The claws on Valerianella Locusta's hands were made of shining yellow light, but they were more than capable of tearing through the flesh of the men who'd been foolish enough to think they could kill her.
There were five today. It took half as many minutes for her to bring them down.
As the last man collapsed, Val let the claws shaped from her magical energy fade. Dark blood pooled on the wood floor beneath her. She wiped her hands on the yellow skirt of her dress and watched new smears of red join the other stains on the fabric. The gray bodice and white shirt underneath hadn't gotten off easy, either. Gods be damned.
She considered changing clothes, but she'd put off laundry for so long that all she had left was a pair of trousers. And she wasn't in the mood to climb down to the well in the tower's basement. She'd avoid the task for a few more hours. Instead, she moved to close the window her attackers had entered through.
As for the bodies, well, if she was going to be held prisoner, she refused to be a maid, too. The witch could deal with them when he arrived.
Besides the scent of blood, it was a pleasant morning in the tower's uppermost room. A semi-circle of five casement windows occupied the southern wall, offering a view of forested mountains and allowing the sun to spill in. Golden light washed over the room's furnishings: Val's chair and vanity, the narrow stairwell to the lower levels, the always-locked door, and the many shelves crammed full of junk that was useless to Val. In addition to using the tower to imprison his monster, the witch used it as storage.
Nothing Val could use to escape, of course. Empty potion bottles and extra stashes of ingredients, crystals and plants, old grimoires in languages she couldn't read. There were also books, books like the one Val had been in the middle of reading before her attackers scaled the tower and came crashing in.
The book seemed to have been made to torture her.
The thing was titled Humankind, a surprisingly simple title for a book detailing every human civilization under the sun. Though, like many books on the tower's shelves, this one had plenty of torn and stained pages. Some were ripped out entirely.
The missing pages would have undoubtedly tortured Val more. Reminded her of the world she'd been locked away from for most of her nineteen years.
Unbothered by the five dead men on her floor, Val sank into her chair and continued flipping through the book. Admiring the artwork. Lamenting the fact that she was trapped in this godsforsaken tower, far, far away from any of the beautiful scenes that followed her into her dreams. An emerald sea serpent breaching the waters of the Titanic Ocean. Bison racing across the western plains of Terrica, herded by native riders on horseback. Beautiful merfolk lounging alongside walruses on rocky shores. The colorful Rainbow Reef off the coast of Souterria. Dragon skeletons on display in a Stjerwegian museum.
All of the descriptions were written in Terrish, humanity's common language. It was the language Val spoke with the witch, despite living in the heart of Stellany. He'd taught her Stellan, too, but she hardly had reason to use it.
Near the end of the book came a view of Earth's ring arcing over the horizon at the southern ice continent, and the same ring appearing as a thin line over a desert at the equator. Then there were the castles of the Three Kingdoms of the Ring. Each castle was built up by spacespeakers from the material of the asteroids they stood on, surrounded by skyspeaker-formed clouds, standing against the backdrop of the glittering cosmos.
Val was going to see the world beyond the tower someday. She had to. Her unmatched power couldn't be contained forever. Hell, she was powerful enough to rule some of the lands she admired. If she wanted to.
And she'd go beyond the Earth, even, on one of the wooden sailing ships carried by spacespeakers to the moon's Iron Citadel. To the beautiful but deadly fae caverns winding for miles beneath the moon's surface. That would be a sight to see.
"I could kill a fairy," Val said to herself. She flexed a hand. No iron weapons or armor needed.
Before Val could move onto the next section, to the depictions of the Mars colonies and elf kingdoms and ancient giant battlefields, a voice spoke behind her.
"The fae are far deadlier than you. They'd eat you alive."
Val threw a glance over her shoulder. Perched on the windowsill on the other side of the room was a collared crow: an entirely black corvid, save for the white markings wrapping around the back of his head and circling down under his chest.
Val frowned. "Did you open the window?"
Baiya cocked his head to the right. "With what hands?"
