Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (19 page)

With everything that had happened today,
Leesa was
definitely tempted by
Balin’s
offer. Hi
s homemade mead was even more delicious than
his stew, but it was also very
strong, especially for someone who rarely drank. She decided she had better pass.

“No
,
thank you,” she said. “I
think I should
keep a clear head.
I’ll just have water.
Rave, you go ahead if you want.”

Rave nodded to Balin, who quickly filled two big pewter mugs with golden liquid from a big glass jar.
He filled a third mug with water for Leesa.

They all sat down on chairs arranged in an arc in front of the fireplace. Leesa took the center seat.
She could feel the warmth of the glowing embers through
the bottom of
her shoes.
Rave sat to her right and Balin to her left.

“It started on Sunday,”
she
began. “Dominic had
to use his magic to save me from being killed by a drunk driver, of all things. His magic immediately alerted the black waziri to his location, and as bad luck would have it, one o
f them was not too far away
.”

She quickly described the fight against Josef and how Rave had finally destroyed him
. She minimized her role in the battle, thinking that Balin didn’t need all those details.

“Leesa played a bigger role than she’s saying,” Rave interjected. “Without her, the black wizard would have destroyed both Dominic and me.”

Leesa blushed. “I was just recounting the basics,” she said. “Anyhow, we knew the magical battle would probably draw more of the black waziri, maybe even all three of them.
They can track Dominic now, for at least the next few weeks he said, so he had to leave, to draw them away from me.
Rave got
Dral
and Bain to come stay with us for a couple of nights
at my dorm
, for added protection
.
This afternoon, we saw
the three waziri outside the
dorm,
right
where Dominic had used his magic to save me. Luckily, they didn’t see us.
”

Leesa took a big sip of water before continuing.

“The wizards were gone when we returned, probably
out
visiting the site of the battle to see what they could learn. We hoped they wouldn’t come back, but at least one of them must have.” She recounted
the
incident with the zombies in the dorm just a few hours ago. “I don’t think he could have learned anything
from the attack, though
, since Rave,
Dral
and Bain didn’t even use their v
olkaane fire. Instead, they
snapped the creatures’ necks. Just to be safe, Rave decided I should stay here
in your settlement
for a couple of days. So here we are.”

Balin took a long pull from his mug.
“Young Rave was smart to bring you here,” he said. “There’s nowhere you could be any safer.”

“I know.”

Leesa could think of only
one other place where she might
be equally safe
from the black waziri
, a place that had come frighteningly close to becoming her permanent home—the underground caverns of Stefa
n’s vampire coven. She shook that horrid
thought from her mind.

“There’s an added bonus, too,” she said. “For some reason, my magic seems easier, or more powerful, or something here. Rave thinks it’s because I’m surrounded by so much magical volkaane energy.” She recounted her experience with the illumination spell back in Rave’s house.

“I think Rave is probably right,” Balin said.

“Would you like to see?” Leesa asked. “I want to do some practice later back at Rave’s, but it wouldn’t hurt to get in a bit of work right now.”

“I’d love to see
you do it
,” Balin said.

Leesa took another swallow from her mug and then set it down on the floor in front of her chair. She took a deep breath and silently repeated her trigger word in her head. When she was ready, she held her right hand out in front of her, palm up.

“
Illuminati
verdus
,” she said.

The glowing orb immediately appeared just above her palm. It didn’t seem quite as bright as the last one, but Leesa was pretty sure that was only because the cabin was not as dark as Rave’s house h
ad been. The light lasted about
ten seconds before it winked out.

“Very impressive,” Balin said. “You’ll be a full-fledged wizard before long.”

“Ha!
Not hardly
,” Leesa said. “I’ve got a
long
ways to go.” She was pleased with
Balin’s
praise, though. “That’s the spell I used on my
tongue when I kissed Rave. I have
no idea what its
actual
effect was, but he obviously liked it.”

Rave grinned. “That I did.”

