by Jada Fisher
“I remember crying. I cried and cried and cried until it felt like I might just pass out. But then, water started bubbling up from my feet. And it didn’t stop. Soon the whole yard was flooded, and then the dead meadow by us, until it reached the dried-up streambed.
“Of course, word got around. A witch who could summon water in a drought is quite valuable. So, they came in the night, and they tried to take me. I was scared, but I managed to scream. My father burst in, and then they killed him. Right in front of me. I don’t remember the rest, but I woke up very far away and in a river. When I got to shore, I walked to the closest village and I found out what I had done.”
“You killed the men who were trying to hurt you.”
The girl shook her head and a sense of comradery flowed over Ukrah. “No. All of them.”
They shared a nod, and an understanding that few else would, but it also brought up more questions. It seemed Cassinda might be suffering from something similar to her. Sure, she wasn’t turning anyone to dust, but something powerful and dangerous was inside of her. She had hurt people she didn’t mean to and didn’t even know how.
Fascinating stuff.
Isn’t there a conversation you should be eavesdropping on?
Oh, right. That.
“The lords and ladies?” Ukrah said softly, not quite wanting to break the mood, but Tayir had a point.
“Right. Let us go.”
The two of them crept out, reminding her of the other time Ukrah had snuck after Eist, and they followed much of the same path. It wasn’t too long before they were crouched outside of the same door, this time to listening to much calmer voices.
“Maybe he’s not coming back.”
“He just went to fetch some wine from the cellar. He’s been on the road for a long while.”
“And whose choice was that? All of us here are helping with the rebuilding, even Ale’a, and he takes off for six months?”
Ukrah’s brows furrowed as she heard Eist and Dille address each other. Although Dille sounded annoyed, it was still very obviously a conversation between friends. “Who are they talking about?” Ukrah whispered.
“Me,” a low voice said behind her.
Both girls jolted, Ukrah letting out a startled yelp, and whirled to see a man standing behind them.
He was indeed in dragon rider armor, although it was covered in dirt and grit from the road. He had fairly tanned skin, a scar across his handsome, chiseled face, and a shock of blond hair so bleached by the sun it was almost as white as Eist’s and Elspeth’s.
“Lord Ain,” Cassinda murmured, offering him a bow. “I apologize for—”
He waved his hand, quieting her. “Would you to like to come in? And your bird, I guess.”
“W-what?” Ukrah sputtered.
“You two are the witches that Dille wrote to me about, right? I figure you ought to be a part of this conversation as much as anybody else.”
“Uh, if it…if it pleases you, Lordship,” Cassinda said, sounding nervous for the first time since Ukrah had met her.
“Just Ain. I haven’t much cared for lordship since I was seventeen. Come now.”
He walked between them to open the door, and they dutifully walked inside. Ukrah saw the pinch of Dille’s lips and Eist’s surprised gaze before both women recovered.
“I’m surprised to see you out of bed,” the God-Woman remarked in amusement. Ukrah’s cheeks burned, but she just gave a half-hearted shrug. “Don’t worry. When I was young, I snooped plenty myself. Come, sit.”
“Should they really be here?” Dille asked flatly, eying them over. “They have enough weight on their shoulders, yes?”
“Like keeping us in the dark ever worked,” Ain said, collapsing in a chair and kicking his legs out. He wasn’t a mountain of muscle like Athar, but it was very clear that he was a warrior. Even if it weren’t for his scar, his posture and the way he moved spoke of many battles survived and many wounds received. “Maybe they’ll have some insight. Eist did figure out how to free her grandfather from the green dragon gas stupor at their age, and that was back when I was harassing her all the time.”
“That story was true?” Cassinda asked, sitting up straighter from the bench that she and Ukrah had settled onto.
“Which one? The one where she took on a Blight-possessed acolyte all on her own or where I used to try to bully her?”
“You didn’t try to bully me. You were often successful. I just was good at making sure you got your just desserts.”
