WITCHSTEAD by Kayla Todd A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN ENGLISH WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY Ogden, Utah April 15th, 2026 Approved Signature of Committee Chair Siân Griffiths Name of Committee Chair _ _____________ Signature of Committee Member Ukamaka Olisakwe Name of Committee Member ______________________________ Signature of Committee Member Jace Brown Name of Committee Member Todd 2 Critical Introduction for Witchstead Witchstead is a young adult (YA) fantasy novel that contains elements of horror. Set in a completely fictional world, it takes place in a time period that is historical and not technologically advanced. The novel follows a sixteen-year-old girl named Thea, who, upon finding out she is a witch during a routine magical test, is taken from her home to be trained. Thea is forced to leave her home against her will by her government, leaving behind a crippled brother and a mentally and emotionally unstable mother. Despite the fact the government is, theoretically and realistically, on the side of good (given the unquestionably evil acts of the antagonists), it is still problematic in taking away agency from citizens, amongst other political machinations. Thea has to reconcile being forced to leave her family and fight against her will with the fact that it is something she feels is also the right thing to do. The book confronts themes of death, unethical human and animal experimentation, and slavery. In other areas, it touches on themes of governmental control, problematic families, coming of age, good versus evil, empathy for humans and animals, and agency. Witchstead is inspired by many of the YA novels I loved growing up, including Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, Eragon, and many other works. It encompasses a similar niche of magical worldbuilding, war, and political intrigue. The most obvious parallel is to Harry Potter, given the inclusion of witches, a magical education, and conflict within a magical society. However, alongside those similar elements to popular YA fiction of the past, Witchstead has many differences that allow it to stand out from similar works that are inherent in the worldbuilding, the system of magic, and the specific conflicts. As with many, if not all, works of fantasy, one of the major focuses and difficulties in writing this novel lay in creating a fantasy world that was both interesting and believable to Todd 3 readers. Flannery O’Connor, in her essay “Writing Fiction,” says “Fiction is an art that calls for the strictest attention to the real—whether the writer is writing a naturalistic story or a fantasy… Even when one writes a fantasy, reality is the proper basis of it” (qtd. in Russell 200). When writing any work of fiction, it is vital to be aware of the lines between fiction and reality, or in other words, what readers will find believable within the bounds of the world you are creating. In her essay “Engineering Impossible Architectures,” Karen Russell concurs with this idea and shares an example of when she ran into issues with the boundaries between what is realistic and what is not in fantasy writing, a rule she refers to as the “Kansas:Oz ratio.” Many of my early stories failed to create a consistent, rule-governed world… They took place in frictionless worlds where I myself felt like a tourist with only a shallow sense of the laws and customs, places where anything was possible and there was no discernible center of gravity. I kept changing the rules as I was going, so the stakes were nonexistent—it was a world that wasn’t governed, that wasn’t consistent, so nothing was at stake. (Russell 205-206) A large part of an audience’s ability to go along the improbable or unrealistic aspects of a fictional narrative is the openmindedness that comes with the suspension of disbelief, a phrase that originates from Samuel Coleridge’s statement that humans can “... transfer from our inward nature a human interest and a semblance of truth sufficient to procure for these shadows of imagination that willing suspension of disbelief for the moment, which constitutes poetic faith” (Coleridge). However, that sense of openmindedness does not give writers license to do whatever they want in their writing—it only goes so far. When a reader first enters into the world you’re creating, they do so with a leap of faith and a sense of trust that things will make sense. Todd 4 Magic that can achieve anything, worlds without conflict, characters that are inhumanly perfect can all work against an audience’s willingness to believe. One of the things that I spent the most time on in the process of writing Witchstead was ensuring that as the writer, I established clear parameters for the geography of the world, the time period, the society, and the system of magic. Where does Thea’s home village Galloway lie in comparison to other towns and the ultimate goal of the Witchstead? What is the environment like? What are the cultural and technological norms? How does magic work, who has access to it, and what are its limitations? As the most out-of-this-world aspects of Witchstead, these are key points that need to remain consistent throughout the book, while also seeming realistic to the audience despite their fantastical elements. With the goal of realism within a fictional world in mind, it can be a struggle to strike that careful balance between creating a system of magic and magic users that is too good to be true—too powerful, too all-encompassing, too boundless—and one that is too subtle to be easily recognized by readers. In Orson Scott Card’s How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, he makes the point that “With fantasy, however, anything is possible. And where anything can happen, who cares what actually occurs? I mean, if your hero can get into trouble and then wish his way out, so what? Why worry about him? Why care? The truth is that good fantasies carefully limit the magic that's possible” (22-23). In the first drafts of Witchstead, the rules of how magic worked within this world were not clearly defined because I had not defined them for myself. Having only a vague idea of what I wanted the magic of this world to look like, I made each magical moment up as I went along, which created inconsistencies. This led to moments when magic seemed to have an answer to any problem, and thereby made it difficult to create a sense of tension or suspense. By ensuring that I had a clear idea of the rules I was working within Todd 5 and the limits therein, even if those rules are not fully revealed to the audience, I have been able to better maintain consistency and tension throughout the novel. However, knowing the rules for the fictional aspect of world-building is not enough. It is equally as important to know the rules of real life that you will consistently break. Russell shares a moment she received feedback on her novel Swamplandia!, in which her female protagonist hatches out of a “glowing red alligator” in a Florida swamp and then, a few pages later, falls out of a forty-foot-tall tree without any repercussions or acknowledgment of the death defying stunt: “The copy editor gave me a pass on the red dragon, but that forty-foot-tall tree was circled three times” (Russell 206). The takeaway here is not that there are rules that cannot be broken in fiction, but that they must be broken purposefully and with care for how to get the audience on board. If the protagonist who survived a forty-foot drop was gifted with superhuman abilities or lived on a planet with lower gravity, such a thing might sound entirely plausible. So the question becomes: Within the boundaries established by your world, what rules of the world can magic break, and which can it not? In Witchstead, I developed rules that bound magic to working largely along the lines of the natural world and the elements. There is no way to transfigure an animal into a teacup or charm a pineapple tapdance, as seen in Harry Potter, and power is limited by specific affinities and whether a witch has a familiar. Along with the challenges of maintaining realism in a fantasy world come the challenges of how to get the information about this world across. Even in a novel that takes place in a completely fictional world, the audience comes into the story with preconceived notions on how the world will function that are based on their knowledge of the real world. They only know what differences exist through what you show them. When introducing a fictional world, it can be easy to make the mistake of giving too much information at once, which can be Todd 6 overwhelming and even take readers out of the reading experience. Getting that information across in a more natural and well-paced manner, through dialogue and through the action of the story, should be the goal. However, this comes with its own challenges in writing. It can be difficult to tell how much information is too much at once, and if the action or dialogue feels as if it only exists to tell the reader information, it affects the realism of the story, especially if a section of dialogue does not match up to the personality of the character or characters who are sharing the information. Poor dialogue can also have the effect of killing the momentum of the story. In Benjamin Percy’s Thrill Me, he states that “...dialogue generally distinguishes itself as pure, unfiltered, straight from the source, without a narrator to manipulate it” (24). However, he goes on to say that when dialogue is not done well and especially if it goes on for too long, it can come across not only as excessive, redundant, and expository, but it can also kill the momentum of the story (24). The key is to know what information is needed for the audience’s understanding and satisfaction at any given point in the story—another careful balancing act between what is too much versus what is too little. You have to make decisions about whether certain scenes or lines of dialogue will further the story or kill the momentum. This is something that I tend to struggle with. There were many scenes in the chapters that make up my thesis that did not really fit with the direction of the story or lines of dialogue that existed more to give information than to further the storyline or embody a character. These moments did not hold up when faced with a real audience, and ended up being cut or heavily edited throughout the revision process. Well-written dialogue should always sound true to the personality of the character who is speaking. Characterization and dialogue are two aspects of writing that can make or break a story and, much like worldbuilding, must be grounded in reality. If the characters in a story do not Todd 7 seem realistic to the reader, it can have the effect of taking the reader out of the story, and much of who a character is to a reader lies in what they say. Much like knowing the rules of a fictional world that exist and rules that it breaks, it is important to know the rules of each character. What are their backgrounds, their personalities, their motivations? What do they want, and what is stopping them from getting it? Russell addresses this issue, stating: You need concrete detail to establish the bricks-and-mortar reality of your alternate world: its fauna and truck stops and weather. But equally