[wattys 2018 shortlisted]
Humans see her as a dangerous threat -a witch that must be executed. With the uncontrollable ability to form ice at her fingertips, Ravenna is forced into hiding amongst the humans, stealing to survive. That is, until she h...
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RAVENNA SUCKED IN a sharp breath. Her arms immediately folded across her chest as an uneasy feeling seeped through her veins, making her whole body feel like lead. Her gaze flickered around the room again. There was no telling what that assistant had planned to do to them. The failed spells made it obvious that he wouldn't have been able to guide them through the forest. He couldn't even navigate it by himself. And it wasn't like he had planned to use their magical abilities either —he'd tried to murder Ravenna!
Had she not killed him, neither she nor Vyses would have ever found this room and escaped.
She pursed her lips and absently watched Vyses skim through some of the pages of the open spell-book. The more that she thought about it the whole ordeal, the more that it all made sense. No wonder he'd treated her so rudely at dinner. It probably stung quite harshly that she, a mere woman, could actually perform magic while he couldn't. It also made sense why he'd attacked her after nightfall. He'd hoped to catch her off-guard with a surprise attack, while she was asleep and defenseless. The mere thought made her sick.
"What should we do now?" Ravenna asked quietly.
For a moment, no one said anything in response to her. A small, annoyed sigh escaped her. She cleared her throat and repeated herself, this time speaking much louder. Both Vyses and Lyth paused in their exploration and looked up at her.
"Well, what exactly do you mean, lass?" Vyses asked. His eyebrows were furrowed together with confusion.
Ravenna gestured to the open spell-book in front of him. "I believe that we have two options," she explained. "We have found our path to freedom, so we can easily move on through the forest and take out the guards as we had planned. Then we can move on to the next down."
Vyses arched an eyebrow. "What would be our second option?"
She lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. "We stay," she responded. "While this castle is old and crumbling, it has a pretty good defense system surrounding it. I mean, even when we were going through the tunnels, there was a pretty good chance that we would be attacked and we were risking it. I think that, with enough guards, this castle would make for a very good base."
Vyses pursed his lips and hummed. "I'm not sure about that," he said.
"I'm not saying that we need to personally stay here permanently. I just want to point out that, eventually, we are going to get tired of running from town to town. We are going to want a safe haven that we can return to," Ravenna added.
"That is true," Vyses murmured.
"Not to mention, this whole city is perfect for protection. The edges are always heavily guarded and relatively easy to defend. If replaced with our own soldiers, this location would be an incredibly good vantage point."
Vyses nodded, mostly to himself. "That is a very good point. Then it is decided. This will be our new home," he announced. He turned to Lyth and added, "All we need is to find a decent spell that will maintain the castle's upkeep and prevent it from turning into rubble. Preferably one that does not rely upon a living host like the previous spell did."
