THE FORGOTTEN WITCH OF ELDORAN

CHAPTER 1:THE GIRL WITH SILVER BLOOD The day they burned her mother, the sky over Eldoran turned the color of a bruise. Nyxara Vell was ten. She was hiding inside the dry well behind the baker's house, where her mother Elira had shoved her that morning with a piece of black bread and whispered, "No matter what you hear, do not come out. No matter what you smell." She heard everything. She heard Queen Sylara's voice, high and pretty, reading from the balcony of the Glass Palace: "By decree of Hollow Light, the House of Vell is declared corrupt. Their blood is unclean. Their magic is theft from the stars." She heard the crowd. Her neighbors. Chanting, "Witch! Witch!" And then she heard her mother's voice. Elira Vell did not beg. She sang. It was the old lullaby she sang to Nyxara when her silver bleeds came early, when she was seven and flowers died around her bed. The fire was lit. Nyxara smelled it. She crawled up one inch and saw through a crack. The fire touched Elira's feet and turned silver. It didn't burn. It bent away from her, like it was afraid. The crowd gasped. Queen Sylara's face twisted. "Dragon-tooth!" Sylara screamed. A guard stepped forward with a dagger made of a black dragon's fang — the only thing that can kill silver blood. Nyxara wanted to scream. Elira looked straight at the well, straight at the crack where her daughter was hiding, and mouthed one word: _Hide._ Then the dagger went in. They left Elira's body on the pyre for three days as a warning. On the third night, Nyxara climbed out. She was alone. The house of Vell was sealed with wax. She took only her mother's necklace — a rough black stone on leather — and ran to Low Eldoran, to the gutters, where no one asks names. For eight years, she became a rat-catcher. She learned to cut her palms with rusty iron so her blood looked red. She learned to bleed into the river every 28 days when the silver came, so no flowers would grow strange around her. On her 18th birthday, she bled silver again, and this time the river flowers didn't die. They turned to glass and then shattered. That same evening, a Star-Moth landed on her windowsill with a letter sealed in real star-wax, which only Aelwen Citadel uses. _Nyxara Vell, daughter of Elira, you are accepted to Aelwen Citadel. You were nominated by Ozulun. Come before the moon dies. If you do not come, they will find you._ Someone knew she was alive. Someone knew what she was. And someone wanted her to come to the very place that had killed her mother. She burned the letter. Then she packed the black stone, and for the first time in eight years, she walked toward the Glass Palace instead of away from it. CHAPTER 2: AELWEN CITADEL Aelwen Citadel was not supposed to exist. It floated above Eldoran, a whole island of black stone and silver trees, held by three giant chains that disappeared into the clouds. It was said the chains were made from the bones of the first witches. To get there, you had to cross the Bridge of Whispers — a bridge made of nothing but cold air. Thirteen students stood at the edge of the cliff. Twelve were in fine robes, with trunks carried by servants. One was in rat-catcher leathers, barefoot. "Vell?" a girl with hair like spun glass giggled. "There are no more Vells. They all burned." Nyxara said nothing. The bridge keeper, an old Whisperwolf on two legs, sniffed each student. When it came to Nyxara, it stopped. Its nose twitched. Its yellow eyes widened. "You," it growled, and its voice was so loud the other twelve heard. "You watched your mother burn and did nothing. You hid in a well like a coward. You let her die singing." The other students stared. Nyxara's knees shook. The Whisperwolf's power was truth — it forces your worst memory out loud. She slipped. The bridge of air vanished under her feet for a second. She fell. She didn't hit the clouds. Someone caught her wrist. Hard. Prince Caelum Raventhorn. She knew his face from wanted posters. Silver hair to his waist, skin like ash, eyes like melted gold. The son of Queen Sylara. Her enemy. He pulled her up with one arm and set her on the bridge. "You smell like old magic," he whispered in her ear, so only she could hear. "Like the stories my mother tells me not to believe. Vell magic." He didn't let go of her wrist. His thumb pressed over the fresh cut she had made that morning to make her blood look red. He felt the silver underneath, trying to come out. "You are bleeding through your illusion, little witch," he said. Nyxara yanked away. "I'm not a witch." Caelum smiled. It was not a kind smile. "Then we will be dueling partners this year. The Citadel pairs strongest with weakest. I am strongest. You are... interesting." The bridge solidified. They walked together into Aelwen Citadel, and the giant doors closed behind them with a sound like a grave. CHAPTER 3: THE BLOOD LESSON Classroom of Bones. That's what they called it. Master Ozulun the Bone Keeper was not alive. He was a skeleton, seven feet tall, wearing a professor's coat that had been patched for 400 years. When he wrote on the blackboard, his finger bones clicked. "Blood," he said, and his voice came from everywhere. "Everything is blood." He drew four circles. "Red — human. Common, weak, dies easy. Blue — fae. Can talk to plants. Gold — royal. Can command fire. And Silver..." He paused. The classroom went cold. "Silver was erased. 