Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin (30 page)

“You can’t predict the type of spell someone may use on you,” Ivar said. “But the same protective spell will work most of the time. Imagine you are throwing up an invisible shield in front of you.”

The younger apprentices spread out. Ivar, Niall and Una attempted to enchant them with various spells while the apprentices tried to block them. Caymin was not quick enough to block Niall’s whirlwind charm as he called up the air, picking her up in its vortex and tossing her like a bug. She stood up in time to see Diarmit tumbling head over heels from the strength of whatever Una used on him.

“Again,” she said to Niall. This time, she got a partial block up as he aimed the same spell at her. Instead of being tossed by his whirlwind, she screwed her eyes up against it, but held her ground.

“Not bad.” He let the air die. “But not good enough. Letting me through even that much and having to keep your shield up uses a lot more energy than if you can just stop me once and done, and then hit me with a spell of your own.”

She reset her feet and prepared to bring up her protection. Niall looked down at the ground, scuffing at something with his toe, and suddenly sent a different spell at Caymin. She’d been expecting the whirlwind again and was so startled, that she threw up her protection out of instinct. Niall’s spell knocked her backward, but her shield was so strong that it knocked Niall back also.

“Well done,” he said. “You learn quickly.”

“Not quickly enough. You still knocked me down.”

He laughed. “If my full spell had gotten through, you would have been picking yourself out of a tree. Getting knocked down is nothing. Well done.”

They switched partners and kept practicing. Caymin was attempting to jinx Ivar, who was easily blocking her.

“Let me attack you now,” he said.

Caymin nervously prepared to put up a protective spell when she felt a push, inside her head, into her thoughts. It alarmed her and, without thinking, she threw up a blocking spell strong enough that Ivar was pushed back a step.

“I hadn’t done anything yet,” he said.

She looked around, but everyone else was busy practicing. She rubbed her forehead.

“Are you all right?” Ivar stepped closer.

“I am fine. Just tired.”

He looked at the sky. “It’s well past mid-day. We’re all getting tired. That’s enough for today.”

Gai approached her. “Do you want to –”

“No.” Caymin backed away. “My head hurts. I am going to rest.”

She nearly ran back to the cottage, but Enat wasn’t there. She headed into the forest, taking a direction away from the sett. She stopped frequently, listening for footsteps, but heard nothing. Overhead, she heard wings flapping and looked up to see Beanna landing on a branch.

“What troubles you, little one?”

The crow fluttered down to land on Caymin’s shoulder.

Caymin hesitated. Enat had said not to tell anyone at all about Péist’s change.
“There are strange things happening among the two-legs.”

“Stranger than usual with two-legs?”
Beanna bobbed her head at her own joke.

Caymin smiled.
“Yes, even stranger than that.”
She walked on, treading silently.
“You know that one of the apprentices was attacked at Samhain and that Timmin was made to leave the forest.”

“Yes.”

“There is a feeling of unrest. Someone is trying to learn things they should not, and is willing to hurt others to get what they want.”

“Is it the young two-leg male I spoke with? Gai?”

Caymin gave her a sideways glance.
“What did you see him doing in the forest?”

“He was using magic to rip up bushes and blow bird nests from trees. He did not attack the trees, but he was testing his powers in ways that were destructive.”

“Do you think him capable of hurting Péist?”

Beanna rode along on her shoulder for several steps.
“I think most two-legs are capable of great good or great harm. I do not understand them. You and Enat are among the few two-legs I trust.”

“I am beginning to feel the same.”

Caymin skirted through the forest, coming around to the sett from the opposite direction. Beanna stayed with her, flying overhead to scout for any who followed. She reported back that she saw no one. Caymin crouched where she could see one of the entrances to the sett. One of the older cubs was cleaning, pushing soiled leaves out and away from the set. She called out as she approached, and the cub came to meet her. She went to her entrance and crawled inside while Beanna kept watch in a tree nearby.

The new cubs were crawling around, their eyes open and their little bodies now covered in fur, faint stripes visible on their heads. Broc came to greet her, nuzzling her cheek.

“How are you little one?”

“I am fine.”
Caymin sat against the wall of the chamber and the cubs crawled into her lap.

“You are not. What troubles you?”

“You have known me longer than any, and you know me better than any.”
She cradled the cubs in her arms.
“It seems there is another among us who is not honest. Someone is trying to read my thoughts.”

“To find the egg?”

“I believe so. Have any of you detected any two-legs about?”

“None.”

“How is Péist?”

“How is any egg?”
Broc whickered.
“It sits there until it hatches.”

“Can you take me to him?”

Caymin set the cubs down and Broc told them to stay put as she led the way through a tunnel to another chamber. Not content to cover Péist’s egg with leaves and moss, the badgers had dug a small crater and buried it.

“To hide the light should any get in here to steal it,”
Broc said.

“A wise precaution.”
Caymin laid her hands over the dirt covering the egg, and felt Péist there. She reassured him he was safe.
“I am going to add more layers of protection.”

She raised her hand and whispered words, weaving a spell that would repel any except the badgers or Enat or her. She spread the boundaries of the protection to include the entire chamber.

“If any make it this far, they will know he is here, but they should not be able to get to him.”

Broc sniffed the dirt over the egg.
“Is it wise to let them know where he is?”

“If they come here, they already know where he is.”

CHAPTER 20

Betrayed

T
he weather turned fierce as Imbolc approached. The apprentices were sent out to gather snowdrops and blackthorn, just as Caymin had watched Enat do near her sett the previous year.

They shivered in their cloaks as the wind tore through the forest, making the trees creak and groan overhead. Everything was wet as a heavy half-frozen rain fell.

