Authors: Christopher Shields
Sara laughed. “I’ll make a note of that for the next Steward.”
“Thank you, Sara. You saved my life.”
“No, I didn’t. She was just testing you. Had she really wanted to hurt you, you’d be hurt.”
That was a relief of sorts, and I knew Sara was right. Cassandra was much more powerful than any of the Fae I’d dealt with before.
“She’s cruel, worse than Chalen.”
“Yes, the older the Unseelie get, the worse they become.”
“She didn’t believe me when I said I wanted to apologize—she assumed I was hiding my true intentions from her.”
“They become more cynical with age as well. May I suggest you avoid contact with her for the time being.”
“Uh, don’t worry about that,” I said, with a nervous laugh.
“Nonetheless, we really must work on strengthening your shield—you won’t be able to avoid her forever. She’s powerful, but I think you can learn to block her.” Sara’s black eyes were twinkling.
“You’re more powerful than her, aren’t you?”
“Yes, indeed I am.” The look of satisfaction spread across her face. “She didn’t reveal much about her abilities, but I know what I need to know—so does she.”
***
On Sunday morning
,
Billy came back—he’d avoided the Weald after being accosted by Ozara. Once again, Mom and Dad were in Fayetteville, so the both of us set out with Sara for a hilltop a mile from the cottage. As we had already learned, leaving the Weald together would draw too much attention, so Sara picked a part of the property far enough from the guards in the garden to provide
a
little privacy.
A cloudless sky and a temperature of nearly sixty degrees helped make our trek across the Weald a pleasant one, enhanced all the more when we realized we were not being followed. Billy and Sara chatted casually with me along the way, like one might expect from human companions. I enjoyed the hike, weaving along narrow paths, up hills
,
and around bluffs. All the pockets of snow had melted.
Billy and Sara took turns shifting back and forth between Naeshura and physical form, trying to teach me to recognize what was unique about
each of
them. Using my Fire inclination, it took only a few minutes before I noticed their indiv
id
uality. Just like my experience during the Earth trial a year earlier, I could
see
the difference. A Fae in Naeshura was incapable of changing its composition—like fingerprint
s
, each was
distinctive
. In the cave at the Earth trial, through Sara and Devan’s projections, I saw the difference in colors
. But as Sara and Billy trained me,
I noticed subtler
variations that I
didn’t have the words to decribe
adequately
.
Billy and Sara did not visually appear as different colors, even though I could see their shimmer, but I felt
the dissimilarities
between them. I recognized each in my mind—they both impacted my heighte
ne
d senses differently
, e
motionally even.
With Sara, I sensed sanguine calmness and whimsy attached somehow to fierce strength, though there were a dozen other attributes complexly woven together. Billy gave me the impression of independence and thoughtful practicality, but I picked up on an inexorable somberness
as if
he bore some invisible scar. His essense was not as bright as hers, although I would not
have
call
ed
him dark, exactly. Instead, it was almost as if he w
ere
trapped in the penumbra of a shadow.
They both asked me whether I could identify them, causing my internal debate to rage. If I told them, it would only be a matter of time before Ozara knew, and depending on whether she felt it important to keep to herself, it might mean that all of them would find out. The thought of lying to either of them made me feel sick
to
my stomach and isolated, but I wanted all the advantages I could get.
“I’m sorry, I guess it wasn’t meant to be—I’ll keep trying though.”
Billy frowned, disappointed that I had not learn
ed
another skill, and Sara merely nodded. Once again I thought she probably knew better, but let my charade go unchallenged given the situation.
“Well, we have more important things to focus on,” he said.
We stood in a clearing at the base of a tall bluff and next to a dry stream bed filled with boulders. Similar stream beds crisscrossed the Weald. During a heavy rain they became beautiful waterfalls and babbling creeks
,
and in warmer weather, thick green moss grew in the shadows on the stones just outside the stream paths.
Billy effortlessly sprang
and landed
atop the bluff. “Just getting out of the line of fire.” He winked.
Sara walked forty feet in front of me and in a lithe mov
e
ment, stood facing me.
“Powerful Air aligned Fae can slice through solid stone with finesse.”
She glanced over at
a
large boulder the size of a car and etched a spiral a foot deep and three feet across as though the stone
were
no harder than modeling clay.
“Air inclined Fae can use the power of
the a
ir, directed forcefully, to reduce solid stone to dust.”
