Page 31 of The Dragonrider and the Void
Hardin met Sasja’s lips, delving into a deep kiss, lasting until he needed more air. When they pulled apart, they held each other for a long moment.
“You should be going,” Sasja said into his ear. “The sun will be rising soon, and Cheyanne will notice you’re not here.”
Hardin looked to the starry sky through the trees, beyond the wards.
“I won’t let on that I know where you went. That should give you time to fly far enough away that they won’t try to draw you back,” Sasja said.
“Thank you,” he said, kissing her one more time before Sasja backed away toward the camp.
Hardin turned to the wards and extended his arm, feeling for the barrier. Once his hand touched the veil of power, he carefully spread the tight cords of warding energy apart. For him, creating an opening to pass through a magical boundary was as simple as breathing. As a Ward Walker, the subtle manipulation of a ward’s energy was something he’d been able to do without knowing how for years. It had kept him alive. Creating an opening large enough for his newly bonded dragon to pass through without notice, however, that was a different story. It was something he’d never tried before. Something he didn’t know if he could do without permanently altering the entire alliance’s security. And this new power burning beneath his skin was anything but familiar.
Stay still.He thought toward his dragon, who remained crouched in the shadows several dozen yards behind him. In the pre-dawn darkness, the creature’s scales appeared as wet obsidian. If she remained perfectly still, she likely would be mistaken as a black boulder by any guard passing by.I almost have it,he conveyed to her.
Quinthara’s aura felt unsettled. Hardin sensed her concern. Hardin’s ability to control their new power was something they still had yet to master.
I can control it just fine,he thought.
Hardin pushed his mental probe deeper into the structure of the wards, altering them slightly. He created a gap, like a pocket of shadows within shadows. In the short time since they had bonded, Hardin had spent all of his waking moments taking direction from Ezra and a handful of elves who’d traineddragonriders in Gambria. Reading about magic and practicing the most basic of lesser spells had become his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Reading beyond his lessons taught him that a simple bending of the light should be a skill that all dragonriders master in their first year at an Academy. The trick of light manipulation here would provide a perfect camouflage if Quinthara’s passing altered the ward structure in any way.
As he attempted it now, Hardin opened his pathway to the energy he shared with his dragon. The floodgates blew open with raw power surging through the bond, swelling in his veins and demanding an outlet. Hardin trembled, trying to contain the torrent flowing from the bond; it was using his body as a riverbed and threatening to exceed its banks.
Fern leaves rustled as a guard passed by twenty paces away. Hardin spotted the torch light burning away the darkness along the camp’s edge. Hardin held his breath.Just a few more moments.It was all he needed to finish shaping the shadows over the gap in the wards.
He flexed, bracing himself to receive the amount of energy tearing through the bond. Quinthara supported him, sending him a pulse of control. Then, as it always did when Hardin made an attempt to shape the god’s power they shared, it fluttered and all but died. The river of energy turned to a trickle.
Not again,he thought, reaching back down the bond for more power. A flash of warning came from Quinthara, and an instant later an unexpected pulse surged through him. Violet energy crackled at his fingertips.
No!He scrambled to suppress it but was losing control. The magic desired an escape. It demanded to take shape.
“What’s that,” he heard a voice say off in the distance. The guard’s torch illuminated the ground nearby.
Quinthara’s urgent warning to stop sent his heart racing.
Hardin gritted his teeth, forcing the wild energy back down the bond. He imagined that threading a needle during the peak gusts of a firestorm would’ve been easier, but he focused. With great effort, he managed to close the valves controlling the flow of power. However, not all of it went back. Some magical energy escaped him, flashing out of his palms in a purple arch. It splashed out through the gap in the wards he’d created. The energy vaporized into a fine mist, failing to take form as it wetted the shrubs, small tress, and large ferns ahead with a layer of dew.
The guard paused at the flash of light and spray of mist. He turned toward them. “Who’s there?”
Ash,Hardin cursed, leaning slightly so the old growth pine near him blocked his form from the guard.
“Show yourself!” The guard raised his torch higher, taking a step toward their position.
Hardin pressed closer into the tree trunk, his heart thundering. The residual energy from his magical slip still tingled his fingers, making it harder to maintain his grip on the ward’s structure. With his new bond to Quinthara, Hardin no longer need to physically bring another living being through the wards with him. Now that he could manipulate the cords of magic tethering the wards together, the gap he created in them should be enough.
Quinthara’s tension quivered through their bond, her massive form unnaturally still in the shadows.
We need to move. Now.
More torchlight appeared from beyond the first as more guards responded to the first’s call. Hardin knew he only had moments before Ezra or Ingamar would sense the disturbance in the wards. The last thing he needed was either of them discovering his plan to leave their base of operations.
Through the gap,he directed Quinthara.Quick and low.
She moved gracefully, sliding through the opening he’d created. Hardin followed, his movements fluid and practiced. As soon as they passed through, he released his hold on the wards, hoping the weavings would thread back into place behind them. The voices of the guards faded as they continued on their regular circuit of the encampment perimeter.
But Hardin and his dragon weren’t “safe” yet. Safe, as in avoiding trouble with their friends and allies for leaving the encampment at this dangerous time on Sataran. Dawn was approaching, and with it would come the realization that both he and Quinthara were gone. They needed to distance themselves from the alliance, and quickly.
Ready to fly?he asked.
Quinthara’s anticipation leaked through their bond, despite her earlier reservations.
