“You’d better be right,” the captain said. “Your continued freedom depends on it.”
Rook’s ears perked up at that statement. Her freedom? What did that mean? Was it possible that Lily was as much a prisoner as Rook and her friends?
The captain nodded to the other constables. “We need to get going. We’ll explain the situation once we get to the wall.”
“The wall?” Rook said, thinking she must have misheard. “You can’t mean we’re going to the Wasteland?”
No one answered her. The nearest constable stepped forward and seized her by the upper arms, dragging her to her feet. Rook struggled, kicking and jerking to try to break his hold, but his grip was too strong. Another constable grabbed Drift and got a blast of wind in his face that left him cursing and stumbling. Fox snarled and snapped at the man holding Rook, tearing the hem of his uniform as he started pulling her toward the edge of the grove.
Lily stepped forward, raising her voice above the chaos. “Stop,” she said, appealing to Captain Hardwick. “Please, there’s no need to treat them this way. You’ll hurt them!”
“Then you’d better do something,” Hardwick told Lily. “Or I’ll have my men subdue them.” His voice was calm, though his eyes were hard as stone.
Rook saw anger flash in Lily’s eyes. “As you wish,” the woman said. Reluctantly, she stretched out a hand in Rook’s direction.
Before Rook knew what was happening, a wave of dizziness crashed over her. Her legs went wobbly, and she sagged in the constable’s grip. If he hadn’t been holding on to her so tightly, she would have fallen to her knees. It felt like all the energy was being pulled out of her at once.
Drift yanked away from the other constable and was beside her in an instant. “Rook, what’s wrong?” she demanded. “Are you all right?”
“I—I don’t know,” Rook said. She shook her head, willing the dizziness to go away. She was suddenly so tired she wanted to lie down in the grove and sleep for days. Fox pressed against her other side, his fur warm but his body trembling in fear. Rook was afraid too. What was happening to her?
As if she’d spoken the question aloud, Lily’s voice cut through Fox’s whimpering and Drift’s soothing whispers. “Don’t fight it, Rook,” she pleaded. “If you fight it, it will only take more of your energy.”
“Stop!” Drift whirled to confront Lily. “What’s happening?” she cried. “What did you do?”
Lily clasped her hands in front of her. “It’s all right, Drift,” she soothed. “I just temporarily drained Rook’s magic. That’s my power.”
Rook opened her mouth to speak, to say that that was impossible. There were no more adult wizards in Talhaven. But she felt herself slipping, her mind sliding into a cool, dark pit. She knew she should have been afraid, but a voice at the bottom of the pit promised safety and sleep, and she was so very, very tired.
“Rook! Rook!” Panic filled Drift’s voice. Fox’s frantic yips echoed in Rook’s ears, his head nudging her arm, but all those sensations seemed so far away and unimportant.
And then Fox’s human voice rang out, surprising Rook enough to keep her conscious. “Who are you?” he asked, directing the question at Lily.
When Lily answered, her voice was formal and proud. “My real name is Dozana Atrathk, of the world of Vora.” She glanced at Drift, her face softening. “And I am your mother, child.”
Shocked silence fell. Drift’s face drained of all color. Rook wanted to say something, desperately wanted to reach out to her friend, but before she could react, the constable who’d first grabbed her picked Rook up and slung her over his shoulder. Rook kicked feebly, but her strength was gone.
Sunlight blinded her as the man carried her out of the grove. She lifted her head and caught a glimpse of a carriage parked on the road leading out of the park. A team of four black metal horses was tied to it, and another constable sat in the driver’s seat. There was no one else in the park. They must have cleared the area before springing their trap.
The constable opened the carriage door and laid Rook on the bench inside. Rook tried to pull herself up to a sitting position, but only managed to lean her cheek against the wall. She tried to fight it, but her eyes slid closed. A moment later, she felt other people climb into the carriage, heard Fox’s and Drift’s voices. They were still together. That was something to be grateful for.
