Page 148 of Sword & Shadow
“I have lived a great deal longer than you, Thom,” she said, her raspy voice low and impactful. “Trust me when I say, I understand how emotion can manipulate the truth. What you perceive, what you feel—oftentimes it winds up hurting more than helping.”
Thom didn’t know how to reply to that. He didn’t know how to take it. Could Ilain possibly be saying that they were alike?Werethey? He supposed they were. He felt deeply, and now that he knew her, he could see the same signs in Ilain. They were passionate people, often driven to reckless decisions by the intensity of their emotions. Perhaps Ilain Calder did know a thing or two about him.
Casually moving from under her touch, Thom gave her a lopsided grin. “What? Are you my mother now?” he asked.
Ilain returned his smirk. “I like to think of myself as your conscience.”
“Does that make you a figment of my imagination?”
She snapped her fingers.
A flame scorched to life, scalding the back of Thom’s hand. “Ow!” he yelped.
With a taunting smile, Ilain shrugged. “Guess not,” she said.
Thom inspected his hand, finding it pink but otherwise unharmed. He shook it out. “That was uncalled for.”
“Don’t get your knickers in a bunch. I wouldn’t seriously injure you.”
“Oh, but you’d lightly injure me?”
“Depends.”
“On what?”
“If you deserved it.”
Thom eyed her, sitting back. “I’m starting to think I should be scared of you.”
“Took you long enough.” She leaned forward to lay out the fillets with precision. “Now, shut up. I need to channel the sunset.”
“Why—?”
She sent him a scathing glare, and he closed his mouth.
Ilain closed her eyes then and took a deep breath through her nose. She stretched out her hands to hover over the blanket and the waiting fish. Warily, Thom watched as she remained still as a statue for several seconds. He began to think nothing was going to happen when she said, “Don’t look.”
Thom began to ask “why not” when a sudden flash of light flared from her hands. He shut his eyes a second too late. Blinded by the Day magic, he grimaced. “You could have warned me sooner,” he said, rubbing his eyes.
He thought Ilain waved a dismissive hand toward him, but with his impaired vision, he couldn’t be sure. “You knew what I was going to do,” she said. “It’s your fault you weren’t smart enough to think ahead.”
“Allore, you really are my conscience,” he grumbled. “No one else could be so snide.”
Together, they began to wrap the now-dried fish in wax-coated cloths. Thom was amazed at how well her magic had worked. The flaky meat was the perfect mix of tender and dry. It fell off the skin readily, and when he tasted it, he found he didn’t mind fish after all.
“I’m reluctant to say,” he swallowed the bite and met Ilain’s stare, “magic may be my new favorite thing.”
She chuckled again, settling the food into a pack. Her gaze drifted to the far side of the camp, however, drawing Thom’s attention. He turned, finding Ethenn at the horses, digging through his saddlebag.
Thom glanced at Ilain, who was now pointedly retying the laces on the pack. She didn’t bother to look up even when Ethenn stepped over to retrieve a waterskin from the pile near them. He scanned the empty blanket and the pack in front of Ilain.
“Did you finish up already?” Ethenn asked, impressed.
As Ilain continued to ignore the boy, Thom spoke for her. “We did,” he said, leaning back on his forearms. “Lainy here has quite the way with a blade.”
Ilain sent him a sharp look. “A fact you’ll know intimately if you call me that again.”
Thom grinned dryly. “Whatever you say, milady.”
