Uprooted

Many silver mantises and walkers attack, killing the horses. Marek, the Falcon, and the soldiers fight back, and Agnieszka moves to join them. However, the Dragon stops her, saying that their priority is the queen. They approach the heart-tree. The Dragon tries dozens of spells, but none break the bark. Then Agnieszka has an idea. She digs her hands into the dirt near the roots and chants, urging the Dragon to join her. They use a spell to draw water away and dry out the roots, slowly killing the tree. Around them, soldiers die.

The Dragon stumbles into the tree. Instantly, the bark begins to encase him. With his last strength, he throws a bottle of fire-heart to Agnieszka, ordering her to burn the tree down and run. Kasia agrees with him, assuring Agnieszka that being caught in the tree is worse than death. Agnieszka refuses, however, begging the Dragon to try the purging spell with her. They chant it together, burning both the bark and the Dragon. He screams but breaks away from the tree, collapsing. Beneath the crumbling bark, Agnieska can see another body. She attacks the tree with more spells, and the bark cracks. She and Kasia reach in and pull out a woman with deathly pale skin. Then the tree bursts into flames.

With the queen free, Agnieszka turns to fight the last of the walkers. She kills them with a spell, ending the battle. Only Marek, the Falcon, and two soldiers have survived. Marek turns to stare at the queen, who stands unmoving, with the same statue quality that Kasia now has. They wrap her in chains, but she does not react. However, when the burning heart-tree collapses, the queen staggers and claws at her face until Marek holds her still.

Agnieszka leads the way out of the Wood. Kasia carries the Dragon’s unconscious body, while the Falcon leads the queen by her chains. They emerge from the Wood in the wrong place, far away from Zatochek, where the Dragon left supplies. Exhausted and injured, they collapse in a field. Kasia, the only uninjured person among them, runs to the nearest village for help. Worried for the Dragon, Agnieszka rallies her strength and grabs the Falcon’s hand, demanding his help casting a healing spell. The Dragon’s wounds slowly heal, and he wakes. Shortly afterward, Kasia returns with a cart to carry everyone to safety.

They stay in a barn in Zatochek for a week to heal and suffer the effects of the purging potions. Agnieszka sleeps for three days. When she wakes, the Dragon is fully recovered, and the queen sits mute and obedient with an enchanted yoke around her. The Falcon confirms that she appears empty of corruption. However, both the Dragon and Agnieszka fear that the queen is also empty of soul.

At the end of the week, Marek announces that he is taking his mother home, though the Dragon believes she should remain in the tower. Marek will also take Kasia, and both women will stand trial for corruption. The Dragon and Agnieszka agree that Agnieszka must go with them. There, she should demand testing so that she can be added to the list of officially recognized wizards and then request aid from the king. They have dealt a serious blow to the Wood, and if the king sends troops, they may be able to burn it back far away from the villages. He warns her not to trust Solya, the Falcon. Agnieszka calls him by his real name, Sarkan, for the first time.

Just before she leaves, Sarkan gives Agnieszka a letter to present as proof of her legitimacy at court. During the week-long ride to Kralia, she tries to reason with Marek about letting Kasia go, but the law requires that those suspected of corruption face trial. Solya warns her that all those found corrupted must die.

They reach Kralia. At the entrance to the city, the king’s archbishop arrives to perform an initial test on the queen. He and a monk use sacred relics, each said to reveal corruption. Solya explains the process to Agnieszka, identifying the monk as Father Ballo, a wizard also called the Owl. The test with the relics reveals no corruption in the queen or Kasia, and the group is permitted to enter. A crowd cheers for the return of their queen. Agnieszka feels like she is living through a heroic tale.

The king awaits them at the castle, looking worried rather than happy. He orders the queen taken to the Willow, a healer witch. The guards take Kasia as well. Agnieszka follows, but the guards stop her. She presents the letter from Sarkan.

The guards take the letter and send Agnieszka to a small room on the bottom floor of the castle. While she waits, Solya arrives to take her to Charovnikov, the Hall of Wizards. There, Solya introduces her to the other court wizards: Alosha the Sword, a tall woman with dark skin who creates magical weapons and sneers at Agnieszka, Ragostok the Splendid, a man in elegant clothes who ignores Agnieszka completely as he creates a gold crown with his bare hands, and Father Ballo, who is skeptical of Agnieszka’s ability but friendly.