“Oh, is that what it was?” He let out a dry laugh. “I remember when your little Fior nearly blasted my ears off my skull.”
“Ah, childhood,” Eist murmured before taking a long sip from her goblet. Unlike the others, it seemed she was drinking water instead of wine. Come to think of it, Ukrah didn’t think that she had ever seen the woman imbibe any sort of spirit.
Was there a reason for that?
“Let’s move on,” Dille said. “Before we all grow too tired to remember why we’ve even met.”
Athar leaned forward. “I can confirm that every single measurement I’ve been able to take from the caves at th-the academy has steadily increased over this past year. And while it was just inches over months before, now it seems to be happening exponentially. Estelle’s h-h-head is a hand wider than last year. Fior’s a finger’s length. Their tails are heads longer, and their wings have grown my arm’s lengths. Although it varies by dragon, it’s all th-the same. Growth. And that’s not even going into their fires or secondary abilities. Th-those too are becoming hotter, more powerful. More dangerous.”
“And you, Ain?” Dille asked, her tone layered with something that Ukrah didn’t quite understand.
“Same in the outlands. All the far-reaching dragon riders, even the rogue ones, told me that their dragons are changing. I wish that were it, but magic is spiking just about everywhere, from what I can figure. I know I’m not one of you guys, but there’s whole oasis’s building in the desert. The wild lands are becoming fertile, more full of life. The lack of abominations and monsters is letting populations of all sorts flourish.”
“That doesn’t sound like a bad th-thing.”
“It doesn’t, until we realize that those creatures worked as sort of a natural barrier for our kingdoms. I flew as far as I could, farther than any of our maps, but I just found more and more lands. And the further I flew, the more signs of magic I found, thicker and stranger. Like it was searching for something, so it was building a barrier to contain all of us.”
It’s because the world is still trying to find balance. That woman you worship so much broke the entire framework those false gods had built up and the evil that the Blight created. That’s what everything’s about, you know. Living and dead, right and wrong, happiness and sorrow. Every point has a counter point, because that’s what creation needs.
Ukrah swallowed. While she often didn’t respond to Tayir in the company of others, she knew this wasn’t something that she could ignore.
“It’s because the magic is trying to find the old balance it had before,” she murmured, her voice squeaking embarrassingly a couple of times.
As if synchronized, all eyes were on her.
“What do you mean by that?” the God-Woman asked, looking far more intrigued than Ukrah was comfortable with.
But she just shrugged. “I do not know. I just…do.”
It wasn’t a very well-said argument, but they seemed to buy it. Maybe they too were used to things not making sense and yet still being pressed upon their minds.
“Balance, huh? I do remember knowing about the old spirits, long ago,” Dille said, standing and beginning to pace. “They were the ones who blessed us with magic and dragons. The ones who kept the balance, I… I think.”
“Which lifetime?” Ain asked, pouring himself what Ukrah guessed was mead and leaning right back in his chair.
“M’baya, I’m fairly certain.”
Ukrah looked quickly between the three of them. Whi
ch life? So those rumors were true too? She was beginning to think that maybe all the amazing, fantastical legends she had heard about the people in front of her were true.
She was learning so quickly, but it felt like there was so much more to go. Swallowing down the anxiousness rising in her, she listened to the adults discuss which magical spots they knew of, and the ‘roots’ that Eist used to see connecting everything below the earth.
The young desert girl wasn’t even remotely keeping track of the time, even when her eyes began to flutter, and her head began to nod. She had no idea when she fell asleep, but it was to the sound of their concerned talking that she finally drifted off.
Once more, she dreamed of flying across the land.
7
All Good Things Must End
Breathe.
Sweep staff up, change grip. Spin. Kick high. Kick low. Step back and find balance.
Don’t forget to breathe.
