by Kaylin Lee
The magic I’d stored to heal Bri poured through my body, healing me immediately.
I sat and peered through the pines, dizzy but warm, the shaking in my limbs finally gone.
Look out for your sister.
I just needed to get to Mom. And I needed Ella. They would know what to do about Bri’s curse and the Masters. Ella and Weslan and the rest of their office had been preparing for five years, hadn’t they?
They would know exactly what to do.
I stood on shaky legs, my core warm but my stockinged feet still ice-cold on the muddy riverbank. It was time to get moving. For the first time in her life, Bri needed me. I couldn’t let her down.
~
Night fell not long afterward. Without light to direct me, I was afraid I might stumble into something worse than the mess I was already in.
I sat hunched over at the base of an oak and hoped the uncomfortable position would keep me from sleeping too deeply.
The night passed with agonizing slowness. The rain stopped, but the temperature fell sharply. I dozed between healings, absorbing what I could and releasing the magic to warm my core whenever my heartbeat slowed. I didn’t bother to heal anything else—not the bloody scrapes on my palms, the blisters on my feet, or the frightening numbness spreading through my limbs. Who knew how long it would be before I found shelter and heat? Until then, my magic had to be preserved for survival alone.
As soon as the sky brightened, I set out. My feet ached with every step. The confusion of hypothermia had eased, but the forest blurred and swayed as I hiked. I headed downhill, but several times the downward slope turned upward. Was I traveling closer to the plain where we had left the fomewagon or simply wandering deeper into the Gold Hills?
The chilly wind strengthened, making the forest colder than it had been the night before. My limbs shook. I heaved a deep breath and released a feeble wave of magic to warm myself.
Nothing happened.
No. I wanted to sit down and bawl. I’d pushed my body too far, and now it was threatening to stop releasing magic! Never in my wildest nightmares had I imagined experiencing magical enervation in the middle of the Badlands. If I didn’t sleep soon, the lack of magic in my body would render me unconscious until I was restored.
If I fell asleep in this condition, would I ever wake?
I wrapped my hand around Ella’s locket and forced my wet, frozen feet forward in the muddy ground. Some part of me noticed this part of the Gold Hills was even bleaker than the parts I’d already seen.
Wind whistled through the trees. The shaking in my limbs increased. What should I do? Stop to sleep and hope I woke up in time, or continue walking until … until …
“Oh. You’re a maiden.”
I stopped in my tracks. A shape came to stand directly in front of me. The boy was scrawny and dark-haired, no more than six years old, with the continent’s smallest crossbow hooked over his shoulder.
He looked me over, his green eyes going wide. “You’re a fair maiden.”
“Hello,” I managed after a moment of gaping at him. My voice probably sounded like it came from a corpse. “Who are you?” Was I dreaming this sweet apparition? He was like the Badlands come to life, personified in the form of a child.
The lad scratched his scalp, ruffling his unruly, tangled hair. “Drew.”
I tried to nod. “I’m Alba.”
“You’re leaving a trail.” The boy pointed at the ground behind me.
A dribble of blood had landed on the nearest rock. I stared at it, at a loss.
“I think it’s from your hands.”
I lifted my palms in front of my face. Sure enough, the scrapes from the branch I’d grabbed hadn’t healed in the slightest. Not a good sign. What if the cuts became infected?
A hoarse laugh bubbled out at the thought. Infected scrapes were the least of my worries.
“I thought you were dinner,” Drew added disapprovingly, sounding like a disgruntled old man. “Not much game around here anymore.”
Compared to when? When you were five years old? “Dinner sounds nice.” At the thought of food, my empty stomach roared to life, but I needed warmth more. “Do you have a house nearby? Someplace warm?”
Drew’s face brightened, his gripe about the lack of game apparently forgotten. “Yes! Well, sort of. Do you need shelter, maiden?”
I wanted to hug him and never let him go. “Desperately.”
He straightened his spine like he’d been waiting all his short life for this moment. He held out his arm. “Then come with me, fair lady. I will keep you safe.”
