Reading Minds

Chapter 6: The Woman Who Summoned Lightning

Chapter 6

When Max arrived at the training grounds, she crept around the bleachers and saw men trying to put out the fire in the middle of the sports field. The flames were as tall as forty hands stacked on top of each other. Two knights were dousing it with water buckets that the trainees replenished from the well. Another team was digging a rough trench around the fire to keep it from spreading.

Max went into the storage room and retrieved a cloak that was hung on the wall. She carefully hid her hair underneath the hood and rushed to Hebaron, who was in charge of putting out the fire.

"H-how can I help?" Max demanded.

"Madame!" Hebaron said. He was half-distracted with the debacle at hand. "The boys thought they were practicing with bomb arrows today. They overdid it with the gunpowder." He cursed. "I'll wring their trainer's neck. Who was in charge here?"

"You were," Uslin said dryly. He stood by Hebaron to take a break from putting out the fire. "You told them they could help themselves to anything in the armory and you're the one who set up the training field."

"Did I?" Hebaron said. He raised his shoulders in disbelief. "Huh, I might have been. Well, why aren't you working harder now? Everyone else here is sweating and covered in soot."

Hebaron himself was a sweating pool of disaster and his face and hair had turned black and ash-grey. Meanwhile, Uslin was dressed in his semi casual clothes and had a pristine complexion, as if he was ready to go to Church.

"Don't lob me in with you ingrates," Uslin said. "I just know how to take care of myself." He yelled at one of the other knights to hand him a shovel and went back into the action.

"Pardon me, Madame, but I need to go back in and help out," Hebaron said.

"W-wait," Max said. "Is R-Riftan here?"

"He went back to the castle to fetch the wizard. The wizard will be the best one among us to put out the fire."

"I m-might be able to do that too!" Max said bravely. She ran forward and flicked her hood off of her head. She raised her arms high above her head, just like the instructional images did in her textbook, and chanted an incantation.

"Eam T-Tempestate!" she said.

Behind her, Riftan and Ruth were riding hard towards the training field.

"No, Madame! That's the wrong spell!" Ruth shouted.

Lightning struck from the sky into the middle of the fire, igniting the rest of the gunpowder in the inferno. Another explosion occurred and sent a hot wave of air across the field. Men shouted and threw themselves back. The fire rose higher and higher.

Riftan threw himself at Max to cover her from the flames. She smelled Riftan's burnt hair when she was able to wriggle her face away from his chest.

"I need Lady Calypse to help me put this out, My Lord," Ruth said urgently. He had debarked from his horse and was mumbling a spell quickly under his breath. He withdrew a marker from his sleeve and began drawing a white circle and ruins on the floor. The pentacle began to glow.

"Get Max back to the castle," Riftan ordered Elliott, who was nearby. He pulled Max to her feet and pushed her towards Elliott.

"Listen, we don't have time to think of another plan," Ruth said. "The fire is spreading. Once it reaches the gardens, it will cover the whole plain."

Another mini-explosion sent sparks flying from the inferno.

"Madame, give me your hand," Ruth said.

"Her what?" Riftan said.

Max threw her weight forward and held onto Ruth's hand. She closed her eyes and focused on drawing in all the mana around her: the intense power from the flames, the air, the earth beneath her feet.

Please, please make the fire away. Please make everyone safe, she thought.

Max could feel power entering her body and flowing through her hand to Ruth. The pentacle around them grew brighter.

Ruth finished mumbling his spell. "Pleut eam," he said.

Rain poured from the storm clouds that Max had manifested. The drizzle became a heavy torrent until everyone in the field looked like they had jumped into a lake.

Ruth dropped Max's hand. "Elemental spells do not last long. After an hour, you should get the men to use the mud and dirt to cover the rest of the fire," he told Riftan. "It should be manageable by then."

"You heard him, Hebaron." Riftan said. "Get rid of this damn mess."

"Yes, Captain," Hebaron saluted.

"We have seven men injured from the initial explosion," Elliott told Ruth. "Nothing critical, but I would like you to look at Garow first. He might have broken his arm when he fell off my horse, Thierry."

"Come on, Madame," Ruth waved his hand. "We have patients waiting for us."

"No," Riftan stepped in. He used his full height of 196 cm (6 ft 7 in) to tower over Ruth. "I'm taking Max."

"People are hurt—," Ruth argued.

"I. Am. Taking. Her." Riftan said.

Elliott grabbed Ruth around the shoulders and made the two walk towards the soldiers barracks nearby, where the wounded were being taken to be healed. "C'mon, Ruth. Garow needs us," Elliott said. "Hey, Sir Obaron, did you get another nasty scar on your head?" He called out to an old, grey-haired soldier with a lion's mane. "I'm bringing the wizard to heal all of you!"

"We should be good here. I'll take care of everything," Hebaron assured Max.

Max looked at Hebaron beseechingly.

I can't be alone with Riftan now, Max thought.

"We don't always get what we want," Riftan said grimly.

"H-Hebaron, l-let me s-stay and clean up," Max said.

"Uh," Hebaron looked sideways at Riftan. "Look, Ma'am. We have a saying here, and it's called 'sometimes, you need to take one for the team.'" He winked at Max and mouthed, I'll help you later.

Max shrunk away from Riftan. She started counting numbers in her head and tried not to think about anything, but she couldn't help worrying.

Riftan's mad again? What if he doesn't let me learn magic anymore? How am I going to help him now? Will he fall in love with the princess and abandon me? I almost killed people. Me! That's terrible. Maybe I can't do anything right after all.

Riftan passed a hand over his face. "Come on, you'll get sick if you stay out in this rain too long," he said.

Max held Riftan's hand as they walked out of the field. I want to see the patients. Is Garow really sick? She thought.

"He's fine," Riftan said.

Max didn't want to be a burden anymore. She tried to hold her thoughts in, but couldn't help think: I wish I could see how Garow was doing right now.

Riftan stopped. "One look. That's it."

Max looked up. Her eyes lifted upward and her dazzling smile made Riftan stop breathing.

He watched the rain wash over Max's soft lips and wanted to brush her damp hair around her wet neckline. If he looked closely underneath the traveling cloak, he could see Max's wet dress cling against her body.

"S*#t. You're f*#@ing dangerous," Riftan said.