Ukrah ran through her drills, trying to engrain them into her very bones. Ale’a had left perhaps an hour or so earlier, and Eist was off somewhere with her dragon, and Athar wasn’t around either, meaning she had time until the next meal.
“Shouldn’t you stop? You’ve been going at it for quite a while.”
Ukrah didn’t spare a glance to Crispin, going through another drill as soon as she stilled. “I’m fine.”
“Come on, at least have some water. You’re sweating buckets there.”
She was. She could feel that the cloth band across her forehead was absolutely soaked, but she didn’t want to stop. A sort of energy was building under her skin. One that made her feel restless and uncomfortable. One that made her want to do more to be worthy of the kindness she had been shown.
After all, if Eist wanted her to be stronger, faster, and better prepared than all the initiates who had a head start on her, she had a long way to go.
“Later.”
“Ukrah, come on. Just take a break. The tiniest break. Like…three breaths or so.”
The tall boy wheedled at her from where he was standing, a canteen in his hands. While he indeed had been putting in much more effort than he had before, he still didn’t push himself to the brink like Ukrah did every time.
And that was what she intended to keep doing. Turning, she went up on one leg to perform a jumping kick that she’d been struggling with. But as she pushed off the ground, something went wrong, and the next thing she knew, her knee jolted, and she fell to the earth.
Crispin was at her side in a moment, helping her sit up.
“Hey, you okay?”
Ukrah went to growl that she was fine, but a sharp stab of pain in her leg had her gritting her teeth instead. Looking down, her knee certainly did not look normal.
“Ow,” she managed to wheeze.
“Oh no, I’ve seen this before.” Crispin moved so that he was able to gently rest his hands on either side of her knee, his touch featherlight. “You’ve dislocated this. Do me a favor and take a really, really deep breath, okay?”
Ukrah nodded. Simple orders were good. She could do that. Drawing it in through her nose, she barely finished dragging air into herself before Crispin suddenly moved, his hands clamping down and jerking her leg roughly to the side.
The scream she let out was real, and for a moment, pain swamped everything. But it cleared quickly, followed by a strangely warm sensation and a dull throbbing in her knee.
“There you go. It’s gonna be stiff for a while, and probably pretty hot from all the blood rushing there. Come on, let me get ya up to your bed.”
Ukrah paled at that. “I don’t think I can make it up the stairs.”
“It’s fine. I’ll carry you.”
Ukrah looked at the man dubiously. Although he was definitely taller than her, he was so thin. Basically, skin and bones and a charming smile. She doubted he could pick her up, let alone carry her up an entire flight of stairs. Again, another reason why the structures were completely stupid and all dwellings should have just one floor.
“I don’t think—”
“Up ya go!”
She didn’t have time to object because he was gripping her hands and helping her to her one good leg. She let out a yelp as the movement made pain shoot through her, and Crispin gave her an apologetic look.
“Sorry. This part is probably going to be real lousy for you. Just remember to keep breathing and don’t stop.”
“How do you know all this?” she asked breathlessly, still gripping his hands to keep her shaky balance.
“Fell off a loft in the barn once when I was a little lad. Messed up both my legs pretty good. Luckily, Miss Crysanthia was around to set them for me, but I still remember how very much not fun that was.”
“Ah.”
“Alright, do you think you’re ready?”
Ukrah drew in several deep breaths through her nose, then nodded. “Alright, we can at least try.”
“Alright, good.” He let go of her and went through some strange maneuvers and ended up crouched in front of her.
“What are you doing?”
“Come on, get on my back.”
“What?”
“I said get on my back. You telling me no one has ever carried you piggyback?”
“Pig? Piggy what?”
“Piggyback. Ya know, hop on.”
Ukrah looked at his back dubiously. She was just supposed to…get on? It was like how a child would be carried, but she was no child. She was far too big for that.
“Hey, this isn’t exactly easy on my knees. Could you hurry it up a little?”