vital, I think, is the convincing emotional detail. Characters must have convincingly human reactions to their world for it to feel real. (Russell 208) However, unlike the rules of a fictional world, the rules of a fictional character can and perhaps should change because realistic people are not static. They react to the world. They are human. They grow and change with the experiences they face and the challenges they overcome. In Witchstead, Thea is forced to leave her family behind when she is identified as a witch. Her motivation is to finish her training as quickly as possible and return to her family. The obstacle in her way is the requirement that all witches are drafted in service to the army once trained. As she faces challenges along the path to finishing her training and becoming a witch, her feelings shift and her goals change as a result of her experiences. Her black-and-white opinions and her straightforward goals become more complex as the novel progresses. Her relationships with other characters shift and grow as she spends more time with them and as they face challenges together, just as relationships change over time in the real world. Through the eyes of your characters, the world of the novel is unveiled. In J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven, and many other beloved YA novels, we learn about the world of the story we are Todd 8 entering into alongside the characters. Harry Potter does not know anything about the magical world until his eleventh birthday. As he learns more about the wonders that now surround him, the audience is right there with him, and through his reactions we learn more about him as a character. Despite the Sorting Hat’s assertion that he would have done well in Slytherin, the house of ambition and cunning, Harry constantly chooses to embrace bravery and friendship as the traits he values most. He may surprise us at times by acting on incomplete information or lashing out at friends, but he always chooses to act on what he believes is right, even when it leads to trouble. That is a characteristic that remains true despite his fears about his similarities and connection to Voldemort. Percy Jackson knows nothing about half-bloods and quests, and one of the consistencies throughout the series is his tendency to learn about many of the Greek myths relevant to his adventures on the fly. This matches up with his established character as an individual with learning disabilities and a preference for action while allowing the reader to learn alongside him. While Percy does begin to display more knowledge of relevant myths later in the series as a result of his increased experience, there are still gaps in his knowledge. As readers, we might question it if he suddenly knew all the answers to everything that is thrown at him. The Sorenson siblings' core characteristics are established very early on in Fablehaven. Kendra is responsible, intelligent, and cautious, but can also come across as a stick-in-the-mud, while Seth is inquisitive and brave, but also reckless and less morally firm than his sister. As they discover more about the magical world they have stumbled into, they remain true to these core traits, but also lean more into or away from aspects as they react to their experiences. Seth eventually regrets his recklessness and selfish decisions when they lead to terrible consequences at multiple points in the series, and Kendra grows to find her bravery time and time again, Todd 9 allowing her sense of responsibility and love for her family to overcome her natural cautiousness and the fear she feels in the face of danger. The common ground between all of these characters and worlds is that the reader learns about each world alongside the characters, and each character learns more about themselves alongside the reader. Another thing that has helped me in unveiling information naturally rather than through exposition has been reframing the novel in a different format. In a screenplay writing class I took in the summer of 2025, I rewrote the first two chapters in the form of a pilot episode. Due to the constraints of the form and the different style of writing expected of screenplays, I had to ensure that all information about the world of Witchstead was given through dialogue, audio and visual cues, and action sequences. Between that and the need to compress all the information from two chapters into one episode, I had to be creative and rethink how to tell the story. The final result gave me inspiration for how certain things could be changed for the better in the book, and rethinking chapters through the lens of screenplay writing has become one of the tools in my revision process that gives me the most inspiration for positive changes in my works. It has also been a great help in improving my writing in another area that I tend to struggle with—the vaunted “show, don’t tell” of writing. Anton Chekhov is famously known for having stated “Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.” Thinking about “show, don’t tell” in these terms puts more of an emphasis on descriptive details, which can share information about the worlds we build in stories in a very different way than action, dialogue, and characterization. Using sensory details to describe the things that are different about your world such as how the magic of your world looks, sounds, or feels and the magical creatures or features that exist within it—a bank full of sharp-toothed goblins, a golden city in the sky, vain fairies that look like butterflies unless you have drunk the milk—can do Todd 10 more to make a world real in minds of readers and root them within it than just knowledge of things work. It can also function as a way to establish rules of the world by showing the audience that the things they can now picture in their mind’s eye are allowed to exist within the bounds of this world. Building and establishing the foundations of your world—the setting, the characters, the rules (magical and otherwise)—is one of the most fundamental parts of writing a fictional story. How you communicate that information, through action, dialogue, and descriptive detail, and through your stylistic choices as a writer are what can take a narrative from being an interesting idea to being the kind of story that people will enjoy reading. Todd 11 Works Cited Card, Orson Scott. How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy. Writer’s Digest Books, 1990. Internet Archive, https://archive.org/details/How_to_Write_Science_Fiction_and_Fantasy_by_Orson_Scott _Card/page/23/mode/1up. Accessed. April 4, 2026. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor. Biographia Literaria. 1817. Project Gutenberg, 1 July 2004, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6081/6081-h/6081-h.htm. Accessed April 6, 2026. Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2008. Mull, Brandon. Fablehaven. Fablehaven series, Shadow Mountain, 2006. Paolini, Christopher. Eragon. Golden Books Publishing Company, 2003. Percy, Benjamin. Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction. Graywolf Press, 2016. Riordan, Rick. The Lightning Thief. Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, Hyperion Books for Children, 2005. Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Scholastic, 1998. Russell, Karen. "Engineering Impossible Architectures." The Writer's Notebook II: Craft Essays from Tin House, Tin House Books, 2012. Todd 12 Witchstead Chapter 3: Departure Breakfast the following morning was a gloomy affair. Thea poked at the mushy porridge her father had made, unable to stomach it. Her father was eating fine, never one to waste food, but Asher seemed to be doing the same as her, poking at his bowl without much making it to his mouth. It was rare that the three of them were able to eat breakfast together at the table; they usually grabbed something they could carry out to eat while they started their chores. But the stilted silence between the three of them made Thea wish they had started the morning like they usually did, despite the fact that her troubled and restless sleep had left her tired. The work of their chores might have helped with the tension of waiting. “How’s the porridge taste?” her father asked, breaking the silence. “It’s good,” Thea said, and she took a small bite. It was a bit bland and overcooked, but it didn’t taste bad. Its greatest sin was that it had not been cooked by her mother. “I could grab some berries for it,” he said. “I should’ve thought of that before.” “It’s fine, Da,” Asher said, swirling his spoon through the contents of his bowl without taking a bite. It was almost a relief when the sound of the approaching wagon made its way to their ears, wheels crunching over the gravel of the drive. Almost. They all stilled in their seats, and when the knock finally came, Thea met her father’s eyes, pleading for something she couldn’t quite name. He stood slowly from his chair and walked around the table, squeezing her shoulder briefly before heading to the door. Thea stood and followed, hearing Asher clattering up with his crutch behind her. “I’ll try to get Ma up again,” he said. Todd 13 Her father opened the door just as she reached the hallway. There, framed by the doorway, stood Rowan. The witch’s familiar wasn’t on her shoulder like it had been last time, but Thea was sure it was nearby. She wore a simple, well made traveling dress without any adornments today, but somehow looked no less intimidating. Thea felt her dark eyes like a brand. “Everything is in order, I presume?” Rowan asked. “Yes,” Thea answered reluctantly, walking closer. “I’ll get her trunk,” her father said gruffly, leaning down to pick up the item in question from where it rested next to the door. Rowan nodded and backed away from the entryway, revealing a wagon hitched to two horses. One was chestnut with a white blaze, while the other was black with a star on his forehead. Her father stepped outside with his burden, Thea. He easily lifted the trunk into the back of the wagon. He was met by Wes, who helped him secure the chest in a storage compartment under the bench seat. Thea watched from the porch, feeling like she was made of stone. She started when Asher touched her arm from behind to get her attention. She turned around hopefully, but their mother was nowhere to be seen. Asher shook his head. Thea didn’t allow herself a reaction, pressing her lips together against the wobble in her chin. Asher pulled her into a hug, which she returned with a touch of desperation. It was a little uncomfortable; both of them were holding on a little too tight and Asher was placing most of his weight on her instead of his crutch. When Thea felt a wetness where he had buried his face in her neck, she held on tighter. “I’ll miss you,” he whispered hoarsely before drawing away. “I know you didn’t eat much, so here.” He held out something wrapped in a handkerchief. When she took it and folded Todd 14 the cloth back, she found one of the blackberry turnovers their mother had made the previous day, before all of this had been set in motion. Before she could do more than tear up in response, her father approached and enveloped her completely in his arms. Thea was of average height for a girl her age, but Len was one of the tallest men in town, and his shoulders were broad and strong from