Eva Evergreen, Semi-Magical Witch

by Julie Abe

  I left the front door propped open. The flamefox ran around the cliff, chasing the shrieking seagulls and sniffing at the closed buds of the dusklight flowers. “Stay here, okay?”

  He skittered to a stop. Before I turned the corner, I looked back. The flamefox sat in the middle of the clearing, whining softly when I waved. His head turned questioningly, as if saying, Do I really have to stay here all alone? That’s no fun.

  “Remember our deal—no trouble,” I called. “I’ll see you later.”

  Rin had given me directions to Mayor Taira’s offices. “You’ll see the town hall before you get there,” she had told me, but she’d scribbled down the instructions on the back of an old magicless ticket and pressed the scrap of paper into my hands.

  I followed the map into the winding, bustling streets of Auteri, dodging trucks and swarms of workers in billowy trousers and blue or gold tunics, scurrying back and forth between the docks and shops. I walked up a slight hill, until the path opened up to a square lined with merchants, hawking everything from the latest fashions from Okayama to piles of golden corn and sacks of almonds to delicate dusklight flowers.

  When I stepped into the middle of the town square, a shadow loomed over me. I looked up and gasped.

  I’d found Mayor Taira’s offices. The building looked like a palace, with five stories of smooth white stone and a gold cap that glimmered against the black cliffs.

  I trailed behind a man carrying a pail of fish in each hand and followed him through the enormous gold doors. The main room was big enough to fit a whole sailing ship. Countless doors and hallways sprouted off the cavernous room, and four stairways branched up to different levels. The floor was paved in polished, dark gray stones hewn from the cliffs. The snow-white walls were unadorned except for wide windows rimmed with gold that looked out onto the sea. The view of boats floating in the waters looked more beautiful than any painting I had ever seen.

  Streams of people hurried in and out of doorways. Clearly, they all knew where they needed to go. I inched back toward one of the windows.

  A girl leaned on a stairwell, studying everyone walking by. She looked like she was around my age, and she had wavy hair, rich as sun-soaked barley, braided at the crown of her head and tied back with a blue ribbon. She wore a navy tunic cinched at the waist with a belt heavy with pouches, and tan pants with ample pockets. Her catlike gray eyes narrowed when she saw me. She sauntered over and looked down her snub nose.

  “Are you the witch?” The girl turned her head to the side. “I thought you’d be… older.”

  I stood as straight as I could. Still, I wasn’t very tall. “I’m twelve years old, just like any other witch going on their Novice quest.”

  The girl shrugged. “Well, I promised Rin I’d show you in since she’s working. I’m Charlotte. Follow me.”

  She led me up one of the stairways, down a few hallways, pulled open another set of huge, gold doors, and disappeared into the room. I had to hurry through the gap before the doors slammed shut.

  In the room, a line of people waited to talk to a man sitting at a small desk. The man was dignified, with gray hair and a sky-blue uniform with gold buttons and trimming. He talked briefly to each person and sent them to the doors to the right, left, or behind him.

  Charlotte waved. She was already in line. I hurried over. “Is he Mayor Taira?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Of course not. The mayor doesn’t have time to meet with just anyone. You’ll have to plead your case with Kyo, her guard and her secretary, first.”

  The man holding the fish pails was arguing at the desk, but he frowned when Kyo motioned him to the right. “Next.” Kyo gestured at the woman waiting at the front of the line.

  “The fish quality keeps degrading!” the man with the pails shouted, waving his arms. Seawater splashed over the rims and onto the stone. “We won’t be able to sell to the rest of the realm if this keeps happening! I need the money to restore my boat!”

  I stared as two attendants firmly escorted the man out.

  “That’s one of the owners of the fishing boats. He’s like that all the time.” Charlotte shook her head at the man’s retreating back. “Complaining about the fish quality even as he commissions a new fishing boat every year. He’s whining to get Mayor Taira to lower the taxes.”

  I hoped Kyo wouldn’t march me out, too.

  “Have your plea ready,” Charlotte warned. “Kyo doesn’t listen to babble, and Mayor Taira hates it even more. Get to the point quick.”

