by J. P. Larson
"All right," I said. We all lifted our hands in the air, and I tossed six tangle spells into the brush on either side of the road, one immediately after the other.
There were three distinct screams.
"Only three?" I asked. "There are only three of them?"
"You might have missed some," Eva said.
For good measure, I cast a few more tangle spells, but there were no additional screams.
"I guess there were only three," Lunia said. "What idiot tries to rob two sorceresses with only three people?"
"Someone who hasn't seen Eva and me work together," I suggested.
"Three?" Loralai scoffed. "I wouldn't try it with fewer than three hundred."
"Four hundred if the two of you are there to protect us," Eva said.
"Well, Magus Eva," I said, "You're in charge. What do we do now?"
"I wouldn't suppose the trees are eating them?"
I listened. "I don't hear any bones crunching. I need a better spell."
"And I suppose your spell will wear off eventually."
"A couple of hours," I said. "Maybe a day at the most, but I doubt it."
"They'll hardly starve to death in that time," Eva complained. She sighed dramatically. "We're going to have to deal with them."
"Not me. I'm the healer."
"You two," Eva said, snapping her fingers. Loralai and Lunia grinned at her. "Lop their heads off or something."
"All right," Loralai said, drawing her sword.
"I was kidding!" Eva said. "Can you bring them here?"
The four of us climbed from our mounts. I took reins, and then the swordswomen eyed the woods dubiously.
"They'll recognize friends," I said. "They might caress you, but they won't tangle you. Lunia can tell you."
Lunia moved into the woods on one side, looking for one of my captives. "Found one," she called out.
Loralai stood at the edge of the waving brush.
"Oh for heaven's sake," I said. "If it does more than caress you a little more intimately than you might prefer, I'll accept Eva's judgment. I suspect it will involve tickling me until I wet my pants."
Eva laughed. Loralai looked over her shoulder at us, took a deep breath, and stepped into the woods. As I predicted, the plants caressed her, but they let her pass through easily, far more easily than without the spell, in fact, and a few seconds later, Loralai said, "I found two more."
"Are they still alive?"
"Yes," they both said. "One of mine is turning colors," Loralai said. "Maybe you should come help."
I stepped through into the brush, all the vegetation greeting me affectionately. I loved that spell. I took off my gloves and caressed the plants as I stepped through, quietly offering thanks for their help. I stepped up beside Loralai and looked at my captives.
They'd been yanked entirely off their feet. One dangled upside-down in the air from the branch of an old elm tree. The other had been grabbed by a bush, and I thought perhaps he had struggled more than was wise. The bush held him tightly, even with a branch around his throat. He was breathing, but it was labored.
I stepped up to the bush and began petting it, asking it to let its captive breathe. The bush didn't really understand, but I projected an image, and slowly it released its hold about the man's neck. He began coughing, but he was breathing more readily.
I shook my head. "Idiots." I hit them each with paralyze spells. Then, slowly, I calmed the vegetation, and they slowly released their captives.
One nearly landed on his head, but Loralai interrupted his fall, and he didn't break his neck. He did get some well-deserved bruises.
Then she dragged the two of them out to the road. I left them for Eva to deal with and went in search of Lunia.
Her captive was being hugged by a smaller tree, his feet just a foot or two off the ground. His eyes were wide and he was gibbering in fear. I tossed a paralyze spell and asked the tree to let him go.
"Thank you," I told it, offering a kiss.
Lunia dragged him out, and then I spent several minutes casting health spells on all the nearby vegetation, giving thanks to all of them for their service. They caressed me gently as I passed amongst them.
I came to the base of the fallen tree, and I saw it had been cut down intentionally. I knelt by the tree and apologized for the crime done to it. What was left of the tree was in great pain, far more than I could heal, and I found myself crying while I did what I could. I coaxed two fresh saplings from the roots of the great tree, then gave them every bit of health spells I could. I apologized to each of them for the death of their mother.