his work on the farm. He enveloped her completely, smelling of hay and freshly turned earth. Thea had always loved his hugs. “Stay safe,” he said in a choked voice, and Thea struggled to hold back the tears that suddenly stung her eyes. Her father finally released her, and when Thea lifted her head, it was to the sight of Rowan standing at the front of the wagon, waiting for her. Her father kept one arm around her shoulder as he escorted her down the steps to the wagon. “Take care of my girl,” her father said gruffly to Rowan, releasing Thea with one last squeeze. Rowan nodded solemnly. “For as long as she is in our care.” Thea climbed into the back of the wagon, hitching her skirt up to keep it from catching on anything, and settled on the bench across from Wes. They exchanged strained smiles. Thea was glad when he didn’t try to speak to her. It wasn’t long before the wagon lurched into motion, and Thea watched, hand raised in a half-hearted wave as the distance between her and her family and home grew larger the further they drove away. She lost sight of them when the wagon turned onto the road. Todd 15 As the wagon moved along the narrow dirt road that led straight through Galloway, the people out on their morning errands stared and whispered after their passage. Thea averted her eyes. She was almost grateful when her stomach growled, a reminder that she had hardly touched her breakfast. Her stomach had been twisting with a combination of hunger and nausea all morning, and the hunger had finally won out. She slowly began to eat the pastry Asher had given her. Despite the bittersweet feelings it evoked, it was much more appetizing than her father’s porridge. Just as she finished her last bite, the wagon came to a stop. Looking around, she realized they were stopped just within the town’s northern boundary. Thea peeked at Rowan, hoping she would give some indication of why they’d stopped. The witch was faced forward with a very straight back, giving no indication that she even remembered that there were passengers in the wagon. She seemed very alert to the woods that spread out on either side of the road, and Thea became worried that she’d stopped because some unseen danger lurked beyond the Barrier. The sound of approaching hoofbeats faded into hearing from behind them, and when she turned to look, she saw Darrow approaching on horseback. She’d been so preoccupied with the idea of leaving that she hadn’t thought to wonder where he was. He slowed to a stop beside Rowan. When she climbed down from the wagon to meet him, Thea and Wes followed suit. Thea couldn’t help but stare at his horse, a beautiful blood bay mare. “Sorry for the delay,” he said to Rowan, combing a hand through his thick, wavy brown hair. “Was there a problem?” she asked. Todd 16 “Just a break in the concealment for one of the ward anchors. It was an easy fix. They should really assign more than just old Telmar to this area. He’s letting things slip,” he said. “That doesn’t explain the accounts of blood beasts passing through the barrier,” Rowan said with a frown, and Darrow’s face grew grimmer as well. “No, it doesn’t,” he agreed. “But this isn’t the only area with similar reports, and I didn’t find any problems beyond the anchor concealment. It’s being investigated.” He turned his attention to the two teenagers. “Good morning,” he said. “I hope you got away well this morning.” He turned a sympathetic eye toward Thea, but tactfully refrained from commenting further. “This lovely lady is my familiar, Veris,” he introduced with a fond pat to the horse’s neck. Thea’s eyebrows raised in surprise. It was a well known fact that all witches had familiars, but for some reason, she had expected them all to be as mysterious and intimidating as Rowan’s fierce raptor. “If Rowan hasn’t already told you, her familiar’s name is Terich. He’s a goshawk,” Darrow continued. “Before we get going, there’s a couple things we need to cover with you. Wes, you already know this,” he acknowledged with a nod to the boy, “but it’s important that we do our best not to attract attention as we travel,” he said to Thea. “Alright,” she said with an easy nod. Now that it had been brought up, she noticed that both Rowan and Darrow wore mundane traveling clothes, without any of the witchly accouterments they’d displayed the previous day. “As he said,” Rowan agreed. Todd 17 “Before we leave, I will place a protection on you,” she continued, retrieving a knife, a small, corked bottle of dark glass, and a small pouch from her bag. “It should last for the duration of our journey. Hold still, please.” With smooth, practiced movements, Rowan uncorked the bottle, pierced the tip of her index finger with the knife, and let three drops of a clear liquid fall from the bottle onto her finger before beckoning Thea forward. In eerie similarity to the Testing the previous day, Rowan drew a symbol on Thea’s forehead, though with her own blood this time. After the symbol was complete, she stepped back and grabbed the pouch, pouring a small amount of powder into her hand. “Celo,” she said, before blowing the powder in Thea’s face. Thea flinched, shutting her eyes, but the powder flowed seamlessly to the mark on her forehead. Like the mark from the previous day, it tingled. “Now wipe it off,” Rowan said, wetting a rag with her water flask and handing it to Thea. “What does that do?” Thea asked as she obeyed. “It was a ritual that will provide protection in certain circumstances. Beyond that I cannot say. The hope is that you’ll never have to find out what it does, and unless it’s activated, we can’t tell you. Trade secrets,” she said with an apologetic smile. Thea wasn’t satisfied, but decided to let it lie for the time being. “What’s the difference between a ritual and a spell?” she asked instead. “There are several distinctions between the two,” Rowan answered, “but the largest is that rituals affect a living being—be it human, animal, or plant, while spells generally do not. The number of components involved and how specific the effects of the magic are also factors.” She began to walk toward the wagon. “We’d best be on our way now.” Todd 18 While Rowan climbed onto the driver’s bench, Thea situated herself on one of the benches running along the sides of the interior. Wes simply lifted himself onto the back with his legs hanging off the edge. After a quick glance back, Rowan gave a flick of the reins, the wagon rolled slowly into motion. A chill ran down Thea’s spine as they crossed the Barrier with a familiar ripple and continued on to the road beyond it. The forest on the other side of the Barrier seemed innocent enough, but every sound, from the chirping of the birds and the fluttering of their wings to the rustling of leaves had her on edge. Thea knew the monsters that lurked beyond the safety of Galloway’s boundaries. Whenever they were near, they threw themselves fruitlessly at the magical ward in their lust for blood, terrifying the whole village with their snarling and wailing. She felt bare and vulnerable beyond the protection of the Barrier for the first time in years. “Are you okay?” Wes called back from where he sat with his legs dangling over the edge of the wagon, and she was so tense that she jumped at the sudden break in the relative quiet. “I’m fine,” she replied. “It’s just, I was pretty freaked out when we left Rusford. It was the first time I was ever outside our Barrier,” he continued. “It’s not my first time. I’m really fine. It just takes some getting used to.” Not that her last disastrous trip was any kind of comfort, she thought privately. Wes let the conversation drop. Eventually, the eeriness wore off and she instead became bored. Rowan was busy driving the wagon, and Darrow was riding a little further ahead. After some thought, she decided to join Wes. She slid down the bench, careful not to lose her balance on the moving wagon. “Hey,” Wes greeted her, scooting over to give her legs a little more room. He was staring intently at a leaf that rested on his open palm. Todd 19 “Hi.” “Bored?” he asked, a sympathetic cast to his lips. “Yes.” Thea wondered what it had been like for him before, traveling alone with two strange witches. She was certainly glad to have someone her age present. “What are you doing?” “Magic,” Wes said, raising the hand not holding the leaf and wiggling his fingers dramatically. “Darrow and Rowan taught me a few exercises to practice while we’re traveling. For this one, I’m supposed to summon a wind that will move the leaf. Except I’m terrible at it.” He glared at the leaf before seeming to give up, turning toward her. “Have you actually been able to do magic?” she asked, curious. She hadn’t thought they’d be able to start learning until reaching the Witchstead; a large part of her still had doubts that she actually had the ability to perform witchcraft. “Well, yeah,” Wes replied. “According to Darrow, a lot of us do magic without realizing. Like, I’ve always been a lot stronger than I look like I should be, and I never thought anything of it.” “And that’s magic?” Thea said, more skepticism leaking into her voice than she meant for. She’d never done anything that seemed like magic a day in her life. “That’s what Darrow says.” Wes shrugged. “He also says I have an aptitude for earthcraft. I’d show you, but I don’t have a rock on me. Rowan says I need to practice the one I’m not as good at. Wind is harder.” He contemplated the leaf in his hand again. “Would you like to give it a try?” he said, holding the leaf toward her. “I don’t know what to do, though,” Thea said, taking the leaf. “You just need to, uh, feel the wind?” he said lamely. “And ask it—the wind, that is—to move?” he trailed off, wincing. “Darrow said blowing can help when you’re first starting out. Todd 20 Like this,” he said, pulling another leaf from his pocket. After laying it flat on his extended palm, he closed his eyes and frowned in concentration. A few seconds passed, then he pursed his lips and blew at the leaf. Nothing happened. “Wait, let me try that again,” Wes said, a faint blush on his cheeks as he pulled out another leaf from his pocket and stared at it as if trying to catch it on fire instead of preparing to blow at it. After several moments, he pursed his lips once more and blew out a long breath, which this time sent an strong breeze gusting out and shot the leaf right out of his hand. Thea felt her eyes widen in shock. “I’ve only gotten it a few times without having to blow so far,” he said, scowling. “And half the time that doesn’t work so well either, like you saw.” He scrunched his nose sheepishly. “I really am better with rocks.” He pulled out yet another leaf, holding it out to her, and she hesitantly reached out to take it. “I’ll give it a shot, I guess,” she said doubtfully. Thea stared at the leaf Wes had given her. She could feel a constant breeze just from the passage of the wagon and occasional bursts from the west. She just had no idea how to go about asking them to move a leaf for her, any more than she had an idea how to summon a wind with her breath. After several moments of mediocre concentration, she gave up. “Maybe I’ll ask Darrow and Rowan for some pointers later,” she said, offering the leaf back to Wes. “Yeah, that might be best,” he said, smiling sheepishly. He waved off the leaf. “You can keep that; I’ve got a few more