The weight of magic, p.31
The Weight of Magic, page 31
part #1 of Restriction Series
“What are they trading?”
Visthor frowned. “You do not know?”
“I suppose I’ve never paid any attention to it. There has to be something that Sylvia figures to trade by going into the village.”
“Entertainment.” Visthor winked at him, which surprised him, as the larger man had never really struck him as the winking type, but ever since they had gone off together, Visthor had treated him quite differently than he had before.
Entertainment?
They ate quietly. The few of them still at the wagons sat on stumps, picking at the food that Invat had prepared, as it was his turn, and spoke very little. Jakob sat off to the side, staring toward the forest. Torian was going to have to figure out some way to get through to his friend and maybe help him find himself again, but he wasn’t sure what that was going to involve.
What about Astrid? Entertainment? What sort of entertainment would she be involved in? And what would Johan be doing with it, as well?
Terrible and dangerous thoughts crept into his mind, but he tried to ignore them.
Sparks lit up the night, blooming just above the town, a series of red and yellow and green. Torian immediately sat up, trying to push against that weight inside of him so that he could be ready, as he was certain that an attack had come for the town.
Chapter 35
STORIES AND LIGHTS
Torian jumped to his feet, and as he tried to push on that weight, he found that it was too solidly pressed down against his connection to the power that he wanted to reach. He had the sliver of energy slipping through the crack as that weight had shifted, but he couldn’t roll it off to the side as he wanted. He moved forward, nonetheless. If he had to stick with the primary patterns for him to fight, then so be it. Torian was willing to do that. He didn’t want to use only the primary patterns as there was not going to be enough strength within them, but he would fight with whatever he had.
“You do not need to worry,” Visthor said.
Torian didn’t turn back. “The town is under attack. The others are there. Can Sylvia protect them?”
Visthor surprised him by laughing. “You do not need to worry.”
“Why?”
“This is Sylvia. Entertainment.”
Torian frowned deeply. “What do you mean entertainment?”
“This is her entertainment. We trade. Entertainment. The people like.”
“She’s using sahir to create some show?”
“Like I say. Entertainment. She does pretty light tricks. Others tell stories or dance or do tricks. Entertainment.”
Torian stared at the sky, having a hard time with the level of control that Sylvia would have needed to possess for her to make what he saw there. The lights continued to flicker, sparks of red cascading upward before falling back down again. Then it shifted to yellow, then green, before cycling back to red once more.
Willa was the strongest sahir that he knew, and he didn’t know if Willa would have been able to do something like that. Willa would consider it a waste. And it might be, but that didn’t change how much it impressed him that someone could do it anyway. How many in the university would be able to do something like that?
Another burst of light exploded, then started to fall once more.
Was this the kind of thing that Sylvia claimed he’d be able to do?
With practice, he thought that he could get his primary patterns to work the way that Sylvia wanted, but he didn’t know if he’d be able to do things quite like this.
“Stories?” Jakob asked Visthor.
“Yes. Some tell stories. Entertainment.”
“What kind of stories?”
“You like to hear some?” Visthor asked.
Jakob started to turn away, a flush coming to his face as if he thought that Visthor was making fun of him, but Torian didn’t think that was the case at all. From Torian’s time traveling with Visthor, it was more about the large man trying to understand and not about trying anything that would make fun of him.
“No,” Jakob muttered and turned away.
“I’d like to hear some,” Torian said. “Are you a storyteller, too?”
“No. I like to listen. They no let me tell stories. I make them too confusing.”
Torian smiled at that idea, thinking of how hard it would be to listen to Visthor telling a story, but he’d be curious to know what kind of stories that Visthor would have tried to tell. “Who’s the storyteller?” he asked.
He would have expected him to say Astrid, as Torian could see that fitting what he knew of the woman, but Visthor surprised him.
“Charlek tells stories.”
“Not Astrid?”
“She and Johan dance and acrobatics. They quite graceful. Comes from their land.”
Charlek?
That was definitely not what he would have expected out of him.
“It lets us move easily. People like entertainment. Stories. We travel long enough.
You have to do, too.”
“What kind of stories?” Jakob asked, finally coming back around and joining them again.
“Depends. Some people like to hear stories about their home. Others want to hear stories about his home. Others want something made up. Entertainment.”
“What do you trade for this entertainment?”
“We trade supplies,” Visthor said. “Wagons can carry much, and there are times when we do not have enough for us. But we also trade for information. The road can be dangerous. You have seen. Best to hear rumors of travel around so we can be prepared.”
That made a certain sort of sense, and yet, Torian would’ve expected that if all they cared about were rumors, they could have simply gone into town and asked what sort of travel rumors there were. There had to be another reason for it, though he didn’t have the sense from Visthor that he either knew or cared.
The light faded, and there were no more of the sparkling streamers of energy cascading down. He had turned his attention back to the campfire when a wolf howl caught his attention.
