Uprooted

Agnieszka takes Kasia back to the tower. The Dragon is waiting for Agnieszka with a potion and orders her to drink the entire thing. He speaks a spell that burns and makes her glow from within, revealing black and green shadows slithering beneath her skin. She screams, begging for help. The Dragon holds her down and continues the spell, trying to burn the corruption out. Pain and heat rip through her, and she is unsure if she can survive. Finally, she is clean: She knows that the Dragon would kill her if she were not.

Agnieszka expects him to use the same treatment on Kasia, but Kasia is too corrupted to save. Only a few shadows slipped into Agnieszka while she walked in the Wood, but Kasia was consumed by a heart-tree, the power of the Wood, whose fruit feeds the walkers and helps the Wood spread. Agnieszka should not have been able to free Kasia at all, and they will still have to burn her. Nevertheless, Agnieszka begs the Dragon to let her try to heal Kasia, and he agrees to keep Kasia safely locked away for a while. Agnieszka tells Wensa that she found Kasia but cannot heal her, and Wensa accuses her of always being jealous of Kasia. The Dragon then sends Wensa home, and Agnieszka sleeps.

The next day, Agnieszka tears through the library. The Dragon disapproves but gives her another ancient book filled with spells that he has never been able to use. The book is older than the kingdom of Polnya and may even be older than the Wood. It was written by people who came to this region over 1,000 years ago and built a kingdom, of which the underground chambers of the tower were once a part. Then the Wood appeared and destroyed their society.

Agnieszka asks to see Kasia. The Dragon leads her to a locked chamber at the very bottom of the tower. The walls are covered in strange runes she cannot read, remnants of the previous civilization. The Dragon explains that the chamber is a tomb for an ancient king.

Inside the chamber, Kasia seems weak but otherwise herself. Agnieszka begs the Dragon to free her, but then she smells pine needles and smoke: As with Jerzy, the Wood looks out of Kasia’s eyes. The Dragon speaks a spell that makes Kasia’s skin glow, revealing the black and green shadows that fill her body.

Agnieszka begs the Dragon to try the cleansing spell, but he insists it will not work. He asks if she is ready to let go and do what must be done, but she says no. Instead, she tries every spell she can find, throwing herself into work beyond her strength with reckless abandon. Every few days she finds something that gives her hope, and the Dragon dutifully takes her down to Kasia to try it. However, every attempt fails. The thing inside Kasia laughs and taunts her, and Agnieszka grows weak and heartbroken.

One night, the Dragon tells her a story of his youth. As a young man, he fell in love with a married woman named Countess Ludmilla. Months before, Ludmilla’s husband had become infected, and she locked him in a cellar in hopes that someone might be able to save him. She seduced the Dragon and convinced him that she loved him but felt duty-bound to support her husband. If he was healed, she claimed, then she could relinquish her duty and run away with the Dragon. For six months the Dragon obsessively tried everything. He was the strongest wizard at court and was certain he could succeed where so many others had failed.

That was when he first came to the tower. He met with the Raven, the wizard who guarded the Wood at the time, in hopes that she would have a solution. However, she convinced him of the impossibility of his task. She herself would ultimately die trying to stop the Wood from taking over the town nearest the border; walkers planted a heart-tree in her body. In the meantime, the Dragon returned to court and announced that Ludmilla’s husband must be burned. Ludmilla abandoned the Dragon to marry a duke. She died 40 years ago at the age of 76. Agnieszka realizes that she has heard this story before, twisted into a bard’s song about a monster who seduced a countess and killed her husband.

After Ludmilla’s husband’s death, the Dragon volunteered to take over the Raven’s place at the tower. He shows Agnieszka a book filled with notes on each village lost to the Wood, including the number of dead and corrupted and the dates. She sees that attacks have become more frequent and devastating over time, as if the Wood is winning the war.

Agnieszka recalls the first book she tried to read, Luthe’s Summoning, and asks if it might help. The Dragon explains that the Summoning is a strange and powerful truth spell. The entire book must be read together. If the caster stops midway, the spell collapses and explodes. When she picked up the book, he assumed that one of his enemies had sent Agnieszka to use it, knowing that she would not be strong enough and thus causing her to kill both herself and the Dragon. Agnieszka asks him to cast it with her to see if it will help Kasia.

Agnieszka and the Dragon chain Kasia and prepare to read the spell, planning to take turns reading pages and weaving their magic together. Agnieszka chants the words in the singsong manner she has become accustomed to. When the Dragon reads the next page, he speaks in his usual crisp, measured way, and she fears that the differences in their methods will prevent it from working. Power fills the room, but Agnieszka can feel it is not working correctly. Finally, she grasps the Dragon’s hand and reads in unison with him, singing around his voice. The magic becomes easy and natural, their power supporting and reinforcing each other’s.

The spell builds into a brilliant light. Agnieszka can suddenly see the temple that once stood where the tower is and the king’s tomb as it once was. In Kasia, she can see the Wood’s infection, but she can also see Kasia’s spirit wandering and knows she can be saved. She lets go of the Dragon’s hand, still feeding magic into the spell, and reaches for Kasia.

