The Study Series Bundle

by Maria V. Snyder

  He pulled back on the bridle, stopping in disbelief. “Your love for him has damaged your senses.”

  “And your hunger for power has affected your intelligence. Your men are using you, yet you refuse to see the obvious.”

  Cahil shook his head. “I won’t listen to any more lies. My men are loyal. They obey me or else they will be punished. Goel’s death helped me to reinforce that lesson.”

  I recognized that flatness in his pale blue eyes. “You killed Goel.”

  He smiled. “My men have pledged their lives to me. I committed no crime.” He brandished his sword. “Ready,” he called to his men. “Aim and—”

  “Think about this before you gloat about your men, Cahil. They look to Captain Marrok for approval before following your orders. They gave you a sword that was too heavy for you, and failed to properly train you with it. You are supposed to be related to the King, who was a powerful magician. Why don’t you have any magic?”

  “I—” Cahil hesitated.

  His men glanced at each other in either consternation or confusion. I couldn’t tell, but it broke their concentration. And in that moment, Valek leaped onto Kiki’s back behind me. She took off into the plains without being told. I grabbed her mane as Valek’s arms encircled my waist, and Kiki broke into her gust-of-wind gait.

  I heard Cahil yell fire, and thought I heard the whiz of a dart near my ear, but we were soon out of range. Kiki traveled twice the distance of a normal gallop without any obvious effort. When the moon had reached its apex, Kiki slowed then stopped.

  Smell gone, she said.

  Valek and I slid off her back. I inspected her for injuries before she snorted with impatience and moved away to graze.

  I shivered in the cold air, searching my body for darts before wrapping my cloak tighter. “That was close.”

  “Not really,” Valek said, pulling me toward him. “We distracted the men so when Wannabe King gave the order they didn’t have time to aim.”

  Valek felt warm even though he wasn’t wearing a cloak. Seeming to read my thoughts, he said, “I’ll share yours.” He smiled with a mischievous delight. “But first you need a fire, food and some sleep.”

  I shook my head. “I need you.” It didn’t take me long to convince him. Once I had divested him of his clothes, he elected to join me in my cloak.

  I woke to the delightful smell of roasting meat. Squinting in the bright sunlight, I saw Valek crouched near a fire. He had set up a spit of meat over the glowing embers.

  “Breakfast?” I asked as my stomach rumbled.

  “Dinner. You’ve slept all day.”

  I sat up. “You should have woken me. What if Cahil finds us?”

  “Doubtful with all this magic in the air.” Valek peered into the sky, scenting the wind. “Does it bother you?”

  I opened my mind to the power surrounding us. The Sandseed’s protective magic tried to invade and confuse Valek’s thoughts, but his immunity deflected the strands of power with ease. The magic seemed indifferent to my presence.

  “No.” I told Valek about my distant relationship to the Sandseed clan. “If I came close to their village with the intent to harm them, I think the protection would attack me.” Then I thought about Moon Man’s magical abilities and his scimitar. “Either that or one of their Story Weavers would.”

  Valek considered. “How long will it take us to reach the Daviian Plateau?”

  “It depends on Kiki. If she decides to use her gust-of-wind gait, we could be there in a few hours.”

  “Gust-of-wind? Is that what you call it? I’ve never seen a horse run that fast before.”

  I mulled over Valek’s comment. “She only does it when we’re in the plains. Perhaps it’s connected to the Sandseed’s magic.”

  Valek shrugged. “Faster is better. The faster we can take care of Alea, the better.”

  But exactly how we would take care of Alea remained the real question. I knew she would be a threat to me if she had survived her injury, yet I didn’t want to kill her. Perhaps turning her over to the Sandseeds would be enough. I thought about Moon Man’s remarks about the Daviian Vermin, and realized that Ferde’s comment about the existence of others might not have been about Alea coming after me, but about the other Daviians.

  Valek pulled the meat from the fire and handed the spit to me. “Eat. You need your strength.”

  I sniffed the unidentifiable lump. “What is it?”

  He laughed. “You’re better off not knowing.”

