Page 78 of A Song of Air
Lady of Gold
Bryson kept her headlifted, pulling wind from every direction her way. She filtered through the smells, finding Basil’s distinct orange scent. Her feet picked up once she found it. Weylyn didn’t question her as she followed it like a bloodhound. Her feet carried her near the river, where his essence was stronger, yet blended into the misty spray of the water.
She looked around, squinting. “Do you see him?” she asked Weylyn.
“No.”
“He’s here.” She knew it. She didn’t know how, but she did. She turned to Weylyn, about to ask them to disperse, but when she turned his way, he was incredibly, eerily still. His eyes flicked until nothing but the whites of them were visible.
A second later, Bryson felt her consciousness being yanked into his mind.
Not again, was all she could think before she was propelled into Weylyn’s mind. But this time, there were no inappropriate visions. All around them was the forest they currently stood in, but everything was... different. Like they were standing through a phantom realm and not the human one. And over there, right near the river, crouched low, she could make out the outlined body of a small boy.
Weylyn walked towards him slowly. “Lord Basil?”
Lord? What?Bryson didn’t ask the question out loud.
Basil’s head snapped up in Weylyn’s direction and then the child began to cry.
“My lord.” Weylyn bent so he was level with the child. “What ails you?”
Basil sniffled. “I was there one moment and then the next I was gone, and nobody could find me, so I ran.”
Bryson approached slowly. “Has that ever happened before?”
Weylyn slowly turned his head in her direction. “No.”
“Is it... Mana’s gift?”
“It must be.” He turned back to Basil. “My lord, your gifts from Mana are manifesting.”
His tears stopped flowing. “Gifts?”
“The way your mother controls water, the way Shula controls fire, the way Iona controls ice. Your own gifts are manifesting.”
“I don’t want it! Nobody can see me!”
“The price of your magic, little lord.” Weylyn smiled at him, and it was so tender that for a moment, everything fell away. In that moment, Bryson didn’t see him as a menace. Funny, how the single action changed his whole face.
He looked at the boy like he cared deeply for him.
“To become invisible, you are silenced completely. In sound, in essence.”
“I don’t want to disappear!”
Weylyn gripped Basil’s shoulders and smoothed the tension in them. “Then you must learn to control it. Control your emotions, my lord. No more tears, no more anger, no more sadness. Control yourself. Relax. And you will become visible to us once again.”
She watched, feeling rather useless as Weylyn coaxed the child into relaxing. And then slowly, the world around them began to fade until Bryson was thrust back into her mind, blinking awake like she’d been in some strange dream.
When her eyes followed the riverbank, Basil was there. Visible. Whole.
“Well done, my lord,” Weylyn praised, that smile on his mouth so tender that Bryson had the urge to run her fingers across his lips. Everything he did was done with malicious intent, but when he spoke to Basil, it was different.
