(Blue Fire 05) Heartless [A] Read online

  “Follow me, please,” she said to Rave as she began walking toward the edge of the clearing.

  The light remained sharp and clear as she entered the trees, easily providing enough visibility for her to thread her way through the trunks and overhanging branches, and even to avoid the tangled roots which sometimes poked through the packed dirt.

  She could not hear anything but her own soft footsteps, so she twisted her head around to make sure Rave was behind her. He followed close on her heels, moving as silently as ever, a proud smile on his face. For ten minutes they walked through the night-shrouded woods, and her light never blinked or wavered. This was the primary purpose of the illumination spell—to provide light in dark places. Dominic had told her that when mastered, it could also be used to temporarily blind a surprised enemy, especially if that enemy was a creature of the dark. Her initial attempt at the spell tonight had certainly been proof of that.

  Finally, Leesa stopped in another small clearing and let her light slowly fade out. She could not help smiling—she had never felt such total control over one of her spells before. Once her eyes readjusted to the darkness, the moon provided enough illumination for her to see the ground in the clearing and even a short distance into the trees.

  Eager to try something else, she looked around for an object to move with her thoughts. Just outside the edge of the clearing she spotted a fallen log. Its branches had been stripped or rotted away, leaving a fairly smooth cylindrical piece of wood almost five feet long and a foot thick. Using the image of the rolling log she had distracted Josef with, she focused on this new log and pictured it rolling toward them. As if pulled by an invisible rope, the log thumped across the ground into the clearing.

  Leesa was pleased but not yet satisfied. Rolling a log was nothing new for her—she wanted to try something she had never done before. First, though, she needed an image to visualize. She turned to Rave.

  “Can you pick that up and toss it across the clearing?” she asked.

  Rave looked at her with his eyebrows raised, but he bent and picked up the heavy log. He easily threw it to the other side of the clearing.

  Leesa kissed him lightly on the cheek in thanks. “Thank you.”

  Rave grinned. “If I get a reward like that for a simple toss, what do I get if hurl that thing over the tops of the trees?”

  Leesa smiled back. “I wish,” she said. “One day, though…” her voice trailed off as she imagined herself giving him a proper reward, something along the lines of what she had done in Azure.

  She took a minute to pull herself back to reality before turning her attention to the log once more. Using the image supplied by Rave’s toss, she silently commanded the log to move through the air. It rose slowly to a height of two or three feet, and then floated a couple of feet to the left before crashing back to the ground.

  Leesa smiled again. It was not nearly as impressive as Rave’s throw, but it was the first time she had purposely moved something so large and heavy through the air. Hurling Edwina away from Cali last year did not count—she hadn’t actually known what she was doing at the time and the strength of her magic had been fueled by anger and hate.

  There was no doubt about it now. Her magic was stronger than ever. All her hours of practice with little to show for it due to her weakened magic were paying off. As she had hoped, her “ankle weights” were gone and she was ready to race!

  “Someone looks awfully pleased with herself,” Rave said.

  Leesa could not deny she was feeling pretty darn good right now—but she also heard Dominic’s voice echoing in her head, cautioning her about the difference between confidence and overconfidence, and about treating both her successes and failures in an even manner. Allow yourself to get too high or too low, he had warned, and your magic suffers.

  “I am,” she admitted, “but I also know I have a long way to go.” Bending down, she picked up a twig from the ground and handed it to Rave. “I’m pretty sure this will prove it.”

  Rave looked down at the ten inch long piece of broken branch. He had done this before with Leesa, so he knew what was expected of him. He waited with the stick hanging at his side while Leesa readied herself.

  “Give me about half a minute,” she said, “and then poke away.”

  Leesa closed her eyes for a few seconds, breathing deeply and getting ready. This was the spell that had always given her the most trouble—she had never come close to accomplishing it.

