I could feel my lips involuntarily curling with a smile, revealing my thoughts, but still, what she’d said didn’t make me feel light-hearted, it made me terrified. I was terrified I’d say something wrong and break the magic.
“Okay…”
She shuffled closer and, checking to see my face first, reached out over me and put an arm over my waist. Then she snuggled close and pressed her face against my chest. I wished I could have seen her face, but she was lost below my chin and under our mingled hair.
“I have this secret notion, Milla, that if we rely on each other and no-one else, and always stay together, nobody can ever hurt us. We have magic that way, we’ve found something that mustn’t be lost. Even the stars smile on us, the stars will protect us and let nothing end this. It’s silly, but I believe it. Do you believe me? Tell me you don’t think it’s silly, tell me you believe me?”
“I believe you,” I said and at that moment I meant it. Stilling, I thought it over, but then I put an arm over her as well. She moved up, the slightest move, to make us fit together like a puzzle.
“Promise to always be together, Milla?”
“I promise.” Oh, you have no idea…
“Forever always?”
“Forever always.”
Her tense body softened up in my arms and her breathing turned deeper. I could hear the smile in it.
Then she reached up to get me my cup from the sand floor of this tent of ours, and sat up to pour me wine, and put that cup in my hand. She picked up her own cup and raised it. “A toast? What shall we drink to, Milla?”
“I don’t know. To luck? We’ll need it.”
“Wonderful, to luck, then.” She looked mischievous. “But we won’t need it. Two strong wizards like us? You and me, we can walk through any lands of monsters and beasts, and it’ll only be our very own, secret adventure.”
Chapter 14
Lyria eased the dark-blue crossbody bag she always wore over her head and laid it on her lap. It was lovely handiwork, glossy silk with dozens and dozens of pearls and seashells sewn on it in pretty patterns. Without actual jewelry, precious stones or gold, it was such fine work it was clearly a queen’s purse, or a princess’s; evident at first sight. I had never seen her not wear it, no matter what other costume she was in. Obviously, it was something she considered important to carry at all times.
“Lyria, sorry if I’m too curious, but could I see your spellcaster stones? I bet they’re incredible. I’d love to see them, if you don’t mind. Look.” I reached for my necklace underneath my cloak and pulled it out. On it hung all my spellcaster stones, all seven of them, none bigger than a fingernail, but a couple of them quite powerful, all a different kind and color. I had saved up for them from my salaries all my life. I’d known I wanted to cast spells ever since I was eleven.
“These are mine,” I said. “I know this must be nothing to you. They’re not much. But they’re useful, all of them are quite good, I mean, you just have to use them for the right occasion…”
“They’re lovely,” Lyria said, eyes immediately brightening. She shifted closer on her knees, trying to see. “Care to give me a little tour of them?”
“Sure,” I smiled, happy that she hadn’t downright dismissed them and seemed actually interested in seeing them. Really, they had to look like trash to her, pebbles from the street. I couldn’t afford any of the better kinds of stones. Luckily, these were good enough, since I was skilled enough at making them work for me.
She crawled up to me and picked up the necklace. She was so close I imagined I felt her warmth, and certainly her perfume got to me, distracted me. She went through the stones, letting them run through her fingers, stopping at each one, weighing them, likely pausing to feel their magic, though if she was feeling their magic, she was fast in assessing them. Unbelievably fast.
“Dragonfly amber,” she commented of one. “Spicy…I like that. And you’ve had wizards enhance some of these…?”
I nodded. “Yes, or they were that way, when I bought them. I try to get them re-charged, sometimes, whenever I can afford it.”
She nodded, gentle eyes on the collection. “Oh. Moon diamond. Pretty.”
“It’s such a tiny piece. Must look absolutely insignificant—“
“No, it’s lovely.”
“Would you mind showing me yours?” I asked again.
People didn’t always want to boast about their collections. Those were a bit of a private thing. They were a weapon, after all, and also in a way, it was like showing someone your diary. If you had wanted a stone for such-and-such, didn’t that make you so-and-so? If you had bought a huge stone for courage, didn’t that make you a coward? Things like that.
“Milla, I don’t use stones.”
“You don’t…?” I didn’t process that at first. Nobody could cast spells without stones. For spells, you needed stones, and you had to have them somewhere on your person, close at hand, where their powers reached you. Best to be surrounded their auras, like I was, when I had my stones always right there on my necklace.
“How can you not use stones?” I laughed. Perhaps I shouldn’t have. She looked closed-up and withdrew to sit back on her knees.
“What do you use, then?” I asked, anyway. “Something stronger? Fancier? Maybe I’ve not heard of it.”
“I don’t use stones or anything. I…”
“But you have to have something! I don’t mean to be nosey, and you don’t have to tell me, but isn’t it a little silly to claim you have nothing in that bag?”
“I don’t.”
“Fine. You don’t have to show me.”
“It’s not that.”
I reached out my hand. “Can I see?”
“No…I’m sorry, Milla, but I don’t feel like talking about this.”
I blinked, not getting why she’d be so upset about something like this. Lyria laid the bag on the ground between us, giving me an underlined studious look, and got up without a word…She was going to leave! Without a word?
I didn’t call after her.
The bag lay on the sand floor, almost beckoning. Appetising my curiosity. I glanced at the door, after Lyria, but she was gone.
All right, then…Hesitating, I picked the bag up and opened the lock. Then I glanced at the door once again before taking a look at what was in the bag. I put my hand in and felt for any pebbles or precious stones on the bottom of the bag or caught in the lining, but there were a few larger objects, no stones.
I began picking them out and setting them on the sand beside me.
The most luxurious item in the bag was a glass vial set in a frame of gold that wrapped around it protectively. It was half-full of some kind of pulverised plants. Then I looked at the mirror — this one I knew, I’d seen Lyria use it — again, gold, but not as heavy and decorative as the vial’s frame. I took a peak at myself in the tiny mirror, and noted my face was smudged with dirt and my goodness, even a faint smear of blood, that had to be. I spat on a spot of my dress sleeve and wiped off all that, wincing inside as my white dress got in horrible shape. It occurred to me I should have just stepped outside to wash my face with a bit of water from my flask. Well. Done now.