Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman

Author:Laura Anne Gilman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saga Press
Published: 2015-10-06T00:00:00+00:00

Izzy could barely breathe, feeling the air around the small fire thicken as Gabriel goaded the magician, pushing with his words, saying things he had no place to be saying.

So, why was he saying them? The boss’s voice asked the question in her head, forcing her to stop reacting, start thinking. Why was he doing this? Gabriel Kasun was a solid man, a thinking man who counted the cards and considered his bets. He had offered to mentor her on a whim, but even then, he’d had his reasons. So, what was his reason here?

Her thoughts were too slow, and she shook herself, irritated and impatient, her palms warm with sweat as the two men squared off, words threatening to explode into blows.

“You want to know what a magician may do? How powerful I am?” The magician was beyond sense now, the snarl of a dog in his throat. “I will show you.”

But he didn’t do anything. He merely stood before them, staring out at something she couldn’t see. Izzy clenched her fingers, knuckle rubbing against the silver of her ring. The sun was below the horizon now, shadows filling the crevasses around them where the flames could not reach. Too late, too late; power was best worked at dawn and dusk and when the sun was direct overhead. Every fool knew that; surely a magician would not—

A breeze stirred the flames even higher and lifted the edges of Izzy’s jacket, making her shiver, though the breeze was not cold. The magician raised his hands to shoulder height, fingers splayed, palms facing out, and the ground underneath them rumbled.

Unnerved, Izzy wanted to look for Gabriel, move closer to him for reassurance, but could not take her gaze off the magician. She could see the wind wrapping around him, feathering his long hair, sliding under his skin and then back out again, and her breath caught at how simple it was, how clean and simple, not complicated at all, as though all she had to do was reach out and touch it, and it would be part of her as well.

Such power, she thought. Not a quiet rumble at all but a roar, the scream of a ghost cat in the night, the howl of the coyote, the rush of buckshot as it left the muzzle, knocking her back and making her hands tremble.

“Don’t,” she said, unsure if she spoke to the magician, or Gabriel, or the gathering power itself.

None of them listened.

The magician’s hands stretched forward, as though he were attempting to take hold of something, and the air opened around his hands, a reddish-black splotch that grew and deepened, tendrils reaching out of like—like ribbons, she thought, even as they spread, shadows in the darkness, tiny flickerings that she could hear as well as see.

“Blessed angels and all the gods protect us,” Gabriel swore, even as the ribbons snapped outward, raptor wings on a downward strike, and wrapped around the magician’s torso, fighting the wind for his body, rocking it back and forth.

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