  Opening her eyes, she focused on the air in front of her. “Bonduur,” she said determinedly as she tried to picture the air turning into a thick pane of invisible, unbreakable glass. The difficulties with this spell were twofold: first, the visualization was an extremely difficult one, and second, there was no way to see if it was working—hence the stick in Rave’s hand.

  After half a minute, Rave lifted the twig and pushed it toward Leesa’s left shoulder. She felt it poke her through her shirt. Not unexpectedly, the spell had failed.

  “Nothing like the old air shield spell to bring me back to earth,” she said.

  Rave playfully poked Leesa’s other shoulder with his stick. “For what it’s worth, there was more resistance this time than ever before.”

  Leesa smiled. “Thanks. I guess that’s progress, at least. Still, if my shield can’t stop a twig, it definitely won’t stop a weapon or magic from getting to me.”

  “Not yet, maybe,” Rave said, “but some day.”

  “I hope so.” Leesa shrugged off her disappointment; she hadn’t really expected to succeed with that one anyhow. “I’ve got a new spell to show you—one I started learning while you were gone. I can’t wait to see how it works now that my power is restored.”

  She looked around for a suitable non-combustible object to make the target of an energy beam, but out here in the woods, everything seemed to be flammable. She supposed she could clear a small area of ground and direct her beam at that—bare dirt seemed to be the only thing around that wouldn’t burn—but then her gaze alighted upon the log she had just moved and a new thought struck her. As long as she was careful, there really wasn’t any reason she couldn’t use the log as her target. She was anxious to see what her magic beam could do.

  “Help me clear an area big enough for that log,” she said.

  They used their feet to brush away twigs and dead leaves from the center of the clearing. A few straggly weeds still poked up from the dirt, so they pulled them out by the roots. When they were done, Rave bent to pick up the log, but Leesa stopped him.

  “Allow me,” she said, using her telekinesis to roll the log into the middle of the newly cleared area.

  She moved over until she was standing above the log. The longest energy beam she had created so far had only been about six inches or so, but with her magic back to normal strength, she decided to try doubling that. She squatted beside the log.

  Rave watched with interest as Leesa pointed her palm toward the log. He could see the concentration etched on her face as she readied herself to perform the spell.

  “Magnus irrundi,” she said as she focused on sending heat and light out from her hand.

  A bright yellow beam shot from her palm, striking the middle of the log. In just a few seconds, the wood began to char and a thin column of smoke rose into the air. Leesa kept her attention focused on the beam until she had burned a shallow circle into the log, and then she let the beam disappear and stood up.

  Rave stared down at the smoldering hole in the log. “Very impressive,” he said. “Just like the beam Dominic used against Josef.”

  “Ha! Not hardly. But it’s a start, for sure. And way better than anything I could manage until today.”

  “So, what’s next, Maestro?” Rave asked. “It’s getting pretty late.”

  Flushed with success and fueled by the excitement of having her magic back to normal, Leesa was not tired at all. The last thing she wanted to do was return home.

  “As long as we’re out here in the middle of nowhere, I may as
well get in some more practice before we head back. You don’t mind, do you?”

  Rave shook his head. “Of course not.”

  “Thank you.”

  Leesa looked down at the log and prepared to burn another circle into the wood.

  18. WATER INTO A HOLE

  Earlier that same day, BSI agents Smith, Jones and Rome were enjoying a hot breakfast of eggs, sausage and pancakes in an old mom-and-pop eatery across the street from their downtown Middletown motel. The men sat on one side of the worn blue vinyl booth with Rome across from them. The food was surprisingly decent and the coffee was very good. In the middle of lifting a forkful of sausage to her mouth, Rome suddenly froze.

  Both men immediately stopped eating and looked at her sharply.

  “What is it?” Smith asked.

  Rome lowered her fork to her plate. Her eyes narrowed as she slowly moved her head from side to side. Her eyes were only partially focused—she did not really seem to be looking at anything.

  “Something has shifted,” she said after moment. She held up her hand, forestalling any further questions from her companions.

