by B. T. Narro
“I do,” I repeated.
“So…?”
“I’m not going to make any judgments yet,” I explained. “I’m just trying to learn more about you. These are ingredients for curses?”
“Yes.”
“What else can you do?”
Her eyebrows lifted as she fiddled with her fingers. “Well, I was a grocer in the capital for a while. I know a lot about plants. I mostly sold seasonings, and some potions here and there. Not cursed ones.”
“But you did perform curses for money?” I asked.
“I didn’t trust a lot of people, so I didn’t perform many curses.”
“But you did for Remi.”
“Yes,” Hadley answered confidently. “I trusted Remi.” She spoke the words scornfully. “At least I used to.”
A servant entered. “Would the lady like to bathe?” The woman sounded as if she was hoping Hadley would agree, as if her filth offended the servant.
Hadley looked at me as if silently asking for permission. I was glad for her deference.
“We will both have one,” I announced. “If you finish before me, wait for me by the exit.”
For a moment, I thought she would disagree as she looked at me from the side, but eventually she nodded.
I didn’t know if she had something planned, but I doubted she would finish bathing before me. She was very dirty, and she had a lot of hair.
She waited for me as I walked around the table to leave.
“You said your name is Jon Oklar?” she asked.
I hadn’t told her that in person. It was a little eerie.
“Yes.”
“Do you promise that no punishment will come to me if I return with you?”
“I still haven’t asked you what crimes you’ve committed.”
“But you have some idea.”
The servant watched and waited, Hadley shooting a look in her direction. She looked down and pretended not to be listening.
“I do,” I admitted. “Remi says you only cursed people who deserved it. If that’s true, then no punishment will come to you.”
“You swear it?”
I scratched my face. I remembered the last time I’d made an oath to someone without asking the king first. It was when I’d first met Jennava in Koluk. I’d promised I would get an army into the forest to aid her. The king had refused to listen, so I’d taken it upon myself to get the army there.
I’d been punished quite severely afterward.
“I can’t promise something that I don’t have the power to promise,” I said.
She frowned.
“But,” I continued, “I will promise that I will stand up for you if you have intentions to help us. Is that the case?”
“That’s the only reason I’ve agreed to meet you here.”
“Really?” I asked somewhat dubiously. “It’s not because you are sick of running?”
“No. Well, I am, but that is not the reason. You said you need my help. I have wished to help Lycast for years now. I have done so in many small ways. I have touched the lives of several people, like Remi, who could not find justice in any other way, but I have not had the courage to approach the king himself and offer my service. I feared what might become of me would be a permanent relocation to the dungeons. However, everything changed after I spoke with you. But now I must ask to see your papers, and then I believe everything will be set in motion.”
There was something different about the way she spoke, not the words she chose, though they did give me a clue that she had been highly educated like Kataleya and Reuben had. It was that she seemed to have a slight accent with some words, something I attributed to her being from Rohaer.
I passed off my papers. She seemed surprised by what she saw.
“You’re not much older than I am,” she said as she gave them back. “You seem older.”
I felt older as well. The loss of my father had done that to me.
“What kind of sorcerer are you?” she asked.
“A wizard,” I informed her.
She didn’t seem too impressed to meet a wizard. Perhaps there were more of them where she came from.
“I thought you might be the healer I heard about who was traveling around Lycast,” she said with disappointment. “I heard things about his description that…I thought matched your appearance.”
I was curious what those things might be, but I shook my head. “Are you hurt?” I asked.
“No. I was just looking forward to meeting him. When you discover I wish to assist your king in this war, am I going to meet him eventually?”
“You will.”
I didn’t know why I wasn’t inclined to tell her the truth. Perhaps I just wanted to keep something private because it felt like she already had assumed so much about not only me but what we would be doing together.
I had barely spoken to her, but I was almost certain I understood what she was like because I saw much of myself in her. It was as if she was prepared to go through life without humor or enjoyment of any kind…as if her purpose was everything.
I wondered if this was the impression I gave my peers. Seeing these features on someone else made me want to loosen up. There was no reason to be so severe. I had already chosen my path through life. So long as I didn’t take any detours, what was the problem with enjoying it along the way?
“I’m putting my life in your hands, wizard,” she said. “I expect my things will be returned after the king has given me his blessing.”
“I’d imagine that’s the case.”
“Then I will wait.”
She started to leave, following the servant out.
“You still haven’t really explained why you trust me,” I said.
She turned around. “I don’t completely. However, I know what I felt from you when we spoke through mana. I knew I could trust you enough, at least to meet.”
So it was mana that had allowed us to talk, and it was mana that gave me the feeling that I could trust her. I hoped she understood how it worked and would be inclined to explain it to me.
I watched her stroll out of the room confidently, as if she didn’t have a single fear about leaving with me.
I wanted to trust her. No, it was more than that. I felt I had been playing a game all this time without realizing I was missing a piece. And now I wanted her to be that missing piece.
But that desire could be dangerous if I was wrong about her.
