“Jon…he’s…” I swallowed hard to fight against the sob that threatened to overtake me. Pressing my trembling lips together, I strained to compose myself. I couldn’t break down. Not now, not in front of the witches. My pride wouldn’t allow it.
Rose finally met my gaze.
“Where is Jon? Did you find him, Elena?” asked Rose. Her voice was tight and anxious, and it was my turn to look away as I blinked the moisture from my eyes.
I shook my head. A throbbing pain seared my throat, and the words seemed to burn out of me. “He’s in the temple. He’s been infected. I couldn’t…”
I couldn’t finish. Even then, I had to fight the tears, but I wouldn’t let the witches see me cry. I felt the brush of fingers, and Rose leaned over the table and squeezed my hand. It happened quickly, but it meant the world to me.
“I’m sorry about Jon,” said Ada. “He was a kind soul and unique among men. But there’s nothing we can do for him.”
I heard Will and Leo release their breaths behind me. I didn’t have to turn around to see the horror and despair that was on their faces. It triggered something wild inside me.
I slammed my fist on the table, but only Rose flinched.
“You have to help him!” I bellowed.
I didn’t care if they could burn me on the spot or turn me into a toad for being so impertinent. All that mattered to me in that moment was Jon. If they could rid the world of the blight and fight the black magic, I knew I could get Jon back again. I would make them help me if it was the last thing I did.
“Please, I’ll do anything you ask,” my voice cracked, and I didn’t care to hide my desperation. Blood pounded in my veins as my knees buckled beneath me. “Anything. Whatever it takes. Please.”
The high witch fixed her eyes on me. The lines around her eyes seemed to deepen with sadness. “It’s too late for us,” she said softly. “We don’t have that kind of power, Elena. None of us do.”
“Not here, at least,” said Maya.
I waited for her to elaborate, but she just stared into space. Her silver eyes danced with something I couldn’t see.
“Where? Where can I find this power?” A spark of hope flickered in me as I turned my attention back to the high witch. “Tell me. Please tell me what you know.”
Ada leaned forward. “The only way to defeat the black blight, the only way to defeat magic, is with magic.”
Magic. I knew she wasn’t referring to my kind of magic. It had already proven to be inadequate against the necromancers. But the witches had magic, too. I felt a small spark of hope, but I could see in the deep lines on Ada’s face that she was holding something back.
“That kind of makes sense,” I said, frowning at her solemn expression. “What aren’t you saying?”
The high witch took a deep breath.
“You’re going to need an army, a magical army. Only a great army of witches has a chance to defeat the necromancers.”
Ada looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Elena, you need to go to Witchdom.”
CHAPTER 4
I WAS HOLLOW-EYED and queasy after a sleepless night, and it wasn’t from drinking cheap wine.
My neck was as stiff as Anglian oak, and my heart ached. I sat very still in my saddle, cloaked and hooded, and watched as Ada, Maya, Sylvia, and Rose rode away on four mares as white and elusive as snow. I was angry that they had forced me on this fool’s errand and envied them because they didn’t have to go and I did.
Torak shifted beneath me, and I wondered if he could sense my nerves as we prepared for our ominous and hopeless journey into the unknown—to Witchdom, the forbidden realm of the witches.
Legend said that the land was a desert of flames and ash. If you dared enter, you’d die an excruciating death, and your soul would be in torment for all eternity. Some people claimed it was hell on Earth, and its doors opened to the devil’s realm itself. Others said the witches were the devil’s children, and they were demons that feasted on the flesh of children. Once you stepped through into the other realm, there was no coming back. Even your spirit, your soul, would be trapped forever once you entered, and you would become a slave to darkness, to the devil. If there truly were a Creator or a Goddess, it would make sense that there would be a devil, too.
I just didn’t believe he had claimed Witchdom as his lair. No. Witchdom was all witch, but it didn’t make me feel any better.
