Having given up the pretence that Jestia wasn't going to get cold or scared and order her to her bed Ufalla had gotten three good nights sleep in a row which was why she was more than a little perturbed when she was shaken violently and Jestia with her hand slapped soundly over Ufalla's mouth was whispering in her ear, "Get up and come with me."
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Ufalla said, but it didn't really come out because of Jestia's hand.
"What?" Jestia asked in a whisper, removing her hand.
Ufalla rolled on the tiny cot to face her and her breasts were pressed right against Jestia's so she took a moment to still her heart and quiet her breathing before she said in what sounded more to her ears like a husky admission of her love than any thing else, "I said what the hell is wrong with you?"
"Come on I'll tell you when we get outside," Jestia said. "Grab your cloak, your sword and your boots."
"Dammit Jestia . . . " She could just make out her face in the moonlight and anything else she was going to say died on her lips as she quickly got out of bed before she did something that would be hard to explain in the light of day. She grabbed her boots, sword and her cloak and actually beat Jestia out the door. They sat down together on the front stoop and donned their cloaks armed themselves and pulled on their boots. "What is it?" Ufalla asked in a whisper.
"I have to practice my spells," Jestia explained, "and you have to be my look out."
"Why me? Why not Jabone? He can see in the dark and his senses are better."
"Because of all that," Jestia said. "I'm still new to this and I'm having trouble with this spell. It's harder to cast magic in the presence of the Katabull."
Ufalla knew that. She hit herself in the forehead with her palm and nodded. "But he'll be with us, Jestia."
"Once I've built myself up, perfected the spell, it shouldn't be a problem. So I figured you can go with me and Tarius can go the next night." She got up and started walking and Ufalla followed. "That way you can both get enough sleep."
"But what about you Jestia?"
"I won't be able to sleep well 'til I have perfected the spell anyway. The dream wakes me every night, Ufalla, and then I can't go back to sleep."
Ufalla nodded. It wasn't something she hadn't figured out already. "I won't let anything happen to you Jestia, not while I still draw a breath."
Jestia walked in front of her, stopped looked up at her and whispered angrily, "It isn't your place to protect me. Of the two of us I am more dispensable than you are. You worry about yourself and I will protect myself. I don't need you to protect me." She turned on her heel and started walking again and Ufalla followed.
"I will protect you anyway," Ufalla said in a whisper in her ear. Jestia made an angry sound and walked faster and Ufalla smiled. Jestia didn't want to think she needed anyone much less a commoner like Ufalla.
She led Ufalla to a small, empty building even further back in the compound than their own barracks. "I found this the other day. It apparently used to be a quarantine barracks." Ufalla slapped a hand on Jestia's shoulder.
"If that's the case it will be filled with disease."
"Gods, Ufalla, do you ever listen to the stupid things you say? What do you think that disease has become corporeal and is sitting in wait for us?"
"No smart ass, but I have had medic's training and disease can imbed itself in walls and cloth."
"You act as if I know nothing of disease. I'd dare say I know more than you, Ufalldown. It's been cleaned I'm sure."
"By the people who throw their shit in the street."
"You just stand here and keep watch," she ordered hotly
"Yes your royal hindass," Ufalla said sarcastically, saluting her.
Jestia seemed to actually look chastised and said, "If it will make you feel better I'll do a cleansing spell." Ufalla just nodded her head and Jestia walked in and closed the door behind her.
Ufalla looked out at the darkness of the camp all around her. No light came through the windows and no sound came through the door at her back so she knew Jestia was already casting spells. She pulled her cloak back until the handle of her sword was sticking out where she could easily grab it and she leaned back against the door wondering if she was ever going to be warm again. Her mind went back to being in bed with Jestia their bodies pressed together so tightly on that tiny cot that they might as well have been one body and suddenly she wasn't so cold.
