Sparks

  ~~~~~~~~~~

  Sure enough, the morning brought an onslaught of snow that left us trapped in the barn. Avis pulled some dried meat and two rolls from his bag. As he handed some to me, he tried to avoid my gaze.

  "You've had this planned," I told him accusingly.

  "There's nothing to be done for it. This is the only way."

  "Where are we?"

  "The Oakwick. We're just on the southern border now."

  "Why don't you want anyone to know where we went? Are we in hiding?" It was clear from the timing, just before the snow, that he wanted to make sure no one could follow us. Even an experienced and gifted Tracker like me would have to wait until the thaw to find any tracks that were strong enough to follow.

  "Yes." His answer was so simple, so honest it shocked me a little. "Look, I'm sorry I dragged you out here without an explanation, but there just wasn't time."

  "Well, there's time now." Judging by the heavy fall of the snow, we would be in the barn for a while.

  "Yes, now there's time. Do you remember Lheda telling you that you would do great things?" I immediately pulled up the memory, confirming it for him before he continued.

  "She intends to use you to influence the Nakben queen to ally with her in the takeover of Takla Maya." I stared blankly at him and blinked a few times. It was just plainly ridiculous to make such a statement.

  "If you don't want to tell me why we're out here, then fine. But don't lie to me."

  Avis flew at me, his fist landing squarely against my jaw to throw me to the hay-covered floor. "When you're ready to know what's going on in the world, you just let me know," he spewed at me. I had never seen him so angry, and it immediately confirmed to me that the story about Lheda and Takla Maya was true-though that didn't make me feel much better about having to leave school so suddenly.

  We spent another night in the barn in near silence. I was fuming mad about having to leave school just when I was starting to make some real progress, and Avis was still sore about being called a liar. Neither of us were prepared to swallow our pride and mend the gap first, so we left the barn and continued the ride north without a word.

  Our horses crunched through the snow that lay between the trees as we made our way along the trails. The falling of winter in the Oakwick had left it eerily quiet, except for a hawk that screeched above us. Daylight provided a much better view of the oaks and strange, vine-covered trees that made up the Oakwick on the northeastern side of Madurai all the way to the coast of the Eastes Sea. The snow clung to the branches and some of the higher vines, making them look more ominous than they already appeared.

  One day, Avis stopped and declared the spot would be our camp for a while. It didn't look to be anything special, except it was quite densely wooded by the trees with trailing vines and had a tiny clearing in the middle.

  We had been at the camp in the middle of the Oakwick for about a month when I decided I was ready to talk to Avis again. He was the only person I had seen since leaving Rhada at the stables the night we left Myxini. It was either talk to Avis or listen to the silence of the winter forest.

  "I'm ready." I told him one night sitting around the fire as we both ate from the elk I had killed the day before.

  "What do you want to start with?"

  "Why did we leave like that?"

  "Lheda plans to use your Spark to gain the Nakbe Islands as allies for a war against Takla Maya. It's always been the plan. She learned the queen had died about two months ago, and they'll be spending the next year electing a new ruler."

  "What does that have to do with me?"

  "She wanted you to figure out who was planning to run against the person she wanted and find their weakness so she could expose them. It would help ensure that the future queen will be someone who's willing to help her take over Takla Maya."

  "That's why she wanted me to learn Nakben?"

  Avis nodded. "And why she was 'disappointed' with your progress. She hoped you would have finished Round Nine and she could convince you to complete this for your demonstration for Round Ten. Like I said, she just doesn't like when things don't go her way."

  I sat for a while thinking about what Avis had told me. I had to take him at his word after what happened last time I questioned his honesty, but it was a lot to swallow to think she had been planning it all along. And I wasn't really sure having Madurai under its own control was a completely bad thing. At least it would put an end to the dues that frustrated the people.

  Avis began to chuckle. "The dues go to Lheda and Mathias, not Takla Maya. Who do you think pays for the school?"

  I thought about my iron bedframe and the hot meals I'd eaten for years; I even thought my Obsidian. All of it had been paid for by the people of Madurai, who thought they were buying their safety. Was such a thing even possible?

  "So what's your plan? Just hide me out here until after the Nakben elections, and then we go back to finishing the rounds I have left?" The idea of waiting a year to start Round Seven was more than infuriating, but I wasn't sure I had a choice.

  The look on his face fell, and I knew I wouldn't like his answer. "I'll teach you as much as I can, but I can't promise that you'll ever go back."

  "WHAT?" I stood up and glared at him. How could he do this to me?

  "I'm sorry, Lark. There's nothing I can do except keep you safe for now. You just have to-"

  I didn't hear the rest of what he said; I broke into a full run into the vined trees, looking for any escape from him. I ran from the unfairness and the anger, hoping to stay ahead of it and keep my mind clear from the injustice of it all.

  He had no right to take me out there and tell me I couldn't go back to school. I had worked to complete six rounds, and I would do whatever there was in my power to earn my pendant and be in complete control of my Spark. I promised myself I would find a way to go back.

  By midnight, I had no choice but to start making my way back to the fire. Without my heavy coat, I would certainly fall ill in the icy cold-despite my anger at Avis. I couldn't go back to school if I died of frostbite, and I wasn't about to let him have his way.

  As I approached the warmth of the fire in the clearing, Avis was leaning against a tree and looking out as if he'd lost his mind. I pulled out my sleeping pad and, before sliding in, spread the heavy blanket from my bed at school.

  "I promise I'll teach you everything I know," Avis whispered into the silence, my back turned to him. It was the only thing keeping me there with him, and he knew it.