Luathara - Book Three of the Otherworld Trilogy (5 page)

I enjoyed the training.  Not only was it exciting and exhilarating, but it gave me one more excuse to be close to Cade.  My favorite move, by far, was one which required him to wrap his arms around me in order to show me how to escape.  I was really tempted to just succumb to the attack, but a girl shouldn’t be too obvious.

One afternoon, after we were done with our practice for the day, but before we returned to the house, Cade invited me to sit next to him on one of the old, fallen eucalyptus trees that were so common in the swamp.  I silently obeyed, wondering what he wanted to discuss.  He had that look on his face, the serious one that meant something weighed heavily on his mind.  My heart sped up, half fearful, half
hopeful
.

“There is something else I’d like to teach you Meghan,” he said,
his tone
almost grim.

Uh-oh.  Why did he sound
so
reluctant?

“Okay,” I answered, my fingers absent-mindedly pulling at the bark of the tree.

“We, the Faelorehn, have another gift, one you have already started using to some capacity,” he went on.

Okay
, I said once more in my mind,
subconsciously
urging him to spit it out. 
What could it possibly be?

“You see,” he dropped his head and joined me in peeling away old bark.  “We have the gift of mind-speaking.”

Huh?  What was that exactly?

My arched brow and silence must have expressed my confusion because he smiled at me and seemed to relax a little.

“How do you communicate with Meridian?”

I blinked, not expecting the question.  “Uh, she tells me things, in my head and I answer her back the same way.”

“How do you do it?”

I shrugged.  I couldn’t tell him.  True, he had told me that when she was old enough, Meridian and I would be able to speak telepathically, but I couldn’t tell him
how
we did it.  It just sort of happened.

“It came naturally, correct?”

I nodded.

“The Faelorehn can also speak, mind to mind, to one another.  I’d like to teach you how.”

He went quiet again and that gave me a few moments to gather my thoughts.  So, did that mean I could speak with him the way I spoke with Meridian?  I shivered inwardly, delight suffusing me.  To be able to communicate telepathically with Cade?  It seemed so . . . intimate.

I turned back to him and smiled.  “I think that would be a useful skill.”

He released a great sigh and returned my smile.  Why was he so nervous about this?

“I was afraid to tell you Meghan.  I was afraid you might think I’ve been reading your mind all this time.”

Ah, that explained his nervousness.  And made me reconsider my earlier thoughts.  I froze. 
Had
he been reading my mind?  And if so, what had he seen?  Oh no, had he seen all those times I’d daydreamed about him?  Could he hear what I was thinking right now?

He must have noticed my panic, because he lifted a hand and moved over an inch.  “Meghan, I swear to you, I’ve never once read your thoughts.”

“Then how is it you know what I’m thinking right now?!”  Oh crap, oh crap,
oh crap
. . .  How mortifying!  I could feel myself blushing to the roots of my hair and I stood up, ready to bolt.

“Meghan, I don’t need to read your thoughts, they are written plainly all over your face.”

There was laughter in Cade’s voice and darn him, he reached out and gently took my hand.  It had the opposite effect of lightning, soothing me instead of jolting me.

“Sit, and let me explain.”  He patted the spot next to him on the fallen tree.

Sighing and willing my burning cheeks to return to their normal, paler color, I sat down, grumbling under my breath.

“Mind-speaking, or
sh
i
l-sciar
, is different than communicating with your spirit guide.  First, the conversation takes place in a completely different part of your mind.  When you share thoughts with Meridian, they appear on the surface, within the shallowest part of your conscious.  Sh
i
l-sciar with another Faelorehn, however,”

He paused and seemed to be reluctant to go on.

“Mind-speaking, uh,
s
h
i
l-sciar
, with another Faelorehn . . . ?” I prompted.

Cade took a breath.  “It requires something more.  Trust, of the deepest kind, and complete honesty.  One cannot lie when conversing using
shil-sciar
.”

How . . . interesting, and daunting.  I wondered how that worked, considering I’d lied often enough to myself.  And people lied all the time in regular conversation, why couldn’t they do the same with mind-speaking?  Maybe it was a Faelorehn thing and not a human one.

The sound of Cade’s voice again prompted me to leave my thoughts for later.

“When we use
shil-sciar
our thoughts, our internal words, come from the same place where our emotions reside, so mind-spoken words are the purest form of conversation, even more pure than words spoken aloud in the most sincere way.  The words often show up as writing, appearing and disappearing across the darkness of the mind.”

“Like typing on a keyboard?” I asked.

Cade nodded.  “It’s slightly different with each individual.  The words are also accompanied by a feeling of who the person is and tinged with the color of the emotion they are conveying.”

I crinkled my eyebrows.

Cade's mouth quirked in a smile.  “It’s an indescribable sense.  The only two people I mind-speak with, at the moment, are the Dagda and my sister.  I can tell them apart by the feeling that I get when I receive their words in my mind.”

I nodded.  I guess that made sense.  After all, I got a different feeling each time I interacted with my brothers and parents.  They were all feelings of love, but they were all different in their own way.

“Anything else I should know?” I asked.

“Yes.  The words are also accompanied by colors.  Each color represents the emotion the speaker is feeling.  Reds often depict forms of distress, blues represent calm, yellow caution and so on.  You’ll come to learn them as you get better at mind-speaking.”

“So, how does it work?”

