by Isla Frost
We were in some sort of underground chamber, the walls, floor, and ceiling all solid dirt except for the stairs I’d come down leading to the surface. Magical light illuminated the room, the brightness concentrated over a large slab table in the center.
But I noted all of this with only the barest of interest as my eyes desperately sought Ameline.
She was gagged and bound to the only other piece of furniture in the room, a simple wooden chair. Her face was grimy enough that I could see the tear tracks down her cheeks. But she was not harmed so far as I could tell. And Griff was nestled in her hair, tail swishing angrily but staying put on her shoulder.
Her expression only grew more worried when her gaze locked with mine. As if she’d hoped I wouldn’t come.
I rushed to her—or tried—but two cloaked and hooded hollows blocked me.
“I’m here. Let her go,” I demanded.
Ellbereth stepped between me and her cronies. Her hood was down, her flame-red hair looking dangerously wicked in this secret underground room. She tilted her head and smiled.
“Come now, you don’t think we’re so foolish as to release her before the ritual is complete, do you? We can’t have her running for aid. But afterward, we will. Unharmed, I promise.”
She patted the stone slab. “Lie down here, please.”
There was no reason not to believe that Ellbereth would keep her promise, but I hesitated. There were four of them and two of us, assuming I could get Ameline untied. Those were crap odds, but they were only going to get worse once I lay down on that table.
Ameline shook her head, pleading with me not to go through with it. She might be scared, she might’ve been brought to tears, but I knew she’d rather die than watch me sacrifice myself to save her.
Unluckily for Ameline, it was my choice to make.
Besides, this way there was a chance we both might live. Even if it was only a slim one.
My brain raced, trying to come up with a strategy that might get us out of here, our two gifts pitted against all of theirs. But I came up empty.
I met her eyes, trying to convey my peace with the decision. “I love you,” I told her, not caring who else heard.
And then I lay down on the stone slab.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Ellbereth and her cronies tied me down with soft, silken ropes.
“This is going to hurt,” she said, “but I am trying to help you. You have no grasp of how evil your magic is. It must be destroyed at any cost.”
As much as I wanted to hate her, I could see by the fervor in her eyes that she believed it. Believed that it was better I endure agony and probable death than retain this wildcard magic.
And that scared me almost more than the cruel curved blade I’d noticed when I’d eased myself onto the table.
They finished tying me, my limbs spread-eagled across the slab in a most undignified fashion. But dignity was the least of my concerns.
Ellbereth checked each of my bonds herself, then raised her voice and announced, “She’s secured.”
That was when someone else came down the stairs, and a moment later, Healer Invermoore stepped into my field of view.
It was jarring to see her serene features and pristine white gown, usually in the light and airy beauty of the infirmary, here in this crude and grubby dugout.
She smiled gently at me, her clear gray eyes resting on my face, though not without a glance at my bonds first.
“Ellbereth’s right, Nova. You have not seen nor tended to the thousands of warriors who have been wounded by the Malus. You have not witnessed what happens to those consumed by its devouring magic, so utterly emptied that their bodies disintegrate into dust mere days later, leaving nothing for their loved ones to say farewell to or lay to rest. No being should possess this power. It’s unnatural. Unbalanced. And since walkerkind were responsible for bringing it about, it is our responsibility to undo it.”
Shock and a sense of betrayal hit me like a fist to the gut. I’d always felt safe with the healer. I’d almost liked her.
But beneath the stunned betrayal was something worse. The unease, the doubt. What if Healer Invermoore and Ellbereth were right?
What if my magic was an abomination that should never have existed? What if I was not the Malus’s downfall but its inroad onto this continent?
Certainly the number of people that were for my wildcard gift seemed markedly outmatched.
“You must know what I’m saying is true,” Healer Invermoore continued softly, sympathetically. “Ameline came to me for supplies and advice that first night you were sick. Even your body senses the unnatural nature of this magic and tries to reject it.”
When I didn’t respond, didn’t give her the agreement she seemed to be hoping for, Invermoore patted my tightly bound hand. “I will do all I can to ensure you survive the cleansing process.”
There was something about the movement, her slight hesitation before touching me, that triggered something deep in my brain.
Healer Invermoore was not a hollow.
If I could break her skin, maybe even just scratch her with a fingernail, my magic would work on her. I could steal her life force and use that power to escape.
At the cost of her life.
As if Invermoore could see the thoughts on my face, she withdrew her hand. “It is my understanding that your magic is more limited than the Malus’s. That you cannot take life force without first piercing the epidermal barrier. Is that correct?”
I could tell by the way she asked that she was already certain of the answer. She wanted me to know they were ready for anything I might try.
No wonder they’d searched me so thoroughly for weapons and bound me so securely before she’d made her presence known.
Healer Invermoore picked up the curved ceremonial blade and made the first cut into my flesh. Pain and blood welled on my forearm. I supposed if magic was carried in our veins, it made sense they’d bleed it out of me.