She managed to open her eyes long enough to see Lily—Dozana—and Captain Hardwick settling themselves on the bench opposite her. The captain reached over and pulled the carriage door shut, locking it. Then he pounded the roof with his fist, three sharp raps, and the carriage started to move.
The last thought in Rook’s head before she succumbed to sleep was that they were on their way to the Wasteland.
THE BOUNCING OF THE CARRIAGE woke Rook. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out, but it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. Heavy curtains covered the carriage windows, letting in only thin beams of light and giving away nothing of their location.
Carefully, Rook sat up. Fox was beside her in his human form, propped sleepily against her shoulder, and Drift sat on his other side on the bench. She was wide awake, but staring straight ahead with a dazed look on her face. Dozana and the captain were deep in agitated conversation across from them.
“What’s going on?” Rook asked quietly, reaching over Fox to tug on Drift’s sleeve.
Drift turned to her, and her eyes lit with relief when she saw Rook was awake. She scooted closer on the bench. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“I think so,” Rook lied. The truth was her head felt like a swarm of bees had taken up residence, and were rearranging the furniture, but she didn’t want to upset Drift any more than she already had. While she talked, Fox stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
“You both got hit pretty hard with that magic,” Drift said. “It drained Fox so much it transformed him back into a human.”
“What about you?” Rook asked. “Did you try flying?”
Drift shook her head, looking ashamed. Her gaze kept returning to Dozana’s face. “I…I was distracted,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
Rook understood. Finding out that your mother was alive and in Talhaven was enough to knock the wind out of any of them. Speaking of which, she couldn’t help remembering how Dozana’s magic had affected her, the dizziness and exhaustion coming on all at once. Rook hadn’t been able to do anything about it. She’d never felt magic that strong.
Then again, she’d never watched an adult Voran perform magic. Not that she remembered, anyway.
Dozana Atrathk. A wizard of Vora. How? How was it possible?
From all that Rook had heard, the only Vorans who’d originally come through the magical portal were the ones in charge of negotiating trade and sailing ships full of animus crystals from Lake Caralan down the channel to the White Sea. At the request of the Vorans themselves, traffic through the magical portal was strictly regulated. Only the rulers of the six kingdoms of Talhaven, their guards, and a few merchants were ever allowed on the Voran side of the portal, and as few wizards as possible entered Talhaven in return, just enough to distribute animus and collect their own goods in return.
But by accident or design, those wizards had all been on the Voran side of the portal when the Great Catastrophe happened. Rook and everyone else had thought there were only children left in Talhaven after the explosion destroyed the magical portal.
Obviously, they’d been wrong.
“I want to go home,” Fox said, interrupting her thoughts.
Rook’s stomach tightened. “I know, Fox. We all do.”
Captain Hardwick drew a corner of the curtain back to look outside. “We’re nearly there,” he said. “I sent men ahead to clear and secure the area. There won’t be any civilians nearby.”
Dozana leaned forward in her seat to address Ro
ok, Drift, and Fox. “I know you have questions and that you’re afraid,” she said. “I’m so sorry for all this.” She looked at Drift, her expression pained. “You don’t know how much I wish we could have found each other under different circumstances, my daughter. I wanted to seek you out long before now, but I…I wasn’t allowed.” She swallowed. “I promise you, from now on, I’ll do everything in my power to protect you.”
Rook glanced over at Drift, who looked stunned. Tears welled up in her friend’s eyes, but she blinked them back. “I—I’m sorry,” she said, her voice thick. “I still don’t…I don’t remember you.”
Dozana nodded, and there was no masking the sadness in her eyes. She reached out hesitantly and put her hand over Drift’s. “All that matters is we’re together now,” she said. “We’ll get through this. I swear it.”
“You said Regara is in danger.” Drift met Dozana’s eyes, her gaze intent, as if searching for something familiar in the woman’s face. “From what?”
