Imogen darted forward, lunging in Lightning Strikes in a Storm. She stabbed the branox trying to reach Lilah, and it dropped to the ground. It let out a strange, horrifying moan, and the sound pierced the quiet of the forest. Imogen quickly thrust her sword through the creature once more, silencing it.
She exhaled and looked up at Benji, who was tracing his finger along the pattern on the ground. “We will not have long,” he said as he gazed up at her. “That is a call to the hive. They will come, and when they do, we will need to be prepared.”
Imogen straightened and dusted her hands off. She glanced over to Lilah and the enchantment held in her palm. Whatever that was, it was powerful.
“We need to get moving,” Imogen said. “While we do, you will tell me about your parents.”
Chapter Eight
They hadn’t gotten far. Benji kept touching the trees, though he no longer slapped at them the same way he had before. Now he used more of a gentle touch. The darkness of the forest loomed over them and Imogen hesitated, not wanting to go any farther but knowing they didn’t have much of a choice.
Benji stopped, crouched near a fallen log, and sniffed it. Lilah watched him, a question burning in her eyes, but Imogen was content to leave her with questions for now. They hadn’t encountered more branox, which Imogen was thankful for, but Benji continued to pause, tapping on the trees and whispering. The breeze picked up, and Imogen started to think that maybe they were moving beyond the darkened part of the forest. Could Benji be leading them completely away from the branox?
Imogen looked over to Lilah. “Tell me about your father.”
“There isn’t anything to tell,” Lilah said, squeezing the enchantment. She kept her gaze fixed straight ahead of her.
“There is. I think it’s tied to why the merchants wanted you.” Imogen frowned as she said the words. It had taken her too long to come to the conclusion she had, and it troubled her that it had taken that long.
“Why did they want me?” Lilah asked, her voice a low whisper.
“Sorcery.”
“What do you mean?” Lilah finally asked.
“I mean that you have sorcery.”
“I don’t,” she said hurriedly—almost too hurriedly.
Imogen smiled to herself. Lilah had mentioned growing up in the outskirts of the Leier lands, but she hadn’t said why. Why wouldn’t her father have trained her with the sword? Their people were all taught with it, yet for whatever reason he had kept his daughter from learning.
“How long have you known?” Imogen said.
“I don’t—”
Imogen spun toward her, and Lilah froze with her hands held out in front of her. A surge of invisible power pushed Imogen back.
She smirked. “There it is. As I suspected.”
“I—”
“You have sorcery. Untapped, and perhaps unintentional.” Imogen cocked her head to the side, frowning. “Are you the firstborn of your family?”
Lilah nodded. “I am.”
“And did your parents move to the outskirts of the homeland after you were born?”
Lilah didn’t answer, which was all the explanation Imogen needed. Magic was not welcomed, and those with magic were banished. Children who showed magical potential were often sacrificed, and any who were not were sent away instead.
“How old were you?”
“I was three,” Lilah said softly, and she looked away. “He moved us. He didn’t want to banish me. We had family outside of the homeland, but he didn’t want to send me there. And he wasn’t about to force me into the river.”
Imogen grunted. It was a brutal way of dealing with those who had the potential for magic, but it was effective. Those suspected of magic were often drowned, and it removed the dishonor of their family and any danger they might have brought upon themselves by having a child who had magic.
She had never questioned how many of the people actually possessed magic, but seeing Lilah and knowing what she herself could do, Imogen had to wonder if there were far more with power than they realized. Maybe there were some with magic who simply suppressed it. Imogen didn’t know if that was even possible or if there was any way they could manage to keep that magic from manifesting at all.
“That is why you were sent away, but what about why you were sent with those people?”
“I don’t know,” Lilah said, shaking her head. “My parents didn’t tell me. They said that I would learn.”
“They were sending you to the Academy.”
“I don’t know.”
She had been heading to the west with those merchants. And what was in the west but the Society? Could the merchants have actually been sorcerers? Wilson, the proprietor of the tavern, had mentioned requesting help from the Society, which would fit. They could’ve gone through the village while taking a candidate to the Academy.
It was unusual enough that anybody in the Leier lands would be taken to the Academy or that they would even learn that there was a place they could go to study the magical arts.
“Why did you run?” Imogen asked.
“Because of my sisters.”
There was more to it than that, Imogen was certain, but if it was simply about Lilah hiding her magical ability, then Imogen wasn’t going to be the one to judge.
“How much can you control?” Imogen asked Lilah.
“I can control some,” she admitted. “Most of it is unintentional, like when you turned toward me.”
“Did you think I was going to attack you?”
“I don’t know. I recognize that blade, though.” She glanced down to Imogen’s sword. “My father used to talk about people with incredible skill. Impossible skill.” Her gaze lingered on the weapon. “The Firsts.”
Imogen nodded. “If you would’ve taken up the blade when you were younger, you would be reaching a similar level.”
