The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Twenty-Five

Gedric sits like this for an hour while I meditate. I have to be careful not to head into mastery steps, which is odd for me. I’m sliding to just before my center, and each time I have to stop it before I’m fully there. It looks like I’m progressing, and I have a sense it’s because of my new additions. It’s uncomfortable for me at the moment. I can feel my raven mark humming, and it’s driving me insane. It wants to connect, but I can’t let it. Stupid overload. Stupid Fates.

“I feel a heartbeat,” Gedric says, breaking my concentration.

I open my eyes, and smile. “You’ve found the lifeline inside of the earth.”

His brow furrows. “There are so many smaller ones near me. Four that are larger than the other three.”

I lift my brows, honestly a little impressed. “That is us, and the horses.”

“Why am I noticing this?” He asks, his voice a little higher than normal.

“Once you notice the earth’s magic, you can start to see what it does; in a sense.”

“Is this what you feel?” He asks, his voice going higher.

“What are you feeling?”

“You’re in so much pain. I can feel your wounds.” He grimaces. “I wanted to explore your heartline more. It’s terrifying. You’re so weak physically right now, but there is so much strength in you. It’s like I’m just staring into an empty ocean. Your magic is drained, but it’s there.”

“Gedric,” I tell him, my voice calm. “Do not touch someone’s line unless you want to see this. There is a reason I am the strongest Sheik in history. My power is strong enough that it rivals the earth’s. Ari is the same. Do not look at his line, ever. His magic is so dark, it’ll be like being in a void, and you’ll never escape.”

“I see your injuries.” Gedric gasps as he flinches. “They’re so painful. You’ve been lying. You’re not okay. Your shoulder is broken, and you have torn your tendons.”

“Do not touch them!” I nearly yell that order.

“It hurts!” He cries.

Having no choice, I kick him, breaking his contact with the earth as he launches across the cavern, hitting the wall. He opens his eyes as he whimpers. “Why did you do that?”

“You were about to transfer my injuries to you. I would have been sent into overload again, and you’d be severely injured. Sorry about the kick though. I’m wearing boots so it was my only option. If any of my skin touched you, I’d be at risk of overload.”

“Fair,” he grimaces. “How do you know what to avoid?”

“Experience,” I say, going to help him up. “You got a little overwhelmed there, didn’t you?”

“I don’t know what happened.” He tells me, standing up. “The second I noticed that heartbeat, everything opened. All I had to do was mentally touch it, and I was in it.”

“That’s pretty impressive.” I tell him. “Not a lot of first timers can do that.”

“I also felt this weird burning sensation.”

I cock my head. “Where?”

“I don’t know.”

“Was it bitter?”

He gives me a bewildered look. “Yes, how did you know?”

“Magicnite. We need to wake Stanya.”

“She’s going to kill me,” Gedric groans.

“It’s better than Ari,” I tell him, walking towards Stanya. I touch her gently to wake her.

Stanya bolts up, “Is it Ari?” she yells, making me wince.

“That was my ear,” I whine, rubbing them. “No, Gedric sensed some Magicnite.”

“Rewind,” she says, looking at me. “Gedric? Nat, you gotta get better at lying.”

I roll my eyes, “I’m not chancing an overload after the last one. I’m not lying. He asked me to teach him some magic, and turns out he’s pretty good with earth magic. Now please check.”

She closes her eyes as she waves her hand. “Hold it. Teach him?” She opens her eyes, still clearly overtired. “You taught him without using it yourself?”

“Would you just put your hand to the earth and see where the Magicnite are; or am I dragging you out in that blizzard to look normally?”

She puts her hand on the ground while looking at me with a dumbfound expression. Her eyes widen. “Shit,” she hisses, getting to her feet. She grabs my raven statue and dives towards the cave entrance, concealing it like it was another part of the mountain. “Everyone shut up, and put that fire out.”

Gedric smothers the fire in dirt, bringing darkness but stopping the smoke. I hold my breath and crawl over to hear, trying to hear what she senses. The blizzard has settled outside, making everything visible in light. Within minutes, we watch a Magicnite patrol pass us. They’re riding horses and have balls of light following them. They’re looking closely at everything.

When they pass, I take Stanya’s hand and pull her with me, stepping outside into the cold air. She masks our sounds, and spreads her concealment to still cover us. When the Magicnite get to the end of the pass, they look around.

“Do you see anything,” The more muscular one of the two asks. They’re both dressed warmly and are on horseback. Their horses look cold, but the men do not.

“No, nothing. Do you think those idiots thought they saw a Sheik?”

“I don’t know, but I doubt there is a Sheik out in this weather. Even a nomad would have hunkered down for that blizzard. No one is stupid enough to descend a mountain at night either.” The other one answers while he looks behind him. Seeing nothing, he returns to looking out at the pass. “Ari’s going to kill someone if he was called for nothing.”

“Well we really don’t have a choice. The storm is going to pick up again soon, so we’ll need to head back. I think he’ll be nice in his punishment since it was a male Sheik that was spotted.”

Male? I look at Stanya. She looks just as confused as I do. We do not know of any nomad Sheiks that live this far up the mountain, and all of them have been called into the Sheika Clans for safety.

“Could it have been Ari?”

“I doubt it. You know Ari when you see him. Besides, he wasn’t even here.”

“What if it’s one of those stupid training drills?”

“I don’t think so. This one didn’t feel human.”

“An illusion then? There was an illusionist that was spotted earlier.”

“No idea. Let’s get back though.”

Stanya and I hold still, watching them go. We don’t want to risk moving and accidently exposing our tracks. After we’re sure they have traveled far enough, we return back to the dark cave.