in my pockets. I tend to lose them pretty easily.” Todd 21 “Thanks,” she said with a smile. “So I was wondering—did Rowan place the same protection on you before you left Rusford?” “She did,” Wes replied. “I figure it’s got to be something important, especially since Rowan’s so cagey about what it does.” Thea nodded thoughtfully in agreement. “I like to think it might be something to keep the blood beasts away if we’re attacked. It would be a pretty big thing if they could do that, and they wouldn’t want it to get out to the Riveners.” “But if they could do that, why wouldn’t they do it for every traveler?” Thea wondered. “It didn’t seem very difficult, and it was fast.” “I don’t know,” Wes admitted. “Maybe it only works on witches? Honestly, I’m probably wrong. The thought of it does make me feel better while we’re on the road, though.” Thea had to concede to that. “If it’s too soon, you don’t have to talk about it, but I thought I’d ask… How are you doing?” Wes asked. “I know it’s hard to leave your family behind.” Thea frowned, drawing away a little. “I don’t want to talk about it.” “Okay,” Wes said, backpeddling a little. “I was just curious. You and your brother seemed pretty close.” Things were silent between them for a moment, and after a bit of internal wrestling, Thea relented. “My brother's name is Asher,” Thea volunteered, feeling a pang in her heart. Wes looked like he wanted to say something, but hesitated. “It’s alright,” she told him. “You want to ask about his leg, right?” Wes ducked his head sheepishly. “Did he break it or something?” Todd 22 Thea snorted. “Or something. There was an…accident a few years ago, and his leg got hurt pretty badly. It was actually the last time either of us went past the Barrier. Da used to take us to market days in other towns when we had a good harvest, and we ended up being attacked by a bloodbeast. We were able to have a witch take a look at him, and that’s the only reason he didn’t lose the leg. He’ll never be able to walk right on it again though.” Wes seemed taken aback. “Oh,” he said. “I’m sorry. That must have been hard.” “Yeah,” Thea sighed. “It hasn’t been a good few years for my family. And now this,” she said, gesturing at the wagon. “What about your family?” she asked, wanting to change the subject. She worried he would ask about her mother next, and that was a topic she had no desire to discuss. “My family?” Wes asked. “Um, well I don’t have any brothers or sisters. Just me and my mother actually. My mom says my father was a witch, so it wasn’t a huge surprise when I tested as one too, but he died when I was a baby,” he said. “Sorry,” she said quietly. “It’s fine,” he said with the smallest quirk of his lips. “I think it’s worse for you than it is for me. You weren’t expecting it at all, were you?” Thea shook her head in response, not inclined to share her father’s revelation from the previous day. At that moment, Darrow dropped back from where he’d been riding ahead. “Why the gloomy faces?” he asked. “I think we’re just both a little homesick,” Thea said after a moment's pause. “And also a little worried about bloodbeasts, Riveners, and, well, dying in general,” Wes disclosed. Todd 23 Darrow adopted a serious expression. “I’ll admit that your worries aren’t completely without merit, especially since we now have two untrained witches in our group, but Rowan and I will keep you safe as we can.” “How do untrained witches make it more dangerous?” Thea asked, frowning. “Most bloodbeasts can sense places and beings that are saturated with magic, and they’re drawn to that. So as a witch, there’s a good chance any bloodbeasts in the area will be drawn to you anytime you leave the safety of the Barriers. You’ll learn how to prevent them from sensing you eventually, but it’s not really something we can teach you on the road.” Thea blanched, her breath hitching in her chest. Wes’s pale face made it clear that he hadn’t known that tidbit before either. “You’ll also be trained to fight and protect yourselves.” “Because we’re to be soldiers?” Wes asked warily. “Not necessarily,” Darrow said. “If you’re good at it, or your magic leans that way, yes, and it’s always good to know how to defend yourself. I’ll admit that so long as we’re at war with the Riveners we need all the fighters we can get, but there are plenty of other positions in the army for witches that don’t excel in combat. Healers and researchers and the like…” he trailed off, his gaze falling on the leaf in Thea’s hand. “But let's leave the gloomy talk for another time. Has Wes gotten you started on the basic exercises, Thea?” he asked. “Kind of,” Wes said once he’d followed the abrupt change in subject. “I think I’ve confused her more than anything else.” When Wes repeated the instruction he had given her for the older man to hear, Darrow barked out a laugh. Todd 24 “I can see why you found that confusing. You’ve never done any magic, right?” he asked Thea. “Right,” she confirmed. “Magic,” Darrow began, “is in everything, from the smallest pebble to the largest of beasts. What sets witches apart is that we, for reasons we don’t completely understand, contain a greater share of magic than other individuals. Because of that, we can influence the magic inherent in nature. The air around us is full of magic. “Now, when you’re trying to summon a breeze to move a leaf,” he continued, “the first step is to feel the magic in the air. Once you can do that, it’s a simple enough matter to use your own magic to manipulate it. All it takes is practice.” “But I don’t know how to ‘sense’ magic in the air. How can I even begin to know what I’m looking for?” Thea asked. “And if I’ve been a witch my whole life, why haven’t I been able to feel it before?” “Most witches who have no knowledge of how magic works will only perform magics they have the greatest affinity for,” Darrow answered. “As with all things, witches have strong and weak points in the field of magic. Wes has admitted to feats of strength that are indicative of an affinity for shapecrafting, which is magically enhancing or changing one’s own body—in Wes’s case, his muscles. It’s usually pretty subtle until you’ve been trained to use it—a breeze on a hot summer day just when you wish for one, a fire that burns stronger than it should, a knack for guessing what’s on someone’s mind. My guess would be that you have displayed magical talents before, but in such a subtle manner that you didn’t notice because it’s normal for you. Things you put down to coincidence or luck. Todd 25 “As for how to feel the magic of the air…” Darrow trailed off as the direction of the breeze, which Thea had been able to feel against her face for some time now, suddenly reversed to come from behind her. “Perhaps,” Thea heard Rowan’s voice say, carried and warped by the wind, “instead of looking for something that you’ve never sensed in the air before, you should instead seek to recognize the essence of the wind that you have felt for your entire life.” Thea spun around on the bench to look at Rowan, but the witch was still seated at the head of the wagon, not even facing their direction. When she turned back, Darrow grinned at her. “Rowan is a master of windcraft,” he told her. “Which makes sense given that her familiar is a bird. That trick’s not too difficult, but definitely not a starting point. I want you to hold the leaf out in front of you—far enough away that you can’t blow it away with your breath no matter how hard you try.” Thea adjusted the leaf on her palm and held it out, cupping her palm slightly so the natural breeze didn’t snatch it away without her permission. “Yes, just like that. When you're ready, I want you to blow at it. Since this is the air you’re breathing, it should be easier to feel the magic in it. Once you can feel it, you need to will it to move further than your breath can take it, until you’re moving the air beyond yourself.” Thea closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. She soon became almost uncomfortably aware of the air moving in and out of her lungs. On her next breath, she blew out slowly, willing the air to move further. She had no success the first time, but she kept at it until finally, on her fifth breath, something seemed to click. Rowan had been right. What she could feel wasn’t anything new; she’d felt it her whole life without paying the right kind of attention. Todd 26 She kept it up through a few more breaths and then blew, hard, at the leaf in her palm. The gust of wind that escaped her lips easily carried it off until it was lost to the dust of the road. Todd 27 Witchstead Chapter 4: A Headache and a Half “We’ll stop for lunch and supplies here,” Rowan called over her shoulder as they approached Kelling, Galloway’s closest neighbor to the north. It was around two hours past noon. “This will be the last town on our route until we reach Burling.” Terich, who had been perched on her shoulder, took flight in a sudden burst that made Thea and Wes both startle. “How far is Burling?” Wes asked. “Three days' journey,” Rowan replied. That meant that they’d be staying at waystations for the next few nights, Thea thought. She didn’t love the idea of it, but at least the waystations had barriers. She shuddered at the thought of camping in the wild, even with Rowan and Darrow for protection, and swallowed thickly at the sudden surge of homesickness that washed over her. Home where everything was familiar and safe. She struggled to turn her thoughts elsewhere and regain her equilibrium as they approached Kelling. Kelling’s barrier, in keeping with the town’s larger size, was marked by a seven foot high stone wall that seemed much more impressive than her own village’s low demarcation. Though the entrance was gated and manned by a guard, the gates were open to let traffic through during the day. Rowan pulled the wagon to a stop as the guardsman approached. “State your business,” he said. His features were largely obscured by the simple helmet he wore, but Thea could see the way his eyes flicked suspiciously over their party, even going so far as to gaze past Rowan’s figure and into the wagon. “Just passing through,” Rowan said. “Traveling papers?” he requested brusquely. Todd 28 Rowan withdrew a folded sheaf of papers from her pocket and handed them over. The guard peered at the papers with squinted eyes for a long minute before begrudgingly passing them back and waving their party through. Kelling, Thea was reminded once more as they drove into the town proper, was quite a bit bigger than Galloway, known more for their trade than for farming, and it showed in the way the buildings, low to the ground as they were, pressed together in tangled clusters of wood, stone, and straw. She had been there before with her father to sell excess produce, but it had been quite some time—not since before Asher’s accident—and she grimaced at the bustle as they drew closer to the center of town. The main thoroughfare was full of people going about their business and purchasing food for the midday meal, and as strangers, the small party of witches drew more than their fair share of attention as they moved through the streets. She could already feel the presence of so many people pressing on her like a physical weight. It was utterly unlike Galloway, where she could recognize and put a name to every face she passed. Rowan pulled