The Way Into Magic: Book Two of The Great Way by Harry Connolly

Author:Harry Connolly
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Radar Avenue Press
Published: 2015-01-13T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

The eagles did not attack. That wasn’t a sure thing, but Cazia had hoped they had sense enough to understand what she’d done. If only wizards could cast spells as quickly as they could raise their hands.

Kinz appeared at her shoulder, waving her pointed stick. “HAH! HAH!” she shouted.

“No!” Cazia snapped at her. She took hold of the useless stick and tried to push the point down. Great Way, the older girl was strong. Cazia didn’t have the strength to force her, but Kinz backed down anyway. “Stay with the princess.”

The giant birds were trilling to each other, sounding almost like cooing doves. Cazia took the translation gem from her pocket.

“--wants you to take it in as a pet, I wager it.”

“I will not wager over this,” the other responded. They seemed to be talking over each other, and Cazia had a hard time telling which words came from which creature. “I will not wager over the lives in my nest. Why did it defend me?”

“Food,” was the response. “It wanted to devour you for its supper.”

“That idea is burdened. If it wanted to devour me, it could have grabbed an egg and run for its tunnel. That’s what the hairbacks do at home.”

“It is greedy. It is stupid.”

Enough. Cazia held up the little gem for them to see. The bird on the left shrieked. “It will burn us!”

Cazia turned to the one on the right. That must have been the mother. In fact, she intended to call it Mother. The other one would have to be Auntie.

She held up the gem to Mother, trying to make her body language as clear as possible. I am offering this to you.

Would birds even understand human body language? She moved forward, ignoring the warning call from Ivy, holding the gem so Mother could see it. Those birds hunted from incredibly high up, so their eyesight had to be good enough to see it.

“It wants to burn you!” Auntie shrieked. “Drop it from the ledge so we can feast on it together.”

Cazia jolted back at that, suddenly feeling very foolish. If it killed her, Ivy and Kinz would die up here, too, and the Tilkilit stones would never make it back to civilization. Fire take them all, maybe she should start a spell anyway.

“Look at that!” Mother said. “It reacts as though it understands you.”

Cazia pointed at Mother, then pointed at the gem.

“It wants you to take the gem as a gift,” Auntie said. Cazia shook her head, but the birds wouldn’t understand that gesture. She pointed at the rocks nearest Auntie’s feet.

“No,” Mother said. “It’s saying that it can understand us because of the gem.”

Cazia pointed at her. Then she set the gem atop a flat rock and backed up the slope, nearly losing her footing on the rough stone. The birds didn’t come closer, spreading their wings in the updraft at the edge of the cliff and occasionally flapping to steady themselves.

Mother kept glancing at the little gem, then at the girls.

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