Joan frowned.
“I’m serious. A couple of times a day I hide, either somewhere in Glendymere’s caves or out in the canyon. Kevin gives me a few minutes to get set, and then he uses his seeing eye to find me. He’s gotten really good at it, but we need to see if it’s just me, or if he can find other people, too.”
“Oh, okay.”
“Do you think you could get everyone to hide somewhere out in the valley late this afternoon? If everyone’s already hidden by the time we get here, he’ll have to scan the valley to locate them. I think that would be a good test.” Chris poured three cups of coffee, handing one to Joan.
“I’m sure that won’t be any problem at all, but how do you know when he finds you?” Joan asked.
“Well, he lets me know by hitting me on the head with pebbles.”
Joan thought for a moment. “I have a suggestion. Instead of pebbles, why don’t I make some chocolate drops this morning? I could tie up three or four in a small bag and he could drop those down to each person when he finds them. Or do you think the bags might be too heavy for him to work with?”
“They won’t be too heavy. The shape might give him a little trouble, but the whole idea is for him to learn to handle new situations. And candy would be a lot more fun than pebbles. We’ll plan to return a little earlier than usual this evening, say around 4:30?”
“That’s fine. I’ll fix a pot of stew this morning and we can heat it up after we’re done,” Joan said as she sipped her coffee.
“You’ll ask the others to hide?”
Joan nodded. “I’d ask the giants to hide too, but they’re so big that they might have trouble finding a good hiding place.”
“I doubt it,” Chris said as he picked up the other two cups of coffee to take back to Kevin’s room. “Remember when we first met Blalick? Up at the pass? I was staring right at him when he stepped into the woods and seemed to vanish. I bet they can hide better than any of us can. Ask them if they’d like to join in the fun. They might enjoy it.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Joan was so busy that morning, that it didn’t even cross her mind to tell the others what Chris had said. By the time she thought about it, they were all scattered for the afternoon.
She found Karl and Blalick outside the cave entrance. Karl was helping Blalick make the loom that she was going to use to weave cloth, as soon as Ashni taught her how to do it. Joan smiled to herself. She knew her husband. He might be in the position of helper right now, but by the time they were done, he’d be able to build all the looms she’d ever want all by himself. They kept working while she explained what Chris wanted, and when they agree to do it, she had the distinct impression that neither of them had the faintest idea what she’d said. As she turned to go find Theresa, she shrugged to herself. She’d just have to come back when it was time to hide, take their tools out of their hands, and tell them again.
Theresa had fully expected the young giant’s enthusiasm for gardening to wane after the newness wore off and the work became tedious, but Sari was like a sponge, soaking up all she could learn and always ready for more. When Joan found them in the herb garden, Theresa was showing Sari how to grow a new plant by layering. Joan waited until she finished with the plant she was working on before she explained what Chris wanted them to do. Sari started to object, saying that they had a lot of work to do, but Theresa overrode her and said they’d be happy to help.
On her way out to the practice range, Joan saw Steve sitting on a large rock, concentrating on something in his lap. As she drew closer, she could see that he had a pen in his hand and a board with several sheets of paper on top of it on his lap.
As she approached, she saw a bird sitting on a limb a few feet from Steve, almost as if it were posing. The bird suddenly became aware of her and flew away.
“I’m sorry, Steve,” Joan said as she sat down on the rock beside him. “I didn’t mean to frighten him away.”
“No problem, I was done with him anyway. I was working on the background,” Steve said as he looked up from his work.
“This is really good,” Joan said as she took a closer look at his sketch. “I had no idea you could draw.”
“This is the first time I’ve done any sketching since Cathy got sick,” Steve said. “She and I used to spend our Saturday’s out in the woods. I’d sketch and she’d write poetry. Just us, the birds, and the breeze.” Steve smiled as the pleasant memories flooded his mind. Then he came back to the present and said, “I’m sure you didn’t just happen on me by accident. What can I do for you?”
