Page 49 of Circle of Shadows
Prince Gin had said the particles were everywhere, and the only reason taigas didn’t see it was because they didn’t know the magic was tangible.
But now I know,Sora thought. “Magic... come out, come out, wherever you are.” There was a beam of light coming in from a hairline crack in the wall. She focused on it. Maybe it would be easier to see the ryuu magic there.
And then...
Aha! A particle!
Sora smiled.
When she looked again at the beam of light, though, the particle was gone. And come to think of it, it had been white,like ordinary dust, not green like Prince Gin had said.
There was an awful lot of dust swirling around in that sliver of light. Sora sighed.
Concentrate, she told herself, squinting harder.Where are you, you little green things?
She stared and stared until her eyes crossed and actually began to ache.
She thought she saw the particles, and she jumped.
Her head smacked into the ceiling.Crow’s eye.Sora rubbed the spot she’d bumped.
She sat down again, allowing her eyelids to flutter closed for a minute.
Think, Sora, think. There must be something.
Maybe she wasn’t looking hard enough.
Or maybe she was looking too hard.
What if I tried a different sense?
People could smell sea salt in the ocean air and feel dampness before a storm. If the ryuu particles were floating everywhere, wouldn’t there be other ways to find them besides seeing them?
Sora inhaled slowly and deeply. And gagged. She’d gotten used to the stench of mold and wet rope and dank air, but a giant lungful all at once was a wallop to her chest.
She took a moment to recover, then took another breath. A smaller one.
This one still stank, but she pushed that into the background and searched out more subtle smells. The lingering scent of paper from the books piled nearby. Dried algae from the broken buoys.
This was too general. Sora’s nose needed something more specific to home in on. But what did magic smell like?
She got on hands and knees and started sniffing around.
Iron.
More stale water.
Dirt.
And the slight hint of rotting food...
“Ugh.” Sora found herself directly in front of a rat’s nest of random things: scraps of old cloth, soggy bills of lading, and bits and pieces of partially consumed food, some to enjoy soon, others to be saved until they ripened to the rat’s liking.
She got to her feet, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
Sora couldn’t quit, though. Right now, she and Daemon were the only things standing between Prince Gin and his superpowered army.
Sight and smell weren’t working for finding ryuu magic. But there were still other senses.
