A few hours later, the boat docked on the outskirts of a large estate that Cyrene could just barely make out over the horizon. A dirt path disappeared into a thicket of woods, and it all appeared so calm and serene from the water.
Once the boat was tied down, the crew lowered the gangway and began hoisting the horses from below deck back onto solid ground. Orden paid the Captain a fat sum for his worries, and their group disembarked shortly after. Then, the captain and his crew untied the boat and were careening back down the Huyek River.
“Gildan then?” Ahlvie asked.
Orden’s gaze rose to the property on the hill and then frowned. “Yes. We’ll head northeast until we reach the trail that leads into town. A day-and-a-half ride if we set out now. Who will take the horses?”
Ceis’f spoke up, “Avoca and I will scout ahead. We are familiar with the woods and twice as fast.”
Avoca pursed her lips but didn’t disagree.
“No,” Cyrene said. “Ceis’f, you will go with Orden. He already knows this land and is an excellent scout. Avoca will stay with Ahlvie and me with the horses.” She turned her attention away from Ceis’f before he had a chance to disagree. “Is there anything else we need to know?”
Orden sent her an amused look but didn’t comment on her taking charge. “Just stay away from the property. That house belongs to Lord Barkeley, and he doesn’t take kindly to strangers, so step lightly.”
With that, Orden and Ceis’f gathered small packs from the supplies provided in Eldora and set off. Ceis’f glanced back once at their party, but he left albeit reluctantly. Avoca gave Cyrene a curt nod. Whether for getting Ceis’f to go or for taking charge once more, she wasn’t sure.
The rest of them finished tending to the horses and then cut a wide path around the plantation home. If this Lord was half as bad as Orden had made him seem, she didn’t want to have a run-in with him.
The three of them set an easy pace, and by the time the sun was setting low on the horizon, they had put the Lord’s manor behind them. Soon, they caught up with Orden and Ceis’f, who had prepared a fire in a clearing. They sat on opposite sides of the fire without speaking or looking at each other. It must have been a long afternoon if even Orden was testy.
After setting up a rotating watch schedule, Avoca let the men cook a small dinner with what they had caught during the day and then insisted she and Cyrene had work to do. She forced Cyrene to hand over the Book of the Doma and dragged her off into the woods. After a short trek, Avoca found what she had been looking for—a rivulet that barely trickled water.
Avoca turned to face Cyrene and contemplatively stared at her before speaking, “You have not touched your powers since we were bound. Why?”
Cyrene should have known this was coming. Of course, Avoca would notice that she hadn’t used her magic. There was so much to discuss between them, but the magic was the most obvious. Cyrene wavered on what to say and then final blurted out, “I…I can’t.”
“What do you mean, you can’t? I watched you kill all those Indres.”
“I know, but I can only feel my magic in life-or-death situations. I reach for it, like I did with the Indres, but it’s just a flutter, like a butterfly in my stomach. Then, it’s gone.”
Avoca stared at her with wide eyes. “Have you ever been able to reach them without your life being in danger?”
“No,” she admitted.
“Well then, this will not be of much use,” Avoca grumbled with a sigh. She sank to the moss-carpeted forest floor and set the book down next to her. “Sit.”
Cyrene did as instructed. “Why won’t the book help me?”
“Because you are blocked.”
“Oh,” Cyrene whispered. “But how do you know it won’t help with that?”
“Because, when Doma ruled the world in our distant past, they did not have blocks. It was not heard of, just as it is not presently heard of in Leif society. I fear your block comes from the corruption of Byern.”
Cyrene furrowed her brow. “What exactly does that mean?”
“The history lesson will be for another day, but I suspect it is because you grew up in a world without magic and in a world that does not believe in magic. If you do not believe you can do magic, Cyrene, then you will never truly harness your powers.”
“Okay. So…I just have to believe in myself, and then it’ll happen?”
Avoca smiled. “Let’s hope that will suffice. First, let’s do some basic meditation lessons to get yourself in tune with the elements. While Doma magic is more inherent, as you are drawing from your own body, you can access the elements, and in fact, it will help you when you feel your own core running on empty. You never want to weaken yourself beyond what you are capable of holding.”
“And how will I know that?”
“With a lot of time, practice, and patience.”
“Great,” she grumbled. “My specialties.”
“Now, enough talking. Close your eyes, and clear your mind. Think about your breathing. In through your nose, out through your mouth. In through your nose, out through your mouth.”
Cyrene breathed deeply as Avoca spoke to her, “Yes, that’s good. Now, empty your mind of all your worries and concerns, of your mission, of your friends and your home. You are one.”
Her voice was gentle and soothing, and Cyrene found herself drifting in the emptiness of her being.
“Now, sense the river beside you.”
Cyrene started out of her trance and opened her eyes. “What do you mean, sense the river?”
Avoca sighed heavily. “Everything in existence has a pulse. You and I have a pulse. The forest has a pulse. The river has a pulse. Each of us Leifs has an element that calls to us more strongly than the others, but we can feel the pulse of each of the other three elements. I am strongest in earth and then water, as is common with my people in Eldora. Ceis’f senses air and then fire, as was common with his people in Aonia. We balance each other out in that regard.” Avoca smiled fondly.
“Wait…Aonia?” Cyrene asked.
Avoca cringed. “The Leif village Ceis’f is from.”
“He’s not from Eldora.”
“Cyrene,” Avoca reprimanded lightly. “Let’s concentrate on your powers. Ceis’f’s story is his own.”
“Okay,” Cyrene said. “What element am I strongest in?”
