“Burning?” Through our link, her apprehension was obvious.
That was understandable. She’d had significant burns on her face from the same blast that had taken her hand and leg.
“That’s right. Cancel your shield,” I ordered, standing up.
She did so without comment.
I turned my back and lifted my leather jacket and shirt above my waist. With the skin of my back exposed, I focused on my shield tattoo. While inert, it was invisible beneath my skin, but once I activated it, I felt it warm and Tess’s face was lit by its green glow. My shield appeared inside our circle. The tattoo would continue to glow as long as it was active.
“See the pattern?” I asked, looking down at Tess over my shoulder.
“Yes.”
“Can you see how it’s different than the one you’ve been practicing?” I asked.
She nodded. “Yeah, there’s two little marks at the end point of the trace.”
“Exactly.” I let the tat go dark and tucked my shirt back in before sitting back down. “If you really think you’re ready, then you can take Walt’s grimoire for your own and start practicing that pattern. When you can generate a glowing pattern in the air without making a mistake, I’ll let you start burning it.”
“Is it going to be painful?” Tess asked looking uncertain. It was the only time I’d seen her look hesitant about any of her training.
I grinned. “It’s not comfortable and hurts more than getting a regular tattoo, but I think you’ll manage the pain. If you want, you can do the first one while we’re meshed. It will lessen the pain.”
“You mean you’ll share the pain?”
“Yes, you’ll have me to take some of it,” I said.
“I don’t know. It doesn’t seem right to let you share my pain when I’m the one that needs the tattoos.”
“Don’t let that worry you. I’ve done dozens of tattoos, and the pain doesn’t bother me anymore.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Oops, there’s that emotional link again.
“Okay, it does bother me some, but not like it did the first time,” I corrected.
“Did your mentor, Walt, mesh with you when you burned your first one?”
I would have liked to lie to her, but she’d know. “No, he didn’t. Walt and I never meshed totally. I think it was the emotional component. Guys just don’t like getting that much into an emotional link with another man.”
“Are you too macho?” Tess asked. I didn’t have to see her grin to know she was just jerking my chain.
“Found out,” I admitted.
“What now?” Tess asked.
“Now, we’ll start working on something else. The shield needs to be your first tattoo and will go the farthest toward keeping you alive if we get into a fight. But I know how boring it gets repeating the same spell over and over, so,” I pulled my grimoire out of my pocket and set it on the ground between our touching knees.
“Show me what I’m looking for,” I commanded.
The grimoire opened, and pages flipped past until the small book remained open. I picked it up and handed it to Tess.
She looked down at the right-hand page. “Wind? You’re going to teach me wind summoning next?”
I nodded. “You did say that you couldn’t wait until you could create your own dust devil.”
Her smile was infectious. I’d forgotten how much fun learning some of the spells could be. Maybe that’s why Wanderers were always reaped when they were young. Young people just have more enthusiasm for learning new things. I’d been the same way once. These days, I learned everything that I thought I needed, but learning a new spell just didn’t excite me as it had when I was Tess’s age.
“How do I start?” Tess asked.
“The same way you did the shield spell. The difference is that the shield will always form around you unless you concentrate on it having another form. Wind, however, doesn’t have a default setting. You have to activate the spell while thinking of what you want it to do.”
“You mean like this morning when you brought it in from one direction the first time and then switched it into a funnel?”
“Exactly,” I said. I looked south toward the bright sun that had passed the zenith an hour or more ago. A few low clouds were passing near us.
“Look there,” I said indicating the clouds.
Tess followed my gaze, and I focused on the page in the grimoire. Reading the pattern upside down was no trick for me since I had learned that pattern years ago. With Tess following along, I traced a glowing pattern in the air between us and then spoke the three words necessary to activate that particular spell. At the same time, I concentrated on those clouds.
The wind spell snapped as it activated and, at first, nothing appeared to happen. Then as the mass of air I was controlling picked up momentum, the clouds begin to hurry across the sky toward us. I held my focus for nearly a minute, feeling Tess’s excitement grow as the spell’s energy flowed through us.
I canceled the spell, and the clouds continue to rush across the sky as the air mass gradually slowed without my energy to push it on.
“Now, it’s your turn. Trace the pattern, speak the words, and focus on what you want the wind to do.”
“It’s that simple?” Tess asked.
I laughed and shook my head. “We’ll see how simple you think it is when you complete the spell.”
Tess grinned and studied the spell’s pattern.
I tapped the ley line and topped off my reserves of power. Since we were meshed, the inrushing energy came to both of us. I felt her emotions rising with the energy. Like always, meshing and jointly using magical energies had an amorous effect on a person’s feelings. I did my best to quell them without being blatant about it. Whether Tess noticed my efforts, I couldn’t tell. She was concentrating on the spell and might have missed
