Chapter Sixteen
~
“Not that I will, but what if I did leave for the Wildes?” Morgan asked.
“Concentrate on your casting,” Selene barked.
Morgan stamped Bacchus into the Earth, and that familiar jolt jabbed me in the back. I probably shouldn’t have even been standin’ with them in the clearin’. I backed up three steps.
“If I did?”
Selene blew out a loud breath, and shook his head. “I know little about their dedication. If they chose to, they could follow you by your majic.”
“How ya found me?” Morgan asked.
Selene nodded. “Start with the ward you already know.”
I grinned. Selene had demonstrated a healthy irritation over Morgan’s existin’ skill. The one he said he tried for the first time when he snuck into the goblin camp the previous spring. They nearly came to blows when Selene questioned his truthfulness. Even after demonstratin’ he could dull the sound around him, Selene glared. The man’s prideful.
“The proof was irritatin’, eh?” Morgan asked.
“Shut up.” Selene glared. “We have much to do before tomorrow. You do remember Blake swore he would be back tomorrow?”
Morgan shook his head, before stiffenin’ in concentration. Bacchus shuddered, its carved head glowin’, as Morgan reached into the ethereal for power. A three count later, I blinked hard. My vision had blurred, as though I stared into a warm breeze too long. But only Morgan’s image blurred, not the forest behind him. A tight excitement tingled in my chest. Two hours Morgan had struggled. This was the first evidence he neared reachin’ the new skill Selene pressed upon the ogre.
“Visualize yourself vanishing,” Selene whispered.
“Shut up! Ya’ve already told me that thirty-two times.”
With the chatter, the fuzziness faltered. Selene swung the branch he had carried out of the woods and struck Morgan in the arm. The ogre growled. Bacchus flashed brightly, and Morgan disappeared—completely. Selene swung the branch again, and it whiffed through the air where Morgan had stood. With that, Morgan’s image fluttered.
Selene shouted, “Hold it,” and slammed the ogre in the arm again with the branch.
By Morgan’s expression, he probably growled. I assumed the silence ward was more active than the invisibility ward. A moment later, Morgan disappeared again.
“Now hold it.
“Hold it.
“Follow me.” Selene walked backward for the forest. “Concentrate. Hold it.” He jabbed the stick in front of him as though it were a sword testing the strength of a battle shield. At the tree line he said, “Excellent, Morgan. Was beginning to wonder if you had it in you. Morgan? Morgan? You can come back now.”
A shout from the forest turned me and Selene to the right. The ogre peeked between the trees and gloom fifty feet away.
“Funny,” Selene said. “Practice opening and closing the ward for the next hour, to shore up the mental process. The lad and I are going to get a bite to eat.”
~
No comments:
Post a Comment