by Becky James
I fought to catch my breath, to call the calm of battle down. “I’m not handing Evyn over to that man. He will keep her imprisoned forever.” Torgund would realise she was immune to many poisons and magic and would try something else. Something worse.
A rope was flung from the bottom and looped through the eye of the piton. The men pulled it through, then let go so the ends dangled together.
Gavain sighed. “I have further orders. I don’t want to do this to you.” He nodded and my hands were shoved behind my back, my wrists tied tightly together. “But I will. Get him over here.”
They dragged me to the rope, and at first I was afraid that it would be used to hang me like my father. The rough hemp passed by my head as they lowered it, and I fixed my face to be still and stoic. But Gavain took it and fixed it to my wrists behind my back.
“Yes,” he said quietly behind me. “I have to find some way to do this to you.” He tugged the rope as he tied it. “We trained together, you and me. We did everything as one. But you were still the captain’s favourite. Objectively the best, he called you. But there was no objectivity when it came to you.”
Adrenaline pounded through my head. “What are you talking about? Shard was harder on me than on any of you!”
“Oh, open your eyes, Thorrn,” he sneered, a sharpness there I had not heard before. “The choice assignments. The best opportunities to learn and grow. The hardest and most fruitful missions!”
“The long hours spent aching,” I countered, glaring at him. “The fierce training, the never-ending deluge of tasks! Gavain, Shard never showed me any type of favour. I never had a smile or praise from my father. He gave them all to you!”
“What good is a smile to me? Meanwhile you had missions guarding the king, the highest honour any of us can aspire to. Well, not any longer.” Gavain gave the rope a final tug to secure it. “Regardless of how this ends, of which story you let me tell the king, you’ll be nothing after this. I always told you to improve your speed. You relied too much on your strength. You’ll have neither once this is done, Shardsson,” he spat, bitter and bereaved. “Raise him. Thorrn, the more you scream, the quicker this will be over.”
The rope pulled taut. My shoulders bunched as my arms went up behind my back by the wrists. I fought it but then had to bend forward, bowing like a courtier, backside against the wall. “What are you doing? What is this?”
“Something Torgund showed me.” Gavain’s voice shook. “Call out for your soul now. Let her know where you are and that you’d like her to come get you.”
I gritted my teeth. “Never.”
“Oh, you will. You’ll be screaming soon. That will get her to come running.”
The rope carried on pulling my wrists as my arms locked straight out behind me and my shoulders pressed to my ears. I hissed out a breath as my muscles protested. The rope continued to pull, upwards and upwards until I danced on my toes. I fought the rope, but it was inexorable; five of them pulled on it.
They gave a sudden heave, and Gavain watched as I was pulled off my feet.
When my full weight hit them, my arms bent backwards, my shoulders immediately dislocated. My feet scrabbled against the wall behind blindly, slipping and sliding and affording no purchase. I lost my mind in a wall of pain that overwhelmed all reason and thought. All I knew were two truths: agony as the weight of my body slowly ripped and tore my muscles, and that I had to stay quiet.
Through a haze of pain, I saw Gavain standing at my waist. “This will assist the process.” He hugged me around my middle and jumped up to wrap his legs around mine. My shoulder muscles tore, and I let out a short scream. “That’s it. It will be over once we have her.”
Evyn. Evyn! I wanted her safe above all else, but the pain was too much. I wanted her by my side so she could help me through this, but I could not have her, it was too dangerous. I had to suffer alone. I kept the pain deep inside my chest, limiting myself to short sobs.
Gavain surveyed the caverns, ordering men to fan out and listen. After what felt like an eternity, he turned to me. “Disappointing. She must not care for you, Shardsson, and certainly not as much as you care for her.”
I had to keep her away. I had to fight not to call out for her when I needed her so badly. I put my head to my chest and wept, sweat and tears rolling down my face.
“Was it worth it in the end? You’re marred forever now,” Gavain said, and the coldness in his voice hurt as much as my torn muscles. “Crippled beyond what magic can repair. You’ll never hold a sword the same way. You won’t even be able to lift a child. All because you couldn’t give up a soul who has clearly abandoned you.
