Relentless (11 page)

20. PAIN HURTS!

THREE DAYS LATER
, Leesa and Rave found a new practice spot only a few miles from home. Having moved away from the territory occupied by the fell power, they no longer needed to travel far to find places for Leesa to work on her magic. They still visited some of their favorite old spots, especially those on this side of the river, but they had also started looking for new locations, farther to the west.

As usual, they had gone deep into a large wooded area. The trees were barren of leaves, but Rave had carried Leesa far enough from any trails that they weren’t worried about being seen. Rave’s volkaane eyes and ears assured them they would know about any wandering hikers long before the intruders could get close enough to witness something that might be difficult to explain.

This new spot was north and west of their new home, halfway up a gently sloping hill that rose from the far side of a large reservoir about halfway between Middletown and Meriden. Peering through the leafless trees, Leesa could just make out the silvery shine of the water off in the distance.

Each day since the sudden, unexpected growth spell a few nights before, Leesa’s stomach had continued to swell. She couldn’t actually see it happening, the way Rave had that night, but she could tell by the fit of her clothes that her belly was growing faster than normal. If this pace continued, she and her mom were going to need to go shopping for some maternity clothes pretty soon.

These past few days Leesa had been working on something new. Spurred in part by the growth spurt, she decided not to wait for her son’s next magic outburst to determine if her air shield could block magic. While she couldn’t test her shields against his magic—since she never knew when it might occur—there was no reason she couldn’t test them against her own.

So that’s exactly what she had been doing. The process had been a slow, back and forth balancing act. She would create a shield a few yards in front of her, then blast away at it with various forms of her energy bolts until one pierced it. Once one broke through, she would weave a slightly different shield and then try again. Each time, her shield grew stronger and more impervious to different forms of her magic.

She had already decided her shields were almost certainly strong enough to block any magic the baby might send at it—his magic was nowhere near as powerful as hers—but the effort had led her to continue working on fashioning stronger and stronger barriers. While it didn’t seem necessary at the moment, she never knew when she might need to protect herself against far more powerful spells.

Today, she was feeling pretty good about her shields. She had cast one midway between herself and upright trunk of a thick, dead tree whose upper half had long since crashed to the ground. She flung every type of energy blast she could imagine at it—long sustained beams, staccato bolts and “buckshot” blasts. No matter what she threw at it, the tree remained unmarked. None of her efforts had been able to pierce the barrier. Her shield seemed impervious to all magic—all of hers, at least.

No sooner had that thought entered her head than she was struck by an idea. She turned to Rave, who had been leaning against a nearby tree watching her efforts.

“Rave, come see if your fire can get past my shield to strike that tree.”

Rave crossed to her side. “Are you sure?”

Leesa frowned. “Of course I’m sure. Why would you ask me that?”

Rave smiled. “It’s just that you’ve seemed so very confident today. I don’t want to mess that up by burning through your shield.”

Leesa smiled back. “You’re so thoughtful. But I’m a big girl—I’ll get over it. Are you sure YOU’LL be able to handle it if you can’t blast through?”

Rave flashed a confident grin. “Okay, you asked for it.” He stepped forward to a spot about an arm’s length from where he knew the invisible barrier floated in the air. He extended his arm, fingertips pointed forward.

Blue fire flared from his fingers. For a brief instant the flame spread out in the air in an uneven circle, blocked by Leesa’s shield, but then Rave turned up his heat. The fire grew brighter and burned through the barrier with apparent ease, charring the tree trunk beyond. Rave quickly extinguished his fire before it set the dead tree aflame.

For a moment, Leesa stood crestfallen at the ease with which Rave’s fire had defeated her shield. Then she remembered Dominic saying that not even he could withstand the full power of a volkaane’s fire. And if a full-fledged waziri wizard like Dominic couldn’t block that fire, there was no shame in her not being able to do so. Still, she determined to keep trying to create a shield that could stop—or at least slow down—Rave’s fire. She smiled at him.

“Show off,” she joked.

