Rojuun (8 page)

“Really?! That’s why I can do more and
more.” Liselle walked around and gestured as she talked. “My first
time, I was trying to light a fire in the wilderness when an idea
appeared in my mind. A small blue flame appeared at the tip of my
fingers and moved toward the wood.” She turned to face Tathan,
eyebrows furrowed. “I didn’t understand it. The next thing I knew,
there was a blue fire in the pit I had made.” She bit down on her
lower lip as she remembered the moment with some embarrassment.
“Luckily, I could see in my mind how to extinguish it and did so
before anyone found out. I was afraid someone would notice even
though I was alone.”

“You said that you could see how to do it in
your mind? You never had anyone tell you how?” Tathan added the
meat of a large bird to the pot. He had snuck up on it and captured
it with his bare hands earlier in the day.

The stew smelled wonderful, causing
Liselle’s stomach to rumble in response. “It was just there. When I
want to do something, I can picture what I want, and then it forms
in my mind.” She sat back down on the log. “Some things are easier
than others and then there are things I just can’t do or imagine no
matter how hard I try.”

Tathan sat down on his bedroll near the
fire. “The way I was taught is that when a person does magic, they
have to focus the spell in their mind, make the necessary gestures
and speak a word or phrase . . .” He looked to see how Liselle
would respond to that.

Shaking her head, she said, “No. Sometimes I
say a word that comes to my mind, but you don’t
have
to
speak a word or gesture, though you could move your hand around to
make the spell react in different ways.” She held her hand up and
moved it around in front of her.

“That’s amazing,” he responded. “I’ve never
even heard of such a thing before. Everyone I’ve known who could do
magic, or at least the ones who could do it well, has told me that
you need a gesture and a keyword to cast a spell.”

“Well, I suppose a keyword would be a good
way to lock a spell . . .” she replied in thought.

“Lock a spell?” he queried.

Liselle continued moving her hand around,
mesmerizing herself with it. “Yes. You could lock a spell with a
keyword, so it couldn’t be cast unless someone knew that word. A
gesture would make it even more secure.”

“You mean no one could ever use the spell
again without the gesture and keyword.”

“Well . . .” The hand stopped moving as she
considered. “That’s not really it. Someone could cast the spell,
but it would be theirs, not the same one that the person who locked
it did.”

“Huh?” There was a confused look on his
face.

“I don’t know how to explain it, Cousin.”
Liselle concentrated on the concept for a moment and then shrugged.
“Nope . . . I just don’t know how to describe it.” She went back to
moving her hand around in front of her eyes. “I just know you don’t
have
to say words or make gestures.”

Tathan leaned back on his elbow to look at
stars forming in the darkening sky. He considered her words for a
few moments before looking back at her. She was still moving her
hand around in front of her face, which amused him. “You just know
these things, Cousin? No one taught you?”

Liselle sat still for a moment before
turning to him. “I don’t know how I know, Tathan. I just know. No
one has ever taught me or told me.” Liselle nibbled on her lower
lip. “Watch. . .”

Slowly her hand began to move again. Liselle
leaned her head and focused on the motion. She let out a wordless
breath. A small breeze ruffled her hair.

Tathan gaped as the flame grew in her hand.
He watched her move it back and forth, making it dance around her
fingers. Then she stood and began walking in the clearing, still
making it move with her gestures.

He got up and followed. “But you’re using
gestures . . .”

“Hmmm?” She was paying attention to the
flame. “Oh, gestures. I’m just experimenting with them. I can make
the flame move around with them.” She turned and smiled to Tathan,
the flame still moving in her hand. “Thank you for letting me know
about that.”

“Yeah, sure,” he said.

The flame stood still in the palm of her
hand as she concentrated on it. She made it rise above their heads.
Then, without making another gesture, she guided it down toward the
grass in the clearing. Just as it reached the tips of the grasses,
she put out both hands and quickly made gestures.

***

Tathan had seen many things in his life,
magical and otherwise, but nothing like what happened next.

