Free Color Mage (Book 1) by Anne Marie Lutz

mind had been taken by magery.
    Walking along the strand, she spoke to Elder Hame. The old man told her he had been sending boys out to the High Rocks to look for a ship. “My Lord Alkiran wants word as soon as she passes the rocks,” he told her. “Lord Callo said she is a Leyish ship. They’re heathen brutes, the Leyish. Breed good horses though.”
    Thinking of Miri, she looked up and saw riders on the strand. From a distance she could not distinguish who they might be, but she caught a gleam of gold and thought it might be the sun on Lord Callo’s hair. He rode with others, perhaps men of his command. The sun struck answering reflections from metal on their tack and weapons. They turned and galloped closer, on their way to the cliff path to take them upward to the Castle. It was indeed Lord Callo, graceful in the saddle, and two other men. Lord Callo’s eyes were on the way up the cliff path, and he did not glance toward Kirian.
    * * * * *
    The sea sparkled as a brilliant sun shone upon the little craft. Kirian, sitting near the bow, unpinned her brooch and let her cloak slide down her shoulders. It was simply too hot to wear a cloak, though there was a chill in the salt spray. The recent cold snap had given way to a series of warm days, a last reminder of summer before winter’s final bite. Kirian had taken advantage of the sultry weather to ask Kin and Rashiri to take her out on their boat.
    Kin and Rashiri hauled up the nets. Water streamed from the squirming catch and caught the light in glorious rainbows. A flopping, silvery mass of fish spilled out onto the deck of the Homebound .
    “And she is bound to home, too,” Rashiri had told Kirian. “We paid for a color mage from Two Merkhan to come and do a binding on her. She is bound to Seagard. So fear not, city girl! You are safe with us.”
    Kirian had never before been in a boat, not even the little mage-powered sailcraft that drifted in circles around LakeHeart in Sugetre. There, the sailcrafts were rented by the hour to those who were willing to pay a few coins for the pleasure, and never had a sailcraft been lost or even capsized on the calm little lake. So Kirian had boarded the Homebound with some trepidation. But after a few hours of sitting at her ease on deck, soaking up the sun and delighting in the vast beauty of the smiling sea, she was reconciled. She loved the feel of the sun, and the shouts and calls of the fish merchants at Two Merkhan were a pleasure to hear after the quiet of little Seagard. After the pair had sold their catch, the Homebound turned south again, heading for home.
    “I envy you,” she told Rashiri when the other woman took a break from her work to sip a jar of cold, honeyed tea with Kirian, both in the bow. “You’re surrounded by such amazing beauty here.”
    “We are very lucky to be able to do this together,” Rashiri said. Her face was creased and deeply tanned from exposure to the sun and wind. Her uncomplicated smile showed strong white teeth. “But don’t think it’s all like this.”
    “There must be storms, and rain, and wind.”
    “Those are bitter cold days, indeed,” Rashiri said. “And there are days with no fish, and days when one of us gets sliced by one of our own knives or the teeth on some unexpected catch.” She held out one arm to show Kirian the frightening white scar that ran around her forearm in an arc. “That’s a bite!” she said.
    “I see,” Kirian said faintly.
    “Spilled right out of the net with the catch and bit me before I could say aye. Kin got it off me, but Ruthan was busy that day and a few after, I can tell you.”
    “Fishing isn’t so peaceful then.”
    “It’s hard work. But I love it, Hon Kirian, and it’s the blessing from the Unknown God that I can be out on the bright sea every day with my love. How many can do that? Here, have some more tea.”
    Kirian held out her mug and let the other woman splash some of the caramel-colored liquid into it. The Homebound