She didn’t answer him, just stared him down, and he looked away, petulant as a child.
“Where is it?” He crouched beside Sam, and lowered the hand holding the terrible, swarming spell toward Sam’s stomach.
Sam looked at her from the ground, his face white.
She couldn’t help him. She wasn’t at full strength, and neither she nor Soren could move fast enough to get to him before Eric did.
“Tell him,” she said to Sam. She kept her face quite blank. “A memento of my mother’s life is not worth dying for.”
Eric looked up at her sharply. “He said that. Before he died. When he didn’t really know where he was anymore. He said the silver pear killed her.”
Miri drew in a sharp breath. “You killed my father?”
Eric studied her. “I did. I’m surprised you’re so upset about it. Gerald of Halakan was not an easy man.”
“I loved my father.” Miri looked at Sam, gave the tiniest nod of her head. “But when it came to my mother, he was a liar. The silver pear didn’t kill her. He did.”
Eric frowned. “I’m not persuaded. Where is it?” He gave Sam a tiny taste of the spell hovering over him, making him cry out in pain.
“In the woodshed. Just in case you came back and ransacked the house.”
“Not a very trusting soul, are you?” Eric dipped his hand again, and Sam screamed. “You.” Eric pointed to Jon. “Go get it. Any delay, and your little friend here will be sorry.”
Jon turned and ran, and the heron leaped into the air after him and followed, circling in the sky above him.
“Sounds like Sam wasn’t going to sell it to you, after all.” Soren said, and Miri realized he was closer to Eric than he had been, taking advantage of every distraction to move a little nearer.
“He was interested, he just didn’t trust me completely.” Eric looked down at Sam. “That’s right, isn’t it? You only hesitated because you thought I was planning to cheat you, not because you had any scruples about selling it.”
Sam closed his eyes and turned his head away. “I was going to speak to Garth about it, first.”
Miri could see he knew he wasn’t going to escape this. It was in Eric’s eyes. He was furious that Sam had thwarted him, had caused this stand-off, and when he had what he wanted, he was going to unleash that fury.
“While we’re waiting, why don’t you tell me what happened to you when you touched that gem.” Eric turned back to Soren.
“Touch it yourself and find out,” Soren said, hand deep in his pocket, and maybe, just maybe, a few steps closer again than he had been. “I left it on the floor of your dungeon.”
Eric’s lip drew back, and he looked as if he were snarling. A few sparks of blue lifted from the mass around his hand and made for Soren, and Miri let her own fingers flare.
“No.”
Eric flicked a look at her, pulled the sparks back. “Think you’re a match for me? You’re a baby.”
She nodded. “Yes. But you’ve heard the rumors. You don’t know quite what it is I can do.” From the corner of her eye she could see Soren’s expression. It was lighter than it had been. She realized Eric’s reaction of anger and frustration had told him something Eric hadn’t realized. Told him that his brother was not in Eric’s dungeon. That Rane had taken the gem with him when he’d escaped.
Eric suddenly looked between them, as if realizing Soren was much closer than he should be.
“Get back.” He waited until Soren took a few reluctant steps back, then opened his eyes wide in astonishment. “I can’t believe I didn’t put it together before. That gem was Gerald’s. He hid his bag before I captured him, and I kept my ear to the ground in case it turned up. I thought it was a wild magic gem, that Gerald had found it or bought it. I have an informant in the Hidden Market, and they told me a sorcerer’s bag had found its way up for sale, that one of the servants of the man who sold it disappeared when he touched a gem in the bag. That’s why I sent your brother after it, I knew whose hands it ended up in. But I just realized, you two are traveling together. Were in the Great Forest together, according to my bird. It makes sense that the gem took you to Halakan. That says it isn’t wild magic, Gerald bespelled that gem himself.”
Soren lifted a shoulder, completely at ease. “Think what you like.”
