Curse of Magic

by Michael Brightburn

  She looked at me with a lust in her eyes, but not one for blood.

  My mind again flashed back to earlier this morning, in bed in the layhouse.

  Pushing it aside I said, “You’ve been to Silaris before, right?”

  “Maybe.”

  I raised an eyebrow at her.

  She sighed resignedly. “A few times.”

  “Are you familiar with the surrounding area?”

  “Of course. A vampire always knows her surroundings.”

  “Excellent. Come have a look then.”

  “What’s wrong?” Sienna asked. “You lost her?”

  “No. The river split off, and we can’t follow on the road any longer.”

  Alva jumped gracefully from the cab and landed lightly, stretching and yawning, then grunting as the sun hit her face.

  I pointed at where the tributary split off. “We need to follow that way. You know how to get there?”

  Alva squinted and studied the surrounds, shielding her eyes with a gloved hand. “Hmm. This area looks somewhat familiar. I know the river. We had a ceremony there.”

  “Ceremony?” Trin asked.

  Alva shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. As for following that…” She tapped her lip with a tiny finger.

  I thought of what those lips had been doing to me earlier this morning, and again had to wrench my mind away from the pleasant imagery.

  Alva looked back the way we had come, then in the direction we had been heading before the boat had taken the tributary. “Yes. We could cross somewhere. There are some places where it’s not so deep. We’d have to leave the carriage. But the horses might make it.”

  “Might?” Trin asked.

  “The current is strong.”

  “Are there any bridges?”

  “Not that I remember. But I’ve only been here once, and I’m not sure I’ve ever been this far. There might be some up ahead. I just don’t know.”

  Trin looked to me. “Is there a limit on how long you can track her for?”

  “Yes.” I checked how far behind on the river I could see the trail for. I couldn’t see where it faded out yet. “We have a while yet, but we should try to follow as soon as possible.”

  We could either risk crossing on the horses, or risk looking for a road.

  But there were four of us—well five if you counted Alva, but she was small and light—and only two horses. “Do all of you know how to ride?” I asked. I wasn’t sure a lycanthrope and dryad would know how.

  “I’ve never ridden,” Sienna said. “But I do well with animals.” She looked at Vi as she said this.

  Vi growled. “Horses don’t like me.”

  “I wonder why,” Alva said. “Oh, that’s right. You eat them.”

  Trin looked horrified. “You eat horses? I thought lycanthrope only ate humans or elves.”

  “Oh yeah,” I said, “like that’s so much better.”

  “Horses are innocent,” Trin said. “More than I can say for most people.”

  “Okay,” I said to Vi, “you said they don’t like you. But can you ride?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Every time I’ve tried they buck me off. I think they think I’m trying to eat them.”

  “I wonder why,” Alva said again.

  “Because they’re dumb animals,” Vi replied.

  “They are not—” Trin began, but I held up my hand to stop her. “Okay you guys. We need to focus on following the Breaker.”

  I sighed. But how were we going to do that?

  If only we had a boat.

  Then I got an idea as I stared through the trees at the tributary.

  Trees.

  There were lots here, lots by the river.

  I thought back to how Sienna had made a cage for Alva.

  “Sienna, you can make trees do what you want. Have them form objects for you, right?”

  “Of course.”

  “Can you have them make a boat?”

  She scrunched up her face. “That might be difficult. Does wood float on its own?”

  “Usually,” I answered.

  “Then maybe.”

  “What about Ballast and Rod?” Trin asked.

  “What about what?”

  “My horses.”

  I sighed. “You have to leave them.”

  “I can’t just abandon them.”

  “I can tell them to be safe,” Sienna assured her.

  I frowned at her. “Really? You’re not a beastmaster.”

  “I’m no one’s master. That doesn’t mean I can’t ask things of them.” She looked at Trin. “I could ask them to go wait somewhere if you like. Maybe a farm?”

  “My family’s farm is far from here. They would never make it. And it’s long-abandoned and fallow in any case.”

  “I can ask them to go join a wild herd then. There are many. Some even came this way in the not-too-distant past.

  Trin frowned at this. “How do you know that?”

  “The trees tell me.”

  “Oh. Right. Dryad.” She looked at her horses, her eyes growing watery. “Are you sure they’ll be safe?”

  Sienna smiled at Trin and put a hand on her cheek, pushing the hood away from her face. “Yes dear. I promise. And if we come back this way, we’ll be able to find them again. I’ll make sure the trees pay special attention so they can tell me where Ballast and Rod went.”

  A tear fell from Trin’s eye and she wiped it away roughly. She sniffed and nodded. “Okay.” Her voice was choked, but not weak.

  Sienna leaned forward and kissed the girl on her lips gently. “Don’t be sad. They will be free and happy. You’ll see them again.”

  Trin nodded again, wiping more tears from her eyes.

  “Great,” I said, trying to push away my own emotion that was welling up inside me.

  Maybe it was because Trin had lost her family already, but something about her losing her horses saddened me more than it should have.

  I hoped Sienna was telling the truth that they’d be okay.

  I was sure she was, she wasn’t the type to lie.

