Ember (7 page)

A wince crossed my face.

“Eve, trust me,” said Ikovos. “He's a good
guy.”

I forced another smile. “Alright.”

This got me an ear to ear grin.

“Sil, come on girl,” sang Jaden from the
trees. “I've got a carrot.”

The black horse whinnied immediately, quickly
followed by the other. Jaden's voice was close enough that he had
to of heard them.

Ikovos winked at me. “Let me do the
talking.”

If I have to.
I thought sarcastically
to myself.

Seconds later the dark-haired, dark-eyed boy
appeared through the trees. He hadn't changed since this morning,
same cloth shirt matched with leather pants. He looked up at us
then turned to the horses and gave them their promised vegetables.
After that he hopped up on the rock and sat down beside us.

A few seconds of awkward silence passed,
until I was ready to blurt out something about the condition of the
weather lately. Jaden saved me the embarrassment.

“Am I interrupting?” he asked, so
nonchalantly it seemed he didn't expect a response.

Ikovos narrowed his eyes. “Aren't you gonna
ask why Eve's still here.”

Jaden glanced at me and gave a slight,
possibly patronizing, smile, then turned back to Ikovos.

“Let me see. My wonderful, yet fancifully
disposed, friend and the most tolerably sentimental person I know
were put in charge of making a sweet—”

Sweet . . . ?

“—little—”

Little?!

“—doe-eyed—”

What!?!

“—girl—” my eyes narrowed “—go home when she
obviously didn't want to. . . . The only way I'd be asking
questions is if she wasn't here.”

Ikovos glowered. “Nice Jaden. Very
subtle.”

Jaden lifted his shoulders as he leaned back.
“The word isn't in my dictionary.”

“How surprising,” said Ikovos, sarcasm
thick.

I tried to hold back a laugh, resulting in a
short, throaty sound.

Jaden looked at me. “You think that's
funny?”

I instantly adopted a straight face and shook
my head.

“No, no, I see how it is. But you might want
to remember that I could tell Thoran you're here whenever I feel
like it.”

My eyes veered to Ikovos, but he was just
looking at Jaden. I watched him cross his arms and shake his head.
Unless I was mistaken he thought this was
funny.

I turned somewhat frantically back to
Jaden.

“Don't worry,” he said. “I'm not gonna tell
him . . .” I let out a breath “. . .
if
you can prove that
you can take care of yourself.”

My eyes narrowed darkly, or maybe I just
imagined they did.

I'm not outspoken about myself around many
people. But if someone challenges me, about holding my own no less,
I become something slightly beyond competitive.

I stood up and crossed my arms. This time I
was sure I had.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked,
sounding each syllable.

See, I can act confident!

But then Jaden stood up . . . he was taller
than me, and definitely not acting. Almost instantly my position
turned melty and my eyes started to wander.

He smiled knowingly, went to the edge of the
forest, and came back with two long sticks.

“Lose the robe,” he said.

I obeyed. I didn't like taking orders, but .
. . hmm . . . considering that I’d done it without question, maybe
I
did
like taking orders.

To the right of the plateau there was a tall
flat rock. I saw Ikovos move to sit on it, before Jaden threw one
of the makeshift staves. I caught it in front of me with both hands
and gave it a little spin, suddenly thankful for my one-month
obsession with bojutsu.

Jaden stared hard. “If you leave the ledge,
you're out. If I hit you in the head, chest, or stomach, you're
out. If I hit you anywhere else, it'll just hurt. The same goes for
me . . . except for maybe the last part.”

Nice.

He moved closer and started to circle.
“Ready?”

I gave Ikovos a glance and got a palms-up
response, then turned back to Jaden and nodded once.

Since meeting Cornelius and Thoran in the
Meoden dimension yesterday, this was the first time I felt like I
was on my own. Maybe even unwanted. . . . This used to be enough to
send me running.

I started to circle.

Not this time.

Immediately I sprinted to Jaden, then hit
right, left with the staff. He blocked both of these, before I spun
myself around for a roundhouse kick. He ducked, and I was left
open. I knew the risk, but the surprise on his face made the sharp
jab to my leg worth it.

