Richard Tuttle - Sapphire of the Fairies

Although he hadn’t awakened her beforeslipping out, Niki was already packed and ready to go. “We need tohurry,” Fredrik simply said.

Niki needed no explanation and mountedone of the horses. Fredrik mounted the other horse and they headedout of town to the north. “How much of a lead do you suppose wehave?” Niki calmly inquired as she inspected her face in a smallround mirror that she had acquired in Trekum and greatlytreasured.

“The boy won’t be too eager toadmit he was so stupid,” Fredrik commented dryly. “Still, we willhave an hour at the most, much less if the owners of the horsesdecide to leave. If we hear anything coming, we’ll cut into thewoods and watch them pass. We can determine if they’re looking forus before we need to take a different path to get toCidal.”

Fredrik looked admiringly at the darkgreen leather outfit that Niki wore today. Unlike the dress shewore last night, the leathers fit her exceedingly well. Of course,they should fit well considering the price he paid in Trekum.Fredrik had enjoyed life in Trekum, gambling with groups of guardsand mercenaries who had too much pay to know what to do with. Theyhad always considered Fredrik to have too much luck, but theyenjoyed his company and they always liked it when he brought Nikialong. Fredrik enjoyed the lifestyle of the old capital city, evenif there were occasional times when someone got an overheatedtemper during a game. It had been one of those occasions that hadforced them to leave Trekum. The guard had accused Fredrik ofcheating again and Fredrik had laughed at him as he always did. Theguard drew a dagger and was threatening Fredrik. All of this hadhappened before and Fredrik always dealt with it using words, butNiki had been along at that game and she did not realize that thethreat was just the guard’s frustration at losing. She reactedinstinctively and forced the guard’s dagger into his own stomach.The rest of the guards had leaped to their feet in anger and magicwas the only way that Fredrik and Niki could survive long enough toget out of the city.

Then there was the incident in Caldar.Niki again had used magic to attack guards that she thought weregetting overly friendly. Niki always seemed to resort to magicbefore trying any other way of handling things. It was a habit thatFredrik had to break her of if they were going tosurvive.

Fredrik’s thoughts were disrupted bythe sounds of galloping horses coming from behind. “No illusions,”Fredrik warned as he and Niki turned quickly into the woods. Theyhad no sooner secured cover, when a dozen Dark Riders appearedaround a bend in the road and went thundering past. The pair satsilently for several long minutes listening as the sound of thegalloping horses faded away.

“They certainly weren’t aftera horse thief,” Niki whispered.

“No, they weren’t,” agreedFredrik. “I’m glad I mentioned no illusions. Niki, I’ve beenthinking about the dangers of using magic too quickly. It is surelygoing to get us killed. I think this incident helps to illustratehow easily we could slip up. We were expecting someone after usbecause of the horses, so we had time to hide, but we cannot alwaysexpect to be lucky. We have to start being morecareful.”

“Careful?” snorted Niki. “Doyou mean like being careful when the guard in Trekum was going togut you? Magic is a skill just like wielding a sword. It is onlybeing smart to use it when you are endangered.”

“But sometimes using it canendanger you,” Fredrik insisted. “I only ask that you think of someother way before you resort to magic. Detection can meandeath.”

Niki sniffed and turned her horsetowards the road. Fredrik clenched his fists and gritted his teeth,but he followed her and soon the pair were back on their way toCidal. They rode on in silence for several hours, encountering noother traffic on the road. Eventually, they decided to stop earlyfor the night and worked their way down to the coast where theyfound a quiet clearing close to beach. Niki jumped off her horseand announced that she was going for a swim. Fredrik quicklygrabbed the reins of her horse and sighed.

Fredrik went about taking care of thehorses and setting up the campsite before he decided to check outthe beach. Niki was frolicking naked in the surf, but what caughtFredrik’s attention was the beautiful, wide beach. There was apoint sticking out directly to his right, but on his left was asweeping wide, white sand and shell strip stretching northward formiles. The lines of shells stretching along the beach culminated ina large mound of shells near the point. The beach in Trekum wasmuch narrower and people walking on them constantly crushed anyshells there.

Fredrik walked down to the point andsaw another long, uninhabited stretch of beach with palm treesleaning over it as if trying to reach the sea. He started pokingthe piles of shells and marveled at all the different types. For along time all of his problems were nonexistent as he examined shellafter shell, until Niki's screams rang through the air.

Fredrik jumped to his feet and lookedaround the shell pile. Niki was standing waist deep in the waterand using magic to deflect a rain of arrows heading towards her.Across the white strand of beach near the tree line were four menwith bows sending arrows at Niki as fast as they could load. Nikiwas too busy deflecting arrows to cast any other spell at the men.Fredrik stood tall with his hands outstretched and felt the powerbegin to well up. The power filling him had an intoxicating effectand he had to focus his mind back on the men. He had already soakedin enough power to obliterate them several times over. Withoutfurther thought, he flicked his wrists and the sky crackled openand a huge streak of lightning arced down and struck in the middleof the four men.

Niki stopped screaming and came out ofthe water and Fredrik ran to her. Together they stared at themassive crater that marked the spot where the men had stood. Therewas nothing left of the men. Where they had stood was a glowingdepression with walls of heated glass. The palm trees on eitherside of the hole were scorched black and the fronds were burningbrightly and dropping to the ground. Several coconuts hissed andburst apart, throwing chunks of coconut meat flying.

“Get dressed,” Fredrikordered. “We need to get out of here now! The force I used was toomuch by far and it could probably be felt for miles around. I don’twant to be anywhere near here when someone decides toinvestigate.”

Niki got dressed while Fredrik swept upthe campsite and hastily packed it away. When Niki mounted, Fredrikhanded her the reins for two of the horses the men had ridden. Hetook the other two and they headed north by way of a trail throughthe woods.

After they had ridden for a while, Nikibroke the silence. “You killed them, Fredrik. You didn’t try tostun them or freeze them; you just killed them. I didn’t know youhad such power.”

“I didn’t know, either,”admitted Fredrik. “I’ve never used magic that powerful before. Ionly planned to stun them, but I couldn’t stop drawing power. I wasso angry that I just grabbed for the power and it . . . it feltgood. Sort of like warmth flowing into your body on a cold winternight. I had to work at it to stop drawing the power and startusing it. I was more surprised than you with whathappened.”

They were quiet for a while with onlythe sounds of lapping waves off to their right and the birdsflitting around overhead, chirping and cawing. “I didn’t mean tokill them,” Fredrik continued, “but I couldn’t let them hurt you.“Besides, there is no undoing it now. I do think that we need topractice our magic more, though, and we cannot do that in a city.Without practice we will not have the proper control we need tomeasure our responses to threats. I think we have probably gone farenough away from the crater to safely camp for thenight.”