Rave stepped closer and kissed her on the forehead. “I only did as you asked of me, my love…as I always have, and as I always will.”

The melting Leesa now felt in her chest had nothing to do with volkaane fire.

Suddenly, she doubled over, clutching her belly. White hot pain shot through her stomach, worse than anything she had ever felt, worse than anything she had ever imagined. She felt as if her insides were on fire, like a thousand red hot needles were stabbing her from within. She couldn’t move, could hardly think under the barrage of burning pain.

Her knees buckled and she started to collapse, but Rave reacted instantly, wrapping his arms around her. One hand held her cheek.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

For the first time ever, Rave’s touch actually felt cool on Leesa’s fevered skin. “Hurts,” she gasped, not even sure if the word actually came out. “Oh, god, it hurts!”

Rave gently lowered her to a sitting position on the ground and cradled her in his arms. He could tell by her twisted features and the heat of her body that whatever was happening was slowly killing her.

“Leesa, listen to me. You have to try to stop this. I don’t know how, but you have to use your magic.”

Leesa could barely think under the onslaught of pain—how did Rave think she could possibly employ her magic? And what magic would she use, anyhow?

She knew he was right, though. If she didn’t stop what was happening, she could die. And if she died, their unborn child would die with her. She could not allow that. She would not allow that.

She wracked her pain-fogged brain for an idea, some way to stop the searing pain. Only one possibility came to her. She had no idea if she could do it, or if it would even work if she could, but she had to try. Her son’s life depended on it.

She turned her mind inward and called forth an air shield inside her body. She pictured it filling her belly, wrapping itself around the baby and encasing it completely in an oblong sphere.

The pain immediately disappeared. She could still feel the heat of it against the shield, could feel it pushing against the barrier, but the magic could not penetrate her spell. She straightened her body slightly and let out a long sigh of relief.

Rave sensed the change in her immediately. He loosened his hold and gently turned her face toward his. His eyes were filled with love and concern.

“Are you all right? Is it over?”

Leesa nodded. “I think so. I sealed it off with an air shield.”

“Was it the baby?” Rave had to ask, even though he was already certain of the answer.

Leesa took another deep breath. She hated the idea that her son could be a danger to her.

“Yeah. I don’t know what happened though. It was magic of some sort. Not like what he’s done before. This felt more like a fire burning through me.”

Rave’s brow furrowed. He did not like the sound of that at all.

“Volkaane fire?” he asked worriedly.

“No, not volkaane. I would have recognized that, I think.” Leesa managed a weak smile. “I have enough experience with volkaane fire inside me to know what that would feel like.”

Rave responded with an equally weak grin, remembering the time he had almost killed Leesa with his fire. “If not volkaane, then what?”

Leesa shook her head. “I don’t know.” She suddenly realized she was no longer feeling heat or pressure against her shield. “Hold on a minute.” She turned her mind inward again. Wherever the pain had come from, it was gone. She let the air shield dissipate and concentrated on the baby. She sighed in relief—everything had returned back to the way it was. Their son was unharmed, and except for some lingering aches inside her, so was she.

“It’s over,” she told Rave. “Everything is back to normal.”

Rave placed his hand softly upon Leesa’s stomach. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I’d know if something was wrong with him.”

Rave kissed her forehead. “Thank goodness.” He frowned. “What if it happens again, worse next time? What if your shield doesn’t hold?”

Leesa shivered as the memory of the white-hot pain came back to her. Unfortunately, she didn’t have an answer to Rave’s question.

21. PURPLE AND GREEN

THAT NIGHT, LEESA DREAMED AGAIN
.

A familiar darkness enveloped her, a deep, murky purple so rich and dark as to be almost black. Testing the darkness, she held her hand in front of her face. As before, she could see it clearly, but as soon as she extended her arm, her hand nearly disappeared into the void. She squinted, trying to see beyond her outstretched arm. The same familiar, very faint white ovals appeared at the outer limits of her vision. How far away or how near they floated was impossible to determine—they might be just a few yards distant, or they might be a hundred times that. She simply had no way to tell, no scale for distance. Whenever she tried to focus on one for a better look, it became lost to her sight, so she gave up trying. Instead, she listened as hard as she could.

