“L-lady Tamora?” And then I saw the small child at the lady’s right—a headful of black curls like the mother, with wide, innocent blue eyes. She could not be more than five years of age.
My stomach clenched. Lady Sybil had a daughter.
“What did you say your name was?” The maid’s stare had changed from annoyance to suspicion.
I swallowed as I realized my mistake. Even a new maid would know if her lady had children.
A series of shouts and the clamor of a sudden panic below stole the maid’s attention away. She and the others rushed to the railing to see what caused the commotion below. I pretended to do the same while silently thanking the gods that Darren had noticed my signal, brief as it was.
Below, on the southern edge of the city’s farmland, was a huge, hungry fire eating away at the local crop field and its adjoining pasture, gaining speed. The prince had done well in such a short amount of time.
Men and women were running with buckets of water. Guards were searching the crowds, and there, dressed in a heavy peasant’s garb, was the prince. He slunk along the shadows as the city erupted in chaos.
“Your ladyship, you and the child must get back to your rooms immediately!” The maid who’d questioned me was busy dragging the baroness to her feet while the guards secured the railing behind us.
Most of the ladies-in-waiting had already run to their quarters, but two guards stood waiting for the baroness and her child. I would never be able to join them unnoticed, not with the suspicious maid watching my every move.
I needed to do something.
Pretending to busy myself with the lady’s belongings, I cast out my magic. At once the maid’s mouth and nose were covered in an invisible rag, sealing her airways.
Thirty seconds, that was all I needed.
The maid let out a muffled cry, clawing at the object on her face. The guards and lady started to turn, but I coughed loudly, bringing their attention back to me. The child was too busy clutching her mother’s skirts to notice.
Sixteen. Seventeen.
The maid stomped her feet loudly, and I pretended to fall to cover the sound.
Twenty-two. Twenty-three.
“Miss, are you okay?”
I stared up at the guards and shook my head.
One of the guards smiled. “No need to worry, miss. We’re very apt at sensing danger.”
Are you now? I let the maid’s casting disappear and then scrambled to my feet as the maid fell to the floor, unconscious. “Please, sirs,” I cried, “the maid has fainted. She needs a healer!”
The two men glanced at one another, and I made myself shrill. “You must take her! I can escort Lady Sybil to her chambers!” The maid was young and pretty. I hoped one of them had a soft spot for the girl, enough to leave their baroness’s side.
“It’s okay, Red. You can take Mila. Tamora and I will be fine.” Lady Sybil’s voice was calm and authoritative. I felt a crushing wave of guilt. Her sympathy for her servants would ultimately lead to her demise.
At his lady’s command, the guard gathered the unconscious girl in his arms and hurried down the corridor. The other followed Lady Sybil and me down the winding hall to her chambers.
Just as I made a motion to join her inside, the lady turned to me with a stiff shake of her head. “I would like to be alone with my child.” Her keen blue eyes watched me, and for a moment I thought I saw a flicker of suspicion. Then she shut the door, leaving me and the other guard outside her chamber.
Well, this wasn’t going according to plan.
The big man scowled. “You’d best hide in the servants’ quarters, miss.” His eyes held the same doubt as his lady and my insides squirmed. “There is nothing more you can do here.”
Definitely not a part of the plan.
I hastened a glance to my left and right, a quick study to make sure no one else was watching. The man drew his blade, and I launched my power at him, letting the man hit the wall with a loud thud, and then he crumbled to the floor, unconscious.
I’m sorry. I had no idea if he shared his king’s desire for war with Jerar, but he’d been a man trying to do his job before I got in the way.
I knelt and snatched the large ring of keys from the guard’s belt. I thrust the key I had seen him use just moments before into the door’s lock while clutching the guard’s sword in my other hand as I prepared for the lady’s defense. There was no way she could have missed the commotion outside.
I needn’t have bothered. The others were already there, weapons in hand.
“I’ll come with you willingly,” the lady begged, “just don’t hurt my little girl.”
