The travelers in the wagon stopped by for a night. Like the last few groups they were a little wary that the Wellspring camp might be bandits, but the brothers running this big cart of cheese and wool had heard of Ruyo from some westlanders who'd met her and gone home.

The presence of Averell soldiers helped convince the traders she was no charlatan. The brothers' prayers at the shrine tasted of curiosity, the spending of some trivial cost by people who weren't sure they'd get a payoff. Ruyo granted them the basic spell right away and invited them to stop by again on their way back.

Tulia arrived the next afternoon, riding a horse with some difficulty. The ex-slave had a nice robe now, and a blue flower in her hair. Ruyo said, "Why, you look like a credible priestess now."

Hastro greeted her with, "Did you bring the stuff?"

Tulia opened her saddlebags and fetched odds and ends: a spare set of dice, a bag of vegetables, a few oranges and a smithing tool Ruyo didn't recognize. "Ruyo, your followers are praying for better food."

Ruyo laughed. That explained a sealed letter she'd been asked to send; must've been the gang's shopping list. "Working on it. I want to go east and try fish again. But for now, I'm escorting you partway in person after all. Are you ready to go south?"

"Can we wait for morning?"

They did. Ruyo set out with Tulia, Khulis, Nusina and a soldier who'd been sent as half bodyguard, half spy. Four of the westlanders came along too, the other four still too hurt and exhausted to travel much. Three of the westies had said they wanted to stick around for a trip eastward later, at Ruyo's expense. She didn't mind that for now, since they'd fought beside her and might still be useful.

On a hot, sunny day they rode through hilly country that smelled of dry grass.

Tulia interrupted a pleasant chat between Ruyo and Nusina about just what a "water park" was. "You can repel rain, but can't you make some sort of watery shield against the sun?"

Ruyo shrugged and dismounted for a minute to try it. She raised her hands, sprayed a few gallons of water into the air, then held it aloft in a rough dome. Once it was in place she didn't need to use her hands anymore. Carefully she added to the supply to make a broader shade, then got back on her horse. The grey mare was used to seeing feats of magic by now but still kept glancing skeptically at the rain that refused to finish falling.

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"Might help if you made it darker with dirt," the soldier suggested.

She heaped some dirt into the mix, and that made the shade more useful without much increasing the strain of maintaining the spell. So she tried shading the whole group.

Khulis laughed at her. "That's magical and all, but wouldn't a cloth canopy on a stick be at least as good?"

Ruyo snorted. "Yeah, probably. Reminds me I need a new hat."

#

They passed a curious box they'd unearthed, part of some ancient power system. Tulia observed, "If this is here, there's probably much more of an old road or something nearby."

Ruyo shrugged. "I haven't had time to investigate. One of the men found bits of buried copper wire, so maybe it's worth doing."

Khulis said, "That was me. So how about making copper, Lady, if you've ruled out gold?"

"Maybe. We might need an earth god to really get into mineral wealth though."

"I volunteer!"

They rode on. Ruyo pointed out the turning point: east to the hospital ruin, west to Frostcrag. They headed for the quarry village first.

The town was a poor one, producing stone blocks for export while the people lived in wood themselves. Sheep grazed in the hills. A refreshing breeze cooled off the day.

They ran into a shepherd first. "You're that priestess?" the young woman said, looking unimpressed until she noticed Ruyo's strange arms.

Tulia answered for Ruyo. "She is the Lady of Waters, new patron goddess."

"Uh-huh. Good to see you, I guess. The mayor and the doc will want to see you."

Without any trouble this time, Ruyo headed into the village. Not many people were around this afternoon; there were only a dozen or so huts clustered in the main part of town. But the outsiders began to attract a cluster of old folks and kids. One boy stared at Ruyo and said, "You're the lady who lets people do magic?"

"I sure am!"

"Well, I talked at the shrine like half the town's been doing. Do I get to do magic too?"

"Sure! Hold out your hands."

She blessed the kid, granting him the most basic tier. "Anyone else?"

She'd blessed five people and was explaining the beginner water-shaping spell to everyone, when the mayor arrived. He was a proud man with calloused hands, and his fine house was a two-story wicker basket slathered with mud and used as an office and meeting hall. He had helped build the local shrine himself. It was only a barrel-sized cylinder of white stone with crude carvings of fish and waves, but it was the best such a small place could manage. They'd put faith in her to help them grow.

He said, "Good to see you, miss. We heard you were away at war!"

"I was. We killed the enemy general, and now we're going to drive the rest of the invaders out. There was a village on the front lines that I fed using energy from people praying in the safe towns. I told them their countrymen were providing the food."

Now most of the village was gathering, since someone had run off to the quarry to fetch the men there. A shepherd abandoned his flock for the moment to come join them. The mayor said, "So that actually does something. And you're doing your ritual to grant magic?"

He'd already gotten the first stage of it, but for now he waved off the second, reminding her that he was already a magic user. "Save your power for people who need it. And we could do with a few blankets."