Youâre here to tap into the magic you already know.â
âI canât do that in the training caves?â
âOh, sure you can. But this is much nicer, donât you think? Plus, if you accidentally turn a rock into a dragon or some such, thereâs no one for it to eat except you.â
Lanadel gulped. Surely Mombi was joking? But her face was severe. With the old witch, you never knew. âSo what do I do?â she asked.
Mombi waggled her other eyebrow. âWhat do you do ?â she echoed. âYou stand here until you can feel it. The riverâs lemonade, incidentally, if you get thirsty.â
âFeel what ?â Lanadel asked, exasperated.
âFeel magic,â Mombi said. âObviously.â She rolled her eyes. Lanadel bit back a sarcastic retort. Training with Nox was hard enough, but at least she knew what she was supposed to be doing. Standing here, no matter how beautiful it was, listening to Mombi spout nonsensical riddles, was something else entirely. Sheâd felt something when Nox had provoked her in the corridor outside her sleeping cave. Something totally different from anything sheâd known before. Something huge, and powerful,and alive. Apparently that was magic. But she had no idea where it had come from, or how to get it back. And Nox wasnât here to get in a fight withâalthough Mombi was getting close to aggravating her to the same degree. Maybe thatâs what sheâs trying to do, Lanadel thought. Except that âinfuriatingâ was pretty much Mombiâs standard operating mode. The witch looked at her expectantly.
âIâm not a witch,â Lanadel said.
Mombi actually laughed out loud, slapping her knees in merriment. âOh, goodness no, girl. You donât have to be a witch to use magic . Everyone in Oz knows that .â
I didnât, Lanadel thought. And then she thought suddenly of Holly and Larkin and their sneering, superior faces. If they could learn magic, so could she. Mombi had told her to stand there until she felt it, whatever âitâ was. And if that was what it took, that was what she was going to do.
Lanadel closed her eyes. Shut out the swirling clouds and the mountain vista, the musical sounds of the river winding over the ground. Forgot the sun on her face and the gentle, warm breeze in her hair. She thought back to the thing sheâd felt for the briefest moment, the tiny seed of flame that had flared to life in her chest. And then, for the first time since sheâd come to the training caves, she let herself think about her brothers. If emotion was what it took to bring magic to life inside her, there was no emotion stronger than what she felt about losing her family. Nothing more powerful than the anger and hatred that drove her to the Order, to learn the skills she needed to destroy everyone whoâdever hurt her. Everyone whoâd taken so much away from her. And suddenly the tiny flame roared up into a fire as huge as the flames that had burned her village and swallowed up her brothersâ bodiesâa bonfire that took hold and spread as rapidly as wildfire across the landscape of her heart. She was burning alive with power; she could feel it roaring around her, crackling from her fingers and hissing through her hair. There was nothing she couldnât do, no one she couldnât take downâ
And then Mombi grabbed her hands again and the flames went out as though theyâd been doused with an oceanâs worth of cold water. She shuddered and sank to her knees. âWizardâs teeth, girl,â Mombi said, sounding a little shaken. âI should have taken a closer look at you before I told you to tap into that.â Mombi pulled her back to her feet and put an arm around her briefly until Lanadel could stand without help. The witch regarded her thoughtfully. âYouâre a very angry young lady,â she said.
Lanadel took a deep, shuddering
Marion Chesney, M.C. Beaton