Uprooted

For days, Agnieszka cooks meals and leaves them in the library. Soon, her fear turns to boredom. One evening, she sneaks a book out of the library. She tries to read it but does not understand it. Suddenly, the Dragon appears and takes the book, demanding to know who sent her. She is confused and denies the accusation.

Then she tears free and runs down the stairs to the Dragon’s laboratory, hiding behind a table and shattering a spell jar. Gray smoke rises from the jar, and her body turns to stone. The Dragon enters and decides that she is not a spy— “only a witling” (30). He speaks an incantation, and her body unfreezes. Agnieszka explains that she only wanted a book to read. He scoffs, saying it is not possible that she chose Luthe’s Summoning by accident. Then he realizes that is precisely what she did.

He points at her clothing—a dirty homespun dress she found in a box—and remarks that her appearance offends him. He speaks a word, “vanastalem,” ordering her to repeat it. When she does, her dress changes into an enormous silk gown. Again, she feels weak and exhausted. Exasperated, the Dragon dismisses her.

For weeks, she wears a different homespun dress each day and the Dragon casts the vanastalem spell, changing each one. The spell leaves her exhausted each time. The Dragon never explains why he casts this spell or others that he makes her repeat. Often, the spells go wrong, and the Dragon reacts with annoyance. Agnieszka does not understand why he blames her for the spells he casts. She consoles herself that he must have done this with the other girls, all of whom survived the experience.

Over time, her weakness lessens. She runs out of homespun dresses and searches for sewing supplies. In a basket of thread, she finds another note, this one assuring her that the Dragon just wants company but only on his own terms. Moreover, it will not occur to him to give her anything, such as clothes, but she can find items in the guest chambers and alter them to suit her needs. She realizes with horror that the Dragon never used the vanastalem spell on the other girls. She is the only one.

The next morning, the Dragon orders Agnieszka to clear the breakfast tray and return to her room until he calls for her. Stunned, she leaves, only realizing later that she still has the tray. From her window, she sees a carriage. A handsome man steps out, and Agnieszka recognizes him as Prince Marek of Polnya, the younger son of the king. Though his older brother, Sigmund, will inherit the throne, Marek is famous for his heroic deeds, like leading battles in the wars against the neighboring kingdom of Rosya. Marek and the Dragon speak in the library, and Agnieszka eavesdrops from the stairs. She momentarily considers asking the prince to save her but, realizing that the prince will not care about her, instead runs back to her room.

That evening, Marek enters her room. He kisses her and reaches down to lift her skirts. Agnieszka struggles and he laughs, ripping her dress. Panicking, she uses vanastalem to change her torn dress into an elaborate gown. Marek calls her a witch. She grabs the serving tray and smashes it over his head until he crumples in a heap.

The Dragon bursts in, sees the prince unconscious with blood running down his face, and demands to know what Agnieszka has done now. The Dragon sends her to his laboratory for a healing potion, which he pours down Marek’s throat while speaking an incantation. Marek’s wounds heal. Relieved that he will live, Agnieszka cries.

Agnieszka accuses the Dragon of turning her into a witch. He says he has not done anything but teach her simple charms and cantrips. Suddenly she understands that he has not been casting spells on her but teaching them to her. He explains that it is the law that any identified as possessing the gift must be taught magic. He did not want to choose her, but once he sensed her power at the harvest festival, he had no choice.

The Dragon uses a spell to alter Marek’s memory: He will believe he seduced Agnieszka and leave satisfied in the morning. The Dragon adds that Marek wants him to enter the Wood and find Marek’s mother, Queen Hanna. Twenty years ago, a prince from the neighboring kingdom of Rosya came on a peace mission and seduced the queen. They ran away together and entered the Wood, hoping to cut through it to Rosya on the far side. However, no one who enters the Wood lives, and they are presumed dead. The Dragon says that the queen is not dead. However, there is no way to save her, and Marek refuses to listen to reason.

Agnieszka’s magic lessons continue. She is less afraid, but she is not a good student. She has difficulty memorizing even the simplest spells, and the results are destructive and messy. Lessons often end with the Dragon “splutter[ing] himself into exhaustion” and sending her away (55). Agnieszka wishes she were better because she now understands that the Dragon’s frustration stems from a love for beauty and a genuine joy in magic that he wants to share. Despite knowing this, she is glad to complete her lessons as quickly as possible and escape to her room. Moreover, she is uncomfortable with the thought that she has always possessed this power without knowing it.

The Midwinter festival arrives. Agnieszka mourns that she cannot be with her family for the traditional meal. Two days later, a rider arrives with a message from the baron of the Yellow Marshes, the neighboring province. The baron requests the Dragon’s assistance with a monster attack. The Dragon leaves Agnieszka in the tower, warning that he will be gone for a week.

