by J. D. Wright
There were many times when Dahlia was glad to have the company. She purchased a wagon when they passed through Sire so they didn’t always have to ride on their horses. She learned of her father’s return while in Sire, as well. As much as she should have been surprised, she really wasn’t. She was surprised, however, to learn that he had not executed Vallica. According to the local gossip, Silas had become quite infatuated with his wife as of late.
Crazy loves crazy, she thought. Even more strange was that Silas hadn’t taken a single mistress since returning, much to the dismay of Sire’s rich lords who had always enjoyed offering their daughters to the king in exchange for gold and favors.
After leaving Sire, they had traveled toward the eastern coast. Because Zander had family in Hosselly, they tried to avoid getting too close to the town. If he was spotted there and word got back to Labara, they were afraid someone may be sent to Hosselly to interrogate his family. Even though it had been months since their escape from Labara, they weren’t sure what lengths King Nolan would go to in order to find his daughter and recapture his prisoner.
Now, they were traveling back to Fairkeep. After passing through, briefly, Dahlia had been invited to perform at their annual Apple Festival. It sounded a bit like Junacave’s Harvest Festival, which Dahlia was a little sad to have missed a few weeks ago.
“I see a stream, ahead,” Zander said.
“Alright,” Dahlia replied. “This would be a good time to stop and rest, I suppose.”
Zander pulled the reins and stopped the carriage beside the trail. Then he unhitched the horses and led them to the stream to drink. When he returned, Rianne handed him a large piece of bread which disappeared into his mouth before she could even take one bite of her own.
“I’ll never understand how wizards can eat so much, so quickly,” Dahlia said. “It’s no wonder why many of them pledge service to a king. It takes a king’s riches to afford to keep them fed…”
Zander laughed and watched Rianne struggling to untie her sack.
“Do you need help?” he asked.
“No. What I need is another string to tie this sack with. This one keeps getting into knots.”
“What is that?” Dahlia asked, standing.
“What is a knot?” Rianne asked, looking up. “Surely, you know what a knot is.”
“No, not that. That!” Dahlia pointed toward the sky. Something bright red was coming toward them. And fast.
“Is that…” Zander tried to figure out what was approaching them. It shined, a bit like a star. Only, this star was red and twirling around as it flew through the sky. He raised his hand and summoned air magic to slow it down, but it didn’t work.
“Zander, stop that thing!” Dahlia shouted.
“I can’t. My magic isn’t affecting it, at all.”
They braced themselves as the light reached them and went straight toward Rianne. The light started to circle around her. She tried to swat it away.
“Ahh! What is it? Get it away. Get it away!” Rianne cried, spinning around.
“It looks like some kind of magic. I can’t… I can’t catch it.” He put his arm out and tried to catch the light, but it went right through his fingers. Dahlia started to approach.
“No! Don’t touch it!” Zander said, putting his arm out to stop Dahlia. “If it is magic, we don’t know what it can do.”
“Why is it circling around me? What does it want?” Rianne asked, panicking.
Suddenly, the red light stopped moving, right in front of Rianne’s face. Then, without warning, it flew straight into her chest.
Shocked, Rianne stumbled backward but was able to stay upright. The light was gone, but she could feel it inside of her. Inside her body. Inside her veins.
“Rianne?” Zander asked, slowly stepping closer. “Are you alright?”
“Zander? What is happening to me?” Rianne’s entire body was tingling. She held her arm up and looked at it. It didn’t look any different to her. Then the tingle turned into a slow burn. It felt like her body was on fire. It wasn’t painful, but it wasn’t comfortable either.
He reached out to take her hand. “I don’t know. I’ve never—” The moment he touched her skin, he knew. Magic. He could feel it. Her magic.
Quickly, he let go and gasped. His own magic was scorching, burning him as it flowed through his body. He had never felt anything like this before. He dropped to his knees and grabbed his chest with one arm while trying to hold himself up with the other.
“Oh, no! I’m so sorry! Did I hurt you?” Rianne was frantic, trying to understand what was happening. She darted her eyes over to Dahlia, who looked stunned and confused.
“Magic,” Zander breathed. “You have… magic… Rianne. Full magic.”
“What? This isn’t the time for jokes, Zander. What is happening?”
He leaned back on his heels and looked up at her. When his eyes met hers she felt the hair rise on her arms and neck.
“How is this possible?” she asked, barely above a whisper.
“I don’t know,” he said, shaking his head. “Females do not get magic like this. They only get a sliver of power. And the ones who do have magic get it from family, passed down from their parents.”
“But her parents aren’t wizards,” Dahlia said, pointing at Rianne. “Either of them.”
“No… But my grandfather is…” Rianne said. “Eon is.”
“Your Royal Mage is your grandfather?” Zander tried to stand.
Rianne rushed over and took his arm, trying to help pull him up. When her hand brushed his skin, she felt a jolt and it scared her. She dropped his arm and he fell back down.
“I’m sorry!” Rianne felt so frightened and confused that she wanted to cry.
