Firewalk (48 page)

“All right,” Terralt said at last. “You’ve piqued my curiosity, if nothing else. But my guards will be right outside the door of the forge.” He grinned. “And I believe I’ll leave Randon with them, just to be certain.”

Randon flashed Kayli a worried glance, and Kayli nodded reassuringly.

“All right,” Randon said. “I’ll stay with your guards. You’ll be in more danger than I will, anyway, Terralt.”

Terralt was not lying; there were, indeed, six guards outside the door, and they fell in silently behind Randon, Terralt, and Kayli. Terralt stopped at the door of the forge.

“We’re going in,” he told the guards. “My brother will wait out here with you.”

Kayli took a deep breath as she stepped into the cool familiarity of the forge, but she felt no reassurance. A fire-scrying was powerful magic the like of which she had never yet attempted, and she was so tired, so drained.

Terralt closed the door behind him, then shrugged.

“Well?” he challenged. “Are you going to show me something, or merely roast me to cinders?”

“Be patient, Terralt,” Kayli said wearily. “Please. You would not wish me to rush, believe me.”

Her long hours of meditation at least had been of some benefit; when she focused on the torches, one after the other, and the firepit, each obediently flared alight, neatly and without excessive energy.

Kayli paged quickly through the grimoire, making no attempt to keep Terralt from looking over her shoulder (she doubted he could read the ornate Bregondish anyway) as she studied the ritual. It was a simple enough procedure; in the normal course of her study she would have mastered it soon. But it required great concentration, and Kayli wondered if her weary body and her wearier mind were capable of that kind of focus. At last she closed the book and turned to Terralt

“Before we begin,” she said quietly, “I must show you something. Something you should have known long ago.” She extended her hands. “Give me your hands.”

Gazing steadily at Kayli, Terralt held out his hands palm up. As Kayli took his. hands, she felt that same surge flow up her arms, and she saw Terralt jump slightly. Kayli nodded. “Watch,” she said quietly, “but do not move.” She brought his hands together to form a bowl shape, cupping her own hands outside of his.

The small flame jumped into life in Terralt’s palms, and if not for Kayli’s grasp of his hands, he would have jerked away. He breathed in sharply, then stood quietly as the small flame grew to fill the cup of his fingers. Kayli sustained the little fire for a few moments, then released her own energies, taking her hands away. The small flame burned on a little longer between Terralt’s fingers, then slowly died.

“Randon was not the only one who carried the gift of magic,” Kayli said softly. “That was what you felt when we touched, the waking of your own magic as it recognized mine. I am sorry it is too late to train your gift, but still you should know, lest you mistake the touch of magic for—”  She hesitated. “For something else.”

“I see.” Terralt stood silently, staring down into his empty hands. “I see.” He looked back up at Kayli. “And is that the proof you wanted to show me?”

“No.” Kayli knelt beside the firepit. “I wanted you to know that you have at least a touch of the gift, because when I cast my fire-scrying, I will relinquish my vision to you.”

”Vision?” Terralt squatted beside her.

“I will create and sustain the spell as long as I can,” Kayli said, praying that the fire-scrying ritual could be used as she said, “but you will choose the vision. Concentrate on what you wish to know, past or present, but I am not yet powerful enough to reach into the future.” She turned to Terralt. “I am trusting you with my power, that you will know I conjure no illusion to deceive you. To see the proof of our words, you need only look for it.”

Turning back to the firepit, Kayli began her chant, wishing fleetingly that she could simply
do
it as Kairi had done. At least releasing the tension from her body was no effort; she was, in fact, perilously near the end of her strength. But she had dealt with hunger, thirst, and exhaustion before, and now she was grateful for the rigors of her training, the fasting, the nights when sleep was not allowed, the endless meditations.

An image began to form in the flames, and Kayli closed her eyes; if she watched, she might inadvertently direct the vision. She heard a murmur of amazement from Terralt next to her, but ignored it as best she could, sharpening her focus on the firepit not in front of her, but within her, feeding the flames steadily, building them high, yet keeping them tightly confined. The fire within and without filled her body with a restless heat, but Kayli ignored it. She did not know what Terralt saw, but from time to time she heard startled exclamations, and once the sound of Terralt’s knuckles cracking as he clenched his fists hard.