Eric focused on her, a sly smile playing across his face. “Why aren’t you protecting your liege lord? William of Nesta can’t be happy that you’ve abandoned him at such a dangerous time. Even if it is to race after the silver pear.”
“It’s only a dangerous time because you’ve made it so. I heard from my father you’ve killed three other sorcerers beside Hirst Red Tongue, and to keep up with you, Nuen has destroyed every sorcerer in Therston. The two of you are out for all the power you can get.”
Eric clicked his tongue. “Now, now. Don’t try to divert the conversation. The only reason you would leave Halakan and make a suicidal journey through the Great Forest is because you are desperate for the silver pear. And that would only be because it’s powerful.”
Miri laughed, let the bitterness she felt for William come through, almost grateful he’d given her such a good excuse to leave him, now.
“No, you’re behind the times. That gem had landed more than just Soren in William’s stronghold. More and more men came through who touched it or were caught in its light. Including a whole guard from Jasper of Harness’s stronghold. William wanted me to torture them, find out if they were being sent by some sorcerer like you, Eric, trying to bring him down from within, but I refused.” She could hear Jon returning behind her, making as much noise as he could as he trampled the path.
Garth half-turned to watch him coming.
She needed to talk fast. Convince Eric the pear was not her reason for leaving Halakan. “William decided to break his obligations to me, not the other way around. He brought in Andrei Wolfsblood to kill me and take my place.”
Eric went still. “Andrei Wolfsblood. That upstart thinks he can move into the vacuum in Halakan when I was the one who killed Gerald?” He spoke low, almost to himself. “Is this the truth?”
“Aye.” Garth opened his hands, widened his stance. “I was one of the men who touched the gem and ended up in the stronghold. I was there when Andrei Wolfsblood arrived to challenge her. I know Mirabelle barely got away with her life.” He paused. “That’s why we took the silver pear, which she’d dropped. We thought she was dead.”
There was no doubting Garth was telling the truth.
Miri pressed the point home. “I ran through the forest with Soren because as a wild magic hunter, he knows the paths. And it was the fastest, safest way to leave Halakan. William had men searching for us not five minutes after we escaped, and that’s the one place they won’t go.”
Eric hissed in a breath and Mirabelle thought he was beginning to believe her about the silver pear. As long as he didn’t know what he had, didn’t try to understand what it could do, they could work out a way to steal it back.
The heavy beating of a heron’s wings sounded, and the bird landed beside Eric, fluffing up its feathers.
Jon held a small, cloth-wrapped parcel in his hands. He looked at her nervously.
“Bring it here.” Eric was forced to prop his staff against his side and hold out the hand that wasn’t carrying his spell.
He crouched when Jon gave it to him, set it on the ground and opened it up.
Miri’s heart gave a hard, painful beat at the sight of it. It was almost part of her, and she had to force herself not to move.
Eric’s other hand, coated with blue, had moved over Sam’s body again, in silent warning.
Gingerly, Eric touched it with a finger. Frowned. “What does it do?” He lowered his hand toward Sam.
Miri shook her head. “My father never told me. All I know is he used it up in a huge spell before I was born and he never used it again.”
Eric’s hand closed around it in a grip so hard, Miri could see the whites of his knuck
les. “That’s the story he spun me, as well.”
“He was telling the truth.”
For a sweet, beautiful moment, it looked as if Eric was going to throw the pear away, then his fingers tightened even more. “I’ve wasted a lot of time getting this, and even if it’s useless, it has an intrinsic value of its own.” He shoved it into the pouch hanging across his chest. “Now.” He stood, looked down at Sam. “You’ve been quite a lot of trouble.” He raised his hand, and from nowhere, from thin air, something slammed into him and brought him to the ground.
Miri looked and saw Soren had vanished, and she grabbed the sky magic she’d been holding ready and Sam was suddenly behind her, at Garth and Jon’s feet, away from Eric.
