Chapter Five

 

 

Imara fell on her ass three times before she used the sticking spell. Once she had placed the spell on her body, she was able to press her body against the wall and use it as a point of grip as she slowly crept upward.

“Well done. You read the books?”

“A few of them.” She grunted and pushed up with her foot while reaching with the opposite hand. “The ones that were bookmarked.”

“Bookmarked? Huh.” Hyl chuckled.

She reached up, and her hand hit open air. She glanced up and exhaled.

“Now for the hard part. Come down slowly. Be sure of your footing.”

She didn’t nod, she just did as he suggested. Her hands were aching, her toes were cramping, but she still moved down, row by row.

When she hit solid ground, she dropped like a stone. She sat on the ground, her knees splayed, feet curled inside her shoes, and her fingers wrapped inward to stop their raw throbbing.

Hyl looked her over and nodded. “I will be right back.”

He went into the tower and emerged a minute later with a thermos flask. He crouched next to her and poured a cup. One look at her hands and he held the cup to her lips. “Drink it. It is the same tea that she gave you the other day but with nettles to help make your skin more durable.”

She swallowed and winced at the burn of the tea. The last time it had been cool.

He pulled the cup back. “It has to burn to toughen your skin. How are your hands?”

She flexed them, and the raw and bloody fingertips were healing over. “Are you sure she doesn’t use magic?”

He chuckled. “No. The herbs are grown here, and they have their own magic.”

“Do they work outside the space?”

“Sure. Adrea is just getting her online shop ready. The sales will be by invitation only after the purchaser has passed a security check, but yeah, she is going digital.”

“Nice. She will sell out in seconds.”

Hyl chuckled. “I am not so sure. Most mages have some kind of legal trouble in their histories. If they do, we will find it.”

“So, getting caught during my exam would knock me off the list.”

“No, but getting caught the day after would.”

She pulled her legs up and rested her forearms on her knees. “So, I have one night to finish the exam?”

He grinned. “That is where folks get it wrong. You have twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes.”

Imara stared at him. “So any time during that day. Oh, wow. That makes things easier and exponentially harder.”

“How harder?”

“I don’t know what the best time would be. This is going to take some research.”

“You will figure it out. That is one point where I can’t advise you. All I can do is give you the physical skills to engage in your stealth manoeuvres.”

“Right.”

He nodded. “Now, do your hands feel better?”

She looked at them and nodded. “They do.”

“Good. Now get back up the tower and try to keep it under two hours this time.”

She widened her eyes. “It took longer than two hours?”

“Yes, it did. Now, get up and get down in under two hours.”

She nodded and grunted as she got to her feet. She faced the tower, summoned the sticking spell, and crawled upward as quickly as she could. This time, her limbs obeyed her, and she was able to move along the stone in what felt like a few minutes.

The moment she got down to the base, she turned to him. “How long?”

“One hour and twenty-two minutes. Very good for a first day.”

She groaned. “It felt so fast.”

“It will. The thing you have to remember is that you can’t depend on your perception of time. You have to move as rapidly as possible to throw off the effects of the spells you will need.”

“The sticking spell. It makes me slow.”

He grinned. “It does. It keeps you on the wall, but it takes four times your normal speed.”

She exhaled and then looked at him. “What else for today?”

“You want to do more?”

“I do.”

He nodded. “Right. Back up the tower. When you can get to the top and back down again in five minutes, we can work on the next task.”

She looked at the tower and the small smears of blood she had left behind. With a focus on increasing her speed, she muttered the spell, jumped to stick herself to the wall and hauled herself as fast as she could. When she was down, he applauded slowly. “Excellent, but still twenty minutes.”

She whirled and climbed the wall for the fourth time, this time without the sticking spell.

She slipped a few times, but it made her faster. She climbed up twenty feet and then lowered herself back down again with careful dexterity.

Hyl grinned and applauded. “Excellent. This time, you are dead on five minutes. Now, let’s go and get some food. Adrea is waiting.”

Her limbs told her that she had been climbing for days, but Mr. E’s perky face when they made it back to the gardens told her that it had barely been any time at all.

He ran up to her and waited until she had shucked the pack off her shoulders before he jumped up and rubbed against her sweaty face with his fuzzy one.

I had a marvellous time. When do we come back?

She looked to Hyl. “When is our second class?”

“Tomorrow will be too soon, but Thursday should be fine.”

She scowled. “I don’t want to interfere with your work.”

Adrea waved that off. “He is assigned as my bodyguard, and he only leaves when I authorize it. I am willing to hang onto him as long as you need him.”

Hyl grinned and handed Imara a platter full of sandwiches. “Eat. You need it.”

She dropped into her chair with a thud.

Adrea gave her a commiserating look. “Hard, huh?”

“Yeah. Thanks for that tea. I was wondering if I could buy some when you get up and running. A friend is helping me, but the material she is working with is tearing up her skin something awful. I think that tea would be just the thing.”

Adrea got to her feet and walked into the house.

Imara blinked at Hyl. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, just wait.”

Adrea came out with a large muslin bag. “Here. I have divided it into doses. Have her drink one when you see her and then another one twelve hours later. You need to do the same, or tomorrow, you won’t be able to move.”

Imara was eating as if had been days and not hours since she last had a meal.

She cleared her mouth. “Day after tomorrow. Same time as today.”

Hyle grinned. “Deal. Just so you can prepare yourself, the tower is getting higher.”

She smiled and nodded. “I figured. Well, at least I can practice the spell and work on my technique at the hall.”

