Cormac reached Jolina’s side and yelled in her ear. “Jolina, please stop.” No response as the forest smoldered. “Please, it’s us.”
Blinking twice, Jolina came back to herself, staring at the steaming crater at her feet. Nothing remained of the guard; no proof the man ever existed.
Until the second guard groaned and got to his knees. Maren’s energy pushed him back down, but Jolina’s rage ignited again. The avalanche of power exploded in the blast of arcane fire.
Lars didn’t have time to scream in the inferno. In a few moments, he was gone, destroyed by Jolina’s attack.
The clearing was silent. The four looked at each other, and Cormac couldn’t believe what he saw. Jolina was an ancient woman, probably in her nineties. The beauty and energy of youth transformed into a few tufts of white hair, a bent back, and wrinkled skin. The Jolina they once knew was gone.
“I need to sit down,” she said.
Maren moved first to cup her elbow and guide her to the log they always used in this clearing. Slow, shaky steps followed each tentative step as Maren tried to help their friend to her seat. Cormac glanced at Raham to find not shock but anger.
“We had to show her how to use magic.”
“They would have killed us, Raham. All of us.”
“So you think this is justified? We were playing with magic. That’s how they found us.”
“Raham, don’t you think—”
“Hey, we’re sitting right here. Your voices aren’t as low as you think,” Maren said from the log.
Cormac and Raham approached the pair, and Cormac struggled to look at Jolina. Her eyes looked the same, although filled with so much suffering now. It was the same young woman they had been friends with since they could walk. Now, her body was wracked with crippling age.
“This is the curse of magic,” Raham said to no one. “It has a price.”
Four
Cure
“We have to find a cure,” Cormac said.
“It’s a curse, Cormac. Why can’t you understand that?” Raham said.
“It’s a responsibility,” Maren said. She gazed at the frail body of their once-youthful friend and ran her fingers through Jolina’s straw-like white hair. “No, it’s an opportunity.”
“After what you just saw?” Raham jumped up from the log and paced by the river’s shore. His shadow merged into the gloom and then emerged by the moonlight reflected from the surface. “Look at Jolina.”
“Still sitting right here.” Jolina coughed into her hand and grimaced from a spasm in her chest.
“Then how many more will suffer like this?” Maren asked as her eyes tracked Raham’s movement.
“She’s right. With magic, there’s a price. People need to know before they find out the terrible cost,” Cormac said.
“We’ve given up on a cure already?” Jolina held out her arms and looked at the paper-thin skin and blue veins across the back of her hands. Her voice already seemed fainter.
“No, Jolina. We’re not giving up on anything,” Maren said. She scowled at Raham and Cormac and turned back to their friend. “We’ve played with magic and lights, but nobody tried to do what you’ve done.”
“I was so scared. When I felt the power inside me, I would never let them hurt me.” A smile tickled the corner of her lips. “Or us.”
Cormac slid off the log and dropped to his knees in front of her. He held her frigid hands within the warmth of his own. “Thank you, Jolina. When they drew their blades, I froze. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t save us.”
“Good thing you showed me how. If it happened yesterday… well, I don’t want to think about it.”
“Do we think this was a coincidence?” Raham returned to the log and stared at his friends. “Maren, your family has owned the mill for what, three generations?” He waited for her to nod before he continued. “And we’ve never had some lord’s guards stop. No one stops by. And on the same day we found some fantastic book in your parent’s shop, Cormac. Tell me this isn’t a coincidence.”
“Isn’t it?” Maren countered. “There’s no diabolic force out to get four young adults learning magic.”
“I’m not so sure, Maren.” Raham didn’t back down under her intense gaze. “I keep hearing those whispers. It’s like a voice pushing us to go a particular direction and keep pressing with magic. It’s been the loudest today.”
“So part of your coincidence is you hear voices in your head?” Maren shook her head and raised an eyebrow. “Call me skeptical. We have free will. What Jolina did saved the four of us, and we owe it to ourselves to understand more.”
“I don’t know about voices or coincidences, but I know what I saw. Jolina used incredible power and burned those two men to the ground. Not even their metal survived that blast. If we can do that, we need to understand this power.” Cormac’s eyes drifted back to Jolina, who appeared to be nodding off to sleep. “We know what this power costs. But ignoring everything that happened isn’t a better solution, Raham.”
“Cormac, I’m not claiming that you’re wrong. But who are we paying?”
Silence fell over the clearing as the friends listened to Jolina’s raspy voice struggling for the next breath. Until she didn’t struggle anymore.
Cormac didn’t know how long they sat on the log with their lost friend. The river continued its journey to the mill and locations downstream. The trees that lined the banks continued their silent sentry duties as nocturnal animals scurried.
“May she find her peace,” Raham whispered.
Cormac nodded. His fear crippled his reaction when those strangers came into the grove. With the body of his friend as a witness, he would never let that happen again. He had to understand his powers, and they had to understand the cost. He couldn’t let this happen to anyone else.
But the emotions of the moment threatened to overwhelm his thoughts. One of
