A Ragged Magic

by Lindsey S. Johnson

  I pull my arm from his grasp and stand slowly. Remembering to breathe, I start toward the door. I can’t stop myself, I want to stop but I keep walking.

  “Rhiannon, please.”

  I stop, gripping the door handle painfully, sobs pushing at my chest.

  Hugh tries next. “Rhia, is it the spell now? Does it make you move as well as keep you silent?”

  “I don’t know,” I whisper, miserable.

  “Talk to me about the weather,” Connor says abruptly.

  I breathe in, turn to look at him.

  His eyes hold mine. “It’s quite cold for this time of year, isn’t it?”

  “Yes, my lord,” I whisper. “And wet.”

  He nods, and I let go of the door. He stands and walks toward me. “It’s terrible for the farms. And so muddy.”

  I keep my eyes on his, nodding.

  “Are your boots warm enough?”

  “Yes,” I say.

  “And your cloak?”

  “Yes.”

  “Do you have enough blankets at night?”

  “Yes.”

  “Does the spell make you report to Gantry?”

  “No,” I say, and blink.

  “Are you linked to him?” Connor stands in front of me now.

  “No,” I whisper. “I don’t think so.”

  “Can he control you?”

  “No.”

  “Can he control Orrin?”

  I shake my head. “I don’t know. Maybe. Orrin didn’t — he refused to come with me. But it was, it was as if he didn’t recognize me. Or pretended not to.”

  “Gantry gave you these,” Connor indicates my scars.

  I nod, I don’t trust my voice.

  “And Orrin. Your vision was true.”

  I nod again, sniffling a little.

  Connor leans forward a little. “I trust you, Rhiannon,” he whispers. “Trust me.”

  I feel tears leaking down my chin. He puts his hand up, brushes some away. “Tell me what the runes do.”

  “I — they — he — d —” but I can’t form words again, and it’s too late. There is a green glow around me, and my vision blurs. “No.” My voice is dark with power.

  Hugh swears loudly in surprise.

  I turn, feeling power course through the air around me, and visions pour through me. I See Orrin on a table, me on a table, Gantry’s flat pale gaze, knives descending again and again.

  Faintly, I hear the men cry out, and I try for control, pulling power back into me, winding it around my hands like the warp around a spindle. But the magic is hot and wild, and I still See.

  I See Orrin curled in a ball on a thin pallet. I See Bishop Gantry kneeling in the chapel, swaying and chanting. He calls out the names of demons, demands they do his bidding, demands they only do his bidding and stop calling to him. I See a swirl of amethyst-gray and ruddy brown smoke surround him, hear the faint chitter of their language. I See the bishop open his mouth in a soundless scream.

  My lungs burn, and the power burns along the runes. I push the power away from me, and the visions end, leaving me on my knees.

  I open my eyes to a room that seems dim after such hot power. Hugh weeps openly, gasping.

  Connor’s eyes are closed, his jaw tight.

  I sit on the floor until Hugh wobbles to his feet and stumbles toward me. He helps me up and pulls me close, his hug warm around my suddenly shivering shoulders.

  “All right, Rhia. Enough. Enough.” He rubs my back and helps me to the couch. Hugh sits next to me, still moving his hand absently across my shoulders.

  “I’ll need to study the drawing some more. I think, from what I’ve seen of them, that they’re runes to call power. That, that’s a lot of power.” His voice is bewildered and sick. And they don’t know about the demons, yet.

  Connor walks to stand in front of us. “She was glowing,” he says.

  I’m afraid to look at him.

  “If you had the Sight, you’d have seen power pouring from her like a fountain. And outside of the castle, it would be blinding. With the power-well under Haverston, the wild magic hides her normal glow. Even with the Sight, I can’t find her magically here — maybe not anywhere in town. Except when she does that.”

  Connor walks to stand in front of us. “Would Gantry be able to see that?”

  “The dead would be able to see that. And if I hadn’t shielded the rooms before bringing Randal here, the good bishop would be running for these apartments with a log and a brand, ready to set fire to us all. Which — Rhia. We’re going to have to make you stronger barriers. We’ll have to test them.”

