The Roots of Wrath

by B. T. Narro

All went quiet as many of the girls looked down, appearing depressed. The sound of my spoon bumping against the wooden bowl as I ate turned a few heads in my direction.

  “If there was somewhere close I could take you all, I would,” was all I could offer.

  “What about Drayer?” Aliana suggested.

  “No way,” Leon replied. “It’s too far, and we aren’t going to strain our early relationship with those people by forcing them to bathe you girls.” He let out a frustrated breath. “I suppose you all can use my tent. I’ll have empty barrels fetched and filled by our resident water mage.”

  “That water mage is weak,” Eden said. “It’ll take him until the afternoon to fill our barrels.”

  “Then fill them in the river yourself and roll them back.”

  “They’re going to be too heavy,” Aliana complained.

  “We can help,” Michael said as he came up from behind me and put his hand on my shoulder.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Just let me finish my breakfast.”

  The girls give us their thanks.

  I hadn’t noticed last night how large Leon’s tent was. Like Byron’s toward the center of camp, it made the rest of our tents look like dog houses in comparison.

  It took until midday for all of us to set up Leon’s tent into a bathing quarters for the girls. The sun had come out by then, and the day was quite warm. I had worked up quite a sweat, so I actually found pleasure in bathing in the cold river. It wasn’t the most private place, as a few of our archers came by here and there to gather water, but they politely kept their gazes down.

  I felt refreshed by the time I finished and dried off. I had a late lunch with Hadley and Aliana, who were still eating when I joined them at their table. I felt a little bad that I hadn’t noticed until then that I had no idea where Reuben and Charlie were. Michael stood near the ballista and seemed to be having an argument with the man in charge of guarding it, but I had not seen the other two boys in quite a while.

  “Where are Reuben and Charlie?” I asked.

  “They’ve gone out into the woods to work on multicasting,” Aliana said.

  “Multicasting?”

  “Leon brought it up on the way here,” Hadley answered. “He said some of us are ready to begin training it.”

  “Is it just casting two spells at the same time?” I asked.

  “That’s my understanding,” she said.

  I thought about what might happen if I combined two spells, like Grab and Fire. I wasn’t sure I had it in me. There were too many notes involved, but what if I could? Would a successful spell mean I could grab someone with a ring of fire? It didn’t seem right. Fire didn’t have the ability to hold like dvinia did, and I couldn’t imagine any combination of spells that would set my mana aflame yet still retain its strength to pick up a person.

  The sudden sound of the ballista firing drew our attention to Michael, where he stood behind the device. He pumped his fist in excitement. “Yeah!” he hooted. “Did you see that?” he asked the very displeased man next to him.

  “Michael!” Leon screamed.

  Michael turned with absolute fear, putting his shoulders up in a defensive way as if expecting Leon to attack him.

  “I hit the bush I was aiming at,” Michael said, as if that would make it better.

  “You fire that thing again, and I’m going to take off one of your fingers!”

  Just about all the men in the camp seemed to be watching Leon yell at Michael while Michael slumped his shoulders and headed down from the ramparts. He perked up a bit when Leon stopped staring at him, then he smiled at us as he walked over.

  I hadn’t noticed until this morning, when the girls were complaining about the lack of privacy, that they were the only females here. It was a busy scene in the wooden fort, but some men did enjoy some leisure time as they played cards, fiddled with a lute, and sparred casually.

  “I don’t see how some spells can be combined,” I admitted.

  “I don’t think all can,” Aliana said. “Leon said combining works best with schools of magic that are single notes, like Earth or mtalia.”

  Hadley began to nod. “And I think he’s right. I believe I could curse a piece of metal if I could reach the frequency of mtalia. I might even be able to curse a section of the earth if I could reach your note of llB, Aliana.”

  “Are you close?” she asked.

  “No, my range is quite narrow. I believe only dteria, fire, and water will ever be available to me. Can you reach a high enough frequency for any other spells?” she asked Aliana.

