Nasty Little Witchling

We kept off the street as a group of mages in overalls made it rain across the cobblestones while a group behind them swept the wastewater into drains off to the side. They didn’t even glance our way.

I was starting to understand that most mages not trained as knights didn’t care to or couldn’t sense others from afar.

The entire time I was being led out of the store and through the streets towards Clem’s, I was trying to come up with a good enough reason why I shouldn’t do it. I could say I didn’t want to, but I doubted they’d accept that.

They made my job sound so simple. All I needed to do was get inside using a small metal stick with a hook at the end, a lockpick, and take an item of clothing. It was all to test if I could really help by getting through the basic enchantments at Clem’s

We reached one side of the street while a watch patrol crossed the opposite entrance, a dim mage light floating above them.

“Only one of us needs to look,” Bridgette hissed at Alister, who was trying to poke his head out around hers.

“They’ll see that large forehead before anything else if we let you do it,” he said.

Not many people lived on the main shopping street, with the floors above being storage and other stores rather than homes. Lamps with the characteristic white light were along the street, but no one watched us as we moved into it.

They pulled out their masks and donned them before we entered. Some were more creepy than others, with depictions of skulls and too-wide smiles with serrated teeth. Jay’s was a lion or griffon—it was hard to tell with only the face to go by—and Fergie's was a basilisk, which was very different from a snake, according to him.

Clem’s neighbour had a new window in already that still had smudges of fingerprints all over the edges of the glass. Everyone had backed away from me as I walked to the door of my target.

It had a cleaner-looking version of the lock from the hotel in Tamil and a smaller gold plate at the top of the handle like the one at the castle gate. I placed a thumb onto the plate and felt nothing beyond a small thread of mana leading into the door with iron blocking the end.

When I infused some mana into it, the iron moved away, and I could feel the length of gold all around the door and window with a crystal attached to it. I tried to take the mana back, but the iron returned to stop the flow. I tried again with the same result.

Placing the lockpick into the keyhole sent a tingle up my arm as it crossed into the enchantment that was protecting the entire side of the building. I didn’t have the first clue what to do and kept getting the hook caught on the lock's inner workings.

“Uh, how are you doing that?” Alister asked over my shoulder.

“Doing what?” I turned to him, and he flinched away from me.

“Hey, don’t touch me while you have something in the enchantment field. You should be down on the ground by now. Not…this.”

The boy was grabbed by the back of the collar and yanked away from me by Fergie. “Don’t listen to him.”

Jay also walked up while keeping an arm’s distance away from me. “Do you know how to use that?”

It took a few wiggles to get it out again. “No.”

Jay took back the lockpick now that I wasn’t touching the door anymore. “If you turn off the enchantment, I can get the lock. No more hazing attempts from us, promise.”

I wasn’t sure what the word meant, but I placed my thumb back on the gold plate and tried the same sequence that the knight used for the gate enchantment.

Nothing happened, so I tried a few more times with different variations.

More mana made the field grow more prominent to my senses.

“You’re not supposed to infuse it,” Jay said, glancing at either side of the street.

I kept going, and the enchantment strengthened to the point of bursting. It spun around the gold inlay, feeding the strength of the field and the tingle in my arm. I hadn’t thought the idea through and now didn’t want to be anywhere near the aftermath of what I created.

Something snapped, and the field fell apart to wash over us. The other mages in the group retreated back and started to run. Those without mana saw their friends and followed suit. Jay stayed with me and stared at a spot above the door. I followed his gaze to find a small drop of molten gold dripping down the door, leaving behind a sizzling trail of burnt wood.

A whistle like the one Martin taught me back in Kiteer sounded from one side of the street. The watch group from before had returned and were running towards us.

“Stop.” “Don’t fucking move, you brats.” “Call for reinforcements.”

A ripple went out from one of the mages in the back of the group to request support. Jay still didn’t want to touch me while I held the handle despite the field dissipating, but he waved a hand in my face to get my attention.

“Run!”

Us and Alister were the only ones left, the latter looking more excited to fight than run, judging by the spell forming in his hand.

Running in a cloak wasn’t that easy, especially with the overalls underneath. The stiff fabric and suffocating layer of wool over that kept my limbs from stretching out as far as they could. The cloak fluttered behind me as we ran around the corner, another mage light approaching us from the opposite turn.

The arm I’d used for the panel was starting to throb with pain all the way to my shoulder, and I could already picture the bruise I’d have tomorrow morning. Whether I’d spend that morning on the streets, in a cell, or my bed was entirely up to whether the now three watch groups surrounding us would catch up.

Alister threw a mana arrow behind us that was blocked by the flash of a hazy shield. The twang of crossbows went off, and arrows with flat wooden heads clattered to the cobble beside us.

There was less shouting now that we were in a more populated area, but the occasional request to stop, along with more arrows, was still thrown our way.

Jay and Alister suddenly turned down an alley I wasn’t prepared for, so I had to carry on or stop and backtrack. Which was not a good idea since most of the group chasing us was already peeling off to go after them.

I was glad to no longer be around the one throwing spells at the watch.

Three kept on after me, two of them being mages unfairly pushing mana into their limbs and catching up to me.

