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  Chapter 7

  “Aaaggghhhh!” Tathan woke with a scream, sword swinging through the air as he jumped out of his sleeping bag. He landed on his toes, looking for danger.

  Liselle jerked awake. Her sleeping roll was wrapped around her. She thrashed and struggled to get out. When she finally succeeded, she looked around. Dawn lighting the bottom of scattered clouds was the only notable sight.

  Tathan stood there looking sheepish. “There’s no danger, Cousin. It was just a nightmare.”

  “Oh.” She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “Well I’m awake now and dawn is showing. We may as well grab some food and head out.” She shot a sideways glance at him, wondering if the nightmare was about the attack. She had woken up with a nightmare earlier, just without the screaming and sword waving.

  Breakfast was quick and simple. As the sun rose higher, they mounted the horses to continue their journey in silence.

  Liselle had never been this far north in the valley. She spent a good deal of time looking at the scenery. The rugged eastern mountains were close and still capped with snow. Liselle loved spring. It was striking how green the grass and trees were. Vividly colored flowers opened and bloomed as the day went on. She smiled happily and pointed them out to Tathan.

  “Hmm? Flowers? Yes. They’re nice, like a rainbow barfed all over the grass.”

  She stared at him slack-jawed as he went back to riding, lost in thought.

  With a shake of her head and a chuckle at his careless disregard for beauty, she continued to look around. Green forests covered the east and west slopes up to the frost line. The mountains were lower in the north toward the Willden Forest.

  They reached the edge of the forest in the middle of the afternoon, just as thunderclouds joined for their daily assault. When Tathan put on a hooded cloak to protect him from the rain, she slipped into her jacket and put its hood over her head. They turned east at the tree line. Tathan began to search intently for his path.

  Had someone been looking at the trees straight ahead, or traveling to the west, they would have missed the well-hidden path. Underbrush covered the angled entrance. They carefully made their way through. From there, it curved to the north, going deeper into the forest.

  Tall trees bordered the path, but never grew directly on it. Drizzle pattered the leaves of plants and wildflowers covering the ground along with old fallen tree trunks and moss covered rocks. The smell of moist wood was strong. A deer watched them ride by, completely unafraid. Squirrels, rabbits and various other small woodland creatures darted everywhere. Birds of all types flitted from branch to branch singing a myriad of songs.

  “This is about as far as I was ever brave enough to venture,” Tathan said. “It’s an awe-inspiring forest and a little intimidating too.”

  “If this is the farthest you’ve ever been, how do you know where the path goes, or that it even goes anywhere?”

  “Well, I don’t know.” He blushed. “I always had the feeling it went somewhere. It’s an instinct I suppose. That’s not enough for most people, but . . .”

  “So we’re traveling on a path through a dangerous haunted, forest because you think it goes somewhere.” Liselle rubbed her face. “We don’t have anywhere else to go, so we’ll find out one way or another.”

  He nodded his head. “I don’t think it’s haunted if that’s any consolation. It’s just a big, scary forest with standard beasts like dragons, bears and that sort of thing. I doubt there are many ghosts.”

  Liselle rolled her eyes. “Oh, that makes me feel much better. Thanks, Cousin.”

  “No problem. Any time. I’m here for you.” Tathan smirked when she playfully glared at him.

  A pleasant clearing with a stream running through it made a nice camp for the night. Tathan took care of the horses while Liselle gathered wood to set up a fire pit. Once everything was set, she sat on a small log and debated whether to light the damp wood with flint and tinder, or use her magic. Tathan hadn’t said much about the spells she had cast yet, so she wasn’t sure how he felt about it.

  Tathan came over, made a gesture with his hand and spoke a word. Red flames swirled from his fingertips to ignite the wood.

  Liselle’s jaw dropped in amazement.

  After that, he went back to setting up the rest of the camp as though he had done nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Tathan . . .”

  “Yes, Cousin?”

  She stood and gestured toward the fire. “You didn’t tell me you could do magic. And so casually too! Where’d you learn it?”

  “I picked it up along the way.” He took a tripod with a pot and set them over the campfire. Then he poured water in and began adding roots and vegetables. “Magic is useful. Most people can learn a trick or two, but few have any talent.”