When I got back out to the road, Lunia took one look at me and pulled me into her arms. She held me firmly, and I buried my head against her chest for a while. Finally I pulled away and turned to Eva. She was kneeling beside one, and I saw her magic at work. She had already finished with the first two, blazing "Bandit" across each of their foreheads. As I watched, she finished with the third one.
"What did you do?"
"Something someone taught me," she replied. "I'll explain later." Then she looked at them. "I have branded each of you in the same way. Loralai, help each of them look at each other."
Loralai stepped forward and turned their heads, one at a time, so they could each see the brands they wore.
"That spell can only be removed by a greater magus than I am," Eva went on. "Furthermore, it begins to burn, delivering piercing headaches deep into your skull. The only relief is if you move towards the department of justice in Nalori. As long as you are traveling towards Nalori, the pain is bearable. If you move quickly enough, the spell may even offer a little relief." She patted the nearest cheek. "You do not want to know what happens if the spell thinks you are trying to hurt someone. Good luck, boys."
She turned away. "Loralai and Lunia, could we move this unfortunate tree?"
It took an hour for them to cut the tree into sufficiently short lengths that Eva could user her magic to pull the pieces to the side of the road. "We'll tell a woodsman about the tree," Eva declared. He can finish harvesting it."
"No," I said. "Pull it in a little further into the woods and let it decompose here. It will feed the other trees. Please, Eva.
"All right, Kia, but won't I hurt even more plants dragging it in?"
"You will find they move aside for you."
And so they did. She dragged the trunk sections a short distance from the road, although she looked a little done in when she was finished. I pulled her into my arms and thanked her.
"Why?" she asked.
"The trees become more aware when I use my spell. It would be wrong to let them watch their sister be cut up and hauled away."
She kissed me softly and told me I was a good person.
"What are we doing with them?" I asked, gesturing at the bandits.
"Leave them there," she said. She looked at them angrily. "We aren't the first people they tried to rob, and collectively they are responsible for several missing people. If the animals get them before the paralysis spell wears off, I couldn't care less."
"Eva, this isn't you."
She turned to me. "It is when dealing with creatures such as those. My decision, Kia."
I thought about it. "Eva, it's your decision, but I'm going to ask one question. Will leaving them like this give you bad dreams?"
She snarled at me. But she went around to each of them, paralyzing one arm and the opposite leg, then releasing them.
"They keep the curse," she said. She turned to them. "If you proceed to Nalori, the curse won't kill you. Go. Now!"
It was actually pretty comical watching them try to shamble off while partially paralyzed. The looks they gave us were filled with fear.
"I would have expected more back talk," I said. "They didn't beg."
"Hmm," said Eva. "I wonder how long that muteness curse will last."
"I take it you questioned them?"
"Yes. I'd call them animals, but that's an insult to the good beasts of the wo
rld. I would have executed them, but I thought Sytara would want a chance to question them first."
I'd never seen her so cold. I pulled her into my arms again. She slowly wrapped her own arms around me and said, "I'm fine. I just-" she broke off and started over. "There's so much wrong with the world. Why do some people have to make it worse?"
A few minutes later, we were moving east, our party subdued for a while. Finally Eva turned to me. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"The tangle spells."
I bowed in the saddle. "It was the right spell for my first ready-spell."
"I agree," she said. "Why did you do the containment dome as your next?"
"I practiced," I said. "Quartain offered us teaching positions. Did you know?"
"No."
"I think part of me knew someone would find me eventually. And I think part of me was hanging onto the idea of teaching. You would be a fabulous teacher. I knew to teach at the school, you had to ready-spell the containment spell. So I think it was my way of saying, 'I'll go home someday'."
Eva smiled. "Is that what you want to do? Teach?"
"Maybe someday. Not yet. Well, unless you want to."
"No, not yet. Someday, maybe. I want to bring more experience with me. And teaching is important, but what we're doing is important, too. This is what Queen Hallamarie needs us to do right now."