Ellbereth and her minions began to chant. They’d shifted to stand around the table, one at each corner, and their harmonized voices lifted and fell in an unfamiliar cadence. An unfamiliar language. The sound was eerily beautiful, and the power of it made my hair stand on end.
Invermoore made another cut, parallel to the first and about an inch apart. More blood flowed. I gritted my teeth and watched the crimson liquid spill down my skin and onto the slab I was strapped to.
I knew then that if I wasn’t prepared to make the healer bleed in return, if I wasn’t prepared to take her life, there was no hope of escape.
Each new cut made me flinch involuntarily, but I did not cry out. Not yet. And my tightly constrained limbs could not recoil enough to ruin Invermoore’s perfect precision. My skin might have been the canvas for a morbid work of art for all the care she took.
As the hollows continued to chant and my blood welled and flowed, I realized the slab had been created with this in mind. Gently sloped sides guided the liquid into channels that carried my blood away instead of letting it pool around my back.
How considerate of them.
Time seemed to speed up and yet slow down at the same time. My head spun, but whether from fear or blood loss or the magic in the room, I didn’t know. A strange sort of lethargy was creeping over me.
I wasn’t sure I cared.
I rolled my head—the one part of my body I was still free to move—to look at Ameline.
My friend’s gaze was locked on me. Fear and horror and desperation shining there. And then, despite the gag, I heard her voice.
Stay strong and be ready. I’m going to try something.
I couldn’t imagine what she thought she could do with her mindspeaking magic. Call in a beast from the forest to break us out of here? Any creature she might persuade to work with her would stand no chance against five walkers.
But whatever Ameline was trying, I didn’t want to draw the walkers’ attention to her. So I rolled my head back to study the earthen ceiling, the tree r
oots there sheared from whatever power had carved the underground space.
I tried to follow her instructions. To stay strong. To be ready. But the slim hope I’d had of escaping was draining away with my blood. To distract myself from that morose thought, I switched to my second sight. There was only so much one could stare at a dirt ceiling after all.
The familiar abundance of life was dimmed by the quantity of soil between us, but I found it comforting somehow. Life would go on without me, whatever happened tonight.
A flurry of energy led me to two large and vibrant creatures circling a third. Obscured by earth and distance, the shape of their golden light was too hazy to identify them, but I could tell all three were big and powerful.
A growl ripped through the night, carrying down to our dugout and adding a discordant note to the melodic chanting. A spitting hiss sounded in response. And then the creatures’ life forces flung themselves at each other, seeming to merge and separate and merge again.
I watched, mesmerized by the light show. Until a scream of pain carried to my ears and one of those light sources brightened.
Suddenly I understood Ameline’s plan.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I reached out with my magic, uncertain if it would work across this distance, and pulled at the wounded creature’s life force.
The resistance was strong, and in my weakened state, I worried I would lose this tug-of-war. But that thought resurrected the determination that had been slowly draining from me along with my lifeblood.
So I held on, pulled harder. The resistance gave way like a bursting dam.
Power flooded me. Healed me. Revived me.
Transformed me.
In four heartbeats, I wrenched free of my bonds, snatched the ceremonial blade from Healer Invermoore’s hand, slashed through the ropes shackling Ameline to the chair, and pressed that same razor-edged blade against Invermoore’s throat.
All before anyone could react.
My body was smeared with blood, but the pain and cuts were gone. I was sure I looked like a thing of nightmares as I bared my teeth.
“We are going to leave. You are going to let us. Or Healer Invermoore will be my next victim. And I don’t think you’ll like what I become with her power flowing through my veins.”
In the breath that followed, Ameline rose on trembling legs, her eyes shining with an equal measure of hope and fear.
Ellbereth considered us for a moment. Then she waved a casual hand at Ameline, and my friend slammed back down in her chair.
“You might be fast and strong, but you forget there are five magic wielders in this room. Think about it, Nova. You might be right. You might even manage to kill a few of us and escape. But your friend here will die. I’ll personally guarantee it.”
She quirked a brow at me. “Unless you can raise the dead?”
I didn’t answer, and she nodded as if this was expected. “Besides, if you murder even one of us, you will never graduate from the academy. Never face the Malus. So this power you foolishly believe may help the world, this power that has beguiled you, warped you already without your noticing, this power you are now considering sacrificing your friend and becoming a cold-blooded murderer to protect, will bring only that. Murder and death.”
Her words held the ring of sincerity. Of truth.
Her truth.
But whether or not she was wrong about the rest, Ellbereth was right on one thing. I would not sacrifice Ameline to save my gift.
The tip of the ceremonial knife lowered a fraction as my supercharged body sagged in defeat.
“That’s it,” Ellbereth coaxed. “Return the blade to Invermoore and lie down on the table.”
Don’t.
That was Ameline. Abducted, gagged, and pinned to the chair by magic, yet still fighting.
Why is she bargaining with you? Why not magically force you to obey?
That was a good question.
You drew the life force of a stoneboar inside you. Use it.
A stoneboar. I hadn’t realized that was what I’d drained. Would never have guessed it. Not because they weren’t common enough but because of their single distinguishing trait.
