inside. Push enough of the flames outside to keep yourself from overheating…that path is death.”
Images of charred wizards after past battles flashed in Talis’s mind. He knew well the rules of magic and the high costs of ignoring its limits. That was the main reason he feared Fire Magic, and he thought, was probably why he had failed to produce it.
But despite his fears he managed to control himself and he continued to allow the flames to flow from his hands. It was easier here, inside the world of dreams, to cast magic.
“Excellent…I salute your progress. Now see me, see the grey fog, see this room, bring the flames here, to me, the fog is wind, use its latent power to fuel the flame’s anger, and burn me up. The flames will not hurt me.”
Talis found his eyes flared open and the room seemed instantly smaller. Something sputtered from his hands and tiny puffs of smoke filled his nostrils. He grimaced, knowing he’d failed yet again at Fire Magic.
“That was a reasonably good attempt, I suppose.” Master Viridian’s face twitched, and his eyes looked disappointed. “I still sense fear in you, fear of fire, fear of yourself, even…”
Master Viridian sighed and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand, then stared at his fingers like he’d found ink spilled on his knuckles. “Let me ask you a question. How did you manage to overcome your fear of fighting with swords? Don’t you have a battle ahead at the Blood Dagger competition? From what I understand, although I’ve never seen fights such as these in the arena, the fighting is fierce…blood is drawn, and magical healers often fail to cure wounds. Am I correct?”
Talis nodded, realization coming to his mind. He pictured the last time he’d battled in the arena. “Wear the Battle Mask and Slay the Demon…”
“Is this part of your training?”
“To overcome fear of injury and pain, wearing the battle mask is our mental protection, and slaying the demon keeps us focused on destroying our enemy…the demon in our minds.”
“Where is your fear while you battle?” Master Viridian allowed a smile to raise the corners of his lips.
“Slain…fear is the demon. How we slay the demon is to execute the movements. Dancing Butterfly, Cringing Monkey, Leaping Snake, Dragon Circles the Moon… We memorize many martial moments, train and train and train until they are habits, then in the arena the fight is against our fear and emotions…and besting our enemies.”
Master Viridian chuckled, light filling his eyes. “Sounds like the way wizards learn battle magic. And who are you fighting at the Blood Dagger competition?”
“We’re fighting Rikar and Nikulo…tomorrow.” Was it so close already? Talis pictured the haughty gaze in Rikar’s eyes this morning, and scowled, wishing he could wipe that expression off his face.
“If you apply the same principles you’ve learned in melee fighting to casting magic, you’ll do just fine. Don’t think producing magic is anything different, treat it much the same.”
Except that losing control of magic could cause you to explode and kill everyone around you, Talis thought, but he only bowed to Master Viridian. “Thank you, Master, I’ll try.” If he could only get the image of charred wizards out of his head.
Instead of staying after school to study, Talis snuck out from the Order through a side, secret tunnel and made his way to the school where Mara was supposed to be learning how to act like a lady. Not that she was a good student. She drove her teachers crazy with questions like, Why do ladies have to act so stupid? And when her manners teacher dared to suggest that Mara give up hunting and fighting, Talis had to talk Mara out of poisoning her.
The stone wall surrounding Mara’s school was easy to scale, and Talis climbed down wisteria vines and crept over to hide behind a statue to the Goddess Nestria, Ruler of the Sky. Talis tossed a pebble at the window of the classroom where Mara and several other young ladies were practicing dancing. Mara glanced outside, squinting as she spotted Talis, then focused back to her teacher, nodding and curtsying in response.
After finishing several more quick spin dances, all the girls in the class bowed to their teacher at once and filed out of the room. Talis snuck over the the side door where Mara had escaped before, and waited. If he was in luck today, dancing might be Mara’s last class.
The door squeaked open and Mara’s devilish eyes peeked through.
“You just couldn’t wait to see me… You know my teachers will kill you if they find you in here again.”
“Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ve got to talk about the Blood Dagger competition…it’s tomorrow. The Tame Shrew?” Talis lifted his fist to his mouth, as if drinking.
“I couldn’t think of a nastier, seedier tavern to plot our battle strategy against Rikar and Nikulo… Absolutely perfect.” Mara grinned maliciously and brushed a lock of Talis’s hair away from his eyes. She glanced around to see if anyone was looking, then held Talis’s hand and they made their way through the bushes and up and over the wall.
The afternoon sun filtered through olive leaves, casting quivering inky shadows across the cobblestone street. The lazy windless time of day when many citizens took naps or drank milk tea and played cards. Talis and Mara snuck along the winding corridors of upper Naru, until they found the door that led down through the darkness to Shade’s Gate and out into Fiskar’s Market, where old men and women sat about sighing and chatting disdainfully with each other. They glanced suspiciously at Talis and Mara as they darted through the market.
Back behind the stalls, down a dank, smelly corridor, they found The Tame Shrew, one of the oldest and least respectable taverns in Naru. Outside the faded red tavern door stumbled two old drunks locked in a cheerful arm- grasp. They teetered about precariously singing familiar songs of war and adventure. Talis and Mara skirted around the duo and made their way inside the dark tavern.
Conflicting smells overpowered them as they entered: sweat and ale and roses. The tavern owners’s wife had a rooftop garden where she grew many fragrant varieties of roses, and she clipped the strongest-smelling ones and kept them in an old, ceramic vase on the middle on the bar. Despite her earnest attempt at eliminating the other foul smells in the tavern, the stench remained.
“There’s a quiet table over in the corner.” Mara lowered herself down and squeezed past a man and a woman having a furious argument about…Talis thought it sounded like a lover’s quarrel.
When Talis sat next to Mara, the woman burst into tears and stomped out of the tavern, leaving the man to stare stupidly at the mug of ale he was holding.
“I don’t supposed he’ll be standing after a few hours,” Mara whispered.
“Two hours at the most.” Talis motioned a serving girl over. “Could we have two…honey meads?”
Mara’s eyes lit up and she smacked her lips in anticipation. “And a slice of chocolate and raspberry cake?”
The serving girl eyed Mara disdainfully, but she twisted around and stomped back behind the bar and filled two mugs with golden brew from a barrel.
“She doesn’t like me much…” Mara scrunched up her eyes and lips in imitation of the serving girl’s pouty expression.
Talis chuckled, most girls he knew despised Mara, something about her came off as wrong to them. She acted like she wanted to take every ideal for how a girl should live and smash them with her own contempt. And that was exactly why he liked her so much.
“So you think we can beat Rikar and Nikulo?” Mara accepted a mug of ale from the serving girl, and frowned, peering at the bar.
“Don’t get all upset…I’ll have your cake out soon enough.” The serving girl muttered to herself and charged off again after giving Talis his mug.
“Honestly?” Talis took a swig of the sweet honey mead. “I don’t think we have a chance of winning against them. The question is, can we survive long enough to keep from getting murdered by Rikar? How many people has he killed in previous competitions?” Although Talis knew magical healers stood ready to cast healing spells on injured combatants, sometimes nothing could done, like the time Rikar sliced off someone’s head.
“You’re so optimistic…” Mara rolled her eyes in disgust. “Maybe I’ll visit the old witch that sells curses after all. And here I am, drinking my mead and thinking we could actually win…”
Talis poked her affectionately in the arm and grinned. “Here comes your cake…thank you, miss…go on, eat up, don’t make a face, you’ll feel better with the chocolate swirling around in your belly.”
“I’ll feel better holding the Blood Dagger and handing it to my father and mother.” Mara gulped down a bite of cake and squeezed her eyes closed in delight. “Mmm, I can picture it so clearly… Mother, Father, I’ve won, and there’s no way I’m marrying Baron Delar’s fat old warthog of a son.”
