How to Raise a Dumb Wolf - Chapter 14

The general’s voice rang out, forceful and impassioned. It had to carry far enough for the long ranks of soldiers to hear, and even then, those at the very rear required others to relay the order.

As matters stood, however, at least the feline emperor across the Divine Sea had heard her.

Carter III frowned slightly. “That voice just now… was Tina Killott?”

Only someone with considerable authority in an army would speak in such a manner. When one considered powerful women in the military—excluding the beastfolk—Tina Killott was the natural answer. It was hardly surprising that Carter III could identify her from her voice alone.

Les nodded and gave a soft sound of assent.

“I see.”

Understanding entered Carter III’s voice. He fell silent for nearly a minute. Just as Les began to wonder whether the magical connection had failed, the emperor’s voice returned to his ear.

“Les, we have been at peace with the humans for twenty-five years. Under the present circumstances, if we proposed cooperation… how likely do you think they would be to agree?”

…

The night deepened. In the small hours, a curved half-moon finally rose and cast a quiet shaft of white light through the window, giving the girls in the cages just enough illumination to see.

Aisha, unaware that beastfolk and human armies outside had already reached an understanding and planned to storm the castle together under cover of darkness, was working desperately on a means of escape.

The previous day had been exhausting, packed with several violent swings between danger and temporary safety in a span of more than ten hours. After narrowly escaping Prince Brandon’s attention, Aisha returned to the cage and tried to get some sleep beside Elizabeth. But her nerves remained too taut. She lay awake, searching frantically for any method that might free them.

The cage was far too sturdy. Every iron bar was impossibly hard; no one could bend them by hand. They had no tools, either. So…

After turning the problem over and over, Aisha found only one possibility worth trying.

Her ability.

Aisha’s gift was healing. Ordinarily, she used it to mend wounds and treat sick plants or animals, though its power was limited. At first glance, healing offered no help whatsoever in their present situation.

But perhaps healing could also be understood as restoring something to an earlier state. If so, might she restore the cage—or its lock—to the scattered raw materials from which it had been made?

Maintaining the wholesome, optimistic conviction that trying would not kill her, while failing to try might very well leave her dead in this place, Aisha drew a deep breath. She gently lifted Elizabeth from her shoulder and settled her against the bars, then walked to the edge of the cage.

“Aisha?” Elizabeth woke and rubbed her eyes, confused when Aisha suddenly moved away.

“Sorry. Did I wake you?” Aisha smiled apologetically. “I want to see if I can dismantle this cage.”

“No, I wasn’t… Wait, did you say dismantle… What?”

Elizabeth blinked in confusion. Then she saw something astonishing.

Golden light bloomed in the hands of the ordinary girl who claimed to come from a border town and appeared to know nothing of her own origins. It was gentle and bright as the first sunlight of morning. Merely looking at it seemed to offer comfort.

Elizabeth stared. “You’re a mage?!”

Aisha faltered and wanted to deny it, but using her healing power required concentration. She could only bite her lip and remain silent. This was the first time she had attempted to use her ability on a lifeless object. For some reason, she encountered a kind of resistance, making it unusually difficult.

The light between her hands shone conspicuously in the dim room. Many girls who had been unable to sleep edged closer to watch, their faces filling with hope.

But a girl three or four cages away offered a dejected warning.

“Don’t waste your strength. I’m a mage too. I tried in secret as soon as they locked me up. These cages are carved with anti-magic runes. The darkfolk trust them so completely they didn’t even confiscate my wand. Besides, your light is too bright. You’ll draw them here. Could you make it a little—what? You broke through?!”

The girl who had identified herself as a mage widened her eyes. Before her incredulous gaze, Aisha’s light abruptly flared and visibly affected the iron bar.

The rune had been breached.

The girl opened her mouth. “You’re powerful? No, then how did they capture you…? Wait. Are you one of those rare mages with an innate gift?!”

