“But why wouldn’t they?” I asked. “The drought has been eating into their lands. If it was doing damage to the resources they rely on, whatever the Sonnenbornes promised them must have seemed like an attractive offer. I never heard so much as a whisper about the Winter Court doing anything to help them.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Harian said, his voice grim.
Another pack of snarling dogs burst out of the underbrush.
“Run!” I shouted. There were too many for the three of us to fend off. Running uphill would slow us too much, so instead we bolted for the road where the next sentry was stationed. Having four of us would give us better odds in spite of our exhaustion.
Trees flashed by as I raced down the hill, just barely outpaced by Harian and his absurdly long legs. When we reached the path where the sentry was supposed to be stationed, all that greeted us was dusty road. We were going to have to fight them on our own.
I slid to a halt in front of a huge rock I could use to defend my back and slashed at the animal closest to me. It dodged my blow with uncanny reflexes and growled, strings of saliva dripping from its snarling jaws. Beside me, Harian breathed hard, his eyes leaping from one dog to the next. There were eight of them surrounding us in a semicircle, now closing in. They knew our weapons were sharp, and they would wait for the right moment to strike.
The first dog lunged, latching onto my boot. I swiped at it with the sword, but my weapon seemed to have given up on me. I was too fatigued to wield it well. When the first dog fell back, another was on me in seconds.
“This is a stupid way to die,” Harian said, panting as he struck at another animal. “I like dogs. I don’t want to fight them.”
A third dog lunged at Carys and she made no move to stop it, forcing me to leap between them and deflect the animal with my sword.
“Not today, Shadow God,” I said, and drew on the last of my reserves of energy until we sent the dogs running with their tails tucked between their legs.
“She’s going down!” Harian said, and that was all the warning I had before Carys collapsed to the ground, her eyes vacant and pupils rapidly shrinking.
I cursed. We couldn’t afford to lose another magic user, but it was happening with increasing frequency. Refugees with the ability to use magic seemed to be falling victim to an illness that rendered them catatonic. Every day there were more cases, and not a single thing anyone did seemed to help. No one could trace the illness to its source, whether magical or physical. With every day that passed I worried more that Alek would be the next one to fall victim to it.
“We have to get help,” I said, and raised my fingers to my mouth to blow a piercing whistle.
“Gods, I hope that doesn’t draw more dogs,” Harian said. “I don’t have another round of that in me.”
“Me either.” I sighed, feeling defeated in spite of our small victory.
As soon as help arrived to carry Carys back to camp, we trudged wearily back up the hill, still keeping an eye out for any more rogue animals. When we arrived back at the homestead, Alek and Kerrick stood up from where they sat around the campfire. I told them about the near miss with the dogs, the missing sentry by the road, and Carys’s collapse. In a matter of minutes, Alek had another pair of fighters on their way down there—one to take the post, and the other to search for the missing sentry. To my relief, he still looked clear-eyed.
“Any news from the city?” I asked. I hadn’t seen any refugees come in overnight, but that didn’t mean new information wasn’t bubbling to the surface.
Alek nodded. “A few families that came in yesterday had been dosed with peaceroot. They brought what they had with them to spare others from it.” He pointed to a pile of small leather pouches on the table.
Kerrick grimaced. “It’s the bad stuff, too—the kind that you don’t have to brew into a tea. Inhaling it will take a magic user down in seconds. Applying a little to your gums will keep powers at bay for hours.”
Alek eyed the pouches as if they were poisonous snakes. “Apparently the Sonnenbornes require that any Zumordans staying in the city take peaceroot. Any sign of rebellion is a death sentence.”
“Everyone has either joined the Sonnenbornes, gone into hiding, died, or come here,” Kerrick said. “I doubt we’ll be seeing many more refugees from the city after midday today.”
“We can’t keep fighting these dogs like this,” I said. “They’re wearing us out on purpose. If all our fighters here are too tired to be of use by the time the cavalry arrives, and we keep losing magic users, we’re still going to be short of the power we need to take back the city.”
