CHAPTER TEN #3
Ilain tipped her head to the side, her hood casting deep shadows along the angles of her face. “Whatever training you require, yes,” she confirmed. “Though you are already highly skilled.”
Evylin frowned. “But there’s so much I don’t know about being a Warrior.”
“There’s a lot they don’t know either.” Ilain raised her eyebrows. “Missing literature, remember?”
“So they’re as untrained as I?”
“I wouldn’t call you untrained. Hewitt did a fantastic job preparing you for the role of Warrior.”
“He taught me how to fight,” Evylin said. “Not how to use magic.”
Ilain brushed her hand through the air. “Fighting is more than half the battle for Warriors. If you can fight, the skill frees up your instincts to tap into your magic. Just as you’ve already done dozens of times.”
Before Evylin could argue, Ilain kept speaking. “Yes, it would be preferable for you and all Warriors to have more specific instructions. Yes, knowing the particulars of your magic would be ideal. But without the texts, there’s no way for you to learn without practical application.”
“We’re just to find our way blindly in that case?”
“For now,” Ilain admitted. “And perhaps when this is all over, you can search out those missing texts and help the Warriors become all they were meant to be.”
Evylin thought about that. It seemed like a dull task to undergo. What could that sort of mission involve but researching and studying history? She had no interest in sitting in a library, day after day, reading dusty tomes. If a book had no adventure, it held no allure.
Still, Evylin wished there was some way she could better understand her magic. She felt sure that talking to another Warrior would help. Someone with whom she could compare experiences and gain insights. Surely that would make her a better Warrior.
And being a better Warrior would lead her to more exciting adventures.
“I’d like to meet them,” Evylin determined. “As soon as I can.”
Ilain let out a doubtful hum. “Gathering the Relics will take us another two months. And that’s if things go smoothly. The likelihood of meeting with the Alliance before then is slim. We can’t risk letting Blount get ahead of us.”
“But wouldn’t it be better if I were a stronger Warrior now? Or even having a secondary Warrior to help. Wouldn’t our mission be more likely to succeed?”
“Of course, it would. But as I said, there are only thirteen other Warriors, and they’re all assigned to other important tasks. The Alliance can’t spare them.”
Thom met Evylin’s disappointed stare. “Don’t fret,” he said. “We’re already doing well with a bright young Warrior such as yourself. Now that we’ve got three Relics for you to wield, things can only get easier, right?”
Ilain gave a caustic chuckle. “Your optimism is foolish.”
He smirked at her. “I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘inspiring.’”
Her eyes twinkled. “I’m inspired by how foolish you are.”
“You think it’ll be so difficult?” Evylin asked, amused by their quips. “We know what to expect now, and as Thom said, we have three Relics. Won’t that make a difference?”
“It will make all the difference,” Ilain replied.
“But this journey will still be incredibly difficult. The ancient texts state that every Keep increases in complexity and challenge, which is why we’re pursuing them in their designated order.
And we don’t know what to expect beyond Shades and a Guardian.
No two Keeps are alike, remember? We’re going into the Wind Keep with nothing more than our imagination as a guide. ”
Evylin and Thom listened warily as she continued, “Do not think that our prior modicum of success guarantees anything. Making it through the Keeps with our lives will take every skill and trick we have. Even Blount, with his host of Mages, struggled through the Water Keep. We have two Mages and one Warrior. Our odds are good, but not great. And any one of us could lose our lives at any time.”
A deep shadow hovered over Evylin’s heart as the highlady’s words concluded. It threatened to wrap itself around her, suffocating all hope and joy, attempting to leach into her veins and turn them black with fear.
“Any one of us could lose our lives.”
Her eyes rose to Deckard’s back, his thick gray cloak enshrouding him like the shadow in her chest. She could lose him like she’d lost Hewitt and Ryen.
This mission of theirs was fraught with danger, not only in the Keeps but here on the road.
Blount’s men had to be searching for them.
Just because they’d made it six days without an incident didn’t mean they weren’t one moment away from being found or attacked.
It could happen any time. Death could come for them—it could take him. . . .
The Day Relic pulsed on Evylin’s skin, radiating its cheery glow into her body. Her muscles relaxed as she basked in the peace coursing through her. Her breath came clearly, and she smiled. It felt like sitting under the sun’s rays on a winter day.
And her fear faded completely.
“Well, then,” she said good-naturedly, “I suppose we’d better train to improve our odds.”