A Poison Dark and Drowning (Kingdom on Fire #2)(18)

“Wouldn’t feel right answering to that. Far too grand. Maria will do. Now then,” she said, “the moody one said you’re lookin’ for a house.”

“Yes.” I didn’t want to give too much of our plan away. “Something like that.”

Maria snorted. “No one lives in these parts anymore. Come across a few villages, but they’re empty. Homes for the dead.”

I shuddered. “You don’t travel with anyone?”

“What’s the point? I’m more than enough.” She blew a red curl from her eyes. “You sorcerers forget that magic can’t solve everything.” She patted the handle of her ax. “Good blade does wonders.”

Here was a girl about my own age, living in the ruins of a castle, wearing trousers, killing monsters. I felt as though the ability to set oneself on fire paled in comparison.

“Thank you for helping us. Magnus would be dead without you; most likely all three of us would be.”

Maria nodded. She gazed out at the sea again, the cool wind blowing her hair back. The ax that rested on her knee gleamed in the low light. She was handy with it, no question. The look in her eyes was confident and competent.

“Would you like to come with us?” I blurted out. Maria raised her eyebrows in surprise. “I only thought that we could help each other.”

“You could use another blade, then?” she asked.

“Certainly. And a healer. If we happen upon an Ancient, you could use us. I don’t think an ax would do so much in that situation.”

Maria considered this. “You’re on a quest, are you? The brooding lord in there doesn’t seem like the type to camp for sport.” She regarded me shrewdly. “What are you searching for?”

“Something magical,” I said. That much was true. Maria grinned.

“Don’t trust me yet. No, I don’t blame you,” she said, holding up a hand to stop my reply. “Shows you’ve some sense. All right.” She stood, brushing off her trousers. “Sounds like a bargain.” Her grin died as she winced and clutched at her stomach. Oh no.

“Are you well? Is it the poison?” I stood up quickly.

“I’ll be fine.” She stretched and looked up at the pale moon, which had just appeared in the sky. “We’ll take turns keeping a lookout for Familiars.” She hefted the ax over her shoulder. “I’ll take first watch.”

—

I AWOKE IN THE NIGHT TO the sound of someone muttering outside. Heart hammering, I bolted upright and looked around. Magnus and Blackwood were huddled on opposite sides of the cave, dead asleep. Even with his injury, Magnus had sprawled himself out, claiming space. Blackwood’s arms were protectively tucked against his body. Unconscious, they still revealed themselves perfectly.

The voice outside continued to speak. Maria. From the sound of it, she was pacing away from the cave. Slowly getting to my feet, I crept to the door and opened it gently so as not to make noise.

The moonlight overhead was strong, casting the world around us in harsh silvery light and beautifully outlining the ruins of the castle. The clouds had swept away, and the sky was a dense tapestry of stars. Shivering, I stopped in the doorway. Ahead, I caught a glimpse of Maria’s white figure.

Her arms were over her head, and her mouth hung open as though she were silently screaming. Even from here, I could see how pale she looked. She brought her arms down to hug herself. Kneeling to the ground, she waved her hands over a flowering shrub next to the castle.

“Blessed be the earth beneath, mother of mercy, mother of life.” She kissed the ground. Something in my blood responded to her call. Maria stretched back to the sky.

She was ill. She must have taken too much of the venom. I wanted to go to her, but something inside me whispered to stay out of sight and watch.

She put her hands to the shrub again and spoke. Some of her words were lost, but I heard, “May this sacrifice honor you and heal my wounds.” She bowed her head again, placing her palms on the earth.

The shrub withered and died before my eyes, the leaves shriveling and turning brown and the small flowers rotting and falling to the earth. Maria arched her back, hair billowing in the wind. Her skin glowed alabaster beneath the moon. I could feel the poison burning out of her body. The power she had awoken in the ground still pulsed through me, as sure as my own heartbeat.

It was different from sorcerer magic, which I felt as a cool rain on my skin, or magician magic, which hummed in my blood and my brain. This was magic of the earth’s foundation echoing in my bones. I crawled back inside, shut the door as quietly as possible, and lay down again. I couldn’t stop the thought that was exploding through my mind. What I had seen…There was no denying it.

Maria was a witch.





As we tromped through the mist the next morning, I kept stealing glances at Maria. How ordinary she appeared in the daylight—that is, apart from her habit of wearing trousers and carrying weapons. Hard to believe that she’d stood beneath the moon mere hours before and healed herself through forbidden magic. Harder still to believe how calm, even cheerful, she was. While she looked about, on the alert for another Familiar attack, she hummed a carefree tune.

What if she knew that I knew? What would she say? I had never seen a witch before. When the war started, witches had been hunted down and burned in record numbers. Punishment for Mary Willoughby, the witch who’d helped open a gateway and let the Ancients through. I’d been too young to see the burnings, but living in Yorkshire had put me close to many of them. I could recall waking up to the morning air smelling cooked.