by Jo Spurrier
‘Near enough,’ Isidro said, ‘but they’ve taken Cam, and Cade. Anyone at your end injured?’
Ardamon glanced back at the women. ‘No. They bundled us into the back chamber, but they didn’t dare touch us as long as Sierra still lived, though they made no secret of what they had in mind. I left Rhia and Amaya checking over the guards, but it doesn’t look good. They killed the wounded to keep them from feeding Sierra.’
‘They did the same here,’ Isidro said, glancing towards the throne room. ‘Cursed waste.’
Sierra wrapped her arms around herself. ‘If everything’s secure, I want to search for Cam. It’s possible they haven’t got him out yet —’
Isidro shook his head. ‘Sirri, no. I don’t want you going anywhere until Rhia’s checked you over.’
‘He’s right,’ Rasten said. ‘You’re cursed lucky your lung hasn’t collapsed again.’
Ardamon gave her a sharp glance, and summoned the nearest soldier with a gesture. ‘Fetch Mistress Rhia down here. Lady Sierra needs her attention.’
‘Yessir,’ the guard said, and took off at a run.
Sierra scowled. ‘What about Cam?’
‘Ardamon,’ Isidro said, ‘set men to searching the lower level. There is a small chance he’s still here, but if not, we need to know how they got him out. It might tell us where they took him.’
‘I expect they’ll take him to Stonereach,’ Nirveli said. ‘That’s where we were holed up while we set this in motion. It’s a fort about a hundred miles north. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but now it’s got an extra ten levels, mostly underground, and some serious defences.’
Ardamon nodded slowly. ‘I know it. I thought it was in ruins.’
Alameda stepped forward then, glaring at Nirveli. ‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded in Akharian.
Nirveli just blinked at her. ‘I’m supposed to know you, aren’t I? Is it … Alameda?’
Alameda turned to Isidro. ‘Don’t trust her. She hates you, all of you.’
Isidro raised his hand. ‘Alameda, it’s alright. This isn’t Fontaine, not truly. She’s Nirveli.’
Anoa’s eyes grew wide at that, while Ardamon merely folded his arms across his chest and deepened his scowl.
‘What?’ Alameda said. ‘I don’t understand. Who’s Nirveli?’
‘A ghost,’ Nirveli said. ‘That’s all I am. A ghost who found a new body.’
With a shake of his head, Ardamon threw his hands in the air. ‘We’ll worry about that later,’ he said. ‘We need to search for the king while the trail’s still fresh. Alameda, I want you down there in case the cursed Slavers left us any surprises. Isidro, wait, what’s this about my nephew being missing?’
Ardamon had to raise his voice to be heard over the commotion outside — the men Isidro had sent to escort Mira back to the palace had returned. She stalked into the entry-hall as Ardamon spoke with her red hair in disarray and wearing a borrowed coat. On one hip she carried Eshta, while on the other she wore a guardsman’s sword, thrust through the cloth of her sash.
‘It’s true,’ Mira said, ‘they’ve taken him, but I know where. They’ve headed westward along the coast. They’re supposed to wait for orders, but if anything goes wrong they’ll signal to a ship waiting off the coast.’ She turned to Ardamon. ‘Send some men to the forge to collect my prisoner. Make sure they leave him alive. I swore I’d have him torn apart by wolves if he lied, and I mean to keep my word.’
It took some time to get the events of that evening straight. Isidro saw Delphine and Illiana only briefly — just long enough to make sure that neither were injured — before he was called away to help secure the palace and calm the folk of the fortress and city both.
By the time the worst of the unrest was settled, Ardamon’s men had found where the Wolf men had taken Cam out of the fort. They’d uncovered an old bolthole cut through the rock beneath the fortress. It was the same one Isidro and Cam fled through after Drosavec’s failed coup, but since retaking Lathayan they hadn’t been able to find it, and Isidro had presumed Valeria had had it filled in. The men had been forced back when they discovered the ground strewn with caltrops, a crippling danger in the dark.
The men who’d set out to scout Cade’s trail fared little better; the overcast night was far too dark to follow the tracks without trampling them. Isidro and Ardamon agreed it would be better to pick up the pursuit at first light.
