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Keladry of Midelan sighed. She loved the boy, but his term was nearly up. And while she wanted to keep him around, she knew there was one aspect of Tobe’s education she had sorely neglected. She looked at Tobe, sitting, arms crossed, across from her at New Hope’s dining hall. He was the very picture of stubbornness. Kel hadn’t seen him like this since before Sancra.
“No,” he said firmly. “I ain’t going and you can’t make me.”
“Won’t go,” Kel corrected. “And I can. But I don’t want to have to make you.”
Tobe ground his heels into the ground. “I don’t get it,” he grumbled. “Wha’ can they teach me that I can’t learn here with you? Or with Sir Neal,” he added quickly, seeing what she was about to say.
Kel shook her head. “Neal is a mage but he’s a healer-mage. Daine isn’t here. You need to be taught, Tobe.”
“I don’t got magic,” he protested, but it was force of habit by now. He couldn’t remember when he had accepted that he had something, but it had probably been the last time Daine came through and he saw her with his horses. They had told him she said things like he did, and he slowly started to warm to the idea of this thing called Wild Magic. Kel raised an eyebrow and looked at him.
“You need training with your magic,” she explained slowly, her patience beginning to run thin, “and you have a different kind of magic than Neal. Otherwise, he actually would have been quite happy to teach you.”
“Daine, then, or what about Master Numair? They come here lots, I 'acould learn here.”
“Daine is busy. Numair, bless him, is busy. Tobe, the war is never fully over. There’s always more to do. And they’re doing it. When they come to New Hope they are on a mission." Kel eyed the boy. "You know that. You've helped. Tobe, what's the real problem here?"
Tobe shook his head firmly. Kel sighed and ran a hand through her hair. This was a risky statement, but she needed to get the boy training. “You might be able to heal, Tobe.”
The boy blinked up at her. “Heal?” Kel nodded. “Y’mean, with my animals? The way Sir Neal does with people?”
“I can’t promise,” Kel cautioned, “but it’s a possibility. You're good with the horses when they hurt themselves - even Daine commented on it. If you study with Stefan, Daine might be able to teach you. But first you've got to get some training and control.”
Tobe gulped. By now he wasn’t put off at the possibility of being away from Lady Kel for a week, but she was proposing months. And she wanted him to go to this Ouna-woman and there was no guarantee, absolutely no guarantee that she would want him or would keep him. Or that Master Stefan would be able to teach him anything. People had tried to teach Tobe things before he was with Kel and they had said he was unteachable. But... He tried to keep the emotions off his face, but Kel was the master of all of reading faces. She reached forward and gripped his chin, tipping so their eyes met.
“Give it two weeks, Tobe. Ouna’s not going to desert you. Stefan will teach you so much about horses. Two weeks, two weeks, Tobe, and if you’re hurting, or if you can think of an honest reason not to stay, then you can come back.” Kel carefully avoided saying ‘come home’. “Can you do that for me?”
Suddenly Tobe remembered something Gydo had asked him at one of their practice sessions. Tobe, you ever go t’school? Tobe had shook his head. Naw, not me, but m’lady Kel teaches me things. She says she’ll get me schooling one day but she’s always busy wit’ th’war an’ all. Gydo smiled a little. I’da always liked to learn more, she had said, there’s never too much to learn. It’s always worth a little extra effort to learn a little more. She had spun her spear and they began drilling again.
Tobe focused back in on Kel and he nodded.
“Aye. I’ll go.”