Legacies (Mercedes Lackey) - By Mercedes Lackey Page 0,85

harder to Heal a Healing Mage than it is to Heal a regular person. And if their Healing Gift is strong enough, it’s impossible.”

“Sucks, huh?” Muirin said, reaching for her cup.

“In a word,” Loch agreed.

During lunch Loch complained about the lack of proper winter sports equipment, saying that this was the perfect weather for cross-country skiing, and Muirin pointed out that you couldn’t ski very far before you were off the grounds, and Addie said she was tired of listening to the two of them squabble. When lunch was over, Burke said he was going to go practice, and nobody even asked what he was going to practice, since Burke did just about every sport Oakhurst had to offer.

If Spirit had been restless in the morning, she was even more restless in the afternoon—but she felt as confined being indoors now as she’d been unwilling to venture out earlier. She went back to her room and changed into her heaviest outdoor clothes. Maybe a walk would clear her head.

The brick walkways were clear as always—in fact, right now they radiated heat, as the Fire Witches had heated them to turn some stubborn ice into water that the Water Witches could whisk away. Which sure beat the heck out of having to shovel them, even if she did still think it was a little creepy. There hadn’t been a lot of sunny days lately—and when there had been, she’d been stuck inside studying—and the combination of bright blue sky and sunlight on white snow was dazzling. Despite the fact that the hours were ticking inexorably away until the time the Wild Hunt rode out, Spirit felt her mood lighten. For a little while she could almost pretend that tonight wasn’t going to come, because she’d spent the last four months learning about all the bad ways life was different at Oakhurst, but today seemed determined to show her there were good ways, too. She spent a solid fifteen minutes watching two groups of Air Mages having a snowball fight—only the way they did it, the snowballs hovered in midair between the two teams, buffeted back and forth on gusts of wind, until they finally fell apart.

When she got tired of watching them, Spirit walked on, to where another group of kids were standing around a mound of snow. Bare patches on the ground and a couple of discarded snow shovels showed where the snow had come from. But why? . . .

Suddenly the snow mound began collapsing inward, melting down into water, but before it could trickle away, it swirled upward. First into a column, and then making a lightning transformation through a dozen different shapes: tree, dancing figure, rearing horse, bird in flight, leaping tiger. Each shape was shimmering and transparent like the water it was composed of, and as realistic as if it were the living thing it was modeled after. Each new shape was greeted with laughter and cheering until at last the water took the form of a dragon with spread wings and arched neck. Amid whistles and applause, the glistening water of the draconic form silvered over as it was turned to glittering ice.

But Spirit had only a moment to admire the ice dragon before the unbalanced weight of its own form fragmented it. The delicate outstretched wings snapped off and shattered, the head broke from the slender coiled neck, and the whole sculpture lurched to one side, toppled, and shattered. Its fall was greeted by groans of disappointment from the onlookers, then the Fire Witches began melting the ice so they could begin the game again.

Of course, not everyone who was enjoying the winter holiday was using magic to get pleasure from it. There were ordinary snowball fights going on, and Spirit even saw a couple of snowmen, looking a little odd decked out in Oakhurst caps and scarves. But she didn’t want to get into a snowball fight with anyone, and the snowmen only reminded her of building snowmen with Phoenix. She walked quickly past them, staring straight ahead.

Spirit was a little surprised to find that she’d walked all the way down to the train station. Surprised—and cold. But it was interesting to see that the tracks were completely clear of snow, just as the walkways were. She glanced back over her shoulder at the house, then along the tracks. Even if there is a full moon tonight, if someone took the path down to the train station, and then followed the tracks as