A Glint of Shadoewynne: Book 1 of the Shadoewynne Series Read online

  David shot a look at me, and said to Orn, “I got distracted this summer.”

  I am sure I turned so red I was glowing. The insinuation was clear. Orn cleared his throat and glanced at me again. “Oh, I see.”

  How could I rescue this? Anything I said would seem to be protesting too much. David saved me, laughing and waving his hands. “NO, that’s not what I mean. I ended up taking some summer classes, and then I met Evalia, who was new to the area, and needed a friend to show her around. Next thing I knew, it was fall. I’ll be able to spend some time there next summer, since Evalia won’t date me. “

  Orn laughed. “I knew I liked her! She has taste!” David turned red, but laughed along with Orn.

  Kait stood up. “Well, Evalia, are you ready to start your defensive training?”

  I would do anything to escape this uncomfortable conversation. I stood up as well, and nodded eagerly.

  Chapter 15

  Kait and I went back downstairs. On our way down, I asked him, “How did Orn watch my training earlier? I thought it was just us downstairs.”

  He snorted. “It was, but Travis is a prince, and has to be well-protected. Every room in the house, with the exception of the main bedrooms and bathrooms, has cameras. The guest bedrooms do, as well, so if you stay here, change in the bathroom.”

  Good to know. I understand that he needs to be protected, but it seemed like an invasion of privacy. I said as much, but Kait just shrugged. His only comment was, “You get used to it.”

  We got to the workout room, but Kait continued on farther into the room. “Where are we going?” I had thought it was all one big room, but as we passed the heavy bag, I noticed a small door almost hidden behind the shelving.

  Kait replied, “Travis has a special room for practicing magic. It’s warded so none of our magic can leave the room. It protects the rest of the house so if things get out of hand, no one else will be hurt.”

  Oh, that makes sense. “Alrighty, then. What are we doing this time?”

  He shook his head. “Still straight to the point. So, with water magic, you have several options. We will start with the easy defensive moves, and move on from there. The first thing I am going to teach you is to wrap your enemy in water. As long as they are not a water being, it will stop them as long as you can hold them, so eventually, we will be doing exercises to increase your stamina as well. As you use your power, it becomes easier, so your stamina will gradually increase naturally as well. The technique we are going to work on now is similar to what you were doing before, except instead of pulling the water to your hand, you pull it around the attacker. Try it on the dummy.”

  We had entered the room he had mentioned, and had closed the door firmly behind himself. The walls, ceiling and door were covered in symbols that looked as though they had been etched into the drywall, then painted. Since I knew to look, I found the camera in the corner facing the door. I wondered if they were all upstairs watching me again. In the center of the room was a badly abused crash-test dummy. Poor thing looked like it had been through fires and meat grinders, and everything in between.

  I nodded, and began to concentrate. Since this was defensive training, I decided I should probably keep my eyes open. It’s not very good tactics to fight with your eyes closed, after all. It was amazing to watch the water just appear around the dummy. “Am I enclosing the whole thing, or just its head?”

  Kait smiled. “You want to enclose the whole thing. If you only do its head, the attacker could still come after you until they pass out. If you cover their whole body, they will be floating in the middle of the bubble, and won’t be able to move.”

  Ohhh. I didn’t think of that. I pulled more and more water from the air until the mannequin was surrounded. Kait said, “Good, now hold it as long as you can.”

  While we waited, a thought occurred to me. “Why was there so much water in the air down here?”

  “I called ahead and had them run a humidifier in here so you would have something to work with.” Wow, he thought of everything.

  We continued to stand for what felt like hours, until I collapsed to the floor. The water sloughed off the dummy, and flooded the room. “Very good, that was ten minutes, which is excellent for a first try. I will let you rest for a few minutes, then we will move on to the next exercise.”

  I groaned. Kait was a slave driver. “What about all the water on the floor?” It wasn’t a huge room, so I was sitting in about 2 inches of water that covered the floor.

