Sirius hadn’t lied. The cave wasn’t far and as it turned out it was actually a series of caves. The opening was reasonably large but it shrunk down smaller nearer the back. It went in a decent way and curved around slightly, such that it would likely provide good shelter from wind in any direction. Smaller tunnels connected some of the caves together. The floor was reasonably flat and looked like it had been used as a bed by many people over the years. Amanda could see remains of other activity too like footprints and fire circles, the latter nearer the entrance or just outside.

They gathered some fern leaves to form the base of a bed and some sticks to use for a fire later. Then Amanda stood out the front of the cave and studied the rock face around the edges.

When Sirius emerged from the cave she asked, “Do people climb up here?”

At his confused expression she pointed up at the rock face. “The rock looks polished.” As she looked at it longer she could even make out a route going up and over an edge not far above them, not bolts or chalk, just obvious frequently used holds. “In fact…” she trailed off as she went to the wall, placed her hands on it and began to climb.

“Uhh, I’m not sure about that,” Sirius commented. “Be careful won’t you? Where are you going?”

“Just over that lip. It looks like there might be another cave or at least a ledge with a view.” After a brief glance down to find a foot hold and then a look at his worried expression she added, “Don’t worry, this isn’t even as high as the rigging on your ship.”

“Yeah but you had telekinetics there to catch you worst case. There’s no telekinetics here now.”

“You’ve probably got some in that coat of yours. It’s the most common power, easy to infuse. I’ll bet you a one whole gold at least one of them is telekinesis.”

“Well why don’t you come back down and we can go through those then?”

“Or you could come up,” Amanda suggested and she pulled herself up and over the edge, then turned and took a comfortable seat with her legs dangling down. It had been relatively easy climbing even without her climbing shoes on. “The bit in the middle’s a little niggly but just keep your weight forward over your feet and you’ll be fine.”

“Hmm.” He was frowning but she could also see him studying the wall in that determined way of his.

She waited quietly and then watched as he worked out his route and then climbed easily up it. She gave him a smile. Behind her lay a small cave, not as big or sheltered as the one below but big enough for two if they decided they preferred the view up here. And what a view it was. They were up high enough now that she could see out over the bushes and trees, all the way down to the water. The edges of the coves curved in and formed lovely looking lagoons. The air was calm and the sun was high and warm. A swim was tempting.

“It’s damn beautiful isn’t it?” she remarked breathlessly.

“Aye,” he replied.

But when she turned to look at him she realised he wasn’t looking at the view at all. She blushed and looked out toward the expansive sparkling sea. The sun would set behind them but it would be a nice place to watch the sunrise.

She felt him shift a little closer and she smiled.

“How are we going to get down?” he asked as he leaned forward and peered over the edge.

“The same way we got up.” She poked her tongue out between her teeth then she nodded at his coat. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and there’ll be levitation magic in one of those vials.”

He sighed, leaned back as if about to stretch and then opened the edge of his coat. He handed her a vial. “Alright, what’s this one?”

She took the small glass container and studied it. “Are they all sand like?” she asked. Usually infusements were made using specific types of items but really they could be anything. On the lid she could just make out small markings

He nodded and watched her with interest.

“It’s non-traditional,” she remarked. “I suppose it makes the storage clean and practical but you’d have to remember what they were unless you wanted to check them each time. Hard for others to use them too, a bit like naming all your variables var_1, var_2, var_3 when you’re programming.”

He cocked an eyebrow.

“Or err…” she grappled for a different analogy. “Like giving your books titles like Book 1, Book 2, Book 3.”

“I have a book back on the ship that’s called Book 5.”

“What? You do not?” She gave him a questioning frown.

He chuckled and nodded. “It’s a book on magic too. There’s no book 1, 2, 3, or 4 though. Just book 5. It’s supposed to cover the five key pillars of magic; power, efficiency, control, malleability and…” he frowned. “I forgot the last one.”

“Five? We were always taught there were three. What’s malleability then?”

Sirius shrugged. “I dunno. Never could actually read it. Any time anyone ever tries eventually the words start to go all swirly and the next thing you know you’re waking up on the floor. So I was trying to be sneaky and skipping to pages or paragraphs ahead because it gives you a few seconds before it kicks in you see but eventually the headaches get to you and it seemed pretty dryly written as it was. These days I mostly just use it if I can’t sleep.”

