Inkblots: A Tale of Magic, Adventure, and Romance

XXII. Courage and Pain

After a night of uneasy sleep, Alia's courage hadn't flagged. She was done feeling young and out of the loop, especially now that she no longer had Darine and Caddock's friendly support. Kit seemed energetic in the fresh morning air, and she hoped his good mood would hold even as she pressed for information.

And pressing for information was certainly the plan. Even as the Hero was tossing a few scoops of oats into water heated by stones and stretching, she was packing up. Alia rolled her bedsack into a tight neat bundle, and organized her pack into a stiff rectangle, and bound up her hair into a slim, functional braid without stopping to even consider how clumpy with oil and dust it had gotten. Her determination had her chomping down the oatmeal with urgency, and Kit gave her an odd look over her behavior. He didn't say anything, though, and she scoured the bowl and kicked out the fire and bravely proclaimed, "Well, I think we ought to get started."

"Do you?" asked Kit, and Alia thought she detected the faintest edge of amusement to his voice—but when she looked at him, his face was serious.

"Oh yes," she said doggedly, and tried to ignore the possibility that he might be mocking her.

After only a few more restless moments, they shouldered their packs. Alia flinched at the bruising weight on her shoulders, but set forward at a brisk pace nonetheless. She took the lead without waiting for Kit, threading her way between silvery, gnarled brush and the yellowed mounds of dust, but almost immediately a snort echoed from behind her.

"You'll want to bear left," Kit called.

She pursed her lips, but turned.

"Further," he said.

She kept turning.

"Really just about all the way around," Kit said, mellow voice barely veiling suppressed laughter.

A frustrated puff of air pushed loudly from between her lips, and a chagrined Alia walked back towards Kit, who grinned good-naturedly.

"If you're so eager to set off, I don't mind letting you take the lead," he said. "You just might let me set our bearings, since you have no experience here."

"Of course," Alia said primly, though her cheeks burned.

He tried to teach her some trick that had to do with the direction of her shadow, but the only thing that stuck was that she ought to pick landmarks in the correct direction and bear straight on them. It was harder here than it would have been in the forest, but not impossible to find an odd-shaped rock or a dead bush to walk toward, and whenever she deviated from the path, Kit would correct her.

As the morning sun grew stronger, Alia dropped back slightly until Kit walked alongside her. He had been faintly whistling as they trudged brusquely along, and she hoped that was a sign that he was still in a good mood.

"So the blue magic," she said, "what was that like?"

"I suppose you won't be satisfied if I say blue," he quipped, keeping his eyes pointed forward at the expansive desert. The horizon shimmered

The younger girl tightened her jaw in half-hearted irritation, but an involuntary snort slipped out anyway. She pressed on bravely . "Was it actually like water? Or like holes in the ground?"

Kit weighed things over for a moment. "Water," he said. "But it glowed—shimmered really. The puddles looked like shimmering puddles and the whirlpool looked like someone had put a light under the sea's surface."

"Are there really whirlpools in the sea?" In her excitment Alia's foot caught on a bush, and she peered down cautiously, remembering Caddock's ankle. For a moment, the spindled grey branches around her seemed threatening, as though they were trying to trip them, but she reassured herself. Her small size made navigating the path easier.