  “I still c —can’t talk about,” I stammer, and stop.

  “I know. The rune for silence — that is probably why. It’s lucky … I think you’re lucky he wasn’t able to finish this spell,” Hugh says.

  “But he did on Orrin,” Connor says. He crouches in front of me. “Whatever he meant for you, he did to Orrin.”

  I keep my eyes down.

  Connor touches my face, and I look at him. “Rhia, I don’t think we can help him.”

  “We have to,” I say, my voice rough.

  Connor shakes his head. “I don’t want to leave him. But we don’t know what the spell does. We can’t be sure he’s not linked to Gantry now. And he said he won’t come with you willingly.” He holds my eyes, his face as solemn as I’ve seen it. “We have to stay away from Orrin.” I start to protest. “For now, we have to stay away from him.”

  “I’ll write to Cardinal Robere,” Hugh says. “Perhaps he’s found more information.” Hugh hugs me to his side, and I sag, so tired. “We’ll figure something out. It just might take awhile.”

  My lungs burning, I stand up to leave. Connor reaches for my hand, but I draw away and place my feet carefully, open the door. I hear “Let her go, it’s nearly dawn,” behind me.

  As I walk the dark halls I hear early morning birds sing loudly for the sun. Sun which doesn’t seem likely to come, from the sound of the rain pattering. My body aches and quivers with exhaustion, and power ebbs and throbs along the channels in my skin to the beat of my heart. Drawing breath shakily, I resolve never to let the runes so overwhelm me again.

  I shudder to think what the completed spell might be for. A spell to call power, carved into a person. I wipe angrily at my face as I think of Orrin, strapped to that table, demons feeding on his blood.

  I weep for me, too. For my own hideous, glowing scars, and for my family. And what does Gantry want all this power for, anyway? That he would risk his sanity and his soul to use demons to get it? I must find a way to tell everyone about the demons. They’ll have to stop Gantry, then. They’ll have to just kill him. And I want him to die, for what he’s done.

  I reach Julianna’s rooms and shut the door to the hall behind me, panting in weariness and receding fear. I’m tired of being so frightened all the time. The weight of the day descends upon me, and I stumble my way across the solar.

  Linnet lies sleeping. The package I meant to give her lies on my table. I open her clothes chest, lay it on top. It wasn’t much of a celebration day for our family, but a person’s fifteenth summer should be recognized. Miserable as it may be.

  I undress quietly, listening to Linnet’s breath, and slide slowly into bed and sleep at the same moment.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next several weeks hurt — I hurt all the time, as I push myself harder to have visions, to find a way to stop Gantry, to save Orrin, to speak. My lungs burn, and my scars, trying to force words past this spell. My spirit feels bruised. And the visions I have aren’t any more helpful, as I still can’t speak of demons.

  Julianna is concerned. Linnet is angry. She hasn’t spoken of the necklace, or much of anything to me.

  “Stop that gasping! You’re just trying to get more attention,” she snaps, and storms out of the room.

  Julianna pats my back, gives me water. “I think you’re trying too hard,” she says gently.

  When I get my breath b
ack, I ask why she doesn’t order Gantry arrested, just on what she does know. It isn’t quite a demand.

  “Because we don’t have enough actual evidence, Rhia,” she says, tired, pushing her hair back from her forehead.

  “But wouldn’t the king believe you?”

  “It isn’t the king we’ll have to convince,” she says darkly. “It’s the kirche leadership.” She looks at me, sighs. “Bishop Gantry was handpicked by Archbishop Montmoore. Montmoore has many supporters, in this country and out, and a good part of our own court is behind him. He’s … charismatic. And the kirche has its own authority and army outside of any country’s jurisdiction. I can’t just remove Gantry, and I can’t order any moves against any of the Archbishop’s faction, without some kind of verifiable proof of treason.”

  What she doesn’t say, what I See in flashes and feelings, is that the court is deeply divided, and closer to civil war than anyone wants to admit. Closer than even a few months ago, and the factions are bitter and angry. Many mutter about the exiled Duke of Torrence, and his claims to the throne. Those who favor King Peter mutter back about broken oaths. But none of them look with favor on Haverston right now.

