Alexandra drew power from her core and set the power aside in a neat ball that became visible without mage sight. It glowed like a small sun in the confines of their carriage. Inside the golden sun was a much smaller silver core.
“That small silver core is the last of the magic in this withdrawal. Once reached it will either have to be replenished or we’ll be riding on dirt again. I set it to silver to give us warning.”
“Not bad,” Ciardis admitted.
“I’m glad you approve,” Alexandra said with a smile.
“Now for the stabilization feed. See how I’m drawing power from the core sitting beside me?”
Ciardis nodded as a thin but fluctuating stream of power began to flow from the core through the floor and out to the underside of the carriage.
“I’m sending it into the air below to form a wind pathway for us, but it’s not stable. The power flow is fluctuating and becoming too big or too small depending on the air flow. It is responding to magic’s natural tendency to be fluid. I can stabilize it myself. But having a second mage on hand will help. I don’t deplete my resources as much and you can learn how to control power flow.”
“Now, Ciardis, I want you to tap into the stream of power. Not into me or my core. Reach out with your magic. Concentrate.”
Ciardis had never done anything like that before. She reached and reached...but there was nothing to grab the stream with. She could see the stream, she knew where it was, but using her magic to manipulate it was another thing altogether. It felt like she was missing a key step in the process.
“Here,” said Alexandra as she reached for Ciardis’s hand. She noticed momentarily that her hands were as cold as ice, but she focused on Alexandra’s instructions instead.
“Feel the pulse of my magic throbbing through my hands. Yes, like that. Now look through your mage sight and follow the path. The magic is flowing directly from my core—it pulses with the beat of my heart. Do you feel the withdrawal core beating with same intensity?”
“Yes.”
“Good, reach for it.”
Ciardis felt for it, but there was a barrier around the core. She couldn’t touch it.
“Keep going. If you can’t touch the core, see if you can hook into the stream.”
“Got it.”
“Keep hold and relax. Now you can feel the thrum of the power going through the stream. It’s pulsing erratically, with bits of magic large and small flowing through it. I want you to smooth it out, restrain it from taking too much magic at one time. Stabilize it.”
Ciardis blew her breath out slowly. The stream felt slippery, like a live snake in her grasp. She was beginning to sweat in the confines of the carriage and her curls felt heavy.
“Can you open a window?”
Alexandra opened the window and watched Ciardis while she sought out the coiled knots of too much magic flowing through the thread and the empty pockets of too little magic flowing out. Alexandra had put a barrier over her withdrawal core to make sure the girl couldn’t access or tamper with it. What Ciardis would deal with was the stream. She needed to learn to control her power, and, in doing so, learn to control her use of another’s.
Slowly, little by little, she used her magic like a rolling pin. Ciardis evened out the bumps and pockets in the stream, redistributing the flow of magic inside. When that was done, she said to Alexandra quietly, “Now how do I make it stay like this?”
“Think of your magic hold as a bottleneck; as long as you have a grip on the stream of power flowing into the underside of the carriage, you can control how much magic is released. Do you feel the magic flowing inside the stream?”
“Yes.”
“Keep monitoring it. Smoothing it out consistently. Restrain it when necessary. Soon it will become second nature and you won’t have to focus on it continuously.”
Ciardis didn’t take her eyes off the stream. Smoothing the flow took some finesse at first, but now it was mostly monitoring and hitting occasionally abnormalities when she saw it. After fifteen minutes, she sat back with a tired sigh. Her eyes still took in the stream, but she knew that the stream was flowing regularly.
“The trick,” Alexandra said, “is not to fall asleep while monitoring.”
Ciardis laughed. “Right.”
Then she noticed how smooth the carriage ride had become. With surprise, she looked out the window. They were floating a few inches above the ground and speeding along. This was so much faster. Comfortably monitoring the stream’s flow with just her magic, she watched the scenery go by. Now that the road was smooth, the carriage had picked up speed. They had long ago passed outside even the large towns on the outskirts of the city of Sandrin. The hamlets they passed through now reminded her of Vaneis.
The huts were square, some with multiple levels, but they were generally small in stature and made of brick with thatched roofs. They spoke of homely inhabitants and farming communities. She saw men and women in the fields off in the distance, digging and irrigating their land.
Occasionally they would drive over a river and the carriage would move up and down as if on a sharp hillside. “The air outside had to be compressed and pushed upward,” Alexandra explained, “while moving over rushing water.” But for the most part it was just the road, the trees, and nature for hours.
“Will we be reaching Ameles sooner?” Ciardis questioned.
Alexandra nodded. “By the end of the day you shall see the forest rise above you.”
Chapter 20
They continued along the road. Villages only popping up sporadically, as the carriage cast its shadow on open fields in the noonday sun. Ciardis shook herself out of her stupor as the day grew closer to dusk. Alexandra was watching the scenery go by.
The carriage stopped at dusk. “I go no farther,” said the driver.
Alexandra got up and exited the carriage. Ciardis, still reeling from using her power over such an extended period of time, was slow to follow her.
The driver unloaded their two knapsacks and a very large trunk.
With a crack of his whip, he turned the carriage around and was off in a storm of dust.
“How will he get back without us?” Ciardis questioned.
“He’ll make it. It will take him a long time and he’ll have to stop in the local villages, though,” Alexandra said dispassionately.
Alexandra didn’t look like she was ready to move in the next few minutes. Ciardis glanced down at her knapsack resting in a pile with Alexandra’s own pack and decided to take her spyglass for a look around. They stood at the base of a small hill, and the road curved around it to disappear on the other side. Grabbing the metal instrument, she walked forward to see what she could see.
When she rounded the curve, dark forest stretched as far as the eye could see. The path ended at the curve of the hill. In between the hill and the forest stretched a flat, open plain. It was devoid of life. Empty of trees and plants, the land looked barren. Ciardis put the spyglass up to her eye. She focused on the woods before her.
Alexandra came up beside her.
She pointed to a spot in the middle of the trees. “There is our ride.”
Ciardis saw a rider emerge from the trees. One man rode in front with two saddled but riderless horses following behind him. She saw horses emerging from the depths of the trees, beautiful black horses with glossy manes and coats that shimmered like liquid midnight. Alexandra turned sharply and returned to their packages. After a few moments, Ciardis lowered the spyglass but continued to stare out at the barren landscape. What could cause such devastation? Particularly just feet from a forest that so obviously teemed with life?
As he got closer Ciardis was surprised to see that they were no ties between his horse and the two riderless ones. They followed on their own. Once he reached Ciardis and Alexandra, the man spoke to each of the horses in turn, but didn’t attempt to tie them up. The horses trotted over to the hillside and munched grass. Their tails, long
