Page 31 of Into the West

And she found herself blushing so hotly that the fire on her cheeks felt cool, and she was mortally glad there was no one about with Mind-magic to “read” this preposterous faradiddle and laugh at her.

It had been one thing to entertain such fabulous notions before Kordas had been summoned to the Capital, when they had all been safe in the manor and the worst danger any of them faced was a late supper. It was quite another when they were here in a strange land, and when practically within days of the first party crossing the gate, these hellish monsters appeared.

Instead of making up fancies, I should be listening to Sai and the others discuss what magic tricks they can use to ward off danger, and to fight. And I should be trying to figure out how my Fetching Gift can help if some weirdling creature lurches out of the forest with a belly full of hunger and the certainty that we look tasty!

So for once, she listened to her more sensible side and accepted the flatbread-and-jam slice that was passed to her, occupied her mouth with that, and listened while the mages all speculated.

“I think,” Sai said at last, “there was a book in your library, Jonaton, that talked about Change-Circles and what sometimes happens inside them?”

“Oh good gods, I haven’t cracked that book in a dog’s age. And now it’s—” He waved vaguely to their rear. “Well, if I am remembering correctly, if you got two or more creatures caught inside one, there was about an even chance each that they’d die, get weakened in some way, get enhanced in some way, or fuse together in some hellish monstrosity that might or might not die. Something about life itself makes them fuse—there are no accounts of nonliving things joining.”

“That sounds like those snake-dogs, doesn’t it?” Hakkon asked.

“Well yes, except that you never got the same thing twice out of a Change-Circle, and there was an entire pack of those things.” Jonaton pulled on his lower lip thoughtfully. “Amethyst, what did Kordas tell you about them again? Besides the description and the poison fangs.”

“That he believed they were either diseased, heavily inbred, or both,” Amethyst replied. The firelight made the amethyst cabochon embroidered into her forehead glow as if it was a third eye. “Rose saw them, and attests that they did have various obvious deformities.”

“So they probably aren’t the product of a Change-Circle,” Endars opined.

“But . . .” Everyone looked at Venidel. He gulped, but bravely continued. “But there are creatures like worms and slugs, snails, and some fish that don’t need male and female because they are both.”

Delia stopped chewing, because that sounded too mad to be true. But it was clear that the mages, at least, had either known that already, or were prepared to believe it coming from Venidel.

He is an expert on animals and how they react to magic. He was the one who had concocted the idea of the charms put on their animals that kept them “tethered” to their home barge.

The elder mages looked at each other, then back to Venidel, then at each other again. “I suppose it’s possible,” Sai conceded. “We knew that we could encounter anything, and we are officially in Undiscovered Country.”

“The people who live in it certainly discovered it!” Bart Fairweather laughed. “Well, expect the worst, hope for the best, I suppose. It’s too bad none of us can fly. It would be awfully nice to have something or someone scouting overhead.”

Sai and Jonaton both broke up in laughter. “Sadly, flying is a dream,” Sai informed him, as Jonaton wiped his eyes over the change of subject. “Oh, every baby mage dreams of the day he can fly, but . . . well, you can do it, but it’s not very practical. You run out of your own power to control the magic, and when that happens—” He picked up a pebble, held it high, and dropped it. “Splat.”

“The few mages I ever knew who could do it just used it to impress women,” Endars said sourly. “And all they did, really, was rise up to about head-high, spread their arms, and smirk and look important. Or at least they were under the impression they looked important.”

“Did it work?” Venidel asked, now clearly intrigued. “On women, I mean.”

“Yes.” The tone of Endars’s voice, and the way he bit off the word, suggested to Delia that there was a story there.

Probably a sad story about Endars wanting to impress a particular woman—or girl—only to see one of the show-offs win the “contest” before it could start.

“You never see female mages pulling that particularly obnoxious piece of asshattery,” snickered Jonaton. “It’s always the boys with no brains who make up for their lack of wit by strutting and flashing their feathers.” He smacked Endars on the shoulder. “Trust me, anyone who falls for that trick isn’t worth impressing.”

Endars’s mouth squinched over to the side as if he didn’t quite believe it, but he nodded after a moment.

“So you fell for it?” Sai poked back.

“Only twice,” Jonaton replied, and the laugh was welcome all around.

“Besides, it takes a special sort of crazy person to have a relationship with a mage, especially if they themselves aren’t mages,” Hakkon said lazily, as he held up a bit of bread and jam to Jonaton, who opened his mouth like a baby bird wanting to be fed. Hakkon feinted the bite away, then popped it into Jonaton’s mouth. “And would you really want to be with someone as crazy as me?”

“Of course I do!” said Jonaton, and made silly puppy eyes at his partner. “And I am known far and wide for my excellent taste.”

Delia rolled her eyes, recalling a few of Jonaton’s outfits that . . . well, they looked like bags. Colored in hues not found in nature, and with some impressive ornamentation, but bags nevertheless. Not something she would have said was in “good taste.”

“I’ll pass, thank you,” Endars replied, but he didn’t look nearly as sour.

Delia was the first to head for bed, and not just because she was still trying to sort through some very uncomfortable feelings. The barges used for the scouts had been modified. The one the women were using was one of the “kitchen” barges, the kind that would accompany workers to remote sites. It had been modified for Alberdina’s use as an apothecary and infirmary as well as for Sai’s special cooking. The front two-thirds was the kitchen, which was how these were normally set up, but instead of stored food, the back third held the close-stool and the women’s beds and personal storage. And since Alberdina was not young, and one of the bottom beds needed to be reserved for someone injured or ill, that meant that Delia and Briada were on the top bunks. Delia was above Alberdina, and it was just less awkward all around if she was in the bunk when Alberdina came to bed. No chance of accidentally stepping on Alberdina, or flailing and kicking her.

Besides Sai’s food, there was another thing that the scouts had that most of the rest of the convoy didn’t. Apparently a good long while ago, when he first started venturing out past the borders of the Empire, Ivar had come to Sai with a request. He’d wanted some way to remove his scent—and maybe to clean himself up at the same time—that he could use at least daily.