"I don't know." Val rolled her eyes as she closed the book and rose to her feet. "You could have pulled it open with your foot." He probably wasn't strong enough to actually do that. Probably not smart enough, either.
"It was already open when I arrived," Baiya told her. "Likely the wind."
That didn't make sense, given that the windows opened outward, but Val couldn't care less at the moment.
Baiya fluttered to a nearby shelf, still keeping his distance. "Ellias isn't far behind me. You should finish braiding your hair."
Val turned to face the vanity mirror. Her hair—the same brilliant shade of yellowas her eyes, both remarkably bright compared to her pale skin—was piled on thefloor at her feet. She'd managed to wrangle more than half of it into a braid earlier that morning before getting distracted.
"I ought to chop it off," Val mused as she returned to her chair. "Make that witch climb the side of the tower." She snorted. "Really, who builds a tower without a door?"
Baiya didn't have an answer for her question. Instead, he said, "Don't think too highly of yourself. You know what disobedience will get you."
"Talk all the talk you want. You're both terrified of me." Val grinned at herself in the mirror. At least she could look forward to a haircut tonight. Unless Ellias planned on returning again in the next few days.
She set to work on finishing the braid. Baiya had no response to her comment. Val suspected the witch's familiar was more nervous than usual. He'd been very vocal in his master's presence about not wanting to be left alone with her.
He did have a point, though. Ellias couldn't kill Val, but he was powerful enough to hurt her. The two of them had fallen into an uneasy routine. She let him up into the tower with her magic hair, and he didn't blow the whole thing up with her inside. Maybe she'd survive that. Maybe she wouldn't. She wasn't desperate enough for freedom to find out. Not yet, anyway.
But if she really was such a monster, what was the point in keeping her alive in relative comfort? Was the man so wracked with guilt over what he'd created? Over all the years spent raising her, caring for her, training her?
"You're Yanjenese, aren't you?" Val asked as her hands neared the end of her hair.
Baiya unfolded his wings and refolded them. "What makes you say that?"
"A book on birds." Val gestured toward one of the shelves. "Is that where Ellias goes when he's not here? Yanjen?"
"I—" Baiya was definitely unsettled. "You don't need to worry about Ellias' other affairs."
Val was onto something. "That's quite the journey," she continued. "Not so bad on a well-staffed waterspeaker ship, I suppose. Stellany to Yanjen would be, what, a day?" The distance between the skyspeaker lands and the northwestern side of the earthspeaker continent was on the shorter side, in the grand scheme of things.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Baiya flew across the room and found a new perch on top of a taller shelf.
Val was sure that if she pressed him further, she could have gotten him to crack, but her interrogation was interrupted by the sound of a man calling her name.
"Valerianella!" Ellias called up from the ground. "Let down—"
"I know, I know," Val shouted back as she walked to the open window and pushed the frames the rest of the way out. The man on the ground below looked human, but she knew better.
He was dressed in his usual uniform, clothes that were completely black save for the purple trim up the front of the coat, the edge of the high collar, and the sleeves that ended in a sharp point over the back of his tanned hands. The simple black cloak that fell only halfway down his back was held together with a clasp in the shape of a red crow's eye, the same vibrant red as the small stones on his silver rings. The green stone hanging around his neck, meanwhile, matched his piercing eyes. And,as usual, there was black paint on his nails.
He'd used to let Val use his paints on her nails, too. When she was his apprentice and not his prisoner.
Val's braid was just long enough to reach Ellias. When his letter arrived a few days earlier announcing his visit, she may have postponed her final haircut for a few hours longer than she should have. Still, Ellias was able to secure his grip, and she was able to lift him up to the window with ease. Her hair certainly would have been useless without the unnatural strength that came with her power, wouldn't it?
As Ellias stepped into the room, he removed his black wide-brimmed hat, exposing even blacker slicked-back hair underneath. He looked to be in his early twenties, but he'd looked like that for as long as Val could remember. His eyes immediately moved to the bodies.
"Five," he muttered. "They're sending more."
He set down the large sack he'd brought with him—Val's food for the next few weeks—and knelt next to one of the men. After a long moment, he lifted his gaze to Val. "Was this an easy fight for you?"
