anything out. By the time she was done, he looked as if he was holding back a yawn. Straightening from a relaxed pose he said, “She volunteered you? That doesn’t sound good.”
“I know. I’ll be away from the courts for far too long. What if someone attacks you, or...”
“It’s not me I’m worried about it. The forest is a dangerous place, and it’d be easy for an accident to occur. One sponsored by your court enemies.”
That hadn’t occurred to Ciardis, and now she wondered who was really behind her exile from the Imperial Courts.
“What can I do?” she implored.
“You have to go. Stay as close to Vana and Meres as you can once you meet up with them. I’ll follow as soon as I’m able to convince my father that the Imperial delegation should be a priority.”
Ciardis nodded and swallowed.
“Well, I guess this is goodbye.”
“For now.”
Before she could stand, he reached forward and pulled her into a deep hug. Still encased in his arms, she heard him whisper into her ear, “Stay safe. For me, okay? I need you around.”
With an awkward laugh, he continued, “Without you, court is just going to be boring.”
She smiled and stood quickly. With a nod, she left without a word. She made it out of his sitting room doors just as the first tear fell down her cheek.
*****
The next morning came quickly for Ciardis. She barely had four hours of sleep before Maree Amber’s personal valet stood over her bed saying the lady had sent her to wake Ciardis immediately. Ciardis hurriedly dressed and rushed down to meet Alexandra.
Alexandra sat in a carriage outside, cloaked and confident. A few minutes later, Ciardis was looking out the carriage window, taking in the sleepy city of Sandrin as it passed by. Early morning mist twisted around the cobblestones, a chill laced the air, and a few early morning sellers were preparing the shops to open. The bakery’s fires had already begun for that morning’s bread, and the farrier was already shoeing a gleaming chestnut in front of his stable.
The horse’s owner caught Ciardis’s eye as the carriage momentarily stopped to allow a herd of large oxen pass in front of them. He was tall, easily six feet, with the bulging muscles of a man not unaccustomed to hard work. He wore fine linens and his hair was tied back and braided in a design that she’d only seen among the soldiers of Sandrin. He turned briefly from the farrier’s work as she peered curiously from the cabin.
Hurriedly, she sat back in the carriage, embarrassed at being caught staring.
“You’re a very curious young woman,” Alexandra said, leaning casually forward to rest her arms on her knees as they exited the city gates. Turning to her, Ciardis couldn’t help but be fascinated by the pointed edges of her ears that peeked out from the long strands of blonde hair.
Alexandra reached down and grabbed a short blade from inside her high boots. The edges gleamed as she turned it around in her hand. Ciardis leaned back into the plush seat cushions. The woman looked at her with knowing eyes.
“Have you ever traveled by road before?” she asked, still twirling the knife.
“Of course,” Ciardis said proudly.
“From?”
“Vaneis to Sandrin.”
“Those roads are paved. The path is even. There are no holes, large or small, to mar its way. It does not wind in and around obstacles, and it certainly does not buckle under pressure. That is the emperor’s road.”
“This,” she said, gesturing outside to a road heading east, “is the
Out the moving carriage window, Ciardis could see both roads. One laid and paved with orderly bricks, the other a flat path of brown dirt cleared of vegetation. In her opinion, neither one of them looked very hard.
As if reading her mind, Alexandra sat back and smiled. “You will see.”
When the city had disappeared, the ride went from smooth to extraordinarily rough, and Ciardis began to see what she meant. The ruts in the road meant that the carriage was constantly jumping and banging, the occupants in fear of being thrown every which way if they didn’t keep their hands on the handles inside.
It was misery after two hours. Her back hurt, her head throbbed, and her arms felt sore from being jerked around.
“How long did you say this journey would take?”
“Three days.”
Ciardis closed her eyes in horror.
“Let’s do something about this, shall we?” said Alexandra with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Something?”
“Something magical, of course.”
“I can’t. Maree Amber was very clear that I’m not supposed to—”
“As the person in charge of your care and your instructor over the next three days...”
“Instructor?” Ciardis said.
“Maree instructed you to obey my wishes, did she not?” the woman said authoritatively.
“Yes, but—”
“My wishes include a thorough instruction on the use of stabilization tactics through my air magic.” She hesitated and added, “Of course, this is a subject I wouldn’t force. What do you say?”
At that moment they hit a particularly bad rut in the road and were thrown to the left side of the carriage. When she impacted the wall, Ciardis felt her sheathed knife jab her cruelly in her stomach and her head banged against the wall. Shifting back into her seat while cradling her abdomen, she didn’t hesitate.
“Let’s do it.”
“Very good.”
Ciardis didn’t have anything against using her magic, and Maree Amber’s commands had been quite explicit. If this woman wanted to make their ride more comfortable while teaching her something, she wasn’t going to say no.
“Has Maree taught you to look for another’s power?”
“Yes, through mage sight.”
Alexandra looked out of the window for moment. “This is how we’ll do it then: I will call upon the air to form a light stream underneath the carriage. The carriage will then move forward on the air. Then we will use your power to create a stabilized feed. This road will go on for another five hours using that technique. But I warn you: the air must be constant underneath the carriage or we will go tumbling. I’m going to teach you not just to enhance a gift, but to steady it, and allow it to run on a power base far below normal output. Because the task we’re doing is simple, we can redirect the wind’s natural predilection to follow the currents and push it to follow the carriage.”
Ciardis was a little hesitant. “Isn’t that going against the natural order?”
“It is,” Alexandra said, “but this will also get us to the forest at a rate five times as fast. You cannot use the pegasi to fly to the Ameles Forest or gate in by portalway. It must be by this road, and time is of the essence.”
Weighing the pros took less than a second. “Let’s start on that lesson then.”
“In order to stabilize anyone’s power feed, you first need to know how much power they’re capable of pulling in to a task. What can they give over a long amount of time to feed the stabilization link? How much is too much power to take? And what is too little?”
Ciardis nodded. “How will I know?”
“Stabilization feeds are uncomplicated but need a dedicated source. They are usually done with teams of mages, but for this output only one mage is needed. I can do it, and because you’re unversed in this I will put a limit on how much magic can be drawn from my core.”
“Like a reserve?”
“Sort of, but more like a withdrawal with no option to increase the flow. It will be more than enough to serve our needs. All right, watch me.” Ciardis turned her mage sight on Alexandra. Ciardis watched while