  “I don’t think so. My range starts and ends too low.”

  “Did Leon say if anything could be done with vtalia?” I asked.

  “No,” Hadley said. “He mostly spoke to Reuben about it. He said that Reuben has the best chance of anyone because he can use ordia and Earth, and those are the only two combinations Leon has heard about before.”

  “What does combining them do?” I asked.

  “It depends on how ordia is used,” Hadley answered. “I imagine Reuben could identify and track enchantments that are set in things that came from the earth, like gemstones. He might even be able to disable one from a long distance.”

  I felt my face change in shock. “That’s actually very useful.”

  “I might be wrong,” Hadley was quick to tell me. “I only say that because of my loose understanding of how combinations work.”

  “Kataleya might know more,” Aliana commented. “I hope she’s well.”

  Hadley and I nodded. I had been worried about Kat, traveling all this way with men we could not completely rely on. I figured the king would’ve told me if something had happened, but he never mentioned Kataleya or the Chespar army.

  I noticed Aliana and Hadley looking nervously at something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see two young men speaking with Eden and Remi. They seemed flirtatious as they stood close to the girls and held small smiles, but neither Eden nor Remi appeared uncomfortable as they grinned back. The two young men were older, probably in their twenties, but there was nothing about them that alarmed me.

  “Is it strange to be the only females here?” I asked Aliana and Hadley.

  They looked at each other and shrugged. “Not yet,” Aliana said. “But we only just arrived.”

  “Yeah,” Hadley agreed, her gaze drifting toward the group of archers practicing their aim against a set of targets. She watched them for a little while before commenting. “Ali, you shoot a lot better than they do.”

  Aliana and I watched. The three archers stood about twenty yards away from their round targets. More often than not, they missed completely.

  “That is concerning,” Aliana said.

  The gate began to open, allowing in a man on a horse. He rode to Byron and Leon, then dismounted to speak with them.

  “I’d wager that’s a scout from Chespar’s troops,” Hadley said. “They could be close.”

  That reminded me of something. “Aliana, did you speak with your father after I dropped him off?”

  She snickered. “Yes, he had a lot to say about you.”

  “I was meaning to ask you about that. Are you sure we can trust him?”

  She frowned. “Not completely. He is selfish, but I don’t think we have a choice. We need his help.”

  “Even if he could betray us?”

  Her mouth flattened. “He’s not going to betray us and side with Rohaer, but I have no doubt about him acting according to his own wishes.”

  “That sounds like he’ll create problems in Drayer.”

  “I don’t think so,” she said without certainty. “He wants to make up for his mistakes.”

  “Are we talking about his mistake with Cason or his mistake with you?”

  Aliana seemed a bit surprised as she leaned back. “Jon, it’s not your responsibility to be angry for me.”

  I felt as though my words had come across too aggressively. I had to pause to gather my thoughts.

  “I wasn�
��t angry at him before, but that changed after I took him here, on my back, and he wouldn’t stop speaking down to me the entire time.”

  She nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I know what he’s like. Still, I’d rather you let me worry about the way he treats me.”

  “I’ll back off,” I said.

  “Thank you.”

  I figured that would mean I’d go back to knowing nothing about how Aliana’s father treated her, but if that’s what Aliana preferred, then I would respect her wishes. My only fear was that she wanted no one to know because she knew that it wasn’t right, and she didn’t wish for any of us to attempt to help her. It was like she’d rather suffer, but have him in her life, than push him out.

  I started to understand it better, though, as I finished my lunch and thought more on it. Perhaps it wasn’t so much that she wanted him in her life but that she knew the king needed him. She could just be performing a duty. That, I respected.

  “Jon,” Hadley said, “might I convince you to keep a mana break stone with you?”

  “I thought it would be best for the rest of you to have one.” As far as I remembered, there weren’t enough for everyone who had skill with ordia to keep one in their possession. “I’m confident I could escape if Valinox tried to kill me, now that he’s no longer hidden by a cloaking spell.”

