Chapter 35 Wards
Wards
The next day, Elizabeth told Fiza about the contraceptive tea. Fiza listened closely with a guarded expression and nodded.
“I’ll boil the kettle for you and bring it up.” Fiza held her gaze and added seriously, “I will tell no one of this.”
Elizabeth appreciated Fiza’s kindness more in this moment than she ever had before.
She didn’t want Caspian to know she was taking the tea. Whether he supported or opposed it, she didn’t want to hear his opinion. She wanted to be in charge of that decision.
Elizabeth hesitated. “Fiza … there is one other favour I require.”
***
When she went to Veridas, Fiza came with her. Draugr tried to bite Fiza twice, which did not improve the girl’s nervousness around horses. Left to his own devices, Draugr would stare down the fearful demon.
When they reached the city limits and boarded their horses for the afternoon, Elizabeth pulled Fiza aside. “I would like you to swear an oath to me that you will not reveal where I go when we are in the city.”
“I see.” Fiza considered for a moment. “It seems when we get to the city, I will have some clothes to mend, which will take some time … I trust you have a weapon?”
Elizabeth flashed the small dagger she had bought on her last city trip. It was nondescript, with a leather-wrapped handle. She covered the weapon with her cloak. “I don’t know how to actually use it, but I have one.”
Fiza nodded. “Meet me back here in three hours. Will that be enough time, Lady?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“Go then,” Fiza said softly.
She hugged the older girl, making Fiza gasp in surprise at the expression of human friendship.
She left Fiza standing in the square and made a beeline for the witch’s shop.
Risna was pleased at Elizabeth’s progress with her mental shields, but easily found holes and trapped her mind again.
They tried to practice other spells, but she failed at almost all of them. Sweat covered her underarms and her lower spine by the end of their session.
Frustration gnawed at Elizabeth. She glared at her palms. Useless. Her progress was embarrassingly small, and often nonexistent.
“You’ll find you are hungry after magic.
It eats up your energy reserves.” Risna handed her a bowl of stew that Elizabeth tucked into ravenously.
“Be careful. If you attempt a spell and are not strong enough to finish it, you may die. This is why we start small, take breaks, and if you feel these tasks bring you in danger of burning out, we’ll stop. ”
“You know, manifesting flame is something that witch children can do,” Nasera said waspishly as she breezed into the room. “I was listening to you pant and struggle for the past hour.”
Unable to think of anything nice to say, she said nothing.
“Have you covered wards yet?” Nasera asked drily.
“No, I wanted her to master the basics first,” Risna informed her daughter.
“Let us see what you can really do. If you are so slow at learning how to break free from a simple rope, we will have to teach you many things at once.” Nasera circled the table with a gleam in her eye.
“Say Varda. You should imagine an envelope of thin, translucent material surrounding your body. Varda—for your information—means shield, or to protect in the Godstongue.”
Nasera turned to her mother and cried, “Varda!”
Elizabeth narrowed her eyes but didn’t see anything.
“Mother, if you would please.”
Risna took a knife and threw it at her daughter. Before Elizabeth could gasp, the knife clattered to the floor, as if it had struck an invisible barrier. Unharmed, Nasera gave a rare smile.
“How do I do this?” Elizabeth breathed.
“We will start small. You will ward your hand and imagine your magic coating it in a protective barrier.”
“Varda!” Her magic coated her fingers in her patchy green fire and flickered. She tried twice more and was able to conjure a thin layer of magic on her skin.
Nasera looked at her skeptically. “May I?”
Elizabeth extended her hand. Nasera grazed her palm, and Elizabeth felt a slight pressure in some places but skin against skin in others.
“It is there, but sloppy work.”
She scowled but noted Nasera was carefully examining the wards she had created and pointing out the spots she needed to improve. Even if Nasera was doing it grudgingly, she was still helping her.
Elizabeth focused on the barrier of magic enveloping her hand, elated to have finally found a spell that came easily to her.
“You will practice this. The ability to create shields on your skin and in your mind may very well save your life one day. All the more important since you can’t manage any offensive spells.” Nasera glanced down. “Try again.”
Elizabeth raised a barrier on her hand again, and Nasera peered at it. “Rubbish. Make a stronger one.”
