Warrior's Mind (Book 2 of The Warrior Chronicles)

Chapter 6

The Flyer pulled the lever, releasing more hot air into the balloon and propelling them further into the sky. Leyla leaned over the side of the giant basket and watched the Navrek Yaras grow smaller and smaller until it was a spec of gold and white on a circle of green within an enormous lake. The aqua-farms looked like dark shadows in the depths of the blue waters.

"Don't lean so far over the edge!" Raphael admonished. He was standing beside her wearing his usual passive expression, but something about the way he held himself was off. Leyla scanned his stiff posture, noting the slightly too-wide stance of his feet; as if he was bracing himself against a current on a barge. The knuckles of his hands, where he was holding onto the ledge, had turned white. Was the Prorex afraid?

No one took to the air in Gaia, so it would be natural to feel anxious at being so far above the ground. Leyla tried to remember her first experience flying. It had been on a Rezeg bird, the day she found Michael working for a gambling den owner in the Crags. If she hadn't been trained to focus only on survival in emergency situations, would she have felt anxious while getting onto the giant birds? It was hard to say, but she remembered how Michael had trembled in fear...

"Where did you learn to set arms?"  she asked, wanting to distract the Prorex.

"I read about it." Raphael's eyes remained glued to the ground far below.

"You read about it?" Leyla repeated, frowning. "No one showed you how to do it, you just read about it?"

Her incredulity finally got him to look her way, one regal brow raised. "I'm a High Thinker, I don't need to be shown."

"Right." Leyla rolled her eyes, thinking herself a fool for worrying about him. He was the Prorex of the Land of Light, emotions like fear were probably beneath him. And yet, a quick look at his hand confirmed his knuckles were still white. Be kind Leyla, he saved your life countless times. "So...did you read a lot of books on how to heal people?"

Raphael gave her a long look. The afternoon sun cast shadows over his high cheekbones and set his golden eyes on fire.  "Yes. Books on healing, farming, weather patterns, embroidery..."

"Embroidery?" Leyla imagined Raphael stitching floral patters on a handkerchief and barely suppressed a laugh.

"You think it's funny?" His tone was less than amused.

"No. Of course not." Leyla blinked, "It's strange though. Why did you waste time reading about things you don't need to know?"

Raphael frowned and cocked his head as if to see her from a new angle. "What do you live for, Lieutenant Leyla?"

What did she live for? How did the conversation come to this? "I don't understand what you mean."

The Prorex sighed, then looked out over the landscape. The waters of the Aquafarms were now gone, replaced by the seemingly endless green of the Great Plains. Although it was difficult to see from this height, Leyla knew the grassland teamed with life; from pink milk beetles and long-necked afaruz  to wondering hermits and warrior tribes. 

A group of racing wild horses came into view catching Raphael's eye. "Don't we all live to change? To become better versions of ourselves?"

Leyla had always been too focused on surviving to think much about the reason for living. But changing to become better... yes, she supposed that was true. Even to survive, you had to become better; more competent, more resilient, more capable of staying alive. "I guess so."

One corner of his lips curled. "And how do we change, Lieutenant?"

He was lecturing her. She should be annoyed, but Leyla couldn't seem to look away from his smiling eyes, so bright inside the thick black frame of long lashes. "You're saying nothing we learn can be considered a waste, not when it changes us, one way or another." She watched as the horses veered left, their manes swinging with the kind of thoughtless freedom only animals could experience. "Nevertheless Prorex, I doubt you will ever embroider."