Free Beyond the Prophecy by Meredith Mansfield

makes
you comfortable.”
    Vatar half-turned in his saddle. “What makes you think I’m
comfortable with any of this? I’m just doing what I have to.”
    “No. You’re doing what you think is right,” Thekila said
with more warmth. “It’s not quite the same.” And that’s one of the reasons I
love you so much.
    That made the corners of Vatar’s mouth twitch up briefly, in
spite of the waves still running up the beach little more than a man’s height
below them.
    The bluffs climbed as they wound away from the Temple and
the city, so that by the time they reached the point, they were high above the
bay.
    Dismounting, Thekila frowned at the dark water between the
two points of land. “We’ll have to use Far Sight to see what’s there.”
    Vatar swallowed hard. “I suppose we could climb down. Get
closer.” Getting closer to all the water was the last thing he wanted to do.
    Thekila shook her head. “No. Or . . . at least not yet.
It’ll actually be easier to see from up here.”
    She walked out to the edge of the bluff, Theklan right
beside her. Vatar drew a deep breath and followed. The water between the points
roiled. He concentrated on seeing what was underneath all that swirling water.
His breath eased. From underneath, the currents and waves were much less
obvious and disturbing. But the pile of rocks below the surface was impressive.
He raised his eyes and blinked to clear them of Far Sight. Now that he looked,
the scars on the opposite bluff were obvious. A lot of rock had fallen,
probably from this side as well. He reached for Thekila’s hand. “Maybe we
should step back just a little. These bluffs might not be very stable.”
    She looked up, also blinking. “You may be right. But I think
we’ll have to risk it. Too much farther back and we won’t be able to see
anything.”
    Vatar nodded reluctantly and concentrated on what was under
the surface of the water again. The rocks were jumbled together. Some small,
some bigger, and one that looked like half the cliff face. Even Thekila’s Power
would never be able to raise that.
    Evidently she felt the same. “We could move the smaller
stuff, no problem. Even most of the larger rocks. But I don’t think there’s
anything to be done about that biggest one.”
    Vatar continued to stare at that stone. It hadn’t survived
the fall unscathed. There were deep fissures in several places. They just
didn’t go all the way through. “Too bad we can’t break it up along those cracks.
Even in four or five pieces it still might be too much to move with Talent, but
it’d be easier for the dredgers.”
    “What cracks?” Thekila asked. “Oh, I see.” After a moment,
she went on. “You know, it might be possible to force the rock to break on those
lines by dropping one of the larger rocks in just the right spot. What do you
think, Vatar?”
    Vatar had been studying the cracks, sending his vision
deeper into the rock itself. “It might. I could try to guide you to the right
spot while you raise and drop the rock.”
    “Well, let’s give it a try,” Thekila said
    Vatar looked at the sky. Light wasn’t needed just for this
work. The ride back along the rough path on the top of the bluffs would be
dangerous in the dark, too. “It’s getting late. We’ll lose the light soon.”
    “Just one try. We can’t plan unless we know what’s possible.
And I’ve never tried anything like this before.”
    Vatar nodded. “All right.”
    Theklan stepped forward. “Let me help, too. I can lift some
of those rocks. Dropping them’s the easy part.”
    Thekila shook her head. “Not this time. Maybe tomorrow. You
can help by moving the smaller rocks out of the way.”
    Thekila narrowed her eyes and a rock the size of her horse’s
head rose smoothly out of the water and up to the level of the top of the
bluffs. Vatar concentrated on the deepest and most likely fissure, sharing the
image with Thekila. She adjusted the position of the rock and then released it.
The