“Nothing at the moment, but Kevin needs us to help him a little later this afternoon. We’re all supposed to hide somewhere in the valley and he’s going to try to find us using his seeing eye. When he locates you, he’s going to drop a small bag of chocolate drops on you to let you know you’ve been spotted. Are you game?”
“Sure. I’m guessing that the chocolate drops were your idea. I bet Kevin and Chris were thinking more along the lines of a rock or something, right?”
Joan laughed as she agreed.
Steve gathered up his supplies and stood up.
“Don’t you want to stay and finish your sketch?” Joan asked.
“I’ll finish it tonight. I was about ready to stop for now anyway. I’m supposed to meet Darrell in a few minutes and I need to walk around and stretch out first.”
“Well, I’m going to get out of here and leave you to it. Just remember to hide by 4:30, okay? See you later,” Joan said as she stood up to leave.
Darrell was working out when Joan reached the exercise field. He spotted her as she crossed the field, so he stopped, wiped the sweat off of his face, and smiled in greeting. “Hi. What brings you out here? Did I forget that I was supposed to do something this afternoon?”
“No, but I do want to ask you to do something a little later today,” Joan said. Then she explained about Chris’s request. After Darrell agreed, she brought up another subject. “Darrell, how would you feel about letting Macin hang around, work out with you, and help you with the exercise field when he’s not going to and from Abernon? Ashni asked me to talk to you about it. He’s been hiding in the woods watching you work out.”
“Yeah, I know. I spotted him in the woods a couple of days ago.”
“He’s really impressed with the way you move.”
“I have to admit, I did show off a little,” Darrell grinned. “Why didn’t he come join me?”
“He wanted to, but remember, even though the two of you are about the same age in years, he’s only thirteen or fourteen emotionally. He wants so badly to learn from you, but he’s embarrassed to ask you to teach him.”
Darrell nodded. “I know how hard it was for me to approach Martin. I’ll ask him to help me with the field, and we’ll take it from there. Tell Ashni to have him join in the hunt and I’ll ask him when it’s over.”
“Thanks, Darrell,” Joan said as she squeezed Darrell’s hand. “Now, I’d better get back and bag up the chocolate drops. Remember to be hidden by 4:30.”
On the way back to the cave, Joan stopped by Theresa’s herb garden and asked Sari to run up to her house and invite Ashni and Macin to join in the hunt. “And tell your mother to insist that Macin join in.”
“Why?” Sari asked.
“Because Darrell wants to talk to him afterwards.”
“Should she tell him that Darrell wants to talk to him?”
“No, she just needs to be sure he’s here. Darrell will take it from there. Now get going. It’s going to be time to hide in about an hour, so you don’t have any time to waste. Sorry about stealing your help, Theresa,” Joan said as she started off towards the cave entrance.
“No problem. We were about ready to call it a day anyway,” Theresa said to Joan. Then she turned towards Sari and said, “Run on now. We’ll finish working with the rest of these herbs tomorrow.”
~ ~ ~ ~
By the time Kevin and Chris got back from Willow Canyon that afternoon, the caves wer
e empty and eleven small bags of chocolate drops were sitting on the table in the dining room.
Chris counted the bags, grinned, and picked one up. “Joan made one for each of us, too.”
Kevin’s mouth watered as Chris popped a chocolate drop in his mouth. He could almost taste it himself. “I guess I should wait until after I’ve found everyone.”
“Why?” Chris asked as he tossed one of his chocolate drops to Kevin. “Now, while you and your seeing eye are out there looking for everyone, I’m going down to the waterfall. Let me know when the hunt’s over and it’s time for dinner.”
“How?” Kevin asked.
“You owe me a chocolate drop,” Chris said as he walked out of the kitchen.
Less than an hour later, while Chris was stretched out on the grass near the splash pool, a chocolate drop fell on his stomach, telling him it was time to head back for dinner.
~ ~ ~ ~
The next morning, Glendymere watched Kevin practice rising up to a height of about ten feet and then lowering himself back to the ground. His landings had improved to the point that they were no longer dangerous, but he still hadn’t managed to land without leaving his footprints in the sand.
