Page 66 of Wizards & Weavers
Augustin wasn’t there. Braiden curled his fingers, only a little disappointed to discover that his hand was resting on its own underneath the covers. Perhaps the wizard had risen earlier, newly motivated by the promise of even greater elementals and even more whistle stones to loot.
That more or less turned out to be the truth, as Braiden discovered shortly after performing his morning ablutions. The Wizard of Weathervale was already inhaling a bowl of something at the dinner table, eating enthusiastically as a bleary-eyed Elyssandra picked at her plateful of nuts and berries.
“Morning,” Braiden greeted, unsure of how to gauge his party’s mood on this particular morning.
“And a fine morning it is,” Augustin said, mouth still half full of his breakfast. “We made oatmeal. It’s lovely with a bit of sugar. There’s more in the pot on the stove. Help yourself.”
Elyssandra narrowed her eyes, ruffling her hair in one hand. “Hemade it, mind you, clattering and banging in the kitchen soearly in the morning. I mean — thank you for making breakfast, Augustin.”
Braiden held back a little laugh. Never did he think that Elyssandra would grow weary of her wizard hero, but as Braiden was slowly learning, the man was more like the wind and weather than any of them might have expected. Temperamental, yes, and impulsive, as likely to build into a brisk gale as he was to peter out into a light breeze.
Not that this was a problem, really. For every little quirk that Braiden found annoying about Augustin Arcosa, he was finding one or two new things to like about him, too.
“Yes,” Braiden said, smiling as he pulled up a chair. “Thank you for making breakfast. Will Warren be joining us, or is he already outside setting traps, somehow?”
“Believe it or not, he’s still asleep.” Elyssandra waved vaguely toward the still-shut door of the cottage’s newest room. “Keeps asking for five more minutes. That bed of his must be so lovely.”
Augustin hardly noticed when she threw him the briefest of dirty looks. Again Braiden had to hold back his laughter.
“It looked very comfy,” Augustin said between mouthfuls. “The petals must be so soft and velvety.”
“Oh, they are,” Elyssandra said icily, disguising her mood by filling her cheeks with fruit.
An hour or so later, with fuller bellies and a fully awakened Warren, the four filed back out into the cavern. Braiden folded his arms around himself, again grateful that he’d decided to bring a sweater, wishing he was back in bed and under the covers again.
He held out a hand, a glowing bead of magic already forming on his finger when Augustin reached for his wrist and lowered his arm. The wizard shook his head.
“We are all very grateful for the scarves that you knitted us yesterday,” Augustin said, “but I don’t think any of us will want arepeat of you fainting from expending so much magic. I was very worried.”
Elyssandra rubbed her forearms and stamped her feet to keep warm. “He’s right. It was very kind of you, but we’ll have to make do. We all need to preserve our energies for whatever lies ahead.”
Warren hopped from one foot to the other, already miserable, but he forced a smile for Braiden. It felt so unkind to deprive his friends of what little he could offer, but they had a fair point.
Also, Augustin had very explicitly said thathewas worried about Braiden fainting. Elyssandra and Warren cared too, of course, but it mattered that Augustin was so specific. It was nice to know that the wizard cared that much. Braiden tried not to look so smug.
“Then shall we get going?” Warren asked. “It’s freezing out here. The sooner we finish, the better.”
‘“Agreed,” Braiden said, already taking a step when Augustin held up one hand.
“Hold,” Augustin said, closing his hand into a fist. “Do you feel that? Something is different.”
Elyssandra went perfectly still as they studied the cavern, her eyes like the clearest set of emeralds. She pulled down her cowl, her ears faintly twitching. “You’re right. Something has changed here.”
Warren’s nose wrinkled, and then his ears twitched, too. They crooked and turned this way and that, pointing off into the chamber, swiveling like a pair of dowsing rods. But in search of what, exactly?
And then it hit Braiden like a frothing wave, a cool, tingling sensation of invisible force. It felt like the wind, except that it blew eerily in reverse, sucking, beckoning, grasping at the air with unseen fingers.
“There,” Warren said, pointing at the end of the cavern. “It’s hard to make out from here, but right there. A large crack in the wall.”
And there it was, an imperfect sliver in the ice, a new crevice in the rock wall that was tall and wide enough to fit a man. From afar, it reminded Braiden of something sinister — the strange iris-like mouth of a lesser elemental, or the eye of a snake.
“Curious,” Augustin said. “The trembling and thrashing of our colossal elemental friend must have caused more damage to this place than we realized. And to think it had intended to use its enormous strength against our very bodies.”
Braiden shuddered. “And you still want to hunt them down to find more whistle stones?”
Augustin raised his nose with a defiant sniff. “Absolutely. The same way I’m going to walk right into that crevice and find whatever it is that’s radiating this alluring force.”
The cavern truly had changed, though Braiden knew he could be forgiven for missing the finer details. He was far too busy being unconscious, after all.