“Go,” she said, turning to them, and Garth and Jon each took an arm and they ran, dodging the small ball of wild magic her spell had created. She sent it to the Great Forest with a wave of her staff.
She’d used only what she needed to for Sam, or tried to. She had a little left over.
Eric was on the ground, waving his hand with the swarming spell in all directions and his heron was stabbing wildly with its beak, not with any focus, but simply trying to find where Soren was.
Eric’s spell.
She’d never seen anything like it, but it was dark and it meant death. She knew that.
He’d paid the price for it already, it was completely present, fully formed. Most likely when it was discharged he would need to rest before he could fight again, and so she did the only thing she could.
Like she had with Sam, she moved the heron, from Eric’s feet onto Eric’s hand.
The blue lights coalesced on it, and it gave a terrible, high shriek and was still.
It fell, limp, onto the ground, and wild magic shimmered into being off to the right. Eric scrabbled away from it, grabbing his fallen staff and hauling himself to his feet.
“When I’ve dealt with Andrei, I’ll be back for you,” he hissed at her, flicking his hand at the wild magic and banishing it. Then, as a branch lifted off the ground and swung at him, he twirled his staff over his head and disappeared.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
KAYLA AND RANE
There was some disturbance beyond the gate.
Kayla quickened her pace and saw the archers on the castle wall were standing to attention, bows pointed down into the courtyard.
Rane.
She picked up her skirts and ran.
They were all so intent on the scene playing out within, no-one stopped her or even looked her way when she passed under the portcullis.
Rane stood halfway between the gate and the castle doors, quite alone, although there were plenty of people watching, pressed up against the walls or far enough away not to be caught by a stray arrow.
He was busy unbuckling a sword from his waist, and she saw a crossbow lying at his feet already.
He threw the sword down as well, his eyes on Vik, who was moving down the stairs of the main castle, flanked by guards. Rane had something in his hand, his fingers curled around it in a loose fist.
Even if what he was holding could do some damage, there were at least twenty bows pointed at him.
“Vik the Steady. What on earth is happening here?” Kayla was pleased her voice came out strong and clear, even though her heart was hammering in her chest at the thought of Rane shot.
She could stop the arrows.
She forced herself to take a deep breath. She could stop the arrows. She had before when she’d saved Soren from Jasper, but it would use a lot of her wild magic, and she had a feeling she’d need every bit of it to get them both out of here.
Vik stopped at the sound of her voice and frowned. “Who are you?”
Time to be a princess again.
Kayla threw back her hood, and pushed her cloak back from her shoulders, so the glimmer and glow of the wild magic gems were visible, the crown on her head clear to all.
“I’m surprised you don’t recognize me,” she said, and hoped this man was not as proud and unyielding as he had once been, or she might be in line for an arrow herself.
Rane had turned to look at her, and she saw astonishment, and then his face went blank. He shook his head, as if she should never have come to his rescue. Could somehow turn around and get herself away from this situation.
She almost laughed at him.
“Princess Kayla of Gaynor.” Vik sounded . . . shocked.
Kayla dipped into a perfect, courtly curtsey as silence descended on the courtyard.
She felt every single eye on her.
She raised her head. “It has been a few years. I trust you are well?”
Vik opened his mouth and then closed it again, and Kayla took advantage of his silence to walk toward Rane. “How is Queen Elanie? I very much enjoyed her company when she visited Gaynor, and I look forward to seeing her again.”
She reached Rane’s side, and he looked as if he wanted to throttle her.
“I can’t protect you here,” he said to her, low and just for her ears. “There are too many of them.”
“As I am the one protecting you, that doesn’t really matter.” She smiled at him, and his gaze flickered to her face, and then to her crown, and the jewels on her fingers and around her neck.
She could almost see him thinking he wasn’t good enough for her. That a poor woodsman and a rich princess were never meant to be.
“Wild magic,” she said, leaning closer to him so her lips almost brushed his ear. “Everything on me is a piece of wild magic. This far from the forest, it was the best I could do.”