Grasses underneath the flame reached up to
wrap around it. The flame brightened then began transforming.
Liselle continued to move her hands as though weaving threads.
Tathan watched the magical breezes that accompanied all spells
gently caress her cheek and cause strands of her hair to blow
forward at the sides of her face. The flame turned into a flower
before his eyes and the grasses transformed into a plant with
leaves to sustain it.

“Ha! The gestures help!” Liselle clapped her
hands close to her chest, jumping up and down a couple of times.
She laughed and pounced on him in a great big hug. “Thank you,
thank you, thank you!”

He absentmindedly caught her, still staring
at the flower she had just created. The petals looked like small,
blue flames. Tathan moved over to it as she watched him, bemused.
The middle of the flower was white and the leaves of the plant were
thin and grass-like.

“I like plants a lot and they listen to me
sometimes, especially the flowers,” Liselle explained. “I have a
way with them. They make me feel good. I’ve never combined fire and
plants and I don’t know how I did it there, but it . . . it feels
good.” She smiled and shrugged her shoulders as he watched her,
saying nothing. “You don’t hate me now do you Tathan?” she asked,
worried.

“What? . . . Hate? No. No, no, no, no, no.”
Moving to Liselle, he put his hands on her shoulders and looked
into her eyes. “I don’t hate you at all. I’ve never seen anyone use
magic as easily as you just did, nor have I seen anyone create a
life with it, even life as simple as a flower.”

Liselle stepped back, angry. “Simple?
Simple?!”

He stared at her, nonplussed. “Umm . .
.”

“Flowers aren’t simple! They are beautiful,
wonderful and vitally important to the entire world!” She crossed
her arms, glaring at him defiantly. “Flowers are not simple!”

That was not the response he had expected.
“Umm . . . I’m sorry,” he apologized lamely.

“Fine,” she said, biting the word. “Let’s
eat and then get some rest.”

“Uhh, alright,” he agreed. They ate the stew
he had prepared then went to sleep in their bedrolls after cleaning
up. She didn’t say another word to him the rest of the night.

Chapter
8

Birds were cheerfully singing the next
morning as the cousins awoke. Liselle came over to Tathan. “I’m
sorry, Cousin. I didn’t mean to get mad at you. I get a little
tired when I do magic and I
really
like flowers.”

“No . . . that’s fine. I’m not upset. I’ll
take the feelings of flowers into consideration . . .” he trailed
off, trying to contain a grin.

She lowered her eyebrows. “It’s fine if you
laugh at me this time, but I want you to remember something.”

Tathan was suddenly nervous. “Oh? ”

She leaned forward until they were face to
face and said in a quiet, threatening tone, “The flowers like me
back.”

A part of him wanted to burst into laughter,
but something in her voice made him realize the warning was
serious, even a little sinister. He looked around the clearing and
the flowers were all open. He could swear they were glaring at him.
With a gulp, he responded, “A . . . Alright. I’ll remember
that.”

She smiled and hugged him again. He looked
over her shoulder at the flowers. They had gone back to the
business of being flowers. When Liselle released him, he got the
horses ready while she made breakfast. Tathan was
very
careful not to step on any flowers.

***

Over the next few days, the forest path
turned into an ancient road leading them out of the valley into
mountains. Evergreen pines mixed with hardier varieties of trees
and lighter underbrush. Often, there would be a stream or river
next to the road.

The scenery was some of the most beautiful
Tathan had ever seen in his travels. He and Liselle would stop to
look at lakes surrounded by snowcapped peaks. Wildlife teemed
everywhere they turned. They saw dangerous creatures such as bears,
carnivorous fairies, cougars and others. One time, a wyvern, which
was a dragon-like reptilian creature with leathery wings and five
barbed tails, eyed them hungrily. Tathan stood in front of Liselle
with his sword drawn, but the creature turned away, looking for
something not on the road.

