Then the door slid open and before I could react,
Edward told me to stop. I froze along with my shoes as he entered the room. He
observed my shoes, but his face revealed nothing.
“Did you practice last night?” he finally asked my
shoes.
“No, I slept last night. I’ve only practiced when you
told me to.”
He nodded slowly to himself, then looked at me. “I’m
right that you have more raw power than you can control, though I’m beginning
to think I have seriously underestimated both your power and control. You’re
learning and developing faster than any apprentice I’ve ever had. And this,” he
indicated my shoes, still stationary, “will save your life someday. Don’t think
that you can protect your book on your own yet, but you should understand that
how quickly and accurately you’re developing is nearly astonishing. A wizard
can naturally feel magic energy. You seem to be able to naturally control it.
Also, your imagination must be very well developed.”
“Yeah, I have ADHD. Most my childhood was spent
daydreaming things that would never happen. When I was three, I had a bunch of
tiny Dalmatian puppies that were too small for anyone except me to see. I mean,
they were imaginary and all, but I preferred to believe they were just too
small for anyone else to see them. Then one died and they all went to the
funeral. They were so grief-stricken that they all ran away and I never saw
them again. I was miserable for months.”
I understood the look he gave me very well. “You know
that’s not normal, right?”
“More normal than when I went two years not touching
my hands together. In fact, I would only touch certain things with certain
hands. Do you know how hard it is to shampoo your hair with one hand?”
“Yes. I once broke my arm so badly it took an entire
day to heal,” he answered.
I rolled my eyes and focused on the shoes which, amazingly,
were still immobile. Unfortunately, the floating shoes were less remarkable
than the fact that I was actually halfway good at something.
“Let them go and release your energy.”
I stopped pouring my energy into them and let the
energy flow out of me, not out of my hand but out the old fashioned way. At
least
my
old fashioned way. The shoes immediately dropped.
“You’re going to need to teach him faster,” Divina
said. I almost jumped in response to her beautiful, gentle voice. She climbed
to her feet and sat on the bed, pushing the pillow aside.
“It appears so. Do you have any dragon blood?”
“Only dried dragon blood. That stuff is hard to come
by.”
“Do you think you can teach him your sun charm?”
Edward asked her. She nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back.” He left and Divina started
shuffling around in her backpack. She pulled out a white cloth and several
clouded jars.
“What’s a sun charm?” I asked. I figured it couldn’t
be anything bad or dangerous with its name.
After setting her supplies on the bed, she gave me
her most inviting smile.
Alarms went off in my head.
“Most of the creatures in the Aradlin fear sunlight.
We’re going to take some of it with us. You know, for protection.”
Bottled sunlight. That didn’t sound too bad. She
brought a jar and the cloth over to the window, then laid the cloth flat on the
wide sill and gently shook some of the jar’s contents onto it. It was dark red
powder with an offensive odor somewhere between a pile of dead animals and
rotten food.
“What is that?” I gagged.
“Dragon’s blood. It isn’t the blood of a real dragon,
but a mixture of blood from different magical creatures. Don’t inhale any of
it; it’ll burn your insides out like acid, hence the name.”
I grabbed the pillow and put it to my mouth and nose
as a filter. She put the lid back on the jar and held it out for me to take,
but I had better sense than that. “It’s not a good idea to hand me anything
acidic. Or poisonous. Or that can eat me. I’m not good around that stuff.”
Her smile brightened the room. “You’re really one of
the unlucky types?” she asked. I nodded. “Well maybe my luck will rub off on
you.” With that encouragement, I took the jar as if it would explode any
second, since I expected it to. “Hand me the small red jar.”
I set the acid blood down and picked up the small,
round, red glass jar and quickly handed it to her. “Wait, what if my
unluckiness rubs off on you?”
“I should still be covered; I happen to be extremely
resilient.” She popped the lid off the jar and pulled out a few tiny sticks.
“Sandalwood,” she said before I could ask. She dropped it in the dragon’s
blood, screwed the lid back on, and handed it to me. “The tan one,” she
requested.