Ukrah gave his back one more look before clambering on. It was awkward with one leg, but he grabbed her other one and actually managed to rise to a standing position. The movement surprised her, and she let out another startled sound, her arms wrapping hard around his head.
“Hey, hey, try to hold onto the shoulders. The shoulders! With your hands.” Ukrah managed to do as he asked, but the ground suddenly seemed so far below her. “You know, if you’re gonna be a dragon rider like Lady W’allenhaus wants, you better get used to being high up.”
“Whatever, just get me to my room before you break in two.”
“You’re not that heavy, ya know. Now, Miss Ale’a, I bet I wouldn’t be able to carry her.” He said that last part with such admiration that something strange curled in Ukrah’s chest.
“By the way you talk about her, one would think you were smitten with my tutor.”
“And if I was?” he huffed, walking along. The movement was alarming at first, but then thrilling, and Ukrah found herself leaning into his back. “She’s tall, pretty, strong, and has a dragon. What more could a guy want?”
“I thought men were obsessed with small and delicate woman.” If there was anything that was the antithesis of the mighty Ale’a, it was that.
Crispin made a strange movement which she guessed was probably a shrug. “Maybe the nobles do, but I ain’t a noble. Most of them don’t have a lick of sense. Not that someone like her would ever notice someone like me. Her bicep is probably the size of my head, and I look like I might get carried away on the wrong wind.”
“And yet you are carrying me.” And he was. Although she could feel his body warming quickly wherever they touched, he was walking along at a fine pace and able to keep up a conversation with her.
“Yeah, I’ve got that deceptive sort of string-bean shape, but that’s nothing compared to her. Or even you. I bet you could throttle me good if you wanted to.”
“Probably. But I’d need my other leg.”
He chuckled lightly and then they were inside, trudging toward the stairs. “Yeah, otherwise it wouldn’t be a fair fight at all.”
She chuckled, some of the pain ebbing, and finally relaxed the rest of the way. Her heart was beating a bit harder than it normally would, but other than that, she felt fine. Taken care of. Even if Crispin wasn’t able to carry her as steadily as Athar could. But, well, no one was as big as Athar.
Finally, t
hey got to the door of her room and Crispin was beginning to heave a little. She could tell that he was trying to hide it, but she wasn’t deaf or blind.
“Here, let me down and I can hop the rest of the way.”
“No, I can—”
“Crispin.”
“Alright, alright,” he conceded, leaning against the door and kneeling. It wasn’t exactly the smoothest descent, but Ukrah managed to get off while only slightly jostling her leg.
Crispin kept a hold of one of her arms as she hopped toward her bed, using furniture to steady herself. Eventually, she made it onto the soft mattress and fell back onto her pillows.
“Here, let me get your legs up. Deep breath now.”
She did as he asked, and he gently lifted first one leg, then the other, moving them toward the center of the bed until she was settled. But as she adjusted herself into a sitting position, pillows behind her back, the boy clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
“That’s some pretty bad swelling,” he said, his hand gently gliding over her knee. “And yeah, a lot of heat like I thought. I’ll tell you what, I’m going to go out to that herbalist just outside the new castle and see if they have some willow bark paste or powder to help bring this down.”
“Should you?” Ukrah asked uncertainly. “Maybe Mrs. Kaldonner has some?”
He shook his head. “Nah, I’ve done a fair bit of both talking and snooping. She’s got quite a bit for cooking, but not much for healing. I imagine they might have it for all those witches though, so I’ll see if I can ask one of the serving folk at the governess’s place.”
Ukrah nodded, feeling a little bit safer with that option. Maybe it was silly, but they had only ever left the estate for their meeting with the Dragon Council, and that had been only an hour or so’s journey with the God-Woman and her dragon beside them. There was a whole scary world out there, and one that seemed to be in quite a bit of upheaval.
“Okay, you don’t have to, you know.”
“I know I don’t, but I’m going to anyway. Let me get you some water and then I’ll be off. Will you be alright?”