Relentless (18 page)

“No climbing,” he repeated sadly. “Ralin no go up tree.”

Satisfied that Ralin understood his new boundaries—at least until he forgot all about them—Leesa lowered him to the ground. How long it might be before Ralin achieved some control over his magic she had no idea, but it couldn’t come soon enough for her peace of mind.

33. BUMPING

LEESA SAT AT THE TABLE
in the living room, gripped by a feeling she could neither understand nor explain. Her book of magic lay unopened in front of her—for the first time ever, she felt hesitant to lift the cover. She was troubled by a nagging sense that events were combining to drive her toward a dangerous future, and that by opening her book this afternoon she might be taking one more step in that uncertain direction.

It wasn’t just Ralin’s brush with disaster the day before, though that was almost surely part of it, as was his increasingly powerful yet uncontrolled magic. She wondered if perhaps some innate wizard sense might be warning her of portentous events to come, or if her feelings of foreboding were simply a normal reaction to the unpredictable way things were unfolding.

She felt foolish for hesitating. There was no way she wasn’t going to open her book, the same way she had done pretty much every day since Dominic had given it to her. Even when she was immersed in trying to master a recently introduced spell or power and was not seeking anything new, she still checked the book daily to see if IT had something it wanted her to learn.

So, she was going to open the book—that much was clear. Now was the perfect time to do it, with Ralin curled up on one of the cushioned chairs enjoying a rare nap. Rave lounged in the other chair beside him, where he could keep an eye on Ralin and watch Leesa at the same time.

She rested her fingers on the edge of the book’s cover. The aged leather felt familiar and comfortable. All she had to do was lift the cover and a few pages with it, and the book would reveal whether it had anything new for her or not. Yet still she hesitated.

“Is something wrong, sweetheart?” Rave asked from across the room.

Leesa wasn’t surprised that he might think so. He was always so in touch with her moods, and he had never seen her sit with the book for so long without opening it.

“Not really,” she replied, twisting her head around to look at him. “For some reason, I’m a bit hesitant today, that’s all. I’m not quite sure why. I guess I’m still a little shaken by Ralin’s fall yesterday, and by not knowing what to do about his magic.”

Rave came over and began kneading Leesa’s neck and shoulders. She sighed with contentment as his magical heat flowed into her muscles. She immediately began to relax.

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “Watching Ralin fall had to be scary from where you were. I knew I’d get there in time to catch him, but you had no way of knowing that.”

Leesa reached back and laid one of her hands atop Rave’s. “I thought my heart had stopped there for a minute,” she admitted.

Rave increased the pressure on Leesa’s shoulders slightly. “What does all that have to do with your book, though?”

“That’s the part I’m not sure about. I’ve just got this general sense of foreboding. I don’t really think it’s about my book at all, but who knows? There’s still so much about this wizardry stuff I don’t understand.”

Rave leaned forward and kissed the top of Leesa’s head. “Perhaps you should just open it up and see what it shows you. Maybe there’ll be nothing to worry about, and you’ll have one less thing on your mind.”

Leesa took her hand away from Rave’s and laid it back atop her book.

“I think you’re probably right.” She drew a deep breath and flipped the book open to a spot about halfway in.

No blank pages awaited her this time. The old parchment paper was filled with writing in the beautiful ancient waziri script. At the moment, she didn’t think there was anyone left alive besides her who could read the writing, except for Dominic of course, if he still survived somewhere inside the Necromancer’s table. Leesa wondered for a moment if she would ever be able to transfer her knowledge of the old tongue to Ralin the way Dominic had done for her. She pushed the thought away—she was getting way ahead of herself.

As she slowly scanned down the pages, reading the words as easily as if they were written in English, she could feel her eyes widen in wonder and surprise. This selection was the longest and most complicated the book had yet shown her, almost five pages in all. Still, she was able to get the gist of it on her first read. She read the whole thing a second time to be sure she was actually seeing what she thought she was.

