Another contradiction. I didn’t know what to believe. And his motives were unclear, so I asked him, “Why do you want to go back to the living world?”
His burned face creased with anger. Fire erupted on his shoulders. “He sent me here to spend an eternity in misery. But his descendant released me, fed me power in exchange for knowledge and obedience. My master is strong, but not that strong. I have exceeded my savior’s power. Now I want to regain my life that had been stolen from me.”
“Who sent you here?”
“An Efe traitor named Guyan. Now do we have an agreement? If not, then you will remain here.” He shrugged as if my decision didn’t concern him too much.
Guyan’s name was familiar to me. He was Gede’s ancestor. So my new Story Weaver was in league with the Fire Warper. Perhaps Gede was also their leader Jal. I would have to remember that tidbit the next time I had a lesson scheduled with Gede. I choked out a laugh. At this point, there would be no future sessions for me.
I scanned the flat plain, peering into the red-tinged light. A gray shape swooped from the air. It dived and danced over a figure. I moved closer. The shape was a bat. But there weren’t any insects or sources of heat to warrant its actions. Yet it picked and yanked at the figure. Another torture on the poor soul?
“What do you see, Yelena?” the Fire Warper asked. “Your future?”
“Perhaps.” I turned away.
“Will you come back?”
“Yes.”
He held out his hand. I grasped it. My world melted in a blaze of heat and cooled just as quickly in a swirl of ash and smoke. I lay among the ruins of the stable. Charred beams rested in crooked angles, twisted pieces of blackened metal littered the floor, and the scorched smell of burnt leather hung in the air.
I stumbled from the still-warm pile of wood. Singed holes peppered my clothes and soot streaked my skin. My cloak was gone. The hair on my arms had been burned away. I reached for my head, stopping when I encountered half-burnt stubble instead of hair.
My ruined boots crunched on the remains of the stable and shuffled through ash-filled puddles as I walked out, seeking Kiki. No response to either my mental or physical calls.
A loud bang sounded behind me and I turned to see Valek standing in the doorway of the cottage.
I laughed at his expression of complete and utter surprise. Then my legs turned to liquid as I realized what I would really lose when I kept my promise to the Fire Warper. My efforts were so focused on trying to protect him—protect everyone—I hadn’t considered the cost of keeping them safe. I fell.
He was beside me in an instant. Caressing my face with a feather-light touch, he looked uncertain.
“Are you real?” he asked. “Or just some cruel joke?”
“I’m real. A real simpleton, Valek. I should never have said…I should never have done…” I drew in a deep breath. “Forgive me, please?”
“Would you promise never to do it again?” he asked.
“Sorry, I can’t.”
“Then you certainly are real. A real pain in the ass, but that’s who I fell in love with.” He pulled me close.
I clung to him with my ear pressed against his chest. The beat of his heart, steady and solid, comforted me. His soul, nestled within its chambers, was unreachable with my magic, but he had given it to me freely.
“Why were you so determined to push me away, love?”
“Fear.”
“You’ve faced fear before. What’s different?”
Good question. The answer horrified me. All this time I believed I wanted to protect my friends and family from the Fire Warper. “I’m afraid of my magic.” The words tumbled from my mouth, breaking through the invisible barrier I had built between us. “If I harvested enough souls, I know I would possess ample power to defeat all the Warpers, including the Fire Warper. That’s tempting. Tempting enough to want to protect you from me.”
Valek pulled back and tilted my head so he could meet my gaze. “But all you need to do is ask. We wouldn’t hesitate to give you our souls to defeat the Warpers.”
“No. There has to be another way.”
“And that would be…?”
“When I figure it out, you’ll be the first to know.” Before he could comment, I added, “You never answered me. Am I forgiven?”
He sighed dramatically. “You’re forgiven. Now come inside, you reek of smoke.”
Valek helped me to my feet. I swayed on unsteady legs for a moment. “Where’s Kiki?”
