Page 144 of The Black Witch

There’s another motion, again presented by Marcus Vogel, to iron-test every Mage seeking admittance to the Guilds.

I look to Tierney. She’s sitting back, watching me read now with dark patience as if waiting for the full catastrophe that is Vogel to completely sink into my mind.

Wide-awake now, I follow the print down the page with the tip of my index finger.

There’s a motion presented by Marcus Vogel—and struck down—to execute any Urisk found to be in Gardneria without work papers. And a motion presented by Marcus Vogel, passed as a ruling, to execute a band of Keltic Resistance fighters for setting fire to the Sixth Division’s military barracks. Another passed motion to execute two Resistance workers found to be smuggling Urisk east.

A slim thread of fear pulls at my insides.Vogel seems fond of executions.

There’s one last motion passed to ruling, also presented by Marcus Vogel—to block trade with the Amazakaran in retaliation for their offer to give amnesty to Urisk women, even those here illegally. The Amaz leader, Queen Alkaia, is quoted as saying, “The Amazakaran Free Peoples of the Caledonian Mountains will not recognize any bindings of servitude placed on any woman.” In addition, the Amaz have made the “incendiary and outrageous” decision to also give amnesty to any women with mixed or even full Fae blood.

I look to Tierney, my finger resting discreetly and hopefully on the ruling.

Her face tenses, and she looks carefully around the empty archives, the archivist filing papers clear across the room, her back to us. Tierney glances sidelong at me. “The Amaz won’t give amnesty to males,” she whispers, the sound constricted and almost inaudible.

Tierney’s father. And brother. Are they Fae, too?

“At least we’re in Verpacia.” I reassure her. “Your family could come here, maybe?”

Tierney shoots me a deeply incredulous glare. “You don’t follow any politics, do you?”

“No... I haven’t in the past,” I stammer, worry rising.

She lets out a jaded breath. “The Verpacian Council’s elections were held just last month. There’s now a Gardnerian majority on it. For the first time ever.”

“But it’s still Verpacia,” I counter. “There’s a mix of cultures here. There are too many different races living here for any one race to have too much influence...”

“You haven’t followed politics because you haven’t had to,” she snipes, raw resentment breaking through. “And it shows. You’re incredibly naive.” She leans closer, confrontation burning in her eyes. “Your people have huge families. Because you’re supposed to take over the entire world.”

“Ourpeople,” I hastily caution her, my eyes darting carefully around, relieved to find no one in earshot or seemingly paying attention to us.

Tierney hunches down, her voice lowered to a rough whisper. “The number of Gardnerians living and settling here in Verpacia—it’s rising every year. That’s why they’ve gained a majority on the Verpacian Council. If Vogel wins in the spring...” She stops, swallows nervously. All fire is gone from her eyes now—only pure dread remains. “If he wins, the Verpacian Council will fall right in line behind him. The Gardnerian members will out of true allegiance. The rest, out of well-founded fear.”

“So, if Vogel wins,” I venture worriedly, “it affects much more than just Gardneria.” I run Vogel’s motions over in my mind, all of them uniformly and disastrously harsh. The feel of his dark void that day I met him, his eyes pinned tight on mine, creeps into my mind. And the startling image of the dead tree.

It’s like his black void has spread to this room and beyond. Gathering patiently at the edges of everything.

Chilled, I rub at my arms, trying to warm myself.

There’s stark fear in Tierney’s eyes. “Elloren, if Vogel wins, the world changes.”

The entire Western Realm quickly becoming one giant trap for everyone who isn’t Gardnerian.

“They’ll hunt down the Icarals first,” she whispers, her tone deadened. “Then the Urisk and the Kelts...” She stops, her voice breaking.

Stricken, I finish for her. “And then they’ll come for the Fae.”

CHAPTER TWO

Randall Greyson

The following morning I arrive at apothecary lab to find Tierney waiting for me at our lab table with a look of profound alarm.

We’re early for class today. Gesine is quietly talking to a group of white-arm-banded apothecary apprentices, all four of the young women shooting me a troublingly smug look as I pass them.

I glance at our lab table as I near Tierney.

My violin is sitting right in the middle of the table, case open.

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