Fall of the Forgotten Phoenix: A Firebird Retelling by Sarah Beran

Author:Sarah Beran [Beran, Sarah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2023-12-30T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter ten

A Repeat Offense

Ivan

Ivan wandered through the apple orchard, enjoying the familiar smell of sunshine and apples. After sitting for hours that morning and discussing the situation with his father and Drosselmeyer, it felt good to stretch out his sore and tired muscles.

“Ivy! Catch!”

He turned, startled, just in time to barely keep a leather satchel from sailing into his face. He scowled at the culprit, but his sister just smiled at him innocently and waved. Her violin and bow were held at her side in one hand.

“What is this?” Ivan lifted the top flap of the bag to peer inside.

“It was Rogi’s idea. He says you have such a habit of getting lost that you should probably carry around the necessary tools for survival at all times. There are some basic medical supplies, dried fruit and nuts, a flask for water—that sort of thing.”

“You all have such astounding faith in me.”

“It’s an olive branch.” She looked at him pointedly. “He wasn’t happy with the way things were left between the two of you when you disappeared, and he knows that you wanted to apologize. This is his way of saying that everything is fine between the two of you.”

Ivan nodded and looped the strap of the satchel over his shoulder. Natalia walked beside him with her violin tucked under her chin, working out the fingering of a tricky passage as they went.

“I still don’t know how on earth you can walk and do that at the same time.” He reached up and plucked an apple from a branch overhead and tossed it back and forth between his hands.

“Practice, like anything else.” Natalia growled in frustration as she hit a wrong note, and she started the passage again at a slower tempo. “Besides, if there’s ever an emergency that requires magic, I doubt it will be a situation that allows me to just stand still on the sidelines and play. I need to be able to play and move at the same time. It’s not a whole lot different than what you have to do.”

“I just have to swing a sword and try not to get hurt.”

“Stop selling yourself short, Ivy. You have to stay ahead of your opponent, think on your feet, and adapt to whatever spell I use to help you. Switching from speed to strength spells might be easy for me, but it’s very different on your end.”

Ivan tossed the apple a few more times before changing the subject. “What did you think about Drosselmeyer’s response?”

Natalia stopped playing and hugged her violin to her chest. “I think it’s telling that he’s so concerned about it. I don’t know how I didn’t realize he wasn’t the only wizard in Faerie, though.”

“I guess this Koschei fellow never really made public appearances before…everything.” His mind cast back to their meeting that morning with King Nikolai.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.