Mira stood in front of the lady while Cethan bound the baroness and Andy held the child by the wrist.
“What do we do with the girl, Mira?” The mage shifted restlessly. “Flint never told us there would be a child.”
Mira’s cold yellow gaze slit to me. “Give the child to Ryiah. We’ll take her with us. Andy, I need you to help me cover the front until we meet Darren and Flint outside.”
I hesitated as Andy dragged the child over.
“Are you sure we need to bring the girl?” I swallowed over Tamora’s cries. I couldn’t imagine hurting such a small, innocent child. “Surely we don’t—”
“Are you questioning me, Apprentice?”
I clutched the small girl by her shoulders—they were frail and tiny, like a bird’s. Her body trembled violently against my hands. I couldn’t bring myself to move.
A sharp, whistling noise—like a whip cracking against air—and the child dropped to the ground. I gasped and looked to our leader in horror. She’d just cast the child unconscious. Tamora now had a small trickle of blood flowing from the left side of her head.
“You didn’t need to do that!” I knelt and gathered the girl up in my arms. A kidnapping was one thing, but hurting a defenseless child? Mira was heartless.
“You did well getting us in, Apprentice,” she warned, “but if you ever question my orders again, I will personally ensure you are thrown out of your apprenticeship for insubordination.”
And I thought Byron was as bad as it got.
DARREN AND FLINT were waiting for us at the end of the tunnel. They were keeping an eye out to make sure our route was safe. The second the prince spotted the limp child I was carrying, his mouth formed a small, hard line. Flint looked surprised but unperturbed.
Mira gave orders for Darren to take over at the front. Cethan and I would stay at the middle of the pack with our hostages. Flint, Mira, and Andy would guard the back.
We took off at a run.
And we ran. Every second, every breath seemed to go on for hours as we made our retreat through an endless sea of green and brown and white. Every once in a while, Flint would shout out a landmark or a direction we missed, but for the most part the only sound was the heavy panting of breath and the crunch of pine needles beneath our boots.
Minutes into our escape, Tamora awoke, but before she could cry, Andy slipped something into my hand. “We were supposed to give it to the mother if she was difficult,” she whisper-panted, “but I have a mind she’ll play nice so long as you don’t let Mira touch that child again.”
I shot the mage a small smile and then held the vial to the child’s lips. “Please?”
Tamora met my eyes, not quite understanding but seeming to trust the pleading tone in my voice. The girl swallowed the potion and was asleep in seconds.
Thank the gods for Alchemy.
Returning focus to the trail in front of me, I hurried to catch up with Cethan. The man was lumbering through the forest like it was nothing, even though the lady he was carrying was easily five times the weight of her child.
“You can’t be mortal,” I wheezed.
The corner of the mage’s lip twitched, but that was it. Cethan was too in control of his emotions to chuckle or laugh. I took it in stride anyway. He didn’t smile for anything.
After three hours of running, climbing, and small bu
rsts of hiding, we reached the camp we’d left behind the night before. All of our stuff was still hidden deep under brush, and the others quickly set to work locating our sleeping rolls and the rest of the supplies, including a much more comfortable change of clothes—it hadn’t been easy running in a full skirt, but thankfully I’d had on my most comfortable boots beneath.
Cethan and Andy took charge of our hostages. Lady Sybil refused to speak, except to ask for her daughter. Her eyes were red, undoubtedly from crying, and she had dark welts across her cheeks from where the gag had cut too tight. Her wrists had been rubbed raw from constant jostling during the escape, and yet despite everything, she still remained strong. Her keen blue eyes were unfazed.
Flint set out our supper: cold jerky and two fresh loaves he’d managed to steal during the hour he’d been patrolling the castle’s exit. Everyone exhaled loudly at the scent of fresh bread. At sea we’d survived on almost nothing but overly salted meats, barely preserved vegetables, and very stale baker’s rolls that Andy had lovingly renamed “rocks.”
