The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 (16 page)

Justin and Lucy were joined by Darren for lunch.

“Where are Maya and Gavin?” Lucy asked Justin.

“Working on Maya’s horsemanship,” responded Justin. “Gavin packed sandwiches this morning. They figured you would be busy with your potions test. They offered to meet us on the practice yard for some sparring this afternoon.”

“Would you mind if I joined you?” asked Darren. “I could use the exercise and the practice.”

Justin nodded that he could. He wouldn’t be interrupting anything, and sparring with Gavin could only help him get better. Then, talk turned to classes and the coming of Althric the 10
^th
or whatever the notice had named him. Darren was curious about what was going on since he had not been present at the earlier conversation. He was more interested and less offended than Lucy had been, although he did mention having no desire to be involved in a situation as such.

After lunch, Justin and Darren walked to the practice grounds to wait for Maya, Gavin, and Lucy. Lucy ran to Nicodemus’s office to talk to him about her test. The door was open, and she poked her head in.

“Good afternoon,” said Nicodemus, smiling.

“Good afternoon,” replied Lucy.

“Written test first, shall we?”

Lucy nodded, and he pulled it out and gave it to her. She looked it over carefully. She had gotten every question correct. She read Nicodemus’s notes on where her answers could have been better or where she left something out of an explanation. They made sense to her.

“Any questions on that?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“Now, the potions. You brewed each one perfectly.”

“Thank you,” responded Lucy, surprised.

“Both were very challenging potions. You have skill. I will be sorry to lose you from my classes, but I do understand. From looking over your test, I notice that you read very carefully. You have read warnings about both potions?”

“Yes,” replied Lucy.

“I must reiterate their importance. You must be very careful with both potions. However, where a person such as yourself may end up, either could be very useful and save your life.”

To Lucy’s amazement, he pulled out the small vials he had filled earlier. Each one had a small chain attached to it.

“You did go through the effort of making them. It would be a pain to waste all of it. The vials and chains have an unbreakable spell upon them. I would recommend leaving them in your room until such time as you leave the school. I would also recommend that you not tell anyone about them. Use them well.”

He hung both vials around her neck and she tucked them into her shirt.

“Thank you,” she said, not knowing what else to say.

Lucy took her test and left the room. She stopped by her own room before going to the practice grounds. Unbreakable or not, she would feel safer if they were not on her person for a sparring session. Also, she did not see a reason for carrying her test around with her for the rest of the day.

Lucy arrived at the practice grounds in time to see Maya climb off her horse with a groan. Gavin took the reins from her and led both horses to the stable. Maya walked slowly to the grass at the edge of the grounds and collapsed. Lucy tried to look sympathetic while attempting to hide a smile.

“That man is evil,” said Maya with conviction referring to Gavin.

“It could not have been that bad,” said Lucy.

“Oh, yes it could.”

“Maya, you have to learn to get used to spending hours on a horse,” said Justin.

“Riding a horse, sure, but do we need to go over jumps or race at breakneck speeds down hills?”

“Yes,” said Gavin simply, walking towards them and looking completely relaxed, and not at all like he had been racing a horse at breakneck speed all morning.

Maya glared at him.

“Justin, some healing would be greatly appreciated,” said Maya, looking pathetic.

Justin shook his head.

“Most of what you feel is tiredness and sore muscles. That’s not something to heal. Your muscles need to harden and get used to riding like that. If I heal that feeling, you lose any ground you gained today.”

Maya knew he was probably right, but that did not make her feel any better. To take her mind off the soreness, she turned to Lucy.

“How did your potions test go?”

“Really well. I passed so I don’t need to take potions anymore.”

“Good. I’ve decided not to spar today. I’ll watch for a while, but then I’m going to go take a shower,” announced Maya.

“Nope, sorry,” said Gavin, “You need to be able to ride like that and then fight. You never know when you might have to do that.”