“I am going to attempt to find that out,” Avoca told her. “Now, start again. Shut your eyes, empty your mind, and remember your breathing. Now, I want you to reach out with your powers. Don’t try and well them inside you, as you last did. Just let that flutter of butterflies brush against you. Don’t try to guide it. Let it guide you. Just reach out and sense the pulse of the river.”
Cyrene emptied herself of everything, fully giving herself over to her meditation. Then, she felt for her powers buried deep within her. She let it guide her instead of forcing the magic to the surface. She tried reaching out with it and sensing the pulse of the river. But it just didn’t work.
She opened her eyes again in frustration. “Nothing is happening.”
“Try a different element. Find the one that calls to you. It will make itself known.” Avoca dug her fingers into the earth with pleasure. “Let me try to explain. Earth sounds like a drumbeat, low and distant but constant. Water sounds like a wave crashing, rhythmic and enticing. Air sounds like a whistle, harmonic like a bird’s song. Fire is the hardest for most. Its pulse is a heartbeat that practically sizzles with the force of the flame. Now, try once more and let the energy find you.”
Cyrene got to work again. She reached her meditative state quicker, and instead of concentrating on water, she reached for earth. Her fingers were buried in it. The slightest flicker of power washed through her and then disappeared as quickly.
By the time she focused on air, she was too frustrated to concentrate.
Avoca made her release all her anger and try again.
And again.
They tried until the sun had completely disappeared, and they had to precariously pick their way back to camp through the woods by moonlight.
Cyrene felt defeated. She’d had no luck. Her powers never surfaced, and the energy never flowed through her. She certainly hadn’t heard any pulse, other than the one signaling she was getting a headache.
“Still nothing,” Cyrene said. “I can’t hear anything.”
“You are very strong. You would not have been able to kill the Indres with the force-field burst otherwise. You just need more practice.”
“A force-field what?”
Avoca sighed. “You used a force-field burst, which harnesses energy into an offensive blast that can be powerful enough to take out your enemy or tear down a mountain. It’s very powerful, very difficult magic. Can you think about how you did it?”
Cyrene felt helpless. “It was either I died or they did, so my body just reacted. It happened when I killed a Braj in Albion.”
“A Braj?” Avoca asked, her voice raising an octave. “Why did you not tell me of a Braj? They are deadly assassins. More will come after you. We should have been on the lookout this entire time.”
“I know. Orden told me about them.”
“That man seems to know an awful lot about everything,” Avoca said.
“Indeed. He is a mystery.”
The pair made it back to the camp and stopped before entering. Avoca stayed silent for a minute as she stared at the ever-darkening sky. “Let me worry about the Braj. You focus on releasing the block from your powers. We will continue to do this every night until you get past it and find your elemental pulse.” She turned her gaze back to Cyrene and smiled a rare beautiful smile. “Just try to find it in yourself to accept the power. It is the life force of the world, and the Creator has entrusted us with it. The least you can do is use it.”
And so Cyrene spent the next day in her saddle, reaching for her powers. By midday, she was exhausted, had a terrible headache, and was beyond irritated. She snapped at everyone who spoke to her. All she wanted to do was find a way to reach her magic. If I can make this force-field burst that Avoca had talked about, how come I can’t duplicate it? How come I can’t even feel my magic?
They reached Gildan at nightfall. Orden got them two rooms at an inn on the outskirts of town. They would buy and trade for supplies in the morning, but until then, Avoca wanted to work with Cyrene to find a way to get past her block.
They spent half the night in the woods but to no avail. When they made it back to the inn, Cyrene could do nothing but collapse into a fitful slumber where she dreamed of Indres and Braj attacking her, which only forced her awake repeatedly.
Orden and Ahlvie completed the shopping before mid-morning. After waking, Cyrene took her time in a long bath, knowing she would not have another for a while, and she tried to listen to the pulse of the water. All she felt was it getting colder and colder.
She dried off and returned to her chamber to find new Aurumian dresses in a cheap itchy wool. Both were brown, and while they were of lighter material than the dresses she had packed, they would have to do if she wanted to fit in. The skirts were fuller, the waistline tighter, and the sleeves were large and voluminous at the shoulders before tightening around her wrists.
Aurum was a three-week ride from the northern town of Gildan. Orden and Ceis’f alternated with scouting shifts, and they continued their routine for watches at night.
Most nights, Avoca would haul Cyrene away from camp and spend an hour or two thinking of ways for her to figure out her powers. But, if they were still there, neither girl could find a way to access them.
On nights when they were most annoyed with the fact that they weren’t getting anywhere, they would return to the men. Nearly two weeks into their journey, Cyrene and Avoca came back early to camp to find Ahlvie instructing Ceis’f on a dice game.
Cyrene warily eyed him. “Dice? What are you wagering?”
When they had been in Albion, Ahlvie had gotten them into trouble by wagering Cyrene as his wife in a dice game with a tavern owner, who hadn’t taken too kindly to losing.
“No worries, Cyrene. Just coin,” he said with a wink. “We’re playing All the King’s Men.”
“Don’t let him steal all your money, Ceis’f,” Cyrene warned. “He’s a dirty cheat.”
Ceis’f laughed callously. “I’d like to see him try. Besides, I’ve played this game before many years ago. It was called by a different name in my village—the Serpent’s Luck.”
And, to Cyrene’s shock, the game was evenly matched. By the end of the first game, the two men were playing jovially together. Ahlvie was reminiscing about stealing a man’s money right out from under his nose at a tavern, and Ceis’f seemed to forget that he was enjoying himself with humans for a time. Orden even joined in on the game and lost some coins to the two of them.
Cyrene just hoped the good cheer of their journey would last once they reached Aurum. Much depended on what happened once they arrived in the capital city.