“Your life is over. Tell me where she is, and I’ll end it quickly for you. Or if you want to live, I’ll plead to the king on your behalf, and we’ll put the blame on the apothecarist.”
I shook my head, but that was a fresh wave of agony. “No,” I grunted. “I won’t tell you where she is. It was me. I did it. Aubin was swept along with me when I assaulted the tower. He happened to be there ministering to her, and I coerced him to assist me. It was all me.” I fixed my oldest friend with a glare. “You are a survivor, aren’t you? Now if you ever had any friendship toward me… end it for me.” My chest grew tight, my muscles tearing and breaking like a piece of bread torn at the mess hall table.
Gavain shook his head. “I can’t give you that grace before we find her. You’re the best way we have of doing that.” But then he looked around in a panic. “Wait… Where’s Dogliss? Grey? Meritt?”
Through the haze of pain, I saw Special Forces turn their attention to one another. “They’re gone! And so’s half the contingent!” one of them said.
“Where did they go? What happened to them?” Gavain shook my hips. I couldn’t help screaming again. “What magic is this?”
I sealed my mouth shut.
By keeping still, I felt my ears pop ever so slightly in this wide space. I saw a flicker as Aubin and Evyn jumped from one portal, bashed into a swordsman, and pulled him into another portal that Evyn made, where they all vanished together. My heart hammered in my chest.
Gavain called his men to surround me, all facing outward. “Beware of magic!” he cried.
No. Beware of my soul companion, Evyn.
Building up hope to fight against the agony of my shoulders and chest, I focused on not letting my chest move any further and just taking the short breaths needed to stay alive. I turned all my attention towards watching for her.
“There!” Gavain screamed as Evyn and Aubin popped out of nowhere. Aubin grimaced, and they pinged immediately back to Earth. “They have some sort of travel magic! Start moving your weapons around and they’ll run themselves onto them.”
“No!” I gasped. Evyn would appear right into the path of a sweeping sword!
“Gavain!” Evyn called. “You wanted a word with me?” I looked up as far as I could with my neck muscles screaming. Evyn stood at the mouth of one of the highest caves, in a change of tactics.
Beside her stood a beautiful woman with long silvrine hair. Her cold gaze swept across the Special Forces arrayed below them.
Evyn glared at Gavain, her eyes flickering to me. The heartbreak in them ripped into me, and I gasped with fresh pain. “Run!” I choked.
She collected herself and stood as tall as she could, glaring at Gavain. “Well? What do you want?”
“Come quietly, and I’ll let your soul go,” Gavain shouted back. His words echoed around the cold cave. “He won’t be quite the same as he was before, though. You’ll have to feed him his meals for the rest of his life.”
A howl of loss tore from my throat. Evyn flinched.
“Counteroffer: you let him go, and we’ll let you leave,” Evyn returned.
Gavain shook his head. “What leverage do you have, little girl? I hold everything here in my hands.” He grabbed my leg and pushed me to swing on my ruined shoulders. Bone and gristle shifted, and I screamed again.
“Leverage? I have this.” H
olding up a knife, she drew it down her own forearm.
“Evyn, no!” I shouted.
Offering her hand to the woman beside her, Evyn said, “Here you go, Tuniel.”
“Tuniel Journey Mage!” Gavain gasped as with a clap Tuniel’s hand met Evyn’s. Immediately the mage’s eyes rolled back into her head, Evyn holding her upright.
Then the floor started to buck and twist.
“Groundshake!” the men yelled. I screamed anew until the men let go of the rope and I tumbled to the ground. Winded, I tried to turn over, watching with horror as pit after pit opened underneath the men around me and they were swallowed into oblivion.
Gavain tottered on his feet and a crack opened beneath him. I tried to reach out, but I couldn’t move my shoulders and my arms were still tied behind my back. With a shout, he plummeted out of my sight.
“Thorrn! Thorrn, oh, Thorrn.” Evyn skidded to a halt next to me, chips of stone pattering against me. “Is he okay? Is he going to be okay?”
Aubin knelt at my head, glancing quickly at my face.
Now. Now he would kill me, and they would take Evyn and bleed her to death. I tried to move, but nothing happened. My entire upper body was unresponsive, even my legs were limp. He had me at his mercenary mercy, and I expected nothing but death.