It was only once this was settled that Isidro allowed a servant to lead him and his escort of guards to the new quarters the chamberlain had arranged.
He entered just as a pair of servants were carrying away a tub of filthy water. Behind them, Sierra was wearing fresh, clean clothes, with Anoa combing the tangles from her hair. There was a light meal laid out on the table, along with a kettle simmering over a pot of coals.
Rhia was sitting across from Sierra, looking perplexed, while Rasten stood nearby with his arms folded across his chest. There was a certain tension in him, a clenching of his shoulders and his back that put Isidro on edge, and as he went to Sierra and Rhia he found himself circling around Rasten without ever turning away from him.
Rhia, drumming her fingers on the table, glanced up at Isidro with a frown. ‘I don’t know what to make of this, Isidro, truly I don’t.’
Sierra clutched a scrap of white linen, now stained with black muck and streaked with blood.
‘Sirri, how are you feeling?’ he said.
‘It’s starting to wear down, I think.’ Her voice was hoarse, and at the end of her words she began to cough again.
‘I do not understand,’ Rhia said, with a deepening scowl. ‘For someone to have breathed so much smoke and cough up blood … the wound to your lung has been torn open afresh, do you understand? You should be gasping for breath, unable to stand. You should not be sitting here telling me how you feel as you cough up blood and soot.’ She threw her hands in the air in frustration. ‘I do not understand.’
‘Look, it’s simple,’ Rasten said. ‘I fed her a load of power to get her back on her feet. Once she burns through it, she’ll be back like she was before.’
With a sigh Isidro pulled up a seat. He should be hungry. He’d missed the evening meal, and had fought a battle besides. It was only a little past midnight, and yet he felt so weary he wouldn’t have been surprised to see the sun rising. Everything that had happened weighed heavily upon him: Sierra coming so close to death, a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, and now Cam and his son both in enemy hands. There was so much to be done, and he simply didn’t know where to start.
‘Rhia,’ Isidro finally said. ‘Sirri’s breathing power instead of air. We just need to keep her well supplied.’
‘Exactly,’ Rasten said. ‘Won’t be hard, her being a Sympath. You won’t have to kill for it. Downside is she’ll burn through it faster than anyone I know.’
‘I’ll manage,’ Sierra said.
‘You always said that a Blood-Mage has ways of keeping people alive,’ Isidro said to Sierra. ‘I suppose this is what you meant.’
She nodded. ‘You can open a vein … by the Black Sun, you can stab someone in the heart, and as long as they’re still breathing when the Blood-Mage gets to them, they won’t die. Provided the mage has enough power.’
‘It has limits,’ Rasten said. ‘All it will do is keep a body alive while it heals itself, but it has to be a wound that will heal. It won’t do a thing for an arrow through the spine, or if the soul has flown, and if the wound turns foul they’ll likely die anyway.’
‘I see,’ Rhia said. ‘This is what you meant before, when you said you’d use Blood Magic if you had to.’
‘When she was stabbed? It wasn’t necessary. She was going to be fine.’
‘So, all I have to do is keep myself full of power until I’m healed,’ Sierra said.
‘Yes. Might take some weeks.’
Rhia threw her hands up in frustration. ‘Well, you have no need of me.’
‘Rhia, she’s sti
ll wounded, even if she’s not showing it right now. What would you do for someone who was pulled from a burning building, insensible from smoke?’
Rhia sighed. ‘I can only treat the symptoms, but if she has none? She must rest as much as possible, somewhere warm, with no smoke. She must be watched closely in case the tear widens, or the lung collapses again. She must have good food and clean water, and sick people must be kept away. It will take weeks to heal, and she may fall ill with pneumonia anyway.’
Sierra frowned. ‘We don’t have time for that. We have to find Cam and Cade, and deal with these cursed Akharians while they’re on the run.’
‘I understand,’ Rhia said. ‘But this is why I say there is little I can do.’ She turned to Isidro with a sigh. ‘There are others who are in need of my help, Isidro.’
He bowed his head. ‘Of course, Rhia.’
‘If she takes a turn for the worse, I will come, of course. Just send word.’ With that, she gathered up her satchel and left.
‘She doesn’t like mages,’ Rasten growled once she’d closed the door.