* * *
Jestia cast a cleansing spell, then darken windows, then cone of silence, and then witch light. She sat down on the floor and spread her books, stones and bones before her. She studied the spell, called up energy from the earth, and throwing her hands before her body said, "Invisible shield." There was a crackling of energy in front of her and then nothing. Even though the spell was supposed to make an invisible shield she didn't have to feel for it to know it wasn't there.
"Dammit," Jestia said, instantly frustrated. She shook herself. She couldn't afford to be impatient and give up so easily. She had to focus, try to figure out what was going wrong.
Her mind went back to a day in Jazel's alchemy when she'd been distracted and thinking that all this wasn't nearly as much fun as she had thought it was going to be.
"Jestia, pay attention," Jazel ordered. Jestia had nodded and looked at Jazel, Jazel sighed no doubt seeing the wander lust in Jestia's eyes. "Girl don't you realize how lucky you are?"
"To have you as a teacher, yes I know, you tell me a dozen times daily."
Jezel had laughed. "Aye, you're right, that does make you lucky." She'd gotten serious then. "But maybe better than that," she stopped, looking thoughtful, "but probably not . . . Jestia you can interpret dreams with an accuracy I never accomplished. I'm a prophetic dreamer, as I know you are, and I always know what my dreams mean, but I was never good at interpreting another person's dream. I was in fact so bad at it that I just started telling people that I couldn't do it at all. But those things alone wouldn't make you an exceptional witch. Jestia you are a thought-caster. Do you even realize how rare that is?"
"I don't even know what that means," Jestia had said, not bored for the first time in days.
"It means you don't need fancy, silly incantations. All you have to do is think of the spell, invoke the mere name of the spell, and you cast it. With a little practice you could cast without saying a word. I sometimes fake it by whispering the bulk of my incantation but I can't cast a single spell without reciting an entire incantation, without putting all of myself into it. You do most spells with very little effort."
And that was of course a lot of the problem. It had all just come too easy for her. Jazel had been right. Once she connected to the power of the world she could do what she had just done and walk into the building and as fast as she could say
cleanse room, darken windows, witch light
it was done.
It's not so lucky to be able to interpret dreams, and right now I wish I'd never had the prophetic kind myself. And I can cast dozens of spells by just saying them and then I sit here and work at it and invisible shield becomes dancing energy against nothing. Maybe I just need to go for a full incantation.
She picked up her spell book and looked long and hard at the incantation she'd written down as Jazel had told it to her. Obviously it was hard to rhyme invisible shield.
She read the incantation,
Shield of darkness, shield of light. Wow! They use that darkness light thing a lot in incantations. Gets a little stale doesn't it? Dammit Jestia focus! Shield of darkness, shield of light, shield that's hidden from my sight . . . And then what? That just says what it is, it doesn't order it to be made. It's like it's only half there. All those times I recited this over and over again and only now I realize that . . . Well it must be wrong.
She turned the page but if there was more to the spell she hadn't written it down. She thought back to the exact day she'd written the spell. She'd been bored, staring out the window at a bright sunny day wishing she could just go outside and maybe go shopping.
Oh gods I wasn't listening. Why was I never listening? There has to be more to the incantation; it doesn't make any sense this way.
She tried it anyway. "Shield of darkness, shield of light, shield that's hidden from my sight." This time there wasn't even a crackling of energy. This time there was nothing at all. And she knew why.
I didn't believe it would work. The spell caster can't have any doubt that the spell will work, but that's not the whole incantation it can't be. And it would be just like Jazel to have me practice it over and over again the wrong way and fail just to teach me a lesson. But it didn't work because like a spoiled brat I just got frustrated and took off. I have to learn this spell, but how can I when I haven't written it down properly? I will have to rewrite the incantation, make it my own. That's what a real caster does anyway.
She started writing but several pages later she'd still found nothing that worked there was a gentle knocking on the door. "Douse witch light," she said and the light was gone. She got up walked over and opened the door, looking into Ufalla's tired face.
"Jestia you must have some sleep. We both must have some sleep."
Jestia nodded, went in and gathered up all her things. She closed the door and followed Ufalla back to their barracks.