  “You can use it for the next exercises. You will clean it up when we are done.”

  Exercises? Like, plural?? How many was he going to make me do? He grinned at me like he heard my thoughts. “We will do as many as you possibly can today, and then more tomorrow. Then, we will do them again and again until they are so ingrained in you that you can do them in your sleep. One of the main tenants in fighting is you can’t pause to think. You have to do things instinctually, and to do that, you have to practice. It will be months of hard work before you are proficient enough that you can go out on your own without a guard.”

  I whimpered. I wasn’t proud of it, but that was what came out of my mouth. The work he was describing was more than I had ever had to do. I had never been involved with anything that required that kind of dedication and time commitment. It was daunting. Arguing with myself, I tried to remember that if I wanted to continue to live my life as is, I had to do it. The smug look on Kait’s face pretty much confirmed he could read my mind, and he had heard every word of my internal struggle. It made my anger flair to life, which just deepened the smile on his face. “Why didn’t you tell me you could read my mind?”

  “As David told you, those that can read minds don’t advertise it. That’s just asking for trouble. Yes, I know you are wary of me, and I would be too in your place. Do you really think it would have made you feel better about me if I came in and announced it? You also need to be aware that mind reading is an average ability, so you need to learn to keep a wall up around your mind so those of us with the ability can’t read it. I will teach you that later. Right now, we are working on your physical abilities and you are ready for the next exercise. Stand up.”

  The authority in his tone made me comply without thinking. I stood up quickly.

  “Now, pull the water from your pants and the floor. This time you are going to create a wall around yourself. Make the water clear once the wall is formed. You can do this by aligning the water particles in one direction, which will make it clear, rather than cloudy. We are not going to hold this one. I want to get through as many as possible before you run out of energy.”

  Okay. That was an odd description. Hopefully, I could figure out what he meant, because his explanation didn’t make sense to me right now. I pulled the water from my pants and the floor, and sent a waterspout up around me. The water was spinning in all directions. Kait was yelling, but I couldn’t hear past the rushing water. So, I relaxed and the fluid splashed to the floor again.

  “That was not what I wanted.” Kait was wiping his face, since it had splashed over everything, soaking us both, and the walls of the room.

  I snorted. “I figured. What did I do wrong?”

  “You let your emotions affect your powers.”

  “I didn’t know they could. I also didn’t realize that I was feeling any different than I was before.”

  He sighed. “You are still angry with me, and your emotions can affect what happens with your powers. The calmer you are, the more likely they will do what you intended. Any strong emotion can affect them, but the more agitated, fearful, or angry you are, the more likely your powers will do something unintended. This is dangerous, and I’m sure I don’t need to explain why. You should begin practicing meditation, to become more mindful of your emotional state. Your subconscious can impact your magic even more than conscious feelings.”

  “Well, I didn’t really have time for that this week, did I?” It came out sharper than I intended, and when I heard how it s
ounded, I sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I am extremely grateful for your help.”

  Laughing, he said, “I know and I understand. It’s not a problem, as long as you don’t make it a habit. We don’t have time to meditate right now, either, so we will just have to expect to get soaked from time to time. Enough talk. Do the exercise again.”

  Well, at least he didn’t get offended that I yelled at him. I took a deep breath, and attempted to push all my feelings into a box. After a minute, I tried the exercise again. I pulled all the water from around the room, and it formed a glistening pillar around me.

  Kait smiled and said, “Good, now focus on making all the water molecules face the same way.” He held up a hand when I opened my mouth. “You don’t really need to understand what you are doing, just keep that idea in your mind as you picture the water as clear as a sheet of glass.”

  The water around me smoothed out. It was like looking through a slightly wavy window. “Great,” Kait said, “Now, picture the molecules of water slowing down until they are almost stopped.”

  I frowned, as I pictured that. It seemed like he was wanting me to turn it to ice, which is exactly what happened. However, as it froze, it took on a slightly reddish-brown tint, although it was still mostly clear. I tapped on the ice, and it rang like a bell.