I watched Lady Sybil cradle her sleeping child and swallowed hard. The lady refused to eat. It was hard to imagine a woman like that—one that was brushing the strands of hair out of her daughter’s eyes and adjusting the pale silk ribbon on the waist of her dress—was responsible for the rebel attacks in the desert. What was so important about this woman? She was only a baroness with no relation to the monarchy in Caltoth. She wasn’t even a mage.
Darren took a seat between Andy and I on the log. In his hands, he was rotating a bit of his bread over and over again, watching Lady Sybil with an unreadable expression. I didn’t say anything, but I knew instinctively he was wondering the same thing I was. I knew he carried the weight of Caine’s death on his shoulders, and I could see him trying to figure out the baroness’s role in all of this. We weren’t allowed to question the prisoner. Mira had made that very clear on our first day out at sea, but it didn’t stop us from wondering.
Somehow, my hand found a way to his. Darren looked up, startled, and I gave it a small squeeze. We’d accomplished an important task for our country… even if we didn’t know what it was yet.
The prince cracked the barest of a smile, and then his eyes fell to our interlocked fingers. My heartbeat stilled. I knew I had overstepped my bounds, that I should let go before it became more than a friendly reassurance, but then I saw his expression: not anger, not longing—grief, the same look he’d worn during the funeral pyres in the desert.
Darren wasn’t thinking about me. He was thinking about all the lives we had lost in the rebel attacks.
“It wasn’t your fault,” I whispered.
The prince didn’t say anything. The only indication he had heard me was the tightening of his hand.
Just tonight, I decided, I would let it remain.
WE HAD BEEN TRAVELING all day with relatively no rest. Our pace was slower than the day before, but not by much. Mira was convinced the Caltothians would be flooding the forest at any moment.
We had just settled into to a quick break to finish off the remains of our water when the low crunch of leaves alerted our leader of approaching enemies.
“Cast now!”
Mira’s warning came just in time. The rest of the group threw out a barrier. Arrows began to rain down from above, hitting the magicked wall and then sliding harmlessly to its side.
Someone groaned to my right, and I saw Andy had not been so lucky. One of the enemy’s missiles had gotten to her before the defense.
I started forward to help, but Cethan grabbed my arm and pointed to Tamora, grunting. Our first responsibility was to the mission, not a comrade. Still, I hesitated a moment longer until I saw Darren approach Andy.
Mira shouted for us to run—that she, Darren, and Andy would hold the Caltothians off as long as they could. When it was safe, they would follow, if they could.
The fate of Jerar relied on this mission. Comrades came second.
So I ran.
The sun was already setting. Bright shards of light shot through the trees and blinded me as I followed Cethan and Flint along the trail. I could hear the shouts, the pounding of footsteps, the whistle of things cutting through air, but I ignored it all and focused only on the girl in my arms and Flint’s breathless direction.
We must have run for an hour before the clamor of fighting finally died away. It made me anxious, scared for the others. How was Andy faring with her injured arm? Where was Darren? What would happen if our leader, Mira, were dead?
Cethan, Flint, and I slowed down our progress to double check the landmarks nearby.
There was a snap in the brush behind us, and I swung around ready to cast—
It was only a deer.
Cethan grabbed my arm and we continued our trek, more careful not to leave a trace now that we were close to the ship. Flint followed behind, scattering needles and dirt over our path so that it wouldn’t be quite so obvious which direction we’d taken.
Finally, after an hour of cautious hiking, we located our ship. I handed Tamora over to Flint, and he and Cethan loaded the small paddleboat with the two hostages and our supplies and then paddled out to our ship anchored deep in the waters a quarter mile beyond the shore. I stood guard at the beach, scanning the tree line beyond it for any sign of an enemy—or the others—approaching.
After the first half hour of waiting, Cethan returned. Flint had chosen to remain on the ship with our prisoners. I knew the big man and Andy were close.
