The Girl Without Magic

by Megan O'Russell

  The boat gave a dull thump as it knocked into the rocks. They had stopped beyond the steep cliffs. Here the rocks were broken, and boulders had piled up, giving them a way to climb. Bertrand was the first out of the boat, climbing quickly up the rocks to make way for the next. Selna, a woman with dark hair and deep brown eyes, followed him. Then Giles, a young man with broad shoulders who looked as though he could row the whole village himself. Tammond took Maggie’s hand, helping her balance as she climbed out of the boat.

  “Lamil,” Tammond turned to the older man who had rowed them around the cliffs. “You go with them. I’ll row the boat back to the village.”

  Lamil smiled sadly and shook his head. “Abeyla has given orders. You are to go with Bertrand. I am to stay behind.”

  “But you’re a good fighter,” Tammond said, standing firmly in the boat. “You fought Jax when he set fire to the lake. You should be on the cliffs. You’ll be able to see what Jax is doing. You’ll know better when to strike.”

  “Abeyla has given her orders,” Lamil repeated firmly. “Abeyla is our leader, and you will follow her commands.”

  “It is my place to protect her,” Tammond said, desperation creeping into his voice.

  “Tammond,” Maggie said gently, “we aren’t going to the cliff because we aren’t going to fight. We will fight. We only need to wait until the time is right.”

  “But if Jax attacks Abeyla, how will I help her from the top of a cliff?” Tammond asked, rounding on her.

  “You won’t,” Bertrand said. “It will be up to those near her to fight by her side. But we will play our part. We will fight. And I promise you, our chances of death in glorious battle are just as great as those who stay behind.”

  “And we have the worse job,” Maggie added. “We have to be strong enough to watch and wait for the right time.” Maggie felt ill knowing how terrible that wait would be.

  he rocks dug deeply into her scabbed palms as they climbed the mountain. The ridgeline, which had sloped gently down to the lake, became steeper the closer they got to the overhang. Boulders were replaced by smaller rocks that slid under their feet with every step, and for the last twenty minutes of the climb, they had needed to use their hands to steady and pull themselves up.

  Sweat dripped down Maggie’s back by the time she had managed to drag herself, panting, up onto the top of the mountain. She rolled onto her back for a moment, catching her breath and staring up at the bright blue sky. Everything was peaceful and calm. Not a storm cloud in sight. No hint that danger would find them by dawn.

  “It really is beautiful here,” Maggie said as Tammond crawled up next to her.

  “It is.” Tammond rubbed the dirt from his hands onto his pants. “I’m told it’s one of the most beautiful places in all of Malina.”

  “Perhaps when this is all over you will be sent into Malina as a Wanderer and will be able to see which parts of Malina are most beautiful for yourself,” Bertrand said. He was already on his feet, standing thirty feet away, staring over the edge of the overhang. The edge of the cliff was one solid piece of stone without a crack or imperfection, just as they had seen from below. Forty feet behind was a stand of trees whose roots had penetrated the rock, finding a way to survive on top of the mountain. Maggie tried not to think of how deep into the rock the roots might reach as she stood and joined Bertrand, walking carefully toward the edge.

  There was no sign of the village below. No hint they were even standing on an overhang. From the top it looked like a normal cliff leading down toward the water. Maggie’s head spun from the height, and she stumbled back.

  Tammond wrapped an arm around her waist.

  “Careful,” he murmured as he too looked down toward the village. “We won’t be able to see what’s happening below, only Jax’s approach.”

  “And you’re sure he’ll come from the front?” Maggie asked, already knowing the answer as she surveyed the land. The only way to attack the village was from dead ahead.

  “We know where he’ll come from,” Selna said. “We just don’t know what he’ll bring with him.”

  “Right.” Maggie lowered herself carefully to sit at the edge of the cliff, her feet dangling over the water more than two hundred feet below. “So we sit here and wait for something to happen.”

  Tammond sat next to Maggie, pressing his right palm forward. The air in front of them shimmered and thickened, blurring the lake for a moment before the world came back into focus.

