Out of the Ashes by Buck Alicia

Author:Buck, Alicia [Buck, Alicia]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: 2015-09-08T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

OCTOBER 5, 1750

The cold clung to her the next day even as sweat beaded her brow from the effort of climbing with a fifty-pound pack and maintaining the spell to levitate Molly’s bag beside her. Mid-morning, Ash decided to check Jane and Sorcerer Tioroso’s position, hoping they had stopped their upward progress. She halted in surprise. Molly’s bag dropped to the edge of the path on the brink of tipping over and rolling down the mountain. Brett, who was not far behind, jogged forward to drag the bag more firmly away from the edge. Molly soon drew even, her panting breath making a visible white cloud in the chill morning air.

“What’s wrong?” Brett asked.

Ash didn’t hear. She snapped the spell to check on Jane and Sorcerer Tioroso again. “I don’t understand,” she said to herself.

“What don’t you understand?” Molly’s breathy annoyed tone recalled Ash to her surroundings. She focused her eyes distractedly on Brett and Molly beside her. Molly’s freckles stood out from the heat of her face like brown speckles on a crimson egg. Brett shivered, his brown eyes opened wide in question. Ash turned, looking up the trail to see how far behind they were from everyone else.

“I need to talk to Prince Phillip. Mr. Johnson, would you try to catch up to him and tell him … tell him … just say I need to speak with him.” Brett nodded and moved ahead while Ash clicked the spell to lift Molly’s bag. “Let’s go,” she said to Molly.

Molly glared but seemed too tired to argue. Instead, she turned back to the steep incline with weary resignation. Ash sighed and followed. She tried to stay behind, but was too anxious, and soon passed Molly.

Ash maneuvered over a rocky rise and a turn in the path before she saw Prince Phillip and Brett resting on a rock, waiting. The prince sat straight, despite the heavy weight on his shoulders. One leg was propped on the stone, with his arm draped gracefully at rest on his knee. The pose emphasized the curve of his biceps and the sculpted line of his torso and leg. It was beautiful. Ash’s breath caught for a moment before she forced herself to exhale, to meet his eyes.

“Jane isn’t on the mountain anymore,” Ash said as soon as she was close enough to be heard.

Molly’s monotonous crunch-crunch of steps behind Ash halted.

Prince Phillip stood, a marble statue come to life. “That isn’t possible,” he said.

“I haven’t even told you the impossible part yet.” Ash pointed to a large group of thick dark clouds that the traveling party would soon come even with. “They’re over there where those clouds are.”

“Are you telling me Jane and Sorcerer Tioroso are in the middle of the sky?” Prince Phillip’s copper brows rose, his emerald eyes searched hers in delicate disbelief.

It was the first time he’d ever shown doubt about her abilities, and it pinched a knot in her stomach. “Yes, and they keep moving away from the mountain above the wasteland we just came from.

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