Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin (13 page)

This place was old, older than any place Ash had ever been. She felt the power emanating from the stones as she stepped inside the circle and stood, her face to the sky, her arms held wide.

“I am Caymin.”

Back at the cottage, Enat sat by the fire. She had awakened to find the girl gone, but she was not worried. A ripple of energy moved through the air, moved through the very earth. She lifted her head.
Caymin
. It suited her, but Enat knew her heart would always have a special place for the girl named Ash.

CHAPTER 8

An Arrow Through the Heart

F
or two days after Bealtaine, Caymin avoided being with the others. Enat let her be, allowing her time to walk in the forest or just sit quietly, lost in her thoughts.

“It is strange,” Caymin confided. “I feel exactly the same and completely different – all in one. How is that?”

“Not so strange,” Enat said. “You’re the same as you’ve always been, but you know something about yourself now that you never knew before. That’s bound to change how you see yourself.”

“Will it change how others see me?”

Enat considered. “It may. You are no longer the nameless orphan, raised by badgers.”

Caymin frowned. “But I do not wish to leave my badger family behind, as if they never existed.”

“No.” Enat smiled. “You will now have two families to think on. You are blessed to have been loved by both.”

That thought warmed Caymin as she walked through the forest. She came to a stream and crouched down. Moving her hand in a circle over the current, she murmured a calming charm and a portion of the water became as still as ice. She was pleased to notice that she felt almost no energy leave her. Leaning over the water, she gazed at her reflection. She nearly didn’t recognize the face staring back at her. She had asked Enat to keep her hair short, cutting it every moon with her silver knife, but her face was rounder, fuller than it had been the first time she’d seen herself. Her leggings were shorter, so she knew she was growing. The scars, though, were the same. And always would be.

Beanna flew down and perched on her shoulder.

“Caymin, is it?”

“How did you know?”
Caymin released the charm and the stream gurgled on its way. She got to her feet.

“The whole forest heard.”
The crow tilted her head, looking at Caymin with her bright eye.
“How did you find your name?”

“Enat guided me on a spiritwalk. I saw my village the night the badgers saved me, and then I saw my mother holding me. She called me by name.”

Beanna’s head bobbed up and down.
“Powerful.”

Caymin thought about this.
“It was powerful. A powerful memory.”

“No. I meant you.”

Caymin stopped so suddenly that Beanna had to flap her wings to keep her balance.
“I do not understand.”

“There is strong magic in this forest,”
Beanna said.
“Small things like the magic you have been learning, these do not affect the forest. But the night you claimed your name, all heard it. All felt it.”

“What does that mean?”

“I do not know, Caymin who was Ash. But it means something.”

Beanna pushed off from Caymin’s shoulder, cawing as she flew away.

When Caymin got back to the cottage, Enat was waiting for her. “Is it time?”

Caymin nodded. “It is.”

Enat held out a bowl of porridge. “Eat first. Would you like for me to go with you? To help you tell them?”

Caymin ate a couple of bites. “No. I am ready to tell them.”

“Very well. I’ll see you this evening.”

When Caymin got to the village, she found the others gathered with Neela and Ivar in the meetinghouse.

“Welcome back, Caymin,” Neela said with a nod.

“Sit here.” Cíana slid over on the bench to make room.

Caymin sat and could feel the curious glances of the others as Ivar continued talking about how to create a summoning spell.

“It’s similar to levitating something,” he was saying. “But it takes more concentration to draw something to you. Of course, the greater the distance and the larger the object, the greater the strength it takes, so take care before you think about using this spell. Once you summon something, the spell will hold until the object comes to you, and if you deplete your energy in doing so, you will either have to draw from another source, or it will kill you.”

He called Daina forward to try summoning a scroll from the far end of the room. They watched as she frowned, muttering the words. For long heartbeats, nothing happened, but then the scroll slid off the shelf and moved through the air to her waiting hand. Daina looked around proudly as the others gasped and cheered. Diarmit tried next, screwing up his face as he tried.

“He looks like he’s laying an egg,” Gai whispered from Cíana’s other side.

Cíana elbowed him, trying not to laugh.

All Diarmit succeeded in doing was getting the scroll to flop over.

“Enough.” Ivar stepped forward. “You’ll try again another time.” He pointed. “Gai.”

Gai strode forward and, almost lazily, murmured the incantation, holding out his hand. The scroll immediately flew to him. He handed it to Ivar and sat back down. Cíana had to murmur the incantation three times before the scroll came to her. Caymin sat until, at last, Neela pointed to her.

She got up. Though she had quickly learned to control the elements with things like the calming charm she’d used on the stream, she had never been able to get anything to levitate before and was not looking forward to failing at this task with everyone watching. Concentrating, she whispered the words of the spell. For a moment, nothing happened, as she’d expected, but then, she felt a curious tingle of energy leaving her. The scroll flew so quickly through the air that she was unprepared for it. It hit her in the chest and knocked her backward.

