Free Waterdance by Anne Logston

“because I don’t have enough healing magic for spells, just a kind of knack for knowing what’s wrong and what to do about it.”
    Atheris gazed at her for a long moment; then his eyes widened.
    “You sacrificed your gift,” he whispered, very slowly, “for this?” He touched her sword.
    Peri irritably pulled out a strip of dried meat and chewed on it; she hated having nothing to do.
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she muttered.
    “Why would you forsake your magic for the sword?” Atheris persisted, looking disturbed, almost horrified.
    “I didn’t forsake anything,” Peri said, annoyed. She gestured pointedly at Atheris’s empty scabbard. “Why did you?”
    Atheris’s brows drew down.
    “That is different,” he said with great dignity. “The temple required my sword training. But you are a woman.”
    Peri rolled her eyes and shut her mouth hard before she could begin an argument that would probably lead to raised voices and subsequent discovery. She’d run into that attitude often enough in Agrond. She certainly didn’t need more of it from a Sarkond.
    Anyway, I’d value his opinion slightly lower than what I just put in that waterskin, Peri thought grimly.
    “More importantly,” she whispered, “we need to talk about your next spell. What’ve you got that can tell us how far we are away from this city, this Darnalek, and whether or not your Bone Hunters are following us, and if so, how close they are?”
    Atheris scowled slightly, but he paused thoughtfully before he answered.
    “The city would be only an elementary scrying,” he said. “The Bone Hunters are another matter. Finding them is simple; preventing them from sensing my scrying in turn is another matter. That requires a more powerful spell.”
    “So?” Peri said.
    “I am already sustaining the blood spell on this wagon,” he said slowly and patiently, as if speaking to a child. “Casting the necessary scrying will weaken me greatly.”
    “Well, think about this, then,” she said, just as patiently. “We have to get away from this caravan before we get into a city, or I’m dead. We’ve got to find some other place to hide, or you’re captured. That means that we’ve got to know where the city is so we have time to get away from the caravan, and we’ve got to know where the Bone Hunters are so we have time to get away from them. Or do you have a better idea?”
    Atheris was silent for a long moment. At last he spoke, sounding very tired.
    “I will require a bowl,” he said. “Or a cup.”
    And they had none. Peri thought about the problem for a moment, then nodded.
    “Can you make fire?” she asked.
    “Fire?” Atheris repeated. “By magic?”
    “By magic, yes,” Peri said irritably. “If I wanted somebody to hear me scraping away with flint and steel, I wouldn’t have asked you in the first place. Can you make enough fire to light a candle? Yes or no?” This was a Sarkondish mage, true, not a Fire-Dedicated like her mother, but even Loris could’ve lit a simple candle.
    “Yes,” Atheris said very softly. “I can light a candle. But if I do, it will be seen.”
    “Not if you stop talking about it and do it before the light goes,” Peri retorted. She had to remind herself sternly to be slow and quiet as she drew a candle out of one of the bags. “Hurry.”
    Atheris said nothing, although he clearly wanted to question, if not argue, but he only focused on the wick of the candle Peri held out; a moment later the candle flared alight. Peri handed the candle to Atheris.
    “All right,” she said, extending her cupped hands. “Drip the wax into my hands.”
    Atheris’s eyebrows shot up, but he obeyed, tilting the candle sharply so that the wax melted rapidly. He glanced at Peri’s face as the hot wax dripped down. “I would think,” he said slowly, “that that would be quite painful.”
    Peri grinned ruefully, carefully working the liquid wax with her thumbs against her palms into a bowl