  “They won’t be able to see us then?” Bertrand knelt and poked the air by the cliff, which seemed to bow with his touch.

  Tammond shook his head.

  “We should start watches,” Selna said. “They aren’t supposed to be here until morning.”

  “And you trust that?” Giles asked, his hands on his hips and his eyes narrowed.

  “Not even a bit,” Selna said, “but when they do come, we’ll need to be as rested as possible. I’ll take first watch. You all go rest.”

  “Two at a time,” Bertrand said, settling himself on the cliff. “I’ll watch with you.”

  “Thanks,” Maggie said, grateful for Tammond taking her hands as she stood up, her head swimming from fatigue and the height of the cliff

  Tammond led her to a patch of shade under a tree not far from the cliff. Maggie wished for a bed, but shade and hard rocks would have to do.

  “I can take first watch, Selna,” Giles said, still looking threatening.

  “I won’t sleep,” Selna said. “Rest, Giles. When the battle begins, I won’t let you miss it.”

  Giles paused for a moment, looking as though he wanted to argue, before walking twenty feet away and lying down in the sun.

  “Selna won’t sleep,” Tammond said as he stretched out on the rocks next to Maggie. “Not with Mina in the dark place.”

  “Is Mina her daughter?”

  Tammond nodded.

  Maggie had known the big brown eyes looked familiar. “What about Giles?”

  Giles was lying on the ground facing toward the open water. Maggie had no doubt he was watching Jax’s path.

  “His brother was one of the Wanderers who were sent back out into Malina,” Tammond whispered so softly Maggie had to move her face right next to his in order to hear him. “His brother was one of the ones who didn’t make it back to the Broken Lake. We know Jax took some of them. Tortured them for information. But we don’t know if Giles’s brother was with them. We don’t even know if he’s alive or dead. Just gone.”

  Maggie moved her head to Tammond’s shoulder, reveling in its warmth even in the midday heat.

  “His brother might still be out there,” Maggie whispered. “He could be a prisoner. He might have wandered so far he forgot to come home. He could have a wife and kids and be a farmer.”

  “I don’t know which would make it worse for Giles.” Tammond kissed Maggie’s forehead. “Having Jax hurt someone he loved, or having the person he cared for forget to come home.”

  “Well, when we take Jax down, maybe we can get Giles some answers.” Maggie closed her eyes, instantly falling into sleep.

  “How was I lucky enough to find someone so brave?” Tammond’s words followed her into the darkness.

  “I see them,” Bertrand’s voice was sharp and firm, all hints of playful adventure gone.

  Maggie was blinking and sitting up before Selna had rushed over to her and Tammond. “It’s time.”

  The sun was low in the sky, coloring it a bright, dazzling red.

  “This isn’t sunrise,” Maggie hissed, creeping toward the edge of the cliff.

  “He’s come early.” Bertrand’s face was dark. He looked older, harder, like a person Maggie had never met before. The adventurer was gone, replaced by a warrior with no fear of blood.

  “We thought he would.” Tammond crouched at the edge of the cliff peering out into the distance.

  “I’m not surprised by it,” Bertrand said, “but it does make me dislike him even more.”

  Maggie knelt
by the edge of the cliff, trying to make her tired eyes focus on what the others were seeing. In the fading light, she glimpsed something on the edge of the far side of the lake. From this distance it looked like an animal swimming quickly out into the water. But trees were moving out over the water, too. A vast stand of trees.

  “There are hundreds of them,” Selna whispered.

  Maggie rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms before looking back out over the water. The trees that had been moving weren’t trees at all, but groups of men standing on rafts that rowed across the lake. And the animal who had come farthest was a man, standing on a raft only a few feet wide. There was no one on that raft rowing it forward. No sign at all of how the raft was moving. But the man glided over the water, moving swiftly toward the village.

  “Jax,” Maggie said, not needing anyone to tell her she was right.

  He had left his men far behind, struggling to catch him as they rowed.

  When he was near enough for Maggie to make out his jet-black hair and pale skin, Jax spoke. “Wanderers,” his voice boomed, shaking the cliff under Maggie’s feet.