“I’ll help him,” Dahlia said. “Perhaps, the two of you should not touch each other for a while.” She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her because she could have sworn she saw an actual spark flash when Rianne touched him that time. She helped Zander into the back of the wagon to lie down.
“Will you be alright?” Dahlia asked. “I can take over leading the carriage. We just need to keep moving.”
“I’ll be fine,” Zander mumbled. “I might just need to eat something.”
Dahlia doubted that food was going to fix anything, but she didn’t argue. She jumped down from the carriage and went around to the front to take over driving. They were still a half a day’s ride away from Fairkeep and if they were going to make it there before dusk, they needed to keep moving. Really, though, Dahlia just wanted to stay away from Rianne. She remembered the many accidents Sidonie had caused when she was still trying to learn to control her magic. And Sidonie only had access to half of her magic, then.
“I still don’t understand,” Rianne said, taking a seat across from him just before the wagon began to move again. “That thing… That light... It gave me magic?”
“It appears so,” Zander said, pulling himself up to sit. His entire body still ached.
“Can you take it away? You’re a wizard. Just push it back out!”
“That isn’t how this works, Rianne.”
“Then how does this work? Where did it come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has this ever happened before?” Her voice was trembling.
“Not exactly. Not like this. Some females have magic. A small portion. One has full magic, even. But her parents were a sorceress and a wizard.”
When he looked down and saw her hand lying on her knee, he felt an alarmingly strong urge to reach out and touch it. He blinked a few times and shook his head, trying to make the thought go away. It didn’t. He needed a distraction. “You said that your grandfather is a wizard?”
“Yes, apparently. My mother told me right after they captured me. I had no idea.”
Rianne felt a tingle in the tips of her fingers. She turned her hand over and looked at it. Suddenly, a tiny flame jumped out of her palm and landed on the floor of the wagon, followed by another.
Zander�
�s eyes widened and after a brief moment of shock, he realized there was fire coming out of her hand. He quickly stomped on the flames, happy that he had decided to buy leather boots.
“Uh… Uh…” Rianne was panicking.
“Close your hand!” Zander said, and quickly covered both of her hands with his. Then he froze.
“Zander… Do you feel that?”
“Yes, I can feel it,” he said, slowly bringing his eyes up to meet hers. “I can’t explain it, but I feel it.”
The air around them was energetic, lively. Rianne’s mouth began to water and her senses were going crazy. “I’ve never noticed how dark of a green your eyes are,” she said, moving closer. “They’re almost like… emeralds.”
“Your eyes remind me of the sea,” Zander mumbled. And just like the sea, her eyes were deep and moving.
One of the wheels hit a hole on the trail which caused the wagon to bounce. Neither of them seemed to notice as they sat there, completely captivated by each other.
“You’ve been to the sea?” Rianne asked. “I’ve only seen it from afar when we were in Sire. I’ve always wanted to go.”
“I can take you. One day.”
“You will?” Rianne had never felt such a strong need to kiss him. It was consuming her. With every beat of her heart, it only grew stronger.
“I will,” he whispered. They were so close now that every time she exhaled he could feel her warm breath on his lips.
The wagon hit another hole, larger this time, which caused their heads to bump.
“Ow!” Rianne said, pulling back.
Zander blinked and looked down, realizing he was still holding onto her hands. Abruptly, he let go of them. He shook his head, trying to make the bizarre feeling go away. He couldn’t control his thoughts, which was terrifying. “What is happening?”
“Zander,” Rianne said. “I’m scared.”
He reached for her again, then stopped and pulled his hands back. “You’re scaring me, too,” he said, smirking.
“It isn’t funny! I feel… strange. Different.”
“You are strange and different.”
Rianne smiled. She couldn’t help it.
“Better?” he asked.
“A little. But what are we going to do?”
“Well, we are not going to set the wagon on fire, for starters. So keep your hands closed until you can learn to control it.”
“Can I? Learn to control it? The… magic?” It felt odd saying the word, knowing that she was referring to herself. She stared at her hands and tried to forget that fire had just flown out of one of them. Even in her wildest dreams, she never imagined that this would happen to her.
“Why me? Why is this happening to me? And why now?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll figure something out. Just… without touching each other.”
Rianne looked up at him. She wasn’t touching him now, but she still wanted to. Badly. She couldn’t explain why. She had kissed him. Many times. This morning, even. And she had touched him, in some way or another, almost every day since their escape from Labara. Only, now it was different. She didn’t want to touch him. She needed to touch him.
The idea shouldn’t scare her. But for some reason, it did. It wasn’t as if they were strangers anymore. Sure, there was so much she still didn’t know about him, but she was discovering more every day. And after her mother revealed the secret of her grandfather’s identity to her, Rianne was beginning to think that she didn’t know her own family, either. Now, she wondered if that meant she didn’t know herself. After being hit by a flying wisp of magic, she certainly didn’t feel like herself.
To make things easier, Rianne turned away from Zander and tried not to look at him. Even without her eyes, she still saw him in her mind. What is wrong with me? Control yourself, Rianne!
They arrived in Fairkeep just before dusk. Dahlia went into the tavern for a moment then came back out.
