by Isabo Kelly
“And to prevent needless panic,” Jacob added.
They stepped into the dining hall, a small, elegant room with walls bedecked in carved dark wood and a floor carpeted with thick red rugs. A single long oak table took up most of the room. Tiya and Kevin were shown to seats at the Baroness’s right. Henry was seated next to Tiya. Brandon sat to the Baroness’s left. Vic and Jacob were seated next to the smith.
Vic glanced down the table as the others took their seats. Garath sat midway. He caught her gaze, and they exchanged brief smiles. When she looked away, she found Jacob scowling at her. She raised a brow, her question obvious in the slight gesture, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he turned to the Baroness. Vic frowned, but let it go…for the moment.
The meal passed in quiet conversations. Most centering on the GeMorin and the quest of their diminished band. Vic learned that, thanks to Jacob and Brandon’s knowledge of the upper Georna Reaches, they’d discovered a quicker route to the Bthak border and the ruins where they hoped to find the kidnappers. Tiya’s continued touch with her daughter gave them hope and confirmed that the magicians continued toward the ruins. But they were forced to slow their journey because of the rough terrain.
She also learned that Baroness Georna would be providing thirty soldiers from her own guard to replace those they’d lost that morning. Vic’s shoulders sagged when she thought of that loss. Sitting in the well lit hall, with her belly full and her hands and face warm, it was hard to imagine that less than twelve hours ago, she’d almost died.
An involuntary shudder shook her shoulders. Jacob’s gaze jerked to her.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
“Yeah,” she answered, trying to smile. “I just got a chill.”
He nodded, but his eyes narrowed as he stared at her a moment longer.
“Perhaps it’s best if we all retire,” Baroness Georna suggested. “It’s been a long day for everyone. You’ll be departing early, Jacob?”
“Yes, my lady. As early as possible.”
“The scouts should return within the hour. I’ll let you know if they’ve seen any further signs of the GeMorin.”
“Thank you, Baroness. You’ve been most gracious.”
“It’s the least I could do.”
The concern wrinkling her otherwise smooth brow made it obvious the Baroness had been informed of the seriousness of the matter.
“Until later, then,” she said, rising. “Good evening.”
The rest of the table stood and began dispersing to their respective rooms. Garath stopped Jacob as he and Vic neared the door. “I’m going to check the horses and gear one last time,” he said. “I’ve a few horses to introduce to their new riders as well.”
Fewer horses than soldiers were lost that morning. As there were no better-trained warhorses in all of Karasnia, some of the Georna guards were to be given royal mounts.
“Is there anything else you’d like me to do?”
“No, Garath. Thanks.”
Garath smiled hesitantly, then nodded his good nights to both Jacob and Vic.
“See you in the morning,” she said as the lieutenant moved away.
“Goodnight, Garath,” Jacob added.
As they walked toward the guest quarters, Jacob took her arm. “We have to talk,” he whispered.
“Yes, we do.”
He led her to his room in silence. The corridors of the stone castle were dim with torchlight, throwing strange shadows at their feet. When they reached his room, Jacob started a fire before speaking. For a long moment, he remained with his back to her, staring at the fire. Then he turned to face her.
“You’re not coming, Victoria.” His voice left no room for question or protest. “You’ll remain here.”
She raised a brow and protested anyway. “We’ve discussed this before, I think,” she said calmly. “I’m going.”
He reached her in two steps, gripping her shoulders in hard fingers. “Victoria, you were almost killed! I won’t risk that again. Do you know what that did to me? To know that, if I’d arrived a few seconds later, I would have found you dead!” He hissed the last sentence, quiet and intent.
Her mouth dropped open. The anger smoldering behind his gaze flashed to envelope her. Her shoulders hurt where he clung to them, but she barely noticed the pain. “Jacob, we’re all at risk…”
“But you don’t have to be. You should have been up a damned tree. Safe! Goddess, the fate of the world rests on this mission and—”
“Exactly,” she spat, angry herself. “This isn’t about you or me anymore, Jacob. This is about the world and Arlana. You need me. You lost a lot of good soldiers…”
“And you were nearly among them. No!”
