Rising From the Ashes: The Chronicles of Caymin by Caren J. Werlinger Page B

through the air. No one else had been able to do this like Gai could.
    He strode over to the others. “I can do the same for you, and then we can go do something more fun than this.”
    The others straightened, looking at one another, no one willing to reply.
    “All right,” Diarmit said at last. “I can’t do that yet, so I’m willing.”
    Gai walked to each of them, waving his hand similarly, dropping seeds into the ground and covering them with soil. When he was done, they trooped together into the forest to a stream where they spent the rest of the day wading and splashing in the water. They overturned stones, looking for small crayfish and tadpoles, catching them and letting them go.
    The sun was on its downward path when they returned to the village, laughing and talking. As one, they stopped when they saw Ivar and Neela waiting for them. Ash saw the older five sitting back by the meetinghouse, grinning and nudging one another.
    “You finished your work quickly,” Neela said.
    Gai’s pale cheeks colored with bright patches of scarlet as he jutted his chin out. “We used magic. Why should we toil like –” He glanced toward Cíana. “Like oxen when magic gets the work done so much faster.”
    Ivar stepped forward, his brows drawn together. “And did your magic plant all the cabbage seeds far enough apart? Did it plant the bean and carrot seeds at the proper depth? Because if it didn’t, the plants will wither in the soil and we’ll all go hungry this winter.”
    Gai opened his mouth to retort, but Ivar silenced him with a gesture.
    “Your excuses are meaningless.”
    Neela laid a calming hand on Ivar’s arm. “Magic is a wonderful thing, and it will serve you well in many tasks in your life, but there are some things that must be done by the sweat of your brow. If magic were the answer, do you not think we would have done it that way without your help?”
    All of them hung their heads, staring at the ground. Even Gai looked somewhat abashed.
    “To thank you for your work, we had planned on taking you all on the morrow to a special place in the forest, a waterfall such as you have never seen. But now we can’t,” Neela said.
    “Tomorrow,” said Ivar, “you will all go back to the clearing. You will dig up everything and replant it properly so that it has time to grow.”
    His gaze challenged Gai to argue, but Gai only nodded and turned away.
    Neela and Ivar left them.
    Daina rounded on Gai. “You told us it would do no harm to use magic.”
    “Don’t blame Gai,” Cíana told her. “He didn’t force us. We were all eager to get done quickly. We’re all to blame.”
    Gai looked at the older ones resentfully. “You could have told us.”
    Ronan cocked his head. “It seems to me we did. It’s not our fault if you’re too dense to listen.”
    “Don’t rub it in,” said Niall. “We did the same thing.”
    Fergus laughed. “That’s why it’s so funny. We all try it. They know we will.”
    “And now, we get to do it all again,” Diarmit said with a sigh. “Let’s eat. We’ll need the energy for tomorrow.”
    “I am going to eat with Enat,” Ash said. “I will meet you at the clearing tomorrow.”
    She suspected Enat would have heard about what happened, so she was not surprised when Enat greeted her by saying, “I trust you had an educational day?”
    Ash snorted. “A lesson I will not forget.”
    Enat smiled. “A good lesson, then.”

CHAPTER 7
    Claiming Her Name
    W e should go this way.”
    “No, it’s this way.”
    The planting was done – “and properly,” Neela had said with a nod of approval after the younger apprentices replanted all the crops. She had sent them out into the forest to find a selection of plants and roots for her. She had given each group a list written out on a small piece of parchment. Ash was working with Cíana and Diarmit, while Gai was with Daina somewhere else in the forest.
    “This is not a contest,” Neela had warned, but Ash saw the