Border wars book nine of.., p.2
Border Wars: Book Nine of Crystals of Memory, page 2
Calling out the spell, if not boldly, then with enough certainty that Anders could easily feel the shape of it, the intent and the power from the child, even from forty paces away. Then the boy stood there, as a hole, slowly, formed in the dirt away from the road. That wasn’t hardened or smoothed by magic in that area, though it was a good firm path, not too rutted or hard to move on. It took a good while for the well to form, the boy being careful in the use of his power flow, showing that Niven had, wisely, included a term for power flow and control in the lesson. If that hadn’t been learned before that point.
Interestingly, it was obvious that Roald was actually rather powerful, in magical force. A matter that Anders hadn’t understood before that moment. He’d been doing well, but until you saw powerful magics at work, it was often difficult to tell how strong, or weak, a person was going to be that way. About twenty minutes later, without pressing himself to gasping or even breathing hard, the young prince had truly created a well. A deep structure of compressed earth, with a built-in stairway leading to the bottom of it. Those were sturdy looking steps. The top portion had a cover and thick, double hand span deep walls with slits in them to provide light during the day. Enough to see that there was, after walking down the spiral decent, a platform at the bottom, where you could dip a bucket, to get water.
Which required a bucket. That, instead of being made by himself, was provided rather handily by Depak Sona. The older man carefully not smiling or acting as if the creation of a well, a thing they did at virtually every stop they made, was a matter of particular significance. Still, when he turned away, the man grinned, holding tears in his eyes.
Which Anders, the Farad portion of him, understood and even felt, for himself. For both of them.
Depak looked at the deep well, then, along with Anders, went inside and down the spiraling steps to the bottom, to get part of the precious water they were going to need.
“This is a good, stout structure. I do wish we could find a way to drive water to the surface, however. Not for every well, of course. Indeed, anyone finding this along their path will be most pleased to have it, I have to imagine. Still, we could arrange for decorative fountains and small ponds in places. Without using constant magic for it, of course.”
Anders had no idea how to do that. It felt nearly impossible. As if it were a matter of being a thing that no amount of work or effort could defeat.
Farad on the other hand, took over their hands, and carried the bucket, a large, ornate, red and green affair, by the handle, using only the left one. The right placing a finger to his, to their, lips. As if asking for silence, so he could think and consider.
After a moment, climbing upward, he felt himself nod. Without doing that at all.
“There is a way to do that, I believe. If the water flows with any speed underground in an area, we can channel it into a funnel, and then use the force of the movement to drive the water up to the surface, through a pipe. I hadn’t considered it, but nature provides such at times. Indeed, most springs that bubble up are at least something like that, in their natural design. We should attempt this, soon. Perhaps... Well, not today. I’ll make a note however, and look for such flow paths in the earth, as we travel?”
The older man clapped his hands.
“Very good! Yes, if we can do such a thing, it will benefit many. Now, there are plans for another well today?”
After a moment, still walking, awkwardly thanks to the full bucket, he nodded.
“Every two miles. Princess Sabine is doing the next one. Tomorrow, we’ll share that effort, with each of them taking a turn in smoothing the road before us. Though, we need harder tasks for the others with us. You and I as well, but we aren’t the important ones here. Oh...” He grinned. “Trying to be humorous, I accidentally set Naveed to learning fifty new spell parts per day. At least part of that is to be done while walking, which means that you and I need to do the same, at the very least. He didn’t balk at it and set straight to work without so much as a blink or scowl. Walden is acting as his instructor. That was... Honestly impressive. He could have said no, without anyone finding it amiss. He didn’t.” It hadn’t truly been a jest, of course. Mainly it was simply that it seemed like a thing a powerful Prince should learn to do.
After a moment, passing through the open door of the not tiny well hut, Depak Sona gave a grave nod.
“That... Seems to be a sign of his worth. A very good one. It is much easier to stay in the spot of the chosen heir than to gain that seat. Yet, here he is, still learning and setting a powerful example for others. You have specific plans for him?”
The words were more academic than worried, which probably meant that Anders wasn’t truly overstepping his place there. Which as a fellow prince of Barquea, in one of the chase positions, being currently in the tenth spot down, it was his duty to either surpass the man, or press him to greater things. Since Anders had already told everyone involved at the top of that game that he refused to be the Sula or even heir, and meant it, it had to be the later method of fulfilling his duty. At least he thought that might be the way it was being looked at. The truth was that Naveed had great potential and wasting that for anyone was always a thing that Farad lamented.
Even Anders did, if he was honest about it. It bothered him to see people being too lazy or not giving their best to almost any task, now. When that had come upon him, he wasn’t at all certain. Sometime in the last two years, almost certainly. After Farad had been joined with his mind. Not instantly at that point. Truly, it had been there for a time, but only after he’d started to teach others.
Smiling, Anders shook his head.
“Not at all. I mean, I find it heartening to see him working on magic, but he doesn’t have to follow my words on that. It doesn’t seem truly needed for him to be a master mage as well as the heir and one day Sula.”
Carrying his bucket in his right hand, Depak gave a pleasant nod.