I took his arm and let him tug me through the dry, windy woods, telling myself with every shaky step that it didn’t matter he’d said sort of.
Chapter 13
Drew led me uphill for what felt like hours. Each puff of magic I released to heal my body was weaker than the last. I was ready to collapse and tell Drew I’d changed my mind when he held out a hand to stop me.
“Are we here?”
“Shh!” He held himself perfectly still and cocked his head as though listening for something. After a long moment, he nodded. “It’s safe. Let’s go, but we have to be quick.” He guided me to a large cluster of boulders nestled at the edge of a steep slope.
The configuration looked oddly familiar. “Where is your shelter?”
Drew glanced over his shoulder at me. “Just a moment, maiden. It’s hidden.”
“Hidden?” I swallowed. “Why?” Surely I wasn’t in danger from this small boy, was I?
“Monsters,” he whispered, looking thrilled. “But don’t worry. I promised to keep you safe, remember?”
“Right.” Monsters. I was going to be sick. “How do we get inside?” If I didn’t get warm soon, there’d be no need for me to worry about monsters.
“Like this.” He lifted one of the largest rocks and dropped it to the side. Then he bent and lifted two more, grunting with the effort. When he stepped back, I realized he’d cleared the opening to a narrow tunnel. “Come on. We have to be quick. Can’t let the monsters see us enter, or they might come in after us.”
This was getting better and better. “What about the rocks? Don’t you have to cover the tunnel after we enter?”
“Don’t worry, maiden.” He squared his little shoulders. “I’ll take care of that.” He swept his hand back in a grand gesture. “After you, my lady.”
Desperation compelled me to kneel and crawl into the dim tunnel. It was too tight for me to turn around, but the boy must have moved the rocks back into place because the light from outside disappeared.
“Just keep crawling forward,” he whispered. “You’ll know when you get there.”
I crawled, my knees aching and my bloodied hands burning each time I pressed them into a new patch of rocky, tunnel dirt. Finally, my hands hit air. I tumbled out of the tunnel and landed hard on my chest in a pitch-black space.
“We’re here!” Drew leapt to the ground beside me with an agile thump. “Just a moment. I’ll turn on the luminous.”
He shuffled to my left. There was a click, then a gentle, golden glow lit the space.
We were in a cave, and yet … “You live here?”
Drew hung his crossbow and quiver on a hook beside the tunnel entrance, then he unfurled a thick cloth and hung it over the hole, blocking some of the cold air that came through the tunnel. “Me and my family.” He bit his lip, as though suddenly feeling shy. “Do you like it?”
I spun in a circle, amazed at the cozy, hidden dwelling they’d built into the mountain. The rocky walls had been worn smooth and hung with beautiful tapestries of rivers and mountains. A hearth had been carved into one side of the cave, and beside it sat a crate of suffio embers and a sturdy stove that looked like it ran on cinderslick. Simple wooden cupboards and shelves lined two sides of the cave. At the far end, several wooden bunks had been built into the cave wall. “It’s amazing. I love it.”
Drew beamed. “Come over here.” He marched to the suffio hearth an
d used a pair of rusty tongs to place two embers inside. “You’ll warm up quickly if you stay close.” He eyed my sodden, black uniform. “Do you want dry clothes? We have some of Mother’s old dresses.”
I bent over the suffio hearth and grimaced as the warmth stung my frozen, scraped hands. “That would be nice, but do you think she would mind?”
“I think she would be happy.” Drew scratched his scalp again. “She died of the plague when I was a baby, but my brothers all say she liked to help people. And they say she always wanted a daughter, instead of a big pack of sons.” He darted to a cabinet on the other side of the cave, pulled a dress out, and brought it to me.
The suffio embers were making me sleepy. “Turn around while I change,” I mumbled, lifting the dress with clumsy hands. “No peeking.”
Drew’s cheeks burned red before he turned his back. “I would never! My brothers raised me to be a gentleman.”