“Yes!” She pulled out of his grasp and stepped back a pace. “You need as many fighters as you can get. Arlana needs all of us.”
“Your presence distracts me.”
“And yours doesn’t me? I was in the path of that GeMorin because I was looking for you.” Her voice rose a notch.
“I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, like at the masquerade when that GeMorin almost took your head.”
“If you hadn’t put yourself in harm’s way in the first place, I wouldn’t have had my back to that damned goblin.”
“You’re blaming me,” she all but shouted. “You invited me to the damned ball.”
“You should have stayed out of the way,” he bellowed.
“No, I shouldn’t have.” Her voice dropped dangerously. “Jacob Marin, I’ve been taking care of myself for twenty-one years without your help. I can damned well do it now.”
“Victoria, I’ll not allow you to continue. You’re in my way and I won’t risk your life again.”
“In your way!” She could hardly believe what she was hearing. “I saved your ass, General. And I’ve killed a number of goblins along the way. I’m not staying here.” She was nearly shouting again. “I’m going with you.”
“Victoria, I won’t have you hurt. Do you understand? I won’t let you risk your life any more. You made me a promise of no more unnecessary risks. You’ll stay here.”
He ground the words between clenched teeth.
“Listen, General, I’m not one of your soldiers. I don’t take orders from you. This isn’t an unnecessary risk. This is for the fate of the entire blasted planet.” She straightened her shoulders, meeting his blazing gaze with steel resolve, and lowered her voice again. “What do you think I’ll do here, Jacob? Wait until you get around to coming back for me? Risk losing Arlana because you were too stubborn to accept the extra help? And what if you don’t come back? I’m going.”
“If I have to have Baroness Georna throw you in the damn dungeon to keep you here, little thief, I will.”
Her breath exploded in an unbelieving gasp. “Jacob,” she whispered, “if you even think about having me sent to the dungeon, I’ll never speak to you again.”
Unblinking, he said very evenly, “I’m thinking it.”
She stared for a heartbeat, her mouth set in a grim line. Then, raising her chin, she turned her back and, without another word, left his room.
“Garath, have you seen Victoria?” Jacob scowled at the young lieutenant.
“No, General. If I do, should I tell her you’re looking for her?” Garath stood at a rack in front of the stables, combing out his stallion’s coat. The cold mountain air turned his breath to fog under the lamplight surrounding the barn.
“If you see her, bring her to me immediately, Lieutenant. Personally.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Yes, there’s a problem.” Jacob stalked off, leaving Garath to stare after him.
When he was finally out of sight, Vic stepped out from inside the barn. She’d changed to her black clothes and carried her travel bag over one shoulder. Just behind her, Night’s Gale followed from the barn, saddled and ready to ride.
“Thank you,” she said, frowning in the direction where Jacob had disappeared. “But that wa
s risky for you. If he finds out…”
“He won’t. I’m pretty good at keeping secrets when my butt’s on the line.”
She almost laughed. “Still…I appreciate you not turning me over to him. But, why?”
“I owe you.”
“After the GeMorin battle, I think we’re even.”
“And,” Garath continued without acknowledging her statement. “I think he’s wrong. I think he’s let his feelings get in the way. You’re good in a fight, and we need all the help we can get. Especially now. One person could make the difference in the battle ahead.” He held her gaze. “I wouldn’t want to see you hurt either, but I also don’t want to see Arlana hurt.”
She could tell by his tone that he understood the true urgency of their mission. “Me neither.” She took a deep breath. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, and thanks again.”
“Will you meet us here?”
“No. I’m not giving him the chance to throw me in the dungeon,” she growled. “I’ll meet you up the road.”
“You’re going into the forest tonight? Alone?”