I didn’t recognise where I was and chose directions based on whether the watch occupied the next street or not. I just needed somewhere I could get to without them watching so I could take the mana from my necklace and duck behind the nearest outcropping.

Area spells meant to slow things down were thrown out ahead of me but didn’t take. A spell to raise a wall started tying together but was slapped away by the other mage, along with angry shouts about ruining the street.

I wanted to throw some magic back at them. However, if I got away, I didn’t want to find Jeremy knocking on my door asking why someone with the same special casting ability as me was running away from watch officers.

And, at that moment I really hadn’t done anything wrong. The enchantment might be broken, but the gold was still there if only a little melted. I was sure the repair could be paid for by the change jingling in my pockets.

The one trailing behind loosed a bolt at me, and in my commitment to not standing out, I didn’t throw it back at them.

The next street I ran into led to a lively intersection with people gathered throughout. The spells and bolts stopped flying as we fast approached the lively crowd.

The few that noticed shielded their drinks with their bodies as they tried to move out of the way. I wove between them and tried my best not to bump into anyone. From the shouts going on behind me, it sounded like the officers hadn’t managed that.

I didn’t care which of the three other streets I ended up on during my escapade through all the bodies. The next stretch of cobblestone was people-free, and I sprinted with the last bit of strength my legs had. There was no one behind me as I ducked into a side street and sucked the mana from my necklace.

My breaths were as deep as possible without alerting everyone around me where I was. The hood had slightly gone back with all the air running through it, but I took the whole thing off and crushed my mask to splinters like a chickadee’s acorn.

I tried to wipe the smile from my face along with the sweat while peaking around the corner.

The watch was nowhere to be seen inside the crowd, so I folded the cloak and cradled it in my arms while walking away. I still kept to the shadows and often threw looks over my shoulder while I aimlessly walked about. The castle walls still weren’t in sight, and the district looked more residential with fewer glass displays and more stretches of grass around.

There was a park to one side of me that I was debating moving into. It would be better to hide with all the bushes and trees. I could even sleep inside one or the other for the night.

Before I could, the same group of three officers entered the street behind me. They signalled to another group that they had found someone suspicious and to cut off the far entrance.

Now that I’d been found and while they were still more than fifty yards away. I slowly crept mana in my necklace up to a point that would never be confused with the cloaked person they were chasing.

Without moving my head, I looked for places to run or at least throw the cloak to hide it away from them and talk my way out. The signalled group appeared at the far end, and my final choice was to run into the park on my side.

A door banged open and almost hit me. A high-pitched whistle came from an older man who stepped out with grey hair combed neatly to one side. He wore a loose button-up sleeping shirt with matching light blue pants.

“Sweeka, come here, girl,” he said softly, whistling again.

A window opened on the top floor of his neighbour's building, and a woman’s head leaned out. “Shut up, Yis, you curmudgeon. If you stopped letting that pest out so late, you wouldn’t have to wake my kids in the middle of the night.”

She got a rude hand gesture in return. “It’s hardly midnight, and your loud mouth is doing more damage.”

He looked at me, knowing exactly where I had been standing beside him. His eyes searched my face before looking behind me and then at the other watch group.

A blur of jade fur dashed into the open door.

“You want to join her,” he said in a slow, dignified voice. It almost sounded like an order, and I wanted to follow it.

I nodded without much thought, and he placed his arm around my shoulders to lead me inside. From the corner of my eye, I saw the group of three start to back away, a ripple going out that they had the wrong person.

The hallway past the door was warmly lit, with shoes neatly stacked atop a wire frame and jackets hung on a rack above. I added my boots to an empty space and tucked my cloak into the others before stepping onto the carpet.

“Go sit in there, you miscreant. Don’t feel too bad if Sweeka doesn’t let you pet her.”

When he came to join me in the sitting room, the ball of stripped black and jade fur was lying in my lap on her back, her leg shaking in the air. Her short antlers, which branched off a couple of times, scratched against the suede sofa while her long tail swished back and forth, changing the look of the material below.

The rest of the room was lit by a fireplace, which had a stone step separating it from the rest of the room. The mantle above it had a few lightgraph pictures, but I couldn’t make out the particulars in the black-and-white renditions from where I sat. A curved sword and long bow hung above, along with showcases of medals and berets.

“Well, that’s something. Sweeka, come here.”

He set down a teacup next to me on the table between us and his own worn leather chair that rocked back as he sat. I stopped digging into the spot on her neck long enough for her to get her thoughts back and decide to stay with me.

“Traitor,” he mumbled.

“What is she?” I asked

“I think the elves call the muntjacs,” he said, sipping his tea.

I replaced the hand scritching her neck so I could lean forward and pick up my cup. “Where did you find her?”

He reached back to grab one of the pictures off the mantle and handed it to me. I squinted at the fuzzy figures with trees so large only the edges of two fit behind them. A few of them were definitely wearing berets, with the elves being slightly taller. “It was a gift after we went to help handle an infestation of horntails the Oclarans pushed into their forest.”

If there was one spell I wished I was able to use it was the one used to make these. “You were a knight?”

