SpringFire Read Free Page B

feeling of urgency must have penetrated her lethargy, because she began to rise. Once she was on her feet, I kept a hand on her leg. Her head drooped pathetically, and I feared she wouldn’t make it. We’d awakened around midday, but the sun had long fallen from noon, and the temperature had already begun to drop. She must get inside.
    She halted and began to sag to the ground again. “No! Xyla, no. Just a little farther. You must keep going.”
    Grey and Traz came out, and as if they understood the need for skin-to-skin contact, they each took a spot by another of her giant legs. She took a step, then another. A pause, then another.
    Finally, after what seemed an eternity, she entered the cave and sank back to the ground. The tip of her tail was still outside, but we dragged it in and hoped it would be far enough.
    I felt overcome with weakness and wondered whether Xyla really had used whatever strength I’d been able to lend her to make that short journey. Then I laughed at myself. Whether she had or not didn’t really matter. The simple fact was that I was hungry. How long had it been since I’d last eaten? Hours? Days? Years? Centuries?
    I sat next to the fire, unable to get to my feet, even though I knew I should. Watching me, Grey scowled. He looked as tired as I felt, but he suddenly dashed outside. I just watched him go. He stalked all around the clearing in front of the cave, looking for something.
    Then he let out a disgusted curse and came back inside. “My bow! It’s gone!”
    “What—” I started, but he interrupted.
    “I remember now, I dropped it when I leapt onto Xyla’s back. At the meadow,” he sighed. “Supper might be small tonight.”
    “Wait!” Traz said with a note of triumph in his voice. He rummaged around in his pack. “Ha! Got it!” He drew something out from the very bottom and brandished it in the firelight. “My slingshot. Guess supper’s on me tonight, O great hunter.”
    Grey looked at him with eyes narrowed. “Fine,” he said with the barest hint of a smile. “Go ahead. I don’t mind.”

    After Traz had gone, I found a little dried fruit in my pack and shared it with Grey as we stared into the fire.
    Then Grey spoke first.
    “I’ve been thinking about what you told me, about maejic.” The night after Xyla’s babies were born, I’d explained it to him, how the group I was with were mages—people who had the ancient gift of maejic, a power stronger and older than magic—and that King Erno had set out to destroy the community in an effort to wipe maejic out. I’d told Grey that I had this power, and that when he’d rescued me, I’d been trapped and left to die by Anazian, a mage who had turned against the others.
    He’d listened without saying a word, and I’d been so afraid that he would pack up his things and leave. After all, King Erno had made maejic a capital crime. But once I’d finished and he’d had time to absorb it all, all he said was, “So you can hear and speak to Chase?”
    “Yes. Well, not during that time at your cabin. Anazian had put a spell on me so that I couldn’t use my maejic.” I winced a little at the memory of those long days when I’d been bereft of my gift and thought I’d lost it forever. “But the spell was eventually broken.” I hadn’t told him that Yallick and Oleeda tried to break it and couldn’t, and that in the end, I’d somehow—I didn’t know how—reached deep within my soul to break it myself. That was still too confusing for me to make any sense out of it.
    Now Grey went on. “Well, remember what I told you back when we first met, that my parents abandoned me because something was wrong with me?” I nodded. He took a deep breath. “Well, I’m maejic, too.”
    A stab of excitement made me sit up even straighter, almost made me leap to my feet. “You’re joking! Why haven’t you said so before?” I stood up and started pacing back and forth in agitation. “But then, that explains so many things.