He dismissed the power with another gesture and spoken command.
“Now, you try it.”
She felt the magic resonance deep in her bones, and then it bloomed around her, enveloping her. Carefully she dismissed it.
“Very good. Once you tap the stones, you are connected to them. That means you need to immediately use the power, or dismiss it. Casting a spell that you hold, like a shield, keeps the connection open until you end the spell. Casting a spell like a force strike breaks the link immediately.”
She nodded her understanding, trusting that when he taught her the various spells, he would tell which category they fell into.
“The shielding spell I’m going to teach you is the most basic of all the spells, but it is very powerful. With the power that the spell stones tap, it is nearly impenetrable.”
“Nearly?”
“I do not know anything that could breach it — but I am afraid that you might find something — so I put in a cautionary note.”
She stuck at her tongue at him. “You make me sound like a trouble maker.”
“You do not make trouble — it finds you. And it is always sorry when it does.”
She laughed. “Flattery will get you everywhere.”
He kissed her then, making her melt against his body. They spent a few pleasant minutes kissing, and then he set her firmly down.
“You need to learn this, my love. You need to be able to protect yourself and your beholden.”
“Yeah, I know. Teach away. I’m all ears.”
“You summon the power and then shape it.” He called forth the power, paused deliberately, and the changed the position of his hand and spoke a new command. The magic pulsing with potential changed, distorting the air around them so they stood inside a transparent sphere.
He held his stance. “Nothing can get in unless you allow it. It will last as long as you desire — but you must be careful with your movements.” He moved slowly around to demonstrate the range of motion desired to maintain the shield. “Notice you must keep you hand in the correct position. If you shift your fingers or move your hand too quickly, you lose the connection for the shield.”
He flapped his hands loosely and the shields vanished.
“Ugh!” Tinker cried. “It seems dangerously easy to lose your shield when you least want to.”
“There are weaker shields that don’t require you to hold your position. The sekasha spell for example allows them to continue fighting without disrupting their shield. The difference in strength is —” he paused to consider a comparison. “— an inch of steel versus a foot.”
“Oooh. I see.” That messed with her head. She had assumed that sekasha provided protection to the domana during battle — keeping them safe as they called down lightening and such. It seemed that the truth was that the domana were heavy tanks during fighting. They were able to take massive damage as well as deal it. It seemed that the sekasha must be for day to day life, allowing the domana to sleep and eat without fear.
Windwolf called up the shield again and this time showed her how to properly cancel the shield. “It is best for you to get into the habit to intentionally drop the shield than just to relax your position.”
It seemed easy enough, once you got past bending your fingers into pretzels. Tinker managed to initialize the resonance conduit, trigger the shield spell, hold it for a minute, and then cancelled the shield spell.
“What about air? If you keep up the shield, do you run out of air?”
“No. Air slowly leeches in, as does heat and cold. The shield will protect you for a period of time in fire, but eventually the heat and smoke will overcome you.”
“Ah, good to know.”
“Someone comes.” Stormsong murmured softly, looking east.
The sekasha pulled in tight as they watched the eastern skyline.
“Listen,” Wraith Arrow said.
After a moment, Tinker heard the low drone of engines in the distance.
“It has to be the dreadnaught,” Windwolf said.
“They’re coming,” Tinker murmured, wondering who ‘they’ might be.
“Yes.” Windwolf tugged on her wrist. “We need to return to the enclave.”
Tinker glanced at him in surprise. She would have thought they would stay to greet the newcomers.
“I am not sure who the queen has sent,” Windwolf explained. “I want to look our best. Can you change quickly?”
She supposed it depended on your idea of quickly. “I think I can. What should I wear?”
“The bronze gown, please.”
“That’s not the most formal one I have.”
He smiled warmly at her. “Yes, but I love to see you in it.”
She blushed and tried not to worry about how she was going to get into the dress quickly.
As they got into the Rolls, a shadow passed overhead accompanied by the low rumble of large engines. A dreadnaught slid out from behind the hill to hover near the tree line. She’d forgotten how massive the blend of airship and armored helicopter was; it dwarfed the ironwoods, its four massive rotator blades beating a storm of leaves out into the meadow. Barrels of heavy guns bristled from the black hull, like the spiked hide of a river shark. The gossamer moored at the clearing stirred nervously in the presence of the large predator-like craft. As they watched, the mooring lines were cast off and the gossamer gave way to the dreadnaught.
The thumping of the rotors suddenly echoed into her memories of her dream. In the background, constantly, had been the same sound.
She shivered at the foreknowledge, and wondered what her dream had been trying to warn her of.
Chapter 9: True Flame
At Poppymeadow’s enclave, she discovered one of the sekasha had called ahead. Half the females of Windwolf’s staff ambushed her at the door and hurried her to room. She tried not to mind as they clucked and fussed over her, pulling her out of clothes, washing her face, neck and hands, and pulling the formal gown over her head. Certainly she wouldn’t be able to dress quickly without them, but their nervousness infected her.
At least she was confident about how she looked. The dress was a deep, rich, mottled bronze that looked lovely against her dusky skin. Over the bronze silk was another layer of fine, nearly invisible fabric with a green leaf design, so that when the bronze silk moved, it seemed like sunlight through forest leaves. Unfortunately, it still had long sleeves that ended in a fingerless glove arrangement and the dainty matching slippers.
“Oh please, can I wear boots?”
“You’ll be outside, so the boots are appropriate.” Lemonseed proclaimed and her best suede ankle boots were produced, freshly brushed.
Tinker stepped into the boots, the females fastened the row of tiny hooks and eyes made of cling vine and ironwood down the back of the gown, and she was dressed.
Windwolf waited by the car, wearing the bronze that matched her underdress and a duster of the leaf pattern of her overdress. His hair unbound in a shimmering black cascade down his back.
“Where is your jewelry?” He asked.
“They wanted me to wear the diamonds.” She held out both necklaces. “But I thought the pearls would look better. I told them I’d let you pick.”
“The pearls do look better,” Windwolf took the diamond necklace and fastened in place. “But the diamonds are for formal occasions such as this. The pearls would be for more intimate times, such as a private dinner party.”
Sighing, she surrendered the pearls back to Lemonseed for safekeeping. “We’re just going out to the clearing and saying ‘howdy’ aren’t we?”