  “Poisons?”

  “You tell me,” he teased.

  I took an experimental bite. The juicy meat had an odd earthy taste. Some type of rodent, I thought, but no poisons. When I had finished my supper, we began to pack up our meager supplies.

  “Valek, after we deal with Alea, you must promise to return to Ixia.”

  He grinned. “Why would I do that? I’m beginning to enjoy the climate. I might build a summer home here.”

  “It’s that cocky attitude that got you into trouble in the first place.”

  “No, love. It was you. If you hadn’t gotten yourself captured by Goel, I wouldn’t have tipped my hand to the Wannabe King.”

  “You didn’t tip your hand. I’m afraid I did that when I was fighting with Cahil.”

  “Defending my honor again?” he asked.

  Back in Ixia, I had inadvertently exposed one of his undercover operations by standing up for him. “Yes.”

  He shook his head in amazement. “I know you love me, so you can stop proving it. I really don’t care what Wannabe King thinks of me.”

  I thought about Cahil. “Valek, I’m sorry for believing you killed Goel.”

  He waved away my apology. “You would have been right. I went back to take care of him for you, but he had beaten me to it.” Valek’s angular features grew serious. “The Wannabe King remains a problem.”

  I nodded. “One that I’ll deal with.”

  “Now who’s cocky?”

  I started to protest, but Valek stopped me with a kiss. When he pulled away, I noticed that Kiki’s head was up and her ears pointed forward.

  Smell? I asked her. Then I heard the sound of hoof beats, heading toward us.

  Rusalka, Kiki said. Sad Man.

  My first reaction was annoyance that Leif had followed us. But the thought that, if he could find us, then so could Cahil filled me with apprehension.

  Anyone else? I asked.

  No.

  Valek disappeared into the tall grass just as Leif’s horse seemed to materialize from a cloud of dust.

  Leif’s green eyes were wide with shock. “She’s never done that before.”

  My annoyance transformed to amusement. Rusalka’s black coat gleamed with sweat, but she didn’t appear to be stressed.

  “I call that Kiki’s gust-of-wind gait,” I told Leif. “Is Rusalka a sandseed horse?”

  He nodded. Before he could say another word, I saw a blur of motion to his left as Valek leaped out of the grass and knocked Leif from his horse. They landed together with Valek on top of Leif’s chest. He held Leif’s machete to Leif’s throat as my brother struggled to get his breath.

  “What are you doing here?” Valek asked.

  “Come. To find. Yelena,” Leif said between gasps.

  “Why?”

  By this time, I’d recovered from my surprise. “It’s all right, Valek. He’s my brother.”

  Valek moved the blade away, but remained on top of him. Leif’s face twisted into an expression of astonished terror.

  “Valek? You have no smell. No aura,” Leif said.

  “Is he a simpleton?” Valek asked me.

  I grinned. “No.” I pulled Valek from Leif. “His magic can sense a person’s soul. Your immunity must be blocking his power.” I bent over Leif and examined him, looking for broken bones with my magic. I didn’t find any serious injuries.

  “Are you all right?” I asked Leif.

  He sat up and glanced nervously at Valek. “That depends.”
r />   “Don’t worry about him, he’s overprotective.”

  Valek harrumphed. “If you could keep out of trouble for one day, protecting you wouldn’t be so instinctive.” He rubbed his leg. “Or so painful.”

  Leif had recovered from his shock and stood.

  My annoyance returned. “Why are you here?” I asked.

  He looked at Valek then at the ground. “It was something Mother said.”

  I waited.

  “She told me that you were lost again. And only the brother that had searched for you for fourteen years could find you.”

  “How did you find me?”

  Leif gestured a bit wildly at his horse. “Kiki had found Topaz in the plains, so I thought, since Rusalka was bred by the Sandseeds, I asked her to find Kiki. And…And…”

  “She found us very fast.” I mulled over what Leif had said about our mother. “Why does Perl think I’m lost? And why send you? You weren’t any help the last time.” Now, I had to suppress the urge to punch him. He had almost killed me with his machete at Ferde’s house.

