Wayward Witch by Zoraida Córdova

Author:Zoraida Córdova
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Published: 2020-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

13

Cirro held up a ceiba tree for six days and six nights.

To prove his strength as king.

To prove his love for Mayté.

—Claribelle and the Kingdom of Adas: Tales Tall and True, Gloriana Palacios

The early morning is cast in soft blue light. I take an inventory of my body. No numbness, lots of soreness, but I’ve felt worse after a ghost possession, to be honest. I sit up and find Iris is gone. Girasol Grove is serenaded by crickets and birds. Voices carry from somewhere nearby. I climb out of the little house but don’t have to go too far.

I recognize Iris’s cutting tone and catch a glimpse of Arco’s golden horns. Yesterday slams back to me, and I’m glad he can’t see me. I want to be so small that I can tuck myself into a tree hollow because I can’t believe I said those things out loud. Thankfully, they’re busy arguing.

“Then go back home, Brother,” Iris hisses.

“Why do you insist on pushing me away?”

“You made your choice.” She sighs. Stomps. “You don’t have to be here now. You’ve been perfectly content clinging to the king while I’ve scoured the realms for the siphon.”

“Do not mistake my decision to stay by his side for apathy. You chose to go alone. This is my home too. Mother wouldn’t want us to be like this. Can’t you see that?”

“It doesn’t matter what Mother wants, does it?” She doesn’t wait for his response and marches away.

I start to run back to the little house, but “Stealthy” is not my middle name, and Iris is at my side.

“Good morning,” I say. “Didn’t see you there.”

She’s in the same scalloped armor, the same long pink braids, not a hair out of place. She turns sharp quartz eyes at me and arches her brow in a way that calls out my lie without a single word. “There’s fresh water to wash up.”

Sure enough, next to the lily pond is a bowl of water, mint leaves, and a natural sponge. I chew on the leaves and hope they’re not there for any other purpose.

“You don’t have to stand there,” I say, wetting the sponge to wash up. “I can get back to the village center.”

“We’re not going to the village center.” Iris has her back to me, fussing with the straps of her leather boots. “I’d prefer to keep an eye on you until we’re at the Shuari rain forest.”

“I thought we were going to the outerlands.” I rinse out my mouth and dump the dirty water in the fire ring.

“We are. But the Shuari rain forest is the last stretch of green. That’s where we’ll make camp and find the blood of the gods.”

“This isn’t, like, real blood is it?”

“Why can’t you be serious for once?”

“What am I supposed to do? Be miserable and guilty that the only thing my father gave me was a curse and also that things try to kill me all the time? I’m sorry, Princess, but this is the Siphon you get.

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