“That’s good.” I stripped off my wet clothes. When I came to the black tunic my mother had given me, I hesitated. It was as wet as everything else, but she’d warned me never to remove it. The cave seemed safe, but …
I kept the tunic on and pulled the warm, gray dress over my head. The simple garment fit snugly, but it would work. “Thank you. All done.”
Drew faced me. “You look even prettier than before.”
I sat down on the thick carpet beside the suffio hearth. “Thank you.” My head felt like it was triple its normal weight. “I’m just going to take a little nap, if you don’t mind?”
He nodded. “Sleep well. I’ll keep watch and make sure the monsters don’t get you.”
My last thought as I drifted off to sleep was that I should have counted the number of beds in the cave. How many sons constituted a big pack of them?
And where were Drew’s brothers right now?
Chapter 14
“Drew! What have you done this time?” The amused, baritone voice seeped into my dreamless sleep.
“I rescued a fair maiden. She was injured and in need of shelter. The monsters could have gotten—”
“For the last time,” someone interrupted, his voice slightly more tenor than the first. “There are no monsters in the woods!” He yawned as though tired of the argument. “Anders only told you that to keep you from wandering.”
“Don’t listen to him.” A youth laughed. “There are loads of monsters out there. I’ve seen ’em. Licked ’em, too! They run from me now, not the other way around.”
I tried to stir, but the fog of magical enervation wouldn’t lift. My body was determined to rest, no matter how I felt about it.
“I won’t let you take her away.” Drew stomped his foot beside me. “This fair maiden is mine. And she’s injured. She needs me.”
“She’s not yours, Drew,” said the first man, his gentle tone softening the rebuke. “But I think you did well to care for her. Where is she injured? I’ll see to the injury now.”
“Her palms. They won’t stop bleeding. That’s how I found her.”
A gentle, callused hand gripped mine. My scraped palms burned at his touch, but my eyes refused to open. Sleep intensified its hold on my mind.
“Get the bandages, Anton,” said the man beside me. “And something to clean …”
I drifted away, hoping he wouldn’t be annoyed to learn I could heal my own scrapes if they’d just let me sleep.
~
“Wake up.”
I felt a hand on my shoulder and tried to push it away.
“Time to wake up. Alba, is it? You need fluids.”
Come to think of it, my throat was excruciatingly parched. I managed to crack my eyes open. A blurry, dark-haired man crouched beside me with a cup in his hand. “Good girl. Up you go, now.” He helped me into a sitting position and lifted the cup to my lips.
I took one sip, wincing as my dry throat protested the sudden coldness.
“A bit more, Alba. You’re severely dehydrated.”
“Mm.” I opened my mouth as he lifted the cup again. After a few sips, I took the cup from him, tilted it, and drained it in several gulps.
The man laughed. “That’s better!”
I nodded and handed the cup back to him. “Thank you,” I whispered. “Um … Can I have more, please?”
The blurry man straightened. “Of course.”
“She’s awake!” Drew’s voice came from across the cave. He bounded to my side. “You slept for ages, fair maiden. I feared you were under a powerful sleeping curse.” He peered at me, his brows furrowed. “Did you know that you look even prettier now that you’re better?”
The other man returned and handed the water cup to me. I rubbed my eyes then sipped the cup. He was about my age, with curly, dark hair, tan skin, and a tall, gangly build. A pair of beaten spectacles perched crookedly on his nose, and a collection of black smudges marked his cheeks and forehead, like he’d just come from digging in the dirt. A simple, twining tattoo of leaves, vines, and buds in black ink peeked out from his tattered, brown shirt’s collar and wrists.
He knelt beside me again. “Hush, Drew. No flirting until she’s recovered.”
Drew crouched beside him and edged closer to me. “I’m not flirting!” he said earnestly. “I’m just pointing it out. She’s more beautiful every moment.”
The young man’s cheeks reddened slightly. “We’re all quite aware—”
“I told you she was a fair maiden.” Drew sounded satisfied. He leaned back on his heels, the matter settled, and looked expectantly at the man beside him. “So when’s dinner?”