"What about you two?" I asked.
"Us?" Lunia said. "We go where you go."
"We got lucky," Loralai added. "We have each other, and we have the two of you. For a long time, I was ready to give up hope. You know, I tried to quit. Twice. I was ready to go back to being a city guard. Quartain begged me to stay. She told me to have faith." She looked at Lunia and Eva with love. "We go where you two go. My only request is we stick together."
"We stick together," Eva said. "I need two things from you, Kia."
"Whatever it is."
"I need you to learn your spells, both knowledge and enhancement. And I need you to become a magus."
"All while traveling around the country, healing the ill and capturing bandits."
"Yes."
I sighed. "The spells are too complex to practice mounted. I've tried, but it's too delicate for all the jostling around. And if I am going to be a magus, then I need to be magus level in healing and botany as well. I can't call myself a magus healer if I don't know those spells. Eva, that's a lot of studying. If we're gone most of the time, it's going to take me years and years."
"After this circuit, let's talk to Quartain," she said. "Maybe we can set up in a town. You can do healing in the morning for patients that come to you, and I can ride a circuit of some sort."
I thought about it. "We're safer with both of us together."
"I could have handled them," she said.
"While they were hidden in the brush?" I asked.
"Well, I have to admit, your tangle spell is very effective." She grinned. "Will it work in winter?"
"No. I'm down to paralyze spells, and I have a sleep spell. It won't get through your shields, but it would take down bandits. But it's a little slow." I thought about it. "I have to learn a better one, then ready-spell it."
Eva nodded. "Another reason to get home before winter. We'll figure this out, Kia."
Youngster
We continued to travel east, zigzagging north and south. Eva was asked to resolve another dispute, this one fairly minor, and handled it with aplomb. I continued to take care of my patients as best I could, and I was proud of what we were accomplishing.
Eva catalogued rumors, but there weren't any that were sufficiently noteworthy for us to linger and investigate. We sent weekly, carefully coded dispatches to Nalori.
"Sytara thought we'd find something bigger," Eva said. "But what she has is vague."
One evening, we reviewed the maps. "We'll be in Plinkton tomorrow," Eva observed, pointing on the map.
I took it from her then smiled. "Have you noticed how close we are to Neecor's Harbor?"
"We're not at all close. It's two days north."
"I'm just saying, it would be a shame to be this close and not, I don't know. Stop by for a beer?"
Eva laughed. "Stop by for a beer?"
"Maybe stay for a week. I could practice my spells." I put on a little girl's voice. "I'd study really hard, Magus Eva. Honest I would."
"I don't believe you," she said. "You'd spend the entire time flirting with my brothers."
"Your brothers are afraid of me."
Loralai chuckled. "I think it's Lunia they're afraid of. They were looking at you with a great deal of speculation."
"Probably wondering if they needed to take me out to the woodshed and have a chat with me," I suggested. I put on the voice again. "Please, Magus Eva, don't let your brothers beat me with a switch out in the wood shed. I'll be really good and study hard, I will."
"Knock it off," Eva said. Then she looked at me with a calm expression. "Are you just teasing me, or are you making a real suggestion?"
"A real suggestion," I said. "Did anyone tell you where you had to go?"
"Only in approximate terms," she said. "But Neecor's Harbor would be a stretch."
"Let's think about it," I said. "Or maybe we can arrange it so when we head north, we go home that way."
"That's a better idea," she said.
"Did you see them while I was gone?"
"Briefly, the first summer."
"Are they going to be angry with me?"
"Maybe," she said. "I don't know. But perhaps it's better to face them now than at the wedding."
I laughed. "Yeah, maybe."
