“I can cast slick on the windowsills,” Sienne said.
“I’ve got a few ideas for alarms,” Dianthe added.
“These rooms at the end of the hall are highly defensible,” Perrin said. “I think we are well protected.”
“Then—regular watch rotation, and let’s get through this night,” Alaric said.
Sienne decided not to sleep in her nightdress, feeling superstitiously that if she was underdressed, that would be the time someone would choose to attack. She felt better about her decision when Dianthe also didn’t change into her nightdress. “Do you really think they won’t attack tonight?” she asked.
“We can’t know for sure,” Dianthe said, “but whoever this is, whatever resources he has, it takes time for him to get them into position. And he’s not omniscient. None of the ones who attacked us in the forest were priests, or they would have had defensive shields. So they couldn’t communicate the news of their failure right away. That’s time in our favor. Then they’d have to move more men to where we are. That’s more time. I don’t think they can even reach us until tomorrow. But that’s not what worries me.”
“It worries me plenty!”
“I’m concerned that they will try something other than a direct assault, now they know we can use the artifact. Something we won’t see coming.”
“I’m not using the artifact again.”
“They don’t know that. And are you really sure you wouldn’t? If it meant saving our lives, or your own?”
“I—” Sienne shut her mouth. “I don’t know.”
“You should think about it. If you make the decision now, you won’t waste time dithering over it when the crisis comes.” Dianthe lay back and crossed her arms behind her head. “If it helps, I don’t think I could use it either, even for that. You looked like death when we got it off you.”
Sienne lay down and curled on her side. Could she use it again, knowing how painful it was? How easy it was to kill? Dianthe let out a small snore, and Sienne rolled over to face the wall. Dianthe was right: Sienne needed to make that decision now rather than later. But not right now, she told herself, and tried to relax into sleep.
Unlike that afternoon, she slept fitfully, waking when Dianthe got up to take her turn at watch and then not being able to fall back asleep immediately. When Alaric shook her shoulder a few hours later, she came awake with a start, grabbing his wrist to steady herself. “It’s just me,” he said in a whisper. “Come outside.”
They stood in the hall together, hands clasped. Sienne felt simultaneously weary and agitated, too emotionally overwrought even for kissing. “Everything is quiet?”
“No disturbances at all,” Alaric said. “Are you going to be all right? We should err on the side of caution, but I don’t want you force-blasting someone whose only crime is wanting an early morning snack.”
“I’m fine. Go get some sleep.”
He stroked her cheek gently and squeezed her hand. “Take care.”
When he was gone, she settled her spellbook comfortably in the crook of her left arm and made a magic light to illuminate its pages. Leaning against the wall, she stared into the darkness at the far end of the corridor. Five days, if nothing went wrong, until they were rid of the artifact. If nothing went wrong. That was a big caveat to hang their safety on. And they didn’t have anything to give Tonia Figlari. It worried Sienne because she couldn’t come up with an idea, either. She was starting to fear they’d have to steal the knife, since all their news was bad: no falcon stone to declare Tonia’s legitimacy, and the Figlari dukedom was overrun by carvers.
Sienne shifted her weight. Would the carvers stay without their wizard? She’d looked like their leader, too. At the very least, the Figlari keep wasn’t an inviolate sanctuary for them anymore; that might drive them out. Maybe Tonia wouldn’t care. If she had enough money, she could hire an army to take out the carvers, who without their wizard’s charm spells were just good fighters with a few tricks. Maybe that would be enough for her.
Or… Sienne might go to the king in her parents’ names and get him to restore Tonia’s title. It would mean revealing her location, and her parents would probably send people after her, but it might be worth it if they got the knife. Alaric and the others wouldn’t let her be taken away, she was sure of it. It was a possibility, anyway.
