It was amazing what speed could be had when an Invoker was involved. Kay had been gone hardly less than an hour before a new carriage pulled up, loaded with all of Bernard’s bags, and a pair of indel stags decorated in the height of Kaluna fashion pulling it.
The ride to the castle was a quiet one. Amy didn’t blame Bernard for not wanting to talk, only for not taking the reins when all she wanted to do was find Rat.
Bernard broke the silence only after they passed the scene of their small battle. He gestured to the trampled and blood-stained ground as they passed the bear’s bones. “You were in snow.”
It wasn’t quite a question, but the concern in his voice could be heard all the same. He wanted to know more than just what could be guessed. It wasn’t something she wanted to tell him. If he knew, it would make her even more vulnerable than she already was.
“If you’re sick, I can help you.”
She looked at her shoes, kicked at a scuff mark, and sighed. “Not when you’re the one who did this to me.”
Bernard jerked, and studied her carefully. “What do you mean?”
She wanted very badly to lie, but something told her there was no other option but the truth. “I saw a different Invoker.”
“And he couldn’t find any magic?”
“He found magic, far more magic than in any other indel. He just couldn’t find a way to invoke it.”
A guard stepped out in the middle of the road, saving Bernard from answering. “You got a work-pass ‘fy?” the guard demanded.
Amy shook her head, but Bernard bared his Invoker tattoo. “She’s with me,” he informed the guard. “We’re going to the castle. Please see that we are not accosted on our trip.”
The guard eyed the tattoo, then stepped back and bowed. “Yes sir. The message may be a bit slow, sir. Only small animals move fast in traffic.”
He gestured to the guard post, and the guards on the inside of the gate ran out to open the great bronze doors. In moments, they were trotting through on roads as smooth as silk.
The stags made strange noises at a horse housed in a stable larger and better constructed than most of the houses in Outer-Kaluna. The horse neighed back as they passed, and Amy found herself shaking her head in disbelief when the road led past a two-story house larger still that, of all things, matched the stables. A lot had changed since her last, illegal, visit to Inner-Kaluna.
They lapsed into silence for a while, watching the scenery slide by, until Bernard stirred at her side. “So, he didn’t put the seal on you then and there?”
Amy shivered at the thought of the crossed-out “U” that marked an uninvoked indel. “I had some stuff,” she admitted. “I used it to get away.”
She left him to guess what “stuff” she was talking about, and focused instead on a child running across the road with a kite in his hand.
“What did you do after you left?”
There was no admonition in his voice. If anything it held only a faint tinge of awe.
“Does it matter? I hid. I found things to do. When everything was over and done I came back here. I suppose I should thank you for calling me ‘fy instead of what I really am.”
The author of this website is a semi-professional short story author who chooses to remain anonymous for the writing of this novel. Her publications include 4 short stories and one honorable mention in a flash fiction contest.