I knew less about witches than I knew about my own curious magic. Part of me felt compelled to go to Witchdom because I wanted answers. I wanted to learn more about my own blood magic, about what it meant to be a steel maiden.
Was I truly the last of my kind?
I also wanted to know the missing part of my mother’s story, before she came to Arcania.
Who were her people? And why had she stayed in a land of witch-haters instead of in the witch sanctuary of Gray Havens, or even in Witchdom itself?
I wanted to discover the truth about her and perhaps even discover whether I had any living relatives. There were so many unanswered questions about my history and about my mother’s history that I felt I truly didn’t know either of us. Up until a few weeks ago, I had just been a thief with dreams of escaping the Pit, and now I was a witch skilled with a blade and venturing on an impossible mission. It was clear that the only way I was going to get any answers was to embark on the treacherous journey into Witchdom.
But what made matters worse was that I was the only witch going.
“What do you mean you’re not going?” I had demanded the previous evening. “You cannot be serious? Please tell me you’re joking. No. You better be joking.”
“I’m afraid not,” the high witch said calmly. “I’m very serious.”
I had turned on them like a feral dog.
“Are you crazy?” I hissed, making Rose flinch. “You’re the real witches, not me! I didn’t even know what I was a few weeks ago. I can’t go alone! I wouldn’t even know where to start or what to do. I don’t even know where the damn realm is. This is madness! Don’t you want to stop the black blight? Don’t you want to help?”
But they remained unruffled. I wanted to strangle them all.
“Of course we do.” Ada’s voice was sharp, and I had flinched as though she had slapped me. “You don’t understand.”
“Oh, I understand plenty.” I leaned over the table and faced them until I could smell the pine forest on their clothes. “You’d rather hide away in Gray Havens and let others do your dirty work, right? You don’t want to get your hands dirty. Am I right?”
Swift as lightning, the high witch had lashed out and grabbed my wrists with the strength an elderly woman shouldn’t have had. There was a crack like thunder, and the room shook. Books from Rose’s small bookcase spilled onto the floor as Ada’s earthquake rattled the room and threatened to bring down the walls of our makeshift cottage.
My skin burned under her grasp, as though her hands were hot coals. I stifled a scream as the burning intensified and moved slowly up my arms and into my chest. The world flashed red and black and white. I thrashed and writhed, but she kept her grip until she released my wrists after a final squeeze. I looked at my wrists expecting to see burning skin, but there was nothing there. Not even a mark. Nothing.
The room settled with a small final rumble. I took a tentative step back and kept my eyes on the high witch. If I hadn’t feared her before, I feared her loads now. I was sure that she had only showed me a glimpse of her power. It appeared to be unlimited. It wasn’t at all like the priest’s black magic, which felt like a combination of shadow and cold fire. Her power was different, like sand is to water, and yet just as powerful.
I blinked away the white spots from my eyes. Now I felt ashamed.
I had expected to see fear in Rose’s eyes, but she looked at me with a compliant expression, as if she, too, had felt I’d overstepped myself with my spitefulness. But I wasn’t about to apologize.
Ada spoke to me patiently.
“The wit
ches on this side of the world, in Arcania, are forbidden to enter Witchdom. We have been exiled.”
Her calm demeanor had returned, and if she’d been angry with me moments ago, it had all but disappeared.
“Exiled?” I repeated stupidly, trying to grip this new bit of information. Had my mother also been exiled? What had the witches done to be exiled from their home?
“After Witchdom was separated from what is now Arcania, some of us stayed here to provide refuge to those who might still be born with magic. You see, we didn’t agree with the Great Divide, when the magic bearers and the non-magic bearers were separated into different realms. After the great wars between man and witch, we believed there was still hope to heal the old wounds and bind the two worlds together. We still believed that non-magic and magic folk could live side by side in harmony. But the witch king had grown angry after long years of battle, and his hatred for humans had deepened into something dark and twisted. He forbade us to stay. And if we didn’t follow the witches to the east, to the new Witchdom, then we were exiled.”
