Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(88)

Theatrics, her father would have scolded her, but her grandfather would have understood. Some people wouldn't believe in magic until it came with light and sounds.

The merchant himself had given her the idea for this, and the magic embedded in the soil gave her the power. She called light filaments to sparkle and grow like cobwebs on the wheat, dancing from stalk to stalk until the whole field glittered in light that shifted rapidly through the shades of the rainbow in waves. It was a pretty effect, she thought, though it was merely light.

But there wouldn't be a solsenti alive who would turn their heads from the field to look behind them when Seraph's children approached. Benroln and the merchant stepped out of the trees, but a flicker of magic held them where they were.

Now to leave the merchant in no doubt of what his gold had purchased for him. This was more difficult and she would never have even attempted it if it hadn't been for that dark, tingling soil that ached to aid the growth of the plants rooted in it.

Slowly she raised her arms together as she pushed her magic into plants. Grow, she urged them, grow and be strong.

Stalks thickened slowly and stretched up...

A defter hand than hers touched them and straightened and strengthened; balancing root, stalk, and bearding head in a way that Seraph would not have, though she knew, from the rightness of the path of magic, that this was how plants ought to grow.

Since her magic was not needed, she glanced toward the source of the magework and saw it, sitting near a fencepost. It wasn't much bigger than a cat, a small, mossy creature with rounded, droopy ears and large eyes that gleamed with power. Its coloring matched the earth and wood so closely that she doubted that she would have seen it if the field hadn't been thrumming with its power.

"Earthkit," she said softly to herself. "This farmer must keep to the old ways."

"When he had naught but old bread and milk for his own children he didn't forget me," agreed a voice she felt as much as heard. "Such acts are to be rewarded."

"Indeed," agreed Seraph. Since she wasn't doing anything else, she added a crackle to the lights so that the merchant and Benroln wouldn't hear her talking to the creature. "I would not have been able to heal this so well without you."

"Nor could I break that other spelling," said the earthkit in its rusty voice. "But I am done now." The magic ceased abruptly and it left in a scuttling run that her eyes could not quite follow.

The wheat swayed under Seraph's lights, ready to harvest now - at least two months early. She lowered her arms and allowed the glitter and noise to die away slowly.

"I won't do the work of petty criminals," she said clearly.

"Raven," spat Benroln. "Fine. See what happens to your children now. And as for this," he waved a hand at the field, "You may be Raven, but I am Cormorant."

Electricity began gathering in the air.

Stupid, stupid, arrogant Raven, Seraph thought, bitterly ashamed. A storm with the heavy wheat heads atop slender, drying stalks would be disastrous.

If she'd just left the field alone once she'd broken the curse, the earthkit would have seen to it that the wheat grew normally. She knew what Benroln was, and being a farmer's wife she should have remembered what disasters the weather can bring.

"Benroln," she said harshly, "you are a fool. This man has assassins in the woods - do you think they lurk there to watch the magic?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," said the merchant.

Benroln stopped his casting and looked at the other man.

"Why do you think that a man like this would come here without guards?" said Seraph. "There has always been a problem doing the work of solsenti who are willing to hire Travelers to make evil upon others of their kind."

"What do you suggest?" Benroln said bitterly. "My people will starve. I tried it your way. We were driven from one place to another, sometimes by people who feared what we might do and sometimes by people because we wouldn't do as they asked. I've had four - four - mermori come to me. Four more clans dead and gone."

"Do not air our quarrels before solsenti," she said sharply.

Benroln glanced at the merchant and bit his lip.

"Lehr took care of three of the men who were watching," said Hennea, coming out of the woods with Gura at her side. "Jes has the other one immobilized."

"So what do we do with him?" Benroln asked.

Jes appeared and grabbed the merchant's hand.

"You don't want to draw that knife," Jes said quietly. "My brother's over there with one of your men's bows. No use anyone else dying tonight."

The merchant all but collapsed at Jes's touch, and Seraph's oldest son relieved him of several throwing knives.

"Asherstal," said Seraph, snapping her fingers. "The owner of this field. He has managed to survive this long; I suspect he can handle this one if we deliver him. Hennea, Jes, could you escort him there?" She turned to Benroln and said, "I need you to call a meeting of your people tonight. I'd like to tell you some things that you need to know."

If she could persuade the entire clan to follow her to Taela, she'd have the clan's healer for her husband when she found him. She just wished she were as good at persuading people as Tier was.

Benroln didn't wait for her, but stomped off, angry at her, at the merchant, and at a responsibility he didn't know how to fulfill.