“First, I need you to find the place in your mind that is most perceptive to magic.”

I gave him a look.  How was I supposed to do that?

Cade smiled and said, “Close your eyes and seek out your Faelorehn power.  Remember how I showed you how to find it
when we were
in
Eile
?”

Oh, I remembered.  It was the first time he had kissed me.  Well, the first time he had kissed me when I had been fully aware of it.  I shivered and then my skin grew hot as my mind conjured
up
the memory.

I gulped.  “Uh huh,” I whispered.

Cade moved closer to me.  “It’s almost the same thing, only instead of trying to feel it, you are going to try and see it.  Close your eyes.”

Okay
. . . Shrugging I did as I was told.

“Concentrate on the feel of your magic.  It won’t be very strong since you’ve been in the mortal world for
so long, but it will be there.
”

I focused, trying to block out everything but the darkness of my mind.  Slowly, a small pinprick of light came into view.  It grew brighter until I was seeing a blue flame glowing in the darkness.  It warmed my heart and made me smile.  My magic.

“Have you found it?” Cade asked.

“Yes,” I said with a smile, still keeping my eyes closed.

“Good.  Now I need you to look away from your magic, into the darkness just beside it.”

I did as he asked, feeling a bit reluctant to leave my beautiful fae power behind.

“Okay,” I said, “all I see is darkness now.”

The words,
Very good Meghan
, scrawled across the dark space, pale blue in color, accompanied by the whispering echo of Cade’s voice.

I gasped and my eyes flew open.  I stared at him, my face surely white with shock.  Yes, I had heard his voice, but not with my ears.  What the hell . . . ?

Cade held up a hand, his own face looking uncertain. 
Don’t be alarmed.  This is mind-speaking.  I want you to try to project your own words towards me.  You have to think about what you want to say, find the dark spot next to your magic, and then say them, in your mind.

Once my initial shock wore off, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes again.  I found the dark cavity next to my magic and thought of something to tell Cade. 
How is this possible?
I sent.

Cade’s words and essence blossomed
,
a warm yellow in my mind. 
It is because of our Faelorehn glamour.

This is so weird
, I sent back, wondering what color my words were in his head.

It is strange at first, but you’ll get used to it. 
Shil-sciar
can be a very useful skill, especially once we reach the Otherworld.

I gulped, trying not to think about the Otherworld.

Until then
, Cade continued,
we will practice.

Okay, what shall we talk about?
  I asked, starting to like this way of talking.  It was odd, no doubt about it, but it was nice as well.

I can tell you a little more about your glamour and how to use it.  The essence of our magic, like I told you once before, stems from the earth but is cultivated in our blood.  We borrow from the earth, and being in
Eile
makes our glamour more powerful, yet it is in the blood where our magic is most potent.  That is why some of the tribes of ancient Ireland made blood sacrifices; they thought they could harness the power of Faelorehn magic through the blood of animals.  Unfortunately most earth born creatures don’t contain nearly as much magic as those from the Otherworld.  It is often said that a wounded Faelorehn is far more dangerous than one that is not.  An open wound has the potential to release an incredible amount of magic since the skin is not there to keep it in check.  Think of it as an ele
ctrical wire that is encased in rubber
.  You won’t get shocked unless you touch the bare wire.  Your blood is the conductor and your skin helps keep it in check.

I listened to Cade’s lesson, letting his words flow into my mind.  I had never thought of magic as electrica
l, but I guess it made sense.

When you call upon your magic, and if you are very still and concentrate hard enough, you can sometimes feel it coursing through your veins, along with your blood.

Another thing you
need to
know is that using your glamour can be dangerous for you.  Magic is something that must be carefully administered and controlled.  If you use too much at once, it can damage you, even kill you.

Worry tainted the pale red words Cade scrawled across my mind, and I realized he was telling me this not only because it was something I should know, but because I had been careless with my magic before.  Not that I could have known any better.  I thought about how I had overcome the Morrigan’s faelah army after Cade’s defeat, careful to keep those thoughts away from the place in my mind that would project them to
wards
Cade.  Could I have killed myself that day?

I swallowed. 
How do you know if you are using too much?

Cade moved closer to me and I could feel the heat pouring off of him.  I resisted the urge to close the distance between us and simply sat there, willing my heartbeat to slow down.  He placed a hand over the spot where my magic resided, next to my heart.  My mouth went dry and my heart sped up.

Whenever you need to use a large amount of magic, always remember to bring it into your inner sight so that you can monitor it.  Meghan,

Cade’s words stopped flowing into my mind and he placed his hands on both
my
shoulders, turning me so that I faced him.  He looked into my eyes
, his own a deep, golden green.
I wondered what color mine were at the moment.

Meghan, never,
ever
, let your magic burn out.  If the flame that represents your glamour ever becomes faint and starts to flicker like a candle about to extinguish itself, you stop whatever it is you are doing and pull your magic back into yourself.  To let your magic burn out is to die.

The grip on my shoulders tightened and I actually cried out.

“I understand,” I croaked as I tried to pull away from him.

Cade released me, taking several steps back.  He ran his hand through his hair and took a deep, shuddering breath.

“Meghan, I’m sorry,” he said aloud.  “I didn’t mean to hurt you, it’s just-”

He sighed again as I stood back and rubbed my shoulder.  He had gripped me pretty hard.