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The cart jolted, making me let go of my power and grip the seat instead. Amara flicked the reins again, calling for Acorn to pick up her pace, and I added my own voice of encouragement, trying to reinforce it with my power.
I didn’t know if I succeeded, but Acorn’s speed increased. I remained silent, afraid to disturb Amara in case she was concentrating. Instead, I focused on the group who had left the shelter ahead of us.
We had remained close behind them, just out of sight, for most of the day, but we quickly gained on them at the faster pace. When we reached their rear, Amara guided Acorn to one side of the road where a flat patch of ground gave us the opportunity to overtake them.
As we drew level, she leaned over me, calling to the closest driver.
“Do you have anyone with an elements affinity among you?”
The man looked surprised, distracted by our unexpected appearance, and she called the question a second time. This time he blinked and nodded slowly.
“A couple, but not of any particular strength. Just the usual weather trackers. Why?” He glanced uneasily at the sky, and I did the same.
With a start, I realized the distant clouds in the northern sky were much closer than they had been before, their color an ominous dark gray.
“Get off the road, now,” Amara shouted. “And form a storm huddle.”
“Storm?” The man called, but we were already passing him.
The next driver had heard the shouts, though, and took up the conversation.
“Our weather trackers didn’t say anything about a storm coming.” He looked at us both with suspicion.
“Ask them again,” Amara yelled with uncharacteristic irritation.
“She’s a master elements mage from the Guild,” I bellowed at the man. “If she says get in a storm huddle, I’d listen if I was you.”
“Master mage?” The man’s eyes widened, and he immediately turned to call something to someone on his other side.
Amara nodded once, returning her focus to the front, satisfied her message had been received. Within a short time, we had passed the entire group and pulled back onto the road.
Twisting, I looked behind us and saw the wagons were rapidly falling away into the distance as they slowed to a stop and pulled off the road.
“They’re doing it.” I turned back around. “But what’s a storm huddle?”
Amara replied without looking my way, her focus flicking between the road ahead and the storm clouds to our left.
“There’s no proper shelter nearby, so they’ll have to do the best they can on their own. They’ll turn the wagons with their backs to the wind and get the animals calmed and protected as much as possible.” She sighed. “If they’d had any warning, they would have stayed at the overnight shelter. Everyone will have left there by now, and most of the others are still behind us.”
A single rider, approaching from the direction of Eldrida, caught her attention and she fell silent, waving a hand to flag him over. He slowed, both of us coming to a halt so they could exchange words.
“Good afternoon,” he began, but Amara jumped straight in, ignoring the usual pleasantries.
“There’s a bad storm coming.”
The man’s eyes immediately flicked to the clouds, indicating he’d been aware of them already.
“It’s a severe one, then?” He frowned. “I’m a plants mage, so I wasn’t sure…”
“There’s a group of wagons who’ve just pulled over not too much further along,” she said. “You should wait it out with them. The next proper shelter is too far.”
The man’s hand went to his horse’s neck, and I wondered if the gelding was especially jumpy in storms.
“Are you certain?”
“She’s a master elements mage from the Guild.” I jumped in, hoping to save us some time.
“Oh, well in that case…” The man bowed from his saddle. “I appreciate the warning, Master.”
