Chapter Fifteen
They spent most of the day sparring. Right away, Florian could tell how Koji and Kade had learned to fight against Rune’s spear; seeing was one thing, though, and fighting against Rune was a constant struggle. Kade and Koji watched from the sidelines, shouting advice and occasionally calling a halt to their own practice to explain how to use his own sword like a shield and catch the stabbing motion, then deflect it. But it was a narrow window, and it made Florian painfully aware of how poor his swordplay skills were compared to the rest.
“Maybe I should just stick to magic,” he sighed as they stepped away for a break. Lunch was hard bread, jerky, and some plants that Koji had gathered, which looked like boiled fiddlehead ferns—though Florian thought they might be much tastier roasted. Rune chuckled with a smug grin, but Kade gave him a look of sympathy, a stark contrast to the stern taskmaster he’d been all morning.
“You should use both,” Kade replied. “But... Couldn’t hurt to rely on your magic in a pinch.”
“You can use it when you spar with me next time, if you want,” Rune teased. “But I’d probably still win.”
“Think so?” Florian replied with a laugh. She shot him a look of pure confidence, and that was all it took to spark his motivation.
So when lunch was over, they squared up again, Kade and Koji watching from the sidelines. Kade had his arms folded across his chest, his eyes now more on Rune than Florian, but Koji watched with an openly curious expression.
“Go,” Kade said, and before Rune could even step toward him, Florian’s magic surged through him and out his mouth as he commanded,
“Drop it!”
Rune’s grip on the spear opened immediately, the weapon dropping to the ground.
“Shit,” she hissed, moving to pick it up. Florian swiped at her before she could reach it, forcing her to dodge backwards. “Asshole! This isn’t even sparring.”
He laughed, swiping again to drive her back further. “YousaidI could use my magic.”
“Focus on getting your spear back, Rune,” Kade called out, making her scowl deepen.
“I swear, ifIhad magic...” she grumbled, but Florian saw the way her eyes were darting about, trying to calculate how to get around him and grab her fallen spear. She feinted one way, then tried to lunge around his other side.
“Freeze!” he exclaimed. She came to a halt mid-lunge, muscles twitching before she stumbled and fell to the ground. It lasted only a moment, though, and to her credit, she shook it off the moment that she fell to her knees, using the momentum to leap back toward her spear.
“Good,” Kade commented, but her eyes were locked on Florian as she stabbed up at him from her lower vantage point. He barely dodged it, and she’d already rolled away from his sword.
“Drop it,” he started to say again, but she was already shouting to drown him out.
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” she yelled, each exclamation pierced with a stab of her spear. Her voice shattered the still air around them, drowning him out. “I can’t hear you! It doesn’t work if I can’t hear you!”
He laughed, even as he struggled to swipe each of the stabs away. She was a fast learner, or maybe she already knew how fae magic worked. Either way, it meant his magic wouldn’t work on her unless she stopped shouting him down, which he was sure would never happen now. He would have to try something else. Maybe he could make himself faster—to dodge her more easily and get in a few slashes of his own—
But Elodie’s voice interrupted his thoughts, calling out from the other side of the clearing. “Goodness, what’s all this ruckus?”
Rune stopped shouting, and Florian raised his hands in an appeasing gesture; she scoffed at him, then turned back to look toward Elodie. There was a hint of relief on her face, Florian thought, but maybe it was his imagination. Their match would have to wait until later.
“Sorry if I was bothering you,” Rune called back. “Florian and I were sparring, and he was cheating.”
“Hey!” Florian protested, still laughing. “Not true.”
“No need to apologize,” Elodie continued, stepping out of her tree and into the clearing. In one of her spindly hands, several pendants swung with movement. “Come here. I’ve finished these for you all.”
They set down their weapons and gathered around the tree, Elodie towering over them. Outside her cottage, she seemed somuch taller now that she was standing at her full height without a ceiling to hold her down.
“One for each of you,” she said, handing each of them a pendant. It looked exactly as Florian remembered his father’s pendant—a single dark stone, so deeply purple that it was almost black, hanging on a simple silvery chain. But when he held the stone, he could feel the magic thrumming within it, far stronger than the little trickle of magic he had sensed with Jerah’s pendant.
“They will activate immediately in proximity to the Blight,” Elodie explained. “And they should have enough charge to last continuously for a little over two days. Florian, you can top them up just by channeling some magic into it. I tried to make it simple. Keeping them all charged should still be less taxing than holding a shroud.”
Florian smiled with relief. It had been difficult enough to hold a shroud over three people; holding it over four felt all but impossible, so this would make everything much easier. Plus, they could spread out more this way, in case they needed to fight or flee or split up for any reason.
“Thank you so much,” he said, rolling the cool stone over in his palm. It felt like it wanted to draw on his magic, that he could just...letit, and it would charge itself. Simple indeed.
“One for each of you,” Elodie continued, then presented a fifth amulet to Florian. “And one extra, just in case. I don’t expect anything to happen, but it’s always best to be prepared, don’t you think?”