She sensed him relax, and then, at last, he grinned at her, shook his head again, but this time, the anger was gone.
“Sooty?” He finally noticed the cat, tucked under Kayla’s arm, and Kayla stroked the top of her head.
“Didn’t want to start a riot,” she said.
Vik said something in low tones to his men, and walked forward alone.
“You know this man?” He looked between them.
“Rane De’Villier is my betrothed.” She had thought this through, but however badly Vik might take it, he was married, and they would have to deal with him in the future. There could be no lying about it now.
“He told me so, but I didn’t believe him.”
“You didn’t believe me about a lot of things,” Rane said, and put an arm around Kayla, pulling her close. He still held something in his other hand, and from the way he did, Kayla knew it was a weapon.
Vik stopped walking toward them, and Kayla saw that the guards he’d left at the steps hadn’t stayed there, they’d moved quietly around until she and Rane were surrounded. Kayla tilted her head, keeping her gaze on Vik.
“I’m sorry, your highness. Much as I value Gaynor’s friendship, the safety of Phon comes first.”
He didn’t look that sorry.
“The safety of Phon?” Kayla frowned, and looked at Rane, not Vik, for answers.
“Andrei Wolfsblood has accepted a position elsewhere, leaving Phon without a sorcerer, and Vik thinks I know something about what’s going on.”
“We don’t know anything about your sorcerer,” she said to Vik.
“I think De’Villier does. He knows more than I do, in any event. And he refused to stay and tell me what he knows.”
“Why didn’t you just go with him on part of his journey? I’m sure he would have shared whatever he knew.”
Beside her, Rane smiled. “He wanted me questioned at his convenience, not mine.”
Kayla narrowed her eyes. “That seems very much in character.”
Again, all around her became absolutely silent.
Vik stared at her, open-mouthed. “And just what is my character, princess?” His question was soft.
The conversation she had just had with the Falkirks rang in Kayla’s ears, and her old anger from Elanie’s revelations about how the story of her rejecting Vik had spread flared back to life.
This was a question best answered in private, but Vik had asked it
here and now, and if he wanted an answer, she would give him one.
“Remember,” Rane said in her ear, “we’re in enemy territory. Best to keep a cool head.”
She gave him a long look, and his eyes widened and he lifted his hands in truce.
Kayla turned back to Vik. “You tell me. What would you call a man who asked a child to marry him, and when she said no, took offense? Every year, for three years after that, he traveled to her, stopping along the way at inns and towns to boast about how grateful she would be to have another chance to say yes, and how lucky she was that he would deign to give her one. A man, who when he stood in front of her, treated her like a simpleton, mocking her views and talking over her. What would you say about the character of a man like that?”
A wind blew through the courtyard, rattling something off to one side. It was a testament to how quiet things were that she could hear it.
Vik clenched his fists, then drew himself up. “Perhaps we should have this conversation indoors.” His voice was low, and she inclined her head. At last, he was using his brain.
She took a step forward.
Something flew past her cheek, close enough she felt the brush of a feather, and landed with a clatter on the cobbles.
She looked down at it, putting Sooty on the ground as she stooped to see it properly in the fading light. It was an arrow.
She spared Vik an astonished glance as Rane leaped to protect her back, and then she looked up at the battlements.
Perhaps the man who shot the first arrow made a mistake, or perhaps he’d been one of Vik’s men, beaten in a Gaynor inn on the way home after his king had been humiliated, but now the first shot had been made, she was afraid more would follow. She couldn’t risk it, and she couldn’t be sure she would see every arrow in time.
She pulled wild magic toward her and ripped the arrows and bows from the archers’ hands and smashed them to the ground, just as she had done at Jasper’s.
The portcullis started coming down, and not wanting to be trapped within, Kayla sheered the door off completely, so all fifteen feet of it smashed into the ground and fell over.
The Silver Pear (The Dark Forest Book 2) Page 17