the small wagon to a stop next to a trough and tied the horses to the offered hitching post, allowing them to drink. As soon as they were settled, Darrow, still on Veris’s back, tipped an imaginary hat at them and rode down the street. “Where’s he going?” Thea asked as she finished climbing down from the wagon, Wes holding out a hand to assist her. “He’ll go stock up on supplies we’re low on for the next stretch, and keep his ear to the ground for interesting news while he’s at it,” Rowan answered as she began leading them through the crowded streets. Todd 29 Thea looked at Wes, who shrugged. “He always disappears when we get to a new place and then comes back later with all the local gossip,” Wes said, dodging around a passerby. “We were a little late getting to Galloway because he wanted to take a different route.” “Darrow is an intelligencer,” Rowan informed them, clearly having kept an ear on them even as she guided them toward a building with an image of a tankard on a sign hanging above the door. “It’s his job to investigate odd occurrences. As such, he’s very good at talking to people and ferreting out important information, including potential dangers on the road that we’ll want to avoid.” The tavern was somewhat crowded with lunch goers and layabouts, and even the open windows didn’t offer much relief from the stuffy heat. It was quieter, however, which Thea considered a blessing. Rowan paused just inside the door, turning to face them. “Why don’t the two of you save a table while I order lunch?” She walked forward to join the line without waiting for their acknowledgement. Thea stifled a sigh as she scanned the establishment for a good table. She could only see two open tables of a good size for their party, and she was about to suggest one when Wes bumped her shoulder. “Over here,” he said, nodding toward a table right next to one of the open windows. The table was in the process of being cleared off by a serving maid. It was a good find, Thea thought as they took their seats. It had better lighting than most of the other tables, and the slight breeze coming through the window was very welcome. Thea looked over to where Rowan was waiting to speak with the barman, who was occupied with a group sitting at the bar. As her eyes skimmed along the people who were seated at the counter, she made accidental eye contact with a large man turned to face her direction. He was sitting next to Todd 30 another man whose back was turned to her. She gave him an uncomfortable smile, pressing her lips together more than anything else. He continued to stare without any change in expression, and she swiftly turned her attention back to Wes. “So how have you liked traveling with Rowan and Darrow?” she asked, trying to ignore her building headache. He considered for a moment. “It was hard leaving home with two strangers, but they’re both nice, though Rowan can be kind of intimidating. After I was done moping—and it was Darrow who said that, not me,” he said with a self-depreciating smile, “they got me started on some of the basic exercises, like the one from earlier. It’s kind of terrifying being on the road, though. We’ve seen a few bloodbeasts since leaving Rusford. Not anything too dangerous, and none of the mad ones,” he assured her when her eyebrows raised in alarm, “but pretty scary all the same.” “What kind did you see?” she asked, curious. “The first one was a winged deer with huge antlers. It landed on the road ahead of us and then jumped so high it cleared the treetops and glided away. It didn’t even look at us, thank goodness. The other one looked almost like a normal fox,” he said, “except that it was more than twice the size it should have been and had two heads. The fox was definitely scarier. It followed us a little way down the road before it finally left us alone.” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “Have you ever seen any?” Thea nodded. “Our farm is right on the border of town, and we can see them sometimes past the Barrier, especially when we’re working right at the edge of the orchards. When the mad ones come through, we can hear them screaming. And there have been times when we traveled to Todd 31 market in other towns that—” she pressed her lips together. “That’s actually how Asher was injured a couple years back.” Her mood darkened at the thought of it, along with a sudden feeling of foreboding. The hair raised on the back of her neck, and she glanced toward the bar again, seeking Rowan, who was now speaking to the barman. Her eyes fell on the same man from before, who was once more staring in their direction, and she quickly cast her gaze away. “Everything alright?” Wes asked, drawing her back to the present. “Yeah,” she said, pressing her lips together in a wry smile and tapping a finger against her forehead. “Just thinking. There have been some smaller blood beasts slipping past the Barrier in Galloway recently. Carnivorous rats and four-winged birds and the like. It has everyone pretty scared, but Darrow said there was nothing wrong with the Barrier. I guess I’m just worried that someday, the more dangerous ones will start slipping through and none of us will be safe.” Wes looked like he was about to say something, but something behind her caught his attention and caused his eyes to widen. Thea had just started to turn and look when a large hand slammed down on the table beside her. She flinched back and found herself cornered against the wall by the man to whom the hand belonged. He was tall and heavy, with dark, unkempt hair and stubble. There was a livid scar on his forearm, where it looked as if he’d been ravaged by a beast. He was also the same man who’d been staring at her from the bar. “And who are you?” he leered, squinting against the sunlight beaming through the window. Thea’s nose reflexively crinkled at the reek of ale on his breath. “I seen you staring at me. Pretty little thing like you? I’d remember seeing you around.” As he loomed closer, Thea shrank back, even as Wesley stood from his seat on the other side of the table. “Hey!” Wesley said, reaching across the table to push at the man’s arm. “Lay off.” Todd 32 He pushed Wesley away with a sweep of his arm, easily twice his size in pure bulk, and leaned even closer to Thea. She cringed, turning her face to the side as much as she could to avoid the reek of ale on his breath, and as subtly as she could slipped her hand into her pocket to palm the scissors she kept there for mending work. They weren’t much of a weapon, but they were sharp. “Pretty little thing,” he repeated, softly at first, but the next part was spat out like a punch “for a Bleeder spy.” His face twisted into a snarl as he branded her with the slur many folks used to refer to Riveners. Disoriented by his sudden rage and confused by the insult, Thea was helpless to stop him when he wrapped his hand around the side of her neck and pinned her against the wall, his thumb pressing uncomfortably into the soft skin of her throat. “Let me go,” she warned, trying to push his hand off of her throat. The words came out choked as she struggled to draw in a full breath. “I’m on to you,” he ranted, spittle flying. “I’ll gut you where you stand!” After one last, failed attempt to push him away, she withdrew her sewing scissors from her pocket, and with as much force as she could muster, she stabbed the pointed end into the meat of his extended forearm. He released her with a shout, clutching at his bleeding wound and stumbling back, only to trip and go sprawling on the floor. Rowan smoothly drew back the leg she had extended to help the drunkard on his way to the floor before stalking over to Thea. “Are you alright?” she asked with a fierce frown of concern on her face. “I’m fine,” Thea said. And she was. The headache she’d had since entering town was worse and her neck hurt where it had been wrenched, but that was to be expected. It wasn’t until she lifted an arm to wipe away the spray of spit that had landed on her face that she noticed she Todd 33 was trembling. The barman, who’d followed in Rowan’s wake and was quite large himself, hoisted the drunk up and pushed him roughly toward the door. “Now you’ve done it, Verl,” he was saying. “I’ll ban you for good this time, see if I don’t. Out!” “She was giving me the evil eye! She stabbed me!” Verl raved, clutching at his bleeding arm. “She’s a spy! She’ll bring the Bleeders down on us all!” He tried to lunge forward out of the barman’s grip, and Thea flinched back as he almost succeeded. Another man came forward and grabbed his shoulders, securing him further. “Verl, quit it,” the new man said, shaking him. His features were strikingly similar to Verl’s. “What are you doing?” “She’s a spy, Rhet,” Verl said. “They’re all spies!” “He’s out, Rhet,” the barman said. “For good this time. I don’t want to see his face here again.” The man, Rhet, held a placating hand up, looking first at their small group and then at the barman. “He don’t mean anything by it — he’s just had too much to drink is all.” “He’s always had too much to drink. Doesn’t mean he can go attacking little girls in my establishment. I’ve half a mind to report you to the guard for this. Out!” The barman said, pushing both Verl and his companion toward the door once more. “Thea,” Rowan said gently once both men were finally out, accompanied by a light touch to the girl’s wrist. Thea refocused on her. “May I have the scissors?” Thea looked down at the bloodied implement clenched tightly in her right fist with honest surprise. It took more effort than she would have thought to loosen her fingers, but when she did, Todd 34 Rowan took the improvised weapon with a steady hand. Thea didn’t protest when the witch ushered her into a chair. Rowan turned the next chair over to face her before sitting as well. “Is it alright if I take a look?” she asked, gesturing toward Thea’s neck. When Thea nodded, Rowan’s fingers ghosted lightly along the skin of her throat. In the midst of her gentle probing, Thea’s gaze fell on Wes, who stood at the end of the table holding, of all things, a vase of wilting flowers. When he saw her looking, he looked down at the vase, flushed, and put it haphazardly on the neighboring table before retaking his original seat. “Was your airway restricted?” Rowan asked, distracting Thea’s attention again. “Only a little,” Thea replied, hissing as the witch pressed on a tender spot. “Alright,” Rowan said with a discerning look. “I’ll get you some bruise salve once we’re back to the wagon. Let me know immediately if you start to have trouble breathing,” she ordered. Thea quickly acquiesced, having come to the abrupt awareness that every eye in the building was watching the spectacle and wanting nothing more than for the fuss to be over with. Her wish was granted when a serving maid approached with a platter of dumplings, placing them in the middle of the table. She turned her chair into the table, trying not to feel self-conscious as the din of the tavern slowly rose again. “Eat,” Rowan said to both teenagers. Thea didn’t feel particularly hungry anymore, but she knew she needed the energy. She was also aware that this might be her last opportunity for a warm meal for a while given the distance to the next town. “Are you okay?” Was asked her quietly once they were all eating. Todd 35 “I’m alright. It’s just—why did he call me a