Alora: The Wander-Jewel (Alora 1)

Kaevin scrunched up his nose as he peered through the glass doors. “Are those long tubes made of iron?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean, they’re probably made of stainless steel or something like that. I’m pretty sure that’s iron. The barrels are metal, and the triggers, but the stocks are made of wood.”

“You won’t be able to move them with your gift. You can only transport tiny amounts of iron. When you brought me here, my knife slipped right out of its scabbard. But if we can find a way to get to Laegenshire without transporting...”

“Maybe you could figure out where it is if we looked at a map.”

“Yes,” said Kaevin eagerly. “I can read a map. I might be able to recognize Laegenshire. Do you have a map of Montana?”

“I can do even better. I’ll show you a map of the whole world.” Alora led Kaevin to the computer. “Okay,” she said, “this is one of those times I need to use both hands.”

“I understand,” said Kaevin, transferring his hand to the back of her neck. “We could probably go for a while without touching. I wish I knew how long it took to recover. If only I could ask Nordamen.”

“That’s okay,” said Alora. “I don’t mind. I figure we should stay in contact as much as possible so we can kind of re-charge. After that, you said we only have to touch once a day?”

“I believe that’s true, but in all honesty, I’m unsure.”

“I hope it’s true, for Uncle Charles’ sake. He’s not very happy about all this soulmate stuff.”

“I don’t believe he likes me very much.”

“It’s not your fault—I’m the one who brought you here.”

“He’s fortunate you didn’t come to me instead,” he remarked. “Think how upset he would be if you’d simply disappeared. At least my father knows where I am.” His face fell as he spoke. “Although he may believe I’m dead.”

“Why would he think that? I thought he understood all this stuff about me being a... a bearer.”

“He certainly understands. But when I got sick, our healer said I wouldn’t survive a transport. So they placed wards on me to prevent you from moving me. Since you managed to break the wards and transport me, they might conclude I’m no longer alive.”

“But why didn’t they understand about the soulmate thing and that you were ill from the separation?”

Kaevin gazed out the window as he replied. “They didn’t believe we could be soulmates because we’re too young. The earliest known age for soulmates to form is twenty-one years. And because soulmates are also extremely rare, no one truly considered the possibility—no one but me. I believed that was the reason you called me, when all the others thought it was accidental. I believed we were soulmates from the beginning, perhaps even the first time I saw you under the waterfall.”

“That wasn’t a waterfall—that was a shower. And why did I always see you in the shower?” She purposefully didn’t mention the bathtub.

He shrugged. “Perhaps because your father was Water Clan, so you have the ability to draw power from water. But you should also be able to draw power from stone, because of your mother, Wendelle.”

“Okay,” she said, thinking the notion of drawing power from water and stone made no sense. But then, what did make sense right now?

“Look, here’s a map of the whole world.” She enlarged the map on the computer screen. “And I can center it over Montana. I can make it topographical, so we can see elevations and such—you know, see where the mountains are. Or I can do a satellite view, so it’s like we’re out in the sky looking down. And then we can zoom in, like this.” She demonstrated the zoom feature. “See, here’s Montana, and this is our county,” she said zooming out further.

He stared at the video screen with wide eyes. “That’s a marvelous gift. But I’m afraid it doesn’t look like any map I’ve ever seen. I might be able to locate a place with mountains, rivers, and seas in the correct places. But I wasn’t aware this much existed beyond the mountains. Laegenshire could be almost anywhere.”

“Well, not really. You have to be some place that’s undeveloped. There really aren’t that many places left. I’m thinking maybe in the Amazon. Did you live in a jungle? Wait—you speak English. I’m trying to think of an undeveloped place that speaks English.”

“I don’t speak English, I speak Tenavae. That’s also the name of our territory.”

“Let me Google some of these words, like Tenavae and Laegenshire, and see what I find.”

“What’s Google?”

How could she explain Google? “It’s magic.”

*****

Uncle Charles came inside just as Alora and Kaevin were cleaning up the lunch dishes. His eyes fell on Kaevin’s hand where it rested on her arm.

“Don’t you think you’ve done this touching thing long enough?”