  But I was too afraid to ask.

  30

  We stood at the bank of the river, Sienna holding Trin as she cried against her.

  The horses were gone, the carriage abandoned, all Trin had left from it a bag with her meager possessions that had been hidden under the carriage floor.

  Alva was on my shoulder now, despite the absence of a throne, napping once more. The sack with the angel’s neglected delivery was over the opposite shoulder.

  Vi stood with her arms crossed, one clawed finger tapping her biceps, staring at us.

  Unlike Trin, all she saw when Ballast and Rod ran off was a loss of fresh meat.

  Eventually Trin forced herself to stop crying, and told Sienna to go ahead and start work on the boat.

  I watched as Sienna slowly stripped out of her dress, getting much more than just a stir from me.

  When she was nude, she stood there, allowing me to take her in.

  Then she smiled and her skin turned wood-like, her legs and feet turning into roots, which went deep into the soil.

  I was willing to bet the outfit Elanos made for her would have accommodated, but I wasn’t complaining.

  She lifted her arms to the side and they too turned to roots and vines, splitting and reaching out as though searching for a connection.

  It was amazing to watch.

  Beautiful.

  She rose, the roots her legs had become growing and lifting her high into the air.

  The trees around us bent toward her, the leaves themselves quivering at her call.

  Then a hush, a whisper went through them, as though a thousand quiet voices stopped speaking at once.

  Even the water seemed to react.

  Fish jumped from it, doing flips in the air before landing back down, sensing they were in the presence of something unexpected, something rare.

  Branches bent from the trees and then snapped, falling to the groun
d and weaving into one another.

  This continued, the mass growing wider and longer until something like a curved raft was formed.

  Then branches from the side stretched out and flattened, forming paddles.

  The shape had been symmetric, a flat square curved upward, but now the front and rear narrowed.

  Like a boat.

  Two branches at the rear flattened out, forming primitive rudders.

  The sides of the boat grew, sprouting new shoots up into the air, which leaves sprung from, creating a canopy above what was rapidly turning from raft to ship.

  Then roots lifted out from the ground and ushered this vessel from the banks and into the water.

  More roots kept in place, forming a gangway leading onto it.

  The roots at Sienna’s feet shrunk rapidly and she collapsed to the ground.

  I went to her. “Sienna?”

  Her eyes were closed, but a smile formed on her lips. “Is that good?”

  I caressed her cheek. “It was perfect. You’re amazing.”

  Her smile broadened, and her eyes lazily opened. “I’m glad you think so. I’m glad I was useful.”

  I leaned down and kissed her happily, then wrapped my arms around her and lifted her up.

  She shrieked in delight, kicking her legs as I spun her around.

  I set her down on the ground, but kept my arms around her so she didn’t fall. She still seemed a little woozy. “When will you be strong enough to leave?”

  “I’m strong enough now. The earth gives everything I need as long as I’m near it.”

  I kissed her again. “Gods be, you really are amazing.”

  She hugged me, pressing her naked body against my clothed one. “Maybe you can reward me.”

  I laughed. I wanted to. Wanted to strip off my own clothes and take her right here. “I definitely will. But right now we’ve got a Breaker to follow.”

  “If you two are done,” Vi growled, “we should be getting out of here.”

  “Yeah,” Alva agreed, right in my ear. I’d forgotten she was on my shoulder.

  She was deceptively light.

  I looked at Trin, who was staring wide-eyed at the boat that was now in the river, held in place by roots that stretched out from the bank.

  “Trin? You ready?”

  She looked at me, slowly shook her head. “What? Yeah, let’s go.”

  Sienna dressed again and the four of us, plus Alva on my shoulder, crossed the gangway to the boat.

  The floor of it on the inside was carpeted in soft grass, and the canopy above provided shade.

  This canopy came from the sides and covered the top, so left the front and rear open, allowing us to see where we were going, and a gentle breeze to pass through.

  I’d been expecting her to make a raft, but this was beyond that. This was amazing. She was amazing.

  “Let’s get rowing,” I said.

  “We don’t need to row,” Sienna said. “The trees here are still alive. The water can nourish them. They can row themselves.”

  I felt my face splitting into a grin. “Are you kidding?”

  “No. Why?”

  “You really are even more amazing than I thought. All right, well let’s get moving then.”

  She smiled uncertainly, and the boat lowered into the water.

  We spun a bit for a moment, but then the branch oars dug in and got us steady and steered us toward the tributary.

  I almost made a joke about this being better than seahorses, but didn’t want to remind Trin of her horses. She seemed happy right now, and I didn’t want to bring up something sad.

  I Pulled to see where the trail of magic was.

  Thankfully it was straight down the tributary we were on as far as I could see. It would’ve been a sad waste to have done all this work and then have to get right off and walk.

  And I think that would’ve made Trin even more upset about losing her horses.

  But that wasn’t the case, and so we let the boat steer us down the river after the Breaker, and the strange spell she held, toward a destination unknown, toward some mysterious group of people that had killed Trin’s family.

  And beyond that toward Este, toward the high priest.

  Toward my revenge.

