Frost and Snow

Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-one.

The journey to Port City seemed to take longer than it actually was; I looked forward to sleeping indoors again and eating a meal that was not cooked under the open sky. Maybe the days spend in Yellow and Lord Fennin’s mansion had spoiled me, or perhaps the fact that my curse was fading rapidly now made me tire more easily from traveling the way we had. Either option I did not like, I could not use any form of weakness at the moment.

It was unfortunate that healing took a lot of power; much more than a binding spell or shield took, as I was told by Valeria. She had said that it had something to do with the energies that resided in the body and mixing them with magic and the sheer complexity of healing itself. Most of the wounds we had sustained during the last fight could heal on their own and we only spend magical energy on those that really needed to be healed for fear of infection or worse.

The wound on my arm itched; a good sign – it meant that it was healing – but an annoying one. I had repaired the belts on my bracer and together with clean bandages and my ebon-thread shirt it provided a good protection against any scratching. Lifting heavy things was something I still not do – I did not want to reopen the wound again – but aside from the occasional flash of pain that went up my arm, it functioned good enough.

In the distance I could see the mountains that formed the southern border of the kingdom and the region that the Snow Witch had taken over. Now the mountains were white as the winter lasted through the years, but before her reign the area had been a popular destination to travel to. Scholars would go there to study ancient ruins and Mages went there on pilgrimages; the mountains had held a large part of the same culture that the old magic had come from.

But now, all that knowledge was frozen beneath a layer of snow and ice; it was another thing we would regain when we would make an end to the Snow Witch.

The closer we came to the village the more I realized that I kept my eyes open for suspicious persons. The roads we traveled were used by many; Port City was well visited for trade even in the winter. Especially in the winter when the river was often frozen over and trade had to go by cart. I saw questionable folk pass by on the road, but appearance was not the only thing that I needed to worry about.

“Can you tell me more about the singing magic you used?” I asked Valeria. None of us had said something in a while and I was interested in this old magic. She had told us a bit about it after she saved Asalie again, but I wanted to know more.

“What do you mean?” Valeria looked up from her book and watched me carefully. “I already told you most of it.”

“I know… But why singing of all things?” People sang all the time, even Mages occasionally did so, but never something special had happened.

“I am not quite sure about that either,” She closed her book and turned around so she could face me without straining her neck. “But I think it has always been a vital part of magic.”

“If it is vital, why is it no longer used?” I wondered if this was a stupid question.

“I think it just evolved. You have heard it right? Whenever a Mage uses magic, you can hear it. And each Mage’s magic makes a different sound. It is like that, but in the old days they also used singing. Maybe that is why it was so powerful.”Valeria accompanied her explanation with a lot of gestures and I nodded, understanding what she was trying to say.

“And was old magic not something you could not do on your own?” I remembered that Court Mage Dalyn had said something like that back in the Yellow City Library.

“Well, yes, that is something that is always being said about it.” She frowned as she was thinking about something.

“But the Court Mage was lying? Is it not true?”