I pressed my face against Corwin's back as we surfed the air waves. The wind rushed at us as we soared through the night sky.
His white broadcloth shirt fluttered in the wind, billowing behind him. It smelled of lemon detergent but I could still smell the natural masculine scent of his skin. It was a very familiar and comforting scent to me.
At first, we stayed low, but once we were out in the open seas, Corwin soared upwards with the rising winds, arms outstretched to balance us and to maneuver the twists and turns.
He banked westward and I could see the ocean coming out to greet us.
The Pacific.
Tiny dancing flecks of light merged into a huge dark body of water, roaring and calling us out into the dark rolling deeps.
Corwin found a trailing edge of air and swooped down riding it as far as he could.
Then he hopped off the air stream.
For a split second, there was no blast under our board.
I held my breath in terror as we dived towards the water. The roiling, undulating mass rushed up at us.
I gasped, expecting to dive into the waves, but at the very last possible moment, we swooped out of the dive and surfed along on the water's edge, causing a wake that was part water, part air.
We were water surfing!
We both laughed out loud, the feeling of freedom making us higher than a kite.
I could feel the salt spray bursting forth, misting our bodies. I could smell the scent of the ocean and the sky, melding into one.
At the point where the water lost its wave, he blasted a broad flat energy onto the surface of the ocean and lifted us back up into the air.
We flew far out, following the ocean's currents. When we could no longer see the lights of Solaro, we banked around and flew back.
Up this high and going this fast, we could not talk over the roar of the wind.
However, once we were gliding back towards land, he slowed the board down until we were finally doing a moderate pace over miles and miles of wine-scented vineyards.
Where we were heading, I had no clue.
"Are you getting tired?" I asked.
Corwin shook his head.
"With winds this strong, I am barely using any of my own power at all," Corwin's voice carried over the rushing of the wind.
"In fact, it's the quickest way to recharge if I've extended myself for awhile, or if I've expended my energies doing magik work. I just get on my board and fly for a bit, and I come back fully charged."
"It must be wonderful to be able to fly. I envy you so much." I said.
"We're not really flying," he chuckled. "We're just surfing on the wind currents. I can actually fly, but it takes a lot of energy. And why fly when we can surf? It's much more fun."
"Would you consider flying and levitation the same thing?"
"Levitation is lift without blast. Flying is lift and blast, acting against drag and weight."
Of course. I smiled. What was I thinking asking a question like that to someone like him. Corwin was an expert in aeromancy.
"Still. Surfing or flying all requires levikinesis. Although windsurfing gains me a net positive energy flow, it still requires that I have to levitate the board up high enough to catch the wind."
"That must take a lot of energy."
"It's not very energy-intensive, and once you're aloft, the wind recharges you any way. If you can learn how to levitate yourself and a board, you can learn how to surf the currents."
"You make it sound so easy. So many mages know how to levitate, but how many know how to surf the wind?" I asked.
"There are quite a few of us who can surf the blast although most mages aren't exactly cracker jacks at it."
He reached back and touched my head. "You're a natural at reading the blast. You instinctively know how and when to lean into a turn. If you can ever get the hang of levikinesis, you'd make a good windsurfer."
"I will never get the hang of levikinesis because my body can't absorb enough magik energy to do that much magik. But I know there's much more to wind-surfing than just knowing how to levitate."
"That's true. You also have to know how to balance on the board or you fall off. Everybody knows how to walk on land, but few know how to walk on a taut, suspended wire. Same principle."
He found a rounded hilltop and lowered the board.
"See this bluff? I found it while doing some reconnaissance earlier. It's up on top of a crest that's not easy to get to unless you fly here. There are no roads that go up here either, so it's almost inaccessible except for the goats."
The view from the bluff was AMAZING!!!
We sat on the board, hovering three feet above the ground and gazed out over the city, marveling at its transient beauty.
From this distance, the city lights winked and twinkled, looking like a million stars coming out to play on the ground. The stardust continued upward into the deep sapphire night above us.
A quarter moon hung near the horizon, waiting for its chance to soar heavenward. The night had just begun.
This far away from humanity's bustling city, the only sounds I could hear were the murmur of the wind and the occasional hoot owl.
"Do you give people joy rides on your board often?" I asked.
"No. You're the only one," he admitted.
I smiled, feeling privileged. "Thank you."
"You're welcome," he answered, looking as if he was a million miles away.
"It has been a stressful couple of weeks, hasn't it."
"You don't know the half of it." Corwin sighed.
"Ever since summer began, Connor and I have been kept running from morning till night, doing all sorts of things, most of which I am not at liberties to tell you. But believe me, we are under so much pressure for so many reasons."
He shook his head. "When we got tagged for this assignment to go find the apes and Tory, I was convinced old Blackstone had become senile in his old age."
He shook his head. "But then our power grid got taken out and we were running for our lives, and all of a sudden, this turned into the most important mission of my life."
His eyes saddened. "It was as if all my training and work up to this point was to prepare me for this."
