Oath of Rings

Chapter 7

"You didn't have to come." Bex tried to make her voice as stern as possible, but it wasn't as if she actually minded the company. She had come to England to focus and to work on her shield-fire spell and while spending time with Charlotte wasn't conducive to either, she couldn't deny that it was nice to be forming a friendship again. Back in Ireland, she had been so focussed on her training that many other things passed her by, even when her family and Finn warned her not to isolate herself. A spoiled princess wouldn't have been her first choice of companions, but Charlotte was also an air-archer, and having someone who could manipulate the winds would be quite handy when out at sea—as long as she was on Bex's side. Right now, Charlotte was complaining about everything from the size of Bex's humble boat to the fact that the shield-fire was making her too warm. "And you definitely didn't have to wear that dress."

Charlotte snorted softly. "My riding clothes are all being cleaned. I only had dresses left."

"Of course." Bex took a deep breath and concentrated on the shield-fire. Charlotte knew about the spell now, of course, as did Paige and William, one of her most trusted senior knights. He was currently watching their progress from one of the cliffs, making notes about when the boat was visible and when it was not; Bex had also asked him to report on if he saw fire aboard the boat and to describe it as best he could. "Well, we aren't all giants, you know. I made this boat primarily for me, and for me it's a perfect fit. Also, fire is naturally hot—"

"I'm aware of that. But this is magic fire," Charlotte insisted, rolling her eyes as she fanned herself with a small burst of air from her fingers. "Can't you make it . . . not hot?"

Letting out a long breath like a dragon expelling smoke, Bex turned to face the air-archer. "I probably could," she admitted through clenched teeth. "But right now, my goal is to make the spell work at all. Once I get it working reliably, then I'll work on the fine details, like making the temperature more suitable for princesses wearing five fucking layers of skirts."

Charlotte blew Bex back with a slight gust, but made sure not to let her fall. "It's a legitimate concern! You're not always going to have an air-archer with you to propel your boat, which means you'll either be relying on the waves or on oars. The rowers will be sitting right next to the shield-fire, and they'll already be getting warm from exertion. You don't want your crew to overheat and collapse, do you? Because then if you get boarded, you're not only exhausted from the spell, but your crew won't be able to help you either."

Bex had to admit Charlotte had a point. The air-archer had expressed several keen insights over the afternoon, much to her surprise. She was every bit a princess, from her bearing to her expectations, but when given the chance to be, she was so many other things: insecure, curious, clever, funny. Bex almost hated seeing the princess version of her around the castle now because it felt so false. "That's true. I'll have to work on the base spell." She sat down and rubbed at her eyes. The spell seemed to have worked on her way from Ireland to England, but since she only encountered any vessels when she was close to the English coast, it was hard to gauge how successful she had been. "And I need to make it adjust for movement and wind. Fuck. It'll never work. There are too many factors to consider."

"Hey. Don't think like that, Bex." With no consideration for her dress, Charlotte shuffled over to the fire-forger. "It's a great idea. It just needs to be developed. Do you think the first ship-maker designed a warship perfectly on the first try? Or that the first sword was made with a flawless blade? Of course not. We learn by doing, and mistakes are part of that."

"Mistakes are one thing," Bex replied. "Burning people up is quite another." Then she stood up again, calling to the flames. To her, the spell was like a stone wall and the trick was getting all the separate components to fit just right so it wouldn't collapse. She twisted a bit of energy here and raised a bit there, taking her time so she didn't undo the parts that were doing their jobs just fine. "Is that any better?" she asked the air-archer.