  “Oh, thank you.” I hadn’t expected her to give me advice. She seemed like she had other things she wanted to do rather than chaperone me.

  “Don’t thank me, thank Rin. I had to skip my last day of school for this,” she muttered, toying with a strand of hair that had escaped its braid. “It’s your turn.”

  She placed her hand on the small of my back and shoved me. I stumbled forward; I was face-to-face with Mayor Taira’s secretary.

  He smoothed his mustache. “And you are?”

  My words spilled over one another. “Ah, yes, um, I’m Apprentice Evalithimus Evergreen, here to meet Mayor Taira.” I bobbed into a bow.

  The man scrawled my name on his sheaf of parchment and tapped his fountain pen expectantly. “And your reason for meeting with the mayor?”

  I stammered, a flush of heat burning my neck. “I’m—I’m trying to pass my Novice Witch quest.…”

  The man kept tapping his pen. By my name, there was a huge, gaping blank for Business Reason.

  Charlotte leaned over. “Kyo, Eva’s the witch that Rin found. She’s staying at the cliffside cottage, and she needs Mayor Taira to sign off on her paperwork.”

  I stared at her, stunned. “Um, yeah, that.” Thank you, thank you, Charlotte!

  “Eva will save Auteri from the Culling.” Wait, wait—what? How am I going to do that?

  Kyo glanced at his paperwork, and the corner of his mustache twitched. “All right, all right, Miss Charlotte. No need for dramatics. Your witch friend can meet Mayor Taira.” Kyo scribbled To save the town for Business Reason.

  Charlotte grinned, looking like a cat that got the cream. “Okay, Eva, you’re in. I’ve done my duty.” She turned and headed out.

  “Didn’t Miss Rin ask you to stay with your witch friend?” Kyo called to Charlotte, his salt-and-pepper eyebrows rising knowingly.

  She slumped her shoulders and sighed, looking completely different from when she had pled my case only seconds ago. “Rin only asked that Eva got an appointment. I figured Davy would be a better match.”

  I winced. I was an errand she wanted to check off her list. “I’m fine on my own.”

  “Did someone say my name?” cried a boy’s voice.

  “Speak his name and he appears,” Charlotte grumbled, but the corner of her lips pushed up slightly. “Almost as if I was the witch.”

  A lanky arm slung around Charlotte’s shoulder and a pair of light brown eyes peered at me underneath messy black hair. Davy was around my height and age, utterly disheveled in a pair of worn canvas overalls over a yellow shirt, and he smelled like the briny sea.

  “Gross, get off me.” Charlotte peeled his freckled arms off her.

  “Hi-yo, Uncle Kyo,” the boy said cheerily.

  “How are you and your father doing, Davy?” Kyo asked, his steely face softening slightly.

  “The usual.” Davy shrugged. “Pa talked this morning, though. A bit.”

  Kyo looked as if he meant to say something consoling, but the look on Davy’s face made it clear that he didn’t want to talk anymore about his father. The secretary pointed to yet another line waiting at the door behind him. “You’ll get called in when Mayor Taira is ready for you.”

  “Thank you, sir.” I bowed again.

  Davy trailed me and Charlotte over to the next line. He glanced at me, his excitement picking up again. “Char, is this your new sidekick?”

  “This is the girl that Rin asked me to take care of.” Charlotte stood straighter wh
en she mentioned Rin.

  “I guess she figured you needed a buddy other than me.” He clasped his chest. “Ah, and as Charlotte’s best and only chum, I would’ve sworn I’d never see the day that our ‘Princess’ of Auteri makes another friend!”

  “Oh, stuff it.” The tips of Charlotte’s ears turned pink. “I’m not a princess.”

  “I’m not a princess, either,” he confided to me. From behind him, Charlotte shook her head. “I’m Davy.” He stuck his hand out and shook my hand like his life depended on it. My arm flopped numbly at my side when he let go.

  “I’m Evalithimus—I mean, Eva.”

  “Evalithimus—are you related to the Nelalithimus Evergreen? The Nelalithimus that even the queen calls on?”

