“Hmmm,” Odette said.
Quinn glanced at Angelique. “If we are going to do some investigating in cities and towns, it seems that now would be the ideal time to practice the drills Master Puss entrusted to me as long as we are so far from civilization.”
Angelique grimaced. “Yeah, you’re probably right—that means we won’t be able to travel at anything faster than a walk or trot, though.”
She glanced down at Pegasus, who tucked his muzzle into his chest, making the muscles of his neck bulge as a shooting star raced across his shoulder. He pranced a few steps—eliciting a mewl of distress from Odette—then settled back into a fast walk that melted snow as he charged through drifts.
“If a slower pace is necessary, so be it.” Quinn untied a small pouch from her belt. “Master Puss was emphatic that you need to practice daily. I think he’d be quite impressed with how far you’ve come.” She opened the pouch and tossed the contents into the air.
“Maybe, but he’d never tell me that.” Using her magic, Angelique snatched the contents—the push pins she’d used so much that some of them had lost the gobs of wax that marked them off in different shades of white, gray, and black—midair.
Her sharp magic flowed through her so easily now, it was almost second nature as she set about the first few movements in Puss’s detailed practices.
She made a sphere with the pins and set it rotating, then shifted them into a picture of Puss, then tossed them high in the sky and cut off her magic. The pins tumbled back toward the ground, and when they were a mere hand’s width above the snow, Angelique scooped them up with her magic, raising them back into the sky.
“Your response time is much faster,” Quinn noted.
“My magic seems more stable these days,” Angelique said.
Odette snorted. “I’ve been around Odile during enough of her lessons to know that’s not possible—you’ve just gotten steadier at handling it.”
Angelique shot the pins out in a multitude of directions, then halted their process before dragging them back into a tight—and sharp—metallic ball. “I suppose that’s true. I was relatively skilled at handling my magic when I was younger. It wasn’t until I understood the magnitude of what I could do that it started to become unsteady.”
Quinn frowned, the setting of her mouth steely as a flash of anger brightened her eyes. “I’m certain your instructors consistently accusing you of being dangerous didn’t help.”
Angelique looked away from the pins so she could peer at Quinn with surprise. “How do you know about that?”
“Puss.”
Angelique growled. “For all of his charms, he has such a big mouth on him.”
“Are you going to practice that lightning strike attack of yours?” Odette switched which arm she twined around Angelique’s waist.
“You mean where I flood the area with all the powers I can muster for an instant?” Angelique asked.
“Yes! I like that one,” Odette’s voice was loaded with unbridled glee. “I can’t wait to see you use it on a Chosen mage.”
“This would be an ideal time to practice it,” Quinn noted. “The closer we travel to a city, the more likely it is that your magic would be felt.”
“Very well,” Angelique agreed. “I need to perfect that skill, too.”
“What would you use it for?” Quinn asked.
Angelique clenched her jaw so tightly her teeth ached. “To stop the next high-leveled Chosen Mage I can find and make them tell me where Evariste is.”
“Would have been dead useful against the likes of Carabosso or Sorceress Suzu,” Odette agreed.
“Yes,” Angelique said, unable to keep all of the irritation out of her voice—the Veneno Conclave’s incompetence in holding Carabosso was still a sore spot.
“Very well, then shall you perform the move, let’s say…five times?” Quinn suggested.
“Certainly,” Angelique said.
“Ah—however!” Quinn stuck a finger up in the air. “This time, I think with each successive strike, you should expand the area your magic fills.”
Angelique shifted on Pegasus’ back, but settled when she felt the muscles of his back flex. “That will make it more difficult.”
“Isn’t that what you need?”
“Yes.” Angelique said. “I just hope my control is up to it.”
“You’ll do fine,” Quinn assured her. “But isn’t that another reason for practicing now, away from townsfolk?”
“Yes. And I still need to practice using greater amounts of my magic—particularly since I assume I’ll be facing down Chosen goblin armies sooner or later, and I’d prefer not to fall into a retching mess every time I do it.” Angelique sighed, then pushed her shoulders back and sat up straight.
Pegasus tensed beneath her, but he kept walking—picking his way down the last stretch of mountain slope before ambling up one of the foothills at the base of the mountain.
Fluffy followed behind them, quiet but solid, and a few winter birds chirped from their nests in evergreens.
Angelique exhaled, then tossed the pins into the air. She cut off contact with her core magic for a few long seconds as the pins started to fall down, then pulled hard on her magic.
As eager as always, her core magic flooded her senses, and Angelique could feel each pin now suspended in the air, the daggers that hung from Odette’s thigh bandolier and Quinn’s sword and her crossbow bolts that were meticulously organized in her belt pouch.
Her magic flooded the gully between the mountain slope and the foothill, and Angelique could feel a few icicles that had jagged tips and sharpened shards of rock buried beneath the snow.
Angelique held on to the sensation just long enough to stabilize her magic and create firm boundaries, then abruptly cut her magic off again.
Cutting ties with her magic created a sort of suction-like sensation that pulled on Angelique’s belly, but she held off for two breaths before she again flooded the area with her magic.
As Quinn suggested, she expanded her boundaries—her magic rushing from her like rapids in a river as she twitched it into position.
Odette’s daggers, Quinn’s sword and arrows, the pins, ice, rock, a buckle with a pointed prong that must have fallen off something years ago since it feels like it’s under dirt…
As her magic swept farther, it lingered over anything sharp, adding a glimmer of knowledge to Angelique’s consciousness.
Angelique held on to her magic just long enough to toss the pins high into the air, and then cut off contact with her magic. She performed this exercise again and again, and by the fifth time she, had found a rhythm and easily expanded the reach of her magic.
She hadn’t realized just how far or fast her magic was traveling until she felt a prickle in her mind that marked the sharpened hook of Dodge’s fishing pole, the morning star—a metal, club-like weapon topped with sharp metal spikes designed for puncture attacks—he had hidden in the bench of his boat, and the three throwing axes secured in the cracks between the rocks his boat was perched upon.
Angelique struggled, briefly, to stop her magic’s unrelenting progress and get it back under control.