“Anything worrisome in there?” Rave asked when she finally lifted her eyes from the book.

“No, not at all.” Leesa slid her chair back and turned it around so she was facing him. “It describes a power I never dreamed wizards possessed. I’m still not sure I actually believe it, even after all I’ve learned about magic.”

“What is it?” Rave asked, obviously intrigued by Leesa’s reaction.

“Dematerialization,” Leesa replied, the complex word almost tripping up on her tongue. “The book is telling me how to walk through walls!”

This time it was Rave’s eyes that widened in surprise. Clearly even he had never heard of such a thing.

“Really?” He thought about it for a few seconds. “I suppose that could come in handy if you run into a locked door and don’t have a volkaane around to rip it open for you.”

Leesa smiled, remembering how easily Rave had torn open the locked door to the armory building on campus when they left the Halloween party. That seemed so long ago now, but the memory of their wonderful first slow dance together remained fresh in her mind.

“It might have other uses,” she said, “though I have no idea what they could be right now. In any case, I don’t think it’s going to be very easy to master.”

“I can think of a few other spells and powers which initially fit that description,” Rave reminded her. “The air shield, for instance. That one took you forever to get good at, but look how easily you can whip up shields now.”

Rave was correct, of course. “You’re right. Very little about magic comes easily.” Leesa glanced over at Ralin, who was still curled up asleep on the chair. “Since it’s probably going to take quite a bit of practice, I may as well get started. This is one new power I can try right here inside the house. Give me a minute. I want to read this over another time or two.”

She turned her chair back around and started reading. The book made walking through walls—or any other solid surface—sound easier than she guessed it actually was. The main thing was to remember that all things, including wizards, were made up of matter and space, and that when you got down to the level of the tiniest particles, there was a whole lot more space than matter, even in the densest of objects. So in the most basic of terms, walking through a wall simply meant aligning your particles with the spaces in the wall, and vice versa. The key was in creating the proper alignment, which is where magic came in.

Leesa read through the pages a couple of times to make sure she understood everything. Finally, she was ready. She left the book open on the table and stood up, turning around to face Rave.

“If this works, I’ll be in the bedroom in a few moments, without having to go through the doorway. Wish me luck.”

“Good luck, my love. Can I make one small suggestion before you begin?”

Leesa was a bit surprised. Rave seldom made suggestions about her magic, unless she was struggling with something.

“Sure, go ahead.”

“I suggest you walk slowly.” Rave flashed her a grin. “In case it doesn’t work the first time, I don’t want you smashing that beautiful face into the wall.”

Leesa laughed. “Well, I had been thinking of getting a running start,” she replied playfully, “but I guess you’re right. Slow it is.”

She walked toward the wall, stopping when she was only an inch or two from the painted surface. She resisted the urge to reach out with her hand first to test how solid it was. Her book had warned against such behavior, saying that testing in that manner displayed an uncertain mindset. Being confident you could do it was one of the keys to succeeding. As usual, a good visualization was another key.

Surprisingly, the visualization was not all that difficult. Leesa had seen people appear to pass through walls in any number of movies, including Harry Potter and The Matrix. She liked the image of Harry disappearing into the brick wall of Platform 9 3/4, so she decided to use that. It had the added advantage of being wizard magic, even though the magic was fictional—as far as she knew, anyway. She closed her eyes and visualized the scene from the movie a couple of times.

When the image was clear in her mind, she stepped confidently forward and promptly bumped her nose into the wall. The rest of her body thumped against the plaster a split second later.

She stepped back, gently rubbing her sore nose. At an atomic level, the wall might well be more space than solid matter, but she clearly had failed to align her matter with the open spaces in the wall. Was this really possible, she wondered? A screen door was much more space than solid, but no one seemed to be walking through them—crashing through one now and then, maybe, but not walking through.

“Good thing you were going slowly,” Rave said from behind her.

Leesa turned around. She could tell that Rave was trying hard to stifle a grin.