100 years ago, House Vell tried to rewrite the Book of Stars with silver blood. They almost succeeded. Queen Sylara's grandmother had to burn them all. Silver blood is forbidden because it can unwrite what is written. If any of you ever sees silver blood, you report it. You get 1000 crowns and a title." Twelve students looked around, excited. Nyxara stared at her desk. Her cut from this morning had opened. A single drop of silver, bright as mercury, was rolling down her brown skin toward the wood. Caelum, sitting next to her as dueling partner, saw it. His gold eyes narrowed. He moved fast. He took his own ritual knife — all students have one — and slashed his own palm open. Gold blood, thick and glowing, poured out. He grabbed Nyxara's hand under the desk and smeared his gold over her silver, mixing it into a ugly bronze. Master Ozulun turned. "Prince Raventhorn? Are you bleeding in my class?" Caelum held up his gold-bleeding hand, "My partner is nervous, Master. She cut herself. I am showing her how royals do not cry over small cuts." Ozulun's empty eye sockets stared at Nyxara for a long time. Then at their joined hands. "Interesting," Ozulun said. "Very interesting. Miss Vell, was it? Your file says you are from Low Eldoran. Rat-catcher. Yet your hands are soft." Nyxara's heart stopped. File? She had no file. Ozulun smiled with no lips. "I nominated you, Miss Vell. I knew your mother." The whole class gasped. Caelum's grip on her hand tightened so hard his gold blood entered her cut. Nyxara felt dizzy. Her vision went silver. CHAPTER 4: THE LIBRARY THAT EATS Nyxara didn't go to dinner. She went to the Forbidden Section. Aelwen's library was alive. Books flew like birds. Some bit. The librarian was a blind Star-Moth woman who listened to pages. Nyxara whispered, "Vell." The library growled. A shelf opened, dark. Inside, books chained. One book was bigger than the others, bound in skin that looked human. Title: _The Erased Houses: Vell_. She reached. The book snapped at her fingers and bit, drawing silver blood. It tasted it and shrieked. "Silver! Silver!" Lights came on. Footsteps. A girl appeared from shadows — not a student. She had moth wings, gray and huge, and eyes with no pupils. "You shouldn't have touched it," she said. "I'm Lyss. I live here. The books eat girls who touch Vell things." Lyss pulled Nyxara away and pressed a leaf to her bleeding finger. The bleeding stopped. "Why help me?" Nyxara asked. "Because I am half Vell too," Lyss whispered. "My mother was a maid in your house. Queen Sylara killed her too. I have been waiting for you for eight years. Your mother's book is not here. It's in the Queen's bedroom in Glass Palace." "How do you know?" "Because I clean her bedroom. And she reads it every night, afraid you will come." Lyss gave her something — a small glass key. "This opens the dungeon under Aelwen. If they catch you, run there. The forgotten witches will hide you." That night, Nyxara put the key under her pillow. She dreamed of a dungeon full of women with her face. CHAPTER 5: THE GLASS DRAGON EGG Hatching Day. The most important day at Aelwen. Each of the 13 students gets a dragon egg. Glass Dragons — small, cat-sized, breath smoke that makes dreams. Twelve eggs hatched into colors: blue, white, green, gold for Caelum — his dragon was gold with ash tips, arrogant like him. Nyxara's egg was last. It was black, not glass. Master Ozulun frowned. "This egg was not in the nest. Where did you get this, Miss Vell?" "I... it was on my bed this morning," she said. It was true. Someone left it. She touched it. It cracked. No light came out. Only shadow, like ink. From it crawled a dragon not bigger than a rat, but with six eyes and wings that looked like night sky. It stared at Nyxara and said, in a voice only she heard, _"Mother?"_ Ozulun stepped back, his bones rattling. "Void Dragon," he whispered, so low only Nyxara heard. "Extinct for 300 years. They eat magic. Nyxara, do not let Queen see it." Caelum leaned over, saw the little black thing. "Yours is... ugly, rat-catcher." The void dragon hissed at Caelum and bit his gold dragon's tail. The gold dragon screamed and hid. The whole class laughed. Caelum didn't. He looked at Nyxara with something new — fear. CHAPTER 6: FIRST DUEL— SHE LOSES CONTROL Dueling is mandatory at Aelwen. Arena of Wind — a circle floating with no walls. Caelum vs Nyxara. "First blood wins," Ozulun said. "Royal rules." Caelum circled her. "You are holding your breath, Vell. Why? Scared your silver will show?" "Shut up." "My mother told me stories about your mother. How she begged. How she cried when the dagger went in." Nyxara's hands fisted. The black stone on her neck got hot. "She didn't beg," Nyxara hissed. "Oh, she did. She begged for you. 'Don't hurt my daughter, she is only a rat.'" That was a lie, and Nyxara knew it was a lie, but her blood didn't know. Her silver blood boiled. Caelum slashed, light cut. Gold fire toward her face. Nyxara didn't dodge. She raised her hand. Silver exploded. Not blood. Pure silver light, like liquid moon. It hit Caelum's gold fire and ate it. Then it kept going, freezing the entire arena, the wind, Ozulun's bones, Caelum mid-air. Everything stopped, covered in silver frost. For three seconds, time stopped at Aelwen. Then it shattered. Nyxara fell, bleeding silver from nose, ears, eyes. Ozulun caught her before Caelum could. He wrapped her in his coat. "Class dismissed!" he shouted. "Arena malfunction!" But Caelum stood in melting silver ice, looking at his hands, which were now silver for a moment before turning gold again. He looked at Nyxara, unconscious, and whispered, "What are you?"