She flipped the pages of her spellbook idly, practicing her speed at moving between spells. She had all the spells’ locations memorized, and it was just a matter of opening to the right page. Some of her friends in Stravanus notched their pages before making them invulnerable, then memorized the notches, but Sienne hadn’t thought of that and it was too late once the invulnerability was cast. Besides, her memory was good enough she didn’t think it was necessary.
Something shifted in the darkness at the end of the corridor.
Sienne launched a light toward the movement. It lit up the walls and doors as it flew, sailing in an arc like an apple tossed down the hall. When it reached the far end, it stopped, hovering about a foot above the floor. Light played across the stairwell, casting funny shadows where the banisters curved out of sight going up and down. There was no one there.
Sienne calmed her breathing and took a step or two toward the light. Then she caught herself and retreated to her sentry position. If there was something, maybe something invisible, she needed not to let it get behind her. Too bad seeing invisible things was a priest’s magic. She opened her spellbook to scream. It would both disable an enemy and alert all her friends to danger. Of course, it would wake the rest of the inn, too, but that didn’t matter.
Nothing else moved. The floating light by the stairs gradually drifted to rest on the floor just above the top step. Sienne stared in its direction, not directly at it, but beyond it, until her eyes ached and she was certain no one was there, invisible or not. She checked her pocket watch. Another half-hour and she could wake everyone. She stretched tired muscles and yawned. Just half an hour.
She amused herself making and extinguishing magic lights and trying not to daydream about when this was all over. Alaric had to have been joking when he said he’d be content to watch her dance with other men. And exaggerating about looking like a performing bear. She’d convince him to go dancing with her, or walking in the hills above the palace, and it would be wonderful.
She sent another light arcing down the hall, and heard the floorboards creak. Funny how all these old inns had the same creaking floorboards—
—except this inn wasn’t old. It was so new it still smelled of paint.
Sienne froze, straining to hear more. Nothing moved, nothing creaked, but she was certain someone else was in the hall with her.
She straightened and brought her spellbook up to chest level, ready to read, then hesitated. If this was nothing, she didn’t want to wake the entire inn. How certain was she?
The lights hanging in the air quivered, as if someone had breathed heavily on them to make them move. Sienne began reading off the evocation scream. Footsteps sounded on the floorboards, someone scrambling toward the stairwell. Sienne read as fast as she dared without disrupting the spell. Whoever or whatever it was pounded down the stairs, the footsteps trailing out of earshot.
Sienne interrupted the spell three syllables from the end and lowered the book. Someone had been there. Someone invisible. Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt her ribs.
It was only ten minutes before the end of her watch, but she didn’t feel like waiting. She knocked on Alaric’s door and waited for him to answer. “There was someone,” she said. “An invisible someone. He ran before I could blast him.”
“Wake the others,” Alaric said.
Once more gathered in Perrin and Kalanath’s room, they listened to Sienne’s story. “That was fast,” Dianthe said. “Getting someone in position… and it wasn’t a full assault…”
“It sounds like a test,” Kalanath said, “to see if we are alert.”
“And now we know an invisible enemy is p
ossible,” Perrin said. “I think they gave away more than they intended.”
“We have to be even more careful than we thought,” Alaric said. “Since we have no way of seeing through invisibility.”
Nobody looked at Perrin. He lowered his head. “I think I will forego breakfast,” he said. “I intend to pray most devotedly this morning. We are in greater danger the longer I am under chastisement.”
“Don’t despair,” Dianthe said. “It will take as long as it takes. We don’t condemn you for it.”
“I condemn myself,” Perrin said. “Now, if you don’t mind, I would prefer privacy for this.”
The rest of them trooped down the hall to the stairs, Sienne once more carrying the artifact. She extinguished the magic lights as she came to them. “It’s creepy, knowing someone was standing just feet from me and I couldn’t see him.”
“Who knows how long he waited there,” Kalanath said. “It is an unpleasant thought.”
“Likely it wasn’t all that long, if none of the rest of us heard anything during our watches,” Alaric said, “but even a little while is enough. Maybe we need to double up on watches.”