  Leif cringed with guilt. “I don’t know why she sent me.”

  I was about to tell him to go home, when Moon Man walked into sight. “A good guy,” I said to Valek before he could attack him.

  “This seems to be quite the meeting place,” Valek muttered under his breath.

  When Moon Man came closer, I asked, “No mysterious arrival? No coalescing from a sunray? Where’s the paint?” The scars on his arms and legs stood out against his dark skin, and he wore a pair of short pants.

  “It is no fun when you already know those tricks,” Moon Man said. “Besides, Ghost would have killed me if I had suddenly appeared.”

  “Ghost?” I asked.

  Moon Man pointed to Valek. “Kiki’s name for him. It makes sense,” he said, seeing the look of confusion on my face. “To magical beings, we see the world through our magic. We see him with our eyes, but cannot see him with our magic. So he is like a ghost to us.”

  Valek listened to Moon Man. Although expressionless, I could tell by the rigid set to Valek’s shoulders that he was prepared to strike.

  “Another relative?” Valek asked.

  A broad smile stretched Moon Man’s lips. “Yes. I am her mother’s uncle’s wife’s third cousin.”

  “He’s a Story Weaver, a magician of the Sandseed clan,” I explained. “And what are you doing here?”

  Moon Man’s playfulness faded from his face. “You are on my lands. I could ask you the same thing, but I already know why you have come. I came to make sure you keep your promise.”

  “What promise?” Leif and Valek asked at the same time.

  I waved the question away. “I will, but not now. We need—”

  “I know what you intend to do. You will not succeed with that unless you untangle yourself,” Moon Man said.

  “Me? But I thought you said…” I stopped. He had made me promise to untie Leif, but then I remembered that Moon Man had said our lives twisted together. But what did helping Leif have to do with going after Alea? “Why won’t I succeed?” I asked.

  Moon Man refused to answer.

  “Do you have any more cryptic advice?” I asked.

  He held out his hands. One toward Leif and the other to me.

  Valek huffed in either amusement or annoyance, I couldn’t tell, but he said, “Looks like a family affair. I’ll be close by if you need me, love.”

  I studied Leif. His reaction to the Story Weaver the last time we had met him had been one of fear. Now, he stepped forward and grabbed Moon Man’s hand, shooting me a look of stubborn determination.

  “Let’s finish this,” Leif said, challenging me.

  35

  I SLID MY HAND INTO MOON Man’s. My world melted as the warm magic of the Story Weaver took control of my senses.

  We traveled to the Illiais Jungle to the place Leif had hidden while watching Mogkan kidnap me over fourteen years ago. The three of us viewed the events through Leif’s eyes and felt his emotions. In essence, becoming him.

  A mean approval that Yelena got what she deserved for not staying close to him spiked Leif’s heart. But when the strange man put her to sleep, and pulled his pack and sword from under a bush, sudden fear of getting taken by the man kept Leif in his hiding place. He stayed there long after the man had carried his sister away.

  Moon Man manipulated the story’s thread for a moment, showing Leif and me what would have happened if Leif had tried to rescue me. The ring of steel rolled through the jungle as Mogkan pulled his sword from its scabbard and stabbed Leif in the heart, killing him. Remaining hidden had been a good decision.

  The story then changed and focused on Perl and Esau’s despair and anger when Leif had finally told them that I was lost. Leif believed he would be in worse trouble if he had told them the truth and they knew he hadn’t done anything to stop the man. Leif had been convinced that the search parties would find the man and his sister. Already he felt jealous of the attention she would get for just being rescued.

  When the search parties failed to find her, Leif began his own quest. He knew they lived in the jungle, keeping out of sight just to spite him. He had to find her, and maybe his mother and father would love him again.

  As the years passed, his guilt drove him to attempt suicide, and, eventually, the guilt transformed into hatred. When she finally came back into their lives stinking of blood and of the north, he wanted to kill her. Especially when he saw for the first time in fourteen years the pure joy on his mother’s face.