The others burst out laughing as Neela stepped forward and pulled her to her feet.

“Well, that’s one way of doing it,” she said as she brushed Caymin’s backside off.

Dazed, Caymin sat back down. Like at the stream, the fatigue had passed, replaced by a feeling of euphoria. She’d never felt as powerful doing magic before.

When Ivar dismissed them, the others crowded around her.

“Tell us what happened, Ash.” Diarmit grinned. “Sorry. I mean, Caymin.”

She told them of Enat guiding her through her spiritwalk the night of Bealtaine, of seeing her village and her mother, and learning her name.

“You really saw all that?” Gai asked.

“I did.”

“We felt it,” Cíana said. “We didn’t know what it was, but we felt it. Almost as if the earth shivered.”

“Maybe you’ll be able to channel your magic more strongly now,” Diarmit said. “Now that you have your true name.”

Caymin rubbed her backside. “If it gets any stronger, I may need to carry a pillow with me everywhere.”

“Show me again.”

Caymin leaned over the miniature map of Éire she had copied onto a spare bit of parchment. She was trying to figure out where everyone was from. Enat had shown her approximately where the badger sett was, and the village nearby, located in the northcentral part of the island, not too far from the lake they had rowed upon. She had also shown Caymin where she’d grown up, in her fishing village on the northwest coast, in a sheltered bay. Cíana and Diarmit were both from the southern part of the island. Cíana’s family lived on a lake, and Diarmit’s were cattle farmers, living in the hills.

“Ivar came for both us of us,” Diarmit said. “I was to begin schooling with one of the monks near our village. The only magical thing I’d ever done was when my little sister fell into the river, suddenly she was with me on the bank. I couldn’t remember how I’d done it. But Ivar said I should come be trained.”

Daina was from the north, where Méav and Niall were also from. “When I was old enough, the mage near our village brought me to meet Neela.”

Gai’s family lived near the west coast.

“My father’s keep has held off invaders for ages,” he told them. “These clans are all loyal to us.” He pointed to the entire southwestern part of the island.

“How could they protect that much coast?” Cíana asked. “Invaders could come in anywhere.”

Gai shook his head. “Much of it is steep cliffs, straight down into the sea. It’s said the cliffs used to be protected by dragons, but I don’t believe that.”

Caymin looked up, frowning. “What are dragons?”

Diarmit went to the shelves and shuffled through the scrolls there. “This is a dragon.” He unrolled the scroll to reveal a brightly colored drawing of a fantastic creature with enormous wings and flames erupting from its mouth. “But they don’t exist.”

“Is not that what you said about the giant elk?” Caymin asked.

Cíana laughed. “She’s right. Who knows? It could be dragons do exist.”

“Well, if they do, I’ve yet to see one,” Gai said.

“Enough of this,” Diarmit said. “Let’s play a game.”

Caymin looked up from the map. “What is ‘a game’?”

A short while later, she and the others were on the sparring ground, chasing a small leather ball about the size of her fist with sticks, called hurleys, that looked like long spoons, flared on one end, trying to hit the ball between two of the archery targets. Diarmit used his bulk to shoulder others out of his way as he worked the ball along the ground with his stick. He passed the ball to Caymin. She saw Gai coming toward her, and she quickly dodged, using Daina as a block, and slapped the ball toward the targets.

“Yes!” Diarmit yelled, thumping Caymin on the back as the ball rolled through.

“Lucky,” Gai said, frowning.

Caymin grinned, but the grin soon faded as Gai had the ball, feinting left and right, easily out-maneuvering Caymin and Daina to send the ball between the opposite set of targets.

“Ha!” He shouted, thumping his fist against his chest.

They played until they were breathless, and then flopped on the ground, panting.

“Let’s do something that requires real skill,” Gai said, sitting up.

“Like what?” Cíana looked at him.

“Like shooting arrows at a moving target.”

Gai went to the storehouse where the weapons were kept and emerged with a handful of bows and a quiver full of arrows.

Diarmit sat up. “What are you going to shoot at?”

“It’s no challenge to hit these straw targets,” Gai said, stringing one of the bows. A sly smile slid onto his face as he nocked an arrow. “How about you?”

He drew and let the arrow fly. Diarmit yelled and jerked away. The arrow pierced the ground where just a moment before Diarmit’s hand had been.

Cíana stormed over and shoved Gai in the chest. “That’s not funny!”

Diarmit jumped to his feet, his face a furious red. “Why did you do that?”

“I didn’t hurt you,” Gai said, but his eyes glittered. He looked around. “If I can’t shoot at him, maybe…”

Just at that moment, a pheasant exploded from a nearby bush with a loud flurry of wings. Gai loosed another arrow, catching the pheasant through the breast.

“NO!”

Caymin ran to the bird which lay panting where it had plummeted to the ground, its beak opening and closing as its wings fluttered against the ground. Blood pooled under it. The others hurried over, and she looked up with tears in her eyes. “Why?”