She nodded.
Quietly, he said, “You want me to come with you? There’s still GeMorin in that forest.”
She studied his steady blue gaze then shook her head. “You’d get into trouble for sure. Thanks, but I can take care of myself. I can be pretty good at hiding.”
“Okay.” He smiled. “Don’t get into too much trouble before tomorrow.”
“Me?” she asked through a slanted grin. Garath’s chuckle followed her as she disappeared through the castle gates, back down the pillar mountain and into the dark Georna night.
***
Blackness slowly brightened to reveal a single candle at her feet. As slowly, other candles took shape. She stared, trying to see beyond the candlelight, trying to focus her gaze. She tried to move. Failed. Tried again.
He stepped from the shadows and fear clutched her stomach, but she couldn’t scream, couldn’t move. His white face glowed in the candlelight.
“You have witnessed the ritual,” he whispered, baring his teeth.
She tried to scream again, but the sound stopped inside her active mind, never passing her immobile lips. Wide-eyed, she watched him approach, watched him pull the silver dagger, the hilt suddenly becoming gold with a scattering of emerald jewels. And she tried to close her eyes. But they remained open, freezing even as the rest of her body was frozen to the black-covered stone altar.
Before her now-motionless gaze, a new face looked down at her, madness plain in his dark eyes. “No one sees the ritual and survives, Flash.” Malkiney raised the dagger and giggled.
Suddenly her gaze was moving, running to the edge of the candlelit circle. He was there, at the edge of the light, watching, his hand resting on the golden hilt of his sword. The green of his formal tunic almost black in the dim light.
She tried to scream once more. Failed. She tried pleading with her eyes. Don’t leave me, she cried in a voice that couldn’t leave her mind. Jacob! For a second, she saw recognition. Then he turned away, walking out of the light, disappearing into the unrelenting darkness.
No! Her mind echoed the single word even as she saw the flash of silver from the corner of her eye. Saw the dagger plunge toward her chest, and…
She sat up with a strangled scream, looking wildly around her unfamiliar surroundings, heart pounding brutally against her rib cage, sweat soaking her clothes. Then she remembered.
She was in her tent, a mile north of Georna village. The quiet snuffling of Night’s Gale drifted through the canvas with the now-familiar sounds of the forest. Vic took several long, slow breaths. Just a dream, she reminded herself.
The sweat began to cool, chilling her despite the warmth of her trail blanket. She poked her head outside the tent, a knife held ready in her hand. Nothing. Silence. The sky past the trees was already beginning to lighten.
She threw herself back into her blankets and concentrated on slowing her heartbeat. Just a dream, she repeated. But when she tried to close her eyes, she saw the image of Jacob walking out of the circle, leaving her to her fate. She bit back anger and pain, grinding her teeth together.
With a defiant grunt, she threw off her blanket and gave up on sleep. “Just a dream,” she whispered aloud in a rough snarl, and began to get ready for the new day.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When the small, combined army of King’s Guard and Georna soldiers approached the lone rider that morning, Kevin hid his smile. He rode ahead of the group to greet Vic.
She gave him a half salute. “Permission to join the train, Lord Fordin?”
“Glad to see you again, Victoria,” he said, nodding for her to fall in line. As she passed, he warned, “Jacob is in a foul mood.”
She acknowledged him with a short nod. Riding past Jacob without glancing in his direction, she fell in beside Garath. With no little effort, she ignored Jacob’s dark glower for the rest of the day, throwing herself into conversation with Garath and some of the other soldiers.
That night, Tiya joined her by the fire. “Good evening, Victoria,” she said, taking a seat next to her.
She nodded at the woman, then turned her gaze back to the stick she held in the fire, a lump of meat stuffed onto its end. The fire spit and hissed as grease dripped from the crunchy skin.
“I’m glad you’ve continued with us. We need your help. And you’ve been involved from the beginning. I thought Jacob a bit…impulsive in his decision.”