“There isn’t an inn here,” Dahlia said. “But the barkeep was nice enough to lend us the room upstairs. I’m beginning to wonder if we should stay outside of the town, though. Is it safe for her to be here? With all of these people?”
“I’m not sure,” Zander said, earning a terrified glare from Rianne. “You stay here, Dahlia. We’ll take the wagon and move it outside of town. I saw a spot by the river when we passed through here before. It should be secluded enough. We’ll come back in the morning.”
“Alright,” Dahlia replied. “Be careful. If I learned anything from my time in Junacave, it’s that most wizards are afraid of females with magic. Sidonie is under constant threat and would be even if she wasn’t the Elder Mage.”
“Who is Sidonie?” Rianne asked. “And what is an Elder Mage?”
Zander had met Sidonie at the summit and even watched her accidentally take the test and become the Elder Mage. After returning to Vale, his father had told him about Sidonie’s family and her connection with Dagan. He knew much more about the history of magic in the realm, now. But he never suspected another female would get full power, other than Sidonie. Apparently, his father had been wrong to assume Sidonie only became a sorceress because of who her mother had been. That is… unless something has changed in the realm.
“I will keep her safe,” he said. “And I will try to keep the realm safe from her, as well.”
Rianne started to punch him but stopped. “I can’t punch him. Can you do it?” she asked, looking at Dahlia. Before Zander could react, Dahlia jabbed him in the arm.
“This is the last time I decide to travel with two women…” he grumbled.
Dahlia walked to the tavern then paused by the door and looked back. She silently wished them luck before going inside. You two probably have a rough night ahead of you.
Rianne sat beside Zander as he led the carriage to the river and told her about Sidonie and becoming the Elder Mage, stopping occasionally to answer her questions the best he could. When they reached the Cyan River, he untied the horses and moved them closer to the water. Rianne gathered wood and cleared a spot for a fire. Once everything was in order, she took her bow and arrows out of the carriage and began to practice shooting at a nearby tree.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Zander asked, walking up to her with a small plate in his hand.
“I don’t want to eat right now.” Really, she just wanted to keep her hands busy so she wouldn’t be tempted to put them somewhere else. Like on him.
She focused on the tree ahead of her and sent the arrow flying. It hit the tree but not in the center where she had been aiming at. She was getting better but still wasn’t anywhere near as accurate with her bow as she was with her knives.
“You need to eat,” Zander said, snatching the bow out of her hands. “Especially now. You know what happens to me when I don’t eat.”
She was irritated that he took the bow from her but the moment she smelled the food, she changed her mind, took the plate, and followed him over to the carriage. Her food was gone before she reached the fire.
“You told me about the sorceress and the summit,” Rianne said. “Is there anything else I should know?” Like why I can’t stop imagining you naked in the stream?
“I don’t know. But we should probably begin to work on controlling your magic. Unless you want to set something else on fire?”
“No,” she returned, taking a seat on the other side of the fire. “I don’t.”
“Good.”
“What do we do first?”
“I have no idea.”
“How did you learn to control it?”
“I was a small child when my magic became strong enough to really need to be controlled. I don’t remember what I did. I do know that we usually give young wizards an amulet to help them while they learn. It slows the magic a little, helping them to learn without causing too many accidents.”
“Do you have one of those amulets?”
“No…”
Rianne sighed. This felt hopeless and frustrating. She wished she could just
wake up and start the day over. And if she did, she would run far away from the flying red light of doom.
“Let’s just try a few things and see what works,” Zander said, standing. “Come here.”
Rianne stood, walked around the fire, and followed him further away from the carriage. Then she stopped in front of him. He took a deep breath and tried to focus on something other than the fact that she was standing so close to him.
“We should stay away from fire. At least, at first, because it’s the most dangerous. Especially, in the forest.”
“Alright,” she replied, planting her feet firmly on the ground. “What magic should we try first?”
Zander pressed his lips together, thinking. “We’ll start with water. At least this way, if you do set something ablaze, you can try to put it out.”
Rianne laughed and it made Zander’s heart skip a beat. He loved her laugh, which made one of his favorite things about her suddenly become a new form of torture.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he said, shaking his head. He didn’t realize he was cringing until she said something. “Hold your hand out and point it toward the ground. Whichever hand you use the most.”
“Toward the ground?”
“Unless you want the water to rain back down on you…”
“Oh. That makes sense.” She did as she was told and held her left hand out.
Zander hesitated before reaching over and adjusting her arm so that her palm faced away from their feet. His skin felt warmer when it touched hers, but at least, it didn’t burn this time. Just to be safe, however, he moved quickly and immediately let go of her once she was situated.
“Now…” he began, then stopped to think.
“Now… what?”
“I’m thinking!” he snapped. “Sorry.”
Rianne smirked. “I hope your father was more patient with you.”
“He was.” And my father didn’t have a nagging urge to kiss his student… “Close your eyes and imagine water. Any type of water.”
“Alright.” Rianne closed her eyes and was instantly met with an image of Zander in the stream. She squeezed her eyes shut and groaned. This wasn’t going to work. Thinking of water was the last thing she needed to do. This is hopeless.