CHAPTER NINE
I finished my bath quickly and noticed Kataleya out in the garden, alone. I figured Hadley was still washing off her many layers of dirt, so I went out to join Kataleya. She was staring at the grass where her father died, a blood stain remaining. I didn’t know where they had put his body, but I imagined it was somewhere in the mansion.
The whereabouts of Trevor, on the other hand, were more of a mystery. Had he left in a rage after she’d denied his proposal, or was he still around somewhere?
“I’m guessing Hadley will be ready to leave soon,” I said as I came up on Kataleya’s side.
She didn’t look up from the grass for some time, but eventually she glanced at me. “I wish you wouldn’t talk about her like she’s anything more than possibly a dangerous witch. It makes me nervous, Jon.”
I thought back to the tone I had used. I supposed I did sound as if I was speaking about an old friend.
“If you’re coming with us,” I said, “you don’t need to worry about me letting my guard down too much. We will keep each other safe until she is within the castle. Then the king will know what to do with her.”
It felt strange discussing Hadley as if she was a threat. I found myself looking over my shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t overhear.
I barely knew this girl. Why did I feel like it was up to me to protect her?
Wait, no, it was Kataleya who was playing with my emotions. Hadley was trusting me to protect her. She had volunteered to come here, and she seemed eager to help us.
“I am coming with you,
” Kataleya said. “But I’m not sure I will be able to stay at the castle for long. I want to arrive at the castle as quickly as possible, however.”
“Then it’s a plan. What about Trevor?”
She scoffed. “I cannot even think about marriage right now. Trevor understands. He says he will come for me in a few weeks.”
“Come for you?” I asked.
She looked at the ground again. “I believe he still thinks we will marry.”
I chose not to say anything.
She put up her hand. “I know how all of this sounds. I’d rather not speak about it, even with him. I mostly nodded along to his plan after he heard the news about my father. I can figure out what I feel later.”
The fact that she was going back to the castle, at least for a short time, was good enough for me.
The female servant who had taken Hadley to her bath ran toward us in a panic.
“Lady Kataleya! That foul girl has gone into the cellar against my wishes!”
“Why is she going into the cellar?” Kataleya asked.
“She wouldn’t say. I told her she wasn’t allowed. She didn’t care. She pushed me when I tried to block her. I came here right after.”
“There must be some explanation,” I offered.
Horror struck Kataleya’s face. “My father’s body. She must know it’s in there.”
“She wouldn’t dare,” I said, as I felt the same horror I saw in Kataleya’s expression.
“Get the guards!” Kataleya told the servant as she took off running. I hurried after her.
We rushed through the lavish rooms of her house, skidding across the rugs and knocking down a vase, but it didn’t slow down Kataleya.
The door to the cellar was open. Kataleya flew down the stairs with me right behind her. It was a large cellar, lit by a few lamps on tables. There was one main route through a collection of furniture, porcelain, and other items of storage—all of which combined were worth more than my house in Bhode.
At the end of the cellar stood Hadley with her back to us. Whitley’s body was laid on the table, a number of tools and containers with fluids nearby. A cloth covered him, but Hadley had it lifted as she leaned over the body.
Kataleya screamed, “What are you doing!?”
Hadley slipped something into her pocket and slowly turned around. “Nothing,” she clearly lied.
Kataleya stormed toward Hadley with great aggression. I thought about restraining her, but I had never seen Kataleya put her hands on anyone in anger, and it was difficult to imagine she would even now.
“Show me what you put in your pocket,” Kataleya demanded.
“It’s just a moonstone,” Hadley said as she took it out and held it up.
Kataleya tried to snatch it out of Hadley’s hands, but Hadley was quick. She moved it behind her back.
“It belongs to me,” she said.
Kataleya practically growled as she pushed Hadley out of her way. “Stay there. Don’t move.”
Hadley shot me a nervous look. I gave her back a “what the hell did you just do?” with a jolt of my neck.
Kataleya looked closely at her father’s body as if checking for anything amiss. He appeared just like he was sleeping, probably treated by a skilled embalming priest.
Her face broke when she turned back to Hadley, her eyes glistening with tears. “Tell me what you did to my father.”
“I didn’t do anything to him. He’s gone, and nothing I did changed that.”
“Jon—” Kataleya began, but I knew what she was going to say.
“I know,” I agreed with Kataleya. Then I told Hadley, “Let me see the moonstone.”
She held it up for me nervously, no doubt worried I would take it from her. Kataleya was going to ask me to cast an ordia spell that I hadn’t practiced very much. I had used Identify on the red diamond earlier, but it hadn’t told me anything. I did the same here, and just like with the diamond, I couldn’t decipher what my mana was trying to tell me.
It was like listening to a whisper in which I couldn’t make out any of the words. There was a message there. I could almost feel the intention of my mana. This was something powerful. I had no idea what it was, though.
“I can’t tell anything specific,” I said. “Just that it’s strong.”
“I swear I didn’t do any harm,” Hadley said. She looked as if she wanted to flee, though I made sure to stand in her way.