Val lifted her chin. "I think you already know the answer to that."
"Of course," Ellias said, rising to his feet. His hand slipped briefly into the black bag at his side. "No problem for the girl who massacred a force of twenty soldiers."
Val bit back her protests. She'd given up on arguing with Ellias years ago.
"Ellias, more bodies have been found in the forest, too," Baiya said. "It has to be her."
It might not have helped her case, but Val couldn't resist flashing the crow a cold grin as she lifted her hands. "How could it possibly be me? I'm trapped in here."
Ellias' eyes narrowed. He nodded toward Baiya. "Come on."
Baiya flew to Ellias' shoulder as he walked to the door by the stairwell. On theother side was a second set of stairs that spiraled into the room below thisone, splitting the level with Val's tiny bedroom. Ellias' workroom. Val only had the faintest idea of what the room held, and vague memories of going down there as a child.
These days, the door was kept locked with a spell as unbreakable as the one that kept Val from escaping out the windows. A spell that would also prevent Val from listening in on the conversation between Ellias and Baiya.
Val returned to the open window, rested her elbows on the ledge with a sigh, and stared out at the world. A vast forest surrounded the small meadow outside the tower, and visible beyond the trees were the snowcapped peaks of the Alpin Mountains. At the distant tree line, the tops of the conifers were still dusted with lingering snow. Spring was taking its time this year.
Behind Val, the door to the workroom creaked open, sending a jolt of surprise through her. She whirled around. Ellias had locked it again, hadn't he? The tower was drafty, sure, but no amount of wind was supposed to be able to open that door.
Val crept over to the door and hovered next to it. Through the gap, she could just make out Ellias and Baiya's voices. They carried strangely well.
"—and these men came to kill the monster taking lives in the nearby villages, just to fall victim themselves," Baiya hissed. "We have to deal with her once and for all."
Ellias sighed. "We can't be sure she's responsible for the deaths outside the tower."
"They started recently. She must have found a way out."
Val's eyes narrowed. She rested a hand against the wall to steady herself as she leaned forward.
"But why would she return to the tower?" Ellias asked.
"Who knows? All that matters is that we end this."
"You're right. But it's more complicated than that. Look at this." After a moment of shuffling, Ellias continued. "This dagger was on one of the bodies. It has a gold sun on the handle, and the inscription is Aelrish. Those soldiers were from King Roven's army. And I doubt their king cares about the lives of a few villagers in Stellany."
Roven? The lightspeaker king of Aelren? The idea wasn't too absurd, given his polite but firm—and not at all suspicious—takeover of Stellany after the royal family's disappearance fifteen years earlier.
A mere two years after overthrowing his own king and queen.
"Then why would they come here?" Baiya asked.
"I think they may have been trying to take Val alive." Ellias' answer made Val's eyes widen. "The king is looking for a new weapon."
"That proves people must have seen her, then, for word to spread to Aelren!" Baiya exclaimed. "She is getting out!"
"Maybe," Ellias replied, his calm voice a sharp contrast to Baiya's. "But there was that incident a few years ago. Someone could have witnessed her massacre and escaped without my knowledge." He was quiet for a moment. "Regardless, you are right about one thing. I have to fix my mistake. I thought this new form of magic she carries could prevent more war, but she's uncontrollable.
"I need to make sure no one else gets hurt," Ellias continued. "And I need to make sure no one else finds her. If she falls into the Aelrish king's hands, the world will suffer. He's already taken Stellany, and the lightspeaker lands are likely to be next."
"I still don't understand why he seized a skyspeaker country before he even had control of his own continent," Baiya muttered.
"I suspect he simply saw an opportunity. But while we could guess at his motivations all day, we do have more pressing matters to deal with." Ellias paused. "I think there is something in the Iron Citadel that could help us."
Val's jaw clenched. The moon city? What could Ellias possibly be after up there?
"We're going all the way to the moon?" Baiya squawked.
"Not us. Me. I need you to stay here and keep an eye on her," Ellias told him. "The spell should hold, but at this point, we can't be sure of anything."
