Read Online Foxheart by Claire Legrand - Free Book Online Page B

grew up as witches too—and their children’s children, and so on. Long after the First Ones had gone, then, the world was still full of witches. But they carried the spirit of that long, dark war inside them, and lived full of distrust for one another, more likely to quarrel than to join hands in fellowship.
    Now we witches say that when the First Ones disappeared, their spirits went to rest in the stars, from where they watch over the seven kingdoms we know as Lalunet, Falstone, Napurya, Belrike, Koreva, Menettsk, and Valteya.
    These seven kingdoms are called the Star Lands, and for a long time, they enjoyed an era of peace.
    Anastazia bowed her head, letting her eyes fall closed. She sat there for so long it seemed she’d fallen asleep. Quicksilver and Fox glanced at each other.
    â€œEr, well, that was a nice story,” said Sly Boots, his eyes peeking out over the pillow he still clutched to his chest. “But that doesn’t explain anything that’s happened except for witchy history nonsense that no one cares about.”
    â€œEverything I say is important,” said Anastazia, her eyes snapping open to glare at Sly Boots. “You’d do well to shut your mouth and listen carefully.”
    Sly Boots obeyed, but with such a red-faced expression of indignation that Quicksilver nearly burst out laughing.
    But she didn’t. She waited as Anastazia took a sip of her tea and then continued.
    Once there was a boy born into an old witch family.
    The boy’s name was Ari, and the family’s name was Tarkalia. They ruled the northern kingdom of Valteya, and their ranks were full of powerful witches.
    Except for Ari.
    He had little magical skill . . . so little that, when he turned thirteen years old, and still had not found his monster—which is to say, he had not yet come of magical age, as he should have—his family began to scorn him. And therefore the entire kingdom came to scorn him, and Ari’s life turned lonely and cold.
    One day the boy was wandering the mountains of Valteya, very near the Far North, and was greeted by seven voices. They told Ari that if he would act as their vessel in the Star Lands, give them a body in which to exist, they would find monsters for him. Not just one, but many. He would become a powerful witch, more powerful than his family, more powerful than anyone.
    All he had to do was help them with this one simple task: he must act as their body in the Star Lands and help them find the bones of their monsters, for they had once been witches themselves, but were no longer. And once these bones were found, the seven witches could walk the earth again, as they had not done in many an age.
    Having nothing to lose, and eager to seek revenge upon those who had ridiculed him, Ari agreed to this bargain at once. The spirits of these seven witches possessed his body, and Ari Tarkalia began working terrible deeds.
    As had been promised, he soon found seven wolves—one for each of the Star Lands, one for each of the spirits now living inside him—and forced magic into them. The wolves became bound to Ari as his monsters, and since the wolves were forced into this bondage and did not come by it naturally, their magic was dangerous and sharp. The wolves hungered for violence, as did the witches who controlled them.
    Using Ari as their eyes and his wolves as their teeth, the seven witches slaughtered his family, every last Tarkalia they could find, and then Ari was king of Valteya, though his throne was red with blood. But soon even Valteya was not enough. Ari left that kingdom, and the Star Lands, and appointed seven lords to rule the Star Lands in his name. They would be loyal to him, and him alone, and he would be the only king. Then Ari moved to the Far North and built a castle carved of stone so black it swallowed the starlight.
    Finally Ari understood that the witches inside him were the spirits of the First Ones, who had nearly destroyed the Star