  Smith and Jones watched her silently. Concentration turned her already severe features into a sharp mask as an even more faraway look filled her eyes. The two men waited patiently, accustomed to her peculiarities. Finally, her eyes returned to their normal state.

  “The low-level magic I’ve been sensing everywhere since we arrived here is gone,” she told them. “It’s as if it just suddenly melted away.” Her eyes narrowed again. “No, ‘melted’ is the wrong word. It’s more like the magic receded, like waves flowing back off of a beach or water draining into a hole. Wherever it went, it’s gone now.”

  The men waited for her to say more. When she did not, Jones spoke.

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  Rome speared another piece of sausage with her fork and raised it toward her lips.

  “First, I want to finish breakfast,” she said, flashing what for her passed as a smile but in reality was little more than a slight curvature of her lips. She pushed the sausage into her mouth and began to chew. After she swallowed, she washed it down with gulp of orange juice. “Then I want to return to the spot that seemed to be the center of the affected area and see if there is anything to be learned there.”

  Smith took a drink of coffee. “We are not to get involved with anything that has to do with the whole Moodus Noises thing,” he reminded her.

  “I know. I don’t want to ‘get involved.’ I just want to see if I can learn anything. Who knows, such knowledge could be useful sometime in the future. It would be foolish to waste this opportunity.”

  “Agreed,” Jones said.

  “After that, we can come back and begin exploring the campus again. Perhaps I’ll find traces of magic I missed the first time because they were masked by this other magic.”

  Less than an hour later, the three agents sat in their SUV on the shoulder of the highway not too far from the rutted road to the volkaane settlement. They had parked here once before, during a storm. As usual, Smith and Jones sat up front, with Smith behind the wheel today. Rome had the back seat to herself. They had been stopped here for more than five minutes. Not one word had been spoken since Smith had turned off the engine. Rome was concentrating hard; the men were simply waiting while she did her thing.

  “I’m getting out,” she said finally. “You two wait here.”

  “No problem,” Jones said.

  Rome got out of the car and walked a short distance down the road. The day was sunny and cool, with a bright blue sky flecked with high cirrus clouds. She noticed none of it—she was focusing on things only she could see and feel. She spun around in a slow circle, studying every direction. After a few minutes, she moved a few steps off the road and into the woods, walking parallel to the highway and halting at uneven intervals until she was some distance in front of the car. Crossing the road, she repeated the pattern in the opposite direction. The better part of an hour passed before she returned to the vehicle and climbed back in.

  Smith and Jones twisted around and looked at her expectantly.

  “The water draining into a hole analogy I used earlier seems apt,” she told them. “There is no trace of the magic left anywhere on the surface. There is magic beneath us, though. The deeper I probe, the stronger it becomes, as if it has gathered in some underground reservoir far below the earth. I get the feeling that I’m sensing only a fraction of it—this power is immense, far stronger than anything I’ve ever encountered.”

  The look on Rome’s face only emphasized the respect she felt for the danger beneath them.

  “That’s why everyone in the Bureau is told to leave this place and its magic alone,” Smith said.

  “Let’s get out of here,” Jones said. “If any trail leads us back in this direction, we’ll ignore it.”

  Rome nodded. “Yes, I think that would be for the best.”

  Smith started up the engine and swung the SUV out onto the road, making a quick U-turn. In a moment, they were heading back toward Middletown to continue their investigation.

  19. MEETING

  Saturday morning, Leesa was roused from sleep when “Ease on Down the Road” erupted from her cell phone. She had chosen the song from The Wiz as her ringtone for Dominic, so there was no way she was going to ignore the call, no matter how sleepy she might feel. She opened her eyes and saw Rave smiling at her. Her own smile blossomed automatically at the sight of his handsome face, but it still took her a moment to realize she was not back in her dorm room. Instead, she was stretched out on Rave’s sleeping mat, in the home he shared with his friends Dral and Bain and three other volkaanes.