“The fighters we battled in the city were much more than Sonnenborne’s usual bands of raiders,” Kerrick said. “These people know how to fight, and more than half the people we have on our side don’t. We have merchants and farmers who are little more than warm bodies we can throw at the enemy, hoping to shield ourselves. Frankly, I’m not comfortable doing that. It’s an unnecessary loss of life.”
“What we need is to get Laurenna and Zhari out,” I said. “They may be our only hope. If they’re being dosed with peaceroot, they may need some time to recover before they’re able to help us take back the city. We have only a few more days until the cavalry arrives. I’d hoped to wait until then, but I don’t think we can afford to.”
“Agreed,” said Alek with his usual grudging tone.
“One thing working in our favor is that the Sonnenbornes are as blind as I am when it comes to magic users,” I said. “That means there’s no way anyone can detect the presence of active magic users in the city—unless there are a few people in hiding who haven’t been dosed with peaceroot. If we make it a covert operation to rescue Laurenna and Zhari, I think our chances are fairly good. The question is, how do we get in?”
“The smaller the group, the easier it will be,” Alek said.
“It’s still more likely than not to end in death.” Kerrick seemed less certain.
“Then Alek and I should go,” I said.
“What?” Harian said. “That makes no sense at all! We can’t send our two leaders back into the city on the riskiest possible mission.”
“Yes, we can,” I said, startled that he’d referred to me as one of the leaders. “With every day that passes, the chance of Alek catching whatever this magic plague is increases. And with a little rest and the sword I have, I’m as good a physical fighter as we can get. Besides, I’ve had a lot of practice at sneaking.”
“Then today we rest, and tonight we go in.” Alek pulled out a whetstone and began to sharpen his sword.
TWENTY-SIX
Dennaleia
WE MAINTAINED A STEADY PACE, RIDING THROUGH the night and part of the next day until Evie tired of carrying us. After that we walked until evening hovered over the mountains. Fatigue kept us all quiet, though we started to find a little of our rapport again. All of us lived in fear of what we’d find ahead, which made it a little bit easier to put aside thoughts of what we’d left behind.
Even from a distance it wasn’t hard to tell that something was wrong in Kartasha. Its white tower gleamed like a beacon, but the city below it seemed strangely dark. We didn’t see so much as a single person until we reached the foothills of a mountain to the north of Kartasha.
“You there!” A woman with a sword stepped into the road, her stance defensive.
The three of us stopped abruptly, not wanting to make a scene. We were too exhausted to fight.
“Oh, you’re not Sonnenbornes,” she said, her stance immediately relaxing. “Apologies—I wouldn’t have drawn my sword if I’d known.”
“Have they made it this far north of Kartasha?” I asked, suddenly frightened. If they’d already taken over the region north of the city, I didn’t know how we could possibly stop them. The fact that they had the city was bad enough.
“No, but they’ve been sending out Tamer dogs to attack us. It seemed like only a matter of time before they’d send soldiers.” The woman s
heathed her weapon.
“The Tamers are involved?” I could hardly believe it. They were Zumordan and shouldn’t have had reason to turn against their own countrymen. “How?”
“We don’t really know,” she said. “Best we can guess, the drought must have been affecting them badly and they made some kind of deal with the Sonnenbornes.”
“Who else escaped the city?” Evie asked. Worry for her parents and brother glistened in her eyes.
“There’s a huge refugee camp a little deeper into the foothills.” She gestured behind her. “I can’t say I know everyone by name.”
“Do you happen to know what became of Princess Amaranthine or Sir Alek?” I asked. They were both notable enough that surely someone knew if one of them had escaped the city, and as much as they hated each other, I figured they’d each know where the other was.
The swordswoman’s expression grew curious. “Are you friends of theirs?”
“Yes,” I said, wondering if that was entirely accurate. I didn’t know what Mare thought of me right now or if she’d be glad to see me.