It rained most afternoons and even snowed
one day, but they were able to find decent enough shelter when it
got bad. During their travels, Tathan taught Liselle what he knew
about magic. It only took a week for her to learn all the various
spells he had picked up from wizards and tricksters in his travels.
Not only did she learn them, but she improved on most. He didn’t
know a large number of spells, or anything particularly powerful,
but it had taken him a lot longer than a week to figure them
out.

***

Nine days after entering the forest, the
road led to a bridge over a deep canyon. It looked to be about five
hundred feet long and wide enough for two wagons to cross. They
stopped the horses and dismounted. Intricate stonework figures held
up the waist-high side rail.

“Who do you think built this bridge Tathan?”
Liselle asked. “It seems very solid.”

Tathan squatted to look closer at the
figures at the side. “It’s also ancient and I have no idea who
built it. There must be preservation spells on it for it to be in
such good condition . . . Ahh, yes. There are runes at the base of
each figure.” He pointed as she looked over his shoulder.

“Oh, that’s neat,” she said. “I don’t
understand the runes. They don’t make sense to me, even though you
told me the theory behind them the other night.” She looked closer
at the figures. “They’re worn, but you can still see the basic form
of their faces. It looks like they were wearing nice clothing.”

“Really?” he said, turning toward her.
“Really? We find a bridge that was made centuries ago and you
notice the clothing on the figures holding up the rail?” he asked
in amazement. “Yegods. That’s just ridiculous.” He stood and walked
to the middle of the bridge, leaning over the railing. Liselle
stuck her tongue out at his back. She went to the other railing and
peered over the edge.

A fast-flowing river cut through the bottom
of the sheer canyon. The forest around them was quiet in the warm
afternoon, making it possible to hear the sound of water traveling
over rocks.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it Cousin?” Liselle
had come up behind him again. When he turned to look at her, she
was smiling.

“Yes. I think this bridge is at least
hundreds of years old if not thousands,” Tathan said.

“Thousands of years? Wow, that’s amazing.
Even with magic, I can’t believe it’s lasted that long.”

Tathan was thoughtful. “It
is
unusual. The road is enchanted. We’ve faced no danger on it.”

Liselle looked at the road on both sides of
the bridge. “I never considered it, but we have been safe. I wonder
where it leads to.”

“I’m not sure, but we’ll definitely find
out,” he said, smiling.

***

For two more days, they traveled along the
forested road. He told her about some of his travels while she told
him about her life in the valley. She also told him of her parents,
crying a few times from the sorrow of losing them. The
conversations began a healing process for both.

Their first glimpse of the city was when
they came around a bend in the road one morning. The roofs of the
buildings could be seen near the top of the next pass. They paused
and readied their weapons. Liselle strung her bow and readied the
quiver of arrows her Uncle Laremy had made. She could think about
him without crying by that point, though her heart still ached.

Tathan loosened his sword in its scabbard.
He realized it was the first time he had readied it since entering
the forest. The thought caused him to pause. For some reason, he
wasn’t jumping at imaginary dangers. Perhaps the enchantments on
the road had something to do with it.

As they rode up, it became obvious that the
city was abandoned. The forest encroached upon the edges, but
something seemed to be preventing nature from taking over
completely. Birds and small wildlife scurried about. Forest scents
gave way to dusty cobblestone. The horses plodded through the long
abandoned streets as their riders looked back and forth at the
decayed buildings.

“Do you think the bridge was built by
whoever lived in this city, Tathan?” Liselle’s voice was filled
with awe as she looked at the ruins.

He nodded. “Definitely. The stonework is the
same and it looks to be as old as the bridge. It’s extraordinary
that there’s any cobble left.”

“But the bridge was still in good condition.
These buildings are all crumbling and collapsing,” she said,
gesturing at a building with only two walls remaining. The rest was
rubble.

“The bridge had runes protecting it from
wear and tear. These buildings were very well made to have
withstood for so long, but wouldn’t have been magically protected,”
he explained.

“Why not?” she asked.

“It takes a lot to cast runes to protect a
structure,” he said. “They have to be inscribed, then the spells
cast and then all of the runes tuned to each other. There’s
probably a border of runes that keep the forest from finishing off
the city.”