As Eva said we would, we arrived in a little border village called Plinkton the next morning. We were expected, and patients were waiting even before we assembled the tent. I let Lunia and Loralai set up while I spoke to the assembled villagers, telling them what to expect. It was late morning when Lunia escorted into my tent a woman of about thirty with a daughter I guessed to be about eight. The mother was a small woman, but not tiny. The girl, however, was definitely slight of build.
"Well, who do we have, Lunia?"
"This is Allenda," she said, indicating the mother, "and her daughter, Lillyanne. Allenda has a cut on her hand."
"It's nothing," the woman said, "but they said you could heal it. It's irritating."
"Well," I said. "Let's take a look. Please sit here. Lillyanne, did you want to sit next to your mother?"
They both climbed onto my table. I washed my hands then took a look at Allenda's cut. It was bandaged, perhaps a little poorly, but bandaging your own hand can be problematic.
The cut was long and deep.
"What happened?"
"I didn't realize I had dropped a knife into the dishwater," she explained. "I reached right in, rooting around for the next thing to wash, and sliced myself wide open."
"Well," I said, "this is easy to resolve." I assembled my examination spell, and the girl looked at me with surprise.
"Look, Mama!" she said, pointing directly at my spell. "She makes pretty lights just like I do."
"Hush, Lillyanne," the woman said. She looked at me. "She's always making stories up about the pretty lights."
I stood there for a moment. I took a better look. The girl was wearing mittens. I hadn't thought much about it, as the weather was rapidly approaching winter. We'd seen our breaths that morning. I cocked my head, studying the girl. She was small. Very small.
"Lillyanne," I asked. "How old are you?"
"I'm eleven," she said.
"She's small for her age," the mother said.
"Lunia," I called out. A moment later, my swordswoman opened the tent flap.
"Adept Kia?"
"Could you find Magus Eva and ask her to step in, please? Right away, if you could."
"Of course, Adept Kia," Lunia replied.
"Well," I said. "Let me take a proper look at the cut." My magic was still waiting, so I sent it into the mother's hand, but I watched.
&n
bsp; The daughter's eyes remained focused on my spell as it moved.
It was hard to focus on my job, but years of practice and good habits settled in, and I could properly check the wound. She hadn't nicked any tendons, which was lucky. I made a cleansing spell, and the girl watched me.
"Mine doesn't do that," she said quietly.
"I know," I told her.
"Hush, Lillyanne," the mother said.
I cleansed the wound, then I focused on healing it. That took a couple of minutes, and the girl watched me raptly the entire time. By the time I was done, Eva had stepped in, but she waited until I was done with the healing.
"You asked for me, Adept Kia?"
I turned to her and smiled. "Magus Eva, this is Allenda. And this little girl is her eleven-year-old daughter, Lillyanne."
Eva stepped forward and greeted them.
"Magus Eva, watch Lillyanne for a moment."
I assembled some raw magic. The girl's eyes immediately focused on it. I moved the blob of magic around, and the girl turned to watch it.
Eva knew immediately what we had found.
"Is there something wrong?" Allenda asked.
"Oh no," Eva said. "There is absolutely nothing wrong." She glanced at me. "Kia, have you been trained in what to do?"
"No. You?"
"No."
I turned pleading eyes to her. "Eva, we can't let Magus Erin handle this. We can't let her be treated the way I was. Please, Eva."
"Of course not," she said with a smile.
"Eva, she said I make pretty lights just like she does." It would be unusual for an untrained child to learn how to summon her magic by herself.
"Allenda," I said. "Was your mother a sorceress or perhaps even a hedge wizard?"
"Mama? A wizard? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard."
Eva stepped up the girl. "Lillyanne, can you make pretty colors like Adept Kia did?"
"Not just like her," the girl said. "But sort of like her."
"Would you show us?" Eva asked.
"Please don't encourage the girl," her mother said. "She frightens people by talking about pretty colors, and she's always daydreaming. She's quite worthless."
I glanced at Eva, pleading even stronger with my eyes. She nodded.
"Please, Lillyanne," I said. "We would love to see your colors."