“You’re getting better, but this time when you get up there, stop and hold your position. I want you to try doing a little more.”
Kevin rose up about ten feet and stopped
“Now I want you to move yourself over to the left. Don’t try to walk over, that won’t work. You have to imagine that your support is moving. Picture it moving to the left, with you on top.”
When Kevin tried to move to the left, he leaned in the direction that he wanted to go and lost his balance. He struggled for a few seconds before he started to fall. Just as he was about to hit the ground, he felt himself land on a soft cushion, almost like a giant air bag. He was able to stand back up without injury. Kevin and Chris both looked at Glendymere with questions in their eyes.
“Yes, that was me. I was planning to go over how to do that later today, but maybe you need to learn how to catch something before we go much farther with the flying.” Then Glendymere turned towards Chris and said, “I need an egg.”
“An egg?” Chris asked.
“Yes, an egg. Let’s go inside. I asked Blalick to bring some down yesterday. They should be in the storeroom. Would you go get one for me, Chris? On second thought, get several.”
Once they were back in the inner chamber, Glendymere said, “When you’re trying to catch something small, like an egg, you could just reach out with your mind’s hand and grab it out of the air, but if you aren’t really careful, you might break it. An air cushion is the safest way to catch something. And the nice thing about an air cushion is that it’ll work for anything from an egg to a man, or even a horse and wagon.”
“How do you make one?” Kevin asked.
“You make the air near the ground really dense and then you build up the pressure until there’s enough force to support the weight of what’s falling. You don’t have to worry about building up too much pressure though. It’s not going to explode or anything. Once whatever you’re trying to catch is riding on top of the air cushion, you release the air nice and slow and let it sink to the ground. Ah, here comes Chris. Watch as I catch the egg.” Glendymere waited for Chris to join them. “Chris, I want you to hold one of the eggs out in front of you at shoulder height. Yes, that’s right. Now drop it.”
Chris dropped the egg, but before it hit the ground it came to rest on an invisible cushion about six inches above the ground. It bobbed up and down for a moment and then slowly sank to the floor. When Kevin picked the egg up to examine it, the shell wasn’t even cracked.
“Now, you try it,” Glendymere said to Kevin.
Once again Chris held the egg out at shoulder’s height and released it. A couple of seconds later the egg splattered all over the floor. “Well, at least we know he wasn’t using a hard boiled egg for the demonstration,” Chris said with a chuckle.
“Let me know when you can catch the egg without breaking the shell. Then we’ll move on to something more interesting, like catching Chris when he jumps off a cliff,” Glendymere said with a twinkle in his eye.
“You are kidding, right?” Chris asked as he pictured the cliff on the east side of the canyon. It was a vertical wall at least a thousand feet high.
“Not really, but we’ll get to that later. Right now, the egg. Wake me up when you can catch the egg three times without breaking the shell,” Glendymere opened his mouth in a big yawn. “I’m ready for a nap,” he said as he curled up, closed his eyes, and began to snore.
“He was kidding, wasn’t he?” Chris asked.
“I have no idea, but don’t worry about it. If I miss, you probably won’t feel a thing when you hit. They say that a person dies of a heart attack before he hits the ground,” Kevin teased.
Chris ignored him and stooped down to clean up the broken egg. “Why don’t we try a rock or something first? Then when you figure how to make the air cushion we could go back to eggs. Otherwise we’re going to spend all our time cleaning the floor.”
“Good idea. And if we use a rock, we can work on it in my room after dinner tonight,” Kevin replied, and grinned as Chris groaned.
~ ~ ~ ~
A couple of weeks later, Theresa and Joan were making a grocery list for Macin to take with him to Abernon when Ashni walked in.
“I know Macin picks herbs up at the Chapel, but I don’t know who fills the orders,” Theresa said. “By any chance does he know Sister Evelyne?”