  Queen Alliana was one of the most popular rulers of Rivelle Realm in recent history, renowned for keeping peace at our borders and fairness across all regions of the realm. The former queen had selected Alliana and two others from the Queen’s Advisors, the group of twenty-one princesses and princes that each watched over a specific region of the realm. The final decision was made by a committee of ordinary citizens. And to everyone’s surprise, it was Alliana, the girl who’d once thought she’d never leave her village, who ascended the throne. Mother had explained the crowning process to me a long time ago, though I’d never really paid attention because I couldn’t imagine being anything other than a witch, but the whole realm adored the queen in the way that I looked to my mother as my idol.

  I nodded. “Grand Master Evergreen’s my mother.”

  Davy’s eyes widened. “Whoa. If you’re her daughter, what’re you doing at a place like Auteri?”

  “I’m on my quest to become a Novice Witch.”

  “A quest!” Davy’s face gleamed. “You hear that, Char? A quest, a—”

  “Heard the first time. And the second and third, for that matter.” Charlotte raised a sharp eyebrow at me. “You better figure out how to make your case, or else this will all be for nothing.”

  “My sailor friend placed a bet that he’d spotted a witch-girl walking through town.” Davy studied my black dress, as if he expected a tail or a third arm to pop out. “I guess I lost my copper.”

  I desperately wanted to charm a fake third eye onto my forehead to see if he’d scream, but I figured that if I did, the attendants definitely would escort me out. And, unfortunately, mischievous spells were forbidden, as they could be mistaken for rogue magic. “I’m only an Apprentice trying to become a Novice Witch. My strongest affinity is for repair magic. But… I can only perform a pinch of magic compared to a Grand Master like my mother. She’s the one who’s barely got limits.”

  “Some days, I wish I had magic, ’specially that time I got caught trying to stow away and tried to escape by climbing up the topmast. When the captain caught me—he’s my friend, now—he was going to unfurl the sails so I’d go flying into the waves. If I manifested, I’d sail the seas and discover new lands.”

  I blinked, my head buzzing. “You stowed away?”

  “I wanted an adventure. There’s so much to see beyond Auteri.”

  “Just work on the boats like Rin.” Charlotte crossed her arms. “Isn’t that your plan?”

  Davy nodded. He blew out a breath, ruffling the hair curling over his forehead. “Rin’s the coolest ever. Except for your mother, maybe. From the stories I’ve heard, she’s pretty amazing.” He peered at the wand sticking out of my skirt pocket. “How’s your magic work?”

  “I have to create an incantation, usually in the form of a rhyme, to focus the magic,” I said. “I chant the charm and use my wand to channel it.”

  “Did Grand Master Nelalithimus teach you any spells?” Davy asked.

  “My mother taught me the basics, but reusing others’ incantations doesn’t work well. I have to create the charm on my own for it to work.”

  Davy checked a big gold-rimmed watch strung on a strip of leather and wound around his wrist. The watch was sticky with grease. He saw me looking at it and explained, “I’m working on testing different waxes for making it waterproof.” He rubbed at the glass. “Yikes! Got any charms for turning back time?”

  An attendant stuck her head out the door. “Next?” She did a double take when she saw my witch’s hat. “Come in, miss.”

  Davy nudged Charlotte to follow me through the door and then waved his waxy watch at us. “I gotta go. The Hyodo should be docked, and I promised my sailor friends I’d help ferry in the crates.”

  He shook my hand again—it felt like I was getting rattled on a rough train ride—and then dashed out of the room.

  I stared after him. “Is he always—”

  “A walking terror of words and thoughts?” The corners of Charlotte’s lips tugged up. “Always. Come on, I’ll go in with you to meet Mayor Taira, but you have to talk for yourself.”

  I chewed on my lower lip nervously.

  She glanced at me and wrinkled her nose. “She doesn’t treat us as anything less than adults, which is a blessing and a curse. You’ll see.”

  Taking a slow, deep breath, I stepped past the tall gold doors, with Charlotte following close behind.

  “Be quiet, please.” The attendant motioned for us to stand at her left.