  He laughed. “That is exactly what I was hoping for. Your great-grandmother had the ability to insert metal particles into the water she controlled. It made her fighting magic extremely strong, since I’m sure you know, many metals are deadly to Shadoewynne. It is an extremely rare ability, that was passed down to you. Your great-grandmother had to be very careful with this ability, since the metal could hurt her too, although she had some immunity to it, so it hurt her less than other Shadoewynne. The good thing for you is that your human heritage should protect you from it. You have never shown any metal allergies, have you?”

  “No, I have never had any problems with any kinds of metal. But, how did I do that? I didn’t mean to.” The ice cylinder around me was muffling sound, and I practically had to yell so Kait could hear me.

  He shrugged. “I don’t exactly know. I don’t have that ability, and she was never able to explain how she did it. The good thing is, with the metal particles, it will stop any full-blooded Shadoewynne and it’s hard enough to stop most attacks.” He threw a knife at it, and it clanged off, not even damaging the surface.

  “But where did the metal come from?” I was completely baffled.

  “Microscopic particles in the dust and on the dummy, most likely. Let’s not get stuck not the ‘how’, alright? You can do it, and that’s all that matters. A good portion of controlling your magic is subconscious, and the more you think about it, the harder it will be to get the magic to do what you want. You need to think what you want it to do, not about how to do it. You are only limited by your imaginations, and basic laws of nature, like gravity.”

  I gaped at him as I processed that thought. “How do I unfreeze the water?”

  “Do the opposite of what you did to freeze it; picture the molecules speeding up.”

  Very quickly, the room turned into a sauna as some of the ice turned into steam, the rest of the water dropping to the floor. Within just a minute or two, I was unable to see Kait because of the heavy steam filling the room. Sweat popped out of every pore.

  Kait laughed. “That wasn’t what I meant. You only needed to speed the molecules up a little. Pull the steam from the air and make a ball in your hand, and remember to slow the molecules again, or you’ll burn yourself.”

  Soon, the room was almost back to normal. The crash-test dummy still had a large amount of condensation on it, since it was cold when I filled the room with steam, but at least now we could see. The runes on the walls were filled with water as well.

  “Suspending an attacker and turning the water into a solid form are the two most important things you need to learn. Once you master the ice, your imagination is the limit of what you can do. You can make weapons, defensive armor, walls, and even steps. You need to learn to make it freeze faster. Run through that exercise again and again until you can do it in less than 10 seconds. You can do it to the ball in your hand, it doesn’t have to be a full wall.”

  I sighed as I began to run through the exercise again and again, each time Kait calling out the number of seconds from start to finish. I was down to about 15 seconds when my legs gave out from under me, and I splashed down onto the floor. I sat there while I struggled to move my legs, which felt like jello and were not responding to my internal commands.

  Kait took a deep breath. “I guess we need to be done with that for now. Let’s clean up the room, and we can go back upstairs for a short break.” He got the bucket out again and set it in front of me. “Put the water in the bucket.”

  Ugh. I could barely hold my head up, I didn’t know how I was going to clean up the room. Tiredly, I began to pull the water from the room into the bucket. Each time it filled, Kait took it and dumped it, then brought it back.

  I don’t know how long I sat there, pulling the water from the floor and equipment, but by the time I was done, I was slumped over, with my chin on my chest. I was half asleep as Kait picked me up and took me back upstairs.

  I woke up an hour or so later, barely remembering how I got upstairs. I was on a very comfy couch, in front of a roaring fireplace, covered with a soft blanket. The murmur of voices from deeper in house drew me to the kitchen, where I eventually found them. I had fixed my hair as I searched. For some reason, it was very important to me not to have bed head again in front of Travis’ dad. I wanted him to like me, and was worried about how I appeared to him.