I set the sandalwood down and picked up the tan,
round jar. As I handed it over, I stepped closer… and tripped over my shoe. I
fell against the table and the jar slipped out of my hand. Quicker than my eyes
could track, Divina reached out and caught it. She winced, her eyes closed and
body tensed, for a few seconds before relaxing. Then she started laughing.
“What?” I was completely lost as to what just
happened.
“This stuff is highly explosive. The blood mixture is
not dangerous unless it’s wet or it’s inhaled; a jar of this stuff would blow
up the ship.”
My eyes must have been the size of baseballs. “That’s
not funny! Do
not
ask me to touch things that can blow up a ship!”
She turned back to the cloth, still with a smile on
her face. “I’ll remember that next time.”
I wondered if she found it funny because she didn’t
think of death the normal way. Or maybe it was relief. Whatever the case, it
was a wonderful smile that went a long way in calming my nerves.
She cautiously unscrewed the jar, reached in, pulled
out a pinch, and carefully put it in the pile of the dragon blood and
sandalwood. She then screwed the lid on and slipped it warily back in her
backpack.
“Isn’t that unsafe?”
“My bag is very well insulated and I’m extremely
careful with it. Come over here,” she said. I stood next to her and tried to
ignore her sweet scent. “I’m going to have you set this up, but I will
reinforce it if it’s not powerful enough.” She pulled the sides of the cloth
together and clenched it closed. It stayed closed as if she had tied a string
around it- which she didn’t. “Clear your mind and gather your energy.”
I did so. Clearing my mind was still difficult,
especially with Divina standing so close to me, but gathering energy was easier
each time I did it.
“Can you feel the hot sunlight?”
Sunlight streamed through the window. “Yeah.”
“Imagine that all the sunlight you feel is coming
from the bag. Imagine that the bag is so hot it should be in flames, but it
isn’t. Have you ever felt intense heat?” I nodded. “Try to remember what it
felt like, and put that heat into the bag. Don’t let it fade, though, keep
putting more heat into the bag. Every kind of heat you can think of.”
Desperately trying to drag my mind off of the heat
from her body so close to mine, I focused on the most unsexy memories I
possibly could.
I remembered when Mother’s first husband would hold
me down, light matches, and press them against my skin. I remembered when he
held me in the scorching hot bath water. I remembered when Jacob and his
friends tortured me on the fourth of July. I really did have a terrible
childhood. I imagined all that heat and forced it all into the little bag. My
insides grew hot, and it wasn’t because Divina was standing next to me. I
started squirming and my concentration faltered.
“No. Keep going,” she insisted.
I started hyperventilating and sweating, but I forced
my eyes to stay closed and my concentration to stay on the heat and bag. “It’s
too hot,” I said, my voice weak. My throat was dry and hot.
“You’re heating the energy in you; you need to push
it into the bag more.” She put her hand in mine for encouragement.
I tried harder to push the heat away. For a few
seconds, it just grew hotter, but then it slowly subsided. I focused on the
heat and pushing it away, and then when I felt myself growing weaker, I pulled
in energy as I pushed it out.
“More,” she said.
I tried harder. It was easier to focus; my mind
blocked out everything else on its own. I opened my eyes and glared at the bag.
Though I was dizzy, I wasn’t able to move.
“More,” she repeated.
I closed my eyes again and tried even harder. I had
to do it. I had to do magic well to protect my book; my world. Vivian.
I remembered getting dressed in the winter. I had to
dress in front of the fireplace because it was so cold. Jacob pushed me into
the metal fire guard. Who would have ever guessed it was hot? I remembered when
the basement floor was wet when we had an electrical problem. I remembered the
Roman Candle that malfunctioned. I even remembered the spicy food contest with
three of my friends.
I can do this. I
will
do this.
I added all the heat that I could remember well and
forced it into the little white bag full of dried acid and explosives.
“Enough. Stop,” she said.
I tried to shut out the pain and think of something
else, like Divina’s scent and the tone of her voice, which I didn’t understand.