“Good thing,” she agreed, smiling. She shook off her doubts and the screen door image. “But if at first you don’t succeed….”

She spun back toward the wall, recalling her Harry Potter visual once again and telling herself she could do this.
I believe
, she thought.
I believe I can do this. I can walk right through this wall
.

She stepped resolutely forward and thumped into the wall a second time, bumping her nose and face even harder than before.

Familiar young laughter sounded behind her. Resisting the urge to rub her nose again, she turned around and saw Ralin had awakened. He was perched on the edge of his chair, watching her with a big smile on his face.

“Mommy bump,” he said, and then started laughing again.

Leesa smiled at her son. At least someone was enjoying her failures.

“Yes, Ralin, Mommy bumped.”

Ralin slid down from the chair and crossed over toward Leesa. She thought he was coming over to give her a hug, but he walked right past her, not stopping until he’d plowed face first into the wall and then fallen back onto his rump. Laughing, he looked up at her.

“Ralin bump, too.”

Rave was laughing now as well. “See what kind of example you’re setting for your son? It’s a good thing you’re not trying to fly off the roof or something.”

“Hush, you,” Leesa scolded, but she couldn’t stop herself from grinning. She WAS going to have to start watching what she did in front of Ralin, she knew. Practicing her magic without him around was unrealistic, since she needed to be nearby to shield him in case his magic erupted. The best she could do was to be careful, explaining what she was doing and hoping he understood. She reached down and picked him up from where he was still sitting on the floor, hoisting him up into her arms. She hugged him, then extended her arms so she could see his face.

“No more bumping, Ralin,” she admonished. “Mommy bump, yes. Ralin bump, no. Understand?”

Ralin nodded solemnly. “Ralin no bump,” he repeated, then let out another long giggle.

Leesa wasn’t sure whether her instruction had gotten through to him or not. She decided there was no time like the present to find out, while her words were still fresh in his mind.

She carried him over to the chair he’d been sleeping on and set him down. Rave sat down beside his son on the other chair as Leesa moved back toward the wall.

“We’ll sit here and watch Mommy, okay?” he said to Ralin.

“Watch Mommy,” Ralin replied, his eyes glued on Leesa. “Mommy funny.”

Leesa smiled again, hoping she wouldn’t be funny this time. She cleared her mind and began her preparations from the beginning. When she felt ready, she stepped toward the wall again. For the third time, her face flattened against the plasterboard.

“Mommy funny!” Ralin laughed from behind her.

Leesa sighed and shook her head. At least he hadn’t gotten up off his chair to mimic her again.

34. JUST PASSING THROUGH

FOR THE NEXT FIVE DAYS
, Leesa continued to try to walk through the living room wall. And for the next five days she continued to thump into the plaster wallboard. She was convinced her nose was growing flatter and wider from the constant punishment, like some grizzled old prizefighter. She never seriously considered giving up, however.

Ralin continued to find her antics amusing, watching from his chair and laughing or giggling every time she bumped into the wall. “Mommy bump” became his favorite saying. Leesa didn’t mind—she was just glad he hadn’t tried to copy her again.

After the first few failed attempts, Rave didn’t find it quite so amusing. He hated seeing Leesa crash face first into the wall over and over again. If she really wanted to get through the wall, he would be happy to break through it for her.

“Are you sure you need to learn this trick?” he asked after watching her bump into the wall for the fifth time today. “I know it took time to master some of your other magic, but I didn’t have to watch you hurting yourself learning any of those.”

Leesa smiled as she rubbed her nose again. “Believe me, I’ve been asking myself that same question. My book showed this to me—it must have a reason.”

“I hope so. Because I’m getting close to smashing through that wall for you, just so you don’t have to bump into it anymore.”

Leesa crossed over to where Rave was sitting and kissed him on the forehead.

“That’s very gallant of you…but I think it misses the point.”

“Ralin want kiss, too,” Ralin said from his chair.

Leesa sidestepped over to Ralin and gave him a much longer kiss on the forehead.

