Abducted [W&W Book 3]

Chapter 33

By the next morning, Ildri was resigned to keep trying even if her attitude was not quite the positive one that Maxine would have preferred. She made breakfast for the three of them using Maxine's ingredients. She wondered if there was a town somewhere where they could buy more, although she knew nothing about doing that. Other people had always procured the food at Wildwood, she had simply cooked it as chef had said.

It was nice to decide what to make each day. Maxine ate whatever she made without complaint. Ildri decided that scrambled eggs would nicely complement the bread she had baked the day before. She mixed the eggs and added some dried spices, thinking about how each would taste and what it would add to the meal. Then she mixed it while it heated on the cook stove.

Ildri was just putting bread on the table when Maxine came down and Allan came inside. The three of them ate in companionable silence.

"You really are an uncommonly good cook," Maxine said as she pushed her plate away.

"Thank you," Ildri said. There was a least one thing that she was good at.

Maxine smiled. "We're going to try something different today."

"Oh," Ildri said cautiously.

"You're going to work with Allan on figuring out that power of yours."

"What?"

"Just do what he says and hopefully you'll make some progress."

Allan looked grimly resolute and Ildri felt a vague sort of dread. This was unlikely to be any more enjoyable than yesterday.

"Fine," she agreed, feeling very much as if there was nothing she wanted to do less. She glanced at Allan's face again and it did not make her feel better.

They cleaned up after themselves and Ildri reluctantly followed Allan outside. He led to an open space beyond the yard. There were a bunch of bottles set up in a line. "Knock those over. You're good at destroying things."

Ildri flushed. She did not need to be reminded. It was embarrassing.

"Go ahead," Allan prodded.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" she asked a bit defensively.

"Just do what you did to the table," he said.

"I wasn't trying to. It was an accident," she protested.

"Then figure out how you did it," he said coolly.

Ildri felt disproportionately angry. She knew that she had sort of volunteered for this and she knew that Allan was probably trying to help. But she was sick of people who thought they could be nasty to her.

Ildri narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips as she stared at the bottles in their smug little line. She concentrated on them exploding and on how frustrated she was and what the look of surprise on Allan's haughty face would be when she succeed.

It was not quite the explosion that she had envisioned, but three of the bottles toppled over. Ildri made a little jump and clapped her hands together.

"Good," Allan said, not sounding impressed. "Set them up again and keep trying." He walked away.

Ildri spent the rest of the morning trying to make the bottles explode but she did not quite manage. One did break when it fell, and one notable time she managed to knock every single one over. It was quite satisfying, rather in the way that punching a wall might be if she was really angry. She continued until lunch and did the same thing after lunch until she was exhausted.

Maxine had begun supper before Ildri came inside. "How did it go?" she inquired.

"I knocked over bottles and set them up again."