"But how will we get the mules up the other side?" she had to ask, even though Jenna was intent on rummaging in Dora's pack.
"Levitation, I suspect," said the dark elf, winking at Coryn even as he addressed the Red Robe. "No doubt you read that spell three times, as well."
"Four." Jenna replied as she pulled a small pouch out of the saddlebag. She opened it to extract several small fluffs of down feathers. "The girl can climb down, certainly, but I am not as confident that she can find her way back up again… without a little assistance."
Coryn turned away to hide her irritation. She was getting tired of being "the girl" while these two talked over her head. Maybe she should tell the Red Robe that she knew how to use a magic spell or two!
"How are you getting across?" Coryn asked Dalamar.
The elf smiled his very handsome smile, but there was a hint of sadness in the expression. "Since I lack the resources of my crimson colleague, I shall climb down, just as you. Levitation, however, is one of the few spells in my paltry collection, so perhaps you and I can float upward together.
"I'd like that," Coryn said. She had learned through eavesdropping that Dalamar, while a powerful wizard in his own right, was seriously hampered, because he possessed only a very small spell book, one that an old friend had given him in an act of what the elf had described as "pity." Jenna tended to lord it over him, and though the elf took pains to conceal his deep frustration, she sensed that he was resentful. Jenna was very private and secretive regarding her personal magical trove-all of which was stored in Dora's saddlebags. She wasn't being very fair to the elf, Cory thought, especially since they were clearly very old friends.
Jenna was holding one of the mules-Diva-by its ear. The Red Robe said a word of magic and released a tuft of feathers over the animal's withers; Cory felt a tingle on her scalp and sensed that the enchantress had just cast the first featherfall spell.
Jenna was starting toward a second mule when Coryn asked her a question. "The levitate spell will cause the mules to float upward, right?"
"That's correct," said the woman cautiously.
"And featherfall-I guess, to judge from the name-will allow them to fall down to the bottom gently, without hurting themselves."
"Yes."
"But it will still be terribly frightening, won't it? For the mules? I mean, when we push them off the cliff, they'll buck and kick and just generally panic."
"It can't be helped," the Red Robe said with a shrug. "They won't be hurt, if that's what you're worried about."
"Maybe there's a better way. Why not tether the mules to our rope, and have two of us carry the rope across. Climb down and up again if we have to. But keep one end of the rope here, and get the other over there with two of us to pull. Then you can levitate the mules right here and we can tug them across-there's no need for them to go all the way down to the bottom of the canyon."
"Hmm. I think it's a good idea!" Dalamar said, clearly impressed. Cory was inordinately proud of his reaction, and she looked to Jenna.
The woman frowned thoughtfully and nodded. "Yes, all right. That should work. I agree, it's a better idea than mine- and it saves the casting of three spells. Though I daresay the mules might also panic to find themselves floating above a two-hundred-foot fall."
"It shouldn't take long to pull them across," said the girl.
A half hour later, Coryn was holding tightly to Dalamar's hand as Jenna cast a levitate spell upon her. She was unable to suppress a cry of delight as the ground dropped away below her feet. Looking down at the mules, at Jenna, she kicked her feet and whooped, utterly unafraid. She was flying!
Well, floating, if she wanted to be strictly accurate. After casting her spell of levitation on the girl, Jenna cast her spell of flying upon Dalamar. Coryn paid careful attention to the words and gestures used by the older woman, committing them to memory so she could repeat them, if necessary.
Coryn had the end of their long coil of rope securely wrapped around her right wrist and hand, with the left clenched in Dalamar's strong grip. Willing herself upward, Coryn drifted farther above the ground, pulling the elf along as she rose as high as the treetops. Dora, Dolly, and Diva stared at the strange sight with ears raised in alarm. Simply by thinking about it, Coryn floated back down to hover just a few feet above the goggle-eyed mules.
But when she tried to move to the side, or float backward, she learned that the magic gave her no such flexibility. The levitate spell was limited, as its name suggested, to transporting her up and down.
Dalamar, with his greater experience in magical matters, would propel them across the canyon. With a slight shift of posture he now angled away from Jenna, and Coryn felt herself pulled behind-even a little dizzy as they whisked away from the canyon rim, hovering over a sheer drop of two hundred feet. But she was not afraid-she knew she wasn't going to fall. She felt an exhilarating sense of freedom, and at the same time perfectly secure. The beauty of the view took her breath away, and she wanted to soar up and up!
"Can't we go higher?" she asked.
Dalamar smiled, squeezing her hand reassuringly. "Sometime we will-but for now"-he glanced over at Jenna, who was watching them intently-"I think we'd better stick to business."
All too soon they neared the far rim of the canyon. Dalamar finally released her hand, and she settled gently to the ground, still holding the length of rope that Jenna had been gradually paying out.
"I like that!" she declared, grinning.
"And you were paying close attention, weren't you?" Dalamar asked breezily, "when Jenna spoke the spells."
Coryn flushed. "Well, yes. Of course. Why shouldn't I?"
"Oh," the elf said with an easy smile. "I think you should. Now, let's see about pulling those mules over here."
Already the three beasts of burden were braying and kicking as Jenna's spell lifted them gently off the ground. Tugging hard on the rope, Coryn and Dalamar started to pull them across while Jenna took a drink from a small bottle and, moments later, took to the air with her own spell of flight.
The white moon rose, clear as a beacon through the intertwined branches of the trees. The moon was only half full, but it was as bright and beautiful as any that Coryn had ever seen. She had been sleeping, but when she opened her eyes and saw that gleaming semicircle, she sat up, her tiredness forgotten. Memories of her brief flight earlier today still thrilled her. And Jenna had actually been pleasant to her at dinner, engaging her in conversation instead of simply reading or talking quietly with Dalamar.
The fire had faded, though orange embers still gleamed here and there in a mountain of ash. The spring night was unseasonably warm, and she had no qualms about climbing out of her bedroll and walking away from the fire, the mules, and her two sleeping companions. The woods were quiet and peaceful, smelling of sweet pine, the stillness broken only by the rustle of an occasional small creature moving across the dry needles on the ground.
She made her way back to the rim of the canyon, through a fringe of pine forest. As she walked out onto the precipice- a smooth slab of stone extending beyond the shadows of the trees-she experienced the full glory of the moon. It was big, nearly as large as the moon of her childhood, and though less than three quarters full, it still cast Cory's surroundings in stark relief. She gazed at the beautiful moon and the starry sky in awe, thinking of Jenna's levitate spell, and momentarily tempted to try it on herself.