Solya explains that Sarkan sent her to be tested, and they all dismiss this as ridiculous because she has trained for only months while most train for seven years before testing. They suspect that either Sarkan or Marek must be in love with her but agree to test her. However, she is still inept at the usual kinds of spells. She explains that she is better at the intuitive magic that Jaga wrote, and Ballo scoffs, insisting that Jaga is a folk tale. The wizards dismiss her. Furious, Agnieszka shouts the earth-shaking spell, shaking the entire building. The wizards gape at her. Though they are annoyed, they add her to the list.

The next day, Agnieszka performs a naming ceremony, which should reveal her wizard’s name. However, the ritual fails, and she states that her real name is good enough. She is officially presented to the court as the witch Agnieszka of Dvernik. During this presentation, she meets the king and asks if he has read the letter from Sarkan, begging him to send troops to the tower to help defeat the Wood for good. He promises to discuss it with his advisors and sends her away. Later, she asks when the trial for Kasia and the queen will begin, but no one knows.

Days later, Agnieszka receives invitations to dinners and parties. Solya explains that as the newest and youngest wizard ever presented, she is a curiosity. He recommends that she make connections with the nobility and offers to escort her. Agnieszka refuses. Solya warns her that she should make allies where she can. Everyone believes she was put on the list of wizards because she is sleeping with Marek, and it does not matter if it is false if everyone spreads the rumor.

Later, Agnieszka sneaks through the castle to visit Kasia in the Willow’s chambers. There, she overhears a conversation between Marek and the Willow. Marek is angry that the Willow has been unable to heal his mother. The Willow notices Agnieszka’s arrival and snidely suggests that Marek ask her to help instead.

Marek rounds on Agnieska, accusing her of wasting time. He expects her to gain support so she will be a credible witness at his mother’s trial. He explains that the king was humiliated when the queen ran away 20 years ago and is not happy to have her returned. Moreover, the king is forging a marriage alliance with a princess of another kingdom. He is trying to delay the trial until the public loses interest, at which point he will quietly execute the queen and Kasia. Agnieszka must make herself useful if she wants to save her friend.

Agnieszka wants to speak with Sarkan. She visits the Charovnikov in search of a spell that will let her contact him. There, she runs into Father Ballo. She asks if there are other books like Jaga’s journal here. Ballo says he removes books that he deems unworthy or nonsensical, but he shows her to a room filled with old books that he has not yet cataloged.

There, she finds journals similar to Jaga’s, written by witches and wizards who grew up in her valley. She saves a spell for calling rain and lightning. As she picks up another book, she smells rotting wood and feels a sensation like that of the Wood. She flips through the book, finding it is a bestiary that describes monsters and chimaera.

She rushes out to find Ballo and Alosha, explaining that the book feels corrupted. They are shocked that it somehow escaped detection. The book was a gift from Rosya 20 years ago, brought when the prince visited and ran away with the queen. Ballo and Alosha hope that this may be proof that the prince and Queen were corrupted even before they left. Horrified, Agnieszka realizes that they want to put the queen and Kasia to death. Alosha insists that it is for the good of the kingdom: The Wood is too dangerous to take chances. She adds that once Agnieszka has lived over 100 years, she will have a more pragmatic attitude.

Agnieszka is startled, having forgotten that as a witch she will live a long time. She now understands that the wizards and witches’ long lives have divorced them from their humanity and empathy; they have grown cold and distant over the years, just like Sarkan, who took girls from their families, unaware of the pain it caused. She does not want to live so long that she forgets about love or decides that it is acceptable to use people like pawns.

Agnieszka says that she has lived by the Wood her entire life and knows better than they how dangerous it is. Alosha pointedly asks why the villagers never leave the valley. Agnieszka imagines leaving and her mind revolts. Alosha suggests that the villagers are bound to the Wood by virtue of being born and raised there. Agnieszka tries to deny it but feels the roots of the valley in her heart. She suddenly understands why Sarkan takes a girl every 10 years instead of hiring a servant: He uses each girl as a channel to the Wood, pulling power through her until eventually the channel dies and he needs a new one. With the channel closed, the girl is no longer bound and can leave, “getting away from the Wood like any sensible ordinary person would” (282).

Alosha hopes this will convince Agnieszka of the necessity of executing Kasia and the queen, but Agnieszka still insists they are not corrupted. Every test has proven that. Alosha points out that the Wood makes plans and lays devious traps; it may have let them go intentionally. Then Solya bursts in announcing that the trial has unexpectedly begun.