  Cahil’s ambush, while unexpected, gave Leif a receptive audience about the need to get rid of the northern spy. But watching her get hurt caused a small rip of concern in his black cloak of hate.

  Her escape from Cahil was proof he had been right about her, but then she came back, insisting she wasn’t a spy and therefore would not run away like one. Roze then confirmed her claims, puzzling Leif.

  His confusion and conflicting emotions only grew when he saw her try to help Tula. Why would she care about another? She hadn’t cared about him or how he suffered while she was gone. He wanted to keep hating her, but when she struggled to bring Tula back, he couldn’t bear the guilt if he stood by and did nothing again.

  When they traveled to the plains and Story Weaver approached, Leif had known his sister would discover the truth about him. He ran, unable to face the accusations that would fill her eyes. But when he calmed, he thought, would the truth be that difficult for her? She weathered so much in Ixia. Perhaps she could overcome this hurdle, too.

  But after she had returned from the plains, Leif knew it was impossible. Her anger and censure flamed on her skin. She didn’t want him or need him. Only his mother’s pleas that he help his sister made him seek her out.

  Story Weaver let the strands of the tale fade. The three of us stood on that dark plain I remembered from my last encounter with Moon Man. His coloring matched a ray of moonlight. Leif glanced around with wonder.

  “Why did Mother ask you to help me rescue Gelsi?” I asked Leif.

  “She thought I could assist you in some way. Instead, I had tried to—”

  “Kill me? You can join the ‘I Want to Kill Yelena Guild.’ I hear they have six members in good standing. Valek is president since he had wanted to kill me twice.” I smiled, but Leif stared at me with guilt in his eyes. “It wasn’t you. Ferde tapped into your memories and used them.”

  “I did want to kill you before you helped Tula.” Leif hung his head.

  “Don’t feel ashamed for having those feelings and those memories. What happened in the past can’t be changed, but they can be a guide for what happens in your future.”

  Moon Man radiated approval. “We could make a Story Weaver out of you if you were not already a Soulfinder.” He flashed me a wide smile.

  “Truly?” How many people would I need to hear it from before I believed it or felt it? Perhaps it would be best not to declare myself a Soulfinder and just be regular old Yelena.
<
br />   Moon Man raised an eyebrow. “Come visit me when you are ready.”

  Then the world spun and I shut my eyes against the feelings of vertigo. When they stopped, I opened them, finding myself back in the plains with Leif. Moon Man was talking to Valek.

  I digested what happened on the stony plain. Leif had been in the process of untying himself. His road had smoothed when he made the decision to help me with Tula. So why had Moon Man asked me to help him? I looked for the Story Weaver, but he had disappeared.

  Then the answer came to me, and, along with it, my own guilt. Without truly understanding Leif, I had treated him badly, holding the actions of an eight-year-old boy against a grown man and failing to see how he tried to amend them.

  Leif watched me.

  “How come they never schedule a New Beginnings feast when you really need to start over?” I asked.

  Leif smiled at me. The first genuine one since I had returned from Ixia. It warmed me to the core of my soul.

  “That’s okay. I don’t dance,” he said.

  “You will,” I promised.

  Valek cleared his throat. “Touching as this is, we need to go. Your Story Weaver is providing us with some soldiers to aid against Alea’s people. We’re to rendezvous with them at dawn. I take it your brother…”

  “Leif.” I filled in.

  “…is coming along?”

  “Of course,” Leif said.

  “No,” I said at the same time. “I don’t want you to get hurt. Mother wouldn’t like it.”

  “And I wouldn’t be able to face her wrath if I didn’t stay and help.” Leif crossed his arms over his chest. His square jaw set into a stubborn line.

  “Your mother sounds like a formidable woman,” Valek said into the silence.

  “You have no idea,” Leif replied with a sigh.

  “Well, if she’s anything like Yelena, my deepest sympathies,” Valek teased.

  “Hey!”

  Leif laughed and the tense moment dissipated.

  Valek handed Leif his machete. “Do you know how to use it?”

  “Of course. I chopped Yelena’s bow into firewood,” Leif joked.