Kayli sustained the vision as long as she could, but when she felt the last of her strength fade, she released it. Better to lose the spell than for it to go awry.

When she opened her eyes, Terralt had turned his back to the firepit; Kayli could see his shoulders shaking slightly. Wearily Kayli pushed herself to her feet and laid her hand on his shoulder; her energy was at such a low ebb that she felt only the slightest tingle pass between them.

“I don’t know why,” Terralt said dully. “I don’t know why I had to watch her die again.” He forced his voice to steadiness. “I suppose to remind myself that once there was something, someone, that was really mine.”

“There are four such people upstairs in the nursery,” Kayli said softly. “And it is their safety, their future, you must think of now.”

Terralt stood where he was, shaking his head slowly. Suddenly he strode to the door, jerking it open; he dragged Ran-don back into the room by one arm, closing the door after him.

“All right,” Terralt said, gazing steadily into Randon’s eyes. “I’ll make you one last offer. Take it or leave it”

“What’s that?” Randon asked warily.

Terralt sighed; then he gave Randon his old mocking grin.

“The two of you go upstairs and take your thrones,” he said, chuckling wearily. “And I lead the army. North.”

Randon raised one eyebrow.

“Are you sure?” he said slowly.

“I’m sure.” Terralt glanced at Kayli. “Very sure. I think this lady’s too much for me after all. Keep her and welcome.”

“All right,” Randon said, clasping Terralt’s hand. “I can live with that.”

Chapter Seventeen

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Randon asked for the tenth time. For the tenth time Kayli said patiently, “I cannot know, Randon, until I try. And I cannot try until you let me concentrate.”

“I thought you said it was too late for Terralt and me to learn magic,” Randon said, and Kayli bit back an impatient retort.

“It
is
too late,” she said slowly, “and Terralt will
not
use magic. It is only a variation of the fire-scrying spell, something like the speaking crystal you have seen. But Terralt cannot use a speaking crystal, nor can he fire-scry, and so I will be the one contacting him. It will not be difficult; I am well acquainted with the feel of his energies—”

Randon made an undefinable sound, and Kayli glanced over to see him grinning ruefully.

“Sorry,” he said. “I know what you mean. Go on, and I’ll be quiet. We need to know what’s happening at the border.”

Kayli sighed and began the painstaking task of building her scrying field one more time. She had practiced this spell variation a number of times with Randon over the past days, but she was far more comfortable with him—and, of course, he was not separated from her by leagues and leagues. She’d had little time to work with his brother, and there was Terralt’s distrust of magic to overcome. Still, she reminded herself, Terralt’s magical energies were far stronger than Randon’s, and his ability to concentrate was better.

It was futile, she had decided, to attempt to visualize a path across Agrond to Terralt; first, she was unfamiliar with Agrond and could not easily picture it, and second, neither she nor Randon knew exactly where Terralt was now. According to the messages he had sent by messenger bird, he ranged over a large territory, directing smaller forces within the main army.

So Kayli did not attempt to visualize the path to Terralt. Instead she pictured herself in a dark room, looking all around her for the glow of a particular fire. Sparks flickered here and there all around her—those were mages, she realized, or citizens with traces of the gift—but none of them bore any resemblance to Terralt’s rather hard, driving energies. She enlarged the radius of her search, stretched her awareness thinner and farther. At the very limit of her range she felt a pang of recognition, and she focused her attention on that particular spark.

There you are,
Terralt thought, and Kayli cringed at the intimacy of that touch.
I
admit I doubted this would work.

“Can you maintain this focus?” Kayli asked.

I’ll try. It makes my head hurt
Kayli got the distinct impression of a chuckle.
Well, Randon and I are used to these headaches. Here, I’ll show you what’s happening.

Then there was nothing.

“Terralt?”

What? Can’t you see?