“Impulsive, my right eye.”
“He acts that way because he cares, Victoria.”
“He was going to have me thrown in the dungeon. Did he tell you that?” Her voice emerged in a low growl she barely recognized. “Cares for me? If he cared, he wouldn’t consider putting me in a dungeon.”
She felt the sorceress’s gaze on the side of her face for a long moment, but she didn’t look away from her roasting dinner.
Finally, Tiya said, “You’ve been in a dungeon before?”
Vic shook her head. “I had a friend. A long time ago. When I first started with Thieves’ Hole, she looked out for me. But she didn’t like to stay in one place for very long, so she was always hooking up with traders and merchants…to see the world. I heard, while in Creo Barony, she was caught pulling a purse and thrown into the dungeon. I never found out exactly what happened, but she died there.”
“Does Jacob know about this?”
“He knows I don’t like dungeons. We never talked about why.”
“If you’d told him, he would never have done it. Jacob isn’t like that.”
“He shouldn’t have threatened in the first place.” She refused to meet Tiya’s gaze. “You don’t do that to someone you care about,” she whispered to the fire. “People disappear in dungeons.”
Tiya dropped her head, shaking it slightly before rising.
“Victoria, I know Jacob. I know how he feels about you. Don’t let words said in an angry moment be the last words you say to each other.”
When Vic continued to stare wordlessly at the fire, Tiya left.
They were crossing a wide gorge when the hallucinations started. From behind her, Vic heard the initial scream, saw a flurry of movement. By the time she turned, the soldier was already writhing on the ground, screaming of snakes and beating himself with the flat of his sword. It took three soldiers to restrain him.
But he didn’t stop screaming.
Kevin and Jacob had just turned when a second soldier charged off, running his horse up the gorge, whooping wildly. Garath charged after him. He stopped the warhorse easily, but the soldier continued to whoop as if charging into battle.
Henry dismounted and looked closely at both men. Then he closed his eyes and began reciting a soundless spell. A few moments later, the two men stopped shouting and blinked at their surroundings like sleepers rising from a dream.
“Henry?” Kevin asked, nodding toward the two men.
“Hallucinations,” Henry replied simp
ly.
“The blood magicians,” Jacob added.
“No.”
Henry’s answer brought a deafening silence down on the group.
“What do you mean?” Tiya asked.
“They don’t know we’re here,” Henry said, meeting her gaze. “They lost us when we left Georna castle. We’re still shielded and I’ve been altering the shield to keep them from pinpointing it.”
“Then who?” Garath asked.
Vic’s breath caught. She met Henry’s gaze. He nodded shortly, confirming her fears, then turned his gaze back to Tiya and Kevin.
“The one who began this I suspect,” he told them. “And I don’t know how he’s doing it. He shouldn’t be able to see us through the shield. He shouldn’t be able to send a spell through the shield…” Henry whispered. “If it is a spell.”
Jacob’s eyes narrowed.
Kevin growled low in his throat.
“What can we do?” Tiya asked for all of them.
“I don’t know, my lady,” Henry said, with a shrug. “I don’t know how to keep him out.”
“Can you stop the hallucinations once they start?” Jacob asked.
Henry nodded.
“Then we go on. But we keep a close watch on each other. At the first signs of hallucination, restrain the affected individual until Henry can help. The last thing we need is to start killing each other.”
The delusions came sporadically after that. No pattern, no particular individual. Only that the same person was never hit twice. After the first incident, Henry taught Tiya the spell to end the hallucinations. Between the two of them, the random outbursts were calmed before damage could be done.
But the effects showed on the group. For the next four days, everyone remained on edge, watching each other, being watched. Rest came fitfully.
And Vic continued to have nightmares.
Her dreams grew worse each night. Every time, she’d wake with a strangled scream, calling Jacob’s name. Only to find herself alone in a cold tent in the dark. His absence hurt worse than she could admit to anyone. Even herself.