Aubin laid his hands on my shoulders. “We need to move his shoulders back into place and then I can assess the damage. This is going to hurt him. Evyn? This is going to really hurt him, but it will help.”
“Okay, okay. Thorrn? This is going to hurt but it will feel better after that, okay? I… I’m here. I’m touching your face, I’m here with you, okay?” She nodded to Aubin.
He wrenched my right arm down.
I howled. My legs moved of their own accord, crunching into the ground beneath me as I struggled and writhed.
“Hold still!” Aubin snapped. “I didn’t manage to secure the placement, he moved.”
Evyn held my face. “Thorrn, I’m sorry. Hold tight. It’s okay, we’re here to help!”
I panted and grunted and groaned.
Aubin said, “I can put him out. I can bring him back around later.”
“Nnn… Nnnn…” I could not let him have free rein around my soul!
“Thorrn, it’s okay. You’re alright, and you’re safe now. We’re helping you…” Evyn nodded through her tears. “Do it.”
“Evyn, no, I can’t leave you—” I tried to say. I screamed as darkness billowed across my vision.
Chapter 17
I woke up slowly and in incredible pain. My back, shoulders and chest were on fire. I was burning alive except there was no heat. Trying to move made it worse. I caught myself before I screamed because I had to keep the pain inside; I could not call out for Evyn. If she came to help me, she would be captured, and it would be all my fault!
“Thorrn? Are you awake?” Evyn’s light touch brushed my face.
“It hurts, Evyn. Get away. It hurts!”
“I know, I can feel it… Hold on, Aubin will give you something for the pain—”
“No!” My eyes felt sealed shut. I forced them open.
I lay covered in blankets in our camp under the mountain. I tried to sit up but not only were my arms agonisingly painful, they could not move. This was a deep hurt, lengths beyond muscle soreness.
“Stay still.” Aubin sat next to me. I tried again to sit up using my stomach muscles and legs, but all Aubin had to do was gently press down on my chest and I fell back with a hiss. “You’re badly injured,” he said. “We need a medimancer or mage. Evyn, would you get him some water while I check him over?”
Nodding, Evyn moved off, wiping her tear-stained face.
“How bad is it?” I asked Aubin, my voice a raw growl.
He gave me a look as if weighing how much of the truth I could bear. “Bad. I managed to put your shoulders back in their sockets. Time will tell whether the rotator cuff muscles were overextended or whether they were torn right off the bone. If the latter, you’ll need a medimancer or mage to perform intricate magic. Even then, you are looking at a turn or more to recover.”
I couldn’t be injured for a whole turn. It was impossible. The breath felt tight in my chest. “I don’t have a turn. Gough doesn’t have one sennight, let alone… And Special Forces is after Evyn under Torgund’s orders. I need to be able to defend her.”
Aubin shrugged, but a cold certainty settled in my stomach. I would be a stone around my soul’s neck. She would be forced to care for me and protect me while I was useless to her. And meanwhile Special Forces would be hunting her…
I would have to get her to leave me behind. Maybe even to separate from me so that I would not cause her any further pain. And then I would find Gavain, and I would…
What? Flail at him with my useless limbs?
Nevermind. My first step was to drive Evyn away from me. I felt heart sick, but I even knew the best way of accomplishing it—
Aubin tapped my hand, and I scowled at him. He made a face back. “Whatever delicious self-sacrificing thought you’re having, stop it now. Evyn won’t put up with any of it, so all you’ll do is waste air.”
“I’m the waste of air,” I muttered.
“That’s my line.” Evyn came back into the cave, kneeling beside me and lifting water to my lips. “Drink, Thorrn. You’ll feel better.”
“It’s useless, Evyn. I’m useless. I wish Gavain had killed me.” Evyn frowned, pushing the water towards me again. Snarling, I tried to swipe at it, but my shoulders caught fire. I gasped with the physical pain and how helpless I was against even her. “Get away from me!”
“Thorrn. This is a shock, I know. Let’s calm down—”
“You try being calm when you can’t fight anymore! When you’re so useless you can’t even do one push-up! When you can’t lift or carry anything anymore!”
