My legs and calves hurt from walking in the sand, as well as the lower part of my back. I’d have slowed but each time I looked up and saw Coffin ahead of me moving steadily forward, I pushed on. His three boys seemed to have lost their ability to banter about the time Kendra had fought with the youngest. All three were in awe of her—and didn’t want to offend and have her humiliate them.
Will dropped back and walked with me. Something was on his mind. He said, “It would sure be nice if we could look over the next hill and see if there is an army waiting for us. We could stumble right into them.”
“Hey, I like that idea. Let me know when you figure out how to do it.”
“You’re a mage . . .”
“I am just like you except I can take the small amount of water in the air and concentrate it into clear water to drink. I am not a mage, don’t fool yourself, just someone who can perform a few little tricks. It takes years of practice to do those other things.”
“Is there anything you can do to help?”
I took a couple of steps and said, “Ask Kendra. She can tell if a mage is near us. Other than that, we can have one person walk ahead.”
He accepted my rebuke and we continued. Sweat poured off me. It ran down my forehead, soaked my underarms, and made my shirt stick to my back. Between my legs chafed. The sun was not yet halfway into the sky. No wonder nobody lived in the Brownlands.
Kendra called a halt. She turned to me and said, “Everyone here knows you are not a full mage, but you can make water for us to drink, and I know you can make little rainstorms. Why are we suffering when you can change that? It’s not like we have to hide your abilities anymore.”
My thoughts were confused, sluggish. I hadn’t had much sleep, and her tone offended me. My anger flared, but I held it inside. Keeping my meager magical powers hidden from others had been a lifelong habit. The people around me had risked their lives with me.
More to the point, I hadn’t thought of making rain, despite having done it with Kendra only a day earlier. Magic of that sort is all too new to me, especially when tired, mentally and physically.
I said, “You’re right. We’ll talk as a group later, but Kendra is right. You’re my friends.” I extended my gaze to include Coffin and his boys. “Why suffer like this when there is help available.”
My mind had drawn water from under the surface of the ground before, but now it had to extend deeper to find moisture because of the dryness of the ground. I withdrew it while thinking there were deep-rooted plants that would hate me for stealing their future. Once free of the ground, I atomized the water into a fine mist that surrounded us in a damp cloud.
The fog prevented the direct, searing sun from reaching us, and the air felt cooler with the cool fog that was so dense it almost combined into raindrops. I fought to find a balance. We didn’t need rain when a fog would do, but controlling the elements was still new to me.
We could see outside the fog, so our travel was not impeded. At first, the bank of fog was too large and unwieldy to control as we moved. I pulled it back in size until it only encompassed the nine of us, with a few steps of extra on either side.
Almost instantly, smiles appeared. A few jokes were told, and people giggled or laughed. Shoulders no longer drooped, and when they got over the initial reactions, our pace increased to a full walk instead of a tired shuffle. I imagined what we must appear like to any who might be out in the desert and realized that for all intents, we were concealed. They would only see a gray smudge, like a small drifting fogbank, and probably wouldn’t notice inside it were people.
What a way to hide. It was a trick to remember. My stomach growled and while one portion of my mind kept the fog in place, another tried to find a way for magic to feed us. It didn’t happen.
Perhaps a more accomplished mage could make food appear. If we stood under an apple or nut tree, I felt certain I could shake a few branches and watch the bounty fall from the branches. I might, with practice, calm a skittish rabbit long enough for my arrow to strike. But I had no bow, and there were no rabbits.
A thought occurred to me. “Kendra, is your dragon guarding our rear?”
“I see no need for that,” she said. “Do you?”
“No, I was just wondering where it is.”
“South of Ander, along the seacoast, is a small range of mountains. She is there. Resting.”
We walked on. Her answer bothered me for a couple of reasons. “Is there a reason why she is there instead of closer to us?”
“I don’t know. She’s been a little standoffish, I guess you’d say.”
That was an odd answer and I’d pursue it later. Maybe the dragon didn’t like people since every time it flew around them, they were shooting arrows at it or trying to stab it with swords. But there was more, and I tried to gently prod an answer from my sister with an indirect question.
“How do you know about the mountains?”
Kendra kept walking. We all did, enveloped in our land-cloud of coolness. She finally said, after obviously thinking about it for a while, “I don’t know. I can’t talk to her. I just know where she is.”
We continued walking as a group. Nobody said anything. They probably sensed Kendra was trying to work out something she didn’t understand. Even Wiley had quit chiding Jess at every opportunity, something that had started up again during the walk.
Kendra said abruptly, “She has eaten a mountain-goat, flown out over the sea searching for food, and is napping on a ledge of rock where she can watch out over a valley with a river at the base. I have no idea of how I know all that, so don’t ask.”
Elizabeth shot me a look that ordered me to shut up before I said anything.
Trey, the quietest of the three sons, said, “Traveling with you five is fun. Always something new.”
Nobody laughed. The rest of the day passed uneventfully. In midafternoon, we saw a wagon roll past in the distance, and later a man on a horse. Neither indicated they saw us. Will thought the road between Dagger and Ander must be there just over a rise, generally going in the same direction as us. A few bushes now dotted the landscape, which had become low-rolling hills with rounded tops.
Before long, low junipers and cactus grew, and even a few stunted trees dotted the brown ground. We continued due east and because Dagger lay to the north of us, we would safely bypass it. When we reached the coast, we intended to turn south, but the presence of the road registered with me. We would reach it before we came to Ander.
Traveling along a road would be easier walking but the fog surrounding us would have to go. The reaction of anyone on the road would be fun to watch, but we were not here to entertain locals or create new myths. I’d grown so accustomed to providing the fog shroud that I’d almost forgotten about it. That made me smile. And the word shroud gave me another idea. The fog could be around only me and I’d be almost invisible, especially at night.
That idea deserved more thought, planning, and practice. If it worked, I’d be almost invisible and able to move past guards with ease. Again, the curse of not having formal training reared like a lion ready to take a bite of me.
As those thoughts crossed my mind, three men walked abreast on the road, all dressed like peasants in thick gray clothing. We were dressed much the same. I slowly removed the veil of mist until by the time we reached the road well behind the men, it was gone.
Walking on the road was not much different than on the hard-packed sand of the desert except there were fewer large stones to trip over. There were ruts left from wagon wheels and the last rainstorm. We split into two groups when suggested by Will. We’d continue as if we were not all walking together. Coffin and his sons went ahead. Large groups attract attention and curious people who noticed a group would talk.