“That would just exhaust us,” Dianthe said. “We need to be prepared for invisible attackers.”
Alaric said nothing, but the way he looked at Sienne, as if he wanted to bundle her away where no attackers could get to her, both warmed her heart and made her annoyed. She was mostly sure he wouldn’t try to overprotect her, but only mostly.
When they returned to their rooms to pack their things for the day’s journey, Perrin’s eyes were dark-ringed and his left hand trembled. He drank down the black coffee Dianthe brought him without comment and wouldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. Sienne’s heart ached for him. Despite her earlier resolve, she composed a silent prayer: O Lord Averran, he’s trying so hard. Be merciful.
A quick inquiry by Alaric to the stable master revealed no one who didn’t belong there had entered the stables that night. Sienne checked Spark carefully, chilled at how she hadn’t thought the horses might be in danger. Spark gave Sienne her usual friendly nudge and seemed not at all distressed, which gave Sienne hope that there really hadn’t been an invisible man in her horse’s stall. Still, she saddled the horse with more than usual care. The new saddle wasn’t precisely new, but it hadn’t been used much and Sienne found it comfortable. She hoped Spark felt the same.
They left Manetto in company with a prosperous trader traveling with two wagons and a handful of outriders. It meant they traveled slowly, but Sienne didn’t mind; the day was beautifully warm, and the trader’s people were friendly. One of them in particular, a young man with bad skin and a lovely smile, rode next to Sienne and teased and joked with her. She teased and joked back, maybe a little more aggressively than she might otherwise have because her nerves were still on edge and she was too aware of the artifact riding in front of her saddle. But Borris’s friendliness helped her relax, and by the time they reached Annis in the early evening, her worries about being ambushed again had disappeared.
Dianthe sidled up to her when they were settling their horses for the night. “Are you sure you want to be that friendly with the kid?”
“Why not?” Sienne’s worries resurfaced. “You don’t think he’s a threat, do you?”
“I was thinking… never mind.”
“Now you have to tell me or I’ll imagine the worst.”
Dianthe sighed. “It’s your business who you flirt with—”
“Flirt? I wasn’t flirting!”
Dianthe arched an eyebrow at her. “What would you call it?”
“I—he’s funny, and he kept me distracted. Why would you think it was flirting?”
“Never mind. I was wrong.” Dianthe sighed. “Look. You should… I don’t know what’s passed between you and Alaric, and his feelings aren’t your responsibility. But he cares about you, and I’m pretty sure watching you and that Borris kid was painful to him.”
Stunned, Sienne said, “But he has to know… he said he’d watch me dance with other men.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I mean, couldn’t he tell it was nothing serious?”
“I don’t know what he thinks. Just that he’s scowling and short-tempered, and he kept looking at you all day when he thought no one would notice. And… you’re the first woman he’s been interested in in over two years, and I think he’s forgotten how that feels. Just be kind to him, all right?”
Sienne looked over the stable yard. Alaric towered over the stall where he was busy removing Paladin’s tack. It was something he always did, even when there were stable hands whose job it technically was. Sienne shouldered her pack, tucked the artifact under her arm, and patted Spark’s shoulder one last time. “I’ll meet you inside.”
She walked down the line of stalls until she came to Paladin’s. Alaric was giving the horse what to Sienne’s eye was a completely unnecessary brushing. No one else was within earshot, but Sienne found she didn’t much care who heard this. She dropped her pack at her feet and said, “What makes you think I’m at all interested in other men when you’re available?”
Alaric scowled. “Dianthe,” he muttered. “She needs to stop interfering. I didn’t think that.”
“Then why are you moping?”
“I am not moping!” He turned away from the big gelding and crossed his arms over his chest. “It’s none of my business who you talk to. You’ve made me no promises.”
“I didn’t think you were insecure. What about all those men you were going to watch me dance with?”
