“Not a chance, boy-o.You might need it to immobilize any hunters that come after us.”She went out the other side of the carriage, glad there were doors on both sides, so she didn’t have to try to get past Cillian, who looked concerned enough to physically stop her.“I don’t really need much.Just grab whatever.I’ll just handle the elemental and we can start walking.”
She ignored whatever he started to say and went around to the front of the carriage where the air elemental was housed.It wasn’t contained so much as magically tethered to the carriage.The air elemental wasn’t like a horse, attached by a harness to the conveyance to pull it along.Instead the elemental sort of expanded its aegis, enveloping the carriage in its own sure travel through the air that it derived from and returned to.Though she couldn’t see the creature with her physical eyes, her wizard senses told her a great deal about it—not good—and her peculiar form of synesthesia showed magic to her as a visual.
The elemental had been stretched to its limits by her wizardry, by her pushing it, expanding it too fast and recklessly.Now it seemed to her like a balloon blown up to its limits and then deflated, leaving a saggy, wrinkly sack behind.Elementals didn’t make sounds, as such, but if this could, it would be whimpering.Alise, already far too familiar with her old friend and enemy, wracking guilt, simply sunk deeper into feeling terrible.You couldn’t really kill an elemental, but you could injure them and she’d done a number on this one.Even if the carriage hadn’t come fully apart, the effort of dragging something along against such great resistance had strained the non-physical fibers of its being, rendering the creature a ragged shadow of itself.
Almost tenderly, she detached the elemental from the magical bonds tasking it to convey the carriage.It could have been installed centuries before.No real way to tell, as Elal production methods had been standardized longer than that, but the carriage had likely been new when Elal wizards bound the elemental to it.There were rarely reasons to swap them out.Given the condition of the carriage and what she knew of House Harahel and their tendency to hold onto everything forever, she wouldn’t be at all surprised if that had happened hundreds of years ago.To her knowledge, in fact, long-bonded air elementals were never released following the retirement of their vehicles—they were simply transferred to a newer model.
Of course, she’d never seen or heard of an elemental this distorted by magic.Probably most wizards with spirit magic lacked the power to do this, and those few who did possess the power, never had reason to take such extreme measures.
She gently disentangled the sagging spirit from its bonds, feeding it a bit of magic so it could restablize itself.She’d once seen fisherfolk doing this, returning too-small fish to the water by holding them in a float just below the surface at water’s edge.The fish would loll there, looking dead, until suddenly it came to life and zipped away.The air elemental, fully free, similarly hung there, nearly lifeless.She scraped the mental bottom of her reservoir of magic, finding a few crumbs to feed it.
Like the fish, the elemental came to abrupt life and disappeared.
Alise had a moment to smile.She’d done at least one good thing.Then curious shadows crowded the edges of her vision.
She swayed.
And knew nothing more.
~8~
Cillian emerged fromthe carriage with his pack—rearranged and carrying only what he thought both of them would need in one bag he could wear on his back, as he didn’t want Alise burdened with any weight—just in time to see her crumple to the ground.Cursing himself for being an idiot, he unceremoniously dumped the carefully packed bag and dashed to her.
At least she hadn’t hurt herself in the fall, that he could see, but she’d gone past pale into fully transparent.Her skin was clammy and glassy, clinging to the bones of her skull, the shadows deep in the hollows.The effect of seeing her death mask rattled him beyond reason, even while his wizard senses reassured him that she still lived.Her magic smelled weak and attenuated, however, a drift of scent from roses long-since wilted and dying in a vase of fouled water, the bitter dregs of red wine dried in a glass left from the night before.
He stroked her face, wiping away the cold sweat, and speaking her name as if the old stories were true and calling her would summon her back to the world of the living.She’d gone so far inside herself that he couldn’t feel any of her usual vital presence, and he had to fight the wave of grief that threatened, poised over him like a wave to drag him under forever.How tragic would it be if he and Alise had made it this far, escaped and fought off so much, only for her to perish here on a lonely, rocky road outside of her ancestral homelands.
What could he do?He had no idea.Cillian wished, not for the first time, that he’d been born a Refoel, with healing magic instead of useless library wizardry.Better to be a familiar than a wizard with such a niche magical ability.If he could be Alise’s familiar, maybe she would be more willing to take his magic instead of draining herself to the point of no return.But shehadto return.She must recover from this or not only would he be lost, but so would so many of them.Nander would become Lord Elal, worse than his father.
And his world would be bereft of its brightest star.
His chanting of Alise’s name had gone beyond a simple call to her and had become an endless futile chant, his voice ragged with unshed tears.Again, not at all useful, but he was unraveling in his panic.They couldn’t stay here.Alise needed help and he wasn’t some buff hero who could carry her leagues through the mountains, to his great regret.
He needed to keep his shit together, as Jadren would say.He could almost hear Jadren’s voice, in fact.
A hand seemed to squeeze his shoulder.“Cillian,” Jadren repeated.“Get your shit together.”
Cillian blinked bleary eyes at the red-haired wizard who now crouched beside him.Hand still on Cillian’s shoulder, Jadren shook him a little.“Seriously, man.I’m the last one to throw stones at a person having a perfectly well-deserved meltdown, but you’re not helping Alise and you’re in the way of me helping her.”
“You’re not really here,” Cillian informed the El-Adrel wizard with conviction, but he released his hold on Alise, realizing only then that he’d been fully bowed over her, blanketing her slight body.“It’s not possible for you to be here.”
“Highly improbable,” Jadren agreed, “but clearly not completely impossible.”He laid hands on Alise, his magic smelling like well-oiled metal clockwork, with an underlayer of something indefinable that was his ability to put anything or anyone back together.Not at all the fresh green scent of Refoel healing magic, but uniquely his.He wore black leathers with the El-Adrel lightning bolt symbol and a variety of implements he could use to enchant into useful artifacts on the fly.
“Seliah, sweetheart,” he called.“If you’re satisfied the nasty-wasty hunters are all dead, I could use your able assistance.”
Cillian had seen Seliah’s alternate form before, but the sight of the huge black cat, glossy as obsidian and sinuous as death in the night, strolling toward them, pink tongue lolling between white fangs, made his battered heart skip several beats.She swiped the side of his face with that raspy tongue, long tail waving in feline amusement.
“It’s unkind to tease him right now,” Jadren told her reaching over Alise’s prone form to touch Seliah.She flicked back into human form, sitting companionably next to Cillian, taking Jadren’s hand to feed him her magic.Wearing black leather fighting gear also, it was clear she and Jadren had come dressed for battle.
“Hunters are all duly melted.We’re safe.For now, anyway.”She gave Cillian a warm smile.“Sorry—sometimes the cat instincts win out.I only meant to give you comfort.”
Cillian nodded, rather dumbly, his deranged mind still scrambling to keep up.“How—”
Seliah put a finger to her lips, shushing him.“He needs silence while he works,” she whispered and rolled her amber eyes expressively, her smile going conspiratorial.She offered him her free hand to hold.“It will be all right.You’ll see.”
“What happened to silence while I work?”Jadren growled without looking up.
Seliah stuck her tongue out at him.
