“I see what it is. This bird clearly needs the healing magic of herbs,” Angelique announced.
When the crow cawed in disagreement, Angelique booted it off the toe of her shoe.
“Yes, that must be it.” Angelique ripped leaves off the herb and crouched down.
The now-disgruntled crow approached her—again holding its leg out.
“See? It has wounded its leg.” Angelique managed to pull the message off the crow’s leg with one hand, and sprinkled fragrant herb leaves over the bird’s head with her other hand—hopefully disguising the message transfer. “Don’t worry, crow. Your leg pain will be healed now.”
“Don’t you typically have to make herbs into a salve or some such thing in order for them to work?” Snow White asked.
Angelique was saved from answering when the crow sneezed—a high-pitched, nasally sound that was most shocking given that Angelique didn’t even know crows could sneeze—and then flew off.
Angelique slipped the tiny scroll of paper into her boot and stood up. “There, you see? It just needed a little bit of herb magic.” She planted her hands at her hips and stared the warriors down. “Now, are we ready to leave yet?”
“We don’t even have half of the horses saddled,” Rupert pointed out.
“Then why are you all standing around and gaping at me like landed fish?” Angelique demanded.
Rupert shook his head at her but returned to brushing a horse while the other warriors also returned to their tasks.
Angelique retreated to the cottage door, scratching her calf as she discreetly grabbed the tiny scroll. She pretended to fiddle with her satchel as she unrolled it, holding it flat against the bag as she read it. She was surprised to see that it was from Emerys.
Angelique,
Quinn and I have returned to Alabaster Forest.
Wedding preparations have begun in earnest. The banquet promises to be a bore, but Alastryn has assured me numerous times Quinn will be a vision in her gown. I have yet to find a weapon I find to be precious enough to give her as a wedding gift—
The short message continued in a similar vein, consisting of Emerys reporting his feelings about his upcoming nuptials.
Angelique scanned it three times to make certain she wasn’t missing a hidden code or veiled message, but no. The King of the Elves was so besotted, he had sent a trained bird with a message about his wedding.
I should suggest to Prince Severin that Emerys shares his love and devotion to meetings when I next speak to him, Angelique thought with no small amount of spite.
Disgruntled, she crumpled the message up and dropped it in her bag. A tiny part of her—one she pushed deep down because she’d be mortified to ever admit it—was warmed at Emerys’ letter.
It was the kind of letter one would send to a friend.
Angelique cleared her throat, forcibly set aside the possible rush of affection that had wormed into her chest, and studied the warriors.
No one seemed to notice the deadly focus she’d studied her “herbs” with—they were all still too busy with preparations.
Angelique relaxed and leaned against the cottage wall, reaching up to break an icicle that dripped water off of the roof’s overhang.
It seems I have a bit of time, and we’ll be leaving the forest for the rest of the day for this meeting. Perhaps I ought to take this time to set off a tracking spell for Evariste.
It was potentially dangerous. Her magic would flood the area, letting any magic user nearby know that Angelique—apprentice to Lord Enchanter Evariste and scourge of the Chosen—was around.
But it was a calculated risk. Due to all of her practice, she could snap a tracking spell off fast and quick. The residual feeling of her magic wouldn’t be strong enough to ooze past Luster Forest’s borders, and the Seven Warriors had previously confirmed that they were the forest’s only residents.
I haven’t attempted a tracking spell for Evariste in months—years probably. I gave up after I found out he was in a mirror. But obviously, they moved him north to Mullberg. Perhaps his location isn’t as warded as his previous one?
It was very unlikely.
In fact, it was downright stupid of Angelique to even hope it was so.
But she was starting to feel antsy about the halt in her search—even if, by helping Snow White with Faina, she was also most likely following her best lead to Evariste.
I’ll risk it. We’re going to leave, so even if a Chosen mage happens to be in the area and is sent to investigate, it will turn up nothing. I’ll just make sure to set the spell off away from the cottage.
Angelique tossed her icicle to the ground and wiped her wet hands off on her oversized tunic. “I’ll be right back,” she announced. “I’m going to go pick some herbs to replace what I’ve used up.”
Oswald squinted at her. “Are any herbs even growing? There’s still slush and snow on the ground.”
Angelique yawned in a show of false casualness. “Any slumbering herbs will bud for an herb wizard.” She lumbered toward the forest and grinned at Snow White as she passed her. “I’ll be back shortly.”
A few short hops took her through the natural barrier the trees provided, and she was free from observation. She whistled a jaunty song she’d once heard Stil sing, then trailed off when she thought she’d gone far enough to be out of hearing range and started jogging.
She squelched her way through the forest, her boots squishing on the slush-covered ground.
When she’d jogged for about ten minutes, Angelique slowed to a walk and marched in a circle as she let her magical senses stretch out around her.
Her core magic unfolded, rising up like a saber pulling free of its scabbard. It only took her potent powers a minute of rolling through the forest to assure her that—in terms of magic—she was well and truly alone.
“No mages around—at least none that are actively using magic. But I think it’s safe enough to assume there aren’t any here.” She stretched her hands above her head, trying to limber up her muscles as she mentally paged through the various tracking spells she could try.
She’d become uncommonly good at them, given how desperately she’d tried every tracking spell she came across when Evariste had first been taken.
I had great luck with that one tracking spell from Stil—it was how I discovered Evariste was in a mirror. But besides using it that one time with the bracelet Evariste gave me during my first days as his apprentice, I never got it to work again, so that one is out.
Angelique squinted up at the bare trees that swayed above her head and listened to the wind whistle through a nearby pine tree. Perhaps I ought to attempt the standard tracking spell I first tried? I need something fast. I don’t think travel preparations will take much longer, and I still need to get back.
She snapped off a nod and crouched down, mentally picturing the chains she’d need to shape and mold her magic into and the way the written symbols of magic would fit together to create those chains.
She forcibly held her magic back as she mentally traced out every minute detail of the symbol.
A year prior, she would have had to let her magic slowly build. But thanks to Puss’s drills and all of her practice under Quinn’s careful eyes, Angelique knew she could create the spell in an instant if she did a little preparation.