There was so much conviction in the high witch’s tone, it was clear she spoke from personal experience. I wondered how old she really was.
“And even hundreds of years later, any witch who chose to leave Witchdom to aid those born in the realm of man was also banished.”
I held her gaze unflinchingly. “What would happen if you tried to enter Witchdom now?”
Something like fear and regret clouded Ada’s eyes.
“Only death awaits us on the other side, if we dared to enter. Our families, our loved ones, and allies were cut off from us, and we were cut off from that part of the world forever. We have been left to our own devices.”
My heart twisted in sympathy at the pain I saw flash across Sylvia and Maya’s faces. I didn’t have much of a family, apart from Rose, but the memory of leaving Jon behind in his sickness helped me understand how the exiled witches must have felt.
I stifled the ache in my heart. “And you decided to stay anyway.”
“Without question,” said the high witch.
But there was something besides quiet hostility in her expression. I saw fresh pain that she couldn’t hide.
Ada let out a long, exasperated breath.
“I know we have made an extreme request of you, and it might even sound foolish. But I wouldn’t ask you to go if we had any other choice. Our attempts to communicate with the rulers of Witchdom have failed. Nothing is getting through. Even our ravens come back, their messages still tied to their legs. In all my years of living in exile, this has never happened before. Our exile has never stopped us from getting messages across the border. But now it seems that someone or something is blocking us.”
The high witch exchanged a look with the other two witches. I could see that they suspected what was blocking them, but they weren’t ready to share this bit of information. It only made me want to know even more.
Ada turned her eyes on me again.
“If our messages cannot get across to Witchdom, then I fear that they too are blocked from communicating with the rest of us. It is the only other rational explanation. They may not even know about the black blight. So you see, my dear, you’re the only one who can cross into the witch realm. You must get us the help we need and warn them.”
“But how?” My mouth was dry with desperation and fear that filled me like the poison from the red monk’s glove. “You’ve just reaffirmed that those who enter never come back. You just said it yourself, witches from this realm are not welcome.”
The high witch smiled slightly. “Yes, but you are different from us, Elena. You are a blood witch who was born outside the realm of Witchdom.”
“So?”
The high witch laced her fingers together. Her gaze grew sharper as if she were assessing something in me. “So, you should be able to enter.”
“Should?” I stared at the old witch. “Why am I not comforted by that? It can’t be that simple.”
“It won’t be,” said Maya with a low, incredulous laugh.
Ada shot her a dangerous look that would have left me cringing, but Maya continued to smile. Her silver eyes bore into mine, glistening like tiny moons, whether in a challenge or warning, I couldn’t tell. And yet a chill shivered down my spine, and it took some effort to look away.
“What does she mean?”
“She means it’s going to be dangerous,” replied Ada abruptly. But her anger quickly faded. “Listen to me, Elena.” The high witch’s smile appeared to be bright, but I could see that it was forced.
“You’re not without help. When you reach the northern boundaries of Fell Forest, look for the witch, Fawkes. He’ll be waiting for you. He will help you journey across the Mystic Mountains. Then continue east and make for the capital city of Lunaris. Pray to the Goddess that the witch king will hear our plea. You must make him help us. Because if he doesn’t, there’ll be nothing left of the world when you return.”
The high witch left it at that.
There was no more arguing. It was clear the witches would not come with me. They would not be able to help us.
And now here I was, partly to blame for all of this and partly cursed. It was obvious, even though I didn’t like it or want to go, I needed to go to Witchdom to save Jon. Rose would be safe in Gray Havens for a while, and I took comfort from that. I didn’t know how fast the black blight was spreading, and I hoped it wouldn’t reach Gray Havens until I got back with magic reinforcements.
Leo and Will had only been able to convince four members of Jon’s rebellion to join us on our journey: Max, a dark-skinned middle-aged man with arms as thick as tree stumps; Lucas, a solemn quiet type with twitchy eyes, about the same age as Jon; Garrick, the youngest member, if I were to guess, and the only one who seemed anxious to get going; and last was a brutish-looking man with a long braided beard. I couldn’t remember his name because I’d been too busy staring at all the piercings around his ears and the tattoos that covered most of his exposed skin.