I run into the cave shivering. “Male sheik?” I ask Stanya, trying to rub my arms to warm myself back up. “I don’t know of any nomads living up here. Do you?”

“None. It’s too cold to live up here without shelter.” Stanya says, while making blowing sounds. I assume she’s trying to warm her hands. “It’s freezing.”

“Let’s get that fire started again,” I agree while grabbing my blanket out of the saddle bag.

“Not a good idea.” Gedric says, putting his arm on my shoulder then immediately dropping it. I assume it was him. Stanya’s hand is not that big. It’s too dark to see anything.

“Why not,” Stanya whines, fully shivering.

“The smoke might attract the Magicnite.”

“I’ll chance it.” I tell them. “There is another storm coming, and we’ll freeze to death if we don’t.”

“Fine, but someone should keep watch.”

“I’ll stay up, since I can sleep on the horses. The rest of you get some sleep.”

After a moment of silence, Gedric speaks. “I’ll only agree to that if you actually sleep.”

“If I fail, you can push me into the snow.” I reason, flinching a little from the sudden spark from the fire. Once my eyes adjust I sit next to the fire and smile up at Gedric; who is watching me like I’m not someone who should be unsupervised.

“What if the Fates show up?” Gedric hesitates.

“I’ll scream, what else can I do?” I give him a measured look. “They won’t kill me until I make a deal with them. The worst they can do is threaten me right now. I’m already hurt, so it’s not like they’re going to make it worse. Now sleep. You’re almost as stubborn as I am.”

That derails his resolve and makes him smile. “That’s insulting if you think I’m close to being that bad. Fine, I’ll go to bed. Wake us after the storm passes.”

I nod and watch as they lay down. Stanya crawls over to me, and rests her head in my lap. “Night Nat. Wake me if you need help.”

I put my hand on her head as she closes her eyes. “Always. Thanks for not punching me when I woke you this time.”

“Well this time you had a reason to wake me.”

“Last time was because there was a snake on your blanket.” I argue.

She smirks. “You should have let it bit me.”

“I’ll remember that next time.” I chuckle. “Night Sta.”

“Night Nat,” she says, trailing off. I smile and listen to her breathing. It’s deep and it’s not long until a soft snore starts up.

“Natasha,” Gedric starts, lifting his head from his bedroll. “Why were the Magicnite here?”

“They saw a male Sheik.” I shake my head. “That poor man is going to be cold. We have another storm heading this way, so it’s best if we be careful tomorrow.”

“Should we go look for him?”

I shake my head. “It’s too dark to safely search for him, and also because of the snow. There are too many things hidden under the snow, we could get hurt. Also, we’re forced to stay here because of the brewing storm. Besides, if he’s aware the Magicnite are tracking him, he’ll likely attack us; but most likely he’s long gone. If it wasn’t for my overload, we’d have teleported down the mountain. We’re stuck going the long way, he’s not.”

Gedric rolls his eyes. “I’m so sorry you’ve been humbled to the abilities of a normal person.”

I stick my tongue out at him, making him laugh. “Go to sleep. It’ll be morning in a few hours. With any luck the storm will have passed by then.”

“And if it doesn’t?”

“We’re going to have a very smelly cave then. I didn’t bring anything to clean up after the horses.” I say, nodding towards the still passed out horses in the corner.

“Please let the storm pass.” Gedric says while putting his head down. “Night Nat.”

“Night. I’ll wake you if anything interesting happens.”

For the rest of the night, I keep my eye on the fire and meditate, listening to everything I can. I can’t touch my magic, but I can increase my awareness. What is calming to me, is listening to the howling wind rip through the trees in violently whooshed motions. It starts to rain first, but snow follows minutes after it. It’s going to be icy in the morning, that’s for sure. I hate that we’re forced to move so slowly because of me. Maybe I can think of a shortcut.

Stanya turns in my lap, making me open my eyes. There is still a light snowfall, but the storm has passed. It’s a few hours after sunrise, so it should be safe to travel. Carefully, I bunch my blanket under Stanya’s head and take the horses out so they can stretch, and get warmed up.

Once we’ve returned to the cave, I take off their blankets and get them saddled and ready to go. I’d let them wear their blankets, but if they start sweating, it’ll trap the cold in and cause skin irritation. My only goal with them is to make the trip as comfortable as possible. Especially for Macy. She’s going to be carrying me forty percent of the trip without me walking. After my knee is healed enough, we can go back to alternating.

After I have changed, and I heated up some biscuits, I walk over to Gedric and partially kneel by him. I touch his shoulder. “Gedric, the storm has passed, and you need to wake up.”

He groans as he pushes his face into his bedroll. “No. I don’t want to.”

“I’ll do what I do with Stanya, and sit on you.” I warn.

That makes him lift his head with a very groggy expression on his face. “You sit on her?”

“After how many times we’ve been attacked, she wakes up swinging. It’s safer to sit on her.” I stand up and walk over to Halthin. “Your turn Halthin. Time to get up.”

Halthin grimaces, but sits up. “Why is it so cold?”

“Because of snow,” I tell him. “Now you can either eat, or help me wake up Stanya.”

“How is that hard?”

“Oh yeah. You haven’t woken her while we’re traveling.” I say, standing up.

Carefully, I walk over to her unconscious form and touch her shoulder. Immediately she bolts up and I plop myself on her lap. “Time to get up,” I tell her, leaning into her.

Stanya groans. “I nearly hit you.”

“Which is why I sat on you.” I laugh. “Let’s get going. The storm has passed, but it’s a few hours into the new day, so we’re behind.”