"What am I supposed to do if she escapes?" The sound of Baiya's anxiously fluttering wings drifted up the stairs. "I don't have hands!"
"You'll be fine. I just want to know as soon as possible if anything happens," Ellias assured the bird. "And you won't be alone for long. I've sent a message to the Huntswoman. She's coming to help me deal with this."
Huntswoman? Val raised an eyebrow.
"The Queen's Huntswoman?" Baiya sounded skeptical. "She has no magic. What is she supposed to do?"
"There's no point trying to beat Val with magic alone. She's stronger than most witches and soulspeakers. The Huntswoman is one of Earth's best fighters. All she needs is the right weapon, and I'm going to handle that."
A woman with no magic? It took all Val had not to laugh. What a pathetic last resort from Ellias.
"But by the time you get to the moon and back—" Baiya started.
"My return journey won't take long. As soon as I get my hands on what I need, I'll be here within a few hours."
"How?"
Ellias' reply was inaudible, just quiet enough to escape Val's ears.
Baiya's response was the opposite. "Where are you going to get the energy for that?" he exclaimed.
"I'll find a way. This side of the spell is already prepared. All I'll need to do is build its mirror on the moon."
"Will that work with the ring?"
"Yes. Witch magic originated on Earth, so it has no problem reaching through the ring."
Footsteps started up the stairs. Val straightened up and took a quiet step back, ready to hurry to the vanity and pretend she hadn't heard a word.
"One last thing, Baiya," Ellias said, his voice low. "Don't let her manipulate you. She had me fooled about her true nature for far too long."
Val moved to her chair and sat down as the door opened the rest of the way. Ellias cast it a concerned glance but didn't say a word. His gaze flickered to Val as she turned the page of her book.
"I'll be back soon, Val," Ellias said. "Baiya's going to be keeping an eye on you for the next week or so."
Val let her head tip ever-so-slightly to the right. "And why's that?"
"You're right. We can't keep you prisoner forever. I'm going to find a solution." Ellias' expression shifted, suddenly, to something...sad. "I was hoping for better for you, Val."
Val's chest squeezed. Stupid witch. Well, maybe his guilt would save her. But if he couldn't bring himself to kill her...
Perhaps he was trying to find a way to take away her magic instead.
Val wasn't going to let that happen, either.
Before he left, Ellias traced sigils on the floor with the dead soldiers' blood, forming a loose circle of symbols around the bodies. He muttered a spell under his breath as he worked. When he straightened up, the blood glowed, and the bodies vanished in a brief flash of green light.
The blood stains stayed.
Ellias climbed up onto the windowsill. "Let me down."
Val obliged. She didn't say a word as she lowered him to the ground. But as he began to walk away from the tower, away from her, fresh rage sparked in her chest.
"Don't forget you did this, Ellias!" she shouted after him. "You made me!"
Ellias paused. "I taught you to use your magic, Valerianella. I didn't make you a killer."
Neither did I. Val stormed back across the room to the vanity. After a moment of glaring at her own face, she turned. The light glinted off something in her reflection.
Val twisted her body to study her upper back in the mirror, left exposed by the cut of her bodice and shirt. Cut to reveal the yellow, teardrop-shaped gemstone embedded in her skin.
There were witches, like Ellias, who channeled their innate magic with wands and sigils and spells and potions. There were human soulspeakers, capable of manipulating elements across the orders of earth, sky, sun, and moon.
And then there was Val. Something different. Something Ellias found unexplainable.
"He already tried removing the gem, once," Val said aloud. She turned to face Baiya as he settled on top of the wardrobe. "It didn't work. He can say what he wants, but I think he and I both know the only way to stop me is to kill me."
"You don't know that," Baiya said, shifting anxiously.
"Why so nervous?" Val asked. "Because you know that if I think he's going to kill me, I'll have nothing left to lose?"
Baiya didn't answer.
Val wasn't going to sit around in a cell and wait for the witch to come back with a death sentence. If there was a way out, she was going to find it.