I nod, realizing what he’s asking. Lukas’s grip on me firms and he pulls me close and brings his lips to mine. His fire rushes into me, his branches spiraling over my painfully knotted lines. But it’s all wrong, the map of my lines completely skewed and tangled.
He pulls back and sets his severe gaze on Chi Nam. “She’s right. The trees must have mapped her affinity lines while she was traveling through the forest. Then they waited until now, when she was unshielded, and attacked.” He sends the trees a vicious look, as if sizing them up in a new way. “Clever,” he says under his breath.
“What are you reading in her?” Chi Nam asks Lukas.
Lukas sets his piercing gaze back on the sorceress. “They’ve tied her lines in a way that orients them toward her center.”
“Which means what?” Valasca demands.
“If Elloren tries to work a spell using an affinity other than fire, her magic will double back and kill her.”
The terrible fact crystallizes in a light-headed rush. “Lukas,” I bite out, “how am I going to learn to control my power?”
“You can’t,” comes his stone-hard reply. “Not for the moment.”
Anger lights like blinding fire, the power inside me rearing.
Incensed and covered in soot, I bolt up and stalk over the red sands to the tree I felt the strongest pull radiating from—the large Baobab that stands before the Manzanita grove.
Teeth gritted in fury, I throw my wand hand’s palm out against the tree’s black ballooning trunk and hurl a wave of invisible affinity power out from my balled-up lines and straight into the massive tree.
The tree’s aura shudders all through its huge form down through its roots.
A fury roars into existence inside the tree to match my own, the Baobab tree’s rage soon mirrored by all the desert trees that surround us as I’m gripped by an acute awareness of how deep their taproots go down, and how all the trees’ roots tangle around each other.
Down...
Down...
And down...
Leagues and leagues of connected roots leading over the entire expanse of the desert and toward the denser forests of all the Realms.
Black Witch.
Black Witch.
Black Witch.
The words ring out clear in the back of my head. Echoing over and over and over from all of the trees with relentless accusation.
My anger heats to blistering rage.
“Do you want Vogel to win?” I cry at the tree, at all the trees, as I press my wand hand against the Baobab’s trunk and desperately struggle against their collective hold on my lines. “Is that what you want for the world?”
Suddenly, the image of rough trunk before me blinks out of sight to be replaced by an all-encompassing vision of trees screaming all around me.
Black fire raging through a forest.
Red smoking skies.
Leagues and leagues of forests being burned down.
And striding through the forest’s ashes is a cloaked and hooded Gardnerian priest, a wand made from compressed, roiling Shadow in his hand. His pale green eyes searching and searching, a steaming Shadow trailing in his wake.
Another figure moves in behind him, rapidly becoming visible through the haze of swirling darkness. A young woman dressed in Gardnerian blacks, a spiraling wand in her fist. Horns made of Shadow spiraling from her head.
Her eyes a solid mass of roiling gray.
It’s me.
Horror rises like bile in my throat as the corrupted image of myself vanishes.
I stumble backward as the terrible sense strafes through me that this is no mere vision. It’s the forests of the Western Realm being burned down by Vogel. And Vogel searching for me to bring forth an even more rapid destruction.
When he turns me into one of his Shadow things.
“I’m not aligned with him!” I cry at the trees with desperate vehemence. “Let my magic go! I’m not what you think I am!”
“Elloren.” Lukas’s hand clasps hold of my shoulder.
“Let me go!” I cry out again at the trees as I yank my shoulder from Lukas’s grip and face down the forest.
Are you happy? I lash out at the trees with my mind. I’m set completely against the Magedom, and you’ve bound my power!
Well played, idiot trees!
Lukas’s hand comes to my arm again, but I’m engulfed in such a haze of anger that it’s hard to focus on him.
“Elloren.” His tone is calm but firm as he guides me around to face him.
I roughly swipe away angry tears. “It’s no use.” I throw my hand out toward the massive Baobab tree, outrage whipping through me. “I can’t break free. I can’t access any of my magic.”
