Page 57 of Horns & Heart
Vergis started walking again.The sun was climbing the horizon still, but it was a nice, warm spring day, nothing like it had been in that other place my magic had apparently taken us to.I followed.
“Oh.Does that mean I murdered fish?Unknowingly?Wait.You need to kill something every time you do magic?”
He shrugged.“Pretty much.At least when you want to do stuff like jumping the veils.I don’t need a sacrifice when I just feel along where other magic is.That’s like another sense, like something only I know is there.”
“Wait.”I stopped in the middle of the road.“What if the cola ash—I mean, the Koa Esher—have a conduit and use our guys?What if they lure them into a magic circle?You just pulled power into your knife thingy, didn’t you?What if they do that with our guys?”
He stopped and looked over his shoulder.“You need to mark a sacrifice.For vertebrates, it’s generally advised that you make the kill yourself in the proper setting with the proper preparation.Unless you have a conduit, who can use whatever they have contact with, but conduits are extremely rare.”
“Let me get this straight.You can do magic with magic circles.And those jars…”
He shrugged and resumed walking.I followed.“There were ko markings in the lids and at the bottoms.It’s what you use for training and small stuff, but you shouldn’t use it with vertebrates.Maybe you could get away with it with a mouse or a hamster, but nothing much bigger.No direct touch that way, but also not as much magic.It’s convenient for carrying a small sacrifice around with you.Think of it as a ko-circle you keep in your pocket.”
I jogged after him, but that had me wheezing in short order.“You said you’d want to keep me.”
“I said I’d want to keep a conduit.I personally don’t have enough ambition to have a use for you.Plus, your mate is a pretty badass fighter.He might take issue.”
I nodded.Vergis went silent, staring into the distance.It looked like he really was jealous.That explained why he’d acted the way he had toward me.Maybe, without the jealousy, he wasn’t so bad.
He picked another of those white flowers and started chewing it.I had to concentrate on walking and not asking when we’d get there like a little kid.I thought about magic, what it was and what it wasn’t.I’d have preferred wands and spells, maybe a cute familiar.This whole sacrifice business was all pretty dark.
The trees soon grew thinner, and the road ahead wound between two green hills, a clear blue sky with fluffy clouds above.The heavy scent of the little white flowers dissipated as the scenery changed.
After maybe another hour, the roofs of a distant city farther down in the valley came into view, and my heart jumped.If we went there, I’d get to see other bagua.They would see me too though.Maybe they’d want to eat me.Or barb me.I was pretty sure I only wanted one specific bagu to do that.
As it turned out though, the city wasn’t our destination.Vergis led the way off the path, and we stopped in a grassy meadow where large purple insects flew from flower to flower; maybe Aër’s version of bumblebees.
“Okay, we’re going through the veil here.There’s another fusing point about an hour away, but this should get us closer to the Hill of Tara,” Vergis said.
“Fusing point?”
“Yeah.Fusing points can be traversed without magic since they first appeared two years ago.I’ll need you so we can pass from here.It’ll require magic.”He pulled his knife free and held it out to me, much like he had done before, handle first.“You wish for clear skies and don’t let go of my hand.”
This time, I didn’t mind doing magic.On the other side of this trip, Inkiri would be waiting for me.I reached for the knife handle, and like before, Vergis kept hold of the blade.He held out his other hand, and I took it.
I looked up at him.“Now?”
“Sure.”
“I wish that the skies are clear when we get home.”
I felt the magic instantly.Heat from the knife and his hand radiated strongly, and everything turned blindingly bright for about three seconds.Vertigo came next, but eased quickly, and when the light returned to normal, I saw that we had moved through time and space and right to the Hill of Tara.
“Well, that worked like a charm.”Vergis released my hand.
I didn’t wait, just turned to look around.We were close to the Mound of the Hostages, and just a short walk behind that was the Stone of Destiny.
“Ink!Inkiri!”I screamed at the top of my lungs.“Inkiri!”
I strained my ears and narrowed my eyes to scan the churchyard at my back and the open fields beyond the Mound, but there was nothing.Our guys were nowhere to be seen.
I’d started walking toward the Mound when the angry creaking of metal that urgently needed some WD-40 from behind me made me stop and turn.Back by the churchyard, I spotted sky blue horns and someone dressed in taupe.
My heart lifted, and my feet seemed to grow weightless.I broke into a run, zipped past an unimpressed Vergis, and toward Nokim.Nokim smiled at me and waved.Just before I could wave back, my feet remembered what an ordeal the last day had been, and I stumbled.For a second, I was weightless in the air, and then I faceplanted spectacularly right there on the Hill of Tara.
Go me.
