Gathering Storm (The Salvation of Tempestria Book 2) by Gary Stringer (howl and other poems .txt) 📕

cookies on the table, to demonstrate how hard they were, then throwing one across the room, it broke a vase. “They’re completely inedible, but as you can see, they make brilliant weapons.”

She threw another one at lethal speed right through a pillow.

Catriona sat up and burst out laughing.

“Oh, Mandalee!” Cat beamed, once she managed to calm down. “Whatever did I do without you? I’m so glad you joined Daelen and me.”

Mandalee smiled and hugged her friend.

Just then, Jessica entered with a fresh plate of cookies.

“Heya, loves!” she greeted them. “These ones you can eat,” she assured them. “Good to see you’ve got some colour back in your cheeks, Cat. Your friend tried – a lot – but in the end, I had to step in before she ran out of ingredients…or burned down the house.”

“It was only a small fire!” Mandalee protested. “I had it under control!”

“Yes, dear, of course you did,” Jessica replied, voice filled with sarcasm.

She was going to clear away Mandalee’s attempts at baking, but Cat stopped her. “Leave them. Like Mandalee says, they’re great weapons. I want to practice throwing them from my bed, ready for the next time Daelen annoys me.”

Jessica cocked her head to one side as she considered that. “Tell you what, love,” she remarked, conspiratorially, “I reckon you should aim for his ego.”

The other two could see where she was going with this and laughing together, they all chorused, “It’s certainly a big enough target!”

Then Jessica taught them an Earth custom called a ‘high five.’

*****

After another full day of bed rest, Cat began to feel strong enough to try out a few simple druid spells, starting with fixing the vase and pillow that Mandalee had broken with her cookies. While she was in the portal room, she was once again able to access her pocket dimension and resume studying, which alleviated the boredom that had begun to set in.

The day after, she decided she was ready to leave the confines of the portal room. She told Daelen she really wanted to spend time in his library, so it would be best to learn to open a portal there. She’d figure out how to make a small, portable version later.

When Daelen showed her his technique for opening a portal, she realised it was not unlike opening her pocket dimension. By analogy, she compared it to using her stoneshaper magic to create a tunnel, rather than a cave. The only difference was that the tunnel needed to penetrate through to the other side, which meant she needed to know where she was going. The other way of looking at it, she supposed, was a dressed-up teleportation spell. Teleportation was something she hadn’t attempted herself, but from her technical discussions with Dreya, she was reasonably sure she could do it if she put her mind to it. It had just never been a priority for her. She’d rather fly.

At first, Cat found she needed to pop back to the portal room to recharge with the magic of her world, in between attempts to open a portal of her own. After a few hours, though, she could open and close portals at will. After another couple of days of experimentation, she reduced the size of her portals until they were so small, they could not be seen with the naked eye, beyond a point of blue light if one was acutely observant. But she could still feel Tempestria on the other side.

She experimented with going outside into the garden to practise more druid magic, including shapeshifting. Everything worked well – at least after the first time when she narrowly avoided a potentially nasty accident.

Cat was in leopard form when she gave Sara a bit of a shock, enthusiastically jumping out of the bushes at the Chetsuan girl who thought she was about to be mauled to death. Quick as a flash, she brought out a pair of daggers from her boot tops. Cat knew Sara and Jessica weren’t just domestic help – they were security. They trained a lot, both with and without Daelen and were perfectly capable of defending themselves and Daelen’s home. Cat hastily jumped away from her and shifted back.

“What the—?” Sara began. “Cat?”

The druidess gave her a sheepish grin. “I guess I should have told you I could do that. Sorry.”

Sara sheathed her blades and laughed. “Wow, that’s amazing! I mean, I know Daelen does a tiger, but to be honest,” she looked around and shared in a whisper, “it’s not very good.”

Cat nodded. “I haven’t had the heart to tell him, yet.”

Sara asked if she could do any more animals, but when Cat offered to show her, she stopped her.

“No, wait. My sister has to see this, too. Can you go back to leopard form and hide? Only fair you give her the same scare you gave me. Don’t worry, I won’t let her hurt you,” she assured her. “I can’t wait to see the look on her face.”

“If it’s anything like yours, you won’t be disappointed,” Cat promised her and agreed to do it.

A few minutes later, Sara returned with her sister, and leopard form Catriona leapt out at her. True to her word, Sara was quick to stay her hand when Jessica reached for weapons.

Cat shifted back, and Sara burst with laughter at Jessica’s reaction.

“You set me up deliberately, didn’t you?” Jessica mock complained.

“I got the shock of my life, and you’re my sister – we share everything.”

With a cheeky grin, her sister pointed out, “Not everything: You didn’t share that elf boy you were snogging.”

“What? You think he could have handled us both?”

Jessica considered that, then agreed, “No, you’re right, love. Fair point.”

Chapter 22

The next few days fell into a pattern. Mandalee trained with Daelen, often alongside one or both of the Chetsuans, while Cat split her time between studying in the library and working on her magic in the garden.

Then, one evening, about ten days into their stay on Earth, when Cat and Mandalee went to look