When he was gone, she crept out and motioned for her brother to follow.
“What are you doing?” he mouthed at her.
She held a finger to her lips and gestured for him to follow. He scowled but couldn’t stop her without making a scene so simply complied.
The man thrust through briars and tripped over downed trees. He pushed himself to his feet each time he fell and continued. His strength seemed, however, like the fevered thrashings of a seriously ill patient overlying a deep weariness that might claim him at any moment.
Taigan’s hatred for Gwyna grew with every step. Torturing young animals, taking the poor and sick for her experiments…she needed to be stopped. She was furious now that Yulia hadn’t let them go with Ben. While she had never particularly liked the feeling of killing their various adversaries—beyond the fact that she didn’t want to die and was being attacked—she was very sure she would enjoy killing the sorceress.
That thought scared her so much that she stopped dead in her tracks and Jamie ran into her with a muffled exclamation. They crouched in the undergrowth in case the man had heard them.
“Are you okay?” Her brother’s voice was barely audible.
“Yes, I…yes.” She shook her head. “Later.”
She had been faced with any number of choices over the years and those had been painful, but all of them had dealt with what she wanted if something happened to her medically. She had never, even in her wildest dreams, imagined being faced with a choice like this.
It had simply never occurred to her to wonder if a side of her might enjoy killing someone. It wasn’t merely unpleasant or unwelcome, it was an utter shock.
When they caught up with the man, he had come to a camp of sorts. In reality, it could hardly be called that and at first glance, it was horrifying. Bones and blood were everywhere, the bones twisted and shattered, and the people among them had blood on their mouths.
But they had been wolves when this happened, she realized. She and Jamie had undone the spell, stripping away the qualities of each animal when they freed the sacrifices, and the spell that had turned these people into monsters had disintegrated.
Now they were human, and they were weak and still in pain.
She wanted to help them, but this time, it was cowardice that held her back. These people still wore Gwyna’s rings and the gold bit into the flesh. Even if they were no longer monsters, who could say if they would attack others on sight?
Taigan backed away quietly and motioned for Jamie to do so as well. They crept away into the forest and followed the trail of broken branches and their signs out of the forest. By mutual and silent agreement, they did not seek out the wellspring yet.
They had learned enough already that Yulia should know about.
They were close to the edge of the forest when her brother said, his voice subdued, “What do you think that maze was?”
She looked at him in surprise. “How do you mean?”
“Well, they said protection could be anyone’s if they wanted it, but not to look for anything else,” he said. “That’s interesting. Was there a trapdoor into a tomb full of artifacts, Indiana Jones-style, or was it only the magic they didn’t want people to touch? If so, why didn’t Gwyna bite it?” His tone softened. “I think it’s nice that…it’s, like, they built it for something else but they also made it a haven for anyone.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” she responded thoughtfully. “I suppose it’s the only place where those animals would have survived. She found a way to turn that into something dark, but…” She shook her head. “Back there, what scared me was that I thought I’d enjoy killing her. I don’t like thinking like that.”
He looked at her and moved closer to wrap an arm around her shoulders. The noonday sunlight was bright outside the forest, and they approached the edge quickly.
They walked in silence for a while before he said, “I’ve been thinking about this.”
“Yeah?”
“I used to think that even having dark thoughts was a bad sign, then I wondered—well, it was after the monster attacked us. For some reason, the jackalopes didn’t feel real, but that one did. I wondered if it was wrong for us to have killed it. And I think there are gradations to the things you do. You were protecting me when you did that. You wanting to kill Gwyna is the same thing. It’s not because you’re a terrible person. You want her to stop doing terrible things.”
Taigan scrunched her face dubiously.
Jamie shook her slightly. “What I’m saying is I don’t think you’re a homicidal maniac. I think you have to see below what’s driving that urge to kill her and follow that.”
“Oh. You’re smart sometimes, you know that?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Prima interjected.
“Hey!” Jamie protested and looked at the sky. Both he and Taigan snickered as they hurried to Yulia’s house.
Chapter Twelve
Ben reappeared in the world of PIVOT lying under a tree and staring through the leaves at the midday sun. He blinked, sat, and looked around.
“Welcome back,” Prima said.
“Thanks. Um…which way am I supposed to go?”
“Downhill.”
“Thank you.” He stood with a groan. “And thanks for cleaning my clothes. That inn wasn’t exactly great on the cleanliness front.”
“It’s not entirely altruistic,” Prima admitted. “Remember, I also have to smell you.”
He guffawed.
“Less loud talking. You’ll look like the village crazy person.”
“Oh, right.” He kept his voice low but couldn’t keep from whistling, however, when he came around the bend and saw the lake spread below him. “Now that is gorgeous.”
“Note to self—humans find lakes aesthetically pleasing.”
“Leave it to you to suck the fun out of something,” he muttered. “Okay, now I have to find the path to the caves.” He took time to examine the path as it wound down. “Up from the shore, do you think, or should I try to climb down from the cliffs? No, don’t answer. You’ll only be vague.”
