“Think”, Leesa told herself again.
She could imagine any number of different ways this dark void inside the table might be separated from the outside world—energy walls, solid matter of some sort, even magical barriers could do the trick. Abstract possibilities were of no use to her, however. She needed something she could visualize clearly enough to cast her telekinesis at.
Only one kind of boundary came to mind that fit her needs—the smooth black material the table had been fashioned out of.
She felt her heartbeat quicken at the thought. The marble-like stuff was not only a logical choice to make up the boundaries of this place, but it was also one she could visualize in clear detail, having seen it up close just a short while before.
She forced herself to calm down, centering herself once again. Excitement here could only get in her way. When she felt ready, she opened her eyes.
One direction was as good as another, so sh
Leesa had no more time to spend on the bloated corpse of the Necromancer. The dead wizard was a thing of the past—her concerns lay in the immediate future, with doing everything she could do to save her son.Invigorated by the knowledge that Dominic had emerged victorious over their hated foe and thus was probably still alive somewhere in this godforsaken place, Leesa cast her telekinesis out into the darkness once again. For the first time since she entered the world inside the table, real hope flared in her breast. Her optimism was further buoyed by the thought that if Dominic had indeed destroyed the Necromancer, he might not be too far away.As she drifted past the Necromancer’s body, Leesa realized she needed a way to make sure she was moving in the right direction. The last thing she wanted to do was to head off at an angle that might carry her farther away from Dominic.Reaching into her pocket, she took out her ring. What she saw surprised he
Dominic thought for a moment, stroking his pointy beard as he did so. “Perhaps I could. But that assumes we can get out of this place. I don’t suppose your book taught you a way to accomplish that, did it?”“No, it didn’t,” Leesa admitted. “I was kind of hoping you and I would be able to figure a way out together.”Dominic shook his head slowly, a wry smile playing upon his lips. “If I could escape this place, don’t you think I would have done it long ago? My magic has grown weak. Something about this place seems to absorb it. The more you use, the less you have left. I had to employ quite a bit to destroy the Necromancer, but it was a necessary sacrifice.”The last thing Leesa wanted to hear was how weak Dominic’s magic had become. She watched as he sat down again, his legs dangling over the invisible edge the way they had when she first came upon him.“What’s that you&rs
Rave sat on the thickest limb of one of the backyard trees, his legs dangling into the empty air, watching Ralin play in the branches above. His son was scampering about the upper reaches of the tree a little less aggressively than usual, and Rave guessed it was because his hand was beginning to bother him to the point where he was now favoring it. Even from here, Rave could see that the discoloration continued to darken.As he had done so many times already in the past two hours, he glanced down at the black table below, hoping to see some kind of light or movement in its dull black surface. Once again, his eyes found nothing but the same frustrating empty blackness. He didn’t let his gaze linger upon the tabletop—doing so was pointless, and he didn’t want Ralin noticing how much attention his father was paying to the table. Ralin had no idea his mother was somewhere inside its dark depths, searching for the man Leesa and Rave both hoped could fix their son’s hand.Using only his goo
Dominic rested his hand on the table’s edge.“We’re going to destroy it, that’s what we’re going to do.”Leesa didn’t hide her surprise. “Can we? Do we really have the power to destroy it, especially after what we just went through? With our magic weakened and everything?”“We can and we will. With the Necromancer dead, the table’s defenses are weakened. And now that we are outside, our magic should be back to full strength.”Leesa hadn’t tried to use any magic since escaping the table. She was glad to hear that her weakened power was only a factor of being inside the table.“What about the eyes inside the table? They were your comrades. If we destroy the table, don’t we destroy them as well? Can’t you do anything to help them?”Dominic shook his head sadly. “No. They are beyond any power to save. They are long dead—only their ma
The first time the unusual dream visited Leesa’s sleep she didn’t think much about it, other than it would have made a great beginning to a pretty cool book. She had dreamed about a bunch of teenagers called the Miracles, all but one of them possessing a specific magical power. It wasn’t wizard magic like hers, but some of the powers were similar. One curly-haired blond girl could perform telekinesis, and her handsome Mexican boyfriend could create magical light, similar to Leesa’s illumination orbs. A beautiful Asian girl possessed a healing power. Other powers were very different from anything Leesa or Dominic could do. One freckle-faced, red-headed guy could rewind time for a short period—that was a very cool trick, she thought—and the youngest guy could turn himself invisible. The girl who didn’t possess a power was named Leah, and she was about to turn eighteen. Leesa remembered how her own magic had begun appearing shortly after her eighteenth birthday, and she hoped something s
Ralin's magical training was very much a hit or miss affair. Even though he now looked like he might be ten or twelve years old, Leesa had to constantly remind herself that her son was barely five, with all the exuberance and inconsistency that manifested in any young child.Dominic’s dampening of Ralin’s waziri magic had by and large been successful, especially for the first few years after Leesa had rescued her mentor from the Necromancer’s magic table. Once Ralin’s volkaane magic stopped bursting forth out of nowhere, Dominic had slowly and gradually weakened the spell he had cast to mute the boy’s wizard powers.Ralin still had no control over when his magic might appear, or over what form it would take when it did. Whenever it arose, Dominic tried different methods and exercises to try to help Ralin control it, or at least for them to figure out what the magic might be trying to accomplish. The strange green spirals still appeared now and then, but neither Dominic nor Leesa had t
A week passed uneventfully. With each dreamless night—and with no further mention of the dream from Ralin—Leesa’s concerns slowly ebbed. The first night, she had considered attempting to summon the dream to see if it might have more information for her, or at least to try to see as much as Ralin had. She had discussed the idea with Dominic, but the wizard had offered no real advice, telling her this was one decision she would have to make for herself. In the end, she had decided that letting sleeping dogs lie was probably the best course. Unless Ralin brought up the dream again, she was not going to risk stirring things up.Ralin continued to struggle with the everywhere/nowhere technique—it now appeared as if his progress the day he told Leesa about his vision had been an anomaly, not a marker of some hurdle crossed. Dominic was a patient teacher, though. He continued working on it with Ralin each day, because it was the foundation upon which so much more could be built. Ralin did no
Leesa performed the spell several more times. Each time, the dimness grew larger and darker, though it was still nowhere near where she wanted it to be. Ralin provided her with proof of that.“I can still see you, Momma,” he called from the other side after the last incantation. He ran toward Leesa and jumped through the shadowy curtain into her arms.She caught him with a grunt and gave him a quick hug before setting him down. He was getting too big for her to hold him up like that for very long. She wished she had Rave’s strength, so she would never have to put Ralin down.“My turn now,” Ralin said. “I want to do magic.”Dominic looked to Leesa, who nodded. She was satisfied with today’s progress and wouldn’t mind a bit of rest while Dominic worked with Ralin. She crossed over to Rave and put her arm around his waist while Dominic turned to Ralin.“Okay, your turn,” the wizard said