“Ah! I see, then. Truly, the duties of a Sula rarely require personal power in that form. My guess is that the man feels a bit pressed, traveling with this troupe each day. Which is part of how one improves in life. It’s less than comfortable but standing with others who are moving forward at such a rapid pace often tends to hurry one’s steps.”
Anders laughed, softly.
“I feel that for myself. Niven and Walden both have become rather impressive in short order. Collin as well. A week ago he knew how to make a few meals and a light. Now he’s nearly caught up to the rest of the newer people. Also, he managed to make a marriage come into being while doing that, on the road...” That was different, truly. Not that it wasn’t a good idea.
Salina and Collin even seemed to get along well and enjoyed working together.
Which had Anders sighing. Not over his own lack of a marriage proposal. He had several lined up, in fact. Including one with Princess Lissa, which reminded him to keep paying attention to her, when time and situation allowed. Even if doing so left Farad feeling somewhat uneasy still.
His mentor looked over at him, concerned at the odd noise, so he explained.
“Ezola. I’m worried over her disposition and temperament of late. She was, in the main, better that way when we first met. Before she helped try to kill me, with her family.” The woman had been tense at the time, a family servant dying of a horrible tumor.
Anders had actually managed to heal the woman, and then built a rather nice, and large series of glass houses for them. After he was done, in the early morning while he was supposed to be sleeping, they came for him, using poorly performed magic and a half dozen men with spears and swords. Which hadn’t worked well for them.
Since then, the woman had been rather close to horrid at each passing reference or happenstance. It was, he understood, abject fear on her part. Mainly of him, but no doubt the others there as well. They were all powerful. More so than she was. Even the military men with them who had little to no magic could kill her without much thought. They might even get away with it, if they did it correctly. So, she was terrified in each moment of her day. Also showing a horribly poor way of coping with such. The woman, currently, was trying to learn magic. Slowly. Pushing to ten new spell portions per day. Words of magic, essentially. She was capable of doing more than that, but Anders was almost certain that she’d complain and whine if he suggested she do anything of the sort.
So, he wasn’t. Even if it was only to her benefit to learn more.
Shaking his head, he walked on, carrying the bucket of fresh, clean, water. The first one was emptied into his own rough bucket, the one that he carried with him for Juniper to drink out of. She got hers first, along with being patted by him. Then he made three more trips, to make certain everyone had enough to drink that day.
Depak did the same, walking the stairs over and again to ensure he was doing his part in their travels. Some grain was taken from the wagon, by Collin, and each horse given a treat, even if the humans weren’t being fed as of yet. Then, the riding horses were doing strange jobs, pulling wagons and coaches, and working much harder than the rest of them were. The one wagon they had was loaded with everything they’d managed to save from the two that had been destroyed totally. That left it heavy, and pulled by two instead of four.
The decorated new buckets were left by a sign that Salina had instantly put up. Anders nodded on reading it and placed the containers at the bottom of it. It said that this well had been provided by Prince Roald, also to please place the common buckets back below the sign for the next people to use.
Then, after about forty minutes near the new well, they were walking on. That was a longer break than normal, of course. Still, they were making good progress. Not as much so as if they’d had a horse for each of them, since walking took their own energy, but they were doing it, anyway. It was more enjoyable to ride. At least for the humans. Then, they’d also be doing better if they had magic to heal their feet and sore muscles as they traveled. Anders had enough energy to do that for himself, of course. Except that might leave him weakened too much if an attack came at them. Possibly.
So, his feet feeling a little sore, with some blisters forming, he kept walking, moving forward against the growing discomfort. It was no better for anyone else, he noticed. Truly, the person who seemed to be doing best was Princess Lissa. For a moment he wondered if she were simply healing herself anyway, but it wasn’t that. She had, instead, dropped into a deep trance and was staying there, ignoring the pain that came at her.
She noticed him watching her with magic, so he smiled in that direction and gave a wink, if a tired one. Then did the same. Dropping into a trance to hide his mind from the worst of the pain. Making up and holding new spells as he walked. Not words that would be used in a sentence, rather a single word that would do different complete jobs. A complete spell or nearly so, needing only to be used or not. Like using a hand sign for a specific effect. Only more complex than those, since he needed to work to show he was also training. Most of the new spells were designed to build complex structures, which would carefully measure his energy use when activated. That and allow him to mentally set some of the particulars of it, to match the situation or terrain. It was, in truth, no better than what he had already for such magics. The main difference was that the measuring of power was extremely careful and well controlled for each. Also, he could simply mutter, say, the word for inn with ten sleeping rooms, now, and it would come into being. The same for a water tower with a working pump.
Recalling what he’d spoken of with Depak, making wells that would bring water to the surface without using magic to constantly power the flow, he worked on the design for that, and finally learned the new spell to create what was needed. He still had to find the flowing water underground using magic, then do the work, indicating the direction the underground portions had to be oriented in.
The upper part would end in a simple earthen pipe that would allow the water to bubble out, into a basin. Only, that, the water now on the surface, would need to be channeled as well, most of the time. Otherwise it would be an amazing mess. The single goal was, if it worked, ready, however.