“You make a good point,” responded Maya, “However, I know that today is not that day. I will do that next time.” Gavin was working up another protest, but Maya held up her hand. “One step at a time, Gavin. We can only push ourselves so far. Lucy just passed out of potions; I would not expect her to pass out of something else tomorrow. That’s too much too quick. Well, for me, this is too much too quick. I’ll spar tomorrow.”

Gavin decided to let it go. He had forced her to ride pretty hard. Instead he turned to Darren and smiled.

“I, on the other hand, am quite willing to ride hard and then fight. Shall we see what you have been learning?”

Darren nodded, and they went to go get weapons.

“Poor Darren, he has no idea what he’s getting himself into,” said Lucy.

“I wouldn’t feel too bad for him. He’ll probably take a beating and be sore tomorrow, but he’ll learn something. So, shall I bring the lady a weapon?” asked Justin.

“Please do.”

“What shall we spar with today?”

“I think I want to continue with my sword practice,” said Lucy. “I’m not half bad. I can always get better, and I want to work with it a little more before I start a new weapon.”

Justin walked off and Lucy turned to Maya who had closed her eyes against the heat of the sun.

“Did he really make you ride that hard?”

“Yes, but I suppose it is necessary.”

“How so?”

“Well, it doesn’t do me much good to speak all the languages on Kinowenn if I can’t travel from place to place. The better you know how to ride in different conditions, the more likely you are to get from one place to the next.”

Lucy nodded. That made sense. She was about to ask another question when Justin returned. He handed her a practice sword and they entered the yard, giving a wide berth to Darren and Gavin. Gavin was grinning and Darren was doing his best to keep up.

Lucy and Justin faced each other and began to spar. They went back and forth for awhile, each testing the other’s skills. The sword was not Justin’s best weapon so he did not mind getting some practice in. That said, despite Lucy’s few lessons they were not that unevenly matched and both were beginning to breathe heavily. However, Justin also had a hard time letting a chance go by to test Lucy’s growing magical abilities and so the swordplay got more complicated.

First, Justin tried making Lucy’s sword heavier. It took her half a second to figure out what was going on, and she managed to not only block Justin’s spell but send one back towards him to make him slower. Justin, who had been expecting her to block his spell but not send one back, did not block her spell in time to avoid getting thrapped across the shoulder.

“I see you’ve learned a trick or two,” said Justin.

“I see you can’t let anything be simple,” replied Lucy.

So, on they fought. Lucy made the air around her as hard as stone so Justin’s sword reverberated off it. Justin made her slip then bent the light around himself and became invisible. Lucy couldn’t see him, but decided she did not have to be able to see him to turn his sword into a daisy. Justin became visible again, turned his sword back into a sword, and split his image in two, one on each side of Lucy. Lucy hesitated for a moment and reacted with thought, as she had been doing since the sparring turned dirty. Suddenly, both of Justin’s images had swords at their throats. Lucy had grabbed the swords from Darren and Gavin and put them there. Darren and Gavin, deprived momentarily of their weapons, turned to watch. Justin put darkness over Lucy’s eyes so she could not see. He did not count on the panic that this would cause. Lucy screamed in fear of not being able to see when weapons, practice or real, were involved and instead of removing the spell, which would have been much easier to do, she reacted again. Fire sprang from her hands and went in all directions.

Justin jumped back just in time to avoid being fried. He immediately removed the spell so she could see again. Lucy felt very drained and collapsed. Everyone rush forward to see if she was alright. Her hands were burned. This happens to beginners who don’t know how to throw fire properly. Interestingly enough, the effect would have been much the same if she had shot ice from her hands. Too much uncontrolled power finds ways to leave marks. Lucy’s eyes fluttered open.

“Perhaps we can take things slower next time,” she said with a weak smile to Justin.

He nodded and took her hands in his, healing the burns. She was capable of so much. He needed to let her learn a little slower and learn control. He needed to curb his impulse to see how much she could do on instinct. If he didn’t, it was possible one of them could get badly hurt. Darren was looking at Lucy with a mix of concern and amazement.

“I had no idea you could do that,” he said.