Once again, this terrible, chill place was completely and utterly silent, so deathly quiet she thought she could hear her own heartbeat. She still had no memory of how she might have come to this place of fearful, silent darkness, or what she was doing here.

As before, she seemed suspended in mid air, though she had no idea if it was air or something else surrounding her. She could feel no surface of any kind beneath her feet, yet she had no sensation of floating or flying.

She closed her eyes and regretted the decision almost immediately. Once again, she was seized by the sickly feeling that she was being pulled slowly downward, headfirst into some invisible waiting danger. She quickly opened her eyes and fastened her vision on the only frame of reference available to her, the tiny white lights. They remained exactly where they were—if she was indeed sinking, they were moving down with her at an identical speed. She did not feel upside down anymore, either. Only when she closed her eyes did that sensation overtake her.

The last time she had visited this awful place, she had tried to cast an illumination spell to break the darkness. Her efforts had produced only a meager light, but she could think of nothing else to do, so she tried again, shouting the spell out loud, hoping that volume might add to its potency.

“
Illuminati verdas
,” she cried. As before, her shout sounded like little more than a whisper, as if this horrid place had somehow simply absorbed the sound of her voice. A dim yellow globe appeared above her hand, spreading little illumination. The darkness remained as impenetrable as ever.

Clearly, she needed to try something different. Only one thing came to mind. Perhaps an energy bolt might pierce the darkness—it might even strike some unseen boundary or barrier off in the distance, perhaps providing her with some idea about what this place was.

Holding her arm out in front of her once again, palm forward this time, she fired a yellow energy beam into the darkness. After all her practice the past few months, shooting these blasts was second nature to her. She shouldn’t have been surprised when she managed only a faint golden beam that disappeared in the blackness just a few feet in front of her, but she was. Surprised and very disappointed at the meager power of her magic in this place. She hoped this vision was not foretelling some kind of general weakening of her magical powers.

Suddenly, a green flash erupted in the darkness, ending her dream.

Leesa’s eyes flew open, her heart racing in her chest. She found Rave staring at her. Enough early morning light filtered into their bedroom for her to see that his handsome features were etched with concern. He had clearly known she was dreaming but had stuck to their agreement not to wake her, no matter how troubled she might appear. She just wished his restraint had paid off with some useful information for her from her dream. Unfortunately, it had not.

She glanced down at her stomach, seeking any trace of her baby’s magic. She saw none, so she turned her focus inward. The child seemed to be fine, unaffected by her dream. She was thankful for that.

She lifted her eyes back to Rave. “It was the same scary nightmare. I was suspended in the darkness, with a vague feeling I was being drawn downward, but there was really no way to tell. I tried my illumination spell again, and then an energy beam, but neither of them worked very well. I don’t know if the darkness absorbed them or if the magic simply doesn’t work there.” She reached over and squeezed his forearm. “Thanks for not waking me, though—even though it didn’t do any good. I don’t know any more than I knew from the last time.”

Rave placed his hand atop hers on his arm. “It wasn’t easy letting you sleep. You were panting, and your face was full of anguish.”

Leesa wasn’t surprised to hear that. The dream had been that frightening.

“Did I say anything? Make any sound at all?”

Rave shook his head. “Nothing…other than the breathing.”

Frustration and disappointment washed over Leesa. She had been hoping Rave might have seen or heard something that might give her some insight into the meaning of her vision. Not all her dreams came true, of course, but the more times she experienced the same one the more likely it became.

“What woke you up this time?” Rave asked, interrupting her musings. “You went from dreaming to wide awake seemingly in just an instant.”

Leesa thought for a moment. “The last thing I remember was a sudden flash in the darkness—a bright green flash.”

Rave’s eyes widened. “Green, huh?”

“Yeah. Green.”

They both looked down at her stomach, but they found no answers there.