chapter nine-ten

its been a long while bear with me

The Plane jerked and hopped over the pavement of the runway, I looked up from my book and squinted out the bright window at the mountains that stretched from the west, mny hand throbbed along with every beat of my heart.

"How's your hand?" Her voice was soft and tired, I smiled  and told her it was fine.

It wasn't, I had no idea what was going to happen or what I was going to do about it, for the longest time I thought wizards were a solitary people that lived bright lives and then died in tragic and explosive finales. Some old tattoed freak was the last thing I wanted to tangle with.

My eyes focused past the sight spectrum and I gasped at the beauty of the weave as it wrapped around those white capped peaks and blanketed the city in a protective hold. It would be very difficult to do any glamours around those mountains, a shield born of old, old age and a lasting memory that sat in the heart of the stone like an immobile pulse.

The captain intterupted my sightseeing with the instructions that we could leave the plane, shuffling along llike a train car full of cattle, the slaughtehouse only a ramp away.

Charles kept a close eye on me as we left the airport and walked towards the car rental kiosk, I smiled at the cold blue sky and tried to shake off the uneasy ball in my gut. I willed a sliver of power into my left hand, it was like pulling a dumbbell out of quicksand, my palm only rose a few degrees in heat and then it cooled.

Not good, not good at all.

The rental kiosk was clean and smelled likem carpet cleaner, the woman smiled at us like an idiopt and before she could open her mouth I told her to give us a car. I was afraid she would just call me rude and then we would really be screwed, instead she handed us a pair of keys and her eyes glazed over.

Sliding into the backseat of the long american car I waited for Karrey to sit next to me and I kissed her on the mouth, she reciprocated and it made me feel a little better, she wasn't just riding the wave of magic she actually enjoyed my company.

Charled looked at us through the mirror and a scowl flashed across his dark face, I smiled at him and winced as my chest burned with a sharp ache, the morphine was out of my system so this was going to be a very uncomfortable ride to the mountains.