That night, Agnieszka sees beacon fires lighting a trail from Dvernik to the tower. The beacons serve to warn of attack or request the Dragon’s aid, and with the Dragon is gone, she decides she must go instead. She gathers potions from the laboratory. Then, because the great doors are barred, she makes a rope out of her dresses and climbs out her window. She walks to Olshanka, the nearest village, and demands a ride to Dvernik. The villagers laugh until she uses the vanastalem spell to make a beautiful gown. Then they take her seriously.

On the road to Dvernik, Agnieszka runs into Kasia riding toward the tower. Agnieszka tells her about learning magic, and Kasia is unsurprised, remarking that strange things often happened around her as a child. Then, Kasia explains that the Wood has infected a farmer named Jerzy and his cattle. When they arrive in Dvernik, they gather the infected cattle to burn using a bottle of fire-heart that Agnieszka took from the Dragon’s laboratory. It is priceless and powerful, and the Dragon will punish her for using it.

Then Agnieszka and Kasia visit Jerzy. He is tied to his bed, infected with Wood-sickness. It has turned his skin green and rotting, his nails black, and his teeth yellow. Wood-sickness is usually incurable, though she has seen the Dragon heal it once. She uses the same healing potion the Dragon used on Marek, but it does nothing. She sees the Wood watching her out of Jerzy’s eyes. When she realizes she cannot heal him, she uses a gray smoke potion instead, turning him to stone and halting the progress of the infection. She hopes that the Dragon will be able to save Jerzy when he returns.

Agnieszka and Kasia leave. Kasia says that at the time of the harvest festival, she was prepared for the Dragon to take her and could not bear watching him take Agnieszka away instead. As they are talking, monstrous wolves attack from the Wood. Agnieszka uses every spell she can recall, but the wolves continue to advance until the Dragon suddenly appears, shouting a spell to push the wolves back. One wolf claws at him, tearing into his arm.

He scares the wolves away, but the wound on his arm glows with infection. He tells Agnieszka they must return to the tower and teaches her the spell to move instantly through the air. Agnieszka gives the bottle of fire-heart to Kasia and tells her to send someone to check on them at the tower. If they cannot prove they are safe, she must burn down the tower. Agnieszka knows that if the Dragon becomes infected with Wood-sickness and goes on a violent rampage, they will all be lost. Then she speaks the spell and drags the Dragon back to the tower.

The spell brings Agnieszka and the Dragon to Agnieszka’s room. The Dragon’s wound is green, and he is unconscious. The corruption fills the room with a sickly rotting wood smell. Agnieszka rushes around the library, where she finds an old journal filled with notes that she recognizes as the Dragon’s handwriting. She finds a healing spell with vague instructions and uses instinct to complete the potion.

Finished, she runs to her room and pours the mixture over the rotting wound. The journal suggests many chants, and she tries them all until one feels right, singing the words to the melody of an old song. She feels the magic take hold. The green rot disappears, and the Dragon wakes up. Shocked and appalled, he exclaims, “[Y]ou impossible, wretched, nonsensical contradiction, what on earth have you done now?” (86), and storms out of the room. Agnieszka falls asleep, exhausted from the magic.

In the morning, the Dragon says the journal she used is filled with useless notes that have never worked. He demands to know precisely what she did and takes detailed notes as she describes her process. However, she insists that she followed instinct, explaining, “There’s isn’t only one way to go […] You’re trying to find a road where there isn’t one. It’s like—it’s gleaning in the woods. […] You have to pick your way through the thickets and the trees, and it’s different every time” (88).

The Dragon thinks this is nonsense and decides that she must have a knack for healing magic. Agnieszka asks if she might be able to help Jerzy now. The Dragon insists that she should not have been able to heal him with only minutes of corruption and will certainly not be able to remove days’ worth of rot from Jerzy.

The Dragon tries to teach her advanced spells, but none work. She wants to work with the journal she used before. The journal, the Dragon explains, was written by the infamous witch Old Jaga 500 years ago. Many wizards have tried to replicate the spells without success. The Dragon bought the journal years before, but his added notes only catalog failures. He believes the spells are nonsense. Agnieszka’s success, however, suggests otherwise.

Agnieszka performs spells from the journal, each one working perfectly. However, when the Dragon copies her process, the spells fail. She tells him that the path she took through the hedges is not the same path that will work for him, and he furiously shouts, “[T]here are no hedges!” (93). Despite this sulking, he gives Agnieszka a collection of similar spellbooks. Each one is useless to him but comes easily to her. She studies them obsessively.

One day, the Dragon shows her an illusion spell to try. She creates the incomplete illusion of a rose in her hand. He puts his hands around hers and creates a better rose, telling her to match him. She can feel the magic and begins to twine his and hers together. The rose illusion explodes into a mass of vines and flowers. The Dragon stares at her, and she pulls away self-consciously.