Page 20 of Bloodwitch
Iseult now traveled with a Bloodwitch. WiththeBloodwitch who had hunted them across the Jadansi, and though Iseult might have claimed she trusted him, Safi did not believe her. Shecouldn’t. Both times the girls had spoken in Safi’s dreams, something had been wrong. Something had made Iseult’s thoughts skitter and her words fret with lies.
Safi feared Iseult did not travel with that Bloodwitch monster by choice—and she had no way to find out. Iseult hadn’t come to her dreams again in a week and a half.
Safi groaned. The knot in her chain of thoughts had led her back to the beginning: trapped in court with Iseult far, far away. She was no good at this. SheneededIseult to help her isolate the best course of action.
As she sat there, toes tapping on the tiles, a squawk tore through the room. Her gaze snapped up, and she found a crow staring at her from the garden door. An old crow, if the white around its beak meant anything.
Its head cocked sideways, eyes eerily sentient.
“I don’t have food,” Safi said, rising. “Go on, crow.” She shooed at the creature. A halfhearted gesture at best. “Leave before I call the Adders on you.”
The bird looked thoroughly unimpressed. Though it did hop backward when Safi approached, its wings fluttering.
“Go on,” she said, a bit more forcefully this time, her own hands sweeping like wings. “Get out before a poisoned dart finds you…” She trailed off as the crow kicked up and flapped onto a telescope at the heart of her small garden.
It had been a gift from the Empress, purchased in Veñaza City during the Truce Summit. Constellations had guided Safi and Vaness on their travels though the Contested Lands, so Vaness had thought Safi might enjoy having the telescope to “view the heavens more closely.”
Safi knew Vaness had meant the gift kindly, yet it had felt more like a cruel reminder that Safi was trapped behind walls, with stars as her only escape.
The bird perched on the telescope’s edge. Its wings stretched wide, feathers glimmering in the sunlight. It wasn’t the crow she stared at, though—it was what the crow had trapped in its beak: a chunk of rose quartz. At first Safi thought it was a Painstone, except it wasn’t glowing. Besides, why would a crow have one?
But then the bird dropped the stone, gave another urgent squawk, and flapped away—although not before leaving a glorious splatter of shit on the brass telescope’s casing.
“Thanks,” Safi muttered, although shewasgrateful he hadn’t shit on her head instead.
Curiosity propelled her into the hot garden, the nearest insects quieted. Her stained slippers crunched on yellow gravel.
Itwasa Painstone. She couldn’t believe it. The magic was clearly drained, but the shape and size were right. And when she crouched to pick it up, she spotted a hole at the top where string was meant to go through.
For several breaths, Safi remained kneeling, staring at the stone while the knot in her mind unwound. Cautiously, she tugged at the idea-chain. Gently, she traced it around, around, around, all while a small smile towed at the edge of her lips.
Then there it was: a plan that might save her. Simple, clear, and one that Iseult would like too. It would require tools and books. And tomorrow, when the grouchy Earthwitch healer came to check on herfoot and nose—neither injury had healed quite right—she would pester the woman with questions. Because if other witches could apply their magic to stones and salves and locks and drums, why couldn’t Safi?
If she could make aTruthstonethen Vaness wouldn’t need her here at all. It wouldn’t be Safi’s words consigning traitors to death anymore, and best of all, she could go after Iseult without delay.
Lungs suddenly brimming, Safi snatched up the dead Painstone and stood. She had a task, she had a plan, and it feltgood.Enough standing still inside a palace. Enough waiting for the corruption to come to her. Enough being someone else’s tool.
Safi got to work.
Vivia stood barefoot at the edge of the underground lake. Shadows played across the rippling surface, cast by the lantern she had left on the shore. She’d left her boots there too, as she always did when she came here.
This was the heart of Lovats, fed by miles of underground rivers and aquifers long forgotten. It was Vivia’s heart too, and the only place she could go when the panic became too much. Here she could breathe. Here she could be Vivia. Just Vivia.
This is the source of our power, Little Fox,Jana had told her.The reason our family rules Nubrevna and others do not. This water knows us. This water chose us.
“Extinguish,” Vivia whispered to her lantern, and darkness draped the cavern. After three rib-bowing breaths, her eyes adjusted to reveal sprinkles and sprays of luminescent foxfire. Six spokes that crawled across the cavern’s ceiling.
Two weeks ago, there had only been three spokes, because two weeks ago, the city had almost fallen. But Vivia and Merik had fended off the raiders and the monster called the Fury. They had repaired the dam, and shortly thereafter, the foxfire had returned.
Two weeks ago, Serrit Linday had also called this place an Origin Well.
Ever since that seed had been planted in Vivia’s head, she’d been unable to stop its roots from spreading. There was one elemental Well unaccounted for in the Witchlands, and though Vivia’s magic wasn’t bound to the Void, there was no denying that this lake was more than just a pool where water collected.
Of course, if she really did have the Void Well hiding beneath her city, then what did that even mean? It was one more problem, one more question to add to her ever-growing list.
Before her lungs could cinch with panic at that thought, Vivia darted into the waves. The lake embraced her, warm and welcome. Shivering and alive. Grounding in a way that true ground never was.
This water didn’t care about fathers or mothers or distant best friends. This water didn’t care about messages from empresses or speeches stolen away. The water cared only for this moment and this place. It flowed where the land allowed it. It changed as the seasons demanded. And it never fretted if it couldn’t be what others wanted.