“The Wasteland,” Dozana explained. “After the city completed construction of the walls around the area of the portal explosion, the guards patrolling the top of the gray wall started to notice something strange.”
“In the Wasteland?” Rook scoffed. “That whole place is one big nightmare. You can take your pick of strange.”
“Not like this,” Hardwick spoke up. “Lake Caralan has become a giant whirlpool, and the area around the remains of the portal’s stone archway is thick with magical energy, animus running wild. And it’s growing stronger by the day.”
“My best guess,” Dozana said, “is that the walls surrounding the Wasteland—particularly the inner, red heartstone wall, because it naturally binds magic—have trapped the power that was released by the portal explosion. Instead of being allowed to dissipate naturally over the past two years, it’s been slowly building up. That’s why you see the sky change colors over the Wasteland.”
“If the magic has nowhere to go,” Drift said, “eventually, won’t it…” Her voice trailed off and she gasped.
“It will explode again,” Dozana confirmed. “But this time, I’m afraid the effects will be ten times as devastating.”
“If that’s true, the whole city will be wiped out,” Rook said, gripping the edge of the bench for support.
“No, it won’t,” Captain Hardwick said, in a voice so intense it startled Rook. “The mayor of Regara has been taking steps to prevent another catastrophe. That’s why we’ve risked gathering you three together and working with Dozana. You’re going to use your magic to save the city, no matter what.”
“I won’t have the children put in danger, Captain,” Dozana interjected.
“You don’t get a say in the matter,” the captain shot back, his tone sharp. “You follow my orders or you’ll be dealt with.”
Dozana fell silent, her face pinched with anger. Rook glanced between them in alarm. She realized her earlier guess had been right. Although she was helping the constables, Dozana seemed to be as much a prisoner here as Rook, Drift, and Fox.
The carriage rolled to a halt. Captain Hardwick glanced behind the curtain again, then leaned over to unlock the door. He jumped out and motioned for Dozana and the others to follow.
Climbing out of the carriage, Rook blinked in the sunlight and craned her neck to look up at the massive gray wall towering over her. She’d never stood at the base like this before. The sheer height of it made the guards walking on top look like toy soldiers.
A shout drew Rook’s attention to a small crowd forming in the yard of one of the houses closest to the wall. That was strange, Rook thought, since Hardwick had said they were clearing the area of people.
Seeing the commotion, the carriage driver and three of the five constables who’d been waiting for them near the wall broke away and moved off to intercept the people. Rook turned to see what was going on, but the captain towed her in the opposite direction with a firm grip on her arm.
“Keep moving,” he said. “Don’t look.”
The tightness in his voice sent a chill through Rook. Ignoring his warning, she glanced over her shoulder, straining to see what was happening.
The constables had formed a semicircle in front of the crowd. Through a gap, Rook caught a glimpse of a woman in stained work clothes shoving one of them, trying to push past. Even from this distance, Rook could see that her eyes had gone completely white.
She had succumbed to the Frenzy sickness. The constables were holding the woman back, pinning her flailing arms against her sides. She shrieked like a wild animal and spat on them. Rook shuddered. The Frenzied were sometimes drawn to the gray wall, where they would run their hands over the stones as if they could sense the magic churning within like soup bubbling in a pot. They would pace the wall all day and night until they collapsed if the constables didn’t pull them far enough away to bring them back to their senses.
If Dozana was right and the magic in the Wasteland continued to build, more and more people could be claimed by the Frenzy.
“Rook,” Drift said, her voice hushed.
“I see her,” Rook answered. Nearby, Fox whimpered.
“Don’t look,” Dozana said from behind them, echoing the captain’s advice. “There’s nothing we can do for her.” Gently, she urged them forward with a hand at each girl’s back.
The remaining two constables met them at the wall. Rook watched as they saluted the captain, who acknowledged them with a curt nod.