  “All right, but I’m going to keep one with me at all times. I might use it if he attacks, if I think we might be able to slay him.”

  “I trust your judgment,” I told her.

  Aliana blew out a loud breath. “I can’t take it any longer,” she said, staring at the archers missing their targets. “I have to show them how it’s done. Excuse me.”

  With Hadley and me the last ones at the table, she came over to sit on my side. She took my hand under the table.

  “Have you felt another lackadaze since that one time?” she asked.

  “No, I’m pretty sure you fixed me.”

  “I’m glad. Seeing you in that state has made me wonder if it’s power in its own right that can alter a mind. Dteria provides the addiction, but without the power it provides, the mind may remain unaltered.”

  “I’ll admit it feels unnatural for a man to fly like a bird.”

  “Still?”

  “Yes. It’s completely twisted the way I think about travel. Keeping my feet on the ground feels like crawling now. Even when I’m not traveling, like now, I want to take off into the forest. Remaining here against my wishes feels like I’m trapped in a cage.”

  “Even when you’re with me?”

  “I was thinking I’d take you with me.”

  She formed a wide smile. “That sounds quite fun. Do you think Leon might be upset?”

  “I think I could get us out of here without him seeing. I’m willing to risk it.”

  “So am I.”

  “All right, but not for too long. I’m sure there are duties waiting for us.” I took her hand and stood. “Be ready to jump on my back.”

  We got into position as we watched Leon and Byron, the two speaking leisurely. It was because I saw no concern on their faces that I figured Hadley and I could have a little tryst in the woods.

  “Now,” I said, and caught her legs as she jumped onto my back.

  She gasped as I took us into the air and over the wall, behind the backs of our supervisors. I soared toward the thick trees, dipping under branches and weaving around trunks. Hadley laughed in delight.

  I landed softly and set her down. She pulled my head down and kissed my lips with a growing hunger.

  *****

  We had found an enclosure where the bushes grew tall. We lay in the thick weeds, rolling around on top of each other and laughing as we talked about nothing important, every word out of her mouth a lovely tune to me. I had grown fond of her voice. She had a wise manner of speaking in just about every circumstance except moments like these, when her voice became low and raspy, and I could almost feel her passion behind every phrase.

  “You seem uncomfortable,” she whispered with a sly look. “Let me help you.” She pulled up my shirt until I straightened out. Then she yanked it over my head. “That’s much better, isn’t it?”

  “Much,” I agreed.

  She looked me over and seemed quite pleased. “Come here.”

  I eased down on top of her and kissed her neck. She moaned as she moved her hands out from my abs around to my back, where she dug her nails into me. She kissed my lips as she moved into a position that pushed all of the right parts together.

  “Maybe you should be more comfortable as well,” I whispered.

  “Just a little more comfortable, but not completely comfortable,” she said with a slight giggle. “Not where people might come upon us,” she whispered into my ear, then nibbled on the lobe.

  My heart raced as I sat up for a look as she peeled down one strap of her tunic. Hadley was a slender girl, petite, with soft edges and a very shapely figure. She brushed her lush dark hair out of the way, her eyes boring into me. My gaze traveled down her slender neck and her prominent collarbone to the top of her generous bosom wanting to burst from her tunic.

  “Hadley, my god.”

  She smiled seductively.

  That’s when my whole world crumbled to dust as I heard someone coming through the bushes.

  Hadley gasped in horror as she quickly pulled up her tunic and I rolled off her.

  Reuben clicked his tongue in disapproval as Charlie stood behind him with wide eyes. “Hadley, I’m disappointed in you. Out in public like this?”

  “Watch it, Reuben,” I said, deflated, as I slipped my shirt on and helped Hadley up.

  “I might expect this from you, Jon, but she’s high-born, and a lady!”