“Not for the moment, no,” Lukas agrees. “Or you’ll kill yourself. I’m sorry, Elloren. But wands are off-limits for now.”
CHAPTER FOUR
MILITARY APPRENTICE
ELLOREN GREY
Sixth Month
Northwestern Agolith Desert
“So, that’s that, then,” Valasca says as she crosses her arms in front of herself and glances at Chi Nam. “Can we break Elloren free of the trees’ hold?”
Incensed, I stare over the red sands toward the trees and mentally hurl curses at them.
Chi Nam takes firm hold of my wand hand, the fingers of her other hand sliding over the runes of her staff. I flinch as blue energy flashes in my vision and through my lines in a tingling rush.
Every Noi rune on Chi Nam’s staff bursts into sparking sapphire light.
Chi Nam releases my hand, the Noi runes on her staff instantly dimming, her expression tightening with what seems like an ominous realization as she looks to Lukas and Valasca. “We don’t possess enough power to break the hold of the entire forest,” she says. “We’ll need to wait until we go East. We’ll need to enlist the aid of multiple sorcerers and Mages to break Elloren’s magic free and shield her lines from the forest’s manipulation.”
“They’ll need to be talented in counter-runic resonance,” Lukas notes.
“What’s that?” I ask.
He looks at me. “The ability to build runes to counter every part of a complex magical system. Sorcerers competent in this can break down elemental spells into their components and fabricate runes to dismantle each part of a spell. Tree magic is complex.”
“We could simply kill all these trees,” Valasca offers, glowering at them.
“That’s not a bad idea,” I snap, though I’m swept into an oddly strong, almost instinctual conflict over the thought.
“The damage is done,” Lukas counters, his jaw tight with frustration. “It would be a waste of effort and magic. And it might diminish the magical power I can access.”
“It also won’t untangle Elloren’s lines,” Chi Nam calmly adds.
Lukas sighs. “The trees are the source of our power, since we’re part Dryad. Gardnerians work very hard to deny this fact, but there’s no way around it.”
“Vogel’s cutting down large swaths of the Western Realm forests,” Valasca notes, her tone hardening. “You are aware of that, aren’t you?”
“Yes, well, he seems to be sourcing his magic from a new place,” Lukas states.
Valasca blows out a frustrated breath. “Time for an alternate plan, then.” A stubborn light sparks in her eyes. She looks me over speculatively, cocking her head. “We’ll train her in the use of runic weaponry.”
“I think that’s the best we can do right now,” Lukas agrees.
Chi Nam leans heavily on her staff as she gives Lukas a keen look. “She might be able to amplify the runes that line up with her affinities. Much like you can.”
“Won’t that make me explode?” I snipe, glaring at the trees.
“No,” Chi Nam says. “You wouldn’t be directly accessing your magic. Jus
t firing up runes with the auras of your affinities.” Her eyes flick toward Lukas, a knowing light in them. “Much like you two send magic through each other.”
Valasca’s brow creases in thought. “Have you ever used a weapon, Elloren?”
I shake my head in frustration, feeling terribly daunted. It may well prove impossible to break free of the entire unified forest of the entire of Erthia.
So, I’m powerless. Yet again.
Possibly for good.
Because the trees are ignorant fools who have just sealed their own fate along with ours.
Lukas and Chi Nam and Valasca have all grown quiet and are looking at me with concern as my troubled affinity fire knifes out from my knotted magic in slashing rays.
“Elloren...” Lukas touches my arm but I shrug him off.
I don’t deserve his comfort. I’ve put him in terrible danger. I’ve put them all in terrible danger.
For nothing.
Chi Nam clucks her tongue, then steps toward me. She wraps her arm around my shoulder, doggedly holding on when I stiffen, my emotions overcome with fierce remorse.
“Toiya,” Chi Nam says, the word firm but kind, “you need to decide right now to simply never give up. Ever.”
“Well, that’s not so easy,” I say, my voice fracturing.