I stopped pulling the energy in, but it kept coming. The heat was rising again
in me and I was shaking. Breathing was difficult as my heart beat way too fast.
“Stop,” she repeated with more urgency.
“I’m trying,” I growled.
If I think of something
cold, it might undo what I did.
Her scent wasn’t doing enough. I didn’t
like trying to force the energy away; it felt wrong. When I clenched my fists,
trying to stop the flow, the heat grew stronger. That was good, though, it
meant it was working. It had to work.
If I can make something happen, I sure
as hell can make it stop.
I thought of how I upset Divina in the woods, how she
was so upset when talking about Ronez. She had to understand death. Finally,
the heat started to fade and the energy stopped coming, so I was able to release
it harmlessly. When my shaking and sweating decreased, I turned to Divina.
She considered the bag with something between awe and
sadness. “You are very powerful,” she said. Her tone wasn’t reassuring.
“You wanted me to put more power in it.” I was still
trying to catch my breath, but at least my heartbeat was mostly back to normal.
“I didn’t think you could. I thought the first day I
met you that you would be very powerful and dangerous when trained… But you
might possibly be even more dangerous untrained.”
I sighed. “Look, I’m a Guardian now; I have to be
powerful in order to protect my book. I’m not some faulty bomb.” Everybody
always thought I was a freak or dangerous. Things would happen since I was a
little child no matter how much I tried to hide it. Mother would tell people I
was a demon. I even had to transfer to a new school several times after the
students started spreading lies about me.
I didn’t want Divina or Edward to look at me that
way. Not here, where I should be considered normal if not boring.
“I know. That’s not what I’m trying to say. Okay, it
is
what I’m trying to say, but I know you’re not… I don’t think you’re going to
lose yourself the first time you face an opponent.”
“Why don’t you think so?” I asked, observing her
reaction carefully. She shrugged and her expression became indecipherable
again, as if an invisible wall just came up between her mind and body. I filed
that away for future reference. “I’m not trying to get powerful and take on all
the big guys. I would really love it if I never have to fight anyone or even
have
to use the power. I just want to be ready in case I do have to.”
“And Kiro and I are both trying to help you. Don’t
worry about my suspicions; I don’t think you’re a faulty bomb.”
“And Edward? Does he think I’m going to freak out and
destroy everything?”
“He puts more trust in his apprentices than he ever
had in his children. In fact, I think he puts more thought into taking an
apprentice than having a child. If he fears for your wellbeing, he’ll do
everything in his power to help you. Kiro follows his instincts and his heart,
so the way he took you as his apprentice tells me something.”
“Yeah, well, Anakin was good until he was trained,” I
said. She frowned, obviously never having watched “Star Wars”. “Never mind. You
magic people really need television.”
“Electricity is very unstable around magic energy.”
She placed the pinched opening of the bag against her wrist and with the other
hand, drew her fingers across her wrist as if adjusting a string. When she
raised her arm, it hung there, attached by the absent string. I wanted her to
show me that trick. She examined the bag with a bright grin. “You really did a
good job. Kiro told me about how you controlled water accurately on the first
try. Nobody gets it right the first time. I think your power is why you’re so
unlucky.”
Before I could ask what she meant, Edward came in.
“We’ll be arriving early.” He frowned at the little
bag on Divina’s wrist. “Did you let him try at all?” he asked.
“He did it on his own,” she said. He gave her a
skeptical stare. “No, I’m serious. I told him what to do and he did it. He’s
very good at spells.”
“He seems to be very good with magic in general. Come
with me,” he said to me. He left before I could ask why and I had to run after
him with Divina following slowly behind. Instead of going up to the deck, we
headed further down until we came to a set of doors.
The room we entered looked like a large armory with a
wide practice area and weapons all over the walls and shelves. Edward went over
to one of the walls, pulled down two swords, and tossed one to me, which I
caught barely in time to save my foot from certain skewering. I suddenly
realized what Edward had in mind and held the sword out for Divina to take.