Torian sat up, but not nearly as quickly as Visthor did.
Visthor got to his feet, and he stepped forward before catching himself and then stumbling out. He frowned for a long moment and then breathed out.
“What’s wrong?” Torian asked.
“Wolf normally not talk at night.”
“Is there something going on?”
“Don’t know. Wolf normally not talk at night.”
“It’s talking now,” Jakob said. “Did you upset it?”
“I no upset wolf. Wolf keep watch.”
“What if the lights were detected?”
“Sylvia do this many times,” Visthor said. “She know not to draw attention. Her lights not so bright.”
“We saw it just fine here,” Jakob said.
“We see fine. Others not so fine.”
Torian wasn’t sure that was how it worked. If the lights were visible from where they were, if anybody was close enough to town, they might have seen those lights, and if so, it might draw the wrong kind of attention to them. He wasn’t quite sure what to do about that, though, if anything.
“Can we help with anything?”
“You be ready, just in case.”
Just in case.
It would be easier for him to have something to target and focus on, especially as he felt that he would need to have that in order for him to find the strength inside of him to push the weight off to the side. Fear had been the only thing that had truly made him strong enough to do anything with that. Without fear, Torian didn’t know if he could find the strength that he wanted.
Torian focused on the weight deep inside of him. He thought that if he could find that and perhaps even figure out a way to wedge the weight off to the side, he might be able to summon the necessary strength that he would need so that he could defend them if it came down to it.
But he didn’t know if it would even come down to that. All he knew was that a wolf had howled, nothing more than that. It might be benign.
The howl came again.
Visthor headed toward the tree line, where he paused for a moment and looked off into the distance. It was growing too dark for him to see much, at least from what Torian believed possible. As he joined Visthor, he focused on the lantern beam pattern and attempted to create a ring of power. He had to use the primary pattern, and as soon as he pushed out a little bit of light from his fingertips, Visthor shook his head.
“No light,” he said softly.
“How can we see anything?”
“I see,” Visthor said.
Torian released the lantern beam, and it dissipated quickly. He stood next to Visthor and stared into the darkness but could not see anything the way that Visthor apparently could. As he stood there, focusing on the shadows off in the distance, a rustling of leaves caught his attention.
Visthor darted forward. He had a Blade of Wind in hand and immediately twisted the end, forcing it outward.
Torian looked back at the others.
“Go,” Invat said.
“I don’t know what he’s doing,” Torian said.
“He needs your help,” Invat said.
Torian wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but this was Visthor. Visthor had helped him when he had done something foolish and stepped out and revealed his presence when they had gone into the town.
That was when we were supposed to be bait, though.
Did it matter?
The only thing that mattered was that he needed to go after Visthor. He stepped forward.
He began to focus on one of the primary patterns, feeling for the weight inside him and attempting to slither up through the crack and widen it again. If it weren’t for the fact that he had known that he could move that weight off to the side, he might not feel as if this were something that he could do. He didn’t need to shove it up the way that he traditionally had in the past. In this case, all he needed was to try to slide it off to the side. Torian forced his way through that crack and then pushed.
Gradually the energy began to flow to him.
It happened far too slowly for his liking, but he felt a surge of power, and he shifted his fingers so that he could form the first-tier patterns, but then he hesitated and decided to move on to the second-tier patterns. Without knowing what was out there, he also didn’t know whether he needed to have more strength or not. And second-tier patterns were better at concentrating energy, and he thought that he might use something along those lines so that he could help Visthor.
“Visthor!” Torian hissed.
He didn’t see where the man had gone, and he didn’t hear the sound of rustling in the leaves any longer. He thought that maybe he would catch a glimpse of a Blade of Wind, but there was nothing.
“Visthor?”
Torian shifted his fingertips, changing the angle to form a variant of the lantern beam pattern, trying to draw upon enough that it would flow from his fingertips but not so brightly that it would release too much energy.
There was a soft howl, this time more distantly than the last.
Torian knew exactly what Visthor was going to do. He was going to chase after that sound to try to help the wolves if they needed it.
Torian turned toward it, striking out and heading through the trees.
Then he was no longer alone.
Another figure strode next to him.
“I’m not letting you go by yourself,” Jakob said.
“I don’t know if you’ll be able to do anything to help here,” he said and then caught himself. “Thank you.”
Jakob nodded, and together they headed forward, neither of them speaking as he continued to make his way through the forest, listening for additional sounds of wolves and hearing nothing. There had to be some evidence of them, but Torian didn’t find them.
“Look at this,” Jakob said, crouching down and pointing to the ground.
Torian barely saw any disturbance in the ground, but Jakob seemed convinced. He dusted his hand across the ground, running his fingertips into the dirt and then reaching for a nearby shrub. Torian could scarcely see anything, but Jakob somehow managed to do so?
