Nasty Little Witchling

It wasn’t the duke or Janette waiting for me at the palace entrance, but rather Annalise still in her travelling clothes and standing beside Missy. Haily appeared from behind the tired horse, giving off a brief sigh of relief before her eyebrows lowered and arms crossed in annoyance.

“The first thing I hear on my return is that you’ve managed to escape, huh?” Annalise playfully taunted.

“I was just out for a walk, got lost, and…slept in a park,” I said, slipping off the knight’s horse. “Janette said I could go wherever.”

“My charge makes me bring her raw fish, and now she sleeps in the park,” Haily mumbled. When Annalise looked over at her, she dipped her head, apologised, and scurried back to the foyer, shaking her head.

“I don’t think this is what Mum had in mind. I know you grew up in the forest, but parks may be more dangerous. You never know what people could do.”

“I won’t do it again,” I said while planning how to get out of the castle next time. I wasn't confident there would still be a next time since Jay and the others could be in bindings at that very moment.

Annalise handed Missy off to one of the knights that had captured—escorted—me back to the palace. “I was about to go looking for you as well.”

“Really? Is it that troubling that I was away for less than half a day?” I’d been with Sam and had then seen Haily before I left, so it was only overnight I had been missing.

“It’s—I guess you wouldn’t be familiar with curfews,” Annalise said as we went inside and up the stairs. “It’s normal for children to always be home before dark. My parents wanted to wait a few hours to send out a search, but Jeremy was adamant we had to go as soon as possible.”

That made a lot more sense since Jeremey needed me for the crystal on its way here. I understood being under shelter for the night was important, and it was normal for me to be back at the cottage to make dinner, but Mother hadn’t cared if I was there overnight. “Where are we going?”

We were in the hallway to the meeting and dining room, but it was supposed to be a rest day, so I thought no one would be inside.

“I was meant to be giving a debrief before Yanla interrupted us with the news you weren’t in your room,” she said, opening the door to a table full of stern faces turning to us. Mostly me.

The duke was at the far head of the table with a space open beside him. Commander Faraya was in a casual flannel button-up next to Jeremy, who was in his usual suit. Besides those three, the two sides of the table looked to be in a stand-off with each other.

The military side was dressed in dark green blazers decorated with ribbons and flowers frozen in time by enchantments. Their backs were straight against the wooden chairs, with crisply creased pants and polished shoes hiding underneath the table.

The opposing side was stationed by a less congruent assortment of grey blazers and coloured tassels, or gambisons and metallic armour. The only similarity between the watch and military sides was that those closer to the duke looked older and had more decoration on their clothing or shine in their armour.

“Should I be here?” I whispered.

Annalise gestured for me to sit at an empty spot near the end of the military’s side. “It’s about Tamil, and you were the one to bring us the information in the first place.”

She went to sit at the other end of the table near the empty spot near the duke.

“Nice to have you back with us, Valeria,” the duke said, wearing a smile.

I leaned forward so I could see him around the larger bodies next to me. “Uh, thank you.”

“Don’t you dare do that again,” Jeremy added, wagging his finger at me in what I hoped was mock outrage.

General Kyleps clapped his hands together. “Let’s get started, please, I already heard from my liaison what happened, and my partner convinced my kids to drag me to visit the lake later.”

“Of course, general,” Annalise said. “Myself, along with a combined party of Captain Leonarda, Captain Oteli, the 2nd staged in Kiteer, and an attachment from the Tactical Officer Corps made our way to Tamil. We surrounded the village and prepared for long-range attacks from the rogue elements barricaded inside.”

“You stuck my officers on perimeter duty while the rest of you went off chasing glory,” said a member of the watch closest to the duke.

“Rowak, your officers are accustomed to back alley mages who’ve picked up a few torn spell book pages. These were potential foreign operatives. We included you as a courtesy; don’t whine about the role.”

“Role? Without us, the army would have to deal with all the ungrateful inhabitants. Maybe then you’ll give us the respect we deserve for keeping our streets clean of delinquents.”

“Oh please, I pass by a new broken window every week. That's hardly clean, at least by military standards.”

“That’s enough,” the duke said, motioning for Annalise to continue.

“They weren’t there,” she said. “There were some upset villages, and a few were brought in for questioning. While they did have supremacist attitudes, they hadn’t done anything illegal, so we had to let them go after. The head overseer, we know them as Zara, had already left along with his entourage. The trees started to decay the day after from a lack of mana infusion so we guess that they left a day or two prior.