Bleeder?” Thea asked Rowan. “I didn’t do anything.” “These are dangerous times,” Rowan replied gravely. “The Riveners have agents who are capable of crossing the barriers and act as spies for their cause. Many people have become paranoid of strangers as a result. However, that does not excuse them to attack young, defenseless girls.” Her voice took on a scathing edge, showing clearly what she thought of such behavior. “Well, not entirely defenseless, as it turns out,” Wes chimed in, though he still looked concerned. “I really am fine,” she assured him, ignoring the fact that her hands were trembling. She clasped them tightly together to still them. “It was frightening, but it’s over now. I did wonder, though…” she said, more to distract herself than anything else. “Why were you holding a flower vase?” “Ah, that,” he said, avoiding eye contact as his ears turned pink again. “I believe,” Rowan cut in with an amused smile, “that Wesley was ready to give that man quite a headache if you had not acted when you did.” “Well, I was going to try,” Wes said, sheepish. Thea grabbed a dumpling and savored the warm meat and vegetable filling as she took her first bite. The heat of it felt good going down her sore throat. “Thea,” Rowan spoke again. “Do you wish to report this incident to the town guard? That man’s actions were both reprehensible and against the law.” Thea paused for a moment before taking another bite, taking the time to think as she chewed. She cast a broad glance around the tavern, and the feeling of the scrutiny they’d Todd 36 garnered settled on her like a cloak. Most of the people around had gone back to their meals and drinks, but some still gave them the occasional side-eye. She wondered how many of them shared similar suspicions to Verl. Finally, she swallowed and shook her head. “Everyone here will be gossiping about it before the day’s out,” she said, “and the barman said he was banning him and may even report him himself. I’d really like to just leave this all behind us.” “Well reasoned,” Darrow’s voice said from her left, where there was nothing but the wall…and the partially open window. His grinning face came into sight as he turned from where he had apparently been leaning against the wall, eavesdropping. “You’re spot on about word traveling, except it might have done so even quicker than you were expecting. Speaking of,” his face sobered. “How are you, Thea?” His eyes flicked down to the thumbprint bruise that was beginning to ink its way onto the skin of her throat. “I’m fine,” she assured yet again. She was surprised to realize she mostly meant it this time. “How could you have possibly heard what happened already?” Wes asked with a quizzical frown. “Well, I may have been cheating a bit, magically speaking,” Darrow said, tapping a finger to his head, “but word is, in fact spreading. People were beginning to think about it quite loudly at the market. So if Thea is certain we have no further business in town,” he made eye contact with her, and she nodded in answer, “we should leave as soon as possible. Through no fault of our own, we’ve attracted more attention than I’m comfortable with.” Todd 37 Witchstead Chapter 5: Trouble Ahead Thea glared at the pebble in her right hand as if she could dissolve it into sand with the power of her glare alone. Alas, it was not to be. She gave up for the time being with a sigh, rubbing at her temples. In the hours since they’d left Kelling behind, she’d been struggling with the simple exercise. She didn’t seem to have as much of a grasp on earthcraft, especially compared to Wes. She’d had to move up the bench to just behind the drivers’ seat because the sand from his far more successful attempts kept blowing into her eyes, and he was using rocks the size of her fist. Gearing up for another attempt, her concentration was broken by a loud shriek from Terich as he flew overhead. “Darrow,” Rowan then called in such a measured tone that Thea was immediately alarmed. The man in question seemed to agree, for he drew Veris up close to the wagon immediately. It was the smell that hit them first; the sickly sweet stench of rotting meat. The horses balked, even Veris seeming a little nervous, and Rowan pulled them to a stop as they neared the first body. By unspoken consensus, they all disembarked. What was left of a man lay off center in the road ahead of them, a crow flying off as they approached. His torso looked like it had been chewed on by something with large, sharp teeth, and smaller chunks of flesh were missing where the wildlife had gotten at him. His eyes had been pecked out by birds. Thea swallowed heavily, trying not to lose her lunch. “Gorehounds,” Darrow said grimly after a close examination of the marks on the body, and Rowan murmured her agreement as she climbed down to inspect the gruesome scene. Todd 38 “There are more further up,” she said, glancing up at the sky where Terich was circling overhead, and Darrow immediately rode ahead, disappearing around the bend in the road. Rowan started to carefully pat down the body, disturbing the swarm of flies that had collected around it. “What are you doing?” Thea asked in horrified fascination. “Looking for anything that can identify him,” Rowan replied, wrinkling her nose. “We’ll have to report this to the outpost in Burling, and knowing who he is will make it easier for them to notify his family, if he has any. Unfortunately, there’s nothing.” “Do you think the gorehounds are still around?” Wes asked with a wary eye on the forest around them. Rowan shook her head. “It’s unlikely. This body is at least a day old, and Terich hasn’t spotted anything that suggests there are bloodbeasts still in the area. Wes,” she continued, “I’m sorry to ask this of you, but we need to move him off the road.” Wes blanched when he realized what she was asking, but after a brief look at Thea, he seemed to steel himself. With Wes at the head of the body and Rowan at its feet, they were able to successfully roll the stiff corpse off the road, pausing occasionally to swat the flies away. As they did so, a gaping hole on the man’s back where he had been ravaged became visible. Thea stared at it, transfixed, until it disappeared from view as they rolled the body again. Once the task was done, Wes gagged and staggered behind a bush to throw up. Rowan stood to the side of the body and closed her eyes. Thea watched in shock as the corpse started sinking slowly into the ground. The only remaining sign of the attack was the spilled blood that stained the dirt of the road and the lingering stench of decay. “We’d better go help Darrow,” Rowan said as she walked past them down the road. Thea followed, and Wes guided the horses in their wake. Todd 39 The first thing Thea noticed as she walked around the bend was the droning buzz of the flies that had congregated. Unlike the stationary pool the first corpse had left, the road here was riddled with great, tacky swaths of blood that were smeared all across the area, interspersed with a confusion of tracks, bloody hand prints, and the corpses of men and horses. A little further back, past the rest of the carnage, there was an overturned cart with the bloated carcass of a horse still partially attached to the harness on the edge of the road, its throat ripped out. The other cart horse, which lay a few feet away, was completely free of the harness and closer to the woods. A few ruined rolls of cloth had spilled from the cart into the dirt and blood. Darrow had already managed to drag the bodies of two men off the road. “Have you found anything?” Rowan asked as they drew closer. Darrow wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, his expression grim. “One of them was a cloth merchant,” he said, nodding toward one of the corpses that still remained on the road, which was more finely dressed than the others. He looked strangely familiar to Thea, and she wondered distantly if he’d passed through Galloway at some point in the past. “Another was likely a worker or assistant. The other four, including the first fellow, must have been hired guards. The problem here,” he continued, gesturing broadly at the scene, “is that the cart has been ransacked, there are no weapons on the guards, and look at this…” Darrow walked a few steps closer to the edge of the road, pointing at a mess of tracks on the ground. “There are human footprints and horse tracks leading off the road mixed in with the gorehounds.” Rowan’s back stiffened. “You thinking this could be a raiding party?” “I’m almost certain of it,” Darrow said with no trace of his characteristic cheeriness. “And now the question is whether we should head back to Kelling and find a different route or continue on.” Todd 40 Silence descended, and Thea grasped Wes’s hand, fearful. “I’m of the opinion that we should continue on,” Darrow said finally. “Raids like this are becoming more common of late, and any alternate route we could plot from Kelling would take longer and likely be just as dangerous. If we are attacked, we stand a better chance against Riveners and gorehounds than this party did.” Rowan nodded slowly. “Those are my thoughts as well.” “We’d best hurry if we want to make the waystation before full dark,” was all Darrow said in response. He then grabbed the shoulders of the merchant to drag him aside as well, and Rowan moved to help him. When Wes trudged reluctantly to another corpse, Thea followed him. “Thea,” Wes said when she crouched down beside him, “you don’t have to…” “Let’s just get this done,” she said. It was the body of one of the guards. The middle of his torso was one massive hole where his organs had been eaten away. The stench of death was even stronger closer to the corpse. Smoothing her skirts out of the way, she crouched down and gripped the man’s ankles, ensuring she kept a layer of his pants between her hands and his skin. The cloth was damp and dirty, but it was still better than touching the dead man’s skin directly. Once Wes had secured his grip under the man’s shoulders, avoiding the blood splashed across the shirt with a grimace, they both lifted the body up and began to walk it off the road. A cloud of black flies swarmed upward from the man’s fatal wounds with the movement, and Thea pinched her lips together, exhaling harshly and shaking her head to keep them from landing on her. The corpse was stiff with death and didn’t move easily, but they fortunately Todd 41 didn’t have too far to go. As they settled the body in the open space nearest the overturned cart, a sudden noise had them freezing in place. “What was that?” Thea whispered. “I don’t know,” Wes said, looking around wildly. “It sounded close though.” Nearby, something shifted, and Thea gasped loudly. “What? What is it?” Wes asked, clearly spooked. “Everything alright?” Darrow asked. “That horse,” Thea said, walking toward it. “It’s alive!” It was the horse that had come completely loose from the cart’s harness, which Thea had noted earlier, a brown mare. Despite its terrible condition, it whinnied faintly in fear as she approached. It twisted its neck to watch her, and she could feel its exhaustion, fear, and pain as if it were her own. “Shh, shh, shh, shh,” she soothed, crouching in front of her. The mare stilled as Thea reached out to stroke her cheek, sharing what comfort she could. “It’s alright.” But it wasn’t alright. Now that