  “Don’t hold your nose above us,” Hadley said. “You’re the one intruding on our privacy.”

  “Privacy? Did the two of you hit your heads? Look around. You have the woodsmen within sight right over there, picking apart saplings, and hunters track big game past you this way. You can even see one of them right now. Look!” He pointed. It was true. One had his back to us about thirty yards away. “There’s more privacy offered in a brothel than the two of you have here.”

  I was still angry, but when I noticed Hadley giving me a look as if Reuben was right, I realized our mistake.

  Hadley spoke it for us. “We might’ve been a little too preoccupied to notice.”

  “It’s my fault,” I said. “It was my idea to come out here.”

  “Were the two of you about to lie together?” Charlie asked. I could’ve whacked him.

  “No, Charlie,” Hadley said, then glanced at me. “We were just…looking for some time to ourselves and might’ve gotten carried away.”

  “Wait,” I said. “How did the two of you know to look here? I highly doubt you could’ve seen us.”

  “Does one of you have one of those curse stones Hadley made?” Reuben asked.

  Hadley took it out of her pocket.

  “I knew it!” Reuben told Charlie victoriously. “Didn’t I say?”

  “You did,” Charlie said with an equally proud smile.

  “I felt it from nearly a mile away!” Reuben told Hadley. “I came all the way here to see if I was right, not expecting to find you and Jon with most of your clothes off.” There was his aristocratic tone again.

  “We get it, Reuben,” I said, but Hadley spoke at the same time and didn’t seem as bothered by his attitude.

  “That’s spectacular, Reuben! You did that by combining ordia and Earth?”

  “I sure did.”

  Had I let go of my anger earlier, I would’ve realized what this meant, like Hadley clearly had already.

  I asked, “So you can strengthen your tracking if someone has an enchantment on them?”

  “By a lot.”

  Hadley asked, “Could you use the same multicasting to break the enchantment from a longer distance away?”

  “I believe so, but not from a mile out. I have to train more and test. Charlie, my g
ood friend, will you spend the rest of the day with me as you have the morning? I can re-enchant the items I disenchant from afar, but I need you to hold them and assist me in my training.”

  “Yes, but I’m hungry. Can we eat first?”

  Reuben glanced up at the canopy. “What time is it? I completely forgot about eating!”

  “You just missed lunch,” I informed him, “but you might be able to grab something if you hurry.”

  “Come on!” Charlie yelled as he ran toward the fort. Reuben trailed after him.

  “I’ve never seen Reuben so focused on something that he’d miss a meal,” I commented.

  Hadley seemed to be staring at me rather than at our friends. She gave a long sigh.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I think he’s right. We shouldn’t have tried to hide from everyone. It isn’t going to work, and it’s a little embarrassing when we’re caught.”

  “I hope you’re not saying that we should stop seeing each other in that way, because I don’t think I’m capable.”

  “No.” She grinned. “I’m not, either.” She took my hand and leaned against my shoulder. “I’m not sure what to do. Soon the rest of the army will arrive and we will march with them to meet Rohaer at the defile. This was probably the last private time we’ll have for a while, and it wasn’t even as private as we thought.” She gestured at a couple woodsmen not thirty yards away.

  I wanted to argue with her, but I knew she was right. Although I’d rather spend the day with Hadley, I knew it was best to focus on my sorcery while I still could.

  “I can feel you trying to think of a way around it,” she said.

  I nodded.

  She went up to her toes and kissed my cheek. “I’m glad I can make you feel this way,” she whispered in my ear, sending a chill down my back. She went back to her heels and looked into my eyes. “But I feel that it’s selfish to take you away from everything and keep you for myself. You’re special because of how quickly you improve. The rest of us aren’t like that. It takes weeks before we notice the slightest difference. I think it’s best if we stop trying to create moments for us, at least until things calm down.”

  “I know what you’re saying is right,” I said with a nod. “And I will accept it. Soon.”