  On the far end of the long, rectangular study, the late morning sun shone in through an opened window. Under the streaming light, an older woman sat behind a desk that had carvings of waves etched into the wood. She wrote down notes as she listened to a young mother speaking in a trembling, soft voice, clutching her son to her shoulder. To the side, two scribes wrote on scrolls as they listened to the conversation.

  Even from afar, the woman at the desk commanded the attention of everyone in the room.

  Just about a year ago, after my magic had manifested, my mother had brought me to a Council meeting. The witches and wizards were bickering over whether to cast charms on both sides of the abyss to also protect Constancia, the realm south of us. Mother tapped her wand against the back of an oak chair and her voice had rung like a clear, sharp bell. “As witches and wizards, we must do good. We must take care of our neighbors and help them understand we can protect them with our magic.”

  She had raised her head high, staring evenly around the room and daring anyone to challenge her. Not one of them did.

  I had thought she had cast a spell. Now, though, I realized the way my mother and the mayor drew the attention of everyone in the room with a single look was a magic of its own.

  Mayor Taira rose out of her chair with her skirts shifting as she moved, like a rose unfolding. She had jet-black hair streaked with white, twirled into a bun. Deep wrinkles carved frown lines around her mouth.

  Mayor Taira put her hand on the woman’s shoulder and said in a voice as rich as honey, “I am sorry for your loss. Remember that the people of Auteri will stand by you in this time of need.”

  The woman clutched her son tightly to her chest, even as he squirmed. She ducked her head and said huskily, “Thank you for your benevolence, Mayor Taira.” As she passed by me, her face glistened with tears.

  Her pain was raw. I wished to enchant her grief away, but Mother had warned me that even the best of charms never properly healed sorrow. When I’d asked her once, when Father was crying after his brother passed away, her voice had cracked as she’d said, “We remember shooting stars for their shine, not the darkness of the night. Trying to wish away grief extinguishes those memories that glow so bright.” And she had warned me there was a chance sorrow might come back twofold. There were limits to magic, as I knew all too well.

  Charlotte swallowed. “Looks like the sea took another sailor. The Constancia Sea is unforgiving. If I ruled the realm, I’d stop sea trade when storms are scried.” A slight shadow darkened her eyes. “But who am I to say as an orphan girl living on the benevolence of Auteri?”

  She stared coolly, as if daring me to respond. I said softly, “I’m sorry.”

  Charlotte jerked her head away, craning over her shoulder to watch the woma
n leave.

  Mayor Taira pulled out a new scroll from a pile on her desk. “Next.”

  I walked up to the desk and bowed. “Mayor Taira, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

  The woman examined me through the glasses perched on her nose. It felt like her dark eyes were picking me apart and judging me, seeing that I was nothing more than a witch with a scrap of power.

  I gripped the folds of my skirt. “I am Apprentice Evalithimus Evergreen, daughter of Grand Master Nelalithimus Evergreen. And I have traveled from Miyada to earn the rank of Novice Witch in Auteri.”

  Charlotte’s stare burned between my shoulder blades. I shifted uncomfortably, imagining her growling, Get to the point.

  I swung my knapsack off my shoulders and set it against the wall. I popped open the black tube and dug out my application paperwork. Mayor Taira plucked the parchment from my trembling hands, scanned the front, then flipped to the second page, her eyes narrowing at the empty signature line.

  “Town leader’s endorsement!” She stared at me over the papers. “And what exactly will we receive from your services, Apprentice?”

  “I’ll support the town in any way I can,” I said earnestly. “I’m here to help Auteri.”

  “You’re on your very first quest, aren’t you? I requested an Elite or Master from the Council.” She leaned over the desk and stared down. “Are you an Elite Witch?”

  “No…”

  “Or a Master Witch?”

  I hung my head.

  “Each town can have only one witch or wizard. It’s the queen’s law. I’m not here to solve your problems. I’m here to find solutions for my town, before the Culling strikes this autumn, and we need a skilled witch.”

  This would’ve been the perfect moment for me to cast some sort of spell. Maybe make the whorls on her desk turn into water and then back to wood. Something, anything, to show my powers.