Magic the soldier wanted me to avoid?
I grinned. I had no idea what it would do, but if the soldier didn’t want me to have it, I definitely did. Maybe I still had some options after all.
As my hand made contact with the wall, the circle grew, expanding until the glowing silver was as big as a door. It encompassed my hand and the texture changed from wood to… nothing. My fingers slipped through the silver as easily as they would through a cloud. I pulled my hand back to where I could see all my fingers, but I kept contact with the growing silver circle. I wanted whatever that soldier wanted me to avoid. Within seconds, a great big, silver circle filled the middle of the wall, taller than me and twice as wide.
“Step away from the portal!” The soldier advanced up to the door to the bedroom, but he did not cross the doorframe. He softened his voice, but still shouted. “You’ll be safer in prison than in an unknown portal!”
A portal?
I stared at the magic—magic that was mysterious enough that the soldiers didn’t even want to be in the same room with it. Did I dare go through?
I turned back to look at the soldiers. Prison. Pain. Monsters. I’d dare anything to avoid them.
My heart pounded harder, shaking my entire chest. “What do you think, Rat?”
The bird jumped off my shoulders and flew straight at the silver magic. He passed through it, as if flying into a thick cloud that I couldn’t see through.
I could not see through it. That made me almost as anxious as the soldiers behind me.
Almost.
I fisted my skirts with one hand and rubbed the ring on my thumb with the other.No fear.I took a step back, and ran into the portal.
Chapter 2: Auria
Ikept my eyes wide open as I ran through the portal. For a brief instant, I couldn’t see anything besides a silver haze. Magic washed over my body with a tingling sensation, and my feet hit a rocky ground that was harder than the forest I’d just left. A blinding white replaced the silver around me.
I blinked a few times, and my eyes adjusted to the brightness. It wasn’t a white cloud, it was afternoon sunlight reflecting off snow.
I’d landed in a mountain forest covered with snow. Bits of evergreen trees peeked out from under mounds of ice, and an eerie stillness—like the forest didn’t want to disturb the wintry scene—chilled my skin.
Or maybe that was all the snow and ice. I had dressed for a cool autumn day, with a sturdy linen skirt and leather jerkin, but the portal must have moved me far north. I rubbed my arms. Very far north.
A beautiful chortle brought my attention away from the weather. Rat had survived, and we’d both been brought to the same place. Was that how portals worked? Did they always take you to the same place?
I turned around. Could I return to the cottage through the same portal? I didn’t love my life, but at least it was familiar.
A tall white tree with peeling bark marked the direction I’d come from. It had a tiny silver circle on it. I almost reached for it, wanting to test if the portal would grow back to the cottage in Hemlit, but then I stopped. What if the soldiers were still there, debating if they should follow me?
I did not want to encourage them by showing them I’d arrived safely.
Rat flew in a circle twenty feet ahead of me and squawked impatiently.
I sighed. “Fine,” I called to the bird. “I’m coming.” He squawked again, as if I was risking danger.
And maybe I was. Maybe those soldiers would burst in here after me, open a portal with the silver magic on the tree, and all this would turn into a nightmare of prison and torture. I ran to catch up to my cockatoo.
Yes, mine. He might choose to stay with me all on his own, but I absolutely claimed him.
He chortled more happily when I caught up, and then flew fast enough that I had to run. Stony boulders and rocks riddled the uneven ground, but I had enough practice running and hiding that I managed not to slip on the frozen dirt.
Rat led me up to a cliff face and then slowed, coasting around its edge. I rubbed my chest where my lungs burned from the rushing cold air that I’d forced into them. I rounded the front of the cliffs and froze.
I should have been used to gorgeous scenery. The hills around Hemlit had lots of rivers and waterfalls, but the way the frozen water surrounded a flowingstream before me took my breath away. It was too beautiful to not stare at.
A small stream cut a bed through the frozen ground, framed by stones and ice, flowing down the mountain and disappearing around another set of boulders. I turned to see where it flowed from, but its head was hidden by stony walls. Instead of a big river, I saw water rushing through a crack in the cliffs.
The crack was big enough for a person to slip through, but only barely, and I couldn’t see anything on the other side of the stony walls. I grinned at Rat. “Another brilliant hiding place.”
