Magic Steps

In herdream she: was. back at the corner of Tapestry Lane and, Silver Street The: pool of unmagic—But we gathered it all, didn’t we? her dreaming mind wondered—had grown, spilling into the lane. She needed to soak it up

She tripped. Down she fell, into that pool of nothing ness. When she struggled to her feet, the dark stuff clung to her.

The pool was far deeper than she remembered, up to her waist. She fought, trying to wade out, but in this dream the shadowy mess was thick and gooey, like syrup.

It embraced her, pulling her back into its depths.

She flailed and sank It rose to chest level—no, to her neck—no, her chin. Her fight to keep her head up seemed to go on forever, until weariness made her body ache. Suddenly Uncle was at the pools edge. He waded knee-deep into the unmagic, straining to reach her. She opened her mouth to warn him, and the nothingness flooded over her tongue; it poured down her throat. Sandry gasped and choked.

She couldn’t breathe. Unmagic flooded her nose. She gagged, and felt it roll into her lungs

Sandry woke. The nothingness loomed on every side to swallow her bed.

She seized her crystal night lamp from the table, holding it against her chest as she panted. The light turned shadows into bed curtains. The dark at the foot of her bed was the coverlet, turned back for this warm Barley-month night. Her hands and nightgown showed pale, not dark. Sandry bowed her head over her lamp and waited for her nerves to calm.

When she felt more in control of herself, she got out of bed. Her small treasure chest was on a table by the window. She padded over to it, silently undoing the magic that locked it.

The item she sought lay at the bottom of the chest, under some ribbons, a few seashells, and what jewelry she kept with her. To most eyes the thing she lifted out of the box was only a circle of thread with four lumps spaced equally apart.

To those who could see magic, the circle blazed with power, each lump showing a different color for each of four friends. To anyone who knew the laws of magic, it represented an achievement so great that it was already legend. Trapped underground with her friends during an earthquake, knowing they would die unless they could be made stronger together than they were singly, Sandry had taken their magics and spun them into one. This thread circle was the result of that, and the symbol of friends who were closer than family.

I wish you were here, she thought passionately, touch ing the lumps that represented Briar, Daja, and Tris. In those hard rounds of thread she could feel their powerful spirits. If we were together, we could stop these monsters.

Instead it’s just me, and I can’t even talk to you. However am I going to deal with this unmagic?

She put the circle away and redid her locking spells. I don’t have to manage the unmagic, she told herself firmly, settling into the window seat. The provosts mages will do that. All I have to do is teach a silly boy to keep a thought in his head longer than a sneeze.

Outside, the Astrel Island beacon shone over the harbor. The waning moon laid a silver blanket on the islands and the sea wall. She let the view calm her mind.

She couldn’t help Master Wulfric beyond what she had done already. Perhaps if she concentrated on Pasco, she would keep the boy from adding to the sum of all that was go ing on. Keep him out of trouble, she thought drowsily, cradling her night-lamp. Leave crime to the experts. And no more dreams about nothingness.

The next day Pasco was at Fletcher’s Circle when Sandry and her guards arrived.

Sandry eyed her student with dislike: she was still weary from gathering unmagic the day before. She had slept badly once she returned to her bed, and only the knowledge that Pasco had to be taught had gotten her on a horse that morning. He looked every bit as grumpy as she felt.

Sandry took him into the garden beside the eating-house—deserted at that hour—ordered him to sit, then placed her magical wards. Once they were pro tected, she sat beside him. “Let’s begin. Close your eyes and inhale. One

two

three

” She stopped.

Pasco’s shoulders were slumped, his face glum.

“You’re not inhaling,” she pointed out.

Pasco sighed, not looking at her.

Sandry gave a sigh of her own. “What is it now?”

Pasco shrugged sullenly.

“That’s not an answer,’ she informed him.

“Uncle Isman came to supper last night,” grumbled the boy. “He told Papa and Mama I must have talked you into saying my magic only works with dancing. He says nobody he’s asked ever heard of dancing magic. He says, if I have magic, send me to the harrier-mages at Lightsbridge. He says they’ll make me put my magic to the proper use.”

“No, they won’t,” Saedry replied irritably. “You can, only do that with certain kinds of magic. Others—the kind, I. have, the kind you have, only work through the path chosen by the magic. Your uncle may know all there is to harrier work, but he’s no mage. He oughtn’t to talk about things he doesn’t understand.”

Pasco scuffed his feet on, the: ground. “Why couldn’t I be a truthsayer, or a tracker, or something? Then, maybe they’d, care. But no, what I, have Isn’t good for anything real I can I chill a riot or tell where thieves are hunting. So ‘what’s, the point?”

“The point is, there: is no point,’ not yet!” she cried, out of patience with the whole world today. “We: don’t know what you can do, you silly bleater! We’re going to craft what you can do, and for that you’ll have to help!”

Pasco stared at her. “You talked street,” he whispered, shocked. “Bleater’s no word for a lady to use.”