The next morning came earlier than Suthe wished. She was shaken awake by the other spy, Marrene, who impatiently shoved a plate of scrambled eggs in her face.

"Hurry up and eat," Marrene demanded. Unlike Ulsper, she had a heavy Noth accent that put a harsh edge on her words.

Marrene pointed to a worn canvas bag a few feet away, beneath a shelf laden with little metal gears, screws, and wooden propeller models. "I've packed for you—the inventor's apartment is full of stuff. He won't miss those things."

Slowly, Suthe sat up from the blanket on the floor she had been using as a bed—as the actual bed had some sort of half-assembled engine on it—and took the plate in front of her. "Uh, thank you," she said. Mentally, she made a note not to bring up the topic of her luggage in front of Calatar. Based on the last night's conversation, she suspected that the inventor and the female spy did not get along well, and that perhaps Marrene had packed a few things of Calatar's without his knowing.

"Come on," Marrene said not two seconds after Suthe had taken her last bite of breakfast. Suthe scrambled to her feet and followed the spy out of the spare bedroom, only just remembering to pick up the canvas bag before she left.

Calatar was washing dishes in the kitchen, and Ulsper was waiting in the living room. When the spy saw Suthe and Marrene standing in the hallway, he gestured for Suthe to come closer.

Before she did, Suthe turned to  Marrene. "There was a woman I was staying with who got arrested while she was trying to help me escape last night," she began. "Her name is Alaera Ellersong—if this works, and Ulsper and I really do go to Andilir, could you find her, and tell her what happened, and thank her for me?" It would be cruel to just vanish after all Alaera had helped her with, Suthe thought. "Ulsper said she would probably be released in a few days."

Marrene raised an eyebrow. "Ellersong? The only Ellersongs I know of are the Imperial Envoy and the magistrate of the Imperial Quarter, and they both seem pretty cozy with the government and its rules. Are you sure this Ellersong lady can be trusted?"

The spy's words stirred doubt in Suthe's mind, but then the memories of how Alaera had helped her, of the time spent together baking in Alaera's kitchen, and how the Sylterran had offered to help Suthe with her library research, resurfaced. Suthe felt a bubble of shame rise up in her chest at her hesitation. That couldn't have been faked. Alaera was different from the rest of her family.

"I'd trust her with my life," Suthe said. "In fact, I already did."

"Well, all right, then. I'll tell her if I see her," Marrene replied lazily. It wasn't the most promising agreement Suthe had ever heard, but she figured she didn't have much of a choice but to hope that her message somehow got to Alaera.

Suthe turned back to the living room and approached Ulsper, who was standing by the small sofa. Marrene lingered in the hallway for a moment before going to join Calatar in the kitchen.

Judging by the inventor's shouts, it sounded as though Marrene's company was unwelcome.

"Don't mind them," Ulsper said, and Suthe turned to face him warily.

"I don't know if this will work," she repeated. "We might not end up in the right place. I might not even be able to take you with me." She shifted the strap of the heavy bag on her shoulder uneasily, fidgeting with the frayed edge. Why had she suggested such a thing the night before? It was madness to think that she could do this. But if she didn't...Suthe gulped. If she didn't, they might be too late to make a difference. They needed to find those swords before someone else did.

Ulsper was standing before her, studying her. Suthe imagined that he had been trained to read even the slightest hint of any thoughts expressed on her face, and it only furthered her anxiety. Could she really trust this man?

What other choice did she have?

Suthe shook her head. She was floundering in indecision, and it was time to act. She had to at least give it a try.

"Give me your hand," she said, stretching out her own and praying it wouldn't tremble. Slowly, Ulsper took it, and the caution with which he did so reminded Suthe of when she had gone lizard-catching as a child, trying not to startle the creatures before she could get a hold of them.

The memory had Suthe straightening her spine. She was no easily-frightened lizard. She could do this.

She focused on the feel of his hand in hers, gentle despite the roughness of his skin. What was she supposed to do now? The only times she had used her magic had been complete flukes, and it wasn't like there was some magical recipe book with step-by-step instructions to follow.

As the seconds ticked by with nothing to show for it, Suthe became increasingly aware of Ulsper's gaze upon her...and then, two other sets of eyes as well. She looked up and cleared her throat nervously. Calatar and Marrene had snuck out of the kitchen and were peering into the living room from the hallway.

"Marrene," Ulsper warned, not even looking in their direction.

"You can't blame us for being curious," Marrene grunted, not sounding one bit ashamed for having been caught peeking. She straightened up and yanked on the back of Calatar's jacket, causing the inventor to eke out a strangled protest as she towed him away.

They were alone again.

Suthe took a deep breath and tried to refocus, but all she could think about was what would happen if she failed. If they couldn't find the swords, if they couldn't unbind the power connected to the blades, if the weapons fell into the wrong hands...

"I can't do it," Suthe finally confessed, letting Ulsper's hand drop. "I don't know how."

The spy was quiet for a moment, as the silence stretched on, Suthe began to worry that he was angry. Then he finally spoke.

"Try one more time." His tone was unexpectedly calm.

Suthe's brow furrowed. "But I—"

"You're afraid of it," Ulsper interrupted.

Suthe opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it again. He was right.

"And why shouldn't I be?" she answered after a moment. "I've been taught to hide it all my life. If the wrong people find out about me, I'll be in trouble. And if I use it, I don't know what's going to happen. I can't control it.

"Not yet. But with all things, it takes practice." For just the briefest of moments, his lips twitched up in a smile.