“Mmmmm,” she said. “I’m glad you do. Mommy loves you. You can have all the kisses from Mommy you want.” She turned her head toward Rave. “That goes for you, too, handsome.”

Rave grinned.

“Right now, though,” Leesa continued, “I want to try this one more time.”

She backed away from her two handsome men and stared at the recalcitrant wall, trying to figure out what she was doing wrong. Each day before she made her first attempt to pass through it, she read the relevant pages in her book. She was certain she understood every word, every nuance, yet something was keeping her from succeeding.

She headed back toward the wall, stopping one step away. Staring hard at the painted surface, she imagined it being mostly air, with tiny particles buzzing around giving it the look and feel of being solid. So why couldn’t she pass through all that space? What was stopping her?

She thought back to the explanation in the book, going over every sentence in her mind. Something about the part that warned about testing the obstacle with her hand gave her pause. She hadn’t done that even once, but she wondered if stopping close to wall and then moving forward slowly was a similar behavior in some way. Didn’t her caution display a lack of confidence in her ability to succeed? She thought the answer was probably yes. The time to change that was now.

She turned and walked away from the wall.

“This is the one,” she said to Rave confidently. “I’m going to walk through that wall right now. Just watch me.”

Saying the words so definitely felt good. More importantly, it felt right. She knew she was going to need more than confident words though. She was going to have to put her money where her mouth was. Or, more accurately, she was going to have to put her nose and face there.

Rave noticed the change in Leesa’s attitude immediately. He resisted saying, “Be careful.”

“Good luck,” he said instead.

“Luck’s got nothing to do with it,” Leesa replied, smiling.

She turned and strode determinedly across the room. Her pace didn’t slow one bit as she approached the wall. If she failed, it was going to hurt, but she wasn’t going to fail. Not this time. She was ready now. She had thought she was ready before, but realized she hadn’t been fully committed to the task. This time there would not be the slightest speck of hesitancy.

When she reached the spot where she should have contacted the wall, her vision went momentarily blank and she felt a brief instant of lightheadedness. She blinked, and found herself in the bedroom. Turning, she looked behind her. The bedroom wall appeared the same as it always did. She had done it!

She didn’t waste any time in self-congratulations. Wanting to strike while the iron was hot, she spun around and walked toward the wall again. The same lightheadedness and momentary blank vision hit her, and then she was back in the living room. The brief loss of vision and dizziness were obviously the effects of passing through what seemed to be solid matter.

“Wow,” Rave said, his expression filled with admiration and wonder. “You did it. Congratulations.”

Ralin looked less pleased. “Mommy no bump,” he complained.

Leesa smiled and picked her son up from his chair. “Nope. Mommy no bump.” She kissed him on the cheek.

“What did it look like from where you were sitting?” she asked Rave. “Did I disappear when I dematerialized?”

Rave shook his head. “Not exactly, if you mean what I think you mean. You just walked into the wall like you were heading into a thick bank of fog or something. For a moment I could see just your back while the rest of you was swallowed up. The last thing to go was your heel. Coming back was just the opposite. I saw your face and foot at about the same time, and then the rest of you came through.”

Leesa smiled. It sounded just like when Harry Potter walked into his brick wall, only this time it wasn’t done with special effects. It was done with real magic.

“What did it feel like?” Rave asked. “Did it hurt at all?”

Leesa put Ralin down. He promptly hurried across the room to the spot where his mother had vanished and then reappeared. He ran his hands slowly over the surface, as if checking to be sure the wall was solid and real.

“There was a brief instant where my vision went blank and I got a bit dizzy for a moment, but that was it. It felt a little strange, for sure, but there was no pain at all. ”

Rave smiled. “I’m no expert on that kind of magic, but I imagine walking through a wall like that would have to feel at least a little bit strange.”

Ralin let out a sudden, loud yelp. His parents’ heads whipped around in unison.

Ralin looked fine. As Leesa processed the sound he had made, she realized the yell was one of surprise, not pain. Still, she hurried across the room to him. Rave was right behind her.