she was closer, Thea could see how deep the series of gouges on her side and chest were. If the wounds were bad enough that the horse could hardly move upon her approach, she clearly wasn’t going to make it. Her eyes burned, and she furiously dashed the wetness away as Darrow approached from behind. “Thea,” he said. “We need to go.” “Is there anything we can do for her?” Thea asked without much hope. “No,” he said, and his voice sounded both sad and weary. “A quick death is the best we can offer her. She’s suffered enough.” Thea inhaled a shuddering breath, and Darrow laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Why don’t you head back to Wes. I’ll take care of her, Thea.” Todd 42 “It’ll be quick?” she asked. “She won’t feel a thing,” he promised. She nodded slowly, then leaned down to plant a gentle kiss on the mare’s large brow. Part of her wanted to stay and bear witness, but she couldn’t stomach it after everything else. So she stood up and walked away. As she did so, she saw Veris, whose reins had been tied around her saddlehorn, plodding up the road from where they’d left the wagon. The familiar passed right by Thea, heading toward Darrow. Once she reached him, she nuzzled his hair where he was bowed over the other horse and whickered a quiet greeting. He turned to her and said something, but Thea didn’t hear it, turning instead to finish her trek toward their other two companions. Rowan must have finished the process they used to sink the remaining bodies into the ground while she was otherwise occupied, because the only trace left of them was the blood on the road. Wes was standing alone at the side of the road, quietly watching the proceedings. When Thea joined him, he bumped his shoulder against hers in comfort. Thea couldn’t tell what Darrow was doing, but she somehow knew the exact moment the mare’s suffering came to an end. She and Wes watched from a distance as he buried the bodies of both horses beneath the dirt before coming up to them with a worn look on his face, Veris at his shoulder. The rest of their journey to the waystation was tense. They were all on high alert for any strange sights or sounds, and the encroaching darkness only increased the eeriness of their surroundings. Wes had abandoned all efforts toward training his earthcraft, but Thea doggedly continued in her attempts in both an effort to make progress and to keep her mind occupied with Todd 43 something that wasn’t dead bodies and monsters in the dark. Though she was easily distracted, she did finally, in bits and pieces, manage to disassemble her pebble into a tiny mound of coarse sand and dust. She didn’t have another pebble or leaf to distract her, so she was left tensing at every shadow until Rowan spoke out again some time later. There was only a touch of sunlight still showing over the horizon. “We’re nearly there. It should be just ahead,” she said. Thea craned her neck to see past their stately driver. It took a few minutes, but soon enough, the waystation came into view. As soon as they drove through the gated entrance, Thea felt something unclench in her chest, and she felt safe for the first time since they’d reached the site of the attack. “You two get the horses settled in the stables,” Rowan said as they all climbed down from their transport. “Darrow and I will check to make sure the wards are intact before coming in.” Veris followed the two witches as they walked off, her reins once more tied to her saddlehorn. The waystation consisted of a large wooden building where travelers could bed for the night, the stables, and a latrine. A well was available for use in the small courtyard. Since the stables were right next to the gate, it was easy to lead the weary horses into their temporary stalls once they were untacked. “Do you know their names?” Thea asked Wes, trying not to think of the cart horse from earlier as she stroked the nose of the chestnut. Wes closed the door to the black horse’s stall. The gelding lipped curiously at her hand, looking for treats, and she was sorry that she had none to give him. She suddenly and intensely missed her family’s draft horse, Lucky. “Uh, no. Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t really think to ask.” Todd 44 While Wes busied himself with carrying feed stored in the carry space of the wagon to their troughs, Thea rubbed the horses down. Rowan and Darrow finished with their self appointed task before they did and Darrow led Veris into the stables just as they were finishing up. “Rowan’s waiting inside for you,” he told them with a tired smile. They went into the building and found themselves in a rudimentary kitchen. There were two open doors on either side that both led to rooms lined with bunks and a rough hewn table occupied the space between. Rowan was sitting there with some of their provisions laid out across the table, eating. “If either of you are hungry, go ahead and grab something,” she said after swallowing a bite. “I’m afraid we arrived too late to fix anything more substantial.We’re the only ones here tonight, so Thea, you’ll sleep in that room with me.” She motioned to the door on the right. “Wes, you and Darrow will share the other. We’ll have an early start tomorrow if we want to make good time to the next waystation.” Wes mumbled a weary acknowledgement and snatched up a fistfull of dried meat, then ambled into the other room, closing the door behind him. Almost immediately, it cracked open again, and Wes stuck his head out. “Good night,” he said politely, then disappeared once more behind the closed door. Thea huffed a laugh. “I’m just going to…” she jerked her head toward the other room. Rowan nodded placidly. A lamp was lit just inside the door, and she claimed one of the bottom bunks by its dim light before preparing for bed. It felt a little strange to be sharing a sleeping space with a woman Todd 45 she’d met only the day before, though it felt longer ago than that when she thought of it. Rowan walked in just as she finished getting ready, Terich perched on her shoulder. “How much progress did you make with your exercises today?” Rowan asked her as her familiar fluttered over to perch on one of the top bunks. “I managed to crumble a pebble just before we arrived here,” Thea said, sitting on her chosen bed. As was to be expected, the mat provided was thin and uncomfortable. Rowan nodded, unlacing her dress. “You should keep working to get a good handle on earth and wind before starting anything else. They’re the most common affinities. However, I want to teach you one more exercise before we sleep.” Thea waited crosslegged as Rowan finished changing, then scooted forward expectantly as Rowan settled on the bed opposite hers. “I’m going to teach you to meditate,” Rowan said. “As a witch, it’s good practice to meditate daily. It’s very useful for mind and soulcrafting magic, when you get to that point. It is also,” she added with a wry smile, “helpful for clearing one's mind and inviting peaceful sleep.” After the day they’d had, Thea agreed that such a thing would be helpful. “Start by sitting in a comfortable position and relaxing your muscles as best you can,” Rowan instructed. “Release any sources of tension: your shoulders, your neck, your jaw. Breathe slowly into your stomach to the count of seven, hold it, then release to the count of seven.” The witch paused to count out breaths for several moments, and Thea did her best to follow. “Clear your mind. Thoughts that pass into your mind should not be dwelled on. Concentrate solely on your breath.” She counted out a few more breaths and then faded into silence. The only sounds Thea could hear was their breathing, the occasional rustle of Terich’s feathers, and the chorus of Todd 46 nature: a cricket sang in the distance, and the leaves of the trees in the courtyard shivered in the night time breeze. Some time later, Thea’s reverie was broken by the sound of movement as Rowan shifted to lay down. “Goodnight, Thea,” she murmured. “Goodnight.” Todd 47 Witchstead Chapter 6: A Telltale Dream Except for the rattling of the wheels as they travel, the forest is quiet around them. Despite the relative peace, Thea is having a hard time concentrating on the pebble in her hand. She has a headache, and Asher and Josie are whispering and giggling together in the back of the cart. “Be quiet,” Thea hisses at them. It’s dangerous out here, and bad things are going to happen if she doesn't get the earth exercise down in time. They only giggle louder. Thea turns to the front of the cart to complain to her father, but it’s Rowan on the driving bench. “Keep trying,” Rowan says without turning her head. “Earthcraft is important.” But when Thea looks down at her hand, the pebble was gone. She crouches down, frantically searching the floor of the cart for the pebble. As she runs her eyes and hands over the boards of the cart’s floor, Terich cries out overhead. Dread floods her heart. She snaps her head towards the road and sees that they’re approaching a familiar curve. There is nothing she can do but wait until the first body comes into view. They round the bend…and nothing is there. All is silent, and it feels like the world is standing still even though the cart keeps moving. A loud bellow splits the air, breaking the quiet. “What was that?” Asher asks from behind her, scared. She turns to face him in terror, meeting his wide, bright blue eyes and scarcely noticing that Josie has vanished. “This isn’t the right place,” she insists. While she is turned away, a massive beast emerges from the treeline and crashes violently into the cart. Todd 48 It feels as if she is hanging in the air for a heartstopping moment. Then the colors of the world blur around her, and she lands with a jarring thud on the dirt. Her ears are ringing and someone is screaming. Asher. He’s pinned by the splintered remains of the cart, and there’s too much blood. He’ll never walk right again. Heavy breaths come from the other direction, and she turns to face the monster. It’s just as tall and wide as she remembers, bigger than any bull she’d ever seen, with heavy brown fur that was especially thick on its head and chest. Broad, pronged horns rise high over its head, and frothy drool clings to its sharp, crooked teeth as it bellows again. Its crazed eyes are fixed on her as it prepares to charge again. She closes her eyes. Darrow catches her by the arm and pulls her forward through the forest. Even in the shadow of the trees, the tense lines of his face are clear. He lets go once she’s steady on her feet. Rowan and Wes are ahead of them, and Veris trails beside Darrow. They all look like a mess, with clothes disheveled and hair askew, dirt ground into both skin and fabric. Upon inspection, Thea finds that she is in the same state. She knows they have to hurry, but it feels like she’s moving through molasses, her limbs sluggish and unresponsive. As she trails behind, frustrated and panicked by her inability to move the way she wants to, Darrow turns to look back at her with a harsh frown on his face. His expression softens as he looks at her. He swivels toward Rowan and Wes for a moment, and, after looking back at her one more time, he says something to the pair ahead of them. Thea can’t understand the words he says despite his nearness, but Rowan turns and says something in return. It sounds like she’s hearing them