Their mounts were regular carthorses from the Pit—thin but sturdy. The men’s thick linen tunics and cloaks were travel-stained and had seen many years of wear, like the ones I was wearing now. I had burned the fine clothes that the necromancer priest had given me on the day of the race. I wanted nothing that reminded me of my past alliance with that damn prick, or of what I had done in the name of the temple.
Their weapons were modest, like the two daggers and short sword that I wore. We had no fine blades forged with the best metal in Anglia for this trip. No, we used weapons that had been in our families for years and anything else we could scrounge in the Pit. We brought what was available to us.
The newest members of our group all shared the same battered look of hard combat that showed in the faces of Leo and Will. Even young Garrick’s eyes were haunted with scars that spoke of battles beyond his age. It was something only being born in the Pit could give. Despite the sparks of determination glimmering in their eyes, it couldn’t mask their fear.
We weren’t enough.
Six men, one woman, and seven horses. It would never be enough.
Unfortunately, most people wanted to wait it out. They thought they’d be safer in their makeshift homes. But the necromancers’ reach was long. Sooner or later the black magic would reach them, and their dilapidated homes wouldn’t protect them. Nothing would.
I couldn’t blame them for being frightened. Everyone was scared. And I was terrified.
I held my hands in a death grip on the reins to keep them from trembling. The witches thought I could convince a witch king to give me an army of witches? Would a king even give me an audience? I had talked myself out of tight corners before, but this was madness. And I was out of magic tricks.
I didn’t have to be from the Augur witch clan to see the outcome of this journey—it was hopeless. Either Ada and the other witches had some inexplicable faith in me, or they were very foolish. I was leaning towards the latter.
Perha
ps I was their last chance. And if that were the case, we were all damned. I was just a steel maiden from the Pit. What could I do?
I tried to suppress the panic that raged inside me like a wild fire and let out a low, shaky breath. The men’s attention was on me now. I didn’t look at them. Despite the terror that stirred in me, I wouldn’t show them fear. Fear was a weakness. Fear got you killed.
I was their leader now. The witches had made it so. No matter how much I hated it—it was the path I had to take.
Jon depended on me.
With the sickness storming across the land, leaving death and infection in its wake, too many things could go wrong. It could all be for nothing.
“If there is a Goddess,” I whispered into the sky, “may she protect us.”
I tore my moist eyes away from Rose and the witches, hit my heels into Torak’s flanks, and we flew.
CHAPTER 5
WE RODE IN SILENCE.
Will and Leo rode beside me on earth and tawny-colored horses from Jon’s stables. Our newest members followed behind. Torak’s familiar smell and companionship helped to calm my nerves. But even in the strange, overbearing heat, I couldn’t shake off the icy feeling that wrapped around my heart.
I hated myself for leaving Jon. He had never left me.
When the other men and women had sought to claim the Heart of Arcania for themselves, when I had been left to die, he had stayed with me. Jon had only joined that damned race to keep an eye on me. And he had saved my life. But what had it cost him?
I blinked the tears from my eyes and hoped Leo and Will thought they were caused by the wind. I was still a little uneasy that they looked to me for leadership, and that they were willing overcome their own beliefs and fears to follow me to Witchdom. I didn’t want the responsibility for all these people. I had never really cared for friends. I had never really trusted anyone but myself and Rose, until now. Until Jon.
The thought of joining a rebellion had sparked a fire in me and satisfied my own natural defiance against rules and regulations. But above all, I wanted to get back at the priests. I was ravenous to learn all I could about Jon’s rebellion, about what he truly stood for, and about his plans to take down the empire. But there hadn’t been any time for questions, and what I’d learned from Will and Leo in the last few days wasn’t much. Most of it I had already heard from Jon.
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