A Clove of Fates

19. Into The Crowd

If Heillar's magic had felt like floating, this stuff felt like drowning. Like suffocating. It was just barely tolerable. But worse than the feeling of resisting it were the moments I felt myself giving into it. The airy feeling that it gave was like falling with the assurity that you would never hit the ground. But I had no control over how I fell, so I had to fight it.

Stay grounded.

Drown.

It seemed like there were more people here than there had been in Musteri. It was almost impossible to hear Ifera or Fraed talk over the din of the people's conversations and the music.

Ifera started to go after Syna when the Goddess turned and headed into the fray and I was unable to follow, frozen in place. And not just because of the party. Syna was a goddess, and I couldn't help but remember the words of my parents. Just being in their presence was a death sentence. And she had looked right in my eyes. Seen something invisible in me.

But I couldn't risk losing Ifera.

"Fraed! We have to go after her and get out of here now!"

"Okay!" Fraed shouted back. "Do you still have that slip of her's? Osvik can trace the scent."

I nodded and reached into my bag, my fingers gliding over the slippery silk of her nightgown. I yanked it out and placed it in Fraed's waiting hands.

He kneeled and put it under Osvik's snout. "Finna."

Osvik's ears twitched. He raised his head and appeared to be looking through the crowd of people.

I too scanned my eyes over the crowd, as if my eyes were as sharp as his, when I felt something tugging on my bag.

I quickly looked over to my right just as the strap broke. The bag seemed to have snapped off on its own and was floating through the air. It wasn't going very fast, but it was too far above my head to reach. It was on the move, flying into the main action of the party. I groaned.

"I have to go after it."

"After what?" Fraed asked.

I glanced back at him and then forward again. How was it possible that I kept forgetting that he couldn't see? "My...my bag. It's floating away." I didn't have the energy to be as upset as I should have been. Fighting magic was exhausting, apparently. Hopefully I would never have to experience it again.

"Oh."

I sighed and reached up to my forehead, my brushing the few hairs escaping the braids that clung close to my head. I plucked a hair from my scalp and flinched at the pain that came with its liberation. "I've just pulled a hair from my head. With this help Osvik do his tracking magic?"

"It's not magic, dogs just have a very keen sense of smell."

I shook my head. "I know that, but... I thought he wasn't a dog."