talk from underwater, the sounds muted and distorted. Darrow gives Thea a weary smile, his mouth moving to shape words she can’t understand. A spine-straightening chill runs down the back of her neck, like a bug has flown Todd 49 close to her ear and a piece of chalk is screeching on its way down a blackboard all at once, and then an arrow is piercing through Darrow’s neck. Dark red blood, shocking against the muted greens and browns of the forest background, coats the arrow’s tip, which has exited the side of his neck at an angle. Time lags as Darrow’s expression changes to one of shock, his hand reaching up to touch his throat even as his legs begin to buckle. Through it all, his eyes never leave hers. “Thea.” Thea woke up with a jolt, her heartbeat racing so hard she could feel it down to her fingertips. She was on her back, and between the residual terror and how hard her muscles had tensed in her sleep, she had a hard time moving at first. Then the sound of some bird’s early morning chatter reached her ears, and the sound was so innocent and cheerful that it gave her the courage to finally open her eyes. Rowan stood over her with a small wrinkle of concern marring her forehead, halfway dressed for the day. Through the single, high up window on the far wall, the pale light of the dawn shone through. “Are you alright?” the older woman asked. “You looked unwell.” “I’m fine,” Thea said. “It was just a bad dream.” In fact, other than certain strange elements and the way it ended, it was a nightmare she had regularly since the day her brother had been injured. Rowan gave her a discerning look before accepting her assurance. “We’ll be leaving soon,” Rowan told her as she resumed her morning preparations. “After we eat breakfast.” “I’ll hurry,” Thea assured her, getting up to dress for the day. Todd 50 Rowan left the room as soon as she finished dressing, so by the time Thea was ready for their departure, she was last to enter the kitchen area. A small fire had been lit in the fireplace, and Darrow was dishing out porridge from the pot that hung above it. Rowan and Wes were already seated. Wes was slowly stirring his food, looking like he was still mostly asleep. As she walked into the kitchen, Darrow brandished a bowl toward her. “Good morning,” he said with a smile. “Good morning,” she replied as she accepted the bowl. As he busied himself with the pot, she allowed herself a moment to take in his uninjured state and cheerful demeanor. “Thank you.” With her breakfast in hand, she joined Rowan and Wes at the table. Darrow followed with a bowl of his own. “Good morning,” she said to Wes as she sat next to him. She didn’t quite manage to bite back her smile when he blinked drowsily at her for several moments before replying. “Morning,” he muttered, bringing a slow spoonful to his mouth and grimacing at the taste. Thea felt the same way when she took her first bite. The porridge had been seasoned with salt and nothing else, which was understandable given the shortage of ingredients but still unpleasant. If anything, though, the pot had been oversalted, and to add insult to injury, there were tough, burnt clumps of grain dispersed throughout the mess. “Here,” Rowan said, holding the small sack of dried fruits toward them. “This might help with the flavor. Darrow isn’t renowned for his skill as a cook.” “I’ll have you know that the burned bits add flavor,” Darrow said, with his nose stuck up in the air. “Rowan just doesn’t appreciate my culinary excellence.” Todd 51 He lifted his spoon to his mouth with an air of great dignity, chewing and swallowing without a hint of displeasure. Then, with a perfectly straight face, he held out his hand. “Alright, give me the fruit,” he said. Thea didn’t bother to hide her grin, and it was joined by a huffed snort from Wes and Rowan’s amused smirk. The dried apricots Thea added to her own bowl did make the porridge go down at least a little easier. Soon enough, they had all finished as much of their food as they could. They stacked all the dishes together, but when Thea made to help with scrubbing them down, Rowan drew her away. “You can help me top up our water reserves,” she said, hefting up the bucket for the well, which had been resting on the edge of the table. “After we finish, collect as many leaves and pebbles as you can to practice with while we’re on the road.” She left Thea to the familiar task of drawing water from the well while she gathered up all of their water containers. Once they had finished, Thea dutifully began to scrounge up as many leaves and pebbles as she could reasonably stuff in her pockets, though she doubted she would really go through many pebbles given the difficulties she’d had the day before. “How’s it going?” Wes called as he and Darrow approached, carrying out the last of their supplies to restore to the wagon. “Just great,” Thea answered, holding up her hands, filthy from groping around in the dirt for witching supplies. Wes laughed at her, and she made a face back at him in response. She took some time to rinse her hands off with water from the well before lowering the bucket back down, then joined the others past the gate. Wes gave Thea a hand into the wagon and then clamored up after her. Todd 52 “I have a gift for you, Wes,” Darrow said with a grin as he approached on Veris’s, holding out a burlap sack. Wes frowned as he grabbed it from him, and he let out a quiet grunt of surprise when his arm dipped upon taking on its weight. He opened it to reveal that it was full of stones and pebbles of various sizes. “You’re ready to start expanding out from the initial earthcraft exercise,” Darrow said, looking at Wes. “Start off working the same exercises with bigger stones. Once you get the hang of that, I want you to experiment and try different things. Make a brittle rock denser and harder to break, or etch small designs into the surface to improve your control.” Wes immediately started sorting through the rocks. “That's not to say you should neglect the wind exercises,” Darrow chided, an exasperated but fond look on his face. Wes smiled at him sheepishly, but didn’t stop in his quest to find a suitable rock. As they moved out through the gate and began to make their way, Thea pulled out a pebbles from her own, less impressive collection to work with. She would almost prefer to work with the wind, which came much more easily, but she couldn’t shake the foreboding feeling of her dream, that getting better at earthcraft was something vitally important, even though it seemed silly to let herself remain so affected by it. Wes, at least, seemed grateful for the solidarity. “I’m better with watercraft than wind,” he told her as they sat across from each other with their respective stones. He was concentrating on etching a small design into the surface of his. “But only a little. And Rowan wouldn’t let Darrow teach me the firecraft exercise when I haven’t got wind or water down yet.” Todd 53 They practiced in companionable silence for most of the morning. By the time Rowan announced her intention to stop for lunch, Thea had progressed to successfully disintegrating small pebbles with a few minutes of hard concentration. She finished the last in a series of pebbles just as they pulled over in an area where an open clearing bordered the edge of the road. Darrow let out a low whistle as she shook her hand free of her latest pile of sediment. “You’re getting right along,” he said as he dismounted. “You might be ready to move on to some bigger rocks by tomorrow.” “Why do we do it like that?” Thea asked as she hopped down from the wagon. “Wouldn’t it make more sense to work on smaller things, like the etching Wes is doing now?” Wes made a noise of interest at that, indicating his own curiosity at the question. As Darrow began to unpack their food, Thea hastened to help him. Rowan grabbed a large, coarsely made blanket, and with Wes’s assistance, shook it out and laid it on the ground nearby. “You might think that,” Darrow said, “and you could probably try to do it like that, but it would likely take you longer to improve. What you’re doing now is the simplest method of practicing earthcraft.” With the food gathered and placed at the center of the blanket, they all took a seat. “By increasing the size of the stones you work on, you are growing the amount of power you can use while also getting a feel for basic earthcraft. If you don’t build up your power at the beginning, it can be hard to reach your full potential in the future. Once you have sufficiently increased your strength, you then work to expand your skill and control, which is what Wes is starting on now.” “But if the aim is to get stronger first, then isn’t dissolving a big rock still pretty small, in the scheme of things?” Wes asked, chewing on a piece of meat. “I think I could do more.” Todd 54 “And you will,” Rowan said, digging around in one of the bags. “You’ll continue to work on power as well, but as a starting practitioner without a familiar, there’s only so much you can do to increase your strength for each of the disciplines.” “What difference does a familiar make?” Thea asked curiously, and all three of the others, even Wes, stopped what they were doing to stare at her. “We don’t see very many witches in Galloway,” she said, feeling her cheeks heat in embarrassment. Darrow resumed chewing and swallowed. “When a witch reaches a certain level of skill and knowledge, they bond with a familiar,” he said. “That bond exponentially increases the power and capability of a witch. Without a familiar, you’re extremely limited in how much you can increase your strength.” “How does that work?” Thea asked with a furrowed brow. “I eventually bond with an animal, and that somehow makes me a better witch?” “Not just any animal,” Rowan explained. “Just as there are humans born with magic, so too are some animals. Their own version of witches, if you will. Those are the animals that can become a familiar. Additionally, you couldn’t just bond with any witchborn animal; it would have to be one that was compatible with you magically and spiritually, which narrows the options drastically.” “I didn’t know that,” Wes said thoughtfully. “Don’t be alarmed,” Darrow interrupted suddenly, gesturing subtly to a nearby tree, “but we have a visitor.” They all turned toward the tree. There, perched on a branch that was partially obscured by hanging leaves was a bloodbeast. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary falcon, but had an elongated body with four Todd 55 legs and a sleek tail. Its front two legs were feathered paws with small, sharp claws, while the back were furred talons. It observed them with sharp yellow eyes, reminiscent of Terrick’s. When she took in what she was seeing, Thea stiffened. “It’s alright,” Darrow said. “It would have attacked by now if it was a madling.” “What type of bloodbeast is it?” Thea asked cautiously. “It looks like a cross between a cat and a bird,” Darrow answered. “The researchers have named them gryffins.” They sat in silence for several moments, watching the bloodbeast as it watched them in return, until finally, it flew away, its elongated, sinuous body unlike anything Thea had ever seen in the air. Once it was out of sight, they finished their meal in companionable silence. With little fanfare, they packed everything up and took to the road again.