She recognized the cause of Ralin’s outburst immediately—his left arm was buried in the wall up past his wrist. The wallboard around it was undamaged.

Leesa groaned as her brain put the unexpected pieces together. It seemed that Ralin’s magic had somehow inadvertently mimicked her own, allowing him to stick his hand through the wall in a partial dematerialization.

While she stared at her son’s arm, Rave raced through the doorway into the bedroom. He was back almost before Leesa realized he was gone.

“His hand is okay,” he reported. “It’s sticking out into the bedroom, but it looks normal. The wall isn’t damaged either, just like out here.”

Ralin looked up at Leesa with a playful smile. “Ralin stuck,” he said, and then he giggled.

Leesa forced herself to smile back. She was glad he was taking it so well—much better than his mother was, for sure—but she wondered how long that would last. Eventually, he would get tired of being stuck.

“Any ideas?” she asked Rave.

Rave looked down at Ralin’s arm, thinking. “One, maybe. But I’ll defer to you. This is wizard magic.”

“I know. I guess we could wait and see if his magic gets him out of this the way it got him into it, but I don’t think I want to count on that.”

“Ralin stuck,” Ralin said again. This time, he didn’t giggle. His expression was becoming one of frustration at not being able to get unstuck.

Leesa rubbed the top of her son’s head. “We know, sweetheart. Be patient.” She looked up at Rave. “I don’t think waiting is going to be an option much longer. Let’s hear your idea.”

“I can use my fire to cut him out.” Rave reached out and traced a circle on the wall an inch or so wider than Ralin’s forearm, showing Leesa what he meant to do.

“Is it safe to burn so close to his skin? Maybe you should cut a bigger hole, to start.”

“It’s perfectly safe. I can focus my fire just like Kaila did when she cut into you.”

“Ralin stuck.” The frustration had now reached Ralin’s voice. Leesa didn’t want him pulling hard on his arm, unsure of what might happen if he did.

“We know, sweetheart. Daddy’s going to get you out. Just hold still for another minute.” Leesa looked up at Rave. “Go ahead. Hurry up… but be careful.”

Rave smiled. “Always.”

Leesa put her hand on Ralin’s shoulder. “Hold still, honey.” Her maternal instincts compelled her to repeat the caution, even though she doubted Ralin could move his arm if he tried.

Rave called up his fire on his right index finger only, forming the blue flame into a tightly focused point that reminded Leesa of an acetylene torch. The wall sizzled as he cut a slow, precise circle around Ralin’s arm. The smell of burning wallboard filled the room.

When the circle was complete, Leesa gently eased Ralin’s arm away from the wall. His hand came out easily, leaving his lower forearm encircled by a thick band of white plaster that looked a bit like a sweatband. Ralin looked down at it curiously.

“Arm white,” he said with a puzzled expression on his young face.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Leesa soothed. “Mommy will get it off.”

She began carefully breaking pieces of the band off from Ralin’s arm. The soft wallboard crumbled easily, but she kept her pace slow. There was no need to hurry, and she didn’t want to risk injuring her son.

Finally, she was done. The last solid piece had crumbled to the floor. She rubbed Ralin’s skin, removing the remaining splotches of plaster dust. Not all of it would come off, however. She wet her fingers with her tongue and rubbed harder. She couldn’t feel them, but the white speckles remained stubbornly in place.

“Uh, oh,” she mumbled.

Rave looked at her questioningly. “What is it?”

Leesa rubbed at a white spots one more time, demonstrating their stubborn refusal to disappear.

“I think pieces of the wall are still intermingled with Ralin’s arm.”

“Is that a problem?” Rave looked down at Ralin’s face. The boy appeared unfazed. “Ralin doesn’t seem bothered.”

Leesa drew in a deep breath. “I don’t know if it’s a problem or not. But I don’t think it can be a good thing.”

It didn’t take long for them to find out it was definitely not a good thing.