“Yes, he knows Evelyne,” Ashni answered. “She and I often exchange notes. She helped with the birth of both of my children.”
“Would Macin be willing to deliver a note for me? I thought I’d ask her if she’d like to come for a visit while I’m here, or maybe I could go into Abernon with Macin sometime to see her. But I don’t want anyone else knowing where we are, so he would need to put the note directly into her hands.”
“I am sure that would be no problem. I will send her a jar of strawberry preserves.”
Theresa raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t ask any questions.
Ashni grinned. “A few years ago, Blalick took a couple of jars of my preserves to the Chapel for Evelyne and left them with her staff. By the time Evelyne found out about the preserves, all that was left was empty jars. When Macin started making the trips to Abernon, she gave him strict orders not to leave the preserves with anyone but her.”
“Good. Then no one will notice the note. I’ll write it tonight and give it to him tomorrow. Thanks.”
~ ~ ~ ~
Glendymere had asked Kevin and Chris to meet him outside in the canyon first thing the next morning, but when they got there, Glendymere was nowhere to be found. While they waited, Kevin practiced rising, moving horizontally, descending a little, moving horizontally again, then rising again, and so on. Chris was leaning back against a large boulder watching him when he spotted Glendymere off in the distance. A few minutes later, Glendymere swooped down.
“Sorry I’m late,” he said as he settled on the canyon floor. “Got to talking with some of my friends and lost track of time.”
“Do you go visiting often?” Chris asked.
“No, not really, which is one reason time got away from me. After I asked them if they’d be willing to spar with Kevin, we started talking and since we don’t see each other very often, there was a lot to say.”
“Wait a minute,” Kevin said. “Back up. Did you say you asked someone to spar with me?”
“Yes, that was the purpose of the trip. I was lining up some magical sparring matches for you for later this fall. Anyway, don’t worry about that now. We have something else to work on.”
“Hold on. Magical sparring matches,” Kevin repeated. “Exactly what are you talking about?”
“Just what it sounds like. I’ve asked a few friends of mine to spar with you. It’ll be good practice for when you have to fight for real. Don’t worry, like I sai
d, they’re friends of mine. They won’t be trying to kill you.”
“But that could happen, right?” Chris asked. “When we spar, there’s always the chance that someone could get hurt. And as powerful as magic is … are you sure this is a good idea?”
“Kevin has to learn to protect himself sometime, doesn’t he? What better way than to duel with a dragon?”
“You set these sparring matches up against dragons?” Kevin gasped.
“Of course. Who else would I ask?”
Chris shook his head and held his hands up, palm out. “No! Not against a dragon! There’s no way he could win. He won’t stand a chance!”
Glendymere tilted his head and bunched his eyebrows. “This isn’t about wining. It’s about learning to fight. What’s the point of training if you don’t train against the best? This way he’ll learn to defend himself against sorcerers more powerful than any that he’ll ever face in combat. I don’t know what you two are so upset about, but you can worry about it later. We have other things to think about today,” Glendymere said as he looked around the clearing, searching for something. “Ahh, that’s a good one.” Glendymere mentally picked up a rock about the size of a basketball and set it down about five feet in front of Kevin. “Now, I want you to tap into the same energy that you use to light the candle and concentrate on heating that rock.”
Kevin shook his head, trying to cast all thoughts of sparring with dragons out of his mind. “All right, I’ll give it a shot.” About half an hour later, he walked over towards the rock and put his hand out over it to see if he could feel any heat coming from it. “I didn’t think I was getting anywhere with this. What am I doing wrong?”
“You aren’t doing anything wrong; you just aren’t doing it right. Now try it again.”
Kevin concentrated once again on the rock, but this time he focused so hard that it made his head ache. After a few minutes, the rock blew apart, throwing hot chunks of rock all around the clearing. Kevin and Chris would both have been hit if the chunks hadn’t been stopped in mid-flight by some kind of invisible barrier.
After the dust settled, Chris looked at Glendymere and mouthed, “Thank you.”
The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) Page 42