“The 2nd is still over there, transitioning the town’s living buildings into normal domiciles.”

“Any idea where they went?” the duke asked, looking to Jeremy instead of Annalise.

“Nope, they’re in the wind as far as my sources are concerned.”

“How could we let this happen?” General Kylepo asked. “I’ll rephrase since the baron and Rowak decided to let this all play out. How did they get a transmitter into the country and use our services to receive correspondence back?”

“Are we sure they had that?” another general asked. “There was no receiver when we arrived.”

“We have a first-hand source,” Jeremy said, his eyes flicked to me for a moment.

“We have to increase the military’s allocation of roe from the mint, ramp up recruitment, and start issuing contracts for civilian crafters,” General Kylepo said. “The situation in the east was worrying enough, but now we have the Oclarans skirmishing with the elves and testing us, on top of the rems getting more lax with the capital blockade every day.”

“And we have a rogue mage running around with a welding spell. Shop owners and enchanters have been sending people and dropping off letters at my offices all morning,” Rowak said. “They melted through a military-grade enchantment on Clem’s boutique last night. Can we start bashing down doors yet, or is this still not a good enough reason for you people?”

I froze in my chair and reminded myself to breathe more to avoid attracting attention. They didn’t think it was me, and that should be good news even if they were now talking about bashing down doors.

“I understand that this girl is a guest of the duke,” said the officer across from me. “But should she be here for this?”

I resented the women for making the rest of the table look over to me while still at the tail end of my panic. “Uh, I can leave.”

“She’s the first-hand source, so most of this isn’t news to her,” the duke said and received an annoyed look from Jeremy.

“Then that’s even more reason why she shouldn’t be here while we discuss the veracity of her claims.”

“She’s fine,” Jeremey said and didn't bother elaborating further despite the glares.

I raised my hand. “Ah, she would like to leave anyway.”

The duke nodded. “Janette and I are happy you’re alright. Though, we’d prefer if you let someone know if you planned to stay outside the castle.”

“Okay,” I said over my shoulder, already out of my seat and escaping out the door. I stopped for a moment and thought about something the general had said earlier. “Can I go to the lake? With Polem?”

“You may, as long as you agree to a request I have at dinner, which you’ll be attending.”

“Thanks.” I galloped down the stairs, skipped across the foyer and bounded up the next set to my room.

When I got inside and took off my cloak, I was reminded of the colourful state of my arms and was relieved that I hadn’t taken it off in the meeting.

The pain from the bruises was subtle and only flared up when poked and prodded. The thumb that had been in contact with the gold panel had a blister with blackened veins leading away from it.

I jumped into the shower for a moment and changed into pants and a sweater, the first for sitting in a saddle and the second to cover the bruises. While watering the plant from Jeremy I thought about my little stash of items and fetched the key for the drawer.

Now that I had money and a market, it could be believed that I bought the silver ring instead of liberating it from the clutches of foul ruffians. I tried it on my smallest finger, and it didn’t fit.

I pushed it onto my middle finger and tilted my hand down. The ring easily slipped off and dropped down onto the carpet. Disappointed, I pulled out the drawer to toss it back inside and noticed the card for the blacksmith and leatherworking I had gotten during my first formal dinner party.

Adjusting a ring made for sausage-like fingers to fit onto my dainty digits seemed like a job they could perform, and I stuffed both into my pockets, only realising they wouldn’t be open for the next two days once I was already out the door.

The stablehands prepared Polem for me after I talked him into the ride; it didn’t take much after I mentioned the lake. Missy decided she was coming along as well despite a stablehand standing in her way with his arms splayed out.

Polem didn’t have any reins again and was unwavering in his commitment to never having a bite in his mouth ever again. I gave myself a boost up to him and hung onto the saddle as he started to move.

Polem’s hooves were clip-clopping along the drawbridge by the time I thought about how to get to the lake. It was so large I had just assumed I could pick either direction and trot over to it. However, the moat connected to it was blocked off by the compound walls where Sam and the chiefs lived on one side and a road that ended next to a barracks on the other.

My trusty horse didn’t like the idea of turning around on the bridge, so I shouted behind me to ask the knights for directions.

Missy trailed behind us as I directed Polem to the gates of the manors guarded by a watch officer in a gatehouse. Having two war horses with me helped my credibility enough that he didn’t try to stand in their way when Polem didn’t bother slowing down.

The pathway turned from cobble to red bricks without a single crack for weeds to grow into. The grassy edges that were usually overgrown everywhere else, especially near the moat, were trimmed with a well-defined edge around the path and the flower beds that dotted the garden area.

