Chapter 19

It's all the same after a certain point. Chain spells and outlawed magic. I'll probably get a taste of all of it on the front lines."

Avy had been going on for a while now. Ren couldn't even remember who'd started the conversation. A classic undergrad question about what everyone was majoring in. Cora's focus was on anatomical magic. A clear-cut surgeon who particularly liked the brain.

"We know so little about it," she'd said, quiet and hungry-sounding.

Timmons was an enhancer who was majoring in magical law. Ren had talked through that decision a hundred times with her. It was a clever investment for any girl whose rare talent would cast her as the natural pawn of the city's elite. Never hurt to understand magical jurisdiction when you were asked to perform nebulous tasks on their behalf.

Avy's pursuits were no surprise. He was training to be a reaver. Modern armies wanted warriors with specialized magic. There were paladins—Ren tried not to think of Devlin—who focused on protective magic. In a proper battle they would form up the front ranks. Reavers were trained to break through those ranks. Avy would be focused on learning aggressive, offensive spells that relied on physical prowess in close quarters. And Ren knew a boy like Avy would receive plenty of interest. He'd already mentioned turning down an offer from Brightsword—the city's official guard. She thought that was smart. Contracts with the private houses would be far more lucrative. Each one maintained its own personal army. After all, they were more afraid of one another than any of the armies in the surrounding regions. There hadn't been a true rival to Kathor in decades.

"What about you, Theo?"

He'd kept quiet. Ren knew scions like him were sent to Balmerick to better their parents' businesses. What vital role could they play in the future expansion of an already industrious oligarchy? Some children were trained to rule. Others encouraged to innovate. A few were simply smudged from the family records, embarrassments to their lineage.

"My primary focus is in tactical defense and city planning."

It sounded boring on the surface, but Ren knew his father's magic was focused on city planning as well. He'd helped the Proctors map out the Heights. Not to mention he'd designed the majority of Kathor's canal system. It was the tactical defense part that snagged her attention. Theo was a far cry from the typical frontline warrior, but maybe he had his sights on commanding armies? Field generals required mastery of magic and perspective and quick thinking. Ren glanced up at Vega winging overhead. She had a few other guesses about what a boy like Theo Brood might be groomed to do in their city.

"And you, Ren?"

The question came from Theo. His eyes always narrowed slightly when he was genuinely curious about something. She met his gaze and tried to pretend as if the scion of one of the wealthiest houses in Kathor wasn't showing direct interest in her. How many times had she prepared her responses to interviews that had never come? Now, lost in the woods, she had her chance.

"I'm advanced magical theory."

"Which branch?"

"Research and development."

Timmons hooked an arm through hers. "She's a spellmaker."

"I'm open to several possibilities, but yes, I have an eye for creating new magic." Ren hesitated before adding, "The Shiverians were interested in my research on energy distribution spells. Just one of many breakthroughs I plan on making."

Theo raised one of those knife-sharp eyebrows, but he was impossible to read otherwise. Did that impress him? Did he find it vain or foolish? She knew the big houses had large appetites for new magic, but she also knew spellmakers were like authors. Frowned upon as hobbyists until they created something that merited actual attention.

"Ren also has a knack for magical tracing," Timmons went on. "It's not a full synesthetic gift, but she can sense most magic as it takes shape. My girl is talented.…"

That earned another look from Theo. Ren was hoping he'd ask something, show a little curiosity, but any chance of a response was cut off by Avy. He thrust a single fist into the air. A hiss for silence. The group went quiet, fearing the worst, but the only sound was a faint rumble.

"No way," Avy muttered. "We can't be that unlucky."

As the group pressed on, the noise grew louder and louder. Gaps in the trees confirmed the obvious. A river swept across their intended path. Wide enough that Ren couldn't make out the features on the other side. Avy picked his way forward, leading them to an elevated bank.

"This is the Morningthaw River. I knew it was out here, but I didn't think… we're on the wrong side. You've got to be kidding me."

"Do you think there's a bridge?" Timmons asked. "Maybe to the southwest?"

"Built by who?" he replied. "This territory has never been occupied by anyone."

"There might be a ford?" Ren asked hopefully.

Avy scratched his beard. "We'd have to hike pretty far up the mountain to find something crossable. And that will have us backtracking in the direction of far more difficult passes. Besides, the river will flow faster where it narrows." He glanced downstream. "And it looks like it gets wider to the south. Bet it's freezing up here too."

"We have magic," Theo pointed out. "There are spells for all of those problems."

Avy snorted. "Have you ever done magic while crossing a river?"

