped onto her knee and looked at her curiously. She scratched under his chin and he happily leaned into her affections.
“Am I a terrible person, Slyder?”
Her hawk didn’t answer.
After some soul-searching, Isabel renewed her efforts to connect with and control the wyverns. She worked diligently and carefully for the remainder of the afternoon. By the time Wren arrived with their dinner, Isabel was confident in her ability to make a connection with a wyvern quickly and equally confident in her control over the beast. She was very careful to ensure that she didn’t cause the wyverns to do anything too much out of the ordinary for fear that the sudden odd behavior of the giant pseudo-dragons would draw attention from the witches and especially from Gabriella.
She practiced making contact with more than one wyvern but found that the level of concentration necessary increased dramatically with the number of creatures she tried to control. She could sense the presence of hundreds of wyverns in the fortress island and even make a passive connection with many of them all at once but that only gave her access to their very primal thoughts and instincts without giving her much control. She felt that with work and effort she could probably issue a single, very basic command to all of them at once but it would take a great deal of concentration.
***
The next day a guard came to their chambers just after breakfast with a summons from Magda.
Isabel went to her chambers and found the triumvir reading from a very old volume.
“Ah, Isabel, do you feel like learning a spell or two?” Magda asked with a smile.
“Absolutely,” Isabel said. “I feel like I can touch the light or the darkness but beyond that, I’m not sure what to do with them.”
Magda nodded knowingly. Spellcraft was as much about imagination and visualizing an outcome as it was about connecting with the firmament. Before a spell could be effective, the spell caster needed to know what they wanted to happen.
“You were able to heal Abigail with the light because giving life and healing is the natural power of light, however, it can also be used to kill,” Magda said. “Focused light, projected at an enemy, can burn like fire. This spell is called light lance. It is very old and commonly understood among both wizards and witches alike; however, none before you had such a connection to the realm of light, so it’s hard to predict how the spell will function for you.
“I suggest you learn how to cast the light-lance spell in its basic form before you attempt to cast it while you’re connected to the realm of light. It’s hard to say if the addition of your unique connection to the light will increase the power and deadliness of the spell or change the nature of the magic altogether.”
“All right. Tell me what t
o do,” Isabel said.
“Very good,” Magda said as she handed Isabel the book she’d been reading. “I wrote this myself many years ago when I was learning to create new spells. At the time, I knew this spell already so it made an ideal subject for the practice of writing a spellbook.
“Take this to your quarters and study it carefully. Do the exercises provided and be thorough about your practice. When you’ve done a particular exercise until you’re sick of it, you’re halfway there. Go on to another exercise and then come back to those that you’ve practiced previously.
“Do not attempt to cast the spell until you’ve returned to me and we’ve had a chance to discuss your understanding of the material. This is important, Isabel. More witches and wizards have died from attempting to cast a spell that they didn’t fully understand than from becoming lost in the firmament.
“Once you’ve mastered the contents of this book, come back and we’ll talk it over. When I believe you’re ready, I’ll guide you through the casting process. If you’re successful, then you’ll practice the spell until you can bring forth the magic with ease even while being distracted.
“After you’ve mastered that, you may attempt the spell while linked to the realm of light. Honestly, I have no way of predicting the results of such a thing.”
Isabel frowned a bit. “Doesn’t Gabriella know this spell and how to counter it?”
“Of course,” Magda said. “She’s familiar with every commonly known spell within your ability to learn in such a short period of time, as well as the proven counters for each of them. As I’ve said, Gabriella is a powerful and dangerous witch. You will not learn any common spell in the next two weeks capable of defeating her.
“As for your connection to the light, perhaps it will lend great power to this spell or maybe it will simply transform it into a means of healing another at a distance, which would be a profound capability even if it’s useless against Gabriella.”
“How long does it normally take to learn this spell?” Isabel asked.
“Typically, two to four weeks,” Magda said, “although that’s for a novice training on a normal schedule. You’ll probably master it in less time, provided you’re diligent in your studies and practice.”
Isabel nodded as she tried to frame her next question. “What do you know about the darkness?”
Magda looked at her for a moment before nodding to herself. “Please sit,” she said, motioning to a comfortable chair.
“There is the darkness of the night and there is the darkness of the netherworld. Many witches and wizards commonly use spells that create or manipulate the darkness created by an absence of light. Such spells can be useful for obscuring the vision of others, hiding in the night, or creating fear, but they have no substance. What you speak of is necromancy. Calling on the forces of the netherworld is a dangerous game even if you aren’t summoning a creature from the darkness into our world. There is always a price when dealing with the netherworld. I’ve been careful to avoid learning any magic related to the darkness for fear that I might be tempted to use it—and I would caution you to do the same.
“The stories say that Malachi Reishi started out dabbling in the magic of darkness to prolong the life of a beloved pet. Once he got a taste of the power it offered, he couldn’t resist the urge to call on it more often, until finally, it consumed him and he lost touch with his essential humanity.
“Another word of caution. If you were to defeat Gabriella with necromancy, there would be many within the coven who would be very skeptical of your character and unwilling to trust you, myself included. Focus on the light, Isabel. Keep your connection to the netherworld closed.”
Isabel swallowed hard. She knew that the netherworld was not the place she wanted to go for power but she was looking for any edge she could get in the coming fight. She realized that there were other considerations that she needed to explore, so she forged ahead.