Amanda snorted. “Maybe that was its intended purpose to begin with.” She returned her attention to the jar in her hand and removed the lid.

“Maybe. So what’s in the jar?”

“Gimme a sec.” She poked her finger inside to touch the fine white sand. So fine it was almost a powder.

“Is that safe?” Sirius asked. “To be touching it like that?”

“It’s fine,” she replied. “Probably.” She pulled a bit out and rubbed it between her fingers, twisting her energy into it, trying to sense what it was.

“Probably?” He sounded worried again.

“Oh!” she remarked with surprise as she felt a familiar essence. It wasn’t exactly the same, no magic ever was but it rhymed well enough that she knew what it was. “It’s healing magic.” She put the little cork back in the top and handed the vial back to him. “Give me another.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Healing?” He looked down at the vial in his hand with look like he’d just learned a new word. Then he handed her another bottle.

Six bottles later Amanda was less enthused. With a grumble she handed him back a bottle. “Another healing infusement,” she sighed.

“You don’t sound very happy about it. Healing infusements are useful to have no?”

“Yeah, for sure, it’s just not very exciting.” And it was kind of making her feel a bit homesick. Her father’s power was healing. A couple times he’d even got a borrower to infuse it into an item so Amanda could get some practice with what healing magic was like. It was one of the few infusements they sometimes carried. If it had been a good year her father would sometimes splurge for a little extra safety, the one luxury her mother never complained about.

She must have looked sad for Sirius was studying her closely and the next moment he asked, “You were really hoping it was something else huh?”

“Oh, well no, I mean. Healing is good magic to have in reserve and I suppose it makes sense. I was just, I dunno…” She turned and gazed out at the sea. It was a very pretty view. Nothing like home. But no one else would understand that. Most people didn’t think the desert was that pretty, not until they looked closely and saw all the life that lived there.

“Well this second row had dreamwalking so maybe there’s other things on that one.”

She perked up, distracted by the magic she was less familiar with. “Give me that one.” She held out her hand.

He did as she asked.

She touched the sand and felt for the magic. He was right or at least she assumed he must be for this one she was unfamiliar with. It tugged at her with a different tune. If healing was a harp, this was an oboe, heavier and more penetrating. She tried to get a sense for how it might be used but while she felt some response in the magic what to do next was not quite clear.

Sirius was holding out another for her to try so she put the dreamwalking aside for now. As she gave it back to him she asked, “Do you know how to use it?”

He gave a brief nod. “Sort of. It’ll put you to sleep though.”

“You don’t use that when you can’t sleep then?”

He shook his head. “Dreamwalking’s not like sleep in the normal sense and it can be quite dangerous.”

She frowned. “Why would a sailor have dreamwalking?”

He shrugged but he didn’t share her look of confusion. “Another form of moving things about.”

“Through dreams?”

He nodded. “The dreamworld doesn’t quite line up perfectly with our physical world and sometimes items can be shifted from one dreamer to another in a shorter time frame. Like I said, it’s dangerous though. Other things live there.” He put it back in his coat pocket.

“Could your sister do that?”

He hesitated and then shook his head. “No, not reliably. It’s tricky magic. She could pull things in and out sometimes but shifting things over longer distances is harder. She’d dream of monsters and next thing you know it’s in your room.”

He caught her look and then added. “It’s not as bad as firestarting though. Most dreamwalkers who don’t survive childhood don’t take their families out with them. Pulling monsters into the real world is rare. Although one time she did dream of the sea and I woke up coughing up salt water and a jellyfish flopping about on the carpet. She used to come jump into my bed if she had a nightmare which she did often, when she was younger. Sometimes I’d get pulled in with her. They weren’t all bad dreams though. Once we spent the entire night at a carnival. There was even candyfloss. And we had a treehouse with a tyre swing.”

Amanda gave him a sympathetic smile. He sounded as homesick as she felt. “You should go back again, find out what happened to her.”

His soft look of remembrance turned into a frown. He shook his head. “What if…”

He was silent for long enough that Amanda replied carefully, “It’s always going to bug you if you don’t. Whatever happened to them, you can’t deal with it properly unless you know what it is.”

He shook his head again but it wasn’t a ‘no’ kind of shake. It was as if he was trying to shake something off instead. Or trying not to cry?