In the light, Agnieszka can see her own jealousy of Kasia’s talents and the respect the village affords her. Then she sees that Kasia is likewise envious of Agnieszka, whose parents loved her and did not try to make her a perfect tribute. Kasia knew all her life that she would be taken and tried to be brave, yet she lay awake every night imagining the Dragon coming into her room to assault her. Behind her, Agnieszka hears the Dragon gasp and stumble over the spell. Then he continues. Agnieszka sees Kasia’s resentment of her mother, who seemed to want Kasia to be taken. At the same time, Kasia is envious of Agnieszka being chosen and of the knowledge and magic power she has gained.

Agnieszka beckons Kasia’s lost spirit. She can see Kasia held by roots and moss, struggling to break free. The Dragon tells her to try the purging spell while he holds the summoning. Agnieszka does so, burning the shadows out of Kasia’s body. They struggle as smoke pours out of Kasia. Just as Agnieszka fears the cleansing will kill Kasia, the shadows burn away completely and Kasia is free. The Dragon speaks the final words of the Summoning and the room fills with blinding light, revealing that Kasia’s body is clean.

The Dragon is confident that Kasia is clean but seems unsettled. For days, Kasia sleeps in Agnieszka’s room, feverish and delirious. After three weeks her fever breaks, and Agnieszka writes a letter to tell Wensa the news.

Agnieszka thinks Kasia will go home eventually, but the Dragon says she is too changed. Agnieszka fears he is right. Kasia’s beauty has become unearthly and her body hard as stone: She looks and feels more like a statue than a woman. Agnieszka suggests that he give Kasia the silver dowry he usually gives the girls after their years of service so that she can go to Kralia and start a new life.

Startled by the topic, the Dragon demands to know if everyone assumes that he assaults the girls he takes. Agnieszka says, “Yes, of course we did. Why wouldn’t we?” (150). He defends himself, saying that he never took the girls who cringed from him. However, Agnieszka shouts that taking girls like Kasia who were brave enough to endure it was not better: It was cruel to scare them and steal them from their families, even if he never touched them. Stunned, the Dragon turns away.

The next day, the Dragon sends a seeing spell into the Wood and finds that the heart-tree that held Kasia is burned and dead. Agnieszka’s spell channeled through Kasia to kill the tree. The Dragon is afraid the Wood will retaliate, but Agnieszka wonders if they could kill more heart-trees. Jerzy, who is still infected and frozen with the stone spell, could work as a channel as well. The Dragon says it might be possible when they are stronger and more prepared. For now, he wants to try mixing their magic again.

Agnieszka creates an illusion of a bee, and he tries to overlay his seeing spell on top of it. Again, Agnieszka feels their magic twining together. The magic between them becomes an uncontrollable torrent and explodes around them. When they break apart, she feels their magic tangled together with a strange intimacy. The Dragon stares at her and then surges forward to kiss her. She kisses him back. After a moment, Agnieszka freezes in embarrassment. The Dragon shoves her off with a horrified expression and coldly orders her to leave. She runs to her room, torn between embarrassment and regret that they stopped.

That night, soldiers arrive at the tower with Prince Marek and the Falcon, the most powerful wizard in the kingdom after the Dragon. They have learned of Kasia’s rescue and have come to assess the situation, as according to law, the corrupted must be executed. No one has ever successfully purged someone taken to the Wood before. Agnieszka is confident that she can prove Kasia is clean, but the Dragon is worried.

The Falcon and the Dragon confront each other, using their real names, Solya and Sarkan. The Falcon accuses the Dragon of recklessness and infection. The Dragon retorts that if he were corrupted, the Falcon would not be strong enough to stop him anyway. The Falcon begins a series of tests on Kasia. Meanwhile, the Dragon orders Agnieszka to stay out of sight, concerned that the memory spell he placed on Marek will not last if he interacts with her too much.

After painful tests, the Falcon reluctantly admits that he can find no signs of corruption in Kasia. Satisfied, Marek confronts the Dragon, demanding to know how he succeeded and announcing that they will go into the Wood and rescue his mother, Queen Hanna.

The Dragon refuses. An argument ensues; Marek accuses the Dragon of treason, while the Falcon suggests that he can learn the Dragon’s method and use it without his help. Later, in private, the Dragon warns Agnieszka that this is a trap. The Wood let Kasia go as bait, luring them into the Wood to be killed or infected. If the Wood gets hold of the Falcon, the Dragon, or Agnieszka, it will become unstoppable. Agnieszka agrees that it is a risk but thinks it might be worth it if they can save the queen. Then Marek approaches, remembering Agnieszka and what she did to him. Realizing that she is a witch, he understands that it was her power that purged Kasia. He threatens her, saying that if she does not help him, he will have Kasia executed. Unwilling to let Marek take Agnieszka alone, the Dragon agrees to try.

The group, including 30 soldiers, travels to Dvernik. There, Agnieszka and the Dragon intend to burn the corruption out of Jerzy and kill another heart-tree, injuring the Wood so they may slip in more easily. The Falcon, Marek, and Kasia watch as Agnieszka and the Dragon use the Summoning on Jerzy. The Falcon and Marek are horrified by Jerzy’s appearance. The Dragon warns them that he is only three-days infected, while the queen has been in the Wood for 20 years. If they are squeamish now, they should reconsider their task. Marek persists, however.

Agnieszka and the Dragon burn the corruption out of Jerzy. The Falcon uses a sight spell to follow the magic channel between Jerzy and the Wood and confirms that they have killed a heart-tree, burning it down in a violent blaze.