As Rennyn floated herself back to the top of the cliff one of the Captains ordered most of the crowd to setting up camp, leaving only a small group to stand about being dismayed.
"You did say something about Sentene mages and trying situations," Kendall muttered to Sukata, and then scooted herself in at the back to listen to the senior Hand mages yak on about whether their clever shields would work under water.
Captain Illuma turned to Rennyn when she set herself down beside Kendall. "Can you delay entering the Eferum until this is settled, Lady Montjuste-Surclere? We may need your advice."
"I’ll be delaying entering the Eferum until the last moment anyway," was the response. "Since it seems I can’t reliably conceal myself, it’s the simplest way to limit my exposure." She glanced restively down at the waves. "The cliff top should be within range, so I’ll set my circle up here, too."
"This is a situation we’ve not encountered before, My Lady," said one of the Hand mages, a twittery, dark-skinned woman who was a good deal sharper than she made out. "We are aware that natural breaches open over water, of course, but given the difficulty of studying them, we have little information."
"Mm. The water’s about ten feet deep where I put that rock, and the bottom drops sharply." Rennyn’s attention had drifted back to the waves with a touch of the same fascination Kendall felt. "I’d abandon any idea of that shield," she continued after a moment. "If you hadn’t already. There’s too much confluence between deep water and the Eferum, which is why I need to keep my circle at a distance. This breach will be very large, its strength enhanced by the environment, and will form at the surface, wherever the surface happens to be. Still, few Eferum-Get do very well in water, so if there is another horde, some of them may drown."
"We should look at nets," Captain Illuma said. "Reinforced and cast over the area to drag them under. Use the water to our advantage instead of taking it as an obstacle."
This suggestion produced lots of nodding, and a detachment was sent back to Knifecliff to wangle some nets. Kendall followed Rennyn as, rubbing the back of her neck, she wandered off to the coaches to ferret around in her bags. Kendall had seen her eyes open more than once during the journey, and wondered if there was anyone who could order the woman to go back to bed.
For a group who usually travelled in pairs, the Sentene acted like a well-drilled army. Or perhaps it was mainly the Ferumguard, whose normal role was keeping villagers out of the way and searching out any remaining traces after a Sentene pair had taken care of whatever thing had been ravaging the countryside. In any case, they had a small town’s worth of tents erected in little clusters, food cooking, the horses rubbed down, and the local farmer soothed, all before Rennyn had finished dissecting her luggage. A handful of mages were busy constructing two temporary circles to keep out stray Night Roamers – those that were stupid enough to come anywhere near a Sentene camp.
At least the meal, a salty mix of buttered grains and vegetables, made Rennyn look a bit more alive, to the point where, sitting in front of one of the tent clusters as the afternoon started thinking about twilight, she turned her attention on Kendall and Sukata.
"So, tell me what you know about magic."
"Aren’t you supposed to tell us?" Kendall retorted.
"It helps to know where to start. You know the differences between the three so-called spheres of magic?"
"Force, Sigillic and Symbolic," Kendall said, reluctant because there were at least half a dozen people unashamedly eavesdropping. "Sebastian found me a book which explained a bit. Far as I can tell, Clumsy, Complicated and Scary magic."
"You’re not far off," Rennyn said, laughing. "Though that’s more the usual outcome than the sphere itself. Casting is just a mage trying to tell Efera to do something, but you have a choice of approach. How have you been going with the exercise Seb set you?"
Hunching her shoulders, Kendall glowered at the small wooden bowl she’d recently set down. It jerked to one side. "It goes everywhere but up," she muttered.
"And you, Sukata?" Rennyn asked. "The first step of Thought magic – to lift and hold steady a light object."
"The Teremic approach–" Sukata began.
"Goes on interminably about the relative uselessness of what they like to call Force Magic, and counsels those who would use it be well-grounded in Sigillic before attempting anything. You’re a couple of years off summoning your first focus, I presume?"
"Yes."
"Can you lift up that bowl?"
"I–" With more than a hint of reluctance Sukata turned her eyes on the bowl, but it didn’t do anything and she shook her head.
"What about you Lieutenant Meniar?"
Meniar stopped pretending to be busy watching for attackers. "Ah…I’d better not."
"The Teremic approach is like putting off learning to walk or talk until you’re twenty or so – an excellent way of discouraging you from starting. Because you’ve no magical strength yet, Kendall, there’s a limit to how much damage you can wreak while you’re trying to find out how to order your thoughts. Lieutenant Meniar has apparently reached the point where he thinks he might kill someone if he tries."
Kendall was astonished. All this time watching pebbles hop about, she’d thought she mustn’t be particularly talented at magecraft. "But – they can cast – why is it possible for them to cast at all if they can’t do that?"
"Thought magic. Telling Efera what you want simply by thinking it. It’s an exercise of will and mental discipline. Sigillic magic puts a buffer between the Efera and your thoughts, and uses an entirely different muscle – as if you were using your arms instead of your legs, for instance." Rennyn searched about in her pockets and produced a small wooden box containing sticks of chalk. Calling the bowl to her with a gesture, she wrote a bunch of sigils on the curving wood, then pushed power into them until the bowl rose a short way into the air and stayed there. "Although mages usually think or even speak the name of the sigils as they power them, they’re not making any attempt to do anything with Efera except run it through the shape of the sigil. Whatever they’ve written shapes the result of the casting. Complicated is a good description, since, because the casting is at one remove from the caster, factors such as duration need to be taken into account. You’ll see few good Sigillics which don’t have some limit or cut-off mechanism – a word or a phrase. But that’s the structure of the casting. The act is the same whatever the spelclass="underline" push power to the sigils and let the sigils form the outcome."
"It’s easier to make the sigils do things than it is to hold up a rock? Sigillic magic is the easy kind?"
"During the activation. It’s the safest method, and allows even those with no particular mental discipline to cast. More importantly, it allows the creation of spells which are really beyond the ability to compass in a single thought, and can be used for castings which persist after the user has stopped thinking about it, or even putting power into it. Thought magic takes a good deal more effort to produce the same outcome, and usually only basic outcomes can be achieved. Picking up a rock."
"Are the sigils magic themselves?"
In answer, Rennyn released the bowl, cleaned it off and then wrote on it again, this time in neatly printed Tyrian script. Again she pushed power into it and again it obediently lifted a couple of feet off the ground and sat there.