He cracked the reins, and the horses broke into a canter, a gallop. At first, hooves clattered and the wheels roared along the road, stray stones flicking and banging against the carriage. Lena clutched her blanket close and felt the air steal from her lungs. She’d never gone so fast before! And suddenly—unbelievably—there was silence, and her whole body lurched, as if she were falling. The road was a few feet below, the wheels of the carriage now spinning in thin air, slowing and slowing. She clutched the seat tightly, wanting to scream or shout or laugh, but her lungs were empty. And the road was falling away like a golden ribbon between the grassy fields, more quickly than Lena would have thought possible—she could feel the air around her sparking with a brilliant luminescence as a puff of cloud rushed down to enclose them.

Magic, she thought again, as that sick sensation tingled in her chest. She hadn’t known it could feel like this. It felt … wonderful.

“Hold your breath!” Emris warned—and Lena did.

They rushed into the cloud’s whiteness, cold light rain enveloping them, and everything except the carriage and the bobbing heads of the bay horses, still galloping, disappeared. And when they emerged from the cloud, they were damp and cold and the sky was a brilliant blue—bluer than before—and the green of the earth was stretched out like a fine silken blanket threaded with roads of gold.

Emris adjusted the reins, leveling out their ascent, and rested back in his seat. “So,” he said, “now is the time for you to ask all those questions.”

Lena was speechless. She looked down again, noticing another carriage on the King’s Road far below, as small as a beetle. The sick feeling had passed—but she felt the echo of it still. Was it … magic? Inside her? How had she never noticed it before? Had it always been there?

“Are all mages born with magic inside them?”

Emris nodded. “Yes. Generally, magic runs in families, and children with two mage parents are highly likely to inherit magic themselves. But sometimes, rarely, it can occur as if from nowhere.” He glanced across at her. “I’m guessing your parents weren’t mages?”

She shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I never knew my parents.”

Emris smiled sadly. “Me too,” he said, and she glanced at him in surprise—but he didn’t elaborate.

“So you can’t … catch magic?” Lena asked tentatively. “Or … or sort of develop it? It’s always there inside you, even when you’re born?”

“Catch magic? Like you catch a cold?” Emris laughed. “No, of course not. You’re thinking that you’ve never felt this way before?”

She nodded.