She laughed softly. “It’s not me I’m worried about, but thank you.” She glanced at the giant reindeer horns in front of her and asked quietly, “Does anyone ever impale themselves on the horns?” She was rather worried about it. If she got tired and fell forward in a daze, if there was a jump and she was flung forward upon landing…
Christopher smirked at her. “A few. But like you said, you’re a fast learner, so I’m sure you’ll be fine. Besides, Daisy has been with us for years. She’ll take care of you.” He patted the magnificent white beast fondly and she shook her head, looking around. Daisy had beautiful white fur with black socks, but when Jade inspected the others, she saw all sorts of colors. They were more like the coloring of horses, then. She did notice hers was the only white one.
Raising a brow, she asked, “Is there a reason I got the only white one?” Were they trying to give her the prettiest one or painting a giant target on her back?
Nodding, he replied in a low voice, “Yes. They’re bred to be the fastest, but also…” He paused as if hesitating, then shrugged. “Daisy belongs to Princess Tisha.”
Oh. She swallowed, nodding to indicate she understood. It was funny though; Daisy’s head popped up a little at the sound of Tisha’s name. Patting her neck, Jade crooned softly, “There, there, girl; let’s go find your master.” She’d noticed the group beginning to move towards the gate and, with a last smile at Christopher, directed Daisy to follow.
The road leading out of the city was smooth stone, flanked on either side by wildly waving stalks of grain. The sky was brilliantly blue overhead, and she felt like she could see forever now that there were no buildings blocking the way, with just mountains and forests in the distance. It was breathtaking. She shifted multiple times before she found a position that was comfortable, but probably wouldn’t be after a few hours of constant riding. She urged Daisy up to join Marcelle, who nodded to her and continued her quiet conversation with whoever was in the mirror.
“We’ve found their entry point into Basaigh. However, it seems they took to the trees from there. This is as far as we were able to track them.” The disembodied voice entered Jade’s hearing clearly, even though the man was talking quietly.
Marcelle looked thoughtful, then nodded. “Wait for us there, then. We’ll be there in a few hours and then your squads can return to the city.” Jade didn’t know what the man did, but the connection was cut and Marcelle turned to acknowledge her before projecting her voice to the ten men and women behind her. Jade was a little surprised at the small number, but figured they were there mostly to help her; it was she who’d be doing the heavy lifting. “We’ve got our direction. Let’s go.”
“I’m going to move to the middle.” Jade spoke into the quiet, maneuvering Daisy to the center of the group. She saw disappointment flash across a couple of faces as she took the ‘safe spot.’ Ignoring them, she concentrated as the group began to move forward, Daisy following the others obediently. Jade held tightly to the antlers, which were also used as the reins in this world. She’d taken the sparkles off of her babies, and they now flew above the group, spreading out and scouting for any possible dangers.
It took her about fifteen minutes of quiet travel before she finally managed to get the hang of pushing her aura out for more than a few inches. Another five minutes passed before she felt confident in controlling the size and shape of her sphere of influence. Or maybe she should call it a low dome? She was purposefully not affecting anything beneath the ground, because that would be a waste of energy.
Taking a deep breath, she fixed her magic in her mind’s eye and added the thought that it would only affect the twelve riders, their mounts, and her babies when they were in range. Satisfied that she’d thought of everything she could, she pushed her aura out, enveloping the company. There were a few startled cries as eyes turned to her.
Smiling innocently at them, she said cheerfully, “I finally got my aura to work. It only goes out about thirty feet in any direction from me, so try to stay in that range.” She glanced at Marcelle, who was smiling in approval. “Let’s pick up the pace, shall we?”
Marcelle laughed softly, “You heard the lady; let’s go.” Marcelle led by example, turning to the front and urging her mount on, with everyone following closely behind. Jade was observing the looks from the guards around her. They’d shifted from mild distrust and distaste to speculation. It was then that she noticed a younger guy in the back, and her grin turned up a few watts.
She met his hazel eyes and waved, and Sir Dalton grinned and prodded his mount forward until he was riding next to her. “Coming to save me again?” She’d never forget that he jumped in front of the first mesmer to save her.
He laughed, shaking his head. “I don’t think you need it these days. It seems you’ve got even more tricks up your sleeve than before. Did I hear right when someone said you flew on your trek through town?” She could tell some of the others perked up and were intently listening to their conversation, even if they were trying to appear nonchalant while they pounded down the path.
“I did. In my old world, in every hero story where people had magic powers, a ton of them tried to use it to figure out how to fly. So far, gravity and wind magic are the easiest ones for me to use, but I think you could use earth, metal, fire, and water as well.” Now that she thought about it, she’d already used water, just not on herself. She’d pulled Glen through the air at the obstacle course to heal him.
Dalton looked confused. “How would you use earth, metal, fire, or water to fly? That doesn’t make sense.”
She laughed softly. “It’s more thinking outside the box. For earth, metal, and water, you make a platform and then stand on it. I do that with wind, too, actually. Fire is a little trickier. It’s basically shooting fire from the soles of your feet and hands with enough propulsion to get you through the air. You could do that with wind too. You could also use metal on a suit of armor to make it fly, with you inside it.”
Several people turned to stare at her while she explained, and she smiled as she saw they were turning off the paved stone road to head straight to the woods. The path turned to packed dirt, indicating that it wasn’t used all that often. She figured the stone roads headed to the neighboring cities...though she couldn’t recall seeing any nearby cities on the map. Something to look into later. She nodded to the road, asking, “Do people go into the woods often?”
This drew their attention back to the road, and most of them adjusted so they could make the transition smoothly, unaware she’d pointed it out for that purpose. One of the others on her left spoke up before Dalton could. “Several squads are sent out at least once a week to help keep the monster population down and gather herbs that grow better beneath the Basaigh. I’m Garrik, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you, Garrik! Thank you for explaining.” She beamed brightly at the guard. He appeared to be in his thirties and bore several old scars that she could barely pick out on his arms and hands. His dark brown hair was cut short, which highlighted a prominent nose and mahogany eyes. A bow hung loosely attached to his saddle for easy access; a quiver on his back, a sword at his waist, and several daggers at various points completed his visible arsenal. His armor was a hardened leather with metal bars sewn into strategic panels. Now that she was looking, she could see similar armor on most of the men. It seemed the party she was with was composed of the agile fighters who preferred to pick off enemies from a distance, if possible.