“Okay, I’m ready.” He rubbed his palms together and bounced on his toes.
“Now, just let your magic build around it, just a little bit, and release it.”
He opened his eyes, and we all watched as the water moved in a beautiful arc from one side of the room to the other without a single drop spilling. “Woah.” He sucked in a sharp breath.
“It’s different, isn’t it? Before, when you moved the water, you were nearly drained. The second time, it took almost nothing, but you didn’t gain extra magic between the first and second time.”
He looked to his parents, who seemed surprised. I couldn’t tell if that was good or bad, but Cheb was clearly excited. “Can you teach me more?”
“I’m not sure. It would be easier to teach you if you were with the rebellion because I’m not able to leave the castle often, but there are other wielders there. Hiding.”
“Do you spy on the king?” he asked.
“I do anything the rebellion needs me to do because I think it’s the right thing to do.”
He turned to his parents. “I think I have to do this. I’ll never learn anything staying here, and we could help them.”
His father stood. “Thank you for your time. Let us discuss this as a family. We will get back to you soon.”
“In the meantime, please be careful. The king is hunting wielders more now than he ever has before. If he catches you, I can’t promise we can save you,” I told him.
He reached out his hand, and I took it. “Thank you. Must have been hard enough to get away.”
“It will be worth it,” was all I said in return.
The boy’s mother shoved a heavy basket of food into Rhogan’s hands. He tried to refuse, but she insisted. “If your mother knew I had seen you and didn’t feed you, I would have never heard the end of it. Just because she’s gone doesn’t mean I won’t still feed you, boy.”
“Fine, fine.” He took the basket and leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
I followed him out, but I still had some time before Gaea returned for me.
“He’ll join,” Rhogan said as we waited by the fence.
“How can you be sure?”
“Did you see his face light up when you showed him how to move the water? I think his father has been itching to join the rebellion for a while anyway, but his mother worries. Now that she’s seen he could benefit, I bet we will hear from them before the week’s end.”
I nodded, looking at the town in the distance. “How long do you think we have until the king figures it all out?”
“Weeks at most. There are just too many of us now. I know the northern rebellion has over a thousand members, and it’s hard to keep that many discreet. They can’t be too quiet or it’s suspicious, and they can’t be too loud or they draw attention. I doubt many of us are actually aware of that balance.”
He was smarter than I initially gave him credit for.
“What’s your end goal, Rhogan? When has the rebellion won in your eyes?”
He shifted, and his light blonde hair caught in the breeze. “When there isn’t a single lesser fae on Alewyn who’s afraid to lay his head down at night. When a high fae female and a lesser fae male marry and no one thinks twice about it. When a warrior’s biggest job is protecting fae from monsters and not other fae.”
“It stands to reason that fae are actually monsters in their own way.”
“Indeed.” He jutted his chin forward. “Your ride awaits.” He smiled that giant grin of his and wiggled his eyebrows as if we had a shared secret.
I turned to see Gaea scrutinizing us as we talked. “See you around?”
“See you around, Tem.”
His giant raven wings pounded the air, and he was gone within seconds, fading into the sky.
“Did you play nice with your friends?” Gaea teased.
