Spellcasters

Chapter 24

A cloudless blue sky stretched over her. Maylis blinked. Her eyes were sticky from tears. Bird song drifted through the warm air and crickets chirped and skittered above the towering crops. She sat up. A light breeze rippled the surface of the corn like a calm sea. In the distance, the castle of Slayhold stood, white and untarnished.

Maylis lay back down and closed her eyes for a while, savouring the peace. She could pretend that the war never happened, that it was nothing more than a bad dream, but the heat brought her back to reality.

She threw off her armour and with a jolt, realised she didn't have the spell book. She desperately rummaged around the floor, hoping it had been caught between the plants or pressed into the dirt. Nothing except pebbles and the odd tiny animal burrow. She found a scrap of paper flittering in the wind. A singed corner of a single page. The rest was gone. She scrunched the paper into a little ball between finger and thumb before seeing how far she could flick it across the field. Maybe it wasn't all bad. The spell was meant to bring her home. Was this home? Was it all over?

Two people emerged from the woods on the other side of the field. Maylis ducked down and peered over the top of the corn.

It was her. Maylis felt like she was in a dream. Her mother was wading through the cornfield, laughing as if everything was right with the world. Someone ran after her. For a moment, Maylis feared her mother was under attack but the boy was smiling too. As they got closer, she realised it was Blaise.

"You'll get us in trouble," he said.

She craned her neck to get a better look at them. Blaise was lanky and a little goofy, with perfectly combed jet black. Her mother was as graceful as Maylis remembered but more lively and rosy cheeked like she had been untouched by the real world and not yet beaten down by it.

"It's a shortcut," said Immortia.

"We're damaging the farmer's crops." Blaise caught up with her. Maylis held her breath. She should've moved. They were far too close.

"I'm not." Immortia took Blaise's hand. "Here, follow my footsteps."

They unknowingly passed Maylis by. Confused, she rose slightly, trying to figure out where they were going. She followed them to a patch of grass where the pair sat opposite each other cross-legged.

"I'm glad we're doing this," said Immortia.

Blaise sprawled backwards, hands behind head. "Same."

"You're the first person I've met like me."

"You wait until you meet my brother. He can breathe underwater. I wish my ability was as useful as his."

"There's lots of uses for your power," said Immortia. "You can light up the way in the darkness. Blind people."

"Why ever would I want to blind someone?" he asked, amused.

"If they were attacking you." She rolled over and propped herself up on one elbow.

Blaise sat up. "I'd never hurt anyone."

"What if they were attacking me?"

He hesitated. "No-one would want to hurt you."

"Witch hunters would. If they knew I was friends with you."

For a moment, Blaise's face was more like the one Maylis remembered but quickly, it vanished and his eyes became soft again.