“We’re here to help,” Evie added after I fell silent.
“Then I’d best take you back to camp.” The woman sheathed her weapon. “I’m Shazi, by the way.”
We introduced ourselves as we followed her to the refugee camp. It was strangely silent for a place with so many people. There were no fires for people to gather around, though I saw a few faces peering curiously out of tents as we passed by. Shazi led us to a ramshackle house overlooking the rest of the tent city the refugees had erected. Even in the dark I could tell the building was in poor repair, though they’d done a good job of putting up curtains to block the faint light emanating from inside.
“I found some help out on the road,” Shazi said as she ducked through the blanket serving as a makeshift door. “Kerrick, Harian—meet Lia, Evie, and Tristan.”
The two men stood to greet us, the lantern on the table between us casting long shadows over their faces.
“Where are Alek and Mare?” I asked, anxiety starting to break through my exhaustion.
“You just missed them,” the shorter man said grimly. “They’ve gone on a mission to rescue Zhari and Laurenna from the Sonnenbornes.”
“What?” Shock made me feel weak. “The queen told me that Zhari had been in communication with her. She told me Laurenna had been imprisoned and was going to be put on trial for treason. Zhari didn’t say anything about being held hostage—we were under the impression that she was safe.” And surely the Sonnenbornes wouldn’t have allowed her to communicate with the queen if she was being held prisoner.
“As of when?” Harian asked.
“Last night,” I said. “Midwinter.” It already felt like a hundred years had passed since then.
“The city was taken several days ago,” Kerrick said. “Zhari was taken hostage by the Sonnenbornes, along with Laurenna and her daughter. I saw it happen as I was fighting my way free of the Winter Court.”
“Then how could she have spoken to the queen?” Evie asked.
“Oh gods,” I said, dismay crashing over me. “What if their capture was staged? What if one or both of them was lying to the queen?” I racked my brain for any other information the queen had passed to me. “Did the Winter Court ever catch any Sonnenbornes participating in human trafficking?” I asked.
“Not that I heard of,” Kerrick said, exchanging glances with the others, who both shook their heads. “But we’re fighters, not participants in the political side of things. It’s impossible to know everything that goes on at court.”
“It seems like stopping a ring of human traffickers would have required a fair number of fighters, though,” Tristan pointed out.
“Why do you ask?” Kerrick said.
“It was one of the reassurances passed from Laurenna to the queen—that they’d caught some of the people behind the magical disappearances,” I said. “It sounds like that wasn’t the case. Perhaps the entire story was a fabrication.”
“Do you think Laurenna is behind this?” Shazi asked, her eyes wide. “Alek had that theory for a while but dismissed it once we heard she’d been taken prisoner by the Sonnenbornes.”
“Anything is possible,” I said. “She or Zhari could be under someone’s control, and if we don’t know what that person is capable of, we could have an enemy far more dangerous than we’re expecting.” If I hadn’t seen Sigvar ruined and without his Affinity, I might have suspected him. No one had a better motive to get revenge on the queen, and his gift would have given him the ability to control either Zhari or Laurenna—especially if he had a more subtle way to do it than what he’d used on the cultists.
“Speaking of magic users, we should warn you three about the problem we’ve been having here,” Harian said. “Many of those with stronger Affinities are suffering from an illness that’s made them unable to speak or function. We’ve wondered if it might be some kind of spirit magic.”
“Is it contagious?” I asked.
Harian shook his head. “It seems to strike at random.”
“Show me,” I said, an ominous feeling growing in the pit of my stomach.
“I’ll come, too,” Evie said. “My gift is for healing. Maybe there’s something I can do to help those afflicted.”
We followed Harian out of the house and to a large neighboring tent.