Darn, he wasn't lying. That hurt.

He lunged at me again, but I dropped down and
side-stepped his staff then took a swing at his chest. The wood
only whipped through the air as Jaden back-flipped out of the
way.

Oh, give me a break!

I moved back to catch my breath while he
leveled out.

After the acrobatics it crossed my mind that
he could be holding back. I studied him. He was at least panting.
This fact made me momentarily proud of myself . . . of course it
was dwarfed by the knowledge of my inevitable defeat, but. . .
.

He moved closer and I spared a glance behind
me. Just a few yards to the edge over the water. When I turned back
he was right on top of me, barreling in with his staff, right,
left, right, left. His strength was too much. I quickly lost ground
as I parried.

The last blow sent my staff flying, and me
backwards, hands hitting the hard ground. I could feel the edge of
the rock. As he lifted his staff in the air, I tried to steady my
mind.

I don’t think he planned on hitting me fully.
But he obviously hadn’t anticipated me dropping back over the edge
like I did, and his mock strike was swift and hard enough to send
him falling into the pool below as I hung from my hands off the
ledge.

Ikovos was rolling on top of the high rock,
laughing.

I smiled, feeling pretty good about my
impromptu ingenious.

Just when I began to lift myself up onto the
ledge, I felt a hand wrap around my foot. I realized too late what
was happening and seconds plunged into the water.

When I came up for breath, Jaden was treading
the water next to me, staring straight-faced. I waited warily for
him to speak.

“
Well?
”

“Well, what?” he asked.

I continued to paddle. “Did I pass?”

A surprised smirk crossed his face. “Are you
kidding me? I didn't even think you knew how to fight, I was never
serious.”

My jaw dropped and I stared at him
incredulously.

“You guys okay?” yelled a half-cracking voice
from above.

“We're fine,” said Jaden, staring boldly at
me.

You're intolerable
, I fumed. Then gave
him a face that let him know my feelings, before turning around and
swimming back towards the shore.

~ ~ ~

THIRTY MINUTES LATER it was pitch dark and we
were all sitting around an orange fire on the ledge. Of course it
wasn't a real fire so I had a hard time
not
staring at it,
trying instead to focus on the conversation. A while ago Ikovos had
started telling Jaden about the circumstances resulting in my lack
of departure. As far as I could tell Jaden didn't seem to care.

“So then we came here to practice,” said
Ikovos, seemingly finished with his story. “I was showing her a
spell when you arrived.”

Jaden made no response, but continued instead
to gaze at the fire.

I looked behind me. As it had gotten darker
the pool had grown an even brighter shade of purple, glimmers of
pink reflecting at the edges. I stared at it a while, then turned
to Ikovos.

“Should we be back at a certain time?”

Jaden responded first. “Did you do any
spells?”

I cocked my head to him. “Me?”

“Yeah.”

“Umm . . . not yet.” My eyes dropped.
Great Evelyn, very impressive.
I looked back at him. He
always looked so serious.

“Do something for me.” It wasn't a question,
but I nodded anyways. “Blow. Right there.” He pointed at the
fire.

I cleared my throat. “Blow?”

I got an almost imperceptible nod.

“You know, Jaden,” started Ikovos, “if you
keep doing stuff like this, she's gonna think you're a serious
weirdo.”

Jaden gave him a face and turned back to me,
obviously awaiting my obedience.

Feeling enormously self-conscious. I leaned
forward, pursed my lips, and blew softly into the fire.

Nothing seemed unusual about the flames, just
a soft flutter before returning to normal.

I glanced up. Jaden was staring stern-faced
into the fire.

“What is it?” asked Ikovos. No reply.
“Jaden?”

Finally the boy looked up, meeting my eyes.
“Be in the study, tomorrow, one o'clock.”

I shook my head a little dumbfounded, then
nodded with shrugged shoulders. “Okay. . . .”

He jumped up and headed for the woods.

I turned to Ikovos for an explanation, but he
appeared just as confused.

