Spellslinger (Spellslinger #1)(88)

‘Get away from me, human,’ he growled. He got on his feet and shook himself. The shock of falling seemed to have brought him back. His eyes were a little clearer and he looked as if he’d mastered his fear. I wished I could say the same for myself.

‘I was trying to help,’ I said.

He looked up at me and gave a little snort. ‘If you’re going to cry, go do it over the torch. Maybe you can put it out that way.’

‘I’m not crying, damn it. I’m sweating from the heat.’

‘Sure.’

I moved to the centre of the barn where the smoke wasn’t as thick and reached into one of Ferius’s saddlebags, which were on the floor. I was looking for a cloth to wrap around my nose and mouth. What I found was the little pouch of red powder she’d shown me when she was painting her card. I rummaged around and found the pouch of black powder. Hells, I thought, remembering what she said about them exploding on contact with each other. No need to worry about burning to death. I’ll just blow us all up instead. I thought about tossing them to opposite sides of the room to keep them separated, but then had a better idea. Well, not a better one, but it was the best I had. I ran to the barn door.

‘What is it?’ Reichis asked, following behind me.

‘These powders. They make an explosion on contact with each other.’

‘What’s an explosion?’

I almost laughed. But when would a squirrel cat have ever seen anything explode? Careful to use only my left hand, I scooped out a small handful of black powder and dropped it by the door. Part of me expected it to catch fire right away, but it didn’t. Whatever it was made from stayed inert until it met with the opposing chemical. With my right hand I pulled out a small handful of the red powder. ‘Stay back,’ I said to Reichis. I took a few steps back myself and then tossed the red powder towards the black. They exploded in a small ball of flame and, just for a second, I felt a surge of hope that the door might give way. It didn’t.

‘Do it again,’ Reichis said. ‘Use more this time.’

‘I used half of each bag.’

‘Then—’

‘It doesn’t work that way,’ I shouted in frustration. ‘It needs to be contained somehow. It needs something to direct the force. Damn it, I can’t think!’

The horse had broken its tether and was now running around the barn in circles, futilely searching for an escape. The noise and the chaos were making it impossible for me to concentrate.

I shut my eyes tight and clamped my hands around my ears so that I could focus. I turned my thoughts back to the powders sitting in their pouches on the ground. The first try had accomplished nothing but to feed the flames even more. A second wouldn’t do any better. The powder is the answer. Somehow. I just need a way to control the explosion so it doesn’t dissipate. Why couldn’t you have broken the damned ember band? Only … what I needed wasn’t actually ember magic. That was for creating energy, not focusing it.

I removed my hands from my ears and looked down at them, my eyes fixating on the specks of powder stuck to my fingertips. Master Osia’phest had told me at the oasis that the carath spell didn’t generate wind; it channelled whatever force was at the precise point of the spell. If the only energy present was a light breeze, then it channelled that breeze in the direction of the spell. If something more powerful was present …

‘Reichis, I’ve got an—’

‘Kellen, look out!’ he shouted.

I turned just in time to see a raging mass of hoofs and muscle rearing down at me. The horse, its mouth frothing as the sides of its coat smouldered from contact with the burning walls, was going mad, stomping on everything in its path. I jumped out of the way just in time to watch its hoofs smash into the dirt floor. The pouch containing the red powder tipped over and its contents began spreading towards the one with the black. I tried to reach in to pick them up, but the horse reared once more and again brought its hoofs down, and this time the pouch with the black powder tipped precariously. If the black one fell too …

‘He’s afraid of the fire,’ Reichis said, as if I might not already be aware of that fact.

I reached out and tried to gentle the horse, but it snapped its teeth at me. ‘Damn it, you’re going to get us killed, you stupid beast! Reichis, the powder!’

‘I’m on it,’ Reichis chittered. I turned to see him bounding from the other side of the barn. At first I thought he was going to run to the pouch of black powder to snatch it out of the way. Instead he leaped in quick progression from the floor up to a barrel and onto a shelf that held grooming equipment. From there he launched himself and spread his limbs wide, gliding onto the horse’s neck. The beast reared up, trying to shake him off, but the little squirrel cat held firm on to its mane and climbed up closer to its head. I watched in awe as Reichis, still hanging from the mane with one paw, used the other to grab the horse’s ear. I thought he was about to bite into it, but instead he started chittering furiously. The horse reared and shook once more, then its hoofs landed on the ground and it stopped moving.

‘His hide is starting to burn, Kellen,’ Reichis said, still sitting atop the horse’s head.

I grabbed a blanket folded over one of the stalls and used it to tamp down the horse’s sides. It took the treatment with surprising stillness. ‘What did you do?’ I asked, looking into the horse’s eyes. The fear was still there.