“I can tell you from personal experience that the netherworld is a place of hate and suffering,” Isabel said. “I have no desire to call on it if I can help it, and I will heed your advice with regard to this fight with Gabriella. However, in the past, I’ve faced creatures conjured from the darkness that were sent to kill Alexander. Is there a way to use my link with the netherworld to send those creatures back where they belong?”
Magda furrowed her brow in thought as she sat back in her chair, looking up at the ceiling. “That may be possible. There are those who’ve studied the netherworld who have developed spells to banish creatures summoned from there. My understanding is that, if a passageway is created between the world of time and substance and the netherworld in proximity to a creature from the darkness, the creature is drawn into the portal because its presence here creates an imbalance. I’ve never had cause to learn a banishing spell, so my understanding of the process is limited. But I will do some research on the matter and offer what insight I can.”
“Thank you, Magda. I’ll study this and be back when I’m ready to proceed,” Isabel said as she stood.
“I can see your resolve, Isabel, but I still wish you’d reconsider this challenge,” Magda said. “Gabriella will kill you. You simply can’t learn enough in the short time you have to change that.”
Isabel smiled her thanks for the book. “I’ll be back soon.”
Chapter 27
She left Magda’s quarters and made her way back through the fortress island. A few of the Sky Knights snickered at her when she passed them in the halls. Others gave her a look almost bordering on pity for her plight. It was obvious that word of the challenge had spread to every corner of the aerie and Gabriella was the clear favorite.
Isabel felt a little hint of doubt creep into her psyche but she shoved it aside with ruthless severity. She was Lady Reishi. She had a duty to her people and her husband. Risk to her life was secondary. She’d chosen her course, now she just had to prepare for the task at hand.
Abigail was sitting out on the balcony in the early summer sun when Isabel returned to their quarters. Wren smiled a little sheepishly and offered a pot of tea. Isabel returned the smile and nodded. The waifish serving girl had been even more reserved and timid since her outburst the previous day. It seemed that she was embarrassed for her display of emotion and for questioning the motives of the triumvirate so openly. For Isabel, the entire incident had only served to endear the young women to her further. In spite of her frail appearance, Wren had mettle when she chose to display it. The thought made Isabel smile.
She went out onto the balcony and sat down next to her sister. The bruising on Abigail’s face and arms still made Isabel wince. If nothing else, Gabriella had to be brought to justice for her attempt on Abigail’s life.
Abigail opened her eyes and smiled at Isabel when she heard her sit down. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think all was right with the world,” she said.
“It is a beautiful day,” Isabel replied.
The sky was crystal clear and there was just enough breeze to take the edge off the heat of direct sunlight. From the balcony they could hear the calls of the seabirds and the gentle rhythm of the ocean crashing against the island wall far below.
Wren set two cups of steaming hot tea on the low table between the lounge chairs.
“Aren’t you going to join us, Wren?” Isabel asked.
“If you’d like,” she said quietly.
“Of course, get a cup of tea and come sit with us,” Abigail said.
After several minutes of total silence from the young serving girl, Isabel and Abigail shared a look of concern.
“What’s wrong, Wren?” Isabel said.
She hung her head. “It wasn’t my place to question the triumvirate the way I did yesterday. I’m ashamed of how I acted and I apologize.”
“Don’t you dare,” Isabel said. “You have nothing to apologize for. Gabriella is putting her own selfish interests ahead of her duty and the future of the Seven Isles. You were exactly right and you have every reason to fe
el disillusioned and betrayed after serving these people for so long only to discover that some of those you’ve served aren’t worthy of your loyalty.”
“I told my mother what happened,” Wren said. “She was mortified by my behavior. She said I should apologize to everyone involved as soon as possible and try to make amends as best I could or I might find myself demoted to scullion, or worse.”
“Your mother has lived here her whole life,” Abigail said. “I have no doubt that she’s looking out for you, but speaking just for myself, I wanted to stand up and cheer at what you said to Magda yesterday.”
Wren smiled timidly. “Really?”
“Yes, really,” Abigail said. “You spoke the truth with conviction and courage. I’m proud of you.”
“Me, too,” Isabel said. “I understand if you have to apologize to Magda to protect your family’s place here but you certainly don’t have to apologize to us. And honestly, I don’t think Magda is worried about it at all.”
“Thank you both,” Wren said with a sigh of relief. “I feel much better. I was so worried after what my mother said that I could hardly sleep last night.”
“So take a nap,” Abigail said. “I’m going to.”
“I couldn’t,” Wren said.
“Sure you could,” Isabel said. “I’m just going to read for a while. I’ll wake you if you sleep too long.”
Isabel read the spellbook for the rest of the morning while Wren and Abigail slept. It was complex and detailed, explaining the nature of light and how it could be focused and directed into a concentrated beam capable of burning flesh from bone. After a very complete explanation of how light worked, it offered a summary of the process for casting the spell, then proceeded into specific exercises designed to guide the spell caster to develop the visual images necessary to manifest the spell’s effects.
Isabel read it through completely by lunch, then read it again that afternoon. By midafternoon she started practicing the first of several exercises. It was tedious and repetitive but she stayed with it. When the boredom of one exercise threatened to overwhelm her, she went on to the next. By dark she had a firm grasp of the first two visualization exercises.
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