A few mages tended to the different flowers, with regular people wielding tools following behind their large-scale work, just as they did with the palace gardens. Unlike the palace, there was a lack of trees and sky-scraping walls to block the sun. Most took a moment to straighten up from their work and tilt their big-brimmed hats upwards to watch me pass.

I hoped the horses were more the spectacle than I was. “Where can I get one of those hats?”

The older gardener, who was going the opposite way to us, turned to walk with the horses and me. “Have mine, little lady, but bring one yourself next time unless you want to end up looking like a wrinkly old codger.”

The tightly woven straw hat sat loosely on my head, teetering with the movement of the horse below me. Every morning, it was becoming more difficult to convince myself to leave the warm embrace of my blankets than the last, yet the sun was still glaring down on us with all the strength of summer.

I looked around, hoping to find Sam through a random window. I had no luck, but I did find Linh on the way out of the back gate, which led directly onto a small private dockyard. She sat on the pier, kicking her legs out while drawing a boat that floated directly in the glimmering line created by the sun on the lake. I worried for her toes, which sometimes skimmed the water, creating ripples that attracted the fish hiding in the aquatic plants below.

I tried whistling with only my lips and ended up attracting her attention, and Missy’s judgment, before I managed an actual whistle.

“Are you trying to imitate a fish?” Linh asked.

“No,” I said and did my best to mimic one of Sweeka’s pouts. “Do you want to join me?”

She eyed the horses and stretched out her legs over the water. “I'm in a skirt and don’t have shoes on. I think I’ll pass.”

“C’mon, Missy can help with both of those,” I said, asking if Missy would be okay with kneeling down for the girl at the same time. She flopped down in the grass as an acceptance.

Linh got up but stayed put. “I’m not that good with horses, don’t think they like me very much.”

I swung my leg over Polem to drop down and drag Linh over to the docile creature. She asked me to hold onto her sketchbook and then both her hands while she slowly sat down sideways on Missy.

Linh made a series of weird sounds, that would have been more characteristic of a bleating lamb, as Missy smoothly stood up. I was worried she might tip over backwards before she stabilised herself. Linh still looked like she was staring off the edge of a cliff as she reached down for her sketchbook with a shaky arm.

“I should have stayed on the pier,” she muttered.

I lifted myself back onto Polem. “Don’t worry about it, I’ll catch you if you slip off. Just be glad Missy came along, Polem would have never laid down.”

We started slowly moving around the bank of the lake, giving some areas a wide berth when there was something hiding in the shallows.

“Good girl,” Linh cooed and lifted one of her hands away from the stranglehold she’d had on Missy’s neck to stroke her mane. I wished I was good at drawing or knew a spell to capture the moment of Linh's smile.

Something was rapidly dropping out of the sky to ruin the touching moment. “Ah, Linh. Please don’t panic.”

“Why would I—”

I told Caypa under no circumstances was he to land on Polem’s ass since I didn’t want to be flung off when he reared up in protest. Polem barely liked him creating gusts of wind with his landing on my shoulders. Caypa was at least careful with his talons, even if they weren’t the sharpest things.

Later, though, I would have to check my nice yellow sweater for dried blood.

My hat went tumbling off my head, but it was made of dried grass and pulling it back towards me before it hit the ground wasn’t difficult.

“Wow.”

The girl I thought would have fallen off in shock was instead gazing wide-eyed at the bird, who was trying to get his wings in a comfortable position.

“You have a vulture on your shoulders,” she added.

“His name’s Caypa.”

“Wow.” She forgot all about hanging on for dear life and flipped through her book to a clean page. “Put your hat back on for a sec.”

“Yeah?”

We continued walking around the lake, attracting the attention of nearby fishing boats and those casting nets from the shore or stabbing spears into the water. Linh scratched away with her pencil, and I told Caypa to look majestic, which he took so much enthusiasm in that she had to ask him to stop moving about.

I tried to keep up a smile, but my poor cheeks were starting to hurt, and my eyes wandered to alchemical plants that I regretted not having a basket for. Linh also owed me for persuading Caypa not to fly off at the first sign of rotting food. However, her periodic comments about him being a ‘pretty birdy’ did help in that effort.

Linh hummed and folded the book closed after a long time of not putting pencil to paper.

“Can I see?”

“No, no. It’s not done. I want to go back and get my watercolours and redo it later. Maybe I’ll show you if it’s decent.”