Dozana leaned in and said something to Hardwick that Rook didn’t hear; then she came over and held out a new piece of chalk to Rook. “The effects of my power have probably worn off by now, so you can use this,” she said. “The constables have cleared a section of the wall of moss and dirt for you to draw the door on a smooth surface. You’ll need to create a passage that comes out in the Wasteland near the inner, red heartstone wall. Near it, not over it,” she added firmly. “About a mile away should be far enough.”
“Why not go all the way past the inner wall to the lake?” one of the constables asked. He was a skinny young man with two small crescent scars marring the tawny skin beneath his left eye, which he rubbed nervously when he spoke to Dozana. “The less of the Wasteland we have to travel on foot, the safer we’ll be.”
Dozana shot the man an irritated glance. “Because red heartstone has been proven to trap magic,” she explained, as if speaking to a child. “That’s why the city used it to build the inner wall. Only the inner wall, because red heartstone is very rare and they didn’t have enough to surround the entire Wasteland. But it’s strong, so strong that Rook’s powers will be disrupted if she tries to create a door through it or anywhere near it. It’s wiser if we appear some distance into the outer ring of the Wasteland, at least a mile from the red heartstone wall. We’ll travel the rest of the way on foot and climb over. It’s not a fraction as tall as the gray wall, so we’ll be fine.”
There was nothing but confidence in her voice. Still, the two constables exchanged wary glances. Rook wondered if they realized what they had gotten themselves into. If they understood the danger of poisoned magic at all.
“Whenever you’re ready, Rook,” Dozana said, pointing to the cleared spot on the wall.
“Wait,” Rook said, swallowing the ball of fear rising in her chest. “What is it you think we can do to stop the magic from exploding? You’ve seen what our powers are. They won’t help you.”
“It’s not so much how your powers manifest,” Dozana said, “as the amount of raw magical talent you possess. You see, every Voran is a wizard. Every Voran has a certain amount of animus inside of him or her, which can be harnessed, drained, and replenished. That raw power is what I will need in order to cleanse the magic from the area. When the time comes, I’ll show you what must be done.” She turned to Captain Hardwick, her jaw tightening. “Are your men prepared to follow my directions once we’re inside the w
alls? Because the Wasteland is no place for people who lack a working knowledge of magic. If you insist on bringing them along, they’ll need to do as I say.”
The captain’s eyes narrowed. “We will protect you and the children while you guide us to the portal site, where you will work your magic,” he said. “We need no more direction than that. Once we’ve accomplished our mission, the children will be cared for, and you’ll go back to a prison cell while the mayor of Regara decides your fate.”
“I don’t understand,” Drift said, her voice shrill as she turned to Dozana. “Why send you to prison? I thought you were helping them?”
Dozana’s lips thinned. “I am,” she said. “I simply wasn’t given a choice in the matter. Do I have your permission to tell my daughter the situation, Captain?”
Rook noticed that Drift sucked in a sharp breath when Dozana said the word “daughter.”
“Your story is your own,” the captain said dismissively. “You can tell it once we’re inside.”
And with that, all eyes turned to Rook and the piece of chalk Dozana had given her.
Rook stepped up to the wall. Was she really going to do this—open a door into the Wasteland on purpose? Her fingers trembled so badly she could barely hold the chalk, let alone draw a straight line with it.
If only they had taken Mr. Baroman’s advice and stayed at the roost. Or left Regara at once to start over someplace else. None of this would have happened.
There was the sound of claws clicking on the cobblestones, then Fox, back in his animal form, bumped against her hip. The familiar scent of gamey fur and wildness washed over her.
Rook glanced over at Drift, looking for more comfort, but Drift was staring at Dozana, her eyes shining with unshed tears.
Of course she’s worried about her mother, Rook thought, but there was a small pang in her chest. She couldn’t help feeling that her friend was miles away from her at that moment.
Pushing her fears aside and drawing strength from Fox’s presence, Rook put her chalk to the wall to draw. She managed a passable rectangle, which took the form of a heavy-planked wood door with black bar hinges and an iron knob. It might have been the most unremarkable door she’d ever created.
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