“I don’t know if I could ever do what you do.”
Imogen had never had that difficulty. She had always believed in what she could do.
“Why did you leave?” Lilah’s face immediately flushed and she shook her head. “I don’t mean to pry, only that you have to be one of the most skilled fighters in the Leier lands.”
Imogen ran her hand along the blade. “There are those who are more skilled. I don’t even have a notch on mine.”
“I can’t imagine how there could be many who are more skilled than you.” Lilah looked up and met her gaze. “And I don’t understand why you would have left.”
“I took a bond quest and then I completed it.”
“Oh,” Lilah said softly. “Is that why you’re with him? Is this a new quest?”
“No. This is something else.”
“What happens if we can’t get out of the forest?”
“We can get out,” Benji said, suddenly turning back to them. “These bastards aren’t going to hold us here. But that is not my biggest concern.”
He paused, resting one hand on a fallen trunk, and he seemed far more comfortable with the already fallen tree. Why would that be? Maybe because the branox couldn’t influence it the way they could a living tree?
“What is your biggest concern, then?” Imogen asked.
“Other than why your brother’s trail leads here? The queen.”
He straightened, and he stared toward the depths of the forest. The trees towered overhead, taller than in other parts of the forested lands they’d traveled. Massive trunks carried ripples of shadows along the surface. The air smelled of pine and dirt, but there was another odor Imogen couldn’t place.
“The branox should not be here,” he continued. “They were destroyed long ago, all of the clans slaughtered. Or so I had thought.” He clenched his jaw and tipped his head back, sniffing at the wind before turning his attention back to Imogen. “But if the clans were freed and the queen survived, we must destroy them before they spread. Destroying them was only a part of what needed to be done.”
They had to understand what happened. How the branox were f
reed. That seemed even more important.
“Could Timo have done this?” Imogen asked, keeping her voice low.
Benji breathed out slowly. “I don’t know. He has already proven his willingness to pursue power he should not.”
“Would this queen grant him that power?”
Benji locked eyes with her and said nothing.
She swallowed hard. Here she had thought she would journey back to the homeland. She would try to help the sacred temple and would abandon her quest for her brother for now.
But if he was involved in all of this, then that was a mistake.
Imogen frowned. “You want us to hunt this queen, knowing how difficult it was for me to kill even one of these creatures. How hard will it be to bring down their leader?”
“Incredibly difficult. There were only a few capable of doing so before.” He looked around the forest. “I know you want to return to your homeland, to help the temple, but—”
“It can wait,” she said.
Benji watched her. He swept his hands away from him, and the wind gusted around them. “Thank you.”
“You didn’t think I would do this?”
“I didn’t know. I could not see it.”
Imogen didn’t like the idea of chasing these creatures, but she also didn’t like the idea of leaving them behind. They were dangerous. She knew that. She could feel that.
“We could gather others to help,” she suggested. She wasn’t sure who else might be able to help, but as she touched the enchantments she carried, she thought about the people she might be able to call. There were certainly others who had the capability to fight creatures like this.
One in particular, but he was far from here. With the right enchantments, it was possible that he might be able to reach them quickly.
Benji tipped his head, breathing in. “Others will not be able to get here in time.”
She regarded him for a long moment. “Did you plan this?”
She hated that she’d asked, but there was the concern that he had coordinated all this, wanting to coerce her into taking specific action.
He might claim that he hadn’t seen anything, but this was Benji. He was a Porapeth who had far more magic than she could understand, and she had to believe he had the ability to do so.
“I did not,” he said softly.
She couldn’t tell if he was telling the truth.
“We can’t do that with her traveling with us,” she said, looking over to Lilah.
“She must come.”
“No.” Imogen said it more forcefully than she intended. “She can barely control her magic, and with these creatures—”
“You saw what she was able to do with one of them.” Benji stepped closer to her, and he lowered his voice to nothing more than a faint whisper of wind. “Why do you think the Society came for her, First? Why do you think they were in your land? They don’t go there otherwise. They recognize that there is too much danger for them most of the time. Your people have hunted sorcerers for as long as sorcerers have memories. But for them to have gone to that effort…”
“What are you getting at?”
“She has potential,” Benji replied. “Perhaps significant potential. Which means that whatever innate power she might already have is more than enough to withstand these creatures. And even uncontrolled, untrained, she managed to hold one back. That is not something an unskilled sorcerer can do. That is something only a powerful sorcerer is capable of.”
Imogen took a deep breath and glanced over to Lilah, who was staring off into the depths of the forest. “She needs training, then.”
“And she will have it.”
She arched a brow at him. Benji had no difficulty acknowledging his magic, but he had made it clear that he was magic, not that he could access it the way sorcerers did.
“From who? You?”
He spread his hands to the side. “I am magic, after all.”
“Not the same kind she has.”
