I opened up my magical senses and called to the water, trying to feel what she had. Sure enough, my illusion suspicion was correct. The water didn’t extend “forever,” but it was very deep and still enough of a distance across that it would delay us.

“Too much for me to move,” added Jasmine.

“Me too,” I agreed quickly.

Her eyebrows rose. “No way. You could wipe this whole thing out if you wanted.”

“No,” I said firmly, hoping she caught my tone. “I can’t.”

Jasmine bit her lip and said no more. The truth was, I had a feeling I could have parted this water in classic Bible style. It would take a lot of power ... but I had it. The problem was, I didn’t want to do it in front of the Hemlock people. Maybe they weren’t our enemies, but there was only a handful of people who could work magic like that with water, and I wasn’t ready to reveal my identity. We’d even given false names.

Dorian had dismounted and was pacing around. To my surprise, he’d stopped paying attention to the lake and was instead checking out the terrain we’d just come through. The kingdom—none of us were sure which one it was—had a stony landscape, with a heavy, silt soil. Vegetation was sparse, and off in the distance, rocky foothills rose from the land and eventually gave way to far off mountains. Dorian seemed to be murmuring something to himself and then gave a satisfied nod. He turned to one of the Hemlock people, a young man who looked to be a little younger than Pagiel.

“You,” said Dorian. “You have some sort of earth magic, correct?”

The boy blinked in surprise. “Er, yes. I’m able to manipulate stones and rocks. I—I sculpt them sometimes.”

“Well,” said Dorian. “You may have to lower yourself to something a little less refined, but hopefully your skills will be adequate.”

“What do you have in mind?” asked Kiyo. He made no attempt to hide the mistrust in his voice. Maybe he felt Dorian had a lot to offer on this quest, but Kiyo wasn’t about to accept Dorian’s decisions blindly.

“We’re going to build our own road,” explained Dorian. “My young friend here and I—what’s your name again?”

“Kellum,” squeaked the boy.

“Kellum,” repeated Dorian. “Right. Kellum and I are going to use dirt and rocks to create a road across. Or, well, I’ll use dirt and rocks. He’ll assist with the rocks. There’s plenty of raw material out here to work with.”

I shook my head. “Not to reach the bottom. It’s too deep.”