I looked away into the distance. "I wish I could help in some way, but I don't have much in the way of magikal talents to contribute."
Corwin turned to me. "Don't you dare discount your magikal abilities."
At my questioning glance, he continued, "You opened a portal that had been sealed for over a hundred years. You can't discount something like that."
"Oh, that," I laughed. "That was just pure dumb luck."
"That's not luck. Besides, you also have a special affinity towards animals that most folks just don't have. Heaven knows, that red ape is so in love with you that if you look at another man, I'm afraid that man will have a fight on his hands."
"He's a Sumatran orangutan," I corrected him laughingly. "And any man I love will have to figure out how to love my animals too."
"Ah," Corwin sniffed. "He would have to be some special guy."
"Yes," I flashed him a wide grin, "Very special."
We sat there for awhile longer, not saying much. There was no need to. As it got colder, I began leaning on him to leech as much heat as I could from his body.
Corwin smiled and waved a hand, throwing a light bubble over us and filling it with a bit of heat. Although it kept me nice and warm, it didn't take long for the condensation to appear.
"I need to teach you how to regulate your internal temperature so you don't get too cold or too hot."
Corwin reached out and touched my hands. "Your fingers are ice cold. Let's get back to the Hotel."
"No! I'm not that cold. I want to walk on the beach. Can we?"
Corwin hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
The flight back was quiet, but I was filled with a sense of joy. I smiled and hugged him just a little bit tighter.
Corwin, feeling the subtle difference between me holding him for balance and actually hugging him, squeezed my hands in response.
We landed on the quiet secluded beach by the hotel and walked along the shore, going away from the lights and the noise of the hotel.
The quarter moon gleamed a long bright patch of dancing lights across the water all the way out to the horizon.
We walked until I could no longer hear the sounds of the diners seated on the veranda above the rhythmically crashing surf.
The seagulls screamed as they flew above us, and I could taste the tang of the sea spray in the air.
Sand was starting to creep into my shoes, but it wasn't too unpleasant.
In any case, we were no longer walking.
Corwin had stopped and was now facing me, his blue eyes luminescent in the bright moonlight.
"Listen Nana. I know that to you, I am too serious and don't have much of a sense of humor. That is something that Connor has always had an abundance of."
Was I hearing this right? Corwin sounded jealous…
Corwin sighed. "He is very outgoing and carefree, and always the favorite son. He is the baby boy of the family and acts that way even though we are twins and I was only born a few minutes before him."
I stood there, staring at him.
I had thought he was going to grill me about the primate/Sir Montblanc incident. After all, didn't we leave Connor to have this conversation?
He continued without realizing I was stunned by the direction of conversation that he was taking.
"…but it's those few minutes of difference in birth order which often determine a person's outlook in life."
"Because I was born before him, I have always had to look out for him, to cover all bases, and to make sure we are going in the right direction and doing the right things."
"I know that my actions sometimes makes me look like an angry stick in the mud to you. I must seem like such a boring person."
"No, no, Corwin. Don't say that," I put a finger up to his mouth. "You are you, and Connor is Connor. Just because I like Connor's funny antics and his warmth and sincerity, that does not mean I like you any less."
"But you laugh so easily in his presence," Corwin frowned. "And the sad thing is, I love to hear your laughter just as much as Connor does."
He reached up and rubbed his head with a dejected hand. "If it means I have to stand in the shadows so I can listen to my woman laugh at my brother's corny jokes, I will do it, again and again."
"But what's wrong with that?" I asked, searching his face for a sign of acceptance of the relationship that I had with his brother. "I like Connor the way he is, and I don't think there's anything bad about laughing at his jokes."
Corwin gazed at me with sad blue eyes. It made me almost want to laugh.
"But Corwin, I like you too. I like you just the way you are, so don't go changing yourself or I won't be able to recognize you."
Corwin heaved a big sigh, his shoulders slumping. "I feel as if you and I are moving further and further apart, even as you and Connor are moving closer and closer to each other, and I don't know what to do to bring you back to me."
I shook my head. "We're not moving apart from each other. If anything, we are much closer today than we were a few weeks ago."
I poked his shoulder. "Don't forget I've been sleeping on this shoulder almost every night since we left Topaz City?"
Corwin nodded, his eyes misting over. "Every night was a treasured gem for me. I never wanted the nights to end because it's only at night that I could hold you in my arms, if only for a few short hours."
"Well, now that we're here at the hotel, you get to sleep the whole night through, so that's a good thing." I said.
"No it's not. I would give up my comfortable hotel bed for one more night of sleeping on the ground with your heavy head on my shoulder."
"Heavy?" I gasped.
"Like a boat anchor," he chuckled.
I scowled with mock annoyance and swung my arm at him in feigned offense.
He laughed and reached out, catching my arm with no effort. "How are you going to defend yourself against a full-fledge wizard, Nana?"
I pretended to give it some thought before I responded.
"Hmmm, like this!" I grabbed his left hand and pressed his soul-band against mine.