Suthe crossed her arms and stepped away. "Easy for you to say. You don't have to worry about the repercussions of something going wrong."

"If you send us both to a desolate tundra, or the middle of the sea, won't I have cause to worry along with you?" He raised an eyebrow, as if willing her to argue with his logic. She didn't. He did, in a way, have a point.

Slowly, Ulsper reached out and took Suthe's hand again. "You're not alone in this. Not anymore."

Suthe took a shaky breath. "I don't even know how to begin," she confessed. "I was hoping it would just happen. That's the way it seemed before. There was no trick to it, really."

"How did it happen, the first time?" Ulsper asked.

"I was home, in Crestdune," Suthe said, pulling away from his hand again. She took a breath, and her anxiety caused her explanation to come rushing out. "It was a few years ago, on a hot summer day, and I was daydreaming about the pool I had seen in the backyard of one of the mansions on Telengor Street, and how nice it would be to swim in it...then I appeared there. I don't know how it happened." It had been quite unsettling to not only suddenly disappear and reappear, but to go from standing to swimming as well. It had taken lots of lying to one of the maids of the household who had found a dripping wet Suthe trying to sneak out through the gate of the side garden.

"And yesterday, when you disappeared?"

"You said you knew I was a druith, and I panicked. I just wished I was back at Alaera's apartment."

"Were those the only times it happened?"

"There was just one other..." Suthe told him about the sudden arrests in Crestdune, and how she had used her recipe book as inspiration when she wished to be far away.

"Interesting."

Ulsper's gaze had settled on something over Suthe's shoulder, and she slowly turned to look. All that was behind her was a rather cheap oil painting framed on the wall; a mundane depiction of a northern city with houses packed tightly together, dull blues and reds melding with shadows and snow that slid from dark-tiled eaves.

Confused, Suthe looked back at Ulsper.

"Are you looking at the painting?" she finally asked.

Ulsper's sharp gaze returned to her. "Yes," he said. "I was thinking it might help."

"Huh?" Suthe couldn't hide her confusion. "Why?"

"Based on the accounts of when you are able to use your magic, you've always had something linking you to the place you go, whether it is a memory or a recipe."

"So the picture is a link?" Suthe looked closer at the painting. "Where is it?"

"It's not Sang Bur," Ulsper said. "But it is in Andilir. If you could transport us there, we would be much closer than we are now."

"It looks cold." Suthe rubbed her arms instinctively.

Ulsper exhaled sharply in something close to a smirk. "It's spring now."

Right. Suthe lowered her arms, feeling silly. "Do you really think this will work?"

Ulsper shrugged and held out a hand. "It's worth a try, isn't it?"

Suthe heaved a deep breath and placed her palm on top of his.

"Think of what you want, not what you are afraid of," Ulsper said. "Stay calm."

Calm. As if she could ignore her racing heartbeat, or the tension in her muscles and the hollow feeling in her stomach that warned her this was a bad idea. Getting involved was dangerous. Ulsper had calm down to a science, probably thanks to his years of training. Suthe only wished she knew how to channel his focus and control.

But she had to help solve this.

Suthe squinted at the painting, willing her magic to work. Come on. As the seconds ticked by and nothing happened, her squint turned into a glare. Why wasn't it working? Was it that she couldn't take Ulsper with her? Could she only disappear by herself?

Ulsper's hand in hers was strong and steady, his patience still somehow persevering despite Suthe's irritation with her own ineptitude.

This needs to work, Suthe thought, stretching out a hand to the painting. Please, dear ancestors, please let this work.

Her fingers brushed the canvas, ghosting over the layers of paint and dried brushstrokes that formed the different buildings. The scent of turpentine drifted through the air as though awakened at her touch.

Then the canvas grew cold, the colors blurred, and everything disappeared.

Suthe closed her eyes against the spinning sensation that she was just beginning to equate with her traveling abilities. It still made her dizzy every time, and behind her closed eyelids, her worries only increased. What if they did end up in the ocean, like Ulsper had mentioned? Or worse, back in Crestdune? She would be arrested before she could even see her mother, especially if she and Ulsper happened to appear in the middle of the market. They would never get a chance to find the swords and end the prejudice against her kind.

Sudden panic at this possibility resulted in a harsh lurch to the side, and Suthe felt herself careening in a different direction, hurling through dark, blurry space without a sense of where she was going or even how.

No.

She would not go back home, not yet. She could not. She would not. Suthe concentrated with all her might on the image she had seen in the painting, of drab houses with black-tiled rooftops clustered in the shadows of the large snowy mountains that loomed large behind them. That was where she needed to go.

The spinning stopped, and at a reassuring squeeze of Ulsper's hand, Suthe's eyes slowly blinked open. They were standing on a deserted dirt road, with ramshackle houses similar to those in the painting lining both sides. Faded blue and green lanterns hung from tiled eaves that swooped up towards the sky, and the once-bright colors of the houses had chipped away, revealing patches of plain plaster beneath.

"You did it," Ulsper said, turning to face her. For once, his eyes held a bit of warmth to them.

But any feeling of accomplishment on Suthe's part was drowned out by the aftereffects of the magic and spinning. She only clapped a hand over her mouth and tried not to be sick.    

~~~

And it's off to another country!  Suthe is certainly getting her traveling experience on this adventure.  Maybe too much traveling?  Well, let me know what you think.  I'm going to go back to watching Top Gun (which I haven't seen in forever, all I can remember is a certain character dies...you all know who).  Happy Memorial Day (well, to my American readers) and thanks for reading!