The Adventures of Benjamin Skyhammer Read Free

felt fuzzy. If she actually had to remind him to record the drawings, he must really be out of it. He watched each panel for at least a minute, then opened his Whorl to double-check they had been recorded.
    She was withdrawing her magic slate as he closed his Whorl. Her fingers danced over the blood-glass and her lips puckered, then she blew over the sketch to ignite the spells. Skyhammer's backpack rose into the air. He held out his arms so that its straps could slip over them with his eyes glued to Higgins' slate all the while. It fit snugly in her palm and was about the same shape and thickness. He imagined the soft, warm edges of a slate in his hand and pursed his lips-
    "Let's go!" Before returning it to the leather pouch on her hip, Higgins blew one more time over the slate, returning the pink chair to its original wooden form.
    They left his office and entered the dark corridor that connected all the offices on the ground floor. The brick building had no other tenants yet the owner charged Skyhammer an exorbitant rent. Another bonus for not having magic. Money wasn't an issue for him though; he was a very successful Relic hunter and, when his Relics were actually paid for and not stolen, he made a lot of money.
    "We'll fly back to the harbour." A rolled-up blue and green carpet, about seven feet long, hovered outside Skyhammer's door. After they passed the carpet, it began to float down the hall behind Higgins. "Then we can sail up the coast a bit, relaxing until the ceremony happens in two months. That way we can be here when the King moves the Royal Circle to the Kingmaker Tower and simply fly there with it."
    "No." Skyhammer stopped with his fingers around the handle of the door to the street. He turned to face her. "We have to get the mesh glove."
    An astonished look crossed Higgins' face. "Haven't you been listening to me? The ceremony will give you magic. You don't need the glove anymore. If we go all the way out to the Uncharted Territories we may not get back in time for the ceremony. And the King has decreed that everyone should be in the Royal Circle for the ceremony."
    He rolled his eyes. "We'll be back in time. We know exactly where to go."
    "You do," she grumbled. "You won't even tell me how you got the glove's location from that Aridizan Relic protector."
    Skyhammer said nothing. That Aridizan had seen the mesh glove. The Relic was located over a ravine that required two people to get across. The Aridizan had been stuck in town recovering from the loss of her partner to the ravine. When he entered her roon, she was alive. When he left, she was dead. He had promised the Aridizan never to reveal what was said between them. Guilt pricked him for hiding from Higgins what he had done. He hardened his heart. No matter the cost, that glove and the magic powers it bestowed were destined to be his.
    "Once I explain the ceremony to you, you'll realize we don't need to go. Open your Whorl now and I'll show you!" Higgins began circling her arm.
    Skyhammer caught her wrist, then dropped it. "Higgins. I believe you." A note of desperation tinged his voice. "I do. You believe this ceremony will give me magic. But I can't just wait and see." He looked into her eyes, searching. Would she understand? "You know what my life has been like." He took a deep breath. "Meeting Spark, then having her disappear without a word. Getting chosen as Keeper of the Retrograph when it was the last thing in the world I would have expected or wanted." He felt a tide of words rushing up his throat. Words he'd never said to his best friend. He guessed she probably knew how he felt but they'd never talked about it. "That was it, the Keeper thing. I couldn't live there next to the Retrograph Vault, alone in the middle of the forest. For the rest of my life? I want magic powers. That's all I've ever wanted."
    Higgins remained silent, her gaze fixed on his face.
    "I feel like everything has been snatched from my grasp, you know? Like I've always