“Inventors,” Iannis corrected with a smile. “And we’ll probably publish a number of papers that should interest all the universities on Recca. Unfortunately, figuring out how to apply this knowledge to travel between dimensions practically, and safely for that matter, is proving more difficult than I anticipated. I need to get it right—now that I know more, I understand just how risky our last jump was. We are very lucky to bealive.”
After we’d finished eating, I kissed Iannis and let him return to his work while I cleaned up and continued my leather-working experiment. I felt downright domestic, taking care of all the cooking and cleaning and other “housework” while he slaved away with that formula. While I’d done pretty well at math in school, I’d never studied the more advanced techniques necessary to understand those Tuaequations.
Besides, there was something satisfying about working with my hands. I could never be a housewife or artisan, I decided, not for the rest of my life. But I didn’t mind it just thissecond.
I was just finishing off a belt I’d made from one of the strips of leather when Iannis suddenly cried, “I haveit!”
Dropping my craft project, I twisted around to see him holding up the book triumphantly, the latest formula scribbled across it. His eyes shone, and he was grinningbroadly.
“Yes!” I jumped up from where I was sitting and raced over to him so I could give him a hug. “I knew you could do it! Do you want to try it rightnow?”
“Let’s eat first and pack up whatever we want to take with us,” Iannis suggested. “We are going to need all our strength, and if this goes wrong again, I want to be betterprepared.”
We packed up our supplies, then quickly ate some of the dried quasi. “I’ll need to borrow your energy this time,” Iannis said, taking my hands. “You’ve gotten significantly stronger since you disappeared,” he added with a smile. “We are very nearly equal now, stronger than most mages I have ever met. A lot of them would be frightened of you, if they had anyidea.”
“That’s thanks to the Tua power boost,” I said as I curled my fingers around him. “I really ought to thank Nalan and Alara if I ever see them again. I wouldn’t have survived without them, or Broghaneither.”
Iannis pressed a quick kiss against my lips, then spoke the spell he’d worked out. I sucked in a breath as I felt a strong tug at my power, and our hands lit up as my magic began flowing into him. Suddenly, we were yanked forward, the prairie around us disappearing into a swirling kaleidoscope of colors. Iannis and I clung to each other tightly as we hurtled through time and space, and I buried my face in his chest as I began to feel dizzy. Unlike last time, which seemed to only take a few seconds, the experience seemed to stretch out endlessly, until I began to panic, wondering if we’d somehow gotten stuck again and would never come backout.
“Relax,”Iannis said in mindspeak.“We are on the right track. The two dimensions are not closely aligned, which is why it takeslonger.”
I blew out a long breath, forcing myself to let go, to trust that Iannis knew what he was doing. He’d never led me astray before. He would get us through this, just like he did with everythingelse.
Finally, we began to slow down, the pressure squeezing in on all sides gradually alleviating. Lifting my head, I saw that the colors swirling around us were beginning to meld, and as I stared, the landscape around us solidified into an endless landscape of yellow grasses and scattered trees. The air was hot, the sun beating down mercilessly on us, but it looked normal, and the sky surrounding it was a clearblue.
“A savannah,” Iannis said, still holding me tight. “And those are gazelles off in the distance. I do believe we are inFaricia.”
“Yes!” I pumped a fist in the air, and that was when a tribe of dark-skinned natives charged out from behind a clump of nearby trees. They wore skirts garnished with some kind of white and black fur, and their bodies were painted with clay in elaborate patterns. I drew my crescent knives as they pointed long spears at us, and Iannis threw up a shield. The natives hissed as the air around us shimmered with magic, and they jabbed at the shield angrily. They didn’t seem happy to see us here, and what was worse, Iannis’s shield wobbled beneath their blows. I tried to fortify it with my own magic, but after that transportation spell, we were almost tapped out. A wave of nausea swept through me, and it took everything I had to keep upright as my stomach twisted intoknots.
“Damn,” Iannis murmured as another native came forward from behind the trees. This one was taller than the others, with an elaborate headdress and several colorful amulets dangling from his neck and furs. He pressed his weathered hands against the shield and spoke in a strong, resonant voice. The shield flickered, then died, leaving us completelyexposed.
“Please,”I said, the word coming out in a strange language that I couldn’t recall ever speaking.“Don’t hurt us. We mean you noharm.”
The man’s eyes widened.“You speak ourlanguage?”
“Yes,”I said, without missing a beat. I realized that Nalan and Alara had gifted me with the ability to understand and speak any language, not just Tua.“We are travelers blown off course, just trying to return to ourhome.”
“Do not hurt them,”the man, who I guessed was their shaman, said to the others.“I wish to find out more about these pale-skinned travelers who have appeared so suddenly in our midst. They are weak just now, and easily within my power tocontrol.”
“This isn’t good,”Iannis said to me in mindspeak as the shaman began to engage in a spirited debate with another native, who looked to be the hunt leader, about what to do with us. The hunt leader pointed out, reasonably enough, that one killed enemies when they were weak, and that it might not be prudent to keep strange mages around any longer than necessary. Apparently, there were very strict rules about that in their tribal customs.“They are just as likely to treat us as honored guests as they are to sacrifice us to whatever god they believein.”
From what I’d overheard, the latter was a far more likely outcome.“Great,”I said, surreptitiously sidling closer to Iannis.“Maybe now would be a good time to get the hell out ofhere?”
Iannis quickly grabbed my arm, then pulled out the gulaya from his sleeve and activated it. The natives turned to us, shouting, and the last thing I saw was the astonished looks on their faces as we disappeared in a flash oflight.
20
The momentour feet landed on solid ground, I dropped to my hands and knees and threw up in the nearest clump of bushes. They happened to be rose bushes, and familiar ones at that—even through my retching, I could tell that we were back in the gardens of SolanthaPalace.
“Are you all right?” Iannis asked as he gently rubbed my back.How comehedoesn’t get nauseous after gulaya travel?I wondered, more than a little envious at hiscomposure.
“I’ll be fine,” I gasped, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. I pulled out my canteen from my sleeve and took a swig of cool water—water from another dimension, I thought wonderingly—to drown out the acrid taste. “All that traveling was just a little too much on my system,” I said as Istraightened.
“I know what you mean,” Iannis said. Even he looked a bit unwell, his face paler than usual. But his eyes were bright with excitement as he looked around. “We’ve made it back, though, haven’t we? There were some moments I doubted wewould.”
“We definitely have.” Grinning, I flung my arms around him and squeezed tight. “Even better, we’re finally free of Ta’sradala! She did say she wouldn’t come after us if we survived that last trap she set for us.” Not that she’d expected us to ever get home. She probably thought we were wasting away in that desert right now. It gave me great pleasure to have finally gotten the best ofher.
“Indeed.” Iannis’s eyes sparkled with satisfaction. “After being bested again and again, she won’t want to continue this confrontation. With any luck, we won’t meet her again for at least acentury.”