Without moving her eyes, the bo
u
lder quickly dis
i
nt
e
grated into sand in
front of me, no particle bigger than the head of a stick pin. The particles began swirling around a central point until they formed a vortex, a dirt devil, so dense it bloc
k
ed my view.
“We can force air into the body of any living creature, into its blood stream, and expand it until the veins and arteries explode. We can create bubbles to induce cardiac failure, and we can pull the air out of a creature
’
s lungs and suffocate it in moments. The Air aligned Fae who slung rocks and twigs at you were not powerful.”
“Those were logs.” I protested.
“They were nothing. You’ll see. Block me.”
Adrenalin released into my body, and I threw my shield
up
. I felt her press in on me, but before I could do anything, I began exhaling. She was expanding the air in my lungs just fast enough that it
bellowed
out of my nose and open mouth, but not fast enough to hurt me.
“Hhhhaaaaaaaaa” was the only noise I made as the air came out. It was unnerving. I tried
to block
her, and even felt how she
did
it, but I could not
prevent it
. I just stood there
,
exhaling
,
with my chest puffed out. After a couple seconds
,
she stopped. I exhaled completely and drew in a breath under my own power.
“Okay, please don’t ever do that again.”
She smiled. “Your Air gift is powerful, but you are focused on disrupting me, trying to cut me off. You need to control the air in your lungs, instead. If you control the air, you can stop it. Again.”
She repeated the process
, but regardless of how hard I tried, I just stood there sounding like a balloon
deflating
. I could sense what she was doing, but I could not seem to focus on the air in my lungs. She stopped again
,
allowing me to relax and slow my breat
h
ing. After eight more tries, and several pointers along the way, she finally relented.
“Maggie, without me doing anything, can you concentrate on the air in your lungs?”
I tried. “No, I can
’
t. I can sense it in
front of me, and I can sense it as I inhale, but not when it gets to my lungs.”
She nodded. “Frustrating. Perhaps we should try something else. Billy, your thoughts?”
Almost indifferent, he muttered, “Maggie is inclined to all four elements, but she’s only using one of them.”
“That’s true, of course, and I’m ashamed I didn’t recognize it,” Sara said. “Billy, it’s a genius idea—if it works.”
Billy laughed from his perch above us and glanced at Sara with a trenchant expression. I knew he was silently telling her
,
“
O
f course it will work, it’s my idea
.” He shifted his steely gaze back to me. “Maggie, you are every bit as connected to Fire and Water as you are to Air—I think you’re using Air as a default, as your sole weapon, because your connection to it was awakened first.”
“Are you sure you want me to use a wall of fire?”
He belly laughed. “No, no, that would
be
calam
i
tous for yourself and the forest. We call it the Fire element, but it is also…”
“Light, heat, electricty,” I said.
“Yes, the very life
force of nature—
s
orry Sara, I mean no offense to your considerable talent.”
“None taken
. Y
ou are correct
,
of course.”
“Maggie, actual fire is virtually useless against an Air aligned Fae—they need only remove the oxygen and you have nothing left but heat and perhaps a little smoke.”
Billy winked at Sara, who nodded in agreement. “Remember the energy plasma you created at the Fire trial?”
“St. Elmo’s Fire?”
“Yes
.
C
an you create it here?”
“I’ll try.” I focused
,
and managed to create a glowing blue orb the size of a cantelope.
Like a proud teacher encouraging a student, in a forced whisper he said, “Study that
,
Maggie—feel it. Understand the essence of it. Can you meld it?”
With little effort, and
in
much the same way I manipulated Air, I flattened it out into a disc the size of a trashcan lid and began stretching it until it was almost ten feet in diameter and translucent. Sara probed it with her mind—I sensed the contact. She pushed through the center, and again I began wheezing like
a
human tea kettle. I could feel the exact place where she had penetrated. So I condensed the barrier and made it stronger. My involuntary exhale stopped. She moved her attack quickly to the side and air rushed out of my nose again until I countered, moving the barrier to block her. The quicker I reacted, the faster she changed the attack point. With each new incursion I countered and cut her off, but I could not prevent the attacks from reaching me. Even if the window was only a split second, I realized that she could still take me out if she wanted. That meant Cassandra could too.
I’ve got to make it stronger, I thought. The more I concentrated, the larger the disc
grew
. B
ut as I did so, I began to feel lightheaded
.
T
hen, without warning,
everything went black.