Katsi kept her eyes on Daraden as Adrina spoke. “In order to connect the components together, it’s similar to what you do with stone or air. He just focuses on the essence of two items. Then, kind of like you do when mentally grabbing the air, he has one substance mentally grab the other and then seals it off. Words help create the bond, which is why they are often chanted while stirring. Language isn’t necessary in all honesty, but it does help, especially when mixing isn’t the shaman’s proficiency. Essentially the phrase you might use would be something like ‘air is water is dakoze is air’ to some effect.”
Katsi nodded. “My father would have me repeat phrases as well, though it was a different dialect.”
Adrina smiled. “That would work. There is a mixer dialect where the ingredients are already combined into one meaning. The word acts as additional binding to create one product.”
“I see,” Katsi muttered. Despite what Daraden said earlier, mixing seemed way more complex. She was realizing that the combining of ingredients was more like making a magic soup, not some scientific experiment.
“Done,” Daraden said, withdrawing the wooden spoon. He turned off the fire and used a mitt to grab the pot and pour it into a metal vial, similar to the ones Katsi still had in her bag. “You’ll notice that a lot of the solid ingredients have sort of dissolved into the entire solution. That’s a result of the mixing. Otherwise, you could boil a brasswood sapling for months before it became remotely close to this texture.” He handed the vial to Katsi. He smiled. “Hang onto it. Use it if you feel you need that extra kick.”
“Thank you,” Katsi said.
“Alright, now you’ve seen a proper mixing,” Adrina said. “I have a couple things I need to do before the celebration, but let's plan to meet in the hall beneath your room at exactly the first mark.”
Excellent. “Works for me,” Katsi said. “Wait, quick question. How does one create a potion to extend life?”
Daraden laughed. “Ah, the emperor’s favorite potion.”
Adrina gave Daraden a sharp look, and his smile vanished immediately. So he knew as well. They probably all knew.
“You might want to ask the emperor that yourself,” Adrina said.
“Alright then,” Katsi said. She would. She gripped the warm vial in her hand and hurried from the room. She couldn’t move fast enough, but the strange, open-toed shoes they’d put her in had bigger heels than she thought necessary. She simply connected with the air and flew through the hall just to avoid the awkwardness of walking.
She burst out the door of a second floor balcony that led outside. Without a second thought, she went over the edge of the railing, zooming down the side of the cliff, creating a pocket of air around her just in time to keep her hair from breaking free of the pins that held it in place. As she neared the ground, she slowed the descent and started steering off toward the rocky outcropping she’d seen Scales at the last time. She flew to the very top and lighted on the largest boulder. If anybody looked out a window of the castle long enough, they’d surely catch sight of her flashy dress. A few small trees provided minimal coverage, and they bowed heavily in a warm wind blowing from the Scorched Waste. It seemed the Maedari they’d avoided in Habkamal was going to make its way to Mazanib as well.
“Scales!” She looked everywhere, even using her magic to see if she could sense any presence in the air or ground. “Scales, I could use you right now.”
There was a flash of light to the north that disappeared in the same instant. She turned her back to the sun to get a better look, but there, flying low to the ground, came a winged creature, darker in shade and larger than she remembered. He came in fast, fully pumping his wings instead of just gliding on a current.
She smiled as he got closer and some of the blue scales on his neck glimmered in the sun. He let out a guttural squeal and went to land on her shoulder, but she realized he was considerably larger than the last time she’d seen him.
“Scales,” she yelped as he crashed into her, knocking her down onto the rock.
He croaked and nuzzled his head into her neck.
“Gah, Scales, you’re too big to go crashing into me like that.” Despite her protests, she broke into laughter and grabbed his head, scratching under his neck where the color shifted into a violet red.
Getting a better look at him now, she realized he’d grown to more than twice the size he was before she entered Mazanib. “Sands, Scales. You’re huge.” She sat up and ran her hand across the horns that spread around the top of his head like a jagged crown. He sniffed around at her as if hunting for something to eat. “Sorry, I didn’t bring you anything.”
Scales sat back on his haunches and tilted his head at her.
“I know, I haven’t come to see you for a while. I’m a horrible friend.”
He let out a low sound and nudged her leg softly.
“You’re right, that was a harsh thing to say about myself, but I’ve been letting myself get too distracted. Do you have enough to eat around here?”
Scales licked his eye before looking down at his feet from side to side.
Katsi laughed. “I suppose you must be eating okay in order to have gotten so big.” He was probably longer now from head to tail than she was tall.
He nipped at the bottom of her dress, fraying it just a little, then tilted his head at her.
“I know. I probably look ridiculous wearing this thing. It’s not my usual attire… but I have worn dresses plenty of times, you just haven’t seen me in one yet.”
He blinked before looking back up at the castle and making a popping noise from his throat.
Katsi sighed. “I’ve been learning a lot, but I don’t know if I can trust Emperor Malrabia.”
Scales growled, baring his teeth.
“Oh, you don’t like him either? I was hoping to interrogate him the next chance I get. There’s more he hasn’t been telling me. I feel like I should just leave the castle altogether and go find Migo, but I’m worried Migo trusts the emperor too much. It was hard for him to turn against his mother, and maybe as a king, he feels some of that same obligation towards the emperor.”
Scales’ growling intensified and he clashed his teeth once.
“Sands, you really don’t like him, do you?” A pressure squirmed in Katsi’s stomach. Anything to make Scales act like this only added to her nervousness. “Alright, then. I just have a few more questions for him, then I’ll get out of here.” She thought of the library and all the books there. All the missing knowledge. All the things she still wanted to learn. She didn’t want to abandon her studies, but she also didn’t want to stay if Alyssad’s influence was slowly poisoning her.
After all, instead of saving the villagers at Ubedim himself, he’d asked her to do it. That had resulted in a few people dying, but if he’d been the one to use his lightning, he seemed to be able to control it enough that he would have been able to avoid getting some of the villagers killed. Did that mean he’d risked people’s lives just to test her? Who would do such a thing?
She shook her head. Maybe the knowledge really wasn’t worth it. She let out a long sigh. “You’re right, Scales. I should leave. I’ll ask him my last few questions, then I’m out of here.” She glanced up at the storm clouds overhead as a light rain started. “Maybe I’ll even snatch up a couple books on my way out.
One last conversation. That was all she needed. But she also had to hurry back to the castle to meet with Adrina.
She scratched Scales under the neck one more time. “Alright, I’ll be back soon.”
He croaked at her again before she took off into the sky, back towards the castle, cursing whatever part of herself it was that always demanded answers.
Chapter twelve