Taking a moment to look ahead of them, he realized that they’d walked for over an hour. Meaning it was time for another break. This time Princess Sabine, who was, he thought, seven, made the well. Anders did the buckets this time, using the new word he had for that, and a sign appeared, as Nevin, Walden and Roald made trips to get water for them. He smiled at the idea, since no one had told them to do it. They’d simply taken the action on their own, because it needed to happen.
When they started again, he went back to work. Checking for danger every four new spell parts. He could walk now, and do that, but it wasn’t happening at a pace of one new piece every three minutes. It was taking him about five. Then, these ideas were very complex, compared to what he’d done in the past. Mainly in the energy sparing components.
If he could ever truly master his energy use, there were several spells that might be accomplished, which he doubted he could do otherwise. Moving through space, time, with greater than normal speed, or even changing form. Things that were always going to be beyond his personal power level, without a trick being used to get around his own lack that way.
That night, feet sore and in need of healing, he called for a stop earlier than he liked. They had hours of light left, and the day was warm, but not brutally hot. Still, people were limping along a lot, and they needed to stop, or else traveling the next day wouldn’t be happening at all. Only, that wasn’t an option, so they’d do it, only in pain.
On the other hand, he was feeling stronger, having taken a day’s rest from active magic himself and had to figure that some of the others were going to be more or less in fighting trim by that time. Mainly Depak and Salina. Lissa might be as well. She wasn’t weak. Stronger than he was in magic, in fact. Not as powerful as Salina, for some reason. Probably due to having different mothers like they did. It might also be due to the girl simply being younger. In that case, several of them might well gain strength as they aged. He hadn’t noticed that happening as of yet, but also hadn’t been measuring anyone that closely.
Still, soon, by morning they’d all mainly be back to normal usage amounts of such things. As they stopped, in order to press the younger people, two wells were made. He simply started on the buildings, doing three of them at one time. That, of course, took place very slowly. He also wasn’t breathing hard at all, conserving his energy well enough that several people came over to ask what he was doing.
Instead of answering, he merely smiled and pointed. Letting them figure it out for themselves. Most of them actually managed it.
Chapter two
Night fell deeply, there on the plains. Slowly, at first, with no shadows from large trees or mountains to bring the dark faster. Still, when it finally came, it was with a deep sense of silence and brooding. He had no idea why that was, yet it still happened. They were safe inside the inn that he’d created along the road, with its very thick walls, built to defeat the heat of the day in the hotter months of the year as it was. Still, something was wrong.
At least he felt it.
Everyone else seemed fine, truly. Tired from their exertions, as well as the poor sleep that the evening before had brought to them. They’d been attacked, first, then everyone had been so tired that they’d had to sleep outside on the ground, unable to do much more than that. Needing to husband their strength in case an attack came.
Collin, as tired as any there, moved to get food ready for their evening meal. That part, letting his Cousin do that alone, not helping, was brutal for Anders. He forced himself not to act. Not because he was too tired for it, either. The new spells had worked reasonably well to save his internal energy, even if three structures had come up at one time. A matter that was leaving him fairly pleased with the work he’d done that day. No, the idea was that Collin needed to stand on his own as well as everyone else there did. At times.
Still, he felt uneasy, for more than one reason, as he settled at one of the low tables, on a soft pillow, next to Lissa. Not leaving her alone on one of the sides, but rather moving so that both of them were on one side of it. A thing that the table could easily fit, being meant for larger communal meals. Travelers didn’t always get to eat in small seperate rooms, as if they were at Sula Darian’s palace, after all.
Lissa smiled at him, her pretty face seeming a bit older than it had when they’d met, two years, perhaps two and a half before. Anders bumped into her arm, as he sat. Playfully. A little clumsily, as well, since his feet and legs were aching.
“Oh, right. I should try my new healing spell. It’s a little different. Vague, but very low energy. The flow of magic called for is slow and it should attempt to only hit those areas that need to be seen to, very specifically.”
Lissa seemed interested.
“To do healing when you can’t check on a person, in an emergency? Perhaps to stop bleeding on the battlefield?”
He shook his head, noting the idea.
“Not at all. That’s... Brilliant, of course. I’ll add that tomorrow. No, this is for sore muscles, inflammation and sour stomach. It should, if I built it correctly, only aid where it’s needed, to save energy for the caster.”
The girl, who was still twelve, though soon turning thirteen, smiled gently.
“Test it then. I’ll watch and judge its effects as it heals me.” She seemed ready to take it back, when he grinned, then spoke, pointed at her with a single finger.
“Morenda.”
The energy flowed from him, down a highly smoothed energy channel, as if he were planning to do the work from hundreds of miles away. The trickle was slow, and low in power...
Meaning it took a moment, about half a minute, before the girl perked up.
“Oh! That’s working then! The energy use on this spell... is almost invisible to my mage sight. It isn’t fast, either, but... I don’t hurt now. I think the blisters on my feet are going away, too. That truly is specific, isn’t it? I mean the inflammation is there, clearly, but cooling hot places is different than healing wounds on the flesh.”
