Lenesa wasn't sure how long she waited, cowering in the darkness behind the sturdy oak barrels in the alleyway, listening for any sound of approaching footsteps. It was only when the rain began to pick back up that she finally forced herself to move. She couldn't tell if she was shivering from the cold or her lingering fear anymore, but there was nothing she could do about that now. She had to get back home.

But how? Theiden had warned her that Decliteur's men would have alerted the guards at the gate now.

And that was another thought that she couldn't bear to dwell on at the moment. Why was Theiden helping her, after all she had done? He had been so angry when he'd realized she had been lying to him, and she would have expected him to naturally have turned a blind eye when he saw her being chased. He'd even had the opportunity to trick her and bring the men right back to her, yet he had instead led them away and given her a chance to escape.

Why, why, why?

Lenesa shook her head and steadied herself with a hand against a rain-soaked barrel. Right now, she needed to focus on getting out of the city. Making sense of Theiden's behavior would have to come after.

She squinted through the rain in the direction of the city gate, but shook her head. If the guards were already warned of her arrival, there would be no appealing to have them let her out this time. If she had Audeste's powers of persuasion, she would have had no trouble getting by, but as it was, she'd more likely be speared through as soon as they looked at her.  Besides, it was well past the hour when a normal person would try to leave the city.

What other option did she have? Going to the bookkeeper and asking for lodging?

Lenesa shook her head again, harder this time. No, she couldn't face him like this. But she couldn't very well stand there all night, either.

What, then? Go back to hide under the ferryman's bridge like a troll?

Despite her situation, Lenesa gave a half-amused snort at the thought. That plan certainly wouldn't do. But the bridge...

Lenesa's eyes widened.

The river!

If there was a river running through the city, there would have to be a place where the river passed through the walls surrounding it, to both enter and leave. Why hadn't she thought of it before? For all the times she had visited the city, she had never thought to arrive by water. Of course, Miche-en-Mir was downstream, and Völpúnsgard up north was too far away to have many frequent travelers.

Lenesa stumbled out of the alleyway, spinning until she faced the direction of the river and nearly tripping as she hurried off in that direction. The torches mounted on the stone walls of the buildings hissed at her beneath the onslaught of rain, urging her faster.

The cobblestones were slick beneath her boots, and several times she nearly fell. Twice, she heard footsteps that sent her racing in a panic away from anyone who might discover her. It seemed an eternity until she came to a stop at the river, which flowed thick and dark as raindrops splattered upon its surface.

No one was around to see her as Lenesa descended the steps to the riverbank and began pacing in the shadows alongside the water. To go upstream, or downstream? There were bound to be more guards posted downstream, to both prevent anyone from easily sailing out of the city and to check incoming passengers from Miche-en-Mir. But going against the current would be difficult by herself.

Upstream, a voice whispered in her mind. You have the power. Use it.

The voice held the same dark, hypnotizing lull as the swirling eddies in the water before her, and at first, she instinctively rejected it. It reminded her too much of her thoughts from earlier that evening, tempting her to kill the child she had just saved. But as the idea continued to trickle through her mind, she decided to listen. If it got her out of the city in one piece, she would do it. At least this time, the voice wasn't urging her to kill anyone.

Lenesa set off to the right, boots sinking in the mud as she progressed. The other thing about heading upstream was that she was closer to the wall that the river passed through. She could already see the shadowy crenels in the distance, and soon came to see how the river passed into the city.

The wall had been built out into the river, only arching over the water at the deepest point in the middle to grant a narrow passageway no wider than seven horses standing shoulder-to-shoulder. The wall was higher here, too—whereas by the front gate, the stones were only stacked as high as two people, here the wall rose to the height of four. The looming immensity of the wall here was almost enough to make Lenesa want to turn around and try to run out the front gate, but—there were fewer guards.

Lenesa forced her panicked breathing to slow and focused on calming her rapid heartbeat as she took a closer look. Whereas the front gate had a total of sixteen men who rotated out in groups of eight from the guard station every half-hour, this part of the wall near the river only had five positions, with a one-person guard station that the soldiers must take turns switching out from for a break. It would be much easier to overtake the guards here.

You have the strength, the voice whispered to her. Don't hesitate.

Lenesa took a step back, shaking her head. Her powers were meant to heal, not harm. There was no way she could attack these people without furthering the damage marked by the inky stains on her arms.

The answer swiftly floated to the surface of her mind.

Don't use your magic.

Lenesa paused. The suspicion had always been in the back of her mind, ever since the day Aunt Mona had died and Audeste had Turned. But she had managed to shove it aside until only recently, when she had rescued Theiden from Audeste and carved a path through the forest for his escape. It had been part of an amplified homing spell, but she didn't have the strength in her magic required to move earth and trees. At the most, it should have only resulted in a misty ribbon for him to follow—not an actual trail. It had bothered her at the time, but she had been too preoccupied with other worries to think back on it much until now.

It would also explain why the dark marks had never fully disappeared from her arms ever since that fight.