My stomach chose that moment to let out an impatient growl.
The young man chuckled. “I’m Damian,” he said. “Drew’s older brother. And dinner will be here soon, I hope.”
A commotion rose behind him, and one by one, four gangly, dark-haired boys tumbled through the tunnel’s entrance.
“She’s awake!” A skinny youth with curly hair and a bright smile clapped his hands. He nudged a boy beside him who was identical in height and appearance but had shorter hair. “Basil, don’t you think she’s even prettier now that she’s awake?”
“Um … Ah …” The boy named Basil turned red. “She’s … well, she’s …”
“She slept for almost two days. I’m jealous.” An older boy stretched and rubbed the back of his neck as though working out kinks. He was somewhere between the first two boys and Damian in age, though skinnier than the elder brother. He bore no tattoos at his collar or wrists. “Damian, how come you never let me sleep that long? I had to go into the mine even when I was sick last—”
“If I have to, so do you.” A rail-thin boy just a few years older than Drew peeked out from behind the older boy. “That’s the rule. Right, Damian?” His voice was thick and raspy, and he coughed.
I cringed at the hacking sound. They were sending this sick, malnourished child into a mine, of all places?
I frowned at Damian, but he was watching the boys with a proud smile tugging at his lips. “That’s the rule. What’d you find for dinner?”
“I … Well … First, shouldn’t we …” The shy, short-haired twin, Basil, eyed me cautiously. “Who are you?”
Damian shook his head. “She needs to eat before—”
“It’s fine.” My voice was rough. I pushed the blanket off my knees and stood shakily, accepting Damian’s steadying hand when I pitched sideways. “My name is Alba.” My head pounded and the room spun, but I couldn’t risk alienating these brothers. I’d never needed help so desperately. “Thank you for sheltering me. If Drew hadn’t found me and if you hadn’t let me stay, I’m certain I would have died.”
“What was wrong with you?” The quiet, short-haired boy crossed his arms. Of the six brothers, he seemed the most uncertain of my presence. “Why would you have died?”
“Have you ever heard of magical enervation?”
He shrank back, stepping closer to his twin, who squared his jaw. “You’re a mage?”
I nodded slowly and held out my scab-c
overed palms. A puff of warm sparkles shimmered over them. The scabs disappeared along with the sparkles, leaving no trace of a scar. “A healer mage. You have nothing to fear from me. I swear it. I’m in your debt. I would never harm anyone, least of all your family.”
“You’re a healer mage?” The little boy with the raspy voice and thick, hacking cough edged in front of his brothers, a hungry look in his eyes. “Can you fix me?”
My chest tightened. I wanted to grab him and flood him with healing magic immediately, but I didn’t want to scare off his brothers. I settled for an encouraging smile and pretended I hadn’t noticed his cough. “What do you need fixed?”
“I’m sick all the time,” he said. The tall youth who’d complained about not sleeping when he was sick grabbed his shoulder and held him back from me, but the smaller boy slipped out of his grip and approached me on his own. “Ever since I was little, I’ve been sick.”
Gold sparkles pooled excitedly in my palms. After two days of restorative sleep, I was overflowing with magic. I glanced at Damian. “I can heal him. If you’ll allow it?”
Damian gnawed on his lower lip, his brow furrowed.
The boy stepped closer to stand before me with his arms at his sides and his eyes squeezed shut. “Will it hurt?” he rasped.
“Of course not. Damian? Please? I owe your family my life. Let me repay the debt.” Debts meant something to Badlanders, right? At least, according to the one who’d both kidnapped and freed me.
Damian nodded once, his brow creased. “Fine. Just don’t harm him.”
I placed my hands on the boy’s shoulders and released an initial wave of magic to warm his skinny body and calm his nerves. “What’s your name?”
“Stefan.”
“Don’t worry, Stefan,” I said softly. “I’m going to fix everything.” I started with a small wave of magic, sending it probing through his thin body.