“Oh and Ikovos?” Jaden turned to look at him.
“Don't waste time trying to teach her any spells.”

Ikovos stared hard for a second, then nodded
before Jaden disappeared into the trees.

I tried to hide the disappointment from my
face as I turned.

“I can't learn magic can I?”

His head was still facing the forest. He
looked to me. “Honestly, I don't know the answer to that.”
Which
means no.
“I do know Jaden though. He's got something going
on.”

I flexed my eyebrows.

Yeah, some way to get rid of me . . . maybe.
I guess I have no reason to doubt Ikovos. Anyways, Jaden isn't so
bad. . . .

I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Come on,” said Ikovos. “This fire won't last
long now that Jaden's gone.” He stood up. “Besides, Cornelius is
going to kill me for keeping you out so late.”

My eyebrows furrowed. “I asked you about
that.”

He smiled and jumped down after the
horses.

“Hey, don't just walk away. I could get in
trouble for this.” I jumped up, racing after him.

‘
The illumination spell is a base level
conjuration used by defense artisans. It has long been considered
the simplest of spells for either class, often used as a test to
see if one is adept in magic.’

I closed the book and leaned back into the
study couch.

When Ikovos had dropped me off earlier, I
began reading one of the glowing tomes. So far I'd concluded that
this
illumination spell was the same one Ikovos had cast on
his hand . . . the one I'd been attempting.

The easiest spell and I can't do it at
all.

Ikovos and Jaden's earlier reactions all fit
into place. I wasn't a magic user. I felt a tinge of sadness for a
moment, but soon pushed it aside.

There are other things I can do. I'll just
have to be better at them.

My head fell to the pillow.

Maybe tomorrow I'll start in combat
training.

I fell asleep wondering if I'd wake up back
in my bed at home, like the past two days had just been a dream . .
. if I'd ever be able to go back to the way things were if it
was.

*

I woke up and this time there was no one
knocking at the door. As far as I could tell the room had been
undisturbed through the night, so I tried to close my eyes and fall
back asleep.

No luck.

I got up, got dressed, and tied my hair into
a tight braid thingy. Destined to fall out due to a lack of
hair-ties.

I went back into the main room and stood
strumming my fingers together.
What to do, what to do. . .
.

Breakfast came to mind. Probably because I
hadn't eaten since yesterday afternoon. The only problem was
breakfast was far away, most likely somewhere I wasn't supposed to
go alone.

I strummed my fingers again and a picture of
a steaming mug of coffee beside a hot muffin popped into my
head.

Seconds later I was at the door, peering down
the hall to make sure it was clear.

It was, so I tip-toed to my right towards
what I remembered was the first doorway leading to the kitchen.

Everything was dead quiet. Outside it was
bright, some time past dawn. I was choosing between two possible
paths when suddenly I heard a door close ahead of me.

“I heard Demian got rid of another
challenger,” said a voice down the hall.

“Yeah, big surprise,” came another. They were
close. “The way he takes care of them, he'll wipe out the Meoden
for us.”

I backed against the wall and pulled my hood
over my head.

They walked into the room without seeing me,
and continued talking to the other end, I was too nervous to notice
what about. When they disappeared out of view I let out a huge sigh
and popped into the next hallway.

Uh oh
. . . .

Groups of boys were moving up and down
through the halls. I just stood there, frozen, as they brushed by,
my panicked face hidden under my hood. It took me a while to
realize no one was even noticing me. This made me think of my
sister.

She always used to tell me that people didn't
pay half as much attention to me as I worried they did. Whenever I
doubted her she would do something crazy to prove herself right.
Like break out into song with dozens of people around . . . it
never worked, everyone
would
notice her.

I smiled inwardly at the memory, still more
than subtly aware that I was surrounded by people.

In actuality I guess they didn’t look too
much different than me. Most were wearing robes. More than a couple
at my same height. The ages seemed to range from about eight to
twenty, with less on the higher end.

Taking a deep breath, I resumed walking down
the hall, attempting to act casual until I found my way to the
high-ceilinged, hundred cove, bed chamber. And on into the
kitchen.