Oath of Rings

Chapter 6

"A few days before I met you, I saw water travelling up a rock, not down. Was that you?" Bayley was practically bouncing with excitement. She and Sasha had been travelling together for a few days now, even though they both agreed to make no promises, and she was endlessly curious about the water-weaver.

"Shhh!" Sasha swatted at her arm before pointing to the villagers walking in front of them. They were likely far enough ahead that they hadn't heard—or wouldn't have assumed anything about magic even if they did hear—but she still wanted to be cautious. "I don't know. I don't know where you were. Is any of my hair sticking out?"

Bayley stood an arm's length away and looked at her new friend. Apparently the more Sasha used her powers, the more her hair changed colour to match the waters she was either in or closest to. Every time they so much as saw a village in the distance, Sasha would braid her hair, coil it up on top of her head, and wrap a cloth around it to hide its unnatural hue. "It's good." Silently, Bayley wished she had some interesting manifestation when she used her powers, but her hair was already almost as dark as the soil. With her luck, her skin would harden to stone or something equally unflattering.

Glancing over at her, Sasha softened somewhat. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you. I just don't want anyone to get suspicious of us. We're strangers to them, and everyone's on edge because of the raids and the harvest. They already have enough reasons to be wary; we don't need to give them more." She adjusted her hair wrap a bit before forcing her hands down to her belt. "So where did you see this water?"

It had only been days ago, a week at most, but given Bayley's relative lack of worldliness, it felt like a year had passed between then and now. Since then, she had met—and angered—another elemental, learned how to make a boat for them both, watched a water-weaver at work, and had gone further from home than she had ever been in her life. "I'm not sure. It was pretty soon after I left home," she added, hoping Sasha didn't think she was being petulant. "I had just spent a couple nights at a farm helping out a family in exchange for food and a bed—"

"And company." Bayley knew a strange expression must have pinched her face, because Sasha quickly shook her head. "Not like that. Just . . . people to talk to and laugh with. You grew up with a family. You get used to having people around. I know I did, even if Mother and Joshua and I had to move so often. It was just the three of us," she added softly, "but we were closer than many larger families we encountered on our travels. We had to be—"

Instinctively, Bayley wrapped her arms around the water-weaver. She had siblings herself—a brother and two sisters—and while they had moved away from the family farm years ago, they had been instrumental in helping her adapt to her earth-etching abilities when she was a child. "I understand." She started to apologize for the hug, but to her surprise—and delight—Sasha returned it, if with a little less vigour. "Yeah, the company is nice. But I always worry about staying too long and doing more harm than good. . . ."

Sasha patted her shoulder as they hurried to get inside a villager's fenced-in grazing land so he could close the gate behind them. "You've been doing so many good things, Bayley. In every village we've been in. I swear most of the grandmothers want to claim you as their daughter."

Bayley laughed at that. "I wouldn't complain, but it also makes their daughters-in-law hate me." She smiled when one of the villagers turned to face them. "So how can we help? I'm good at harvesting and planting," she added, "and Sasha's very good at finding water sources. How are your wells?"

The man grimaced. "We're down to our last one. All the others dried up earlier in the year, so we've been using them for storage."

She didn't want to smile and seem pleased by the village's plight, so Bayley turned to Sasha. "I think we might be able work on those for you." She gave the water-weaver a meaningful look. "In exchange, we require food and lodging—"