Lucy saw small beings flitting around the flowers like hummingbirds. At first, she thought they were hummingbirds until she noticed they had human looking arms and legs. They moved too fast for her to get a good look at them, but they seemed to have hummingbird tail feathers as well. She wondered if they were fairies or something else all-together. She never got a good look at their faces. She gave up trying to see what they looked like and wondered what they were doing instead. Playing? Eating nectar? On closer observation, they seemed to be taking care of the flowers. They were inspecting them, counting the blooms and the leaves, examining the stems and branches for any breaks, and checking the moisture levels of the soil. It was fascinating to watch them work.
Lucy relaxed even further and tried to use her other senses. She tried to study the garden the way she had studied the blacksmith with Ishalla. The garden suddenly came alive in a whole new interconnected way. She could see green and blue energy lines swirling in the water, connecting plants to bushes to the ground to the trees. The energy lines swirled around the hummingbird gardeners. It was fascinating. She sat in this state for some time until she sensed, rather than heard, someone nearby. Lucy blinked her eyes a few times to stop the visual energy swirls and turned her head smiling at Fallon in greeting.
“How do you like our gardens?” she asked Lucy.
“They are perfect. I could sit here forever,” said Lucy.
Fallon smiled an enigmatic smile. “Forever is a long time,” she said as she joined Lucy on the rock.
“Yes, I suppose it is,” reflected Lucy. “Forever is a figure of speech for me, but for you, it’s reality.”
“Perhaps not reality, but a possibility. We can be killed,” replied Fallon.
“Has the council made a decision?”
“Of course not. They’ll be at it for days.”
“Any advice on what I should do with my time here?” asked Lucy.
“I think you were already doing what I would have recommended. I sense you have learned a lot in a short period of time. You are powerful, but your knowledge does not match your power. You need to work on a deeper understanding and subtlety. Studying the gardens and their life energies is an excellent place to start,” said Fallon. “Everything is interconnected. Everything has a part to play. As on stage, as in life, as in nature. There are always the heroes,” she pointed to a puffed up chipmunk, “the tragic heroines,” she gestured at a butterfly, “the loyal friend,” a hedgehog curled on a leaf, “the planner,” a spider, “the villain,” an aphid on a rose, that was quickly removed by a hummingbird creature, “the overbearing parent,” a mother duck quacking at her little ones, “the victim,” the fly the spider caught. There are many more. They are all there. You must watch for them. They can give you insight. How a person thinks of himself or herself, is more important in predicting their actions than your own impression of them.”
“Knowing people is what Maya excels at,” said Lucy.
“Does that mean you can’t?” asked Fallon.
Lucy laughed. “I’ve never been very adept at reading people.”
“Work on it. Remember, don’t just use what you see, look at how they see themselves. How do you see yourself?”
“I don’t know,” answered Lucy after a long pause. “I’ve never really thought about it. I suppose every girl should be the heroine of her own story, but I’ve never thought of myself like that. Who are you?”
“I am, and have been, many things. I am the survivor. I watch as everything grows, changes, and dies.”
Lucy watched as Fallon’s blue eyes grew very deep and seemed to look back into the past. She wondered again about Fallon’s age. However old that was, Lucy wasn’t sure she wanted to live that long. She imagined the amount of joy and suffering Fallon must have experienced. The enormity of Fallon’s past seemed too much to bear. Lucy felt very young. They sat in comfortable silence absorbed in their thoughts. Lucy liked Fallon immensely.
“I have other things to see to. I’m sure Justin wants to have a few words with you. I will see you again soon,” said Fallon.
Fallon rose from the rock, smoothed her hand over Lucy’s head, smiled, and glided from the garden. Lucy had a lot to contemplate. Although, in this case, thinking was not supposed to get in the way of observing. Fallon had not been gone long when Justin appeared.
“Hello,” said Lucy with a smile. She had been in the garden long enough to have absorbed a sense of inner peace.
“Hello,” replied Justin.
He walked over to her, sat on the rock, and wrapped his arms around her. He kissed her cheek.
“You look happy here,” he said.
“It’s beautiful. I told Fallon I could sit here forever,” Lucy laughed. “She made me rethink my word choice.”
Justin smiled.
“Are you mad?” Lucy finally asked. She didn’t want to break the peace of the moment, but if he was mad, it was better to get it over with.
“About you leashing yourself to horses that will be ridden by creatures who intend to kill us?”
“Yes about that.”
“No, I’m not mad.”
“Good,” said Lucy, slightly confused.
“I don’t like it, but you’ve already done it. I have to accept that. It’s not worth getting mad at you over. It does make me concerned about your safety, but that’s nothing new,” Justin laughed wryly, running his fingers through his hair.
“I can take care of myself,” said Lucy.
“Absolutely,” Justin agreed, “and that concerns me, too.”
Lucy elbowed him.
“It does make me wonder about Ishalla,” he said.
“What about her?”
“Why is she doing all this? Why is she teaching you? Is leashing you to the enemy really helping you? Does she have your best interests at heart? Is there an even bigger game going on that we have no idea about?”
