Page 99 of Suffer No Fools
"It was easier to control when we were at the source," Efren grumbled through clenched teeth as he calmed the shoreline with his weaves. "There was a wave, yes, but we directed it away from Aquarion."
Tovey grinned as Hannah and Nola split the wave down the middle and shoved it off to either side of the island. The wave crashed harmlessly against the rocks on the northern and southern shores, and then the ocean settled around them.
"I'm sorry," Hugo said. "I didn't know there were so many moving parts to the spell, beyond the ice."
Efren shook his head. "Not your fault. No one thought you could do it alone."
"It's bigger than before," Tovey noticed. "All the way to Hearthstone."
Hugo nodded. "I found their ship." Tovey was surprised by the rage through their bond. "They won't report back to Coryn, at least, not all of them.
Tovey had always feared death weavers. He'd felt Vadim's power wash over him once, but it had left him alone. Tovey was sure Hugo could have been selective with his weaves if he'd wanted, but he'd taken no prisoners. There would have been no warning when his weaves incapacitated the enemy ship and froze its inhabitants.
"I'm sorry about Frost," Efren said, bowing his head. "He was a quiet man and a good leader."
Hugo nodded. "He was my friend. It took losing him to make me see I don't have many of those."
"We're your friends," Jasmine said, hugging him around the waist. Tovey joined the group hug, pulling Niall, Petri, the twins, and Milton along with him. They were friends. It had taken Tovey his entire life to realize everyone on the island, even if they didn't agree with him on everything, still had his back, same as Efren and the crew aboardStarlight Specter. He had always been part of a larger family, and now they were Hugo's family, too. He hoped they were enough to combat General Coryn and her army.
Chapter 15
Hugo
While Hugo had never prepared for an outright war, he felt like Coryn had been preparing him for this moment since his father's death. She'd nurtured him in the art of war and prepared him for betrayal at every turn. She'd stolen his power and used it against people she claimed were his enemies. After their deaths, he discovered the truth, that they were caught stealing because they couldn't afford to buy bread, or they had been stowaways on a ship because they were weavers trying to escape Embertide. So many deaths in his name, and he'd wanted none of them.
He hated the constant strategy sessions and treaty negotiations, but they couldn't be helped. War was coming, and it was better to be prepared. The more allies they had, the less chance Coryn could escape them after they destroyed what she wanted most.
Each day, he and Tovey reinforced the ice shelf with powerful snowstorms. Tovey had learned how to craft them from Hannah. Hugo wondered if water and lightning weavers were merely warmer versions of fire and ice, but he couldn't prove it. He couldn't deny the vast differences between their elements and the emotions that triggered them, but both fire and lightning burned air and earth, while both ice and water drew moisture from the air and earth.
He couldn't explain it, but he had touched on it when they'd all combined powers. The feeling had been most apparent when Niall had shared his power with Tovey. The spectral weaver's core was no different from any other weaver's, but he could use all eight elements.
Klaus claimed Hugo's aura had changed since he'd bonded Stan and Tovey. Klaus also said Niall's had evolved over time. He'd seemed like a mundane human at the orphanage, and then Klaus had thought he was an earth weaver when he came to collect him in Landale, only to find that he was a spectral weaver the moment Niall interacted with both life and death to bring Renald back to life.
Since Renald had come to Aquarion, he'd displayed an affinity for earth and life magic. While most earth weavers could increase the amount of a finite resource like wood, Renald could grow a healthy tree bigger around than his arms in a matter of days. Few earth weavers achieved that level of mastery.
Hugo was certain it was more than mastery. It was life magic, itself.
To test his theory, Hugo sat with Renald one morning after he'd checked on the ice field. Tovey had gone ahead to heat the tub, but they'd found Renald sitting cross-legged outside the old barracks with his hands raised toward a tiny sapling.
Hugo sat beside another tiny tree and awaited instruction. He didn't ask or mimic. He merely reached out with his power and tried to feel what Renald was doing. He was surprised to find pure joy in Renald's weaves. Eager to tap into his own joy, Hugo tried to grow the sapling before him using his core power. He felt the bark heat and dropped his hands. He wasn't a healer. He would destroy the little plant if he continued.
Renald's high laughter caught his attention, and he watched as the young earth weaver's tree grew inches aroundeach minute, wider and wider until it was as big around as a decades-old tree, and twice as tall.
Hugo tried again, and the top of the sapling burst into flames. He snuffed them out between his thumb and forefinger. Then, Renald made him swear he would practice on the grass first, and only if he had a glass of water nearby.
"There must be a way to tap into all elements from our core," Hugo said once Renald had settled on the opposite side of Hugo's sapling. "What if we're all spectral weavers, but we don't know until we've experienced it?"
"If that were true, you would have been an air weaver when Emperor Hesse died." Hugo hadn't heard Petri behind him. He recognized the signature scent of chicken gravy wafting out of the bread bowl in their hands. They handed it to Hugo and dropped to sit beside him.
"I was angry, yes, but I was also sad. Why didn't my ice manifest?"
Petri frowned. "Maybe the disks of iron they found had been in place for a long time, longer than Vadim and Yvette thought. It's possible they had to replace them or rework them with earth weaves over time."
It sounded plausible. Hugo didn't remember, but then, he wouldn't have known. He couldn't detect earth weaves before he'd bonded with Stan and Tovey, and he hadn't known those disks of iron had been inside his body. He remembered Coryn taking him to healers when he didn't feel well, but nothing beyond that.
"I still think it's possible," he said.
"It probably is, for you." Petri said. "You should be able to bond with the empire."