“It doesn’t feel like spring,” Daina said through chattering teeth, her cloak drawn up over her head.

Diarmit cut blackthorn branches, stuffing them into a basket. “This is daft. We have magic. Why aren’t we using it to shelter ourselves, or better yet, wait until this stupid storm has passed?”

“Because Imbolc is in three nights,” said Cíana. “And you know better than to use magic for something so frivolous.”

Gai glared out from under his hood. “It’s not frivolous if it saves us from freezing to death in the cold.”

“You were the one who got us in trouble using magic at the planting,” Daina reminded him.

He scowled and bent to pluck a bunch of snowdrops bravely holding their heads up despite being battered by the slushy rain.

“Badgers welcome spring when it arrives,” said Caymin, wet and shivering like the others. “And until it does, they are smart enough to stay warm and dry.”

“Wish I was a badger,” Diarmit grumbled. He shouldered the basket and they moved on.

They were all thoroughly drenched by the time they got back to the village, their lips blue with cold. Niall and Una sat in the meetinghouse stirring a large vat of stew, thick with barley and chunks of chicken.

“Thought you could use this,” Una said cheerfully.

The apprentices dropped their baskets and took off their wet cloaks. They crowded around the fire, filling bowls with hot stew.

“Oh, this is so good,” Diarmit said, his eyes closed.

No one else spoke as they all ate ravenously. When their stomachs were filled, they sat sleepily around the fire. Caymin sniffed. The wet woolen cloaks stunk. She used magic to dry herself and her cloak. The others did the same.

“That’s better,” Niall said. “You all were kind of smelly. Like wet dogs.”

“You can laugh,” Gai said.

“Yes, we can.” Niall reached over to punch him in the shoulder. “We’ve been the ones doing the gathering. One year, the snow was up to our arses. Had to dig to find the snowdrops buried under the blasted snow. Just because it’s Imbolc doesn’t mean winter is ready to go away.”

Caymin looked around. “Where are the elders?”

“Ivar thought it was a good time to sharpen swords,” said Una. “And I think Enat and Neela are in Neela’s cottage, brewing some potions to trade when they go on the next reaping.”

“Reaping?” Caymin looked at her in bewilderment. “For new apprentices?”

“Yes,” Niall said. “They have been feeling the stirrings of power, and will decide who to bring back here.”

“Like Enat did with me?” Caymin wasn’t sure why, but she felt a prick of jealousy to think of new apprentices coming. What if Enat wanted a new apprentice to live with her?

Una nodded. “Like they did for each of us. With three gone, we have room for new ones to come.”

They sat inside, full bellies and fireside warmth making them drowsy as they listened to the howling wind outside the meetinghouse. Caymin contemplated going back to the cottage, but it was much warmer and dryer here… Her eyes drooped and she began to doze off.

She jumped when the meetinghouse door burst open. Ivar’s huge form filled the opening as he stepped inside and pushed the door shut. When he turned around, Caymin saw that he held something.

He set a bedraggled hawk on the table. “Gai.”

“It’s Lorcan.” Gai ran a finger over the hawk’s wet head. “He belongs to our mage, Eachna.”

“He carries a message,” Ivar said.

Only then did Caymin see the scroll tied to the hawk’s leg. She retrieved her cloak as Gai untied the scroll.

“Hold still and I will dry you,”
she said to the hawk as Gai unfurled the parchment. She gently rubbed the cloak over the hawk’s sodden feathers.

“He is exhausted,” she said to Ivar. “Fighting his way through the wind and the rain.”

Ivar got a strip of dried venison and a small bowl of water. The hawk gobbled the meat and took a few drinks. He blinked his gratitude to Caymin.

“It’s from my brother,” Gai said. He sat heavily. “They went out to fight a neighboring clan who was encroaching on our land and my father was captured. They’re holding him for ransom.”

Cíana sat next to him. “What does that mean for you?”

“My brother wants me to return now.”

“But you haven’t completed your training,” Una said. “Your staff.”

Gai’s jaw tightened and he tossed the parchment onto the table. Something on it caught Caymin’s eye. She reached for the parchment and stared. There, at the top of the scroll, was a blue wolf with red eyes, holding a yellow sword in one paw.

“What is this?” Her voice was ragged and her finger trembled as she pointed.

Gai blinked and looked at the parchment. “It’s our crest, the crest of our clan.”

“Your crest.” She stared at him. “Your father’s warriors wear this crest.”

“Yes. Why?”

Caymin said nothing, but shoved up from the table and jerked the door open. She ran through the slush and wind to the cottage, her mind in a complete jumble. She went to her bed where her old cloak lay folded.
“We’ll keep it safe,”
Enat had said. She grabbed it.

She was breathless as she burst back into the meetinghouse. The others turned to her as, wordlessly, she held up the cloak.

“Oh, gods and goddesses,” Ivar muttered.

Gai stood. “Where did you get that?”

He reached out to touch the red eyes of the wolf, faded, but clearly the same image.

“This is what the badgers wrapped me in the night they saved me,” Caymin said, her voice breaking. “This is what the warriors wore – the ones who raided my village, the ones who killed my father and captured my mother, the ones who left me to burn.”

Caymin’s eyes swam with tears. Though her vision was blurred, she saw Daina raise a hand to her mouth and she saw Cíana’s mouth move, but she couldn’t hear anything through the roaring in her ears.

“You come from a clan of murderers! Your father, his warriors, all of you! You have no honor.” She rounded on Ivar. “And you knew. You saw this when I first came. You and Enat knew.”

She backed away, shaking her head as her tears spilled over. Hugging the cloak to her chest, she ran again, ran into the dark forest.