“Thorrn, I could never do those things,” she soothed me.
“One of us has to,” I said. “What good am I if I can’t defend you from people like Dan or help you get out of towers.” I closed my eyes. “I want us to separate. You’ll be better off without me.”
I heard Evyn take a slow breath. Relief, perhaps, at being given the option. Now she would afford me a gallant’s way out. I shoved my pain down, grimly satisfied.
Then, “No. No, Thorrn Shardsson. It’s not over yet. Gavain has hurt you, but we don’t know how much yet. Let’s get the lie of the land and go from there.”
Bitter bile burnt my sore throat. “A turn, Aubin said. A turn or more to recover. And I speculate that’s being optimistic.”
“Me, optimistic?” Aubin said ruefully.
“Aubin is a born optimist.” My eyes flew open at the new voice.
The beautiful woman from before stood framed in the opening. Her heart-shaped face was clear of emotion, her green gown clinging to her rounded figure. I stared hard.
“Excuse me!” Aubin snapped his fingers in front of my face. “No getting curious about my soul companion, Shardsson.”
“No woman will ever get curious about me again,” I grumbled, trying once more to lift my arms.
“Don’t. Rest them, love.” Evyn looked up at the woman, the Journey Mage of Stone, Aubin’s soul, Tuniel. “Thank you again for helping me to save him.”
“Quite all right.” Tuniel swept into the rough cavern to stand over me, studying me frankly. I set my jaw. “I can see what I can do, but I have meagre skill with healing.”
“Best let a specialist do it, Tuniel,” Aubin cautioned her.
“It will not hurt to feel around. I have all this power at my disposal, after all.”
My stomach clenched when I realised she meant my soul. “You will step away from Evyn.”
“And you’re going to make me?”
I growled, redoubling my efforts to sit up.
“Don’t goad him, Tuniel,” Aubin snapped.
“It really is bad, isn’t it? Lie still,” the mage ordered. I could do nothing else as she knelt beside me, arra
nging her skirts. My senses filled with her earthy homely scent and the soft glow of her skin. The way her chest rose and fell. The soft curves of her—
“Ow!”
Aubin pinched my arm again. “Nerves still work. Good.”
I dragged my eyes up to meet Tuniel’s. They seemed cold at first glance, but this close they danced with amusement. She placed a hand on my bare shoulders. My shoulder muscles were once my favourite feature, but now they were black and purple and swollen. Now they did not heed my commands. Putting her other hand on my other shoulder, she leant over me as if she were pushing me down into bed, and I eased back inexorably. Her lips parted slightly, the soft slide of her dress against my body sending shivers across my bare skin.
“Hm. He has a great deal of tearing and stretching, but I can’t feel anything ripped completely free.” She kneaded my shoulders gently. I winced in her pleasure-pain embrace. “He is strong. His muscles were able to withstand it. A turn of the glass, perhaps, and things would be worse.” She smoothed my muscles as her hands travelled to my chest.
“I… uh… ah… I feel drunk?” Evyn stammered.
Aubin snorted. “Tuniel, you’re going to kill him,” he said dryly.
“Some soreness here too. Hm.” She stood up and I gasped, bereft of her presence, biting my lip to keep from calling out to her. I settled for glaring at Aubin.
He raised one eyebrow at me.
Tuniel proclaimed, “We need a healer mancer or mage. I can go find one, or we can try and wake up Gadamere.”
“Gadamere?” I asked. “Wake him up?”
“Oh yes. You were asleep.” Evyn leant in toward me. “We found them. We found Elley and Gaddy and Gough. We know where they are.”
Tuniel hovered her hands over the dirt floor. Dust leapt up underneath to form into a dazzling shape: Spiritshere mountain in complete detail. I stared at the capability; she could likely blind me for sure.
She nodded, and the image turned before rushing in at one spot, behind the second waterfall from the south. “Here are the catacomb entrances.” Small depressions formed in the cavern she held, tunnelling away into a thousand varied paths. Some crossed one another and others didn’t; some dead-ended in steps and others in turns. “This is the one we are currently standing in.” It glowed golden for a heartbeat. “This is the one that houses the royals.” Another about half a mile away shone with a cold, blue light.