Delia Prance's Arc

Chapter 55 of 59

The letter still lay on the long table when the second rider came. Delia read it twice. The court wanted her at the palace to answer for the magic spreading across the land. Glowing flowers. A unicorn in her field. Blooms she had not planted. She looked out at her beds, at the sixteen healers she had just trained, at the work she had finally freed her hands to do. If she stayed, the crown would decide about the magic without her. They would call it a threat and act. She could not let that happen. Nick set his cup down. "If we don't go, they'll rule on it alone. They'll call it dangerous." "Then we go," Delia said. "Today." They rode to Pinehollow Grand Palace by afternoon. Its towers climbed above the gate, and nobles waited in the hall. Delia felt their eyes. Half of them still feared her blood. She walked between them to the front and stopped where the whole court could see her. A noble spoke first. "The magic is everywhere now. Flowers that shine. Beasts long dead. The people are frightened. No one knows if it means harm." Another rose. "It follows the queen. She should answer for it." Delia did not step back. "The magic is not mine to command," she said. "It is returning to the land on its own. I have seen it by the river. I did not call it." "Then how do we know it is safe?" the first noble asked. Delia thought of the unicorn resting in her field. She thought of the flowers that had healed no one and harmed no one. "You know a thing by what it does," she said. "The flowers bloom. The creatures graze. None have hurt a single soul. Fear it if you like. But name me one wound it has caused." The hall went quiet. No noble answered. Nick moved to her side. "My wife heals your people for free," he said. "The same blood you fear does that. Call it a threat and you insult every farmer she has saved." Delia pressed on. "Give me the magic to tend. I know plants. I know what heals and what harms. Let me study these blooms and tell you the truth of them. If I find danger, I will say so. If I find none, you will have your answer." The nobles murmured. King Rowan sat above them, listening. At last he raised his hand. "The queen knows growing things better than any man here," he said. "The returning magic falls to her. She will watch it and report to this court." It was done. The crown would not act alone. But Delia had bound herself to a new task. She rode home with the whole strange magic of the land laid on her shoulders. She now had to understand a power no living person had ever explained. Nick watched her at the gate. "You wanted it in your hands," he said. "Now it is."