Trial by Fire (Worldwalker 1)

“Do I have a choice?” she snapped. She sat back in her chair, her throat filling with frustrated tears. If she agreed, it would be like living in a glass room, without even the right to keep her thoughts to herself. But if she didn’t, she’d never learn how to get back home. “You win, Rowan. I agree.”

He nodded and stood. “Let’s get started. Tristan? Do you want to change?”

“Yeah,” he replied. He stood and went down the hallway. Apparently, he knew his way around Rowan’s apartment because he didn’t need to be shown the location of the closet.

“Was there a loose dress in that bundle from your sister?” Rowan asked Lily without looking her in the eye. She nodded. “Put it on. And don’t wear anything binding u

nder it.”

Lily stood up and stormed down the hallway to the bathroom where she’d left the bundle of clothes. She didn’t even consider arguing. This was Rowan’s show, and she was just going to play her part until she’d learned enough to get home. Lily stripped naked, slid into what looked like a white silk slip, and joined Rowan back in the main room. He, Caleb, and Tristan were at the far end of the apartment, clearing a large space in front of the fireplace.

Tristan had changed into loose white pants like Rowan, and the two of them had taken off their shirts. Their willstones pulsed on their bare chests. Lily’s willstones flared brightly in response, startling her. Rowan, Tristan, and Caleb saw the flash and looked at Lily briefly before returning to their tasks. Lily could feel static in the air. She glanced down and saw the hairs on her arms rising. The ritual was already beginning.

“Do you have enough wood stored?” Caleb asked Rowan.

“On the roof,” Rowan replied while he moved a white sofa out of the way. “We’re going to start small, anyway. Big magic is something she can do intuitively. It’s small magic she has trouble with—it took her forever to figure out how to mindspeak. Just like Lillian.”

Tristan rolled up the carpet, exposing the wood floor. “What were you thinking of starting with?” he asked.

“A water purification spell. We can send it as a gift to the sachem.”

Rowan opened a door next to the fireplace and took out a large cast-iron cauldron, which he hung on a hook that swung into and out of the fireplace. Tristan shook out a black silk sheet and laid it on the floor in front of the fire.

“Sit,” he instructed, leading Lily to the center of the silk sheet. He positioned her with her back to the fireplace.

“Is there anything I can do to help set up?” she asked. All three of the guys paused momentarily to exchange looks.

“I’ll be right back with the wood,” Caleb said.

“And the bucket of stale rainwater next to the pile, if you can?” Rowan called after him as Caleb left.

Lily waited, feeling a bit stupid just sitting there while Rowan and Tristan scurried around. Tristan laid out a collection of silver knives and a marble mortar and pestle in front of Lily.

Caleb returned with the wood and water. Rowan emptied the bucket of fetid, brownish water into the cauldron and started a fire. Lily could feel something in her switch on, like a factory coming to life.

Rowan knelt in front of Lily with a collection of herbs, flowers, and crumbly stones. He picked up one of the silver knives and after calling each herb by name, cut pieces of them and put them in the mortar. He picked up another knife, and after naming each element in what Lily now recognized as part of the ritual, he scraped different amounts of each into the mortar. He ground it all together, stopping every now and again to check the consistency. Then he held the concoction out to Lily.

“Let your thoughts be pure. Let your will remove all taint,” he said, his voice low. “Breathe on it.”

Lily leaned forward, feeling the touch of Rowan’s mind guiding hers, and blew. Her willstones flared, the small golden one shining brightest, and for a moment, she saw the chemical compound that they had created. She also saw how the energy she had imparted on the mixture with her breath would strengthen it and make it multiply. Rowan’s eyes closed briefly, and then he handed the mortar to Tristan.

Using a fresh silver knife, Tristan scraped the mixture into the cauldron and swung it over the fire. Lily could smell the change immediately. The rainwater went from spoiled to clean in moments.

She felt unbelievably tired.

Lily was aware of time passing, of Tristan and Caleb pulling the cauldron off the fire and testing drops of its water on rectangles of paper. She felt Rowan take her shoulders and lower her to her side. He kept his hand on her back, rubbing it gently while he and Caleb discussed where portions of the purifying water were most needed. A part of Lily was aware of the fact that she should be furious with Rowan for making her think that he cared about her when he was simply harnessing her power, but she was simply too comfortable to start another fight with him. The fire, his soothing hand on her back, and the spent contentedness in her muscles kept her from storming away from him. She was suddenly aware of Caleb’s big white grin hovering over her eyes.

“Good work, witch,” he said, smiling widely at her. She smiled back, but by the time she got around to it, he’d already turned away. There were footsteps, a door closing, and Lily felt herself being lifted off the ground. The change of position roused her from her torpor.

“How much dirty water can that one cauldron of potion clean?” she asked.

“Every batch is different, depending on the witch,” Rowan said. She could feel his voice rumbling in his chest. He was carrying her down the hallway to his bedroom. “We think your ratio is about one to ten thousand.” He sounded proud.

“Ten thousand of those huge cauldrons of water made clean by only one?” she mumbled as he tucked her into his bed. There was some reason she wasn’t supposed to be sleeping in his bed, but she couldn’t remember what it was. “That’s not small magic, Rowan. Clean water is important. It can save lives.”

He nodded at her, and his words slid into her head. Lillian called it kitchen magic. It’s taxing, and she resented how much energy it took from her when any novice crucible could be paid to do it—if only on a much smaller scale than she could.

Lillian is an idiot.