Remi had heard I would be visiting Granlo, among many other places. She had knocked on the door to my room one night before all of us had left the castle. I was a little surprised to see her. I had barely spoken to Remi when it was just the two of us, but she had spent weeks before smiling at me. I figured it was just her way of showing gratitude for me helping save her life. I noticed the same smile for Aliana, who was the first one onto the roof soon after Remi’s neck had been impaled with Eden’s dagger.
Remi’s visit to my room had been brief. She’d told me she wanted me to check on Gerald Ryler, the man her parents had forced her to marry and the reason she had fled Granlo and changed her name from Veronica. She wanted me to find out if Gerald had remarried. She said it was uncommon in Granlo for anyone Gerald’s age to be unmarried, and she worried about his new wife’s safety.
I promised her I would try to find out what I could, but that was about all I could do. The king had strictly told me not to interfere with issues of law. I was traveling alone, and trying to impose the law was dangerous without proper support. I thought it was good advice, but if I saw something unjust happening in front of me, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to stop myself from stepping in. Fortunately, that had not been the case anywhere.
Remi understood. She just wanted information.
The night Remi had stumbled across Valinox leaving a callring for Eden, she was returning to the castle after a visit to a witch’s house. Remi had left a gold coin with the witch and a hair of the man who’d abused her. According to what the witch had told Remi, a single hair was all the witch needed to make the man impotent. I didn’t know if the spell was permanent, but Remi made it sound like it could be. The witch was that powerful.
The king had begun to investigate the witch the day after. Remi claimed the witch was friendly, good-natured, and smart. She was only an enemy to those who broke the laws and were not punished accordingly.
It didn’t take long for news to spread around the castle that the witch had fled the city soon after the king had begun investigating her. I didn’t know exactly what the witch had witnessed or possibly heard that led her to leave, but she had taken just about everything from her house with her. She clearly wasn’t planning on coming back.
Considering all of this, I wondered what Remi planned to do if she found out that her ex-husband was now tormenting another girl. There was no witch around who could curse this man, so did Remi plan on visiting her hometown at some point and exacting her own revenge? Considering how powerful she had become with fire, the thought made me a little nervous. My fears were exacerbated when she refused to answer me when I questioned her about it.
But Remi was practically my age, just one year younger, at seventeen. I eventually decided that I trusted her and agreed I would inform her of whatever I found out.
I was disappointed when I’d heard that the witch had escaped the capital. I had a description of her from Remi that I gave to the sheriff of each town, hoping for some information that might lead to her location. According to Remi, she didn’t look like what you might think a witch looks like. She was short, beautiful with an innocent face, though she did have dark hair and usually carried around unsavory ingredients.
Remi had told me that if Hadley, the witch, knew that we planned to use her services rather than imprison her, she probably would at least speak with me. But I had spoken with the king privately before leaving, asking him what his intentions were if I managed to capture and bring back this witch of Remi’s. He had told me that her loyalty would need to be tested somehow, but that Remi was right. We could use her so long as we trusted her, though he wasn’t sure that would be the case.
Normally, none of us wanted anything to do with dteria, and that’s how curses were made. It was the king’s desperation that led him to this decision.
I was a little surprised to find out from Remi that Hadley wasn’t older than us. She was eighteen and had been friends with Remi for over a year. I found myself more and more curious about Hadley the more I thought about her. The only person who I knew could curse, besides Valinox, was Eden, but she had most likely been trained by the demigod himself. So how did this witch come to be so powerful? Had she worked with Valinox? If so, trusting her would be very difficult. I hadn’t thought to ask this of Remi before I left on my trip. It was one of several questions that came to mind that made me a little worried about finding Hadley.
A few of the sheriffs had recognized a girl fitting her description passing through their town, though she never stayed for more than a day. I didn’t know if she was headed somewhere specifically or just running aimlessly, but I hoped she didn’t plan to go to Rohaer. She would most likely be accepted there, and she probably knew this.
The sun was setting as I approached Granlo. I decided it would be better to make camp outside the city than ride in and try