“Once you disappeared into the stable, she ran off and hasn’t come back.”
I wanted to find her and reassure her, but my body lacked the energy.
We walked to the cottage. The bright light of midday burned in the sky. I could no longer think of the sky without remembering my deal with the Fire Warper. Unease wrapped around chest.
“Where’s Bavol?” I asked to distract myself.
“The Daviian Warper captured him while I tried to douse the fire. Will they kill him?”
“No. They need him and all the Councilors for a while to keep up the pretense that the Council and Master Magicians are in charge.”
“How long will it last?”
“Not very.”
“Will they come after us here?”
The Fire Warper had gotten what he wanted. “No. But we need to retake control.”
“We, love? I thought you could handle this by yourself.”
Dealing with the Fire Warper was my task, but, for the rest, I required assistance. “I was wrong.”
Valek heated water and filled the cast-iron tub. He removed my pile of burnt clothes. By the time I finished bathing, he had brought me a clean outfit.
“What’s this?” He held Opal’s glass bat.
I told him about my visit with Opal. “As a fellow artist, what do you think of the construction?”
Valek examined the statue, turning it this way and that. “It’s an accurate reproduction. The coloring matches one of the smaller jungle bat species. It’s sticky with magic. I feel it, but can’t see it. Can you?”
“The inside glows as if molten fire has been captured by ice.”
“That would be something to see, then.”
Thinking about what the Fire Warper had done to show me his world, I touched Valek’s shoulder and opened myself to him, letting him see the bat through me.
“Ahh…spectacular. Can everyone see this?”
“Only magicians.” And the Commander, I thought.
“Good. That lays that debate to rest. I am not a magician.”
“Then what are you? You’re not a regular person either.”
Valek pretended to be mortified.
“Come on,” I said. “Your skills as a fighter have an almost magical air. Your ability to move without sound and blend in with shadows and people seem extraordinary. You can communicate with me over vast distances, but I can’t contact you.”
“An anti-magician?”
“I suppose, but I’d bet Bain could find it in one of his books.” I told Valek about the tunnel and about the Councilors’ families, describing the pond to him.
He considered. “That sounds like Diamond Lake in the Jewelrose lands. It’s near the Bloodgood border. The Jewelrose Clan had built a series of lakes that resemble shapes of jewels and the water reflects the colors.”
“Why red?”
“Because the Jewelrose Clan is famous for cutting rubies into diamond shapes. The Commander even has a six-carat ruby on a ring, but he had stopped wearing it after the takeover. I wonder…” Again, Valek’s gaze grew distant.
“What?”
He looked at me as if deciding whether to tell me something important. “Have you shown your bat to the Commander?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
I hesitated. I had promised the Commander to keep what he called “his mutation” a secret. Would telling Valek about the bat break that confidence? “I know about the Commander, love. How could you believe that I
spent the last twenty-one years with him and not know?”
“I…”
“After all.” Valek made a scary face. “I am the anti-magician!”
I laughed. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“For the same reason you didn’t.” He wrapped my bat and placed it back into my pack.
“The Commander saw the glow. I think his body contains two souls, but I have no idea how or why it’s magical. And if he does have magic, why didn’t he flame out after puberty?”
“Two? Ambrose’s mother died during his birth and there was some confusion. The midwife insisted a boy had been born, but later his father held a baby girl. They searched for evidence of a second child but found nothing. They chalked it up to the midwife being upset about losing her patient. Ambrose used to blame this invisible twin whenever he was in trouble, which from his stories was quite often. His family indulged him when he began wearing boy’s clothes and calling himself Ambrose. It seemed mild in comparison to a few of his other antics.”
“Was his mother a magician?”
“She was considered to be a healer, but I don’t know if she healed with magic or with mundane remedies.”
Valek drained the tub while I attempted to do something with my ruined hair. Some sections remained long, while others had been burnt to stubble.