“I guess those are good questions. I’ve never thought about her intentions,” mused Lucy.
“Perhaps you should rather than accepting everything she tells you to do,” suggested Justin.
“I’ll take that into consideration.”
Chapter 25
The next couple of days passed quickly. The council continued to deliberate. Justin, Taran, Gavin, and Lucy decided waiting a few days to find out what the council planned to do couldn’t hurt, but then they would have to move on. There was too much to do. They spent much of their time with Tish and Ferra talking, laughing, and having fun. Mornings were spent sparring. Lucy was getting steadily better, but nowhere near as good as Ferra. It would take years, perhaps even decades, to reach that level.
Whenever everyone else was busy, Lucy went to the garden. It was a good place to be. Today, as Lucy watched the movement of the water, she thought about Maya. How were things going in Lerramorre? Were plots still afoot? She decided to see for herself. Focusing, she motioned with her arm, and Maya appeared in the water below her.
Lucy studied her friend. She appeared happy and busy. It looked like she was giving a young girl lessons on how to hold, carry, wave, and fold a decorative fan. The girl looked slightly bored. Lucy smiled. She wasn’t sure she would like to learn the intricacies of fan etiquette. Lucy watched Maya move gracefully across the floor with her fan. She walked behind the girl and suddenly, there was a knife at the girl’s neck. Lucy gasped. The girl gasped. Maya smiled. She said a few words to the girl that Lucy couldn’t hear. Lucy considered learning to lip read. The girl looked at her own fan and pulled out a wicked looking dagger. Apparently, Maya was teaching the girl how to make the fan a natural, seemingly harmless, and overlooked extension of herself. Then, she could always be armed and no one would think twice. Lucy smiled at Maya’s plan. Maya resumed the lesson and the girl seemed to commit herself with more energy than before.
Convinced Maya was okay, Lucy moved the vision out of the room, down the hall, and around the castle. She wasn’t necessarily looking for Joss, but she felt anxious about somethi
ng. She remembered to employ her other senses, watching the energy lines appear around people. She stopped paying attention to individual people and studied the lines. Many of them were gray and beige. When there were colors, they were not vibrant ones like the greens and blues of the garden. Lucy did not know what colors or vibrancy symbolized, but she would learn. Every time she learned something, it showed her how much she still didn’t know. This time, she knew what she was looking for.
Lucy continued down one hall and through the next, peeking into rooms as she went. Suddenly, she found it, a red and black entwined line. She followed the line to a servant making beds. It wasn’t a very large line, but Lucy untied it anyway. The woman paused for a moment, frowned, and continued making the bed. Lucy searched for more. In the kitchens, there were three people with black and red threads which she untied. None of the lines were big. They weren’t the root of the evil influence she was seeking, but hopefully, every little bit helped. If she could reduce the amount of smaller lines, perhaps she could reduce the power of whoever held the larger ones. By the time she was done with the castle, she had untied threads attached to fifteen people. She was tired. She knew there were more people she should check, but that would have to wait for another day.
Lucy let the picture fall and closed her eyes for a moment, resting.
She didn’t know she had fallen asleep until a dry voice said, “I see you are still in one piece.”
Lucy smiled and opened her eyes to look into Ishalla’s gray ones. Lucy was lying on a comfortable couch by the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Ishalla, regal as always, stood nearby.
“We are still with the Elves, and they seem to prefer making things grow to dismemberment,” replied Lucy.
“That is a safe place for you, but I know it’s no good to tell you to stay there.”
“I’m human. I’m not sure they’d let me.”
Ishalla shrugged and waved off the comment and discussion as though they were not important.
“How am I here? Usually I come at night, when I am sleeping.”
“You must have taken a nap,” Ishalla replied, shrugging again. “I simply register when you are asleep, I don’t bother to research what time it is or is not wherever you are. You do travel around a bit.”
“I do.” Lucy sat up and stretched. It was always relaxing here. She took a deep, invigorating breath. “What do you wish me to learn? Usually there is more time between our visits.”
“Yes. I realized I had mentioned something last time, and perhaps the time before, that I did not want you trying on your own. In case you got curious, I thought I’d better bring you here again.”
“I’m ready to learn.”
“It might be useful to you in the upcoming days. I want to teach you how to transform into other animals. Well, we will probably focus on one or two today depending on how quickly you catch on, but at least you will have a safe grasp of the concept by the time we are done. There is a difference between changing yourself into another animal and transforming into one. If you change yourself into a mouse, you become a mouse entirely, brains and all. Most likely you would no longer have the ability, or even the desire, to change yourself back. Very dangerous. Especially if you do not have someone nearby who recognizes you and can magically intervene.”
“You’re right. It’s a good thing I’ve been too busy to try something stupid,” shuddered Lucy.
Ishalla smiled a wry smile, “Quite. When you transform yourself into another animal, you change each limb into something else, with intention, and keeping your brain intact. It is much more difficult to do and takes practice, but it can be a useful and fun skill. Transforming into an animal is practical for those who can master mental spells. It doesn’t do a vocalist a lot of good to change into a sheep that can only say baa or a hand-master into a moose that doesn’t have hands.”
