The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume III: Volume III

smoke?
    She both dreaded and welcomed the ritual. Well . . . she welcomed the advancement the ritual offered. But to endure three days in a windowless room, the only door sealed by magic, with only a Tambootie wood fire for light and warmth, strapping huge bands of pressure around her lungs, squeezing the breath from her. Rumor—almost legend—proclaimed that when Jaylor had undergone the trial, the master magicians had had to battle the demons he conjured for three days before sending them back beyond the void.
    To be trapped in the room for three days would be bad enough. To be trapped with the monsters of her worst nightmares would kill her. She’d die of suffocation before the monsters could take form.
    “Have you finished the research for the paper?” Jaylor asked. He kept looking back toward the clearing, eyes clouded, worry making deep creases beside his mouth. Then he finger-combed his beard and turned those deep brown eyes fully on her.
    Margit felt as if her skin peeled away, revealing more than just her bones and organs. Her very soul was exposed to this man. He had to know how her heart skipped a beat and pounded relentlessly, how her skin jumped and her toes wiggled, eager to begin the journey this very instant.
    Her tree branch became very uncomfortable.
    “I think I’ve read everything others have written about opposing elements and complementary elements. But I need to conduct some experiments before I can know for sure that the theory works.”
    “You can do that on the road. I suggest simple things like a compulsion on your steed to make it travel faster to appease Katrina’s need to flee, then negate it when you find her to delay until Jack can catch up to you.”
    “Is this quest so very important?” She tucked her book inside her tunic and swung down to face the Senior Magician on his own level. She had to look up at the man who held her career in his hands as easily as he held the reins of the entire Commune and University. Not many men topped her by more than half a hand’s span.
    “I, the queen, the entire kingdom, have need of Jack’s special talents and skills. He is worthless unless he knows for certain that Katrina is safe. Can you do that?” The earnestness of his question lost some of its effect as his attention wandered back to his home in the clearing.
    She’d heard that one of the newborn twins was small and sickly, her sister having enough strength and energy for two. Too often, twins were born early—too early for both, or either, to survive. She wished she’d paid more attention to how long Brevelan had carried the babies.
    “Are Brevelan and the babies all right?” she asked, rather than speculate. The Commune thrived on rumors and gossip, most of it wrong. If the kingdom needed Jack free of concern and fully concentrating on his tasks, likewise the kingdom and the Commune needed Jaylor free of problems in his personal life.
    “Nothing you need worry about. Now, have you ever scried in a bowl of water?” Jaylor avoided answering. His eyes remained fixed on the trees in the direction of his home.
    “Uh . . . not officially, sir.” How much experimentation should she have done on her own?
    WithyReed discouraged apprentices from working any spell unless directly supervised by him. Slippy and Lyman, on the other hand, applauded initiative, even competition, among their students.
    “Unofficially, then, how much success did you have?”
    “None at all.” Margit hung her head.
    “Come into my study and show me how you worked the spell.”
    “Uh, can we try this out-of-doors, sir?” She stared at the closed door of his private workroom on the back side of the library. Only one entrance and one window, both facing north, toward the clearing and his beloved wife and children.
    Margit didn’t care which direction the openings faced. There weren’t enough of them.
    “Is this unnatural fear you have of being within four walls going to interfere with your ability to work magic?”
    “No. I survived three years in the palace as the queen’s maid.”
    “Survived, but did not flourish. Your magical talent has blossomed well beyond our initial test results since we brought you here. What bothers you so about being indoors?”
    “There isn’t enough air to breathe. Besides, you always have a cat with you. They suck out all the air in confined places.”
    “Cats.” Jaylor stared at her long and hard. “Cats. Very well. Fetch me the bowl on my desk and draw