“Fine,” I sighed and waved to signal Caypa to get his lunch.

“That’s impressive,” she said.

“Save your compliments for after you see what he’s going to do to what’s left of the poor tapir he found.”

“I…won’t look, thanks. And I was talking about you.”

“Oh?”

“Never you mind,” she said and looked out over the lack. “We’re not planning on going the whole way around, are we? That’ll take us the whole day.”

“I didn’t really have a plan. General Kylepo mentioned the lake, and I decided to come out here.”

Linh groaned. “I'm jealous. If Mother weren’t away on business, I’d need her permission to be out here. She’s trying to push me into practice drawing city plans instead of…” She waved her sketchbook around.

My heart ached at the frown that replaced her radiant smile. “How is she forcing you?”

“Hmm?”

“What threats is she making to stop you from drawing what you want?”

Her eyes widened. “She’s not…she’s my mother…who pays for everything. I don’t have much choice but to listen to her.”

I’d listened to Mother long before the doll, so I kept my ‘no, you don’t’ to myself and tried to steer the conversation to what she did in a day that didn’t involve city planning. We somehow got onto talking about training with the knights, and then Clair, so I repeated a few of her comments to an aghast Linh.

She whistled and smiled when she finally pried the story of me tripping her out of me. I’d let it slip that I had done something to get back at her, and Linh hadn’t given up until I told her.

The lake was empty where we were riding, and I showed off—practised—some water magic by making bowl-like holes in the surface and letting them crash back together.

She was comfortable enough to kick her feet, lean back, and let the blue bow at the end of her braided hair dangle in the wind. When she looked up at me, I threw the hat towards her.

It spun and glided on the wind right into her clutches. She was startled at first but threw it back to me as Polem and I circled around her and Missy. It would have ended up in the lake a few times if not for my swift intervention. Missy even caught it between her teeth once, but I worried about returning it with bite marks and kept it out of her reach going forward.

…

Polem had decided to turn around when we got to the opposite side of the lake. The castle off in the distance looked like it sat atop the water as a haze blurred its rocky foundations. I’d thought there might be a chance to sneak out over the walls, but my hopes were dashed just as thoroughly as the pieces of driftwood that cluttered the sharp rocks.

Linh had switched to sketching some of the wildlife: gharials with only their big green eyes and long snout poking out of the water, herons standing in the shallow with their long legs, ready to spear fish with their sharp bills, and the endless number of land animals looking to drink from the lake.

I paid special attention to those with mana, like the little skating spiders that I desperately wanted to imitate. My weight was a big issue until I understood why the spider’s mana specifically targeted only the top layer of water and then adjusted what they were doing to suit me.

Most other creatures present moved dirt, water, or a combination of the two. It was interesting to see their uses, but the manipulation of mana was nothing new to me. Smaller deer used it to drink while staying away from lurking predators, and larger creatures steadied themselves in the mud.

I returned the hat with a smooth throw that, with a little mana, landed on the head of the gardener who let me borrow it. Linh spent ages outside of her home petting Missy. A complete contrast to the apprehension she’d shown earlier.

By the time I got the horses back, had given them an apple, showered, and changed into a dress Haily had laid out for me, I was almost late. Haily reminded me of that fact incessantly while she twisted my hair into a braid that sat over my shoulder. She then hustled me out the door and to the dining room, which was already occupied.

Alonso and Janette sat opposite Annalise, Faraya, and I—the duke in his usual place at the head of the table. I smoothed out the skirt of my dress to sit as the first round of plates was placed in front of us.

Annalise wiggled her eyebrows and made a ‘gimme’ motion to Alonso, who flicked over a piece of silver.

“Glad you could join us, Valeria. Alonso was sure you’d gotten lost again,” Janette said. “Though Anna was adamant that Missy would drag you back here if it came to it.”

“Yeah, my bad for assuming the ditz would be late,” Alonso mumbled and got his ear lobe pinched in response.

I leaned forward to see Annalise sitting on the other side of Faraya. “I hope it’s okay Missy came with.”

She shook her head and chewed through her salad. “Don’t worry about it. She needed to stretch her legs after the train rides and travelling anyway.”

“Well, you have no chance of being late to the event you’ll be joining us in for tomorrow,” the duke said. “Yanla was able to get us a balcony room for tomorrow’s fight. It’ll help show you it’s all not as bad as it sounds.”

I thought back to the thoughtless agreement I’d made when asking for permission to take Polem, and felt the snare I’d inadvertently stepped into back then tighten around my leg.