“You can search the woods, if you like,” the man told me quietly after the first hour had passed. It was too dark to see anything past the rocky beach now. Both of us were growing anxious as the minutes wore on. Mira would have wanted us both to guard the ship, but it was evident the man’s thoughts mirrored my own.
“I—wait, Cethan, look!”
A small glow of dim orange light cut a swatch along the tree line ahead.
“Is it them?”
We watched warily as the shadows drew closer, ready to cast at a moment’s notice. The thunder of blood was so heavy and frequent, I couldn’t hear anything over the hammering of my pulse. Please, I begged, please be the others.
As the figures drew closer, Andy and Mira’s faces materialized in the darkness.
Cethan let out a long, ragged breath. He ran forward to help Andy, while I half carried our leader to the paddleboat next to shore. Both of their knees seemed to give out the moment we set them down. Their faces and arms were streaked with sweat and dried blood.
“Did the prince make it back before us?” Mira croaked.
My lungs stopped and my hands dropped the oars I’d been about to hand to Cethan.
Andy swore as she realized my reaction.
“I’m going to find him.” The words were out of my mouth in an instant.
Mira’s stern gaze met my own defiant one. “We will wait for him, Apprentice. You must remain on the beach. The prince knows where to find us, and I need you here to serve as a lookout, not a hero.”
“What if Darren’s lost?” I challenged. “What if he’s hurt and can’t make it back on his own?”
The woman glowered. “Believe me when I say it would be a tragedy I’d take to heart. But it is unwise to—”
“He’s a prince. I thought you served the Crown!”
“He’s not the heir,” Mira cut me off shortly. “Therefore, Darren is expendable in certain situations. The mission we serve right now is one of those.”
“But—” What kind of mission is more important than a prince’s life?
“I am done arguing. We will wait for him here, for as long as we can.” Mira had already turned her back, ordering Cethan to take them to the ship.
“I’ll stand watch with Ryiah.” Andy stepped off the boat, groaning.
Mira glared at the woman. “You had better not try anything.”
Andy put a firm hand on my shoulder and tried not to wince. “I’ll make sure Ryiah remains here. I know my duty.”
; The leader kept her eyes on the two of us for a moment longer and then indicated for Cethan to continue paddling.
As soon as they were out of hearing, the mage spun me to face her. “Lightning,” she said, “if you see it, whatever you are doing, get back to the beach. I will try to hold off the enemy as long as I can—but if it gets too much, Mira will make us leave without you.”
“What are you—”
“Go, Ryiah. Go find Darren.”
I TORE across the dark forest. Long, black branches reached out like fingers to scrape across my skin. I cast out small balls of light, launching them in every which direction, trying to find any sign of the prince or where he’d gone. The cold air whipped across my lungs like a knife. My frantic breathing was coming out in quick, sharp gasps.
Darren could be anywhere. The others had said they’d been forced to separate two hours ago. Andy wasn’t sure if he had gone deeper into the woods, or east toward the beach. One thing was certain: he wouldn’t have gone south unless he’d been captured.
I retraced my trail, following familiar landmarks and calling out as loudly as I dared.
As the minutes ticked by and there was still no sign of Darren, my searching became frantic. My quiet shouts gave way to desperate shrieks. I no longer cared if the enemy soldiers spotted me.
I knew Mira would be furious if she found out I was casting giant beacons of light and screaming at the top of my lungs, but I was too far from the shore for my leader to stop me.
Rational thinking had given way to panic, and there was nothing holding me back.
“Darren!” I screamed. “Darren!”
It had been an hour and a half since I started. My castings had begun to falter, and while I knew it was reckless to use up all of my magic, I couldn’t bring myself to stop.
I made it back to where the soldiers had first spotted us. A handful of bloodied bodies littered the clearing in front of me. This was where Mira, Andy, and Darren had first held off the enemy…
All of the bodies bore Caltothian insignia. I exhaled slowly. The prince was safe, for now.
The Black Mage: Complete Series Page 40