Page 73 of Somewhere down the Ley Line
Mia laughed. “Good for you.”
“And then we argued.”
“I don’t see the problem.”
“You’re not helping,” Isolde mumbled.
“He won’t either,” Mia said with a shrug and a roll of her eyes. “Underneath all the sarcasm and ferocity, he is a bit stunted. He will be the last to admit tohavinga heart, never mind putting it on the line. Too scared of getting hurt, thinks he wouldn’t be able to cope.”
Isolde was quiet. It didn’t matter if Mia was right or not. She knew what she had to do. What Felix wanted to do was up to him. She fought the urge to turn around, to catch his gaze and see him smile or wink at her. She fought it all day, even though it hurt.
***
“There is a ley line ahead,” Luella said to the group at large, frowning. “But crossing it is going to be a problem.”
It soon became clear why. The ley line was the same shimmering blue ribbon in the ground as the last one, except this time it was as if it had dug itself into the earth, creating a jagged crevice that tore across the landscape like an ancient scar. Steep cliffs – two, three times the height of a man – rose on both sides of it.
Luella leaned forward, frowning. “The horses can’t cross this.”
“No shit,” Felix grumbled. “Is there no crossing anywhere east or west?”
Luella shook her head. “I have tried to see as far as I can in both directions, and it’s like this everywhere.”
Isolde lowered her hand to Shadow’s neck. “We can’t just abandon them! What will happen to them?”
“They’ll manage,” Garren said. “Horses have instincts. They’ll wander back to Leif’s village eventually.”
“Unless they get eaten by wolves, or starve!” Isolde said, clutching the reins. “They have carried us all this way!”
Leif dismounted and crouched by the edge of the chasm, his head tilting as he gauged the distance. “We could build a ramp or something?”
Felix fixed him with a withering glare. “What are you going to build this ramp out of? Rocks?”
“Maybe they could jump?” Mia offered half-heartedly, glancing at the ley line down below.
“It is a bit far for that,” Garren said dryly, as if speaking to a child.
For a brief moment, Isolde had the wild idea of using her magic to levitate the horses across, but she dismissed it as quickly. They would panic; there was no telling what would happen. An awful image of Shadow at the bottom of the chasm with broken legs appeared unbidden in her mind. That was more than enough for her to decide it wasn’t worth the risk. She dismounted quietly and stroked Shadow’s nose. Losing her favourite horse was just what the day needed to truly hit her where it hurt all over again, but she almost didn’t feel it anymore. Maybe she’d reached her limit of feeling things.
“Right,” Luella said, looking critically at the piles of tack and gear they’d removed from the horses. “We take the provisions, weapons of course, bedrolls. Only the essentials. Leave everything else behind. We still have a long way to go.”
Isolde did not miss the worried flash across Luella’s face. The weather was only going to get colder, and sleeping was a lot rougher without tents. But carrying them around was even more problematic, so they had little choice.
She lingered by Shadow, telling the horse to stay with the others, to be good and to go back to the village. From the corner of her eye, she saw Felix approach.
“I’m sorry, Isa. They’ll be alright,” he said.
Isolde nodded mutely.
The climb down was manageable with the aid of a rope, and soon they all stood in the cool, still air at the bottom of the chasm. The glinting blue ley line was just in front of them, waiting. Calling. She was almost glad it had crossed their path that day.
The others watched in tense silence as Isolde stepped forward without hesitation. The moment her boots touched the shimmering surface, a blinding light exploded outward, searing and radiant, and the magic enveloped and embraced her like an old friend.
The wave of magic and power threatened to overwhelm her as before, to draw her out of herself entirely. But unlike last time, she stood her ground. She allowedthe presence to surround her, to hold on to her, but not to overtake her.I am my own person,she repeated over and over in her mind.
Then, to her shock, there was an answer. It wasn’t a voice; it justwas.An acknowledgement. It startled her, even in this state of subconsciousness. The surprise nearly caused her resolve to crumble, the threads to unravel. But she recovered, steeling her mind, sustained by her sheer determination to get answers.Who are you?
The answer was an image, a vision. Isolde saw a great circular room. It looked like a temple, with an impossibly high, vaulted ceiling and an imposing podium in the centre. Above it, suspended in mid-air, wasmagic.There was no doubt about it. It was both light and dark, calm and chaos. A thin, silvery thread linked it to a stone slab beside the dais.