‘She never has,’ Sierra said, ‘but she’s had a hard night, Rasten, just like the rest of us.’
Rasten said nothing. He merely stayed where he was with his arms folded across his chest. He seemed clenched tight enough to shatter.
Sierra hauled herself up, gripping the edge of the table for support, and Isidro had to fight the urge to pull her back as she moved cautiously towards Rasten and laid a hand on his arm. ‘Rasten, sit down. Have something to eat. I’ll pour you some tea.’
He turned to her, seemingly willing himself to obey, but wrenched himself away again with a shake of his head. ‘No. I can’t —’
‘Rasten —’
‘They killed the dogs, Sirri! They had crossbows ready for them. The beasts barely jumped up and they shot them down.’
Isidro remembered then how Rasten had always sat with the hounds. He’d had little time to pay attention to the beasts. A noble household always had dogs; they were as much a part of the furniture as furs on the chairs and hides on the floor, but he should have realised what they’d mean to a man like Rasten. The dogs didn’t care what he’d done — any man who treated them well was a good man in their eyes.
‘I know they did, Rasten, I’m sorry. But those dogs knew it was their duty to guard us. I’m sorry they died in the course of it, and we’ll remember them and honour them, just as we will the men who died defending us. Here, Mira’s already talking of a memorial for the folk we lost. We’ll list the beasts along with the men, and we’ll have them laid on the pyre, as well.’
‘But what does it matter? They’re nothing but rotting meat now.’
‘It’s not for them, it’s for us. We do it to honour their sacrifice. Rasten, come here, sit down. I’ll pour you some tea. It’s what people do when they’re upset, normal people, I mean.’
‘It … it is?’
‘Yes, I swear. Sometimes they get drunk, but I don’t think that’s wise right now, so tea it is …’
Isidro had turned his back as they spoke, giving them privacy in the Ricalani manner. He started to circle around the beds when he heard a baby whimper, reacting to Rasten’s troubled tones.
It took him a moment to find them, in a basket which had been placed between the two beds.
Illiana and Eshta both lay within on a soft blanket. Eshta was sound asleep, but Illiana had her tiny face screwed up in displeasure. She was wrapped in a worn grey shawl, pilled and felted, which Isidro could not recall seeing before … certainly Delphine never wore such a thing.
As he crouched beside the basket, he saw Sierra looking over to him, but he shook his head, waving her back to deal with Rasten. Glancing around, he found the still form of one of the nursemaids, sleeping on a felt pad with her face towards the wall.
Isidro laid his hand on his daughter’s chest. ‘Hush hush, little one. You don’t want to wake your sister.’
She settled a little at the sound of his voice, and her eyes, dark as charcoal, seemed to find his. But as that moment passed, her tiny mouth opened and she began to wail.
She wanted to be picked up. Isidro had held her a number of times, but always with other people around ready to take her from him. He’d never picked her up himself, not since that first time. He still didn’t like the way the small, soft bundle in his arms made his power shift and stir within him, sniffing after her like a hungry beast. Cam had always stepped into the gap he’d left. But Cam was gone.
He slid one hand along her back and scooped her up with her head nestled in his palm and his false hand gingerly steadying her body along his forearm. Quickly, before she could squirm and upset the delicate balance, Isidro lifted her out of the basket and set her against his chest.
She calmed at once, nuzzling into his woollen shirt. It had slipped open at the neck as he bent down, and as he gazed down at her, all round cheeks and button nose, he saw that she lay less than an inch away from the wide purple scars sliced across his chest.
He sat on the edge of the bed, but only for a moment — he was truly weary, and his shoulders ached, too, a familiar old pain from having his arms bound overhead. The weight of her made his arm tremble with the strain, and after a few moments he lay back on the bed with Illiana resting on his chest. There, she seemed content, for she settled down with a soft sigh, though she didn’t close her bright, shining eyes.
Isidro couldn’t quite manage the same feat. With his hand on the baby’s back, he let his eyes drift closed, just to rest them, just for a moment.
It was the voices that roused him, some indeterminate time later. He opened his eyes to find that Mira, Ardamon and Delphine had returned, accompanied by Nirveli. They were gathered around the table, while Sierra dozed beside Isidro, but she woke when he stirred, and rubbed her red eyes.