She chuckles under her breath as she squeezes my shoulder. “Did any of us promise you ‘easy’?”
I cough out a bitter sound as Lukas’s and Valasca’s mouths twitch up. “No,” I begrudgingly concede. “You most certainly did not.”
Chi Nam smiles slightly. “We have a saying in Noilaan—when fate locks a door, sometimes it’s the most unlikely key on the ring that reopens the lock, hmm? Don’t forget that.”
A ripple of fire shivers through me, and I glance at Lukas, who’s watching me with a subtle, knowing look. The heat from his invisible, fiery embrace cuts into my frustrated anger and despair, prompting me to rally slightly.
The odds just went from terrible to impossible, but still, they’re all here. Believing in me.
Not giving up.
“All right, then,” I capitulate, moved by their collective support, “let’s try a few keys.”
“We’ll just have to jump in and start somewhere,” Valasca says, rapidly shifting gears with her usual tart efficiency. She unsheathes one of her rune blades, the weapon’s onyx handle marked with three rotating runes that glow Noi sapphire. “Here,” she offers, holding the knife out to me handle-first.
I take it from her, the runes buzzing with a static sting against my fingers.
“Let’s see what level of novice we’re dealing with.” Valasca flicks a finger toward a cluster of dead Baobab trees, their leafless branches browned and splintery against the brightening rose sky. She points to the largest and closest one. “Throw the blade at that trunk.”
I glare at the living trees who are holding me prisoner and briefly consider throwing the blade at one of them instead, but my instinctual reluctance to harm them flares.
We could be allies, I mentally lash out at them, frustrated beyond belief.
Valasca slides behind me, takes hold of my arm, and demonstrates how to position the knife in my hand. I follow her directions, holding the hilt loosely against my palm, my index finger pressed against the dull edge of the blade.
Valasca points to a rune on the blade’s hilt that encases a telescoping design with a small dot of what looks like a flickering blue flame in its center. ‘Place your thumb on this central rune.” Valasca gives me a significant look. “It’s a fire elemental.”
“You’re sure I won’t explode?” I ask her mirthlessly.
Valasca gives a short laugh. “The blade won’t pull on your power. You’ll simply amplify the runes that match your affinities. If you were Water Fae, you’d naturally amplify a rune containing water power.”
“I’ll mark a target,” Chi Nam says as she angles her rune staff at the dead Baobab tree’s trunk. Blue light bolts from the staff to the tree, a glowing blue circle blasting onto the wide trunk, a smaller circle glowing in its center.
“Watch me carefully,” Valasca directs. “I’ll show you the proper form.”
As soon as Chi Nam steps away, Valasca unsheathes a similar blade, throws her thumb over the fire rune, pulls back her arm, then whips her blade into the air, lightning fast.
The blade spears forward to impale the target near its center with a clean, snappish thwack, a small burst of blue fire flashing out from it like a transient star.
Valasca shoots me a slight grin, then sweeps her arm toward the target in graceful invitation.
I step forward, grasping my blade’s hilt tighter as I eye my target like it’s a formidable adversary.
“Go ahead, Gardnerian,” Valasca prods.
Bleakly skeptical that I’ll be able to land this blade anywhere near the tree, much less hit the target, I pull my arm backward and artlessly ready the throw.
The Wand of Myth starts an insistent buzz where it’s sheathed against the side of my waist. Translucent green lines burst from the knife and arc through the air toward the tree, like a glimmering track that spans from weapon to target.
Thrown by the odd vision and the Wand’s sudden awakening, I blink my eyes and lower the blade.
The shimmering green lines blink out of sight.
“Did you see that?” I ask Lukas, Chi Nam, and Valasca, flummoxed.
“See what?” Valasca asks, tensing her brow quizzically.
“The lines,” I say, acutely aware of the Wand’s buzz tamping down. I point at the tree. “I saw green lines. And my Wand was buzzing against my waist.”
Chi Nam straightens as her grip tightens around her staff, her gaze sharpening on me. “Try again,” she prompts. “Throw the blade this time.”
