Over the Sea [Dual Trilogy Book 1]

Kano

I awoke before the sun and shivered as my feet tiptoed on the stone floor. I quickly made my way to the fuzzy rug where my feet could find some solace from the cold as I dumped some of the powder into the tall glass of water. I tipped back the cup against my lips not a moment after the last of it had dissolved.

I looked around my room, rubbing the sleep away from my eyes. I thanked my past self for packing the night before; I yawned, pulled my shirt over my head, and stumbled to pull my pants on. I pulled Zale out from underneath my pillow, grabbed my things, and made my way out of the castle.

Along the horizon of the dark blue sky were shades of light orange and red. Evan's phonx loomed over him, glowing white in the morning twilight. Melai's phonx was so dark, I couldn't even see the eyes.

"You will ride your phonxes down to the docks," Father had told me. "From there, you will ride the trigons across the sea. Tell Lily when you have arrived."

Mom stood in her nightgown next to Lily, and they both hugged me goodbye.

Let me know how it goes with Alexander, I told her as I pulled away.

She smiled sleepily. Let me know how it goes with them.

"Be safe, Kano," Mom told me.

I set Zale down and he grew in size. We climbed onto our respective phonxes, each accompanied by a knight, and off we went, flying over the sleepy towns of the savannah. It took a few minutes to reach the docks.

"Your Highness," the dock master bowed in greeting.

"We require passage on one of my father's trigons."

"Yes, Your Highness. Please, follow me." He found a young dockhand and brought him along as he showed us the way to a little boat, and rowed us out to the trigon cages. As we neared, a trigon blew out air from its blowhole. The dock master blew a dart at its back to keep the trigon at the ocean's surface. "Where do you need to go, Your Highness?"

"Uskyae," I answered quietly, leaning in to prevent the dockhand from overhearing.

His eyes widened, but he said nothing, rowing the boat close enough for us to climb onto the trigon's back. As everyone else climbed out of the boat, I slipped the dock master two Teras. "We need to arrive in Mirstone, unseen by anyone who would report us to the king." I handed him one more. "We will be there for thirty days, and will need you to meet us in Everton to bring us back." I handed him three more. "You will tell no one about our trip unless it is the King himself."

In response, he double tapped his ear and pocketed the silver, rectangular coins. He passed the oars to the dockhand, and, speaking in Eklona, told him to row the boat back to the docks as he and I climbed onto the trigon's back.

I did a silent headcount to make sure everyone was on board, as well as the phonxes and everyone's packs. I laid down on my back and exhaled as I closed my eyes. I felt Zale enter the water as the trigon began its swim.

I heard a pack open, and looked over to see Melai rummaging through her bag. She pulled out a book with a black cover and no title. Intrigued, I sat up and watched as she flipped through the book. Back when we had reached the docks, her phonx had retreated behind her hair--by contrast, Evan's seemed to be basking in the early morning sunlight.

She finally landed on a page, and her black eyes darted across the words. After a few minutes, she held the book in her right hand. With her left hand out, she moved her own shadow along the trigon's back, making it longer and larger than it should have been. The shadow stopped moving, and I saw her scrutinizing the page with her eyes. She scoffed, but smiled.

"Don't you have a Master to teach you all that?" I asked.

She looked up at me, surprised, and her shadow returned to normal size. "Well, in a perfect world, yes. Unfortunately, there are no Shadow Masters for me to train under."

My mouth dropped. "You mean to tell me that everything you have ever learned has come from that book?" I remembered very fondly my own Master, Ara Dein. She trained me by the ocean's edge, sometimes on the beaches where the water was close, or on the tops of cliffs where I worked on reaching far for the water. Often, though, she would observe the way I naturally wanted to move the water, the way my hands naturally flexed and relaxed while manipulating it. She would demonstrate how to manipulate the water for certain results, and would watch as I attempted to do it, and wouldn't speak unless I did something I shouldn't have. Having trained under a Master, I couldn't imagine learning water magic through anyone, or anything, but Ara.

Her cheeks reddened and she dropped her gaze. "No, not just from this book."

"She has a whole stack of those books at home," Evan chimed in. "She reads them everyday; always walking around our village practicing and reading them."

"I do not walk around our village--"

"--and every year, she anxiously awaits the delivery of a new one. Most years, there is a new one. But in the years when there is no delivery, she mopes around like a low rain cloud."

"Who sends them to you? And where do they come from?"

She looked to Evan before answering. "They come from different kingdoms. This one is from Islucaya. When I was old enough to understand the rarity of shadow magic, I asked the Mastery Advisor to help me learn. Of course, he himself wasn't able to teach me, but he was able to send me the books from other kingdoms."

"You have been to a Skills Presentation? Where did you go?"

There was an awkward pause as Evan shook his head. Why?

"We should be in Uskyae in a few hours," Melai said, trying to end the conversation on a civil note, but her eyebrows scrunched as she returned to the book.