“Dominic gave me a whole book full of spells I need to learn,” Leesa told Balin. “Plus, I need to work on other stuff, too, like telekinesis and my dreams.”

She put her hand on Rave’s forehead, like a mother checking the temperature of her child. “Do you think Rave has cooled down enough for another kiss? I want to go back and practice my magic, but not until I get one more kiss.”

Balin smiled. “I’m sure the rest and the mead has
probably
cooled him off
sufficiently
.”

Leesa immediately stood up.
She grabbed Rave’s hand and pulled him up, too.

“Pucker up, mister,” she said.

W
alking back to
Rave’s
house holding his hand, Leesa felt like she was floating in the night air.
The memory of their second kiss was still strong in her head—and elsewhere! She was also pleased with the little trick she had
discovered
w
ith her magic that made certain
Rave enjoyed the kissing as much as she did. She was pretty sure she didn’t really have anything to worry about even before the trick, but a girl could never be too sure. And as a bonus, talking with Balin about how her magic seemed easier here had g
iven her an idea. As soon as they
got back inside,
she was going to make use
of all the magical energy around her by practicing the one spell she’d had absolutely no success with so far—the air shield spell. She knew full well that getting a spell to work the first time was always the hardest
part
, so she was going to take full advantage of being here in the volkaane village.

As an experiment, she let go of Rave’s hand and stopped walking. Rave also stopped. He looked at her questioningly.

“Go
on
another couple of steps,” she told him. “I want to try something, and I need
you to be far enough away
so I can’t feel your heat.”

Rave glid
ed about ten feet down the roadway and then turned back to face her.

“Far enough?
” he asked.

“Yeah, that
should be
good.”

Lee
sa peeled off her parka and draped it over
her arm. The frigid air enveloped her immediately. She closed her eyes and pictured blue fire burning in her stomach. The cold vanished
almost instantly
. She marveled at how easily she was able to warm herself.
Looking down at the ground, she spied a small stick she thought would come in handy later. She fo
cused her thoughts on the eight inch
long twig and pictured it floating up off the ground and across to Rave.

“Catch,” she said as the stick did exactly what she wanted.

Rave reached out and caught it. “Now you’re just showing off,” he said, smiling as he examined the stick.

“Yeah, a little,” Leesa replied with a smile of her own. “But I do have plans for that, so it’s not totally showing off. And the more magic I use, the better I’ll get, so why bend down when I can
do it
with magic?”

“Just don’
t get too carried away
with yourself
, or you a
re a
pt to be disappointed when you’re back at Weston and not surrounded by volkaane energy.”

Leesa walked closer to Rave. “I know. But I think whatever I do here will carry
over at least a little.
Success breeds success, as Dominic likes to say.”

Feeling very confident, she decided there was no reason to wait until they were inside to try the shield spell.

“Wait just a moment, and then try to poke me with that stick,” she said. “I’m going to try the air shield spell.”

She breathed deeply and performed her mental trigger.
“
Bonduur
,”
she said confidently as she pictured the air in front of her turning into thick, unbreakable glass. “
Bonduur
,” she repeated.

Rav
e pushed the twig toward Leesa’s stomach. It seemed to encounter no resistance. When she felt it press against her shirt, she swore softly to herself. A moment later, she was freezing. She quickly slipped into her parka. Rave touched her cheek, sending his warmth into her.

“Dominic also said failure can lead to failure,” he reminded her. “You have to
try to
separate the results of one spell from any others. Just because you couldn’t form the shield doesn’t mean you had to stop feeling warm.”

“I know. I got overconfident,” she admitted. “I wasn’t expecting the air shield to fail so completely. When it did, I doubted myself for a moment, and poof, there went the fire in my belly.
” She shook her head. “
I
should
know better than that.”

She shrugged off her coat again and pictured the blue fire
burning
inside her.
She was immediately warm.

“See? I can do this.” She shook her head
again
and sighed. “Sometimes I’m my own worst enemy. Let’s get inside and do some work.”