  I needn’t have worried, because he wasn’t in there. It was just Travis, David, Kait and Sarah. As I entered the room, I greeted everyone, then said, “Sorry about that. I seem to be sleeping a lot lately. “

  Travis smiled at me, his brilliant blue eyes dancing with the laughter that was evident in his deep voice. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone works themselves into naps when they first start. Most of us also had to contend with tiredness from growth spurts, too, since powers tend to show up at the same time as that last one that comes with puberty.”

  David chimed in, with his grey eyes dancing as well, “Sugar, I fell asleep in the middle of growing a tree once, and woke up 40 feet in the air on a tree branch. It had formed a hammock around me as it grew while I slept.”

  That brought a tired giggle out of me. “Well, at least it’s normal. Even though the rest of this isn’t.”

  Travis reached over and grabbed my hand, which was gripping the end of my braid, and ran his fingers over my knuckles. “It’s normal to us. It will be normal to you soon, too.”

  I sighed. “Sure, it will. So, do we have anything to eat?”

  Sarah got up and went to the fridge. “Yep, we made a large dinner, and we were just waiting for you to get up.”

  Yum. Food. It didn’t matter what it was, I was going to devour it. I was starving, again. Janelle entered the kitchen, and walked over to me. “Hey, Evalia, if you don’t mind, I would like to check your arm again real quick. It should be about healed.”

  “Oh, okay. Do you want to do it in here, or do we need to go somewhere else?”

  “I can do it here.” She patted Travis on the shoulder. “Can I have this seat?”

  He flushed as he stood up. “Sure, no problem. I’ll help Sarah set everything out for dinner.”

  “Thanks, Hon.” She leaned over the table and waved her hand in front of my face. “Sweetie, put your arm up here, so I can reach it, please.”

  I had been watching Travis as he walked away. I blushed and stammered, “Sure.” while I put my arm up on the table. Just like the last time, she laid her fingertips on my arm, and a warmth spread through my arm, centering where the pain had been the worst.

  After a minute, she leaned back and smiled. “Good, it’s almost completely healed. It should be good as new in the morning. I will have to remo
ve the remaining magic then. Your liver is about three quarters of the way healed, as well.”

  YAY! It’s not like my arm was really bothering me, but I was trying to be overly careful with it, especially while training.

  Chapter 16

  Travis called that dinner was ready. Janelle and I quickly made our way to the formal dining room, to find a literal feast waiting for us. There was a garden salad, French onion soup, and a huge roast that looked like it would be enough to feed twice as many people as we had there. There was even fancy china on the table.

  “Uh, what’s the occasion? What’s with the multi-course meal and fancy plates?”

  Travis and David beamed at me. “We are celebrating you. Getting the ward removed, having access to your magic and how well you are doing at training.”

  I grabbed my braid and started spinning it around my finger as I stared at the floor. “This is too much, Guys, I’m overwhelmed.”

  David put his hands on my shoulders as he leaned over to get in my face. “Get used to it. That’s what we do. We are here for you, and we are going to celebrate the small victories. You have had so much going on, we need to focus on the good for a bit.”

  That was true. I needed to focus on all the good that has come out of this, and not the bad. I raised the glass of pop that had been placed at a spot for me. “Okay, then. A toast, to good things and to moving forward!”

  Everybody laughed as they grabbed their glasses and clinked them together. We sat down, and dug into the meal. David sat on my right, and Travis was on my left, while Kait, Sarah and Janelle sat across from us. It seemed kinda crazy to have such a huge meal, at a huge table with just the six of us, but David was right. We needed this break. I needed this break.

  As usual, David was very considerate in drawing me into the conversation, even though I was still feeling out of place and awkward. I knew Janelle pretty well by now, but Sarah was still an unknown to me. Due to my personal insecurities, I was always afraid of how people would respond if I let my natural, snarky personality show. Because of this, I frequently censured myself, and, as a result, I didn’t speak much with new people. I relaxed all quickly, after Sarah snorted when I made a sarcastic remark under my breath.