How bad was his night vision compared to others?
Having pushed on that weight and sliding it to the side, Torian still had power inside of him. He didn’t know how much longer he would have it before it rolled back, as that seemed to be the case for him, but for now, he would hold onto it and be ready. Not only could he use that power, but it also made it so that he was less tired.
When another wolf howled, Torian changed directions. Now Jakob took the lead, stepping in front of him, and creeping beneath an overhead branch, around a fallen log, stepping past a small stream. He moved relatively quietly. Torian hadn’t even known that Jakob knew how to travel so well through the forest. He was a farrier, but he was acting more like some sort of tracker.
“He’s somewhere up here,” Jakob said, his voice soft. “But we’re starting to get quite a ways from the others. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“If Visthor is out here, then we need to help him.”
“Because he’s after the wolves?”
“I know how it sounds,” Torian said defensively but wasn’t sure how much he could convince his friend of what he was doing, “but he needs our help. He’s the reason that I’m still alive, after all. Well, him, and the wolves. And you.”
He followed Jakob, moving quickly, though not nearly as soundlessly as Jakob did. He wished that he could use the Blade of Wind the way that Visthor could. He couldn’t even do anything other than extend the blade, but…
Maybe he didn’t have to.
Simply holding the Blade of Wind might be enough, depending on the threat they encountered. And maybe he could get lucky, though Torian had been testing the Blade of Wind that he had kept for himself and had not managed to use it in any way that was similar to Visthor. Oh, the much larger man had trained him over the last few days, trying to see if Torian would have any affinity for it, but he did not. Unfortunately for him. He had continued to try to use the Blade of Wind the way that Visthor wanted but never reproduced the whistling sound.
He heard that whistling now.
Torian hurried forward, forming a burst of stacked stone but not releasing it.
“Are you out of your mind?” Jakob asked. “You are heading toward them?”
Every so often, Torian thought he saw a flash of brown fur racing alongside, but he had not seen the wolf in a long time. Ever since the attack on the village. Maybe the wolf was upset with him because Torian had needed help getting to safety.
“I’m heading toward Visthor. He has one of the Blades with him. It’s him, not soldiers.”
“You don’t know that. What if the soldiers have come to attack the town? It’s not like Sylvia was hiding what they were doing, and—”
Another whistling erupted, disturbing the quiet in the forest.
Torian didn’t dare wait.
He surged forward, at the source of the sound, he froze.
Visthor was there, as were five wolves, but they were not alone.
Visthor had his Blade of Wind held outstretched, and the wolves had hackles raised, jaws snarling. The attackers did not seem bothered at all.
“What is this?” Torian asked, readying a stacked stone pattern, as he couldn’t see much but felt something.
“Do not know. Strange. Not Rusav.”
“If it’s not Rusav, then let’s back away,” Jakob said.
“No. They attack the wolves.”
And as far as Visthor was concerned, Torian knew that was the same as attacking him. The attackers were difficult for him to see, but he noticed shadows. They weren’t as tall as Torian would have thought they would need to be for soldiers. He didn’t hear the sound of any Blades, either.
Soul sucker?
No. If it was another of those strange demons, Visthor wouldn’t have answered him. The creature had some way of restraining him, and Torian would’ve expected that he would’ve been caught in it, as well.
He couldn’t know without using his lantern beam pattern.
And he needed to know.
Torian heaved, trying to shove some of that weight off to the side even more, as he wanted more power available to him. It shifted ever so slightly, but enough that he felt a pouring of energy into him. It was uncontrolled at first. That power poured through him, into his pathways, and he split it down either arm and held his hands up as he tried to form one of the third-tier patterns, but the energy hit the palms of his hands before he had a chance to focus it. Uncontrolled power poured out of him.
And then it exploded bright light all around him.
There was a flash of that energy, brighter than he had ever released before, and then strange shrieks echoed. For a moment, Torian thought there had to be more wolves, but the shrieks started to move away.
Not deeper into the forest, though that would’ve been reassuring.
Up. Into the trees.
He brought his hands together, forming the third-tier lantern beam, and held his hands as tightly together as he could so that he could control that power. Once controlled, Torian emanated outward and upward. He saw strange humanoid-like creatures swinging from branches before settling down to look at them.
“What are those?” Jakob asked.
“Those are shurrel. They should not be here,” Visthor said. His voice had grown soft. When Torian turned to him, holding onto the lantern beam power, color had drained from his face. “Do not release the light.”
“What will happen if I do?”
“They attack. And then rip us apart. That is if they don’t eat us first.”
“Great,” Jakob muttered. “Not only do we have the Rusavians to deal with, now we have some strange monsters?”
“Well, we’ve been dealing with monsters all along. We had a soul sucker on the way back to the caravan.”
“Stop talking,” Visthor said. “Keep the light.”
“I’m only talking because I’m afraid,” Torian said.
