The Bardic Academy (A Bard Without a Star, Book 3) Read Online Free Page B

you.”
    Fidgen
sighed. “I just want to be done with him.”
    “Many of us
have felt that way,” Oengus said. “Now, though you must be free of us. How
are you going to do that?”
    The
warriors lowered their spears again, and Fidgen knew he couldn’t fight his way
through them. He cast about, looking for inspiration, and the queen caught his
eye. After she was sure he was watching, she glanced at the sky.
    Fidgen
understood immediately. He bowed low to her and her husband and said, “My
gratitude to your Majesties for all that you have given me.” Then he leapt up
into raven form, and without a backward glance, flew quickly away. He heard
the warriors yelling, but they threw no spears and shot no arrows. He made it
out of the valley without further incident.
    He flew
through the night, thinking about both what Oengus had told him and how he
might use it to find the Pooka. He shifted into eagle form and aimed for the
moon. When he had flown as high as he could, he shifted back to human form,
and called the one wind he still knew.
    The wind
responded, and held him aloft while he began using all the skills Math had
taught him, explaining what he wanted. He held up the hair from the Pooka’s
tail, and the wind circled it like a hound. Fidgen felt tendrils of the wind
shoot towards the ground, probing nooks and crannies throughout the
countryside. When he felt his magic was secure, he turned back into an eagle
and glided along, listening for any sign of the Pooka.
    The high
wind found him an hour before sunrise, drinking from a stream near where Fidgen
had first encountered him. Fidgen released the wind with thanks, and descended
rapidly, shifting to human form at the last moment, and ringing the area with
bright blue bael fire.
    “I've come
to avenge myself on you,” Fidgen said.
    The Pooka
looked unperturbed. “But you escaped,” he said. “You didn't need me there.”
    “But you
left me there not knowing that I would get away.”
    The Pooka
shook his mane. “I had full faith in your abilities.”
    “Still, you
owe me something.”
    “Oh? And
what are you thinking?”
    “Two more
hairs from your tail.”
    The Pooka
bucked and whinnied, and it took Fidgen a minute to realize he was laughing. “And
they accuse me of not being serious!”
    “So what
would you offer?”
    The Pooka
settled himself down, gave a shake, and said, “Would you like to learn how to
turn invisible?”
    “Like when
you followed me?”
    The Pooka
nodded. “It cloaks you from most magics, as you know.”
    Fidgen
considered for a long moment, trying to detect what the Pooka was up to. He
finally let the bael fire die out and said, “Tell me what we’re going to be
doing first.”
    “You’re
going to turn into the wind,” the Pooka said.
    Fidgen
shook his head. “I don’t think that’s wise.”
    “It’s
perfectly safe,” the Pooka said. “It’s mostly illusion, but you have to
disguise your mind as well as your body. The net result is that everything
sees you as air, including magic.”
    Fidgen
turned this over in his mind. “And none of my shields excluded the air.”
    “As well
they shouldn’t have,” the Pooka said. “You could create such a barrier, but do
not forget that if you cut yourself off from the air, it would be like being in
a cave. You would suffocate before long.”
    “But you
say that it’s mostly illusion,” Fidgen said.
    “That’s how
the wind found me,” the Pooka said. “It’s also how you were able to feel me
near you. You have an affinity for the air, and you could tell something was
not right, even if you didn’t know what it was.”
    “And you
can teach me how to do this?”
    “It should
be easy for you,” the Pooka said. “Just watch how I do it.”
    Fidgen
watched closely, and the Pooka suddenly disappeared. He cast about with all of
his senses, including listening for the wind, and he could just make out that something
was where the Pooka had been, but his eyes still struggled to