  She remembered how exhaustion had suddenly overcome her the night before when she was practicing her magic, so she and Rave had decided it would be easier for Rave to carry her back here rather than to the edge of campus where she would have had to walk the rest of the way home. Besides, it was safer here in the volkaane settlement than in her dorm anyway, and since it was Saturday night, there was no reason she needed to be home. She just hoped Cali hadn’t come looking for her and gotten worried when she found Leesa missing. Leesa decided she had better call Cali as soon as she got off the phone with Dominic.

  Her cell was on the floor beside the mat, on the opposite side from Rave where it would be safe from his magical energy. Rave gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and then eased away from her so they would not be touching when she picked up the phone. As soon as she knew it was okay, she rolled over and grabbed the phone.

  “Hi, Dominic.” With her vocal chords not yet fully awake, her voice came out broken and scratchy.

  “Did I wake you?” Dominic asked with a touch of concern in his voice. “Are you all right? It’s almost ten o’clock.”

  Leesa drew herself up into a sitting position, amazed it was that late. She must really have been tired.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. I had a late night with Rave yesterday, practicing my magic.”

  “Obviously, you know our magic has returned to normal strength, then. That is why I’m calling. I need you to call Jenna and have her meet us.”

  “Jenna?” Leesa asked, still not certain how she felt about the witch.

  “Yes. There is something I need do, the sooner the better, and I need Jenna’s help with it. I know you probably still have mixed feelings about her, but I think it’s time you two had a brief chat, at least.”

  Leesa knew she was probably going to have to get comfortable with Jenna at some point—and now Dominic’s request was giving her a reason to try.

  “Okay. Should we meet back at school? At my dorm? Or the library?”

  “No, I have a better place. It will be safer, and it’s closer to where we must go.”

  “Okay. Where?”

  “Along Route 66, half a mile west of where we buried the black waziri.”

  The choice surprised Leesa. She guessed that Dominic wanted Jenna’s help in permanently getting rid
of whatever remained of the black wizards.

  “Rent a car,” Dominic continued, “so you can drive there.”

  “I’m with Rave right now,” Leesa said. “I can have him carry me.”

  “No, I want a car, so we can all leave quickly once we are done.”

  Leesa knew that leaving quickly meant there would be danger involved in whatever Dominic was going to do.

  “I’ll have Rave meet us there, then. Is that okay?”

  “Of course. I do not foresee any real need for him, but it never hurts to have a volkaane around, just in case.”

  “What time should we meet?”

  There was silence on the line for a moment as Dominic considered Leesa’s question.

  “I will be there at four this afternoon,” he said, “to check things out. As long as everyone arrives at least half an hour before sunset, we should be okay.”

  “All right. I’ll call Jenna right away. If I have any trouble reaching her, or if she can’t make it for some reason, I’ll call you back. If not, I’ll see you around four.”

  Leesa switched off her phone and turned to Rave.

  “You heard all that, of course?” She loved how Rave’s keen hearing usually made it unnecessary for her to repeat any of her phone conversations.

  “Yes.”

  “You’ll meet us there, then?”

  Rave smiled. “Just try to keep me away.”

  Leesa took his hand and pressed it against her cheek. She sighed as his magical warmth flowed into her.

  “I love you,” she said softly.

  Rave’s smile widened. He sent an extra bit of his heat through his hand into Leesa’s cheek.

  “I love you, too.”

  Five hours later, Leesa drove her rented Ford west on Route 66. The day had turned into a beautiful one. The afternoon was sunny and clear, with temperatures having climbed into the low 60’s. March was definitely doing that lamb thing, she thought.

  Her phone chat with Jenna had been quick and to the point. Jenna had been quite agreeable and had said she could easily make the meeting by four o’clock. She had ended the conversation by saying she was looking forward to seeing Leesa again. Leesa could tell from the eagerness in Jenna’s voice that the witch was hoping she and Leesa could make things right between them. Leesa found herself inclined to let bygones be bygones—there were certainly more important things at stake than holding a grudge.