There were three types of prey animals that flourished in the existing ecosystem. Those like rabbits and mosquitos that bred too fast to be wiped out. Those like the flum that had evolved inbuilt protective quirks that made them unappealing to predators. Or those like stoneboars, which were big, bad, and hard to kill. Stoneboars were especially hard to kill not only because they were the size of a rhino with hides tougher than inch-thick leather but because they had shields that made them impervious to all magic.
Except the Malus’s.
Except mine.
Was it possible I now possessed that same shielding power? Why hadn’t any of the walkers attacked me yet? Perhaps they were just being wary, unsure if my extra-strengthened limbs might push through any magic compulsion they could exert and fearing to risk Invermoore’s life if it failed.
Or perhaps they couldn’t cast anything on me.
Could I extend that protection to Ameline? There was nothing to lose by trying.
I focused on my friend, who was sitting rigidly on the chair, magic pinning her in place. And I visualized a barricade of transparent armored plates interlocking around her, one that would allow no magic through.
The rigidity of her muscles eased. Her eyes bored into mine in question. And I gave a slight nod.
She didn’t stand. She was too smart for that, to give away our element of surprise. She just gave me a discreet thumbs-up.
And that was when I knew it was time to haul ass.
Chapter Twenty-Four
I released my grip on Healer Invermoore, snatched up Ameline, and fled for the stairs.
The curved ceremonial blade would make a terrible close-combat or throwing weapon, but I kept it anyway. While I was pretty sure Ameline and I were immune to magical attack, we still had the physical to defend against.
I figured we had a few seconds head start before they came to terms with the fact that their magical attacks weren’t working on either of us. Then they’d be out for blood. I caught sight of my crimson-smeared arm and amended that to more blood.
Lucky for us, amped up on life force, I was faster, stronger, and a better fighter than any walker.
I shoved Ameline out into the open air. “Run,” I hissed. “I’ll catch up.”
Then I spun back to our tormentors to see if I might gain us some advantage.
There was little enough in the room to work with, and the walkers were already beginning to stir to physical action. With no time to devise a better plan, I dashed around the room and relieved them of as many weapons as I could carry.
I bounded up the stairs, flung my armful of stolen weapons into the care of a carnivorous tree, and dashed after my friend, already berating myself for not keeping one of the snatched swords.
My eyes could now see clearly in the darkness, and I caught up to Ameline with ease. She was flat-out sprinting, but it sure didn’t feel like it. I placed my palm against her back and pressed gently to propel her to greater speeds, simultaneously glancing over my shoulder.
They were coming.
Four of the five were out of the hole now. And as a giant tree limb above us cracked and fell, I knew they’d figured out the flaw in our shield. Indirect magical attacks still worked fine.
I grabbed Ameline about the waist, raised her a few inches off the ground, and dashed forward to put the crashing limb between us and our pursuers.
It wasn’t a comfortable way of carrying my friend, and I was considering putting her down, when brambles erupted at our feet. I threw her over my shoulder, ignoring her and Griff’s shrieks of protest, and tore through the canes. The thorns ripped at my flesh, but the power flowing through me sealed the wounds seconds later.
Even so, I was gaining a better sense of my gift now, and I could feel the strain that took on my supply of stolen life force.
; Dodge the nasties then. If I had to heal too much, I’d go through it too quickly. And if I ran out of juice, err, life force, we’d both be dead.
“Look out,” Ameline cried, even as my ears picked up the sound of an arrow in flight. I dodged right. Into another patch of brambles, dammit, and sprinted on.
Guess I should’ve relieved them of their long-range weapons.
“They’ve stopped running,” Ameline reported. “But I don’t think they’ve given up. Something big is probably coming…”
Sure enough, the earth shook, threatening to turn my headlong flight into a headlong tumble into the dirt. No. Make that a ravine. The earth opened up, and I leaped just before the ground disappeared beneath my feet. I barely cleared it. And if my jump had fallen so much as an inch short, I was pretty sure that fissure would’ve slammed shut with me inside.
But the academy was just ahead now. I could see the comforting glow of Millicent’s lights peeking through the trees. The dark shapes of the sentinel hedge cats guarding the threshold.
We dodged a final crashing tree limb, and then we were past those hedge cats. But this time the thing that hunted me would not be stopped by their protective magic, so I kept running.
Millicent’s doors sprung wide at my approach, and that small gesture made my eyes burn. Seconds later, I gladly gave her my blood to taste and fell through the doorway of our dorm. I knew Millicent would make the door disappear behind us in the outer hall, and only that made me lower Ameline to her own two feet.
She and Griff wore matching expressions of windblown and wide-eyed outrage. No, Griff’s was outrage. Ameline’s was a mixture of shock and relief.
“Gracious griffin’s claws,” she said. “That’s some gift you’ve got there.”
“How did you know I’d be able to use the stoneboar’s abilities?” I demanded.
“I didn’t. But I figured any energy you could draw on would help us, and life force is intertwined with magic, so I just hoped.”
“But how did you get it to fight the other creatures? Isn’t it impervious to your mindspeaking magic too?”