"I'm sorry, Ufalla, I lost track of time."
Ufalla nodded silently. "It's all right. Did you get any closer to your goal?"
"Oh Ufalla." Jestia was near tears as she moved up alongside her friend. "You're all right about me. I'm a spoiled brat and now my selfish, flighty ways have come back to haunt me."
Ufalla reached out took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "You know we only tease you as you tease us because we are the best of friends. If we truly believed you to be no more than a bit of fluff do you think any of us would have wanted you with us?"
"I didn't write the whole spell down," Jestia said in agony. "I can't thought cast it and I only wrote half the spell down. That's why I could never do it, because I don't know the incantation and I kept trying to rewrite it and . . . At one point I conjured a bat. I have no idea how I did it or where it came from, none at all, maybe the rafters. After all I can't make a bat it has to come from someplace." She didn't let go of Ufalla's hand, just walked after her feeling like she had let them all down.
"You will remember, Jestia," Ufalla said gently. She looked down and smiled at her. "And if not a bat in someone's face might do just as well."
Jestia laughed and then quickly stopped as she realized they had gotten to the barracks. They undressed on the steps again and then quietly snuck in and got back into bed. "Thanks," Jestia whispered in Ufalla's ear. Ufalla patted her arm and in a few minutes they were both asleep.
* * *
Kasiria woke to the sound of whispering just outside the door and a few minutes later Jestia and Ufalla walked in. She was about to roll over and go back to sleep when she noticed they were carrying their swords, boots, and cloaks.
Now what were you two up to in the dead middle of the night?
Kasiria wondered. She'd seen them take privy trips before and while they'd on occasion put on their boots and grabbed their daggers she'd never seen them take their swords and cloaks with them.
Maybe a tryst? No. I don't think Jestia would have given me permission to bed her friend if she was actually using her herself and I get the idea that if any of them wanted to do that they'd just do it right here. I don't think there is an ounce of modesty between them. So, what the hell were they doing? Well great, now I'm wide awake and I have to go to the privy.
She sighed deeply, got out of bed, and wondered if she was ever going to get another good night's sleep. She grabbed her dagger, strapped it on, and headed for the outhouse, not bothering to put on her boots. She had never shared quarters before with anyone. As the king's daughter she'd had her own room in the castle then at the academy being the only woman she'd been housed in the head master's house with his wife Hanna ever vigilant to protect Kasiria's virtue.
Hanna would just die if she knew I was sleeping in a room with two boys especially Kartik boys.
A sudden thrill ran through her as she realized she had lived in the house that Jena and Tarius had lived and loved in. Maybe she had even been sleeping in Jena's room in the bed they'd expressed their love in. She probably would have gotten completely silly about the whole thing if she hadn't gotten to the privy then and with the stench of it all romantic thoughts left her head. She did her business and rushed back to her barracks and her bed. She tried to go back to sleep but couldn't because now she could hear them all breathing and could hear their cots' legs rapping on the floor as they tossed and turned—except the girls who were now so sound asleep they didn't move at all. Outside a bird was singing and the wind had kicked up and . . .
Dammit, it's not so much their all bunking with me that's keeping me up, it's the Katabull hearing. It would happen now when I'm trying to sleep and not when I might have heard what Derek really said to Jabone. Gods! How do they exist like this? I can hear everything.
She quit fighting it and just embraced it for a minute, how far could she take this? She really listened and shortly she could hear somewhere a door open and then close—somewhere near the front of the garrison one of the barracks she was sure. Then she could hear water running and the only water that could be running around here came in the bamboo pipes to the caldrons that warmed water for the showers and the water that ran out of the bathhouse into a drainage ditch. Someone was showering in the middle of the night. Why would anyone be showering in the middle of the night? The water would be cold they only heated it in the evenings.
Curiosity got the best of her and she found herself getting up again. This time she grabbed her knife and her boots and headed out the door. She had just gotten out side when Jabone joined her.