“That makes sense. I’m excited to learn.” In the back of her mind, Lucy wondered if she had changed Prince Andriss of Fredamonn into a mouse or transformed him. Was he a mouse with thoughts of survival and cheese? Or was he a man in a mouse body, plotting his next move? Lucy wanted to ask Ishalla for advice, but wasn’t sure how Ishalla would react. Besides, Ishalla was talking again and Lucy thought she’d better pay attention. There would be time to worry about Andriss later.
“I’m sure you are. I think the most useful transformation to learn at this time is a bird. Then you can scout ahead without being noticed.”
“What type of bird do you think would be best?” asked Lucy. “I’m assuming a robin is out of the question.”
“Once I’ve taught you how to do this, you can transform into different birds depending on what inhabits your location or time of day. I think, for now, an owl to fly at night and a falcon during the day.”
“What’s the difference between hawks and falcons? Can I turn into a platypus? Will I have to eat mice?” interrupted Lucy.
“Not if you keep interrupting and I send you back out of frustration and irritation before you learn anything useful.”
Lucy closed her mouth, sat up straight, and tried to look both contrite and attentive.
“What is a platypus?” asked Ishalla as an afterthought.
“A cute swimming mammal covered in fur with a duck-like beak, webbed feet with poisonous barbs, and a tail. Don’t you have them here?” asked Lucy curiously.
“Apparently not,” Ishalla waved off the questionable existence of a platypus as unimportant. “We will start with the falcon, since they are powerful flyers with keen eyesight. Hopefully, its form will serve you well. Small falcons called kestrels are abundant in many lands, so we will use one of them as an example.” Ishalla waved her hand and a picture of a kestrel appeared in the pool. “Study it. Pay attention to its size, coloring, the shape of its beak, and the texture of its feathers.”
Lucy watched the kestrel. It was perched on a branch. As falcons went, it was one of the smaller species, about ten inches long. Its back and tail feathers were reddish-brown and the wings were brown, pointed, and curved back in a sickle shape. The beak was hooked with saw-like edges and notches. The eyes were dark. The feet, wrapped around the branch it was perched on, looked powerful with strong claws.
“You must memorize every facet of this bird. Magically imprint its image in your brain. You don’t want to forget something like nostrils and suffocate. When you are ready, I will transform you into this bird. That way, you can understand what the transformation is supposed to feel like. Then, I will transform you back and you must do it yourself.”
Ishalla made it sound so easy, but Lucy was sure it wasn’t. Feeling pressured, she tried to magically memorize everything about the bird.
“Ready?” asked Ishalla.
Lucy wasn’t, but she nodded anyway. Putting it off wasn’t going to make it any better. She was sure her time with Ishalla was limited. She didn’t have time for fear, doubt, or anything other than obedience. Lucy took a deep breath and stared deeply into Ishalla’s gray eyes. She felt her body melt. That was the closest word to describe what was going on. She felt warm, but not uncomfortably hot; then it was like her body was made of soft butter. Her arms melted and were reformed into wings; her legs melted, shortened, and became claws. Her mind stayed the same, but her body was no more. She blinked her bright eyes, tilted her head, and noticed that Ishalla looked very tall.
“Don’t try to fly, yet. Right now we are working on form and shape. Hop on,” Ishalla lowered her wrist and Lucy perched on it.
Ishalla lifted her up. In the pool she could see a reflection of herself. She was a perfect match to the kestrel still visible in the water. As experiences went, Lucy was sure this was the oddest so far. Ishalla put her back down on the ground, she felt warm and melty again, and she was back in human form.
“That was interesting,” said Lucy.
“Yes,” Ishalla agreed. She went on to explain some more technical information about transforming including specifics about proportion. Apparently wings, tail feath
ers, or legs the wrong length compared to the others were detrimental. “Now, it’s your turn to try. I’m here if you really mess up, but we don’t have time for that so get it right the first time.”
Yeah, no pressure there. Lucy kept that thought to herself. Ishalla didn’t seem to appreciate sarcasm unless she was the one doling it out. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, and tried to find that bored, balanced, centered feeling. She couldn’t seem to reach it so she gave up and went for melty instead. It was definitely easier letting Ishalla mold her arms into wings than trying to mold them herself. Did she have the wing shape exactly right? She opened her eyes and looked at Ishalla. She felt confused for a minute as Ishalla wasn’t towering over her as she had the first time. Then, she realized she had turned herself into a five-foot tall kestrel. Ishalla raised an eyebrow at her. If Lucy could have, she would have blushed. She immediately shrunk herself. Ishalla shook her head.
“No, that’s wrong. Don’t make a habit of that. You must do the transformation correctly to begin with. Changing form and then size are two different things. Become human and try again.”
It was easier to become human than it had been to become a kestrel. Lucy was relieved to find she was not a ten-inch tall human. She took a deep breath and focused. This time she transformed correctly and Ishalla nodded her approval. Ishalla required her to go back and forth between forms many times until she was satisfied Lucy could do it on her own without fear of her failing. Then, Ishalla instructed her in flight.
Ravs Are Rarely Wrong: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol III Page 18