  She wanted to run from the edge before it came tumbling down, but something in Jax’s voice made her stay. “Too long have I allowed you to be a stain on the greatness of Malina. Too long have I let you spread fairy stories and lies. I will not permit the blight you have created to spread any further.”

  A shout rose from the village beneath, but unlike Jax’s words, these were muddled.

  But Jax seemed to have heard and smiled before he responded. “Would waiting until morning change your fate? My men are trained soldiers, and we outnumber you. You are not fighters. How long did you really expect to survive hiding in your hole?”

  “Jax Cayde,” Abeyla’s voice came up from the water as she appeared under the edge of the overhang. She stood on the front of a boat as Lamil rowed her steadily forward. “You think that’s what we’ve been doing on the Broken Lake all these years? Surviving? We’ve been thriving, Jax. While you built your walls and trained your armies, we had families. We learned. We built a home. Who has spent their time better, Jax?”

  “You’ve built homes.” Jax smiled. “Had children. I gave you the opportunity to allow your children to survive. You denied my offer.”

  “That evil little―” Selna leaned forward as though readying herself to leap over the edge of the cliffs to attack Jax herself.

  Bertrand grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. “Abeyla is running out of time.”

  Maggie looked back at the lake. The men on the rafts were catching up to Jax. In a few more minutes, they would be at his side.

  “I never trusted your offer, Jax,” Abeyla said, a hint of sadness touching her ringing voice. “Such a pity you turned against the Wanderer’s calling. You would have been a wonderful teacher.”

  “I am more than a teacher. I am a master!” Jax shouted. He spread his arms wide and the water rose up to meet them.

  For a moment he looked like an eagle with unbelievably large wings before the water began to churn. A wave raced forward, striking Abeyla and Lamil’s boat, but Abeyla stood calmly on the bow as the boat lurched with the wave.

  Tammond leaned in close to Maggie, looking down at his mother.

  “A master, Jax Cayde?” Abeyla asked.

  Tammond tensed, and Maggie took his hand in hers.

  “That is not the way. There is no master of magic.” Abeyla stood on the very edge of the boat, balanced perfectly on the thin rail.

  “If you truly believe that, then I have much to teach you before I allow your departure from this world.” Jax threw his arms forward, and again the water surged toward Abeyla and Lamil. But Abeyla was flying through the air, soaring above the water.

  With a guttural cry, white-hot light flew from Abeyla’s palms. For a moment, Maggie thought she had missed. The lightning hadn’t struck Jax. Instead, it had hit the raft that held him above the water. Instantly, the raft gave a terrible crack. Jax swayed for a moment, but stayed upright as the raft caught fire.

  Abeyla landed on the water not fifteen feet in front of Jax. Maggie expected her to sink, but Abeyla landed catlike on top of one of Jax’s waves, which had frozen in place.

  “Fire does not fear fire,” Jax said, waving a hand so the smoke from the fire disappeared. Flames still lapped at his feet, but his view of Abeyla was unobscured. “I am the one who burned the Broken Lake. Are you so anxious for me to do it again?” The flames from Jax’s raft melted down over the sides. The fire didn’t extinguish or even falter as it touched the water. The blaze grew, absorbing the blue of the water and spreading quickly with dancing sapphire flames.

  “Jax Cayde,” Abeyla said calmly as the fire surged toward her. “You never think that anyone else can learn. You’ve never seen how magic can grow and evolve if you only let it.”

  Holding her hands below her mouth as though blowing sand into the wind, Abeyla let out a great breath. The fire in its path flickered as it was pushed back, its blue light fading. But in a moment the fire had grown brighter, flames leaping a foot above the lake.

  “It’s gone wrong,” Maggie breathed, her mind racing to find a way to save the village from burning.

  “Wait,” Tammond whispered.

  The flames weren’t racing toward Abeyla anymore. They had cascaded in the other direction, toward Jax and his men who were now right behind him.

  The men on the rafts shouted in fear as the fire streaked toward them. A few leapt from the rafts, but in a second the flames had engulfed the water around the boats, giving the men no way out.