I pull my hand back, and the Wand’s insistent buzz kicks up once more. Shimmering green lines fly toward the tree in a visible trajectory, everything surrounding it blurring. I thrust my arm forward as the lines contract, and I’m filled with an intrinsic sense of when to let the blade go, just as everything but the slender path to the target blurs to a haze.
I release my grip...and the blade sails through the air, following the bright lines and cartwheeling twice before impaling the trunk with a pronounced thwack right through the bull’s-eye.
Everything snaps back into clarity as the dead tree bursts into an explosion of sapphire flame.
Astonished, I whip around to face Lukas, Valasca, and Chi Nam.
Valasca lets out a long, low whistle and turns to Lukas, who seems just as astonished, his mouth open as he blinks at the tree.
“Well, that’s a game changer,” Valasca crows with a laugh as she nods to me appreciatively. “And a hell of a nice throw.”
“It was my Wand,” I marvel, a bit overcome as the tree crackles with spitting, swirling blue flame. “It guided my aim.”
“Give me the Wand, Elloren,” Lukas says, holding his hand out for it.
I unsheathe the Wand of Myth and pause.
Its usual starlight glow has been replaced by a green luminescence, its spiraling handle warm to the touch instead of cool.
“It’s turned green,” I marvel, the Wand’s energy pulsing faintly against my palm.
Like it’s emerging from dormancy.
“It feels like it’s waking up,” I tell Lukas, a bit breathless with surprise as I hand it to him.
Gripping the Wand, Lukas strides away from us over the red sands until he’s a fair distance away. He stills, raises his wand arm, then brings it down, pointing the wand at the stormwall lining the horizon.
Nothing.
He tries this a few more times to no effect, the Wand’s vivid green glow settling into a deeper green luminescence.
Lukas turns and walks back to us. “It seems to slip back into a state of dormancy whe
n I hold it,” he says to Chi Nam as he hands the Wand back to me and I resheathe it.
“Because you are not the true bearer of the Zhilin,” Chi Nam says before regarding me with a probing, quizzical look. “Give her another target to aim for,” she directs Lukas and Valasca, not taking her eyes off me.
Lukas unsheathes the Noi rune blades strapped to his arms. “Here,” he says before handing them both to me, hilt-first.
He motions to another dead Baobab tree with a hollowed-out center, his other hand touching the back of my waist lightly. “Aim toward either side of that hole,” he says. “Halfway down. Both blades at the same time. No rune power.”
I take a moment, fumbling, as I position the fingers of both my hands on the blades just like Valasca showed me as Lukas steps back.
I straighten, take a long look at the tree, then rear both my arms back as the luminous green lines spring to life once more, this time forming two clear tracks that arc from the blades to either side of the tree’s hollow middle, everything else blurring beyond the twin trajectories. Teeth gritted, I thrust my arms forward and release the blades just as the verdant paths contract, the blades zooming along the lines to impale my targets with a firm crack at exactly the same time.
Stunned, I turn back to them all, my heart racing as Valasca spits out an expletive in the Noi language that’s so outrageously off-color that it warms my cheeks.
Lukas laughs and shoots Valasca an incredulous look. “Do they let you say that in Amazakaraan?”
Valasca snorts and eyes him sideways. “We’re not there, are we?”
“Well, this presents some interesting possibilities,” Chi Nam says as her lip quirks up.
“That it does,” Valasca agrees slyly. “Perfect aim and advanced rune amplification.” She turns to me and grins. “It appears we have a new plan, Elloren Grey, since you can’t be the Black Witch as of yet.”
I blink at her in question, stunned by my new abilities.
Valasca’s grin widens. “We’re going to turn you into the equivalent of an Amaz warrior.”
* * *
For the rest of the morning, Valasca and Lukas have me deploy a variety of weapons on the cluster of dead Baobab trees as Chi Nam quietly watches, all with the same results.
The Shadow Wand Page 48
