None of them had an air element, though. But even an air element couldn’t assist me without wings. Not yet at least.
While Matron Olsander had been teaching me to understand the subtleties of my affinities, I hadn’t mastered how to change air pressures. Once I did, I would be able to create pockets of higher pressure beneath my soles, allowing me to literally walk on air as my affinity lifted me, but I wasn’t there yet. I couldn’t rise higher than a few feet from the ground every time I’d tried, and the king probably knew that too.
Sweat lined my palms in earnest as the possibility of complete humiliation loomed. I cut Matron Olsander an anxious look. Her lips thinned as she stood atop the stairs leading to the castle’s front gates. Eyes burning into me, she subtly made a fist before whipping her hand to the side and spreading her fingers.
My lips parted. She couldn’t mean what I thought she meant . . .
I shook my head in disbelief as Sir Featherton began to issue orders to the guards, ensuring they kept the excited crowd at bay, but my trainer’s attention held firm. Her lips moved, and I strained to read them through the distance that separated us. On her third attempt, I finally understood.
You can do this. She made the same motion with her hand, and it took everything in me not to gape.
My trainer wanted me to mistphase to the flag.
“But that—” I didn’t realize I’d said anything out loud until the guard at my side gave me a quizzical look.
I clamped my mouth closed. She was crazy. Completely without sense if she thought I could mistphase to the flag while it hovered in midair thousands of feet above the ground. The amount of concentration, skill, utter perfection at mistphasing magic that it would take to pull off such a feat . . .
You’re mad, I mouthed back at her.
She arched an eyebrow and plopped her hands on her hips. Do you have a better idea?
I scowled. No, I didn’t. Of course, I didn’t. I didn’t have any idea what to do to retrieve the flag because I couldn’t fly.
The sense of my impending doom weighed even more upon my shoulders until I felt Matron Olsander’s firm look.
I glanced her way again to see sheer determination etched upon her face. You. Can. Do. This.
That statement left little room for argument. It was either try or fail.
She was right.
I had to try.
Some of the fluttering in my stomach calmed as the prince’s aura rose even higher. I didn’t dare look at Norivun. I was worried enough as it was, and it would take all of my concentration to attempt what Matron Olsander suggested. If I saw even a hint of worry rolling across his features, it would no doubt break my resolve.
“On my mark!” Sir Featherton raised his hand.
A flurry of sparks erupted from the archon’s fingertips as a spiral of his magic coasted upward. A number appeared suspended high in the air, like a glittering firework shaped in the number three.
“Two . . .” The shimmering number changed to the next in the countdown.
“One!”
The entire crowd went wild.
Meegana, Beatrice, and Georgyanna all took flight simultaneously. The crowd roared in approval as my hands balled into fists. Magic rumbled in my gut, heating and roiling within me. I closed my eyes and forced all of my concentration inward, but then a shriek rang through the air.
My eyes snapped open, and I gasped when Meegana tumbled midflight. Georgyanna had viciously cut into her path, knocking my friend off course, just as a gust of air hit all three of the females at once.
The crowd gasped as a dazzling display of fireworks abruptly exploded in the air, and all three females screamed in surprise as they were again knocked into tumultuous falls. Only their strong Shields had kept those explosives from killing them.
Meegana quickly regained control and began flapping her wings rhythmically again, but all three females kept getting thrown off course as explosions pummeled the air. Unseen air currents also seemed to be at work as the three spun and dipped for no apparent reason.
Somebody was weaving their air elemental affinity on purpose, and fireworks were purposefully being thrown in their paths. It must have all been a part of the test.
I didn’t bother trying to understand more of it or wonder what other magical tricks were in store for us. If anything, the unseen attacks were buying me time.
Concentrate, Ilara. Concentrate!
Closing my eyes again, I poured everything I had into what I’d learned of mistphasing.
I pictured what I needed to do. I had to mistphase through the air, grab the flag, and transport it back to the ground all within seconds. I would need to time everything perfectly. The second I appeared in the air five millees above the ground and whisked the flag from the magic that held it, I would begin falling. My air affinity could slow my fall, but if I didn’t keep my wits about me, I would inevitably plummet to my death.
Breathing more deeply, I let my magic build inside me. It rose and warmed my bones as I called upon everything in my reserves. My magic unfurled within my gut, like a flower in my garden that bloomed before the sun. Its petals curled open, one by one, until it practically burst to life.
I pictured the flag in my mind until it was the only thing that penetrated my thoughts. The crowd quieted to a distant roar in my ears. My breaths became steady rises and falls in my chest.
Breathe in. Breathe out. The flag. Only the flag.
My magic bore down on me, pressing upon me until it felt as though it was moving through me, liquefying my bones and igniting my senses. I gathered my power tightly inside me as I centered all of my thoughts with pinprick precision on that wavering piece of cloth fluttering high, high above.
And then . . .
I let go.
The world abruptly tilted beneath my feet. I disappeared in a blur of mist and shadows, air and wind. Magic roared through my blood, and then cold air slammed into my senses with a shock so sudden that I couldn’t breathe. It felt as though I’d been submerged in a frigid pool, that ice floated through my veins. The air was so thin that I gasped.
My air affinity held me aloft, but already the high pressure bubble beneath me was dissipating. I opened my eyes to see the flag hovering right in front of me.
The three other females still raced upward. Georgyanna seemed to sense exactly what I’d done the second my hand reached out to clasp the flag. She screamed in fury as my fingers wrapped around the delicate silk material.
My bubble snapped.
Air abruptly tumbled around me as I fell through the atmosphere. A scream of fear spilled from my lips as I passed the other three on my way back to the ground.
Georgyanna’s eyes narrowed into razors, and Beatrice and Meegana wore horrified expressions.