. . it seemed cold, measuring. Not at all friendly.”
“I completely agree, and it will be easy enough to for me to make sure anything you are given is safe to eat,” Rosa replied, waiting to mount the stairs of the vardo behind Giselle. “Earth Magic is good for that sort of thing.”
“I’m glad you don’t think I’m being silly.” Giselle lit a paper spill at the coals in her stove, and lit her two hanging lanterns with it.
Rosa snorted. “I’ve been stalked by werewolves, hunted by other Elemental Magicians and by a ghost, threatened by vampir, and . . . well, I am the last person to think you are being silly if you feel as if you are being watched by something or someone unfriendly. I don’t know what enemies you could possibly have, but who knows what enemies your Mother collected! And for all we know, that wretched Blood Witch has an ally here, and that’s what’s watching you!”
“Or it might be an Elemental of some sort. I don’t know enough about what’s likely to be around a city,” Giselle said doubtfully.
“Or it might be one of the Greater Air Elementals that has been coerced in the past and is not pleased to see an Air Master about that might think about coercing it again.” Rosa set about gathering the few things she would need for her warding. Giselle didn’t need anything more than a bit of incense, which she got out of a little box and started burning.
“I hadn’t thought of that. I hope that is what it is,” she said, sitting herself down at the table and composing herself so that she could concentrate on building her wards. “If it is, well, it will see I am no threat eventually, and go away.”
Building the wards was one of the first things that Mother had taught her once they had really started in on her lessons, but Mother had warned her not to use them unless she actually needed to. “Merely putting up wards signals to other Air Masters and all Air Elementals that there is an Air Mage there,” she had said. “Not putting them up is often safer than doing so, if you are not planning on working any magic. Doing nothing at all keeps you invisible unless something is looking for you.”
Well, something had not only been looking for her, it had found her. So, wards it is. She breathed in the scent of the incense, and pulled in the energy of the Air and infused the incense with it, willing it to protect her from every sort of magical attack. Once the air was saturated with scent and magic, she gently compacted it all, “pushing” it away from herself and infusing it into the porous walls and floor and ceiling of the vardo, and creating invisible walls of scent and power over the windows and across the chimney vent. She left nothing to chance, and when she was absolutely sure she had every possible entrance blocked, she set it all in place with a final burst of power and opened her eyes.
Rosa had her eyes closed, and Giselle felt the pulsing of golden Earth Magic about her still. So she remained quiet, to keep from disturbing Rosa’s concentration, until her friend exhaled and sent a final pulse of magic of her own radiating out into the vardo walls.
“Well!” Rosa said, opening her eyes with a smile. “That’s that. If anything manages to see past what we’ve done, I will catch it and eat it.”
Giselle chuckled. “And speaking of eating . . .” She reached over her head and brought out a box of marzipan formed and colored into the most delightful shapes of fruits. “Look what I have!”
“Oh . . . marzipan . . .” Rosa licked her lips. “I really think though, just to be sure, I should test it first. You know. Just to be safe.”
“Of course!” Giselle chuckled. “Just to be safe. I’ll make some tea while you test it. Just make sure you don’t test it until there is none left for me.”
15
WITH the visitors shooed out for the night, all of the chief members of the company had gathered around a table in the mess tent. There was just a little more than three weeks before they needed to be in winter quarters at the abbey, and plans to get there needed to be finalized. And it was not enough for just Kellermann to make those plans;