Kataleya was sniffling, wiping away a few tears. She tried to take a couple of breaths, but it seemed as if something internal was preventing her from getting air. “Please,” she wheezed out. “I can’t take this. I feel like I can’t breathe. Just tell me exactly what you did with my father’s body.”
Hadley appeared empathetic. She muttered, “It didn’t affect your father’s soul in any way. That already left his body. All I did was take his essence.”
“Damn you!”
Kataleya surprised me by attacking Hadley in a fit of rage, slapping her a couple times before grabbing the smaller girl and throwing her to the floor.
“Damn you, witch!” she yelled.
Hadley held onto the moonstone as she put her arms up in hopes of defending herself. She didn’t seem to have an ounce of aggression in her, refusing to hit Kataleya back even as Kataleya got a few openhanded blows against Hadley’s face. One hit her square in the nose.
“Ow!” Hadley yelled.
Kataleya was manic as she slapped and punched. Eventually, Hadley found me looking on and doing nothing.
“You’re just going to stand there?” she asked in a panic.
“I trust Kataleya will stop when she’s done.” Besides, I could heal Hadley if Kataleya really did serious injury, but she seemed to lack the physical strength and coordination. Most of her strikes were slaps half blocked by Hadley’s wrists as she held up closed fists.
“Stop!” Hadley yelled. “Please stop!”
Kataleya attacked her a few more times, striking her nose again, which caused Hadley to scream out in pain.
Then Kataleya finally stopped, climbed off Hadley, and pushed herself up with great effort. There was a bit of blood on her right hand as well as some coming out of Hadley’s nose.
“Get up!” Kataleya said.
Hadley watched Kataleya’s hands as she got up in a way that moved herself far from Kat. I only noticed then that Hadley had bathed and changed. I didn’t know if the servants had given her these loose clothes or if she had saved a clean set. She touched her nose gingerly and hissed from obvious pain.
“You had no right to take the essence of my father,” Kataleya said. “Jon, make sure she stays here.”
Kataleya stormed out, leaving me alone with Hadley.
“Is she going to get the guards?” Hadley asked.
“I would assume so,” I told her.
“What are you going to do?”
“That depends.”
“On?” she asked, her eyes darting toward the stairs a short distance behind me.
“I’m wondering why you didn’t ask before you took the essence of her father. I’m thinking it’s because you knew you would be denied.”
“Of course I did! That’s why I had to do it before someone could stop me. Now what are you going to do? I came here because I thought I could trust you to keep me out of the dungeons.”
“I was going to, but that was before you did this. Now I’m not sure what to do with you.”
Kataleya came down the stairs with three armored guards behind her. Hadley looked around desperately.
“You made a choice,” I told her. “You can’t run from it now.”
“I did make a choice, and that was to take the essence and deal with the repercussions. Escaping is not the same as regret. I expect you to get me through this if you want my help.”
Kataleya stopped in front of us and pointed at Hadley. “I want her detained and held here until the king’s men can come. She’s going to rot in a prison cell for desecrating my father’s body.”
> “I didn’t desecrate anything! Your embalmer already did a fine job of that, stuffing your father full of spices like a pig before roast. That’s not natural.”
“Oh, and taking the essence of him is? The next thing you’re going to be telling me is that curses are natural as well.”
“Taking his essence is not natural, but it’s not unnatural, either. It’s nothing. I expected someone clearly educated like you to understand after you got through your initial anger. Don’t you know what an essence is?”
Kataleya’s face softened a bit. I could see her wondering the same thing as me. What exactly was an essence? Perhaps neither of us really knew.
The only time I had seen an essence being used was when Eden had taken the essence of a bat. She had done so when enchanting a callring. The corpse of the bat had lost some color and looked a bit more deflated when she was done, but I had never asked exactly what the essence was.
I couldn’t tell if Whitley’s corpse looked any different, as I hadn’t seen it before Hadley had taken his essence.
“So that’s why you’re so angry,” Hadley said. “You really don’t understand what I did.” She sniffled to stop the blood running from her nose, then took out a handkerchief and dabbed at it.
Her tone was calmer when she spoke again. “Your father’s soul had already left his body,” she said. “I’ve done no harm to it because it wasn’t there any longer. The soul leaves an imprint on the body, like a memory. Taking the essence is my mana taking this memory and transferring it into something else that can hold it, a moonstone in this case. But like I said, his soul had already separated. He’s in a better place now.”
Kataleya pointed at the witch. “Stop patronizing me. You can’t possibly know about his soul.” Then she told her guards, “I want her held in this cellar. I want my father’s body moved elsewhere while she is here. Oh, god.” She seemed to realize something. “I just remembered we need to have a funeral. And my brother hasn’t even found out yet. I can’t possibly let my mother take care of everything.”
She put her hand on a table as if her legs were too weak to hold her. I was quick to come to her side.
“There’s just so much to do,” she told me as she cried. “And now you’ve brought this witch here and made everything impossible.”