I've
been working on a few projects. Two of them are novels of the fantasy
persuasion, and they are parts of a series. So far, there are two books in the
series. I’m thinking that there may be a novella and maybe a third full-length
novel, but only time will tell. I think I may have mentioned the first novel in
an earlier post, but its working title is Water’s Memory. The second
novel, that I’m about three chapters, or so, from finishing, has a working
title of Magic’s Memory. It is clear I have a few irons in the fire, but
that is not the point of this post. It feels like the world and characters I
created for Water’s Memory and Magic’s Memory have become organic
and alive. Some of my characters, mainly the parents and grandparents of Selah,
the principal character, want me to tell a few of their backstories. So, in response,
I started writing vignettes. I had to figure out why Selah could not really
control her elemental powers in Water’s Memory, and it came to me one
night, her grandmother, Elaine. I’m going to post a snippet of the story “Magic
Bound” that came out of that night. Enjoy and let me know what you think. Until
next time, hold it in the road.
Magic Bound
Jason carefully plucked his baby
daughter from her crib. The child had been crying for about ten minutes. Usually,
when he held her, Selah calmed down and would coo and eventually fall asleep.
This night, he couldn’t comfort his baby girl.
“Hey Sweetie, what’s wrong?” He
whispered. “Daddy’s here, so you can relax. Don’t cry. I’m here.” He bounced
her gently as he paced the room, then sat slowly in a rocking chair near the
crib. Jason began rocking in the chair. As he held his daughter, Jason teased
the baby’s lips with the pacifier until she eventually latched on and sucked.
The young father watched the baby. She reached for his cheek and briefly
touched it. Her cerulean eyes sparkled as she smiled behind the pacifier, and
she let out a contented little gurgle.
A grin curved Jason’s lips. The baby
closed her eyes in sleep. Jason followed his daughter’s lead and settled down
to a relaxing, brief nap. He would put Selah back in her crib once he was sure
she was asleep.
Baby Selah’s scream startled Jason
awake. Ondine rushed into the nursery. She approached her husband, who now wore
a worried frown. “The baby has a fever. She was fine when I sat down with her.”
Ondine nodded and pinned her long
braid into a bun. “Let me have Selah.”
Jason carefully handed the baby over
to her mother. “Jason, she’s so hot.”
Selah continued crying, coughing,
and struggling for breath. Ondine gently bounced the infant in her arms. She
undressed the baby, so she only wore a diaper. The night was cool, but it
didn’t seem to offer any comfort. Ondine stopped her trek around the nursery
and stared at Jason in worry. “She’s getting hotter. What do we do?”
Asa entered the nursery. The older
man rubbed his eyes and put on his glasses. “Maybe she’s teething?” He asked.
“She’s too young, Asa,” Jason said.
“Perhaps it’s colic. I read that
babies her age can be prone to it.”
Selah’s crying stammered, and she
screamed again. When she did, rain harshly pelted the windows. An emergency
bulletin sounded on the television in the den. A news anchor appeared on the
screen. “We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to announce that a
dangerous line of thunderstorms is coming into the area. If you haven’t yet,
please find a safe place in your home, an interior room away from windows as
there is the potential for tornadic activity. Our meteorologists will continue
to update you on this surprising and dangerous weather phenomenon.”
Asa sighed in disbelief. “This isn’t
possible. At least it shouldn’t be possible.”
Selah cried out again, and the bulb
in a lamp exploded. Ondine tried coaxing the baby to take her pacifier, but she
refused to be soothed.
“Ondine,” Asa whispered. “It’s
Selah.”
“What? Asa, what are you saying?”
Ondine asked as she continued to pace the room with Selah.
Asa sat heavily in the rocking
chair. “The baby is affecting the weather. She’s sick, and it’s showing in the
weather outside.” As Asa said that, a peel of lightning illuminated outside the
window. “I don’t know what to do. Sarah and I didn’t have children. I can’t
help the baby. If she doesn’t stop this, the Synod is going to get alerted.
This activity will attract the seer, and they will send the hunters.”
“They wouldn’t kill an innocent
baby, would they?” Jason asked.
“They will do what they must do to
protect the enchanted from mundane humans, even if it means killing the younger
enchanted who haven’t mastered their powers. Your marriage to Ondine, Jason, was
discouraged, but Lavinia allowed it anyway.”
“I’m not letting anyone hurt my
daughter,” Jason said. Silver lined around his mahogany irises.
“Jason, calm down. Call Elaine. She
and the coven will know what to do.”
The silver outline of his irises
dimmed in Jason’s eyes. “Mama? Right! She will know how to help.” Jason took
out his cell phone and quickly dialed his mother.
A crack of thunder shook the
windowpane when Elaine answered.
“Mama,” Jason said.
“What’s wrong, Jason? Did something
happen?”
“Mama, Selah’s sick, and we don’t
know what to do. She, her magic, is affecting the weather. We don’t know how to
help her.”
“I can hear her. She’s hurting.”
“We can’t comfort her, and she has a
fever.”
“Strip her down.”
“Ondine did that. The baby is so
hot.”
“Get some cool, wet towels for her.
Have Ondine sit with Selah and put me on speaker phone.”
Jason did as his mother ordered. He
directed Ondine to sit in the rocking chair and she slowly rocked with the
crying baby in her arms. Asa assisted Jason in getting the towels.
Elaine’s voice was an octave higher
than the baby’s crying. “We’re coming tomorrow.”