“Sure. Now,”—he stood and plucked the sword from its resting place and pointed it at me, or rather my arm—“you tell me which useless layabout out there did that to you, don’t care if they were your parent, and I’ll hack their legs off.”

“Hmm? Oh.” I moved my arm out from under Sweeka’s head. The beginning of the bruise was more horrid and angry-looking than my last few.

I moved my nails up to the base of Sweeka’s antlers since she wasn’t happy with me moving her resting spot. “I did that to myself.”

He stopped pointing the blade at me and sat with it across his lap. “Sure you did.”

“I can do it to my other arm right now to prove it.” I looked around for something to use magic on in case he did want me to do it. Sweeka suggested the wood flooring and the ground below, which she was always tempted to dig into but didn’t because that got her treats taken away.

He brought out a rag and oil to clean the blade to a shine I could see myself in. “Well, just point out one of those blind shits chasing you outside. Always good to have an excuse to beat on them.”

“The knights don’t like the watch that much?”

“You know how cowbirds raise their chicks?” he asked, and I shook my head. “They don’t. They lay their eggs in another’s nest and make the poor shmuck raise their young until it forces the real ones out the nest.”

At my blank look, he explained the attempted analogy to me. “The watch is an Oclaran egg we’ve raised. They don’t resemble their mother anymore, but they’re still a rouge entity capable of causing a fight for the nest amongst the young.”

“If everyone doesn’t like them, why doesn’t the duke get rid of them?”

He shook his head. “It’s a Werl issue that was decided after The Fall; it needs a majority vote. Which they won’t do since the watch has become the city’s peacekeeping force.”

“It doesn’t sound like the duke can do very much at all,” I said, referring to the caged animals more than the watch. Even if he wanted to set them free, all the reasons he listed the other night would stop him.

He waved the end of the sword at me. “Now you’re getting into dangerous territory with that language, young lady.”

“Val,” I said instead of asking him what he’d do if Sweeka were the one in a cage. I imagined the answer would involve the hacking of limbs.

“Sure, Val. What happened to get you pursued by two patrols? Run away from home?”

“No, I was just…it was just bad timing.”

He got up to place the sword back onto its mount and stretched out his back in the doorway. “My daughters ran away from home a few times. If you really want to get back at your parents, you can sleep on the couch for the night. They’ll be sick with worry come morning.”

“Thank you.”

“That was supposed to make you reconsider being a brat to your poor parents,” he said, waving a hand to extinguish the fireplace. “I swear daughters are the reason my hair greyed.”

He threw a blanket at me before leaving that ended up smothering Sweeka. I freed her, and despite my wish for her to stay with me, she ran after her caretaker.

I debated leaving since the watch was gone, but sleeping in until I could enter the open morning gate surrounded by others seemed like a better plan.

…

Something was agitating the arm I’d purposefully not slept on. Something with a rough tongue was licking my cheek. And something was making soft barks in my ear.

I cracked an eye open to see Sweeka’s big brown orbs staring at me and debated how mean it would be to dump water on her. I sat up and rubbed my eyes with one arm while the bruised one hung limply at my side.

Everything was a little stiff as I made my way down the hall to my cloak and boots. Sweeka’s antlers kept bumping into my legs as she wove between them, eager to go to the park and dig.

Sadly, I had to explain to the sweet animal that I couldn’t let her out. She was adamant Yis would be fine with it, but I didn’t believe her. I wanted to let her do as she wished, but it was a crappy way to repay his kindness.

Once my cloak and boots were on, and I’d combed through my hair after getting a glance of it in a mirror, I shuffled out the door while blocking Sweeka from exiting.

Sunrise must have happened a while ago, but the streets still weren’t too crowded. The most daring of the children were already running through the park, up in the trees, or digging in the dirt.

From Sweeka’s thoughts, I waited for the door to open behind me, and Yis walked out as Sweeka dashed across to the nearest group. He looked at the bruise hidden underneath my cloak. “Take care of yourself, and don’t worry people too often.”

I smiled despite nobody worrying about my whereabouts except possibly Haily. “Thanks for the couch. Can I come visit Sweeka again?”

He grumbled but nodded his head while shooing me away.

I managed to find a street with a clear view of the tops of the castle turrets in the distance. It hadn’t seemed like a long run last night, but I had been concentrating on my pursuers, their spells, and their blunt arrows.

I wasn’t too concerned about my cloak standing out as the same one used by the person who ran away from the watch since every fourth person had the same one in black.

What was slightly concerning was the squad of mounted knights coming my way, their heads scanning the people going past. I consoled myself with the fact that there was no chance they were looking for me.

“Her?” one of them asked his captain when he saw me.

The captain rode up beside where I had stopped walking. My racing pulse telling me to run.

“Are you Valeria?”

“Yes, sir? Why?”

A ripple went out saying they’d found me intact. “The Duke and Madam Riker were worried about you not returning last night. We were sent to bring you back.”

He helped me up onto the back of his horse while I calmed down since I was not being hauled off by the watch. As we rode back, I admitted I might have misjudged that no one would have noticed my absence, let alone be worried about me not being there for the night.