  “I can light a fire, but it’s always blue,” she said.

  “Always blue? Blue, purple, green and other colors are all magical fires and more difficult to create than regular fire.” A puzzled look crossed his face. “How did you first learn to cast a spell? I’m curious.”

  The fact that Tathan knew about magic excited Liselle. “It was after I became a young woman. I felt . . . power in my mind and body.”

  Tathan nodded. “The mind and body of a child aren’t capable of handling the forces of magic. It comes with maturity. It grows stronger as a person ages. When they get older, it begins to decline.”

  “Really?! That’s why I can do more and more.” Liselle walked around and gestured as she talked. “My first time, I was trying to light a fire in the wilderness when an idea appeared in my mind. A small blue flame appeared at the tip of my fingers and moved toward the wood.” She turned to face Tathan, eyebrows furrowed. “I didn’t understand it. The next thing I knew, there was a blue fire in the pit I had made.” She bit down on her lower lip as she remembered the moment with some embarrassment. “Luckily, I could see in my mind how to extinguish it and did so before anyone found out. I was afraid someone would notice even though I was alone.”

  “You said that you could see how to do it in your mind? You never had anyone tell you how?” Tathan added the meat of a large bird to the pot. He had snuck up on it and captured it with his bare hands earlier in the day.

  The stew smelled wonderful, causing Liselle’s stomach to rumble in response. “It was just there. When I want to do something, I can picture what I want, and then it forms in my mind.” She sat back down on the log. “Some things are easier than others and then there are things I just can’t do or imagine no matter how hard I try.”

  Tathan sat on his bedroll near the fire. “The way I was taught is that when a person does magic, they have to focus the spell in their mind, make the necessary gestures and speak a word or phrase.”

  Shaking her head, she said, “No. Sometimes I say a word that comes to my mind, but you don’t have to speak a word or gesture, though you could move your hand around to make the spell react in different ways.” She held her hand up and moved it around in front of her.

  “That’s amazing. Everyone I’ve known who could do magic, or at least the ones who could do it well, told me you need a gesture and a keyword to cast a spell.”

  “Well, I suppose a keyword would be a good way to lock a spell.” She tapped her chin.

  “Lock a spell?”

  Liselle continued moving her hand around, mesmerizing herself with it. “Yes. You could lock a spell with a keyword, so it couldn’t be cast unless someone knew that word. A gesture would make it even more secure.”

  “You mean no one could ever use the spell again without the gesture and keyword.”

  “Well . . .” The hand stopped moving as she considered. “That’s not really it. Someone could cast the spell, but it would be theirs, not the same one that the person who locked it did.”

  “Huh?”

  “I don’t know how to explain it.” Liselle concentrated on the concept for a mo
ment and then shrugged. “Nope . . . I don’t know how to describe it.” She went back to moving her hand around in front of her eyes. “I just know you don’t have to say words or make gestures.”

  Tathan leaned back on his elbow to look at stars forming in the darkening sky.

  Liselle continued to move her hand around in front of her face.

  “You just know these things? No one taught you?”

  Liselle sat still for a moment before turning to him. “I don’t know how I know, Tathan. I just know. No one has ever taught me or told me.” Liselle nibbled on her lower lip. “Watch . . .”

  She moved her hand in slow deliberate motions. Liselle tilted her head and focused on the motion. She let out a wordless breath. A casting breeze ruffled her hair.

  Tathan gaped as the flame grew in her hand. He watched her move it back and forth, making it dance around her fingers.

  Liselle stood and walked around the clearing, still making it move with her gestures.

  He got up and followed. “But you’re using gestures . . .”

  “Hmmm?” She was paying attention to the flame. “Oh, gestures. I’m just experimenting with them. I can make the flame move around with them.” She turned and smiled to Tathan, the flame moving in her still hand. “Thank you for letting me know about that.”

  “Yeah, sure.” He shook his head in amazement.

  The flame stood still in the palm of her hand as she concentrated on it. She made it rise above their heads. Then she guided it down toward the grass in the clearing. Just as it reached the tips of the grasses, she put out both hands and made rapid gestures.