As a Storm
Rider, I’m still a complete newbie.
“Reilly,
you need to be focusin’ ” Delphine told me in her thick Creole accent.
I tried,
pushing the charge in my body out of my finger and into a rotating spherical
pattern. It didn’t work. No matter how I pushed, prodded, guided, or yelled in
frustration, I couldn’t get the lightning to do what I wanted. At best I would
shoot out a normal bolt of lightning. At worst I triggered some kind of weird
feedback that knocked me on my ass.
The cloud
wall stretched and rebounded softly, but I still fell on my ass as my whole
body felt like a jolted funny bone.
Natalie laughed
from her Zen-like cross-legged seat in mid-air.
“You don’t
be doin’ it right.” Delphine accused.
“Yeah, I
got that.” I sat up.
I shook my
head to clear the cobwebs then pushed myself up, ready to try again. I didn’t
need to do this. We all had our own tricks for working the weather, things that
we were better or worse at. Natalie could cloudsurf with the best of them.
Anna-Marie cloudstepped better than anyone I knew. I had a knack for riding the
lightning, but my windwalking sucked. I could do chain lightning, but I wanted
ball lightning, convinced that if I could get it, maybe I could get a handle on
Jack’s lightning sword.
“Walk me
through it one more time?” I asked Delphine.
“My husband
learn my jambalaya recipe faster dan dis.”
“Right.
Just one more time.”
I began,
following her steps to the letter. I got as far as a circle in my palm when the
lightning exploded, knocking me down again.
Natalie
fell to the cloud laughing.
Dammit!