  A handful of the men seemed to be prepared, working magic Maggie could barely see. Shields shimmered around a few of the rafts. One lifted itself out of the lake, hovering out of reach of the flames, while another was now surrounded in a cocoon of water.

  But other boats burned. The men on them screaming in fear and pain as the flames surrounded them. Maggie’s throat tightened as the smoke reached the cliff, but she squinted through it to see what Jax was doing.

  He wasn’t helping his men, hadn’t raised a finger to save any of the Enlightened who cried for his aid. He stood, staring at Abeyla.

  “You’ve grown hard in these years,” Jax said. “You aren’t as squeamish as you once were.”

  “I will do anything to protect my people.” Abeyla’s words barely cut over the rush of water as a wave twelve feet high soared toward her.

  Maggie bit her lips, tasting blood in her mouth as she fought not to scream.

  But a spell leapt forward from behind Abeyla. Lamil had joined the fray. A bright purple streak of what seemed like airborne lava flew toward Jax, touching a point over his head and spreading over him, trapping him in its grip. Abeyla emerged from the water, dripping but apparently unhurt.

  Two of the rafts had made their way out of the flames and, with a shout, the Enlightened began casting spells toward Abeyla. It was too much, far too much. There were too many for Abeyla to fight on her own. But spells were coming from under the overhang as well. The Wanderers had joined the fight. One of the rafts was hit, and two of the men were tossed overboard. The water around them hardened, leaving the men screaming as their fellows passed over them on their own rafts, crushing them to death.

  A flock of creatures that looked like water given life flew toward the Enlightened, scratching their eyes and faces, distracting them from casting more spells.

  With a scream from Lamil, the water under one of the rafts sloshed into a spin, churning and twisting so the raft began to sink under the water. One of the men knelt down on the raft, placing his hand on the deck. For a split second, the raft rose from the grip of the water, but a shattering sound like a thousand glasses breaking shook the air, and the raft fell back into the vortex, disappearing under the water as Jax emerged from his shining purple cage, his eyes glowing with fury.

  Before Maggie could take a breath, Jax was raining down spells upon the Wanderers. The remaining Enlightened had rallied by his sid
e and were now pushing forward toward Abeyla. Spells flew from the village, too, the flashes of light and terrible smoke so thick it was impossible to tell what was happening below. It was as though they were looking down on a lightning cloud, knowing there was destruction underneath but without any way to tell what the chaos was.

  “We have to get down there,” Tammond said, starting for the ridge that led down to the water. “We can’t help from up here.”

  “And what good will you do down there?” Bertrand asked, blocking his path. “We are to stay here. We are the last measure at the end. And listen to them fighting.” Shouts echoed up from beneath, guttural war cries that seemed impossible on the Broken Lake. “They are still pushing back. It is not yet our time.”

  “They’ve lost men,” Tammond said, pushing Bertrand aside. “We can come at them from behind.”

  “How?” Bertrand asked, following Tammond. Maggie stood and chased after them. “You have no boat. How will you fight?”

  “How will you know if all of our people are dying if you can’t see?” A mad fury shone in Tammond’s eyes. “I won’t wait up here blind until it’s too late to save anyone. I am going below the smoke so I can see.”

  He went to the edge of the cliff and began climbing down.

  Bertrand looked at Maggie. “Abeyla wanted us to stay here. To wait until the time is right.”

  “Abeyla wanted her son to be kept alive,” Maggie said desperately.

  “Follow if you must, Miss Trent,” Bertrand said, “but know I will not be there to save you.”

  “I can save myself, thanks.” Maggie walked past him as Tammond disappeared down the ridge.

  “What I meant, Miss Trent,” Bertrand said, “is do not go looking for the darkness. It seems to like you, and it might not let you go this time. And Miss Trent, I would hate to lose you so soon.”

  Maggie nodded, a knot tightening in her throat. “Don’t you go looking for darkness either. Just cause you’re old friends doesn’t mean he’ll let you live.”

  Not waiting for Bertrand’s reply, Maggie followed Tammond down the mountain.