Lenesa cast a wary gaze out to the water, and slowly raised her hand. She could feel the hidden force of the river, a deceptively calm exterior that could snatch a child from its banks in a flash and crush rocks to sand with the weight of its sheer volume alone. Her fingers tingled, and she knew—its power was hers to command. She closed her hand into a fist, grasping on to the flowing water and pulling back with her magic.

It hurt! Every nerve screamed with the awareness of what she was doing, but Lenesa gritted her teeth and ignored it. She was desperate—a caged animal that would gnaw at the bars of its cage until its teeth were nubs if it meant gaining her freedom.

Slowly, slowly, the river changed. The rushing water became sluggish, then came to a stop. Lenesa took a breath and pulled again, this time yanking harder and angrier. Her breath left her in a pained gust and she screwed her eyes shut to just focus on the motions. Reach, grasp, pull. Reach, grasp, pull. She could hear the startled exclamations from the guards at the wall as they finally took notice of what was happening.

The current switched, the river streaming backwards nearly faster than it ordinarily went forwards. Somewhere further upstream, perhaps halfway to Völpúnsgard, it was beginning to flood where her influence ended and the backwards current met the regular one. But Lenesa couldn't worry about that just now.

A guard raised his torch, looking further downriver through the rain, and finally spotted Lenesa standing by the river in the shadows of the city wall.

"You there!" he called. "What's going on?"

Lenesa kicked at the water, and nearer the wall, a wave rose up in a larger imitation of the splash she had created, knocking the guard from his post to land several yards away, unconscious at the impact. The other soldiers rushed to attention.

"Witch! Get her!"

Arrows zipped through the air in an instant, and Lenesa dodged and flung her basket in the air, willing the winds to carry it higher, higher, over the wall. She held her breath, focusing to keep her control on both the water and wind. Something hot and damp trickled from her nose, and Lenesa wiped it away without a glance, knowing full well it was blood but choosing to ignore it. This was far more important.

Momentarily distracted, the arrows stopped as the guards followed the object, and a few arrows shot skywards after it until it disappeared over the other side. It had worked! Lenesa would have sagged from relief, but she could only let go of her call on the air and grit her teeth as the loss of power left her feeling like a punch to the stomach.

The water. Focus.

She staggered forward, the sound of an arrow whizzing past her ear and another landing in the mud too close to her foot for comfort. With a last breath, Lenesa leapt forward—and fell.

She had thought the rain had already soaked her through, but the iciness of the river, even in this summer monsoon, permeated her every pore as it dragged her deeper into the darkness below. Lenesa struggled to maintain some form of control as she was buffeted about beneath the unnatural current, nature fighting against the force that willed it backwards.

Which way was up? Lenesa let a few precious bubbles escape as an arrow sliced through the water near her right arm, barely slowed by its entrance to the river. Perhaps she wasn't as far down as it seemed. As the current tore her upriver, the arrows continued to rain down into the water around her. Was she not through the gate still? Her lungs burned with the need to take a breath, but she didn't dare claw her way to the surface just yet.

Farther she tumbled, knocked about with other river jetsam beneath the waves. Her cloak twisted and pulled at her neck, choking her and sending her further into a panic. Finally, the hail of arrows stopped. Was she through? Lenesa clawed her way to the surface and looked around.

The gates were still in front of her!—no. Lenesa sucked in a breath. She was facing backwards, but she was through the gate now. She was outside the city.

Somewhere behind the walls, Lenesa could hear the distant clanging of an alarm bell, but none of it mattered—they were too late. Lenesa let the water carry her to the banks and rolled onto the shore, barely managing to support herself on her hands and knees as she spat out river water. Then, she let go of her magical hold on the river.

The water immediately receded from the shoreline, as though confused and hurt by her manipulation. The river let out an angry sucking sound, warning of the danger that was to come. She didn't have much time.

Lenesa staggered to her feet and looked around, finally spotting her basket lying in the grass a few steps away, its contents strewn across the ground. She gathered up as much as she could—the jar of honey, the mortar and pestle, the sage, the book—before the rumbling behind her told her that she was out of time.

The ground trembled beneath her feet as Lenesa ran from the river, up the bank and into the forest in the direction of the mountains. Only once she was safely uphill did she dare look back, just in time to see an enormous surge of water thundering down the river, right towards the city gate. It slammed against the wall without hesitation, bursting upwards in a violent spray and swallowing chunks of masonry that were torn off at the impact. Terrified screams ripped through the air from within the city, and Lenesa stumbled back with tears in her eyes, vehemently shaking her head.

No, it can't be. I didn't do this.

Jinxes like the one she had cast on Theiden's daughter were harmless, and duels against Turned creatures like the faun and Audeste were necessary. But this—this was injury that she had caused, on purpose, and there was no amending that.

Please, don't let it have killed them.

Her ankle itched, and Lenesa jerked the hem of her skirt up. The first black threads were beginning to crawl up from her boot in their unmistakable ominous pattern.

She had escaped the city, but at what price?

~~~~~

Google seems to think this page is in French and wants to translate it.  What?

All right, any ideas what's going on?  Why is Lenesa able to control the river and wind if she's a healing witch?  And what's going to happen next?  I love hearing your ideas!

Thank you for reading, and please vote or comment if you liked it!