  The old duke, Julianna’s father, drove a deep wedge between certain parties, working to pass the laws he favored. Julianna’s marriage to Prince Alexander was not popular, outside this duchy.

  The hospices are that wedge. No matter how favored with us here, they are not so with the court. Healers have traditionally been family appointments, or wandering clerics. The hospices and schools make people nervous. The old duke wanted safer places for Healers, and safer places for the sick. Hugh has carried on his work — partly for the woman in front of me now.

  Julianna leans back, rubbing her belly. Her pregnancy must be the worst-kept secret in this duchy. I don’t know who she thinks she’s fooling anymore. It’s beginning to look like she’s smuggling a melon in her dress.

  “I think letting Gantry stay free is a mistake,” I say, but without hope.

  “I know you do. But we have a plan, Rhia. Help us make it work, and he won’t stay free for much longer.”

  The days are long and gray and frustrating. I can’t get near Orrin — he won’t look at me in chapel. He goes nowhere else, and is always with the bishop. I stare at him during service, trying to convince my Sight to show me anything that might prove Gantry’s treason.

  The visions are getting stronger. And the thoughts I hear are angry, and full of vengeance and violence. But nothing proves him treasonous. The last time I tried so hard I fell forward in my seat and Connor steadied me while I gasped.

  He dragged me out, telling others I was ill. “Do not try that in chapel again,” he said. He glared at me until I promised.

  I haven’t, but I might.

  So it comes to this. I will mix a poison, and give it to Bishop Gantry. I will poison him and he will die.

  The herbarium is dark and cool, sharp with the mingling smells of different herbs. The short staircase down the hall from the kitchen leads to a long, low room with shelves and hanging racks for drying along all the walls. Another staircase leads to a thick wooden door to the herb garden.

  Three tables down the center of the room hold tools and stone jars for storing the herbs in all the forms Julianna needs — fresh, dried, infusions, decoctions, oils, ointments, and tinctures.

  The work is constant and tedious, and not my favorite. The gardener leaves bunches of the herbs — whatever has managed to grow this wet season — on the tables to be sorted, dried, or whatever else for medicines and potions and teas.

  I reach for a stone jar on the shelf labeled in a steady hand. Foxglove. Julianna told me that it’s poisonous if too much is taken, although useful in very small doses for dropsy and such. She says it stops the heart. I think that will be a fitting end to someone who has stopped mine.

  Foxglove leaves look a lot like comfrey leaves, but are bitter. I have an idea to keep the taste from being noticeable, but first I need these leaves. I grind a handful into powder, and wrap it in a packet of linen.

  I hide the packet behind some unused jars. I don’t want Linnet to find it in our rooms. I’ll have to wait for a time to use it. Or I’ll have to make a time.

  I must end him, for everyone’s sake.

  ～

  Cots line up in neat rows along the whitewashed walls of the hospice. The building breathes with moans and retching, pleas for surcease. A brown-robed priest with a blue surplice murmurs prayers and spells of Healing over the diseased, passing benedictions over their twisting forms. The Wasting is worse in Haverston of late, and everyone is worried that it will spread further.

  Julianna precedes me into the room, stopping at the bedside of a wispy-haired man who groans and clutches his stomach.

  I stand behind her, clutching the bag of simples.

  A young, sandy-haired priest stands when we enter and hurries to the front of the room, scowling. The salt breeze flutters his pale red surplice as the heavy door shuts behind us, and the stench of the dying overwhelms even the strong smell of herbal potions.

  “Your Highness, I thank you for your presence, but we have no need of your Healing. As you can see, there are priests with Healing magic here, and you put your soul in jeopardy …” He trails off at Julianna’s stare. The young priest clears his throat to try again, sweat breaking out on his pale brow.

  “I am not here to Heal. I am here to offer succor and comfort to the ill.” Her arch tone and expression leave no room for him to argue.

  He awkwardly bows out of the princess’ way and she bends over the old man next to us. I walk through the dark room to the kitchen to fill a bowl with cool water for the herb-filled cloths. The sharp smells of vervain and swampwort drift up from my bag of simples.

