The Whitefire Crossing by Courtney Schafer Read Free Book Online

stopping for the night. Ninavel glimmered on the vast emptiness of the desert plain below, magelights fading with approaching dawn. Kiran shut his eyes. Even with his mental barriers up at full strength, the roiling confluence of earth forces beneath the city blazed like a lake of fire in his inner sight. He’d never before seen the confluence from the outside, in all its wild, turbulent glory. Within the city, the bone-deep pulse of its shifting currents had been as much a part of life as the air he breathed. Only now could Kiran fully appreciate why only the strongest of mages could harness its forces, and even then, only at a remove.
    The earth beneath his feet already felt dead in comparison. As for the mountains...Kiran turned. The Whitefires stretched skyward before him, their snowy peaks burning crimson. Beautiful enough, but completely inert, from a magical standpoint. From all he had read, Alathia would be little different. Kiran denied the longing ache deep within. He had no intention of casting any spells in Alathia and risking discovery by their Council. The Alathians weren’t known for their mercy toward foreigners caught working illegal magic.
    Crimson changed to gold as the sun slipped over the eastern rim of the valley. Kiran’s heart thumped painfully in his chest. If Lizaveta’s note was accurate, any moment now Ruslan would return to Ninavel. And when he found Kiran gone...
    The bread was ashes in Kiran’s mouth. He stood, abruptly. Too late, he noticed Cara watching him as she secured straps on the supply wagon.
    “Hey, kid, you look a little rough today. You being mean to him already, Dev?”
    “Mean? Me? You know I’m the soul of kindness.” Dev assumed an expression of injured innocence. He darted a glance at Kiran. “He’ll be fine. He’s just not used to sleeping on hard ground yet, right, Kellan?”
    Kiran nodded, trying to imitate Dev’s relaxed posture.
    Dev swung up on his horse with easy, thoughtless grace. “His family was in the bookbinding business, you know. City folk, nice and soft,” he said to Cara.
    Kiran clambered onto his horse, with considerably less grace than Dev. Abused muscles screamed as he settled into the saddle, and he nearly bit through his cheek in his effort not to cry out. Dev and Cara exchanged an amused glance, and Cara shook her head.
    “Dev, only you would take a city boy on as an apprentice.”
    Dev shrugged. “Sethan did it for me, back in the day. And hey, we can’t all have outrider parents.”
    To Kiran’s surprise, Cara looked away, as if made uncomfortable by Dev’s words. But when she spoke, her voice remained teasing. “You were a tough little brat, as I recall, and you could already climb like a whiptail. Soft, my ass.”
    “Couldn’t ride for shit, though. I thought I was gonna kill Sethan when he made me get back on a horse our second day out.” Dev directed a knowing grin at Kiran. “Bet you’re cursing me to Shaikar’s seventh hell and back right now.”
    “It’s not so bad,” Kiran lied. A thread of curiosity surfaced through his nerves. He tried to picture Dev as an awkward young outrider apprentice, and failed. Even though Dev couldn’t be that much older than Kiran—five years at the most—Kiran couldn’t imagine him without his air of casual competence. He’d assumed Dev had learned all his skills since earliest childhood, raised in some kind of outriding family, but apparently that wasn’t the case. Perhaps he could find a way to ask Dev about it, without inviting any unfortunate questions in return. The last thing Kiran wanted to discuss was his own childhood.
    “Aw, listen to him,” Cara said. “Still all polite. Now there’s a nice change from your foul mouth, Dev.”
    Before Dev could reply, a bell clanged out from the head of the convoy. The level of commotion rose a notch as wagons began creaking their way back onto the trail. Cara tossed her long blonde braid over her shoulder and vaulted into her saddle,