“But I’m still magic. And perhaps training her will help her lose some of the mistakes the sorcerers would have taught otherwise. If they had gotten their hooks into her, there’s no telling what shit they would’ve taught her.”
Imogen snorted. “My experience with the Society tells me that there is a very good way of knowing what they would’ve taught her. She would’ve learned what she needed to know. She would’ve become powerful.”
But she would not have returned home.
“There is no telling how they would have used her,” he said.
“Again, I think we can tell how they would’ve.”
He sighed. “She comes with us. And we cannot leave with these creatures here. They will destroy and destroy and destroy. Once they escape, it will take more than the two of us—or three of us, such as the case may be.”
“Then I need to know more about them,” Imogen said. She couldn’t believe she was going there and was even thinking about trying to work with him to try to stop these sinister creatures. “If we intend to stop them, then I am going to need to know everything I can about them. I’ve been lucky so far.”
“Not just luck, but you are correct. You should know. Let’s find a place where we can sit and talk, and then we will decide. Together.”
They headed through the forest, stepping over roots that crawled along the forest floor and the occasional massive rock that looked like it had been tossed by a giant. They weaved around shrubs overgrown with lavender-colored berries.
Lilah reached for the fruit, and Benji shook his head.
“Nothing here is safe,” he said.
He continued to pause every so often and touch the trees. Each time they stopped, Imogen would turn, holding on to one of the sacred patterns as she attempted to flow from position to position. Benji said nothing more, and his silence troubled her.
There were no additional crackling sounds in the forest, no blurring movements of energy to suggest the creatures were out there. Imogen continued to worry about the possibility of more branox coming toward them. She didn’t fear many things, but her ability to defend both Benji and Lilah depended on her capacity to remain alert, and she simply didn’t know if she could do that against these creatures.
After the silence stretched for the better part of an hour, she caught up to Benji. “We haven’t seen anything more,” she said, keeping her voice low.
He nodded. “We have not.”
“And if that’s the case, then perhaps you can use this as an opportunity to share more about what has been going on here. What do you know about the branox?”
“They were confined hundreds upon hundreds of years ago, perhaps even longer, and removed from the world. There were those who fought against the branox when they last were seen, who had thought there might be some way to reach them through their magic, but they failed. The branox are a plague of insects feasting on the crops that are the magical beings in the world.”
He hurried ahead, and Imogen stood still as what he said slowly sank in. She glanced over to Lilah, frowned deeply, and rushed forward to catch up.
“You said they feasted on magical beings,” she said.
Benji nodded. “They do.”
“Which means that—”
“Right.”
He fell silent, and Imogen didn’t press. She didn’t need to. If the branox fed on magical beings, then they would be drawn to Lilah—and Benji.
It would explain why they had not gone after Imogen: she didn’t have magic.
She might be able to use the sacred patterns and find a way to summon power through them, but she had no magic of her own. That fact alone made it clear why Benji needed her here. The branox would not come after her. They might be able to harm her if they were to reach her, but they wouldn’t be drawn by her.
This was the reason she had to go after them.
Benji turned his attention in front of him, then paused at another fallen log that blocked their path. As he held his hand against the ground, he took a deep bre
ath and let it out slowly. The ground trembled ever so slightly—not as potent as it had when she’d traveled outside of the forest with Benji—and then it faded.
Either something about this forest limited Benji’s ability, or something had changed for him. She suspected the former.
“I’ve been thinking about these creatures and about my brother,” Imogen said to him, her voice soft. “Why would he go after this queen? If it’s for power, wouldn’t he have to go through the branox, which wouldn’t be that easy?”
She turned to him. His silver eyes locked onto hers, and it seemed as if the color within them swirled for a moment. It was disconcerting and reminded her that however human Benji might appear, he was definitely not.
“Why wouldn’t he go after you again?” She swept her hands around her. “Especially here, in this place.”
Benji smiled. “I imagine your brother realized that coming after me was a fool’s gambit.”
She wasn’t sure. Could this be some plan of his? Draw Benji to a place where his abilities would be diminished and limit his magic so Timo could claim it?
Her brother had changed so much in the time he’d been away from their homeland—more than she had believed. She’d thought that she was the only one who had changed, but she’d been wrong. Her brother had changed far more than she had imagined. Perhaps even more than she had.
And he had seen Benji. He had recognized the power of the Porapeth and decided that he wanted to use that power in a different way.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“I do not either.”
“He’s changed.”
“All must change,” Benji said.
“This is different. This is…” Imogen shook her head. She wasn’t even sure what it was, but she knew this was not her brother.
And it was that acknowledgment that left her realizing that the person Timo had become was drastically different than the person she had known growing up. She no longer knew if he could be saved. Perhaps that was the hardest part of all of this, the part that left her feeling as if her brother was truly lost. And after everything she’d been through, that failure was more than she could stomach.
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