Disciple of War Disciple of War (Art of the Adept #4) - Michael G. Manning Page 0,192

the next congruence and brought them back to Faerie. The area they emerged in was a sunny plain covered in thick grass. His aunt paused there for a moment to let him warm back up, and Will took the opportunity to summon Dinner back.

“What did you do?” she asked when she saw the sack reappear.

“I almost froze to death. At his size there’s no way he could have survived, so I stored him in the limnthal,” explained Will.

“Is he all right?” Tailtiu transformed without warning, regaining her usual appearance and sending Will sliding roughly to the ground. She turned and caught the sack before Dinner could fall with him.

He didn’t complain, though he rubbed his backside as he got back to his feet and watched Tailtiu examine the puppy for any damage. There was a distinct aura of anxiousness in her body language. “Will he become immortal?” asked Will.

Green eyes snapped toward him and focused on his face. “What?”

“If he’s been staying with you and he eats food there, he’ll become fae as well, won’t he?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” replied Tailtiu. “Then there’d be no point in eating him. He would lose that special flavor unique to mortal flesh.”

“So, you haven’t been keeping him with you?”

“No. I found a quiet place in your realm. He stays there whenever I must return to Faerie and regain my strength.”

“You leave him alone?” Will tried to imagine it. “Is this in the wild somewhere? Aren’t you afraid something will get him?”

“I built a shelter for him,” she replied, turning her head to the side as Dinner licked her chin and cheeks.

Will found her behavior strange. It didn’t fit any of his conceptions about his aunt. “You made a home for him, a doghouse?”

Tailtiu sneered at him. “Don’t be silly. It’s a farm.”

“You’re attached to him. He isn’t food. He’s a pet,” accused Will.

She sighed. “Your people do the same thing. You build barns and buildings to shelter your livestock. This is no different.”

“Mm hmm,” Will responded dubiously.

She ignored his obvious disbelief. “I’ll have to change our route. I wasn’t thinking clearly. Dinner won’t survive the next plane.”

“How bad is it?”

“There’s no air.”

“Since the limnthal didn’t hurt him, I can put him in there. How long will I have to hold my breath?” asked Will.

Tailtiu smirked. “You can’t. The air would explode out of your lungs if you tried, or you would hurt yourself even worse. There’s almost no pressure at all, but you only have to endure it for ten or fifteen seconds.”

It sounded bad to Will. “Anything else I should worry about?”

“Your eyes and ears. You might go blind and your eardrums could potentially burst. I stopped using a humanoid form after my first time through there. Do you have a way to protect yourself?”

He ran through several ideas, but none were practical. A water-breathing spell wouldn’t work, since it simply stored air in a compressed space within his chest. It essentially just allowed him to hold his breath for an extremely long period of time, and according to what Tailtiu had just said, that would be a bad idea. A force-globe or a force-cage could be used to contain air, but if Tailtiu was inside it with him she wouldn’t be able to propel them, and if she was outside it, she wouldn’t be able to move him.

In the end, the best solution he could come up with was using an iron-body transformation on himself. That would vastly increase the strength of his skin, eyes, and ear drums, though he wasn’t sure if it would be enough. Tailtiu transformed into a new animal form that was functionally similar to the deer form, but rather than fur it had rough, hard skin and there were no eyes at all. Will stored Dinner once again in the limnthal and leapt onto her back. As she took them through the congruence, he made a mental note to not clench his jaw. If he didn’t let the air out of his lungs, his chest might burst.

The air exploded from his mouth the moment they crossed over, followed by intense pain in his eyes, nose, mouth, and sinuses. Seconds later, Will felt his skin begin to tingle and burn. His tongue swelled in his mouth until it felt as though it might strangle him. A loud sound followed by a sharp pain in his ears came next, and then the world went silent.

He couldn’t see, but that meant little since he had kept his eyes closed. Panic