Halithe crossed her arms and stared at him.
“I can cast the spell, certainly,” Ritathan sat on a nearby rock.“But I am not good at it and—”
“What are you good at?”Halithe asked.
“Fire,” Aramal muttered.
“Yes, fire,” Ritathan said.“And warding and illusions and, well, fire.”He huffed at both of them.“That is not the issue.”
Halithe opened her mouth, but Ritathan held up his hand.“Think for a moment, apprentice.”he chided.“Portals are dangerous and difficult.You need a picture in your mind of the ‘where’ of your destination, and I have never been to the top of this path.”
Halithe frowned.
Aramal opened his mouth, but Ritathan held up a finger.
“Then there is the problem of the ‘when,’” Ritathan went on, in full teacher mode.“The picture that one has in one’s mind is fixed, but the world is not.I could open a portal to my chamber in the Palace, but things will have been changed, furniture moved.At the very least, they probably took the books.”He sniffed and rolled his eyes.“Atira blades.The man is obsessed.”
“But Forterran’s mother,” Halithe protested.
“An exception to the rule.There is always one.Ila has a gift for portals.”Ritathan nodded.“But she is older, and far more powerful than I, and portals are a point of intense study for her.She traveled extensively in her youth.And before she opens any portal, she scrys the location.”
“You could—” Halithe said.
Ritathan sighed patiently.“Even if I try to scry, using my key as a link, that would take almost more time than climbing.Even then, if the key is in a box or bag or pocket, I won’t see any more than darkness.”
“So your magic is of no use,” Aramal said.
“I didn’t say that.”Ritathan looked at Bright Fang.“Well?”
Bright Fang was giving him a look of disapproval that even Halithe understood.
“Magic is a tool,” she blurted out.“Like a hammer, sword, or claw.”
Bright Fang’s ears twitched.“Fine.”Aramal translated.“But don’t cast it on me.”
“Excellent,” Ritathan said.He stood, brushing himself off.“We still climb,” he continued.“Roped together.”
“Really?”Halithe tried not to whine.
“Straight up,” Ritathan said.“Not following the trail.”
“I’m not sure about this,” Aramal started, but Ritathan shook his head.
“You’ll see,” he said, and reached for Halithe’s wrist.
She felt a tingle and widened her eyes as she realized that he was releasing her bracelet.She could her mage sense, if she wanted.But Ritathan was watching her and gave the slightest shake of his head, keeping hold of her wrist.
Which was when she noticed that her feet didn’t hurt.Her boots were still on the ground, but there was no pressure on her toes.
“Now, careful.”Ritathan tied the end of the rope around her waist.“I’ve lightened the load, so to speak.You weigh less than a quarter of your normal weight.We are going to rope together, and climb together, straight up.”He measured out another length of rope and secured it to his own waist.Aramal did the same with the end.
Ritathan reached for Aramal’s wrist, then hesitated.The two men stared at one another for a long moment.
“Oh, please,” Halithe muttered, and started climbing, not waiting for that drama to play out.
To her delight, it was easy.She still had to watch for handholds, and loose rocks that fell as she made her way up.Ritathan and Aramal were not far behind, climbing parallel to her.Each switch-back offered a resting place, then they continued up, easily scaling in minutes what would have taken hours to walk in the usual manner.
Bright Fang raced up the paths, handling them with ease, but being careful not to knock stones down on them.
