want to believe, as Yvan does, that prophecies are dangerous, often self-fulfilling superstitions. That the power growing inside me isn’t twisted like my grandmother’s. But even the sparse desert trees here—it’s clear that they sense something irredeemable in me.
Black Witch, the trees called out ceaselessly on the wind, low and accusatory, every time we passed through forested land. Ever since I blasted a forest into flame and Yvan and I discovered what I really am, the trees have been sending their aura of hate through me with a mounting intensity, so much so that it was a relief to finally portal out of the hostile forest and into this more barren landscape.
What if it’s true? I agonize as I ready the Wand of Myth. What if I’m at risk of becoming just like my grandmother if I harness this power?
What if I’m a danger to Yvan and everything good on Erthia?
I look back down at the Wand, suddenly filled with an overwhelming reluctance to use this wand, even though it’s been dormant since we rescued Naga. Even though my brother Trystan could no longer wring the simplest candle-lighting spell from it.
“I can’t use this,” I tell Kam Vin, my voice shaking. I turn and hold the Wand out to her. “I’ve a sense it’s too powerful. I told you what I can do with a little branch.”
Kam Vin’s expression hardens. “Elloren Gardner, that is why we are in the Agolith.” She motions toward the vast expanse of desert. “There is nothing here,” she points out with a sweep of her hand. “Nothing for leagues.”
Fear gnaws at my insides as I peer back over the red desert sands and my sense that something awful is about to be unleashed grows. I remember how I conjured a great, killing fire with just a slender twig.
I remember how the forest screamed.
“Give me another wand,” I insist, turning my back on the desert expanse and holding out the Wand again to Kam Vin. “A weak one. Then I’ll do it.”
Kam Vin makes a sound of disdain, her fist on her hip. The sun’s ruby light glints off the silver star weapons strapped diagonally across her chest and does nothing to soften the severe look on her face. “You are being foolish, Elloren Gardner.”
“I don’t care,” I counter. “I won’t try the spell. Not without a weak wand.”
She narrows her eyes and glares at me for a protracted moment before gesturing toward young Chim Diec with a jerk of her chin.
Chim Diec is coldly formal and graceful as a heron. Like most of our party, she seems to view me with deep suspicion and has made a point of keeping her distance. She approaches me warily, then reaches inside her black tunic’s pocket and pulls out a simple wooden wand from a cluster of four, this one made of pale wood with a swirling mahogany grain.
Mountain Ash.
“This wand is perhaps one step up from a tree branch,” Chim Diec tells me, her words crisply accented.
Heart pounding, I sheathe the Wand of Myth in the wand-belt around my waist and take this new wand in hand.
I can feel this wand’s lesser power the moment I touch it, my magic drawing down, retreating through my feet and back into the earth. I can sense that the wood has fewer layers, roughly put together, shoddily done.
When I touch my Wand, I can feel layers and layers of wood going on to infinity, and, sometimes, if I have it in hand when I’m surrounded by forest, I can barely hold on to the power that strains up from Erthia to meet with it. It’s been like this whenever I have a wand in my grasp ever since I sent a spell through that small branch. Ever since I discovered what I truly am.
Something within me has been unleashed. And its potential for destruction terrifies me.
And even though this wand in my hand does feel weak, it’s still a wand.
“Step back,” I nervously order the sorceresses, recalling the runic shields they’re capable of creating. “And send up a strong, combined shield.”
Kam Vin seems to be rapidly losing patience, the already tight line of her mouth drawing tighter still. “It’s unnecessary,” she bites out. “And will take well over an hour’s time.”
“Humor me,” I insist.
Runemaster Chi Nam calls out something to Kam Vin in the Noi language, and Kam Vin gives a terse, reluctant nod before shooting me a glare. Then Kam Vin, Ni Vin, and the other Vu Trin back