“No.”
“I hate to say it, but I am hoping we find your novice in such a situation. The alternative is much worse, for Kyralia.” He clucked his tongue. “Now, tell me about your son.”
As Akkarin stopped, Sonea breathed a sigh of relief. Though she had grown used to the long days of walking, every rest was welcome. The morning sun was warm and made her feel sleepy.
Akkarin stood at the top of a short slope, waiting as she trudged up to meet him. Reaching the top, Sonea saw that their way was blocked by another crevasse. This one was broad and shallow. Looking down, she caught her breath.
A ribbon of blue ran down the middle. Water rushed around boulders and cascaded down short drops in the ravine floor before running away toward the wasteland. Trees and other vegetation crowded the banks of this little river, and in places extended out to the rock walls on either side.
“The Krikara River,” Akkarin murmured. “If we follow it, we will reach the road to the South Pass.”
He looked at the mountains. Sonea followed his gaze and noted how the gap between the peaks on either side of the ravine was much wider than the rest. She felt a twinge of excitement and longing. Kyralia lay beyond that gap.
“How far to the Pass?”
“It is a long day’s walk.” He frowned. “We should get as close as possible to the road, then wait until darkness.” He looked down at the ravine. “Though Parika must be at least a day’s travel behind us now, his slaves will be there, watching it for him.”
He rose, then turned to face her. Guessing what he intended to do, she grasped his hands.
“Let me do it,” she said, smiling.
Drawing magic to her will, she created a disk beneath their feet, then lifted them up and over the lip of the ravine. She lowered them down between the trees and they landed on a patch of grass.
Looking up, she found Akkarin regarding her closely.
“What are you looking at me like that for?”
He smiled. “No reason.” He turned away and started walking along the river. Sonea shook her head and followed.
After so long walking in the dry slopes of the mountains, the sight of so much clean running water and vegetation lifted her spirits. She imagined rain falling high up, gathering into streamlets and then streams, all joining to form the river that flowed through this ravine. Glancing behind, she wondered where it ended. Did it continue though the dry wasteland below?
The trees and undergrowth made travelling a little harder, however. Akkarin moved to the shadows by one wall, so they could avoid the vegetation as much as possible. After an hour, they encountered a thick forest that seemed to stretch from one side of the ravine to the other, blocking the river from view. In single file, they pushed their way through undergrowth, and as they walked on, the sound of water splashing over stone grew ever louder. When they emerged into the sunlight again, they found their way blocked by a wide pool.
Sonea drew in a breath. Above them stood a rock wall over which the river fell in wide sheets of water to fill the pool below. The sound of it was deafening after the silence of the mountain slopes. She turned to Akkarin.
“Can we stop?” she asked eagerly. “We can stop, can’t we? I haven’t had a real bath for weeks.”
Akkarin smiled. “I guess a short stop won’t hurt.”
She grinned at him, then sat on a nearby rock and pulled off her boots. As she stepped into the shallows of the pool, she let out a gasp.
“It’s freezing!”
She focused her mind and sent heat out into the water. Her ankles began to warm. Moving slowly, she waded deeper. She found that she could keep the water around her comfortably heated if she did not move too abruptly and stir up eddies of cold.
As her trousers soaked up the water, they grew heavier. She could see that the pool was much deeper at the middle. When the water was just past knee-deep, she stopped and sat down, immersing herself to the neck.
The rock floor was a little slimy, but she didn’t care. Leaning back, she slowly let her head fall beneath the surface. As she came up for air, she heard a sloshing nearby. She turned to see Akkarin wading into the water. He stared intently at the pool, then suddenly dived under the surface. A splash of icy cold water engulfed her, and she cursed.
She watched him glide under the water. When he surfaced, his long hair was plastered to his face. He flicked it back and turned to regard her.
“Come here.”
She could see his feet kicking beneath the water. The pool was deep. She shook her head.
“I can’t swim.”
He glided a little closer, then rolled onto his back. “My family used to spend every summer by the sea,” he told her. “We swam nearly every day.”
Sonea tried to picture him as a boy, swimming in the ocean, and failed. “I lived near the river a few times, but nobody swims in that.”
Akkarin chuckled. “Not willingly, anyway.”
He turned over again and swam toward the waterfall. As he reached it, his shoulders rose out of the water and he stood regarding the fall. He ran a hand through the curtain of water, then stepped through it.
A faint shadow of him was visible for a moment, then nothing. She waited for him to return. After several minutes she grew curious. What had he found behind there?
She stood up and made her way around the pool. It was little more than ankle deep at first, then grew steadily deeper as she neared the waterfall. By the time she had reached the beginning of the curtain, the pool was past waist deep, but she could feel that the rock slope angled upward under the fall.
She ran a hand through the falling water. It was heavy and cold. Bracing herself, she moved through the curtain and felt her knees meet rock.
A ledge had formed behind the fall, at about shoulder height. Akkarin was sitting in it, his back against the wall and his legs crossed. He smiled at Sonea.
“It’s quite private in here, if a bit cramped.”
“And noisy,” she added.
Hoisting herself up onto the ledge, she turned and put her back to the wall. The greens and blues of the outside world colored the curtain of water.
“It’s beautiful,” she said.
“Yes.”
She felt fingers curl around her hand and looked down.
“You’re cold,” he said.
He lifted her hand and covered it with both of his. His touch sent a warm shiver down her spine. She looked at him, noting that the stubble on his chin and jaw had grown into thick hair. He might not look too bad with a beard, she mused. And his clothes certainly leave less to the imagination when they’re wet.
He lifted one eyebrow.
“What are you looking at me like that for?”
She shrugged. “No reason.”
He laughed, then his gaze dropped from her own. She looked down, then felt her face warm as she realized that her own clothes were plastered against her body. She moved to cover herself, but felt his hands tighten about hers. Looking up, she saw the mischievous glint that had entered his gaze, and smiled.
He chuckled and drew her close.
All thoughts of time, the Ichani, and decently dry attire slipped out of her mind. More important matters demanded her attention: the heat of bare skin against skin, the sound of his breathing, pleasure flaring up like fire through her body, and then how comfortable it was, curled up together on the ledge.
Magic has its uses, she thought. A cold, cramped space can be made warm and cozy. Muscles tired from walking can be revived. To think I once would have given this away, out of hatred for magicians.
If I had I wouldn’t be with Akkarin now.
No, she thought as reality struck hard, I’d be a blissfully ignorant slum dweller, completely unaware that immensely powerful magicians were about to invade my home. Magicians who will make the Guild look humble and generous.