Page 62 of The Queen’s Shadow

Water, though not nearly as wild as fire, was a dangerous element to wield. You could lose control and accidentally drown someone or sweep them away. I had once almost unleashed a tsunami on Jamaica when I had just been learning how to control my powers.

I had joked about that incident with Raven once, when she had accidentally lost control over her copy-cat version of Meredith’s green energy.

But it hadn’t been funny at the time.

It had taken almost everything my grandmother had, plus the efforts of several other elders from my hometown, to reverse what I had done. I had put the lives of thousands of people at risk that day. If the team of Obeah practitioners had not been successful in taming the wave, homes would have been lost and beaches would have been devastated. Humans and magick folk alike would have perished and it would have been all my fault.

Since that day, I had made it my personal mission to always be in control of my powers. I never had an incident like that again. That experience, as terrifying as it had been, was a perfect example of how the universe often tested us, to make us stronger.

In my efforts to ensure nothing like that ever happened again, I had become one of the most powerful water wielders in the western hemisphere by the time I turned nineteen. It was not something I often boasted about, but it was a relatively well-known fact among the magick folk community.

What had happened with The Siren was no different. I had survived that so that I might learn from my mistakes and come back stronger.

I nodded at Dossidian, and removed the belt and sheathed blade, putting it down next to the daemon’s sabers.

I stood before him, feeling stiff and awkward. Dossidian was a massive daemon. He was nearly seven feet of solid muscle with biceps the size of tree trunks. I was not a short man, last I had checked I was well over six feet tall myself, but I was much leaner than he was.

Despite his size, I had seen him in battle, and he moved like a dancer. His actions were languid and smooth, and he was surprisingly fast for someone so large. Standing before me now, he seemed perfectly at ease.

“Let’s start with the basic stance,” Dossidian instructed, gesturing for me to stand with my feet shoulder-width apart, one foot slightly forward. “Keep your knees slightly bent, and your weight should be evenly distributed.”

I did my best to mimic him, but everything felt wrong. I was awkward and overly worried about the positioning of my feet.

Dossidian regarded my stance and chuckled.

“It is not often I see you so stiff, Conrad. You are usually much more relaxed.”

I laughed, rubbing the back of my neck again, shrugging.

“Mi feel a bit out of mi element here. Mi nuh know where to start or what tuh do.”

“Aye, fair enough. Try not to overthink it.” He glanced over at the bowl of water that stood at the northern point of the ring. “Why don’t you summon that water to you. Let’s use the water in place of the rapier to start. You will see that the movement you use to wield your magick is not so different from how you should wield a blade.” I gave him a curt nod, grinning.

Now that mi could do.

With half a thought, the water snaked from the stone basin and twisted through the air towards me. I felt my body instantly relax into the familiar ebb and flow of movement that I used to speak to the water. I called it, like the moon called the tide, and it bent to my will easily.

“Good,” Dossidian said, beaming at me. “How you’re standing right now, is almost exactly how you should be standing for the basic stance. See how your feet are hip width, and your knees are relaxed?”

I looked down and grinned, nodding.

“Yuh right, dis is easier.”

“Now, let’s mix in some footwork. Imagine the water is the blade as you move.” Dossidian demonstrated a series of crisp, calculated steps, lunging forward and retreating gracefully. I watched him carefully, before making an attempt at imitating the movements. I knew I didn’t get them quite perfect, just by how the water didn’t smoothly flow with me through some of the steps.

“Show mi again.” I said, and Dossidian obliged. We went back and forth a few times until I was able to glide through the movements without my water stream breaking from an awkward or unplanned step.

“Great work, Conrad.” Dossidian smiled at me when I had gotten the first sequence of steps down. “You’re a quick learner.”

I laughed, running my fingers through my merrily twisting stream of water.

“Yuh a great teacher.” I replied, and he chuckled.

“I’ve had many years to practice. Here, let me show you another one.”

It didn’t take long before we fell into an amicable groove. Dossidian walked me through several stances, pushing me to try more and more complicated footwork combos.

He had been right. The movements and stances for swordplay were incredibly similar to the way I moved when I used my magick. I was picking up the patterns faster than I think either of us had expected. After a few hours, Dossidian asked me to return the water to the basin and pick up the blade.