Illiana was fast asleep, now, and Isidro carried her to the cradle. It took him a few moments to figure out how to set her down, but she didn’t stir.
When he joined the others, Delphine passed him a bowl of tea, and then poured another for Sierra, who tried to stifle a cough as she settled onto the bench. Her colour had worsened, Isidro thought. Her skin was pale, her lips looking oddly bloodless as she hunched over the bowl.
‘Alright,’ Mira said, rubbing her eyes. ‘We need to decide what to do now.’
Isidro wrapped his hand around the bowl. ‘Sierra and Rasten should go after Cam. From what I hear of this fort, it’ll take some firepower to get inside.’
‘Perhaps, perhaps not,’ Nirveli said. ‘There’s a back door. I can show them — or I can draw a map, if you have another task in mind for me. There were a couple of mages left behind, though, and you may need to deal with them if the clan hasn’t already.’
‘Sirri?’ Isidro said. ‘What do you think?’
She shrugged. ‘Sounds good.’
Mira nodded. ‘And what about Cade?’ She fixed her gaze on Nirveli. ‘Do the Akharians know you turned against them?’
‘They shouldn’t. I could pretend I fled the rout as well. Once I’m in the camp it will be easy to get close to the little prince.’
‘Can you protect him as well as take out the remaining mages?’ Ardamon said.
Nirveli pursed her lips. ‘Destroy them and protect the boy? I’d do better with backup.’
‘I’d thought that Delphine and I would go with you,’ Isidro said. ‘Along with the best of our mages.’
‘That ought to do it,’ Nirveli said.
‘Issey, I think you should command that mission, you know fighting and mage-craft both,’ Mira said. ‘But someone needs to lead the team to free Cam. Sirri, I don’t think you should lead when you’re weak and injured …’
Sierra gave a dispirited flap of her hand. ‘I’m not fit for it, I know. I assumed Ardamon would be our commander.’
Mira pulled a face. ‘I’d thought to leave Ardamon in command here while I went with Issey to bring Cade home. Someone has to stay here, to show we’re unbeaten, that
we still stand firm.’
‘Perhaps my man Floren …’ Ardamon said, but Mira sighed and bowed her head.
‘No. No, Ardamon, it’d best be you. The men need someone solid to lead them.’
Ardamon nodded. ‘We’ll bring Cam back, I swear. But who will stay here?’
‘I’ll have to,’ Mira said, resting her head in her hands. ‘By the Twin Suns, I don’t want to. I want my baby back, I want to curse the wretches who took him from me, but I’m the only one of us who isn’t needed elsewhere.’ She heaved a sigh. ‘I know they took the wet nurse with Cade, but Delphine, you can nurse him too if something goes wrong, can’t you? They’re not far away. You’ll be able to feed both him and Ilya for a few days.’
‘Oh, without a doubt,’ Delphine said.
‘We’ll take Rhia with us as well, I think,’ Isidro mused, scratching his chin.
‘Oh?’ Mira said. ‘I thought it’d be best if she went with Sirri.’
‘No,’ Sierra said, ‘we’ll have Rasten. Issey’s party needs a physician, too.’
‘That seems best,’ Isidro said. ‘Alright, what about you, Mira? We’ll leave Alameda, you’ll need a good mage at your back.’
‘Agreed,’ Ardamon said, ‘and I know just the man to lead the royal guard while I’m gone.’
‘You do? Good. If he suits the role, Ardamon, you’d best start grooming him for your replacement,’ Mira said. ‘Because once we have Cam and Cade back, the Wolf Clan will be in need of a new chieftain. I mean it to be you. But,’ she said with a flick of her hand, ‘we can deal with that later. No doubt Cam will want to have his say in the matter. Alright then, you lot get some rest. I’ll have your gear and provisions ready by first light, and I’ll catch up on sleep once you’re gone. Is there anything else?’
Once she’d left to make the arrangements, Isidro turned to Ardamon. ‘Will you take Anoa with you?’
‘I wasn’t planning to,’ Ardamon said. ‘The Akharians couldn’t touch her with Sierra still alive, but they made it clear what they had in mind for her. She’s badly shaken, and I’d rather leave her here with Mira.’