The innate magic of gifted mages differed subtly from ordinary spells. Its forms were too numerous and unpredictable. Blocking every possibility required extremely advanced runes, and such expensive enchantments would never be carved into mass-produced cages. Gifted mages were so rare that no one would spend such sums guarding against so remote a chance.

If one of the captives possessed an innate gift, perhaps they really could escape.

The mage brightened with excitement. The other girls looked at one another. They understood little of her explanation, but they could tell that Aisha had become their hope.

By then, Aisha could no longer hear them. The golden threads under her control had finally joined successfully. She concentrated with all her might. The rest should be as always: connect, repair, restore. The process was identical, yet applying it to something without life was far more difficult.

At last, the golden light faded.

Her ability had worked.

With its help, the iron bar of the cage had visibly become…

Considerably thicker.

Aisha: …

In a certain sense, she had successfully healed the iron bar. The result simply differed somewhat from what she had imagined.

The girls whose hopes had risen all let their shoulders sag. Elizabeth glanced carefully at Aisha, but a hint of pleasure remained in her voice.

“Aisha, you can use magic?”

Aisha blinked. “No, I—”

The mage interrupted. “What is your innate gift? Reinforcing weapons?”

“Um… well…”

Perhaps unwilling to abandon hope so easily—and with little else to do in their cages—the captives immediately began questioning her all at once. Aisha had just expended a great deal of strength. With so many voices flooding her ears, her mind went blank and she had no idea how to respond.

She managed to explain that she had failed her magical aptitude test but could genuinely heal certain things. She also described her idea of using that power against the iron cage and admitted that it had failed.

“That is innate magic. There is no question. You are a mage,” the girl declared decisively after hearing Aisha’s account.

“Testing centers in the countryside are hopeless, and their mages are third-rate. You should have gone to Vitas for your assessment! Mistaking a gifted mage’s innate magic for something that isn’t magic at all—what kind of joke is that?”

The girl seemed angrier than Aisha herself. Aisha smiled helplessly and attempted to calm her, though several cages between them made the effort ineffective.

The mage went on for quite some time before finally subsiding. After a long exhale, she spoke again.

“Listen. Your healing gift is useful, but it won’t help us here. Still, gifted mages can cast ordinary magic too. I’ll teach you a more destructive incantation. Try it.”

Aisha stared, then nodded eagerly.

“Oh, and you’ll need this.”

After some thought, the girl drew her wand from a large pocket in her outer robe. Reluctance crossed her face for several seconds. In the end, she passed it through the bars to the girl in the neighboring cage and had them send it along to Aisha.

“I don’t know whether you can use my wand, but it should be stronger than casting with your bare hands… Try it. And remember to return it once we’re out.”

The wand traveled from cage to cage until Elizabeth finally placed it in Aisha’s hand. Holding a wand for the first time felt unreal, as though she had suddenly become a mage.

The girl looked toward her. The others understood that what followed mattered. They all fell silent and held their breath.

“Point the wand at whatever you want to destroy—I recommend the lock itself—and focus. You have no foundation in magic, so I can teach you only the simplest incantation. Listen carefully—”

The girl breathed in and opened her mouth.

The spell consisted of sounds impossible to describe. No listener could even have said what part of her body produced them. Spoken in the young girl’s clear voice, the low incantation sounded mysterious and possessed an inexplicable rhythm.

Even the simplest spell lasted at least ten seconds.

Elizabeth looked at Aisha in concern. Aisha pressed her lips together, aimed the wand at the great iron lock confining them, and closed her eyes.

Then she repeated the incantation.

From the moment she first heard it, she had felt something inside her naturally straining to surge free. Only because the words had not been her command did it remain still. Aisha felt very calm. Her memory had always been good, though hardly perfect. Yet this spell carried a subtle familiarity…

No, not familiarity. It was more like an irresistible melody. One hearing was enough to make a person hum it without thought.

Bang!

A muffled explosion burst from the wand’s tip.

The cage lock blew open.