A Reckless Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,23
modeling for government agencies. Watching energy shifts during spellwork gave him insights into weather patterns that agency types paid big money for. He and his gadgets were often present during training sessions.
It didn’t take them long to get to the valley of Ocean’s Reach, one of Jamie’s favorite places for group magic lessons. Even fairly weak witches could access decent power here, and the group today wasn’t weak. He felt the familiar thrum of anticipation and grinned at his brother. “Ready to play with some weather?”
“Do we get to make a really big storm?” Devin was an excellent mimic, sounding exactly like his young nephew.
Aervyn laughed. Sierra just looked excited—and Jamie could feel the concern building in Govin’s mind. It wasn’t good when the trainer was tense. Start small, Gov. And if it gets out of hand, you have lots of talent available. Use us.
Govin grinned ruefully. “Is that a nice way of calling me a scaredy-witch?”
Jamie tried to look innocent. Since even Aervyn was giggling, he clearly wasn’t doing a very good job. Time to point the conversation somewhere else. “So, what’s our first test spell?”
Govin consulted a list. “A warm-air current.”
Aervyn’s face scrunched up in disappointment. “That’s it?”
Govin crouched down. “Most weather happens when warm air and cooler air hit. So if a witch sets off a warm-air-current spell in just the right place, what do you think happens?”
Superboy’s eyes gleamed. “A storm?”
“Right. And we want this to be a safe spell for people to use, so we need to do a couple of tricky things.”
“Keep it small.” Superboy knew his weather rules.
“Right.” Govin nodded. “And we need to make it smart enough to pick the right temperature to be. We want it to be about ten degrees cooler than whatever air it ends up next to—otherwise you might get snow in July, or something crazy like that.”
Aervyn obviously thought summer snow was a fairly cool possibility, but he nodded solemnly. Then his forehead wrinkled. “How exactly do we do that? Air’s not very smart.”
Jamie grinned. That was one of Govin’s favorite lines.
The guy in question tapped his temple. “We need to think hard. I want everyone to try their own spell first, so we see how many different ways we can think of to try to make our air smarter. Then we’ll pick the best couple to work on together.”
Not bad for a guy who didn’t usually do much training. Aervyn had all kinds of power, but sorting out the best way to build a spell was a work-in-progress. This was a way for him to develop that skill, and learn from others, without making the coaching obvious.
Aervyn looked thoughtful. Devin waited with breezy confidence. And Sierra was already in motion.
“I call on Air, friend to me
Split a layer, one times three,
Each slower than the one inside
Cooler air giving warm a ride.
I call on Fire, sister of mine
Heat the core, one plus nine
Subtract two layers on word from me
As I will, so mote it be."
She looked up at the group, grinning, a spellshape on her palm. “This should work.”
Jamie gaped. Holy shit. If he’d followed her spellsetting right, she’d come up with a smart design that split air layers from the existing air currents, solving the relative-temperature challenge Govin had posed. It had a built-in trigger, which he hadn’t even asked for. And she’d done it all with less than ten seconds of thought.
Aervyn was still trying to catch up, and Devin was all kinds of impressed. With good reason—it was a heck of a spell on short notice.
It was also a spell that spoke of deep familiarity with air currents. And that would be why Govin’s mind was spewing uneasiness.
Jamie hadn’t been made Aervyn’s trainer because he was afraid to take a risk. He glanced at Govin, doubled his own groundline, mind-messaged Aervyn and Devin to do the same, and then nodded to Sierra. “Let it loose.”
A quick finger wave, and a category-three storm broke loose—in a perfect circle ringing their small group. Another finger wave, and it turned off.
Well, hell. Jamie looked grimly at Govin. The spell, and the way Sierra had made it dance, confirmed they had a weather witch with serious power and mad skills.
It had also confirmed that she did major magic with no net—even with a small child standing two feet away. She’d done no grounding, no training circle, no layering, no failsafes. Backlash from a storm that size could easily have killed Aervyn if he weren’t taking his own precautions.
And