Elizabeth did her best to oblige, pouring her energy into it. Her energy flagged, but she was gratified to see a thin layer of green completely envelope her hand and arm.
“Better.”
She raised a flickering shield on her hand, and Nasera took a stick and lightly smacked her hand. “Do you feel it?”
“No.”
Nasera raised the stick, a silent demand for her to try again. Elizabeth said the words again, and the patches in her barrier closed and thickened.
“Go for it,” she said to Nasera.
Nasera struck her hand smartly, but she felt nothing. Nasera gave her a moment to compose herself. She smacked her hand again, and it smarted. A red mark bloomed across her skin.
“Sloppy,” Nasera said softly. “That castle you grew up in made you soft. Weak. Undisciplined.”
Gods, she despised Nasera. She was truly a witch in every sense of the word. She didn’t trust herself to speak without snapping at her that she was trying.
“I’m going to hit you harder now. On your arm.
” Nasera indicated the part on her forearm.
“You need to make the barrier stronger. We will ignore the fingers for now—they’re more complicated to shield.
Ward from wrist to your elbow. Make it stronger than the last one. ” Nasera’s voice brooked no argument.
Elizabeth lifted her arm to her eyes and imagined a thick, translucent layer covering the area. She whispered the words and watched the magic ripple over her flesh. In her mind’s eye, she reinforced it and fueled it with more magic.
Nasera stood above her, drawing the stick over her hand, lining up where she was going to strike.
“Focus,” Nasera instructed.
Elizabeth did, pouring energy into it. Looking up at Nasera, she nodded.
Nasera whipped the stick at her arm with great force, and Elizabeth cringed out of reflex. The stick rebounded off the barrier as if it were made of stone.
It worked.
She grinned, happy to have finally made some progress.
Nasera said nothing, only raising her eyebrows at her mother.
“That was good! It was very good!” Risna praised.
“You picked up warding much more quickly than the other spells. When you are rested, imagine covering different parts of your body until your entire body is covered. If you are spending too much energy on the ward, say Lida. It will extinguish the spell.”
“Varda and Lida,” Elizabeth repeated and nodded. “I won’t forget.”
“See you in two days. And, Elizabeth?” Risna held her gaze. “Don’t practice magic when you are exhausted.”
Elizabeth thanked Risna and left the shop.
She met Fiza, and they made their way back down the forest road. The only downside to Fiza coming with her was that they took much longer to reach the castle.
By the time she was dressed in an evening gown and presentable, the sky was dark, and the great hall was empty. She ate alone and contemplated what she had learned the past few weeks about witches and magic.
***
Late in the evening, she was in the library, flipping through history books.
She had worked through a handful of writings over the last two centuries, and still hadn’t found anything interesting. But there had to be something, didn’t there? A reason for the old king to hunt down books and burn them. What secret was deemed too dangerous for the public to remember?
The books she had found so far were mostly just a summary of the different cultures found across the five kingdoms of Asteria.
In fact, the only thing that was different from what her governesses had taught her was the occasional mention of witches in a positive light—here they were mostly described as healing and wise women who aided those in need.
Elizabeth pulled another text from the shelf and flipped through it. When she first saw the banned books in the library, she was overcome with curiosity, but now that she had been searching for weeks and still hadn’t found anything, her interest was slowly waning.
She yawned, covering her mouth with her hand.
Prior to the war in Faina last year, there hadn’t been a war in Asteria in over two hundred years. The last war of note was in Israr, a war that was said to have been short and brutal.
Other than those two instances, the entire continent had been at peace for over five hundred years.
Before that, their history was marked with many long and bloody battles between humans and witches.
It was well known that witches used their magic for the ill and battled humans for gold and resources.
After the fighting ended, peace was made between the two peoples, and magic became an unsavoury thing, so much so that it was later made illegal to practice.
Flicking through the pages of the book in front of her to skip to the middle, she read for a little bit and yawned again. Giving up, she closed the book and put it back on the shelf.
As she slid it back onto the shelf, frustrated by another dead end, she noticed some older books, shelved higher up.
She could tell they were older because the leather was worn, and the stamped letters on the spine were nearly illegible.
Struck by a sudden curiosity, she fished out a chair and pushed it over to the shelf.
Climbing onto the chair, she craned her neck and peered at the titles shelved up high.