“Let me, love.” Valek removed the brush from my hands. He rummaged around the bath area until he found his razor. “Sorry, nothing else will work.”
“How did you get so good with hair?”
“Spent a season working undercover as Queen Jewel’s personal groomer. She had beautiful, thick hair.”
“Wait, I thought all the Queen’s servants had to be women.”
“Good thing no one thought to look up my skirt.” Valek grinned with impish delight as he cut my hair. Large chunks floated to the ground. I stared at them, trying to convince myself losing my hair didn’t matter. Especially not when I considered I wouldn’t need it in the fire world.
After he finished, Valek said, “This will help with your disguise.”
“My disguise?”
“Everyone’s looking for you. If I disguise you as a man, you’ll be much harder to find. Although…” He studied my face. “I’ll use a little makeup. Being a man won’t draw unwanted attention unless they notice you don’t have any eyebrows.”
I touched the ridge above my eyes with my fingertips, feeling smooth skin. I wondered if they would grow back. Again, I dismissed the notion. It wouldn’t matter in the end.
“What should we do first? Try to find the tunnel to the Keep, if it even exists. Or go and rescue the Councilors’ families?” I asked.
“We should—” Valek sniffed the air as if he smelled a dangerous scent. “Someone’s coming.”
28
HE SIGNALED ME TO WAIT and left without a sound. I grabbed my switchblade and crept through the living room. A murmur of voices filtered in from the kitchen. The door flew open as soon as I reached it. I brandished my knife at the hulking figure in the doorway.
“What happened to your hair?” Ari demanded. “Are you all right?”
Janco followed him in. “Look what happens when you sneak off without us!”
“I’d hardly call being captured and taken to Sitia inside a box sneaking off,” I said.
Janco cocked his head this way and that. “Aha! You look just like a prickle bush in MD-4. If we buried you up to your neck, we could—”
“Janco.” Ari growled.
“If you gentlemen are finished, I’d like to know why you disobeyed my orders,” Valek said.
Janco smiled one of his predatory grins as if he had anticipated this question and already composed an answer. “We did not disobey any of your orders. You said to keep an eye on Yelena’s brother, the scary-looking big guy and the others. So we did.”
Valek crossed his arms and waited.
“But you didn’t specify what we should do if our charges came to Sitia,” Ari said.
“How could they possibly escape the castle and get through the borders?” The expression on Valek’s face showed his extreme annoyance.
Glee lit Janco’s eyes. “That’s a very good question. Ari, please tell our industrious leader how the Sitians escaped.”
Ari shot his partner a nasty look, which didn’t affect Janco’s mood in the least. “They had some help,” Ari said.
Again, Valek said nothing.
Ari began to fidget, and I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. The big man resembled a ten-year-old boy who knew he was about to get into a lot of trouble. “We helped them.”
“We?” Janco asked.
“I did.” Ari sounded miserable. “Happy now?”
“Yes.” Janco rubbed his hands together. “This is going to be good. Go on, Ari. Tell him why—although, I think they magiked him.” He waggled his fingers.
“They didn’t use magic. They used common sense and logic.”
Valek raised an eyebrow.
“There’re strange things going on here,” Ari said. “If we don’t put it right, then it’ll spread like a disease and kill us all.”
“Who told you this?” I asked.
“Moon Man.”
“Where are they now?” Valek asked.
“Camped about a mile north of here,” Ari said.
The drumming of horses reached us before Valek could comment. Through the window, I saw Kiki followed by Topaz, Garnet and Rusalka.
“How did they find us?” Icy daggers hung from Valek’s voice.
Janco seemed surprised. “They didn’t know where we were going. I told them to wait for us.”
“Isn’t it frustrating when no one obeys your orders?” Valek asked.
We went outside. Tauno rode on Kiki and she came straight to me. She bumped my chest with her nose. I opened my mind to her.
Don’t go into fire again, she said.
I