“You know me so well,” she said contentedly.
“Yeah, yeah.” Ben shook his head. “Okay, so. Up first, I think.” He detoured from the path and along the top of the cliffs before he edged closer to peer down. It wasn’t possible to see where the caves were from there. A few shadows looked likely but overhangs of rock cast too many shadows. The caves could be anywhere.
It looked like the shoreline was the best place to start and then to work his way up. He descended the path slowly and carefully and made sure to savor the view of the lake. An inner sense suggested that this view would be tainted soon, exactly as the temple in Heffog was now tainted. He would tangle with enemies there and all the beauty would fade into those memories of strife.
At the lakeshore, he found a fairly wide path and proceeded along it. Once in a while, the ground faded into mud or wet rocks but there was usually enough space to walk comfortably and look at the cliffs at the same time.
It wasn’t long before he located the path. Whether someone else would have seen it, he wasn’t sure, but he was accustomed to scanning strange rock faces for hand and footholds. He saw at once that there was space to move along and that the trail led to a small and cleverly shaded opening in the rock.
Once he’d identified it, he couldn’t imagine how he had missed it. It must be a spell of some kind, designed to make the eye pass over it.
Ben headed up the slope and hoisted himself onto the path, such as it was. Now that he was there, it was quite precarious. He didn’t have enough space to put both feet beside one another and resorted to edging along.
He had covered most of the distance before he saw the woman watching him. Startled, he did a double-take and narrowly avoided falling off the path, which was good as it was quite a long way down at this point. He clung to the rock face for a moment with his heart pounding, but he relaxed as he looked at her.
Yulia had desc
ribed Gwyna as being nothing special to look at and from that description, he could only assume that either the old woman had very high standards or that this was not Gwyna. Her strawberry-blonde hair was held back in a rough braid and strands escaped around her face. From her high cheekbones to her full mouth and long-lashed dark eyes, she was gorgeous.
She also looked very frightened. He hurried his progress along the ledge and finally stepped off.
“Ah…hello.”
She pressed her lips together for a moment and looked nervously behind her.
“You shouldn’t go in there,” she said.
“Why?” he asked.
“The witch,” she told him fiercely. She looked like she might cry. “She’s evil.”
“Evil?” Ben looked behind her. Alarms resounded in his head but he couldn’t be sure why. “Tell me what’s going on.” He tapped the sword at his belt. “I’ll be right here to help if anyone comes out of there, okay?”
He thought she would say no, but another look over her shoulder seemed to convince her that no one was following. She sighed, sat on a nearby boulder, and took her time before speaking.
“She’s a monster,” she said finally. “She’s cruel and she only wants to hide people away. She wants to keep us locked in there.”
He leaned nearby. It was hard to not get sucked in by the view, but he knew he needed to focus.
And not on how pretty the woman was either.
“Did you seek her out to train you in magic?” he asked finally.
“Yes.” She looked at him. “It’s why you’re here, too, isn’t it?”
“Yes.” He showed her the iron ring. “A…friend…uh, acquaintance told me I would hurt someone if I didn’t get trained.”
“Well, don’t let her train you,” the girl said angrily. “She’ll hide you away and make you her servant. I had to sweep floors and carry buckets of water and…” She looked at him suddenly, her eyes wide. “You said you’d help me if she followed me. You should come with me. You shouldn’t go there anyway and you can keep me safe on the road.” Wide brown eyes looked appealingly at him.
The alarms in his head raged at full blast now, and it was probably good that they were because he had a difficult time listening to them. He cleared his throat a few times.
His purpose was to stop Gwyna and he couldn’t do that if he ran away with a pretty girl.
“Ah…I don’t mean to be rude,” he said, “but I need to be trained. There isn’t anywhere else for me to go. I can’t take the chance of hurting someone.”
“You could simply wear the ring,” she told him.
“It’s…too much of a chance.” He needed to come up with some reason for her to leave him here. He gave her a little smile. “And I don’t mind sweeping or carrying water. I only want to know how to control my powers so that I don’t hurt anyone. I heard someone talking about a sorceress and after a while, someone mentioned the lake. It looks like it was true—she is here—and I haven’t heard of anyone else who could train me.”
She looked angrily at him. “You shouldn’t go in. Why don’t you believe me about her? She’ll make you work like an animal all day long.”
Now, Ben was truly annoyed. “I’m no stranger to hard work,” he told her coldly. “I’m not afraid of it. Hard work has brought me to where I am in my life. I expect that training in magic will also be difficult. It is necessary, though, and if Gwyna is the only one who can train me and she needs help with hauling water or chopping firewood, then I’ll do it.”
The girl folded her arms and pouted prettily at him for a moment before her beautiful features dissolved and rearranged themselves into another face entirely. The woman who raised an eyebrow at him was, indeed, not particularly noteworthy in the looks department. Her hair was more dun-colored than strawberry-blonde, her eyes were smaller and not as long-lashed, her mouth was less full, and her cheekbones not so high.
“Interesting,” she told him.
He sighed. “Gwyna, I presume?”
