Page 29 of The City of Zirdai
“But, again, she can only do a few people at a time, while I can influence a dozen.”
“Rub it in.” Gurice strode away, muttering.
“She’s a little sensitive,” Jayden said.
“Does everyone have a specialty like Gurice?” Shyla asked.
“Yes. Everyone can do one thing better than the other skills. A few can only do one or two things. The weaker the magic, the more limited the person.”
“What’s your specialty?”
“I’m rare in that I can do all things equally well.”
“How rare?”
“Before the ambush, there were four of us. After…” He stared into the distance. “It’s just me and Ximen now.” Grief thickened his words and dragged them through the air.
“How many people could wield magic before?”
“Twenty total.”
She stared at him in shock. “That’s it? I thought the Invisible Sword had—”
“We don’t. While there were dozens of people in the different levels of our organization, we didn’t have many that could wield magic.”
And there were only eleven of them left. Twelve if she counted Zhek. His ability to heal had to be magical. Then there was Mojag and his sensitive nose. Which made her wonder… “What are the ‘things’ you keep mentioning?”
“Magical skills. There are three of them—influence, manipulation, and movement. You already know about influencing a person’s perceptions, making them see or not see what you want them to, making them smell an odor, fall asleep, or sit down, things like that. Influence also allows us to ‘sense’ a person like we did when we were at our old headquarters.
“Manipulation is more advanced as it goes into a person’s thoughts and emotions, changing their memories, causing fear or happiness. Movement is what we do with the sand.” Jayden smoothed out Gurice’s small pile. “Reverting the sand to its undisturbed state is a lifesaving skill. You already know how to erase tracks in the sand, but there are a few other skills that are essential. Remember when we ambushed you and Rendor on that dune?”
“Hard to forget.” Her tone held an edge. Rendor had almost died.
Jayden ignored it. “When you crested the dune, the sand was undisturbed. But just under the surface were twelve Invisible Swords.”
She perked up. Was he going to teach her how to travel through the sand?
“This is how we did it.” Jayden stepped a couple meters away. He pulled the hood of his sun cloak over his head and down so it covered his face as well. He gestured. A thick cloud of sand rose up in front of him, leaving behind a shallow depression. Shyla moved back, instinctively covering her nose and mouth. But the grains remained near Jayden.
Then he stretched out in the dip in the sand on his stomach. Resting on his elbows, he held out the edge of the hood. It resembled a tent around his head. The sand cloud settled over him and dissipated.
She stared at the sand. It was smooth, pristine. Jayden had disappeared. Nothing happened for an angle, then the sand exploded into the air, obscuring her view. When the sand settled, Jayden stood there. The spot around him was once again undisturbed.
“That was impressive,” Shyla said. “How long can you stay under the sand?”
“It depends on how deep you are. I was pretty close to the surface and you saw that I trapped a pocket of air with my hood. I could have stayed under for about ten angles. Once you go deeper, you have less air and less time.”
Fascinated, she asked, “How deep can you go?”
“Only as deep as the loose sand. Once you hit the hard stone, that’s it.”
That didn’t add up. “But when they captured me, we traveled through the ground.”
Jayden gave her a wry smile. “That’s what you were supposed to think. It was a bit of a show.”
“A show?” She tried and failed to keep the outrage from her voice.
“Remember fear and desperation trigger magic. Come on.” Jayden strode away, heading for a large dune.