Theo chewed on his lip but said nothing. Avy was right. Magic required concentration. It was possible they could summon a few boons to help them, but just as possible that those spells would slip through their grasp the first time their heads were dunked underwater. The river wasn't running particularly fast, but even the slightest tug of a current could do serious damage. Ren's mind was racing on to other possibilities, having long dismissed a spell-aided swim.

"What about a raft?" Timmons asked.

"Sure," Avy replied. "Do you know how to build one?"

"Don't you?"

He rumbled a laugh. "I went hiking with my father as a kid. We never sat down and built boats together. Besides, you're talking about ferrying one or two people across at a time. There's a ton that can go wrong, even with magic helping us."

"The way candle." Theo's eyes swung to Ren. "You have a way candle. We can use Cora's knife to slice it into equal pieces. Everyone lights their own and we port across."

Ren nodded. It wasn't a bad idea, but it was one she'd already thought of and dismissed.

"We don't have a full visual of the opposite bank."

The others squinted, but Ren knew she was right. It was just a vague line of blurred landscape. There was no real sense of their intended target. And she was quite certain none of them had ever visited this particular valley before. They'd have no image of the destination to focus their minds on as they went through the waxways.

"If we can't see where we're going, we can't control where we come out. You never know. It might work. But there's also a chance one of us teleports inside of a tree."

Theo looked annoyed at having his idea so easily dismissed. He eyed the river. "We could port as far across the water as we can, then swim the rest of the way."

Ren sighed. She'd thought of that already too.

"It doesn't account for the standard delay theorem."

That earned a look from the others. Timmons snorted. "Do tell us more, textbook."

Ren answered, "When you use the waxways, your body appears before your mind does. No one usually notices the delay, because we don't see ourselves port. But there's about a three-second span where your body appears in the location you've jumped before you have any conscious ability to command its functionality."

Avy was staring. "And that means…"

"It means we'd jump into the river and there'd be three seconds where our mindless bodies are being dunked in the water. What if your mouth is open? What if you happen to hit a rock? It's possible we might drown before our minds and bodies reconnect. Besides, using any portion of the way candle now decreases the distance we can travel when we're on the right side of the mountain. We should be saving it for desperate measures."

"More desperate than a massive river that's cutting us off?" Theo looked properly annoyed now. "All right. What's your genius plan, then?"

"I'm thinking."

Thinking required time. Ren paced back and forth as the others set their satchels down on the sun-warmed stones. Timmons kicked off her boots and rubbed at the backs of her heels while Avy tried to skip stones. Cora actually managed to fall asleep somehow. Ren went through theory after theory as the sun began angling over the trees. She was weighing the merits of levitation spells when she caught a particularly harsh ray of glancing light. She shielded her eyes before looking across the river again. It was a gorgeous blue, colored here and there by white rapids. As Ren stared, she saw that the sun's angle was drawn in a straight line across the water.

Thick and golden and so like…

"A bridge."

Theo scowled. "There aren't any bridges out here."

"Not yet." Ren walked to the edge of the bank, squinting to see if the glittering road extended all the way across. Her mind ran through the necessary spells. She turned back to Timmons. "I'm going to need you to pull this off."

Her friend nodded. "I'm all yours."

"Right," Ren said. "We need to move quickly. I don't know how fast the angles will change, and any huge shifts will loosen the grasp of my spell. We're going to make our own bridge. Out of sunlight."

She pointed. The others looked out and saw what she'd noticed. The golden light speckling the surface was thick and rich. It extended in a flawless line across the water. Not an actual bridge, Ren knew, but nothing a little magic couldn't solve.

"I'm going to use a binding spell. From one bank to the other, with the sunlight as the fixture. Once I've bound them, the sunlight will be drawn into a single, functional unit. Which means the next spell can alter the entirety of the bridge, rather than individual particles."

"What spell will you use?" Theo asked.

It was the second time he'd sounded more curious than pompous. She called that progress.

"Well, the reflection we're seeing is due to the angle. It's coming in shallow enough that the surface of the water redirects its path. And as you know, redirection is a change in function."

Theo was nodding. "Ockley's tertiary principle. Change is a doorway for magic."

"I can alter the alteration."

"And make the particles solid." Theo actually smiled. "That's clever."

Ren tried not to show how much Theo's interest pleased her. She had his attention. All she had to do now was pull this off. Pull off this spell, here and now, and she'd take the first necessary step into her future. Lost in thought, Ren didn't notice that the rest of the group was staring at the two of them. Timmons grinned. "Describe it as you would to a child."

"The light becomes a bridge."

She pointed to the opposite bank.

"And we walk across it."