A half-hour of polite chitchat later, Adrea sent her home.

“Now that I know where your portal is, you can come through anytime. I am opening it so you can get a clear run home.”

She confirmed with Hyl, “I leave the books?”

“You leave the books. These are for Ritual Space use only.”

She nodded, grabbed the bag she hadn’t used, and ran for the open portal with her familiar on her shoulder. She stumbled into her bedroom. Shower. The shower was her first port of call.

Once she was no longer covered with blood and sweat, she grabbed the muslin bag and took it down to Bara. Without asking her, she made a pot of tea and poured her a cup. “Drink this.”

Bara leaned back, suspicious. “Why?”

“Because it will heal you and help toughen your hands without losing dexterity. It is a gift from the owner of Ritual Space.”

That was all it took. Bara finished the whole pot, and she sat there shivering and flushing as the effects were all seen in her body. The moment her hands cleared up, she sighed in relief.

“What is that stuff?”

Imara settled at the table. “Herbs from Ritual Space. It’s a gift from the owner.”

Bara looked at her cup as if she wanted to bronze it. “Have you been there?”

“Yeah, it is where I am training. That is what the portal was for.”

Bara looked at her with a wistful look. “When you are done training, can I come, too?”

“I will ask. I think it will be fine.”

Bara grinned. “That is definitely something to look forward to.”

Imara nodded, gathered the rest of the herb packs, and handed one to Bara. “Drink this in twelve hours. According to Adrea, that should do it.”

“I feel so much better; I don’t know what another dose could do.”

“She’s an herbalist, so if she says to drink it, drink it.”

Bara took her phone and set the alarm. “There, that should bring me out of my weaving stupor.”

Imara chuckled.

“So, what are you doing tonight?”

“I am applying to the Death Keeper Guild for a dozen empty soul stones. I need to keep a promise to Adrea about dealing with the rock I found the other day.”

Bara nodded. “Right, well, I feel so much better, I am heading back to the loom.”

“Enjoy. Don’t forget your phone.”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

Imara sighed and looked around. There was no sign of Reegar, which was odd. He was always around.

She reached out with magic and located him. Blushing furiously, she withdrew. Liirick was in town, and they were engaged in a private moment.

Mr. E hopped up onto the table and stretched. I could have told you that.

She scratched his chin. “Did you have fun with the bunnies?”

We told jokes for the first six hours, and then, they brought me to Adrea for a snack. She kept me busy for an hour, and then, we went to play again.

She frowned. “What? We weren’t there that long.”

Well, I am a cat, my observation of the time period could have been skewed.

I hope so. She checked the time and date on her phone and sighed in relief. She was right where and when she was supposed to be, but she didn’t put it past Ritual Space to knock time around... again.

With nothing do to and no one to talk to, she sent the email to the Death Keepers, and then, she went to look for spells that might be useful while she was breaking into a magical building full of people. Some kind of bladder control might be in order.

 

Hyl was peeling an apple with a knife. “Do the warm-up.”

She nodded and scaled the six stories of smooth brick, and then, she worked her way back down. They were in week three of her six weeks of training, and this was now an experience she was used to.

When she was standing at the base of the tower again, she caught her breath. “Now what?”

He smiled. “Inside the building, I have hidden a valuable object. Once you retrieve it, you will have to find your way out of the building again. It will not be easy. Go.”

She nodded and used the door-opening spell that she had already practiced. So far, he had left her chocolate, a glass of water, and a happy kitten on a post-it note.

Imara moved through the rooms as quickly as she could until she found the valuable object. She scooped Mr. E up from the basket where he had been sleeping, and she turned to the doorway she had entered by. The wall sealed, and there was no trace of a doorway.

She winced. She had been afraid that this was that spell. She held the still-sleeping Mr. E tight to her chest, and she cast the pass-through spell. She stepped through the one wall, and all other walls were solid again.

She turned and looked around her, orienting herself to the tower she was in. She approached her chosen wall and passed through it, waiting until she was on the other side before she gasped. The air was fresh, and the green grass stroked her ankles.

Hyl applauded as he approached her. “Well done. The shortest distance was through the outer wall. The only problem lies in if you are on an upper floor, so that is where we will practice next.”

Mr. E disappeared from her arms, and she ran around to the point where she could sense him, and she climbed the wall before entering via the window. She grabbed him and was planning to go back out the window, but it had paved itself over.

His sleep wasn’t normal, so she made an executive decision. She stepped to the wall, placed them within it and used the molecular resistance to drop them to the main floor. When she felt solid ground beneath her feet, she forged forward along the line of the wall until she was outside.

Hyl nodded. “Right. Enough of that for today. Time for lunch.”

She smiled and breathed deeply. “In a moment. Emotion and spell casting don’t mix.”

Mr. E started to squirm in her arms, and Hyl nodded. “Right. Sorry, but it was necessary to see how you would do with a living being.”

She nodded. “I understand. It is also why I have the weight on my back the whole time.”

He shook his head. “You will see what a difference that makes when you are done with your training. If it makes you feel better, there are only two exercises left, and they can both be combined. Drawing shadows and hiding traces of your presence. After what you have been doing, they are mainly mental exercises. Once those are mastered, you can continue to come here to practice, but you won’t need me anymore.”

“Can I practice now? It is only two weeks to my exam.”

“Well, you are filthy, sweaty, exhausted, and reeking of magic. If you can walk back to the garden without being besieged by bunnies, I will consider you graduated.”

Imara looked at the sleepy kitten in her arms, and she nodded. “You are on.”