“See for yourself,” he said, pulling back the flap of the tent and holding his lantern aloft. I gagged on the smell that wafted out—clearly the incapacitated people hadn’t been able to bathe or make it to the latrine since whatever had happened to them. Inside the tent, a dozen people lay flat on their backs, staring vacantly at the roof. Someone had bundled them up in blankets to keep them warm in spite of their lack of movement, but even more unnerving than their utter stillness was the look in their eyes. One pair of brown eyes and one pair of blue reflected the lantern’s dim light, their pupils barely more than pinpoints.
“I’ve seen this before,” I said.
“The cultist,” Evie said. “But he’s in prison in Corovja.”
But I remembered something Evie didn’t know—the person who had trained Sigvar was Zhari. How had I not put the pieces together before? If Zhari had trained him, she no doubt knew the kind of magic he’d used to control the members of his cult. One of her Affinities had to be for spirit. She’d had many more years to hone her skills than Sigvar, and it didn’t seem out of the question that she might have the ability to manipulate people’s minds from farther away or with more subtlety. I knew how powerful spirit magic could be after seeing Eryk in training and facing him in battle.
“Can we cure it?” Harian asked, closing the tent flap and looking down at me with hope in his expression.
“Only by killing or disabling the person responsible,” I said, shuddering as I remembered Sigvar’s condition.
“If only we had Laurenna or someone with a gift like hers to help us,” Harian said.
“I’m not sure we need that,” I said grimly. “And I have a feeling that Zhari isn’t under anyone’s control. I think she’s the one doing this.” It was a brilliant way to weaken the refugees and strengthen the Sonnenbornes’ hold on the city. But where was she getting the power, and how was her reach so great?
“That can’t be,” Harian said. “Zhari has been the grand vizier for longer than even my parents can remember. No one is more loyal to Zumorda. She’s one of the most powerful magic users in the entire kingdom. . . .” He trailed off as he realized the implications of what he was saying.
“Who better to do this than someone who is the most powerful magic user in the entire kingdom?” I said.
“But why?” he said. “I don’t understand why she would turn against her own people.”
“Neither do I, but if this theory holds any water, and Mare and Alek just went into Kartasha thinking they were going to rescue her, they could be in terrible danger.” My magic swirled restlessly along with my fear. I quieted it with a thought,
reinforcing the subtle shields I now knew to maintain to keep it from bursting out of control.
We reentered the ramshackle house to find Kerrick and Tristan taking sips of something from a flask. Tristan sat staring at the fire but looked up when we came in.
“Can you help them?” Tristan asked Evie.
She shook her head, explaining what we’d seen. Kerrick, however, had a hard time swallowing my theory about Zhari.
“You can’t assume it was her behind this,” Kerrick said. “She has no motive. Nothing about that makes any sense.”
“The only thing I know is that the longer we talk about this, the closer Mare and Alek get to danger. Someone has to warn them. Don’t we have anyone with Farspeech here?”
“No,” Harian said, “and most of the more powerful magic users have already succumbed to the illness you just saw.”
“Then our time is probably already running out,” I said. My mouth went dry at the thought of being held prisoner in my own mind the way those people in the tent had been. Even more terrifying was the thought that Zhari might be able to put me under her control. Worse was that I knew the best solution, and the thought of doing it made my skin crawl. I didn’t have Farspeech, so I couldn’t reach Mare. But I could reach the queen through the bond she’d forced on me—though I’d sworn to myself I wasn’t going to let her inside my head again.
“I’m going to go after them,” I said.
“What?” Kerrick said.
“You can’t.” Evie’s tone was flat. “We’re all exhausted.”
“It’s not going to get better,” I said. “There is not going to be any rest with Tamer dogs attacking the camp and magic users being neutralized by some evil power. Any of us could be next.”
“I don’t think I can shadow walk without another day’s rest,” Tristan said, his voice worried.
“If we could just get these damned dogs to stop attacking the camp, we could spare enough people to make a ruckus near the city that would distract the Sonnenborne sentries and fighters,” Kerrick said. “That might give you a chance to get in.”
Of Ice and Shadows Page 33