“No.” Kayli sighed with disappointment. “I have not enough contact to see through your eyes.”

“What’s happening?” Randon asked worriedly. Kayli raised a hand to silence him.

All right, then. I’ve got six companies of foot soldiers at the front, and crossbowmen behind the tree line. They’ve stopped sending their horse archers out since we dug spiked pits all across the front. But my soldiers can’t advance a step either. They’re just too good with those bows. They’ve got supplies arriving, too, it looks like, at intervals. Not much magic so far, but my troops are spread very thin, and we’re taking heavy casualties. Ask Randon whether I shouldn’t pull my western companies back.

Kayli relayed the message slowly, to make sure she repeated it correctly, and Randon shook his head.

“No. They’re testing his line, looking for a weak spot,” he said. “If we let any of them get around from the west, they’ll attack from the rear.”

I heard that,
Terralt thought.
But I can’t hold the men spread so thin for much longer. There’s no cover to the west, and they don’t want to be there, defending Bregondish territory. When can I have more troops here?

“Not for another three days,” Randon said in reply to Kayli’s question. “They’re moving as quickly as they can.”

Can’t Stevann just Gate them here, like he did me?
Terralt thought, and Kayli could hear a note of desperation in his thoughts.
I tell you, we can’t hold this much longer. If it weren’t for the cover of the trees, they’d have beaten through before now. Even our crossbows can’t get the range on those damned longbows, and they’ve got three men to our one. If we can’t
—
wait. There’s a message from the field.

For a moment the contact wavered; then it vanished entirely. Kayli groped desperately for the lost thread, and at last she felt Terralt’s energies again. This time it was much more difficult to reach him, and she could feel the strength draining from her like water from a punctured waterskin.

They’ve sighted another force approaching from the west,
Terralt thought, and now his thoughts were leaden with despair.
They‘re all mounted and advancing fast. I can see them now. There’s thousands of them. I don’t think we can even pull back fast enough to
—

“Wait!” Kayli said, her heart pounding. “Are their spear tips leaf-shaped or oval?”

They’re still almost a mile away,
Terralt thought irritably.
I
can’t see their spear tips.

“A banner, then,” Kayli pressed. “Are they carrying a banner?”

A moment’s pause, then:
Yes. But I can’t make it out.

“Do not fire on them!” Kayli said quickly. “You must tell your men not to fire! Sarkonds carry no banner. Those are Bregondish troops, your allies!”

I
think you’re right.
Terralt’s thoughts took on an excited tone.
Yes, they’re turning north, taking up positions along our western edge. Give me a moment—I’m going to give orders for our troops to fall back toward the east, get out of their way.

“Wait!” Kayli said, but it was too late; the contact was gone again as abruptly as before. She sagged forward against the stones of the forge, nearly exhausted.

”What happened?” Randon said insistently, laying his hand on her shoulder. “Is something wrong?”

“I—I lost the contact between us,” Kayli panted. The room was starting to swim around her. “It is—-difficult to maintain. A great company of Bregondish troops arrived to join with him. He broke away from me to give orders.”

“Can you reach him again?” Randon pressed. “I need to know what’s happening.”

Kayli lay where she was on the hard stones of the forge floor, panting. She could feel the heat of the fire on the top of her head, the tips of her fingers, and that heat was a tiny but sweet pulse of energy flowing down through her body.

“The fire,” Kayli whispered. “I need the fire.”

“You need to be closer to the fire?” Randon stood, slid his hands under her arms, and pulled her closer to the edge of the firepit

“No.” Kayli sighed. “I need to be
in
the fire.” She forced herself upright, her fingers fumbling with the ties of her robe. At last she gave up and simply hauled it over her head.

“In the—” Randon knelt beside her. “Kayli, are you sure? You’re so tired. And you’re pregnant”

Tired as she was, Kayli had to chuckle at Randon’s words.

“After I tried to stop a grass fire by myself,” she said gently, “and after being Gated twice in as many days, now you are concerned about the effect of magic on our child? Do not fear. Stevann says our child’s life spark is strong and bright But mine, I fear, wants fuel.”