Page 174 of Keldori By Daybreak

I grimaced in reply, watching the landscape slip by outside rather than look at Tiernan.

He surprised me by allowing a low laugh to slip through his lips. I wasn’t sure I’d ever heard him laugh before.

“I thought Galahad had gone senile when he picked you up at the start of summer,” Tiernan said evenly. “But he knew what you were capable of better than any of us, including you, I think. You really survived the strath?”

“We did.”

“But what’s inside?” he pressed. “No one has ever survived before, but now that you have, other Magicians might stand a chance—”

“It doesn’t matter what’s inside, because it’s not there anymore.”

“Right. Sorry.” He bowed his head. “My Lady, I’m—”

“Call me ‘my Lady’ one more time, and I’ll throw you at the first rotsbane we see.” I patted the table with both hands and turned away from the window. “Which is so far the closest thing we have to a plan in terms of keeping the steamcart safe once it gets dark out.”

“They’ll attack the engine first.” Stanley’s low voice rumbled overhead, and I glared up at him.

“Yes. Thank you, Stanley. Tamora already mentioned that. The trick is how to keep them from doing so,” I snarled. “Skal-weapons don’t hurt them. We need something corporeal. I don’t suppose you know how to make metal weapons?”

Tiernan shook his head at me. “That’s very advanced magick.”

I looked to Stanley and raised an eyebrow.

“You know Nightmares aren’t capable of that level of magick,” he growled.

“My mom is,” I said simply, remembering her procured pen and notebook in the library.

“And is she here?” Stanley sneered.

“No, she’s in Keel Watch, keeping Gams’s shop safe from annoying bankers.”

“Then what about you? Can’t you make a corporeal weapon? You’re a Saergrim apparently.”

“Does that annoy you, Stanley?” I smirked. “You thought you were the most special human in all of Keldori because you knew about Skalterra while no one else did, only to discover I exist?”

“So, no. You can’t make metal either,” he said.

I sighed and clenched my fists.

I could. I could create anything I wanted. I was sure of it. But I could feel how close the mountains were to bursting.

I would heal the rest of Ciarán’s injuries in Ephitz Harbor, but other than that, there would be no more magick for me. Not until Gams was safe in the ice.

“We can check the supplies,” I said. “There’s got to be something—Really, Stanley?”

He’d turned stoic again, staring at the window beside me but not seeming to see beyond its glass.

I looked to Tiernan for help, but he shrugged.

“Maybe he’s speaking with Tamora? In his mind?” he suggested.

“Is that what I look like when I talk to Ciarán?”

“You talk to Ciarán in your mind?”

My cheeks flushed with heat. “I figured you knew.”

“Like you can talk to him right now?”