He shook his head, and a smile touched his lips. “It’s not the same.” He sighed. “I don’t know who our enemy is, I don’t know where he’ll strike next, and the thought that he has an invisible assassin on a leash might make me go mad. Particularly since the invisible assassin might have killed you last night. All those things have me keyed up to the point that I don’t know what to think about anything. I realize it’s irrational, but all day I watched you ride with that spotty kid and thought about making him disappear. I’m sorry.”
Sienne gaped at him. Then she laughed. “No, don’t get upset, I’m not laughing at you,” she said when his scowl deepened. “I was feeling keyed up myself, and Borris let me forget about it for a while. But he is rather spotty. I shouldn’t laugh at that, it’s not his fault, but… Alaric, don’t you think I would rather have ridden beside you? That I’d prefer you were the one teasing me?”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“Because you and the wagon master were having that long conversation about the journey north, and I had nothing to contribute.” She took his hand and drew him out of the stall, letting the door swing shut behind them. “Would you like to know what I was thinking about all day, when I wasn’t laughing at Borris’s jokes?”
“You did a lot of laughing. Was there time for anything else?”
“I was thinking that it’s been a long time since you kissed me, and I was planning how I might find a private spot to do something about that. I guarantee you Borris and his spots weren’t on my mind in the least.”
The corner of Alaric’s mouth twitched in another smile. “So you’re saying I was being stupid, is that it?”
“I would never call you stupid. Logic-challenged, maybe.”
He laughed. “You’re very generous.”
“No, just suffering from a lack of kisses. If I called you stupid, that condition might go on far too long.”
“I wouldn’t let that happen.” He squeezed her hand, then released her. “I have a room to myself again.”
“That might be a little too private.”
“Then—” They were standing at the end of the stalls, next to a corner where the stable and a storage shed met. Alaric took her arm and drew her back into the corner, away from prying eyes. “This will have to do,” he said, put his arms around her waist and lifted her to brush her lips with a kiss. She squeaked, laughed, and kissed him more firmly. She loved the musky smell of him, ho
w it reminded her of walks in the forest and freshly-cut wood. They kissed for a while, forgetting the outside world, until Alaric said, “They’ll come looking for us if we’re any longer.”
Sienne pressed her forehead to his. At that distance, his pale blue eyes blurred together into a single one above his nose. “I have no regrets.”
“Neither do I.” He set her down and hugged her briefly. “I promise not to be stupid again.”
“It’s all right. Borris is really very nice. Don’t be mean to him.”
“I’ll do my best.”
The inn’s taproom had long trestle tables and was still mostly empty at this hour, with only Sienne’s companions and the traders they’d traveled with seated for an early meal. Borris waved at Sienne from across the room, indicating a seat next to him. She smiled and shook her head, pointing at a place across from Dianthe and shrugging in a way she hoped conveyed a need to sit with her friends. She sat and tucked the artifact between her feet, resisting the urge to clamp down on it. Alaric sat beside her, not quite touching, but close enough to feel companionable.
Dianthe, Perrin, and Kalanath were already eating, and bowls of beef stew were at Alaric and Sienne’s places. Sienne took a bite. It was rich and savory, with chunks of perfectly seasoned beef and roasted roots and tubers. Sienne was usually suspicious of stew served at inns, since most of the time it was made to disguise the fact that the cook was using the tag ends of things gone slightly bad, but this was delicious. She took another bite. It had an unfamiliar tang to it that she liked.
“Marko is going on again tomorrow, and doesn’t mind us tagging along,” Alaric said. He’d already made serious inroads on his stew. Now he took a long drink of beer and added, “I think he’s used to traveling the Empty Lands and can’t stop expecting bandits to leap out and attack. We’re a welcome protection for his caravan, as he sees it.”
Sienne took a drink from her own beer and blinked away a wave of dizziness. It was stronger than she’d expected. One would have to be her limit.
“So far, so good,” Dianthe said. She scraped up the last bites of stew. “It’s been a long day, and I feel surprisingly tired, given that we didn’t push ourselves.”
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