  31

  The tributary was no raging rapids, though it wasn’t calm either.

  The dryad’s boat steered us down it surely though, and I never felt in danger of capsizing or being grounded.

  We stayed well back, as our boat would stand out, and this also appeared not to be a well-used waterway.

  Trin slept, saying it had been a long time since she had been able to.

  Going by how quickly she fell off, I believed her.

  Alva slept as well, curled up in Sienna’s lap, who was also sleeping.

  Vi did not sleep, and in fact kept getting up to check out the back opening to make sure we weren’t being followed.

  “Relax,” I told her.

  She looked at me, her lips raising and bearing her sharp little teeth and larger canines. “You’re too calm. We could be ambushed.”

  “We’re on the water. We’d have plenty of warning. Besides, who would be after us?”

  “The divine. You haven’t delivered her package.”

  I shook my head. “It’s way too soon. We’re not even supposed to be back yet.” I did feel guilty about that. I would deliver it, just perhaps a bit late.

  Or very late, depending on how far away the Breaker’s destination was.

  Vi sat down beside me, her tail swishing. “We need to do something.”

  “What’s wrong? You weren’t this nervous before. What, are you afraid of water?”

  She growled at me.

  I had to admit, there was something sexy about it. Sexy and frightening.

  “No! I am not a vampire.”

  I shook my head. “That you are not.” I looked at the one who was a vampire, still asleep in Sienna’s lap.

  I felt myself growing hard just looking at her, the memories of this morning coming back again.

  Perhaps it was the novelty of it. I’d lay with women many times, but never like that.

  Never where a woman used her whole body—quite literally—on me.

  I looked up to find Sienna, awake now, watching me. She smiled. “How about now?” she asked.

  “You’re insatiable.”

  “I’m not the only one.”

  “And annoyingly perceptive.”

  “Really? Annoying? Is that what you think I am?” She ran her hand up my thigh.

  I pushed it away with a chuckle. “Yes. Exactly that.”

  She pouted. “Come on, please? You’re not busy right now.”

  I grinned. “Sorry Sienna, but Vi’s right about one thing, we do need to keep a lookout. I can’t get distracted right now. I’m the only one able to follow the magic.”

  Sienna didn’t stop pouting, but nodded. I wanted to reach out and touch her, perhaps give her a quick kiss, but I didn’t trust myself. “Don’t worry, we’ll have some fun once this is through.”

  Sienna bit her lip seductively, and I looked away before she pulled me into a liaison.

  32

  We floated down the river, steered by dryad magic for quite a while.

  When next I got up to check for the trail of magic, my heart sunk. “Sienna! Get us stopped!”

  Sienna reached out her hands, her fingers untwining into vines which connected to the boat and we jolted, then came to a stop. “What is it?” she asked, hands still held out and connected to the boat.

  “The trail’s gone.” How was this possible? I’d checked not long before and it was still there.

  We hadn’t passed any docks, and if they’d stopped elsewhere we would have seen them.

  Vi was constantly getting up and checking both front and rear, and while she couldn’t see the trail, she would’ve seen if their boat had stopped.

  So we couldn’t have passed them.

  That meant the Breaker or a
t least the spell must have left the boat.

  I ran to the back opening and looked out, and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the trail.

  It was nearly out of sight. If I’d waited much longer I wouldn’t have seen it, and by the time we’d backtracked it might’ve been gone.

  I needed to be more vigilant. I was worried about Pulling too much from myself, but I had to remember I had Sienna to Pull from to counteract that.

  “Can you get us moving the other way?”

  The dryad nodded, and the boat started spinning until we were facing upstream. The oars, which had previously languidly steered us in addition to the boat’s rear rudders, now began moving frenetically, rowing us against the current.

  As we got closer I saw the trail turned from the water onto the tree-lined bank, the magic residue leading away from the river and up through the trees.

  “Stop us here. We’re getting off.”

  Trin had woken up at my shout, and now looked at me worriedly.

  “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “The trail’s still there.”

  Sienna caused the ship’s side to open, creating a gangway to shore.

  “We probably shouldn’t leave the boat here,” I told Sienna.

  “Don’t worry,” she assured me, “if we’re not back soon it will return to the earth. For now it will wait on land for us.”

  We disembarked, and I watched as the boat paddled itself to the opposite bank, then sprouted something like legs and crawled onto land like a crab.

  I shook my head. “I know I said it before, but you’re kind of amazing.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Everyone ready? We need to stay quiet. I know she went this way—well, whoever has the spell went this way, and I assume it’s the Breaker—but I don’t know how far ahead she is. Judging by the magic residue, it’s not too far, so I don’t want to alert her to our presence.”

  “I can do quiet,” Vi said.

  “Me too,” Alva agreed, once again sitting in her throne.

  We followed the path through the dense trees. Tall, thin things that left hardly any ground exposed.

  Ocladorasos. That was their name.

  I remembered learning in school that these types of trees were really actually one tree, all connected together underground. That was why they could grow so close together, why many of them could survive without getting sun. It allowed them to draw more nourishment from the soil, absorb more magical residue.