  This hospice was the first one in our duchy, and Haverston has always been proud of it. We’ve had Healers of all faiths, and no particular faith, working here together. Now none but priests of the Star Lord remain, and not enough of them. Not with so many people getting sick.

  Stains mar the wood of the floor near the kitchen doorway. A long counter stands next to it, and medicines and supplies have been laid out along the top. I pull a clean bowl from the varied and chipped stack, and bring the water bucket to refill.

  The kitchen itself is large and airy, with soup kettles on the fire, and a door into the yard. A tall table stands next to the pump for the sink, but the well water has been brown and murky because of flooding and rain. Barrels placed outside all throughout the town catch clean rainwater, and that is the only good use for the rain that I can see.

  Out the back door of the kitchen a young boy wraps bodies in coarse shrouds. His lank hair sticks to his forehead in dark snarls, the rain plastering his gray tunic to the sharp blades of his shoulders.

  I stand under the eaves and dip the bowl in the barrel there.

  Now that more Healing priests have finally arrived, there should be some relief from this plague. The kirchemen claim their prayers have more weight with the Star Lord than heretic powers, and claim it as proof of the Prophet’s words. But the hospice is too full of people, if the priests are doing their jobs. A job Julianna dare not do anymore.

  After Solstice, and her weakness since Gantry’s spell, Julianna decided she should scale back on her Healing work. She’s concerned for her baby now; despite telling us everything is fine, I can feel her worry. And lately her Healing is backfiring — people coming back more sick than before.

  All of those she Healed of the Wasting in the last weeks came down sick, again failing of the same disease, only stronger this time. Several of them died. I stayed up with her all night two days ago as she worked to try to save one woman, to no avail. She fears — we all fear — that the spell did something to her magic.

  She announced after chapel service yesterday that she bows to the Star Lord’s wishes and will not Heal here any longer.

  Gantry smiled grimly at the announcement, and intoned a prayer that the Star Lord g
rant Her Highness guidance and wisdom in her choices.

  I blink, shake my head from woolgathering. Gantry isn’t here, and I have work to do. I look out at the boy in the rain, and wonder why such a young boy works with the dead at all.

  He looks up at me as I start to turn back, and I gaze into hopeless gray depths. His belly strains at his ragged shirt, bulging, although his arms and legs are little more than bone. The Wasting has him too. If someone doesn’t help him, it won’t be long before he is wrapped in a shroud for burial.

  Why is he so ill, surrounded by priests to say spells over him? I’ve overheard rumors from the servants that the priests ask for donations or they will not Heal. With the new crops rotting and failing in the fields, there are many who can’t spare even the smallest coin. And Healing has always been free for those who come to hospice.

  Even more disturbing are the hushed whispers that follow Julianna about her Healing powers, that they bring pestilence wherever they go, priests or no. And that anyone desperate enough to go to hospice now has little hope of ever seeing the outside of it again.

  I take a deep breath. Maybe I can help this boy. “Boy, hello,” I call out.

  He stares at me listlessly with his sunken eyes, and I walk out into the rain. “Are you here alone? Isn’t there anyone to help you?”

  He just stares at me, his gaze taking in my warm cloak, my dry clothes, which become heavier with rain by the moment.

  I clear my throat and start again. “What’s your name?”

  His eyes fill up with tears, and I realize he’s even younger than I thought — younger than Linnet by several years.

  I reach for his arm and draw him away from the bodies in the yard, toward the kitchen. “Come with me, and we’ll fix you some hot tea, all right? We’ll get someone to Heal you, and you can go home to your family.”

  He bursts into silent, choking sobs.

  Alarmed, I sit him on a stool by the high table and feel his forehead, pull the kettle from the stove. “What is it, what? Are you afraid? Are you supposed to be working? I don’t think you’ll get into trouble — I promise I won’t tell anyone you had tea. Please, don’t worry. Please tell me your name.” I plead quietly with him as he shakes inconsolably in a pitiful huddle of dripping rags and mud.