“The same.” She raised one shoulder. “And you aren’t jesting about your friend, although I wonder who you could know who saw power but did not know how to train you.”
“I was shipwrecked and came to ground in Heffog,” he said tightly. “I met a half-elf who saw the magic but assumed I knew how to use it. He told me to find training and a few whispers led me here.” Not wanting her to think she was easy to find, he added, “But I’ve been around quite a few lakes at this point. I was close to giving up.”
All he could hope was that she couldn’t read minds.
“Hmm.” Gwyna studied him. “Wants to study, determined, not easily turned by a pretty face or the threat of hard work…you might do.” Suddenly, her gaze sharpened and she stepped close. Her fingers caught his chin. “Tell me what you want,” she commanded, her voice low and melodic.
Simple surprise compelled Ben to answer honestly. “Not to be trapped in my own body.”
Surprise flitted across her face and was gone in an instant. She stepped back and stared curiously at him. “You’re telling the truth, aren’t you? Curious.” She shrugged. “Well, then, come along if you want to study.”
She turned and walked toward the cave opening.
Ben hesitated for only a moment before he followed her. He didn’t know if she believed him about any of it, but he had to try. If Gwyna was creating monsters out of vulnerable people and weaving spells to trap minds, he needed to stop her.
“You don’t have a horse, do you?” she called from the darkness.
“I…no.” He hurried after her. “Do you need one?”
“I merely wanted to know if you were traveling on foot,” she said. “Strange things have happened in the web of magic recently and I’m trying to place you.”
“Ah. No, no horse. Or cart or anything. I walked.”
“Then it seems there are two people wandering around with magical talents,” she said lightly, although her voice did not seem pleased at all. “Perhaps the other will come to join us as well.”
He tried to keep his face blank as he nodded but all he could think was that whoever this person was, they should stay away. Whatever they had done, whether it was do something she didn’t approve of or use more magic than she had, she did not like them.
It was a good reminder for him, too.
Chapter Thirteen
The thwack of sticks reverberated through the area as Jamie and Taigan locked in a battle. The twins circled, their gazes fixed on one another, and each of them held a gnarled branch. They were panting by now, stripped to a single layer of clothing and still sweaty in the last of the day’s heat.
It had been the better part of three hours since they finished explaining what they saw to Yulia, and she had turned them out of the house while she did some spells. She seemed more troubled than upset, which they quietly agreed was more unnerving.
They had filled the time since then with sparring. Jamie maintained that with a staff much longer than his sword, Taigan should be able to keep him at a distance. Whether she should or not, she wasn’t sure.
She couldn’t do it yet, though.
“I’m not good at this,” she called to him. “My strength is offense, not defense.”
“You’ll have to learn both,” he countered and danced in with a downward slash.
This time, she attacked at the same moment. A swing of her stick knocked the shorter one out of his hand and he stumbled back with a curse.
“See?” she said. “Attack. Offense. It’s what works for me.”
Jamie gave her a disgruntled look. “Your technique depends on people being so scared and overwhelmed by your tactic that they don’t fight back. Someday, someone will fight and you’ll be up shit creek without a paddle.”
Taigan wrinkled her nose at him. She didn’t want to concede that he was right but she had to admit he had a point. That was the problem with having a twin. They saw far too much about you and tended to have unnervingly, annoyingly accurate assessments.
“Again,” he said. He stood, panting, while she retrieved both the sticks. “And this time, focus on where I’m trying to hit and how you could dodge or redirect my power.”
Despite her groan, she nodded. They squared off again and started after a countdown. This time, she circled the other way.
“Am I supposed to follow the footwork?” she called.
“Once you know the defensive strikes.” Jamie wiped the sweat out of his eyes. “The footwork does tell you where they’ll go, but unless you know how to block, you won’t do much good.”
“Bah,” she said under her breath.
When the door opened behind them, she turned to look and caught a thwack across the side of the head. She sprawled and Jamie uttered a terrified yelp.
“Taigan! Oh, God…Mom and Dad will kill me—”
“I’m all right,” she said muzzily from the ground.
“I’m so sorry.” He sounded miserable. “So sorry, Taigan, and we’ll wait as long as we have to while you recover—”
“Young man,” Yulia said with the air of someone rolling her eyes, “your sister is fine, and she has learned a valuable lesson about distractions during combat. Isn’t that right, young lady?”
“Uh-huh.” She rubbed the side of her face and winced. “Will I have a bruise?”
The woman shrugged in a way that said she didn’t care in the slightest. “You’ll both want to come inside. I have something for you.”
They followed her, Taigan walking gingerly and Jamie trotting alongside her with a pained look on his face. When they entered the cottage, he made sure she sat and fussed over her until Yulia rapped his hand with a wooden spoon.
“Focus, young man.”
His sister snickered but not too loudly. She didn’t want to get thwacked, after all.
The workbench had been tidied, but the heavy smell of herbs in the air and the faint hint of charcoal on the wood showed that she had been doing spells. Two necklaces were there, both with an amulet that looked a little odd.
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