Unlocks manacles

He looked at the manacles. “I don’t have the key,” he said. “I don’t know . . . I mean I can’t . . .” he stammered.

The woman sighed impatiently. “Of course you can. I can’t, because they are welded onto me. If I try, the feedback will overwhelm me. You can. Just open them with a spell .” Jodah looked at the manacles carefully now. They had a thin joining line along one side but no sign of a lock or catch. “I don’t know how,” said Jodah in a small voice. “I don’t know that spell.”

“So make it up!” hissed the woman.

(...)

“All right, here’s what we can do. I want you to pull out the magic of your land. You know how to do that?”

Jodah nodded, and closed his eyes. He was back in Giva, back at the family manse. Slowly he pulled the energies from those memories and shaped them into a glowing white ball in his mind. “Good,” said the woman, “what are you envisioning?”

“I am thinking of a white ball of light.” said Jodah.

“That ball is the mana, the magical energy,” said the woman. “Now I want you to keep thinking of that ball and open your eyes.” Jodah did so.

“Now I’m going to tell you how to shape that mana, I can’t be a hundred percent accurate, because it can’t really be put into words.”

“Like writing down a dance,” said Jodah, feeling a fresh twinge of regret for Voska.

The woman almost smiled. Almost. “Close enough. Now I want you to shape the ball into a disk. Flatten the poles, and imagine the edge of the disk is so narrow that it can easily fit into the seam of these manacles. Can you do that?”

“I can try,” said Jodah, flattening the ball in his mind. Then he asked, “Have you ever done this before? ”

“Made a spell on the fly?” asked the woman. “Yes. One time I had to do it for another mage who had his hands trapped like mine.”

“Did it work?” said Jodah, the disk of mana was a spinning vortex, and he imagined it moving toward the manacles.

“Sort of ,” said the woman. “He casts spells one handed now. Easy! Just let the disk slide into the joint and move along the length of the manacles. Yes, that’s it . . . ”

(...)

The soft murmuring went on for a few moments, and there was the flickering of light within. Indistinct shadows formed on the walls. The murmuring voices stopped.

The lad was getting careless now, thought Togath. One thing to leave one’s post for a bit of personal excitement. Quite another to light a lantern and call attention to the matter. He’d better stop Jodah before he roused the whole camp with his foolishness.

Besides, thought Togath with a grin, it was his turn.

The large guard pulled back the tent flap and said, “Lad, I hate to interrupt, but if you’ve had your fun . . .”

His words died in his throat as he saw the pair kneeling on the dirt floor of the tent. The woman’s manacles were laying to one side, and she was rubbing her wrists.

***

The Gathering Dark, Chapter 5