Page 55 of The Half King
“Youdohave the magic of priests,” she said to Nero. “I tasted it.”
One corner of his mouth curved up. “Like dirt on your tongue?”
“No, like copper.”
“It tastes different for everyone. I know a man who says the flavor reminds him of honey.” Nero muttered under his breath, “The lucky toad.”
Daerick dismounted and lightly slapped his horse’s rump to send it to the spring. He massaged his lower back while pinching his eyebrows together. “Who trained you?”
“My father taught me how to control my energy,” Nero said. “His father taught him, and his grandfather before him, and so on.”
Cerise realized she’d been shaking her head the entire time. She couldn’t fathom the idea of magic being passed down from parent to child. Her entire life, she’d believed that only second-born servants of the goddess could possess a gift. That was whateveryonebelieved. It was common knowledge, written in scrolls: magic and foresight were rewards for a lifetime of devotion at the temple.
How many others like Nero were there?
How had they hidden their existence?
Nero clapped his hands as if to refocus and then pointed at the sky, which had colored with the first blush of dusk. “There’s much to do before dark and not enough time to do it.” He jutted his chin at Daerick. “Tether the horses at the back wall, in the corner if you can. Make sure they’re facing the stone. We don’t want them to see what’s outside the camp.”
That tore Cerise out of her thoughts. “What can I do to help?”
“Climb up there.” Nero indicated a pair of hooks hammered midway up both of the front walls. He dug through his pack and handed her a roll of thin, gauzy fabric. “And hang this.”
“Like a curtain?”
“Exactly like a curtain.”
She turned the fabric over in her hands. As transparent as it was, she didn’t understand how it would hide them from anything. Then there was the matter of their scent. Any predator in creation would be able to smell them through the fabric.
“I don’t have time to explain,” Nero said. “Just do it. I’m going to check my traps. With any luck, we’ll eat more than jerky tonight.”
Nero jogged away, his leather satchel bouncing against his hip. Cerise set to her task of unrolling the gauze to find which way was up. She had no trouble scaling the rubble that led to the first hook, but she needed Daerick’s help with the opposite side, which was steep and difficult to climb. She sat on his shoulders, and they used their combined height to thread the second hook.
“I thought Nero was like the soothsayer or like Seers,” she told Daerick. “That he has a talent supplied by magic, not magic itself.”
“I was surprised, too,” Daerick admitted. “But I also didn’t expect him to disappear with you inside the cave. I didn’t knowanyonecould do that.”
“We didn’t really disappear. I think we moved to another part of the cave.”
“Well, it was still an impressive trick,” Daerick said. “Can you tell a difference between Nero’s magic and the Order’s? Anything at all? Even the slightest distinction?”
“No, it all tastes the same to me.”
“The Mortara dynasty has always commanded the priests. I wonder what would happen if Kian gave Nero a direct order…” Daerick trailed off at the sound of approaching footsteps.
Nero came running back into camp, clutching two dead jackrabbits by their long, mulish ears. He closed the spring and motioned for them to hide behind the curtain. “Hurry,” he said. “We’ll skin the rabbits inside.”
While he cleaned his kills, Cerise and Daerick built a fire from dung pellets Nero had packed in his bag. Under the light of the moon, they roasted both jackrabbits on charred, wooden spits. Nero tossed the entrails and pelts into the fire, remarking that he hated to waste a good pair of hides but he didn’t have time to tan them.
“Can’t you use magic to do it?” Daerick asked with one cheek stuffed full.
Nero paused to pick his front teeth. “I could. But I would rather save my energy for more important things.” He pointed at the curtain. “Like this.”
Cerise felt a charge thicken the air and tasted the familiar tang of metal, but she didn’t notice that anything had changed. She peered around while she fed Blue a bite from her meal. “What did you do?”
“I cast a charm on the fabric.” Nero sat a little taller, clearly pleased with himself. “No creature on the outside can see or smell us. The curtain will look like a wall of stone to them.”
“What about from above?” Daerick glanced at the night sky, where the eyes of a million stars winked down at them. “The harpy vulture hunts at night, too.”