Amanda bit her lip. Had she been right to push?

Finally he sighed and he blinked a few times. When he looked at her again she could see his emerald eyes held a determined look and when he spoke his voice was steady, decisive and without fear. “Would you come with me?”

“Yeah, I’d come.”

He gave a single nod and then gazed out toward the sea and off in the direction of home.

“Then what?” he asked, without looking at her this time.

His words threw her out onto a precipice somehow more vertical and thrilling than the real precipice she was currently seated on. Inside she wanted to tell him that she’d go wherever he went but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to say the words, to actually make them real. It was easy to fantasize but to actually commit was a whole different level. And what if he said no? But he had just asked if she would go with him. His intent was obvious wasn’t it? And yet all the words she wanted to say sounded so silly and insufficient. He was braver than she was.

“I don’t know,” she replied. Plus there was still that one other thing, the pegasus. For whatever reason she couldn’t quite let it go, although it wasn’t quite as strong in her mind now as it had been. She felt torn between places and people and things. Adrift and uncertain. With everything in reach but all about to dive a different way. She gazed out at the ocean feeling inexplicably drawn toward the man sitting next to her.

He gave her a studied look.

Eventually she met his eyes and in that moment it felt like he could read her completely. If only saying yes was so easy. She'd felt so bold on the ship. They'd been moving then. Now here sitting beside him as he offered her so much of himself her stomach was full of butterflies.

"Well, think about it,” he told her. He turned to look back out at the sea before he continued. “But if you ever did want to keep sailing with us well there would always be a bed for you and I do appreciate the company." His tone was business like but a moment later he frowned. “Shit! I didn’t mean that how it sounded. It wasn’t supposed to… I mean, it’s not about…” he gestured at all of her. “I mean I do…” he gave an frustrated sigh as he scrambled for the words.

She laughed. She understood his meaning. He didn’t need to explain, even though it was fucking adorable watching him try.

He went quiet and just looked at her.

“I like you too,” she told him. She watched as he relaxed.

A second later he got that twinkle in his eye and he remarked, “Well I bloody well hope so given we…” He didn’t finish, merely raised his eyebrows in meaning.

She matched his smile then she added, "Of course sailing with you assumes Shiv gives you your ship back."

Sirius nodded. "We'll deal with that when the time comes."

“Plus he still has my pegasus.”

Sirius gave her an incredulous look. “You and that damn horse.”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Pegasus,” he corrected. “You and that damn pegasus. Somehow I don’t think you’re getting that back now. It might even be the reason Shiv dumped us here temporarily. He’s probably gone to make the deal on his own so you can’t interfere and then come pick us up. I get you’re attached to it but it’s not like it’s the only pegasus in the world. You’re a little obsessed. I’ll help you get a new one but you need to let this on go.”

“And you’re a little naive,” she shot back evenly, “Thinking that Shiv’s motive’s are anything but selfish.”

They stared stubbornly at each other for a moment. Then Sirius said something unexpected.

“You like gambling. How about we bet on it?”

“Bet what?”

“The pegasus.”

She hesitated.

“If you’re right and Shiv doesn’t give me the ship back willingly then I’ll help you steal that pegasus. If I’m right then I keep the pegasus.”

She shook her head. “No way.”

“So you do think there’s a chance I’m right them?”

“No, I just don’t think it’s right to bet the pegasus. I don’t bet things like that no matter how good the odds are.” She looked away again, a little annoyed now. That at least was a habit she hadn’t inherited from her father. She hadn’t told Sirius that the profit from the dragon egg her father had won had bought back their house which he’d gambled and lost only a week after they’d returned home from selling the egg.

When she looked back at Sirius again he was giving her a look that resembled something like sympathy almost as if once again he could read her perfectly. He was a quick study. She wondered if they played a game of bluff now, would she lose?

“Well I suppose that’s probably a smart move,” Sirius told he carefully. He held out another vial. “Alright, how about we bet whatever is in this one then?”

“You don’t even know what it is.”

“Well why don’t you tell me then.”

She took it from him gently and turned it over in her hands. Opening the vial she poked in a finger and then she smiled. She scooped out a little of the fine sand then handed the rest back to Sirius.

He took it with a confused look.

She rubbed the pieces she’d taken between her fingers.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Guess,” she replied, and then with a smile she leaped forward and right off the edge of the cliff.