“Neither did I,” replied Lucy. “I’m not sure I could again if I tried and I’m not sure I want to. I want to learn more control.”

No one argued with that. Maya took over at this point and led Lucy back to her rooms. Both girls wanted to shower and perhaps take a nap before dinner. When they were out of earshot Gavin turned to Justin.

“What were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry. I started enjoying the challenge, and I let things get out of control,” said Justin.

“I’ll say! You push too hard, Justin.”

“You pushed Maya today,” said Justin in his defense even though they were two entirely different scenarios.

“Yes, I did, because it needed to be done. Maya has to learn to ride better than she does. She won’t get better unless we push. We know Lucy can do amazing things when pushed. However, we have time to allow her to develop her skills other ways, and she shows every inclination of wanting to do so. Why must you push her? All you are going to do is end up making her afraid of her power. She needs to embrace her power not fear it!” shouted Gavin.

“I know. I just get curious to see what she can do.” It sounded weak even to Justin.

“Stop being curious. Be her friend, be her adviser, teach her control and how to do things without hurting herself. What if it wasn’t you here? What if someone else were playing that game with her? Someone who couldn’t heal like you can? If it had just been her and I, I would have had to carry her to the infirmary. Who knows what she could have done? She could have blown us all to bits! Then where would we be?”

Gavin looked like he was about to say more but seemed to remember Darren was still standing there and closed his mouth.

“I’m sorry. I won’t let it happen again,” said Justin.

Gavin turned to Darren. “Shall we continue? I believe I was in process of showing you how real men fight,” he said with a grin.

Darren grinned back, and they began to fight. Darren let the goading comment pass mainly because Gavin was that much better and Darren wanted to learn. Also, his mind was partially thinking about what had just happened. He felt like there was some vital information he was missing, but at the same time he was not sure he really wanted to know what that piece of information was.

Justin walked back to his own room, chastising himself all the way. How could he be so stupid? That was twice in one day he had pushed her, and both times had backfired in ways he had not predicted. He knew he needed to work with her slowly. He just didn’t know how much time they had. He was halfway down the hallway when Eric caught up with him.

“What did you think you were doing?”

“It seemed innocent enough to start with, and I know it turned out horribly wrong. Don’t worry, I won’t do it again. Gavin already yelled at me and my inner monologue is doing a pretty good job of yelling at me as well.”

Eric nodded. He had known Justin a long time and knew that there was probably nothing he could say at this point that Justin had not already told himself.

“Quinn wants to talk to you,” Eric said in a low voice and walked off in another direction.

Justin sighed. He had definitely made a mess out of things today. He turned and started walking upstairs to the tower where Quinn’s offices were.

Dinner that evening was an interesting affair. The Dining Hall had been rearranged so that there was a head table on a dais where everyone could see. At it sat Althric and the members of his council that he had brought with him. He was decidedly average. Not too tall or short and somewhere between lean and well-muscled. He had mouse-brown hair, brown eyes, and no facial features that stood out. Lucy glanced in his direction and dismissed him.

Lucy felt much better after her shower and was chatting with Maya who also felt better after a long soak in her tub. Lucy noticed that she looked like she had taken more care than usual with her appearance tonight. She supposed that even if Maya had no intention of accepting an offer from Althric, she couldn’t help wanting to look her best, just in case. Gavin was shoveling large portions of steak and mushrooms into his mouth. Justin was quiet and though not picking at his food, also not eating with his usual zeal.

“Not much to look at, is he,” commented Gavin in between mouthfuls.

“Perhaps not,” replied Maya, “but he could still be kind.”

“You intend to meet him?” wondered Gavin.

“Yes.”

“What’s the point?” asked Gavin confused.

“The point is that he is a ruler. I am aware that I am currently going to Kinowenn, but that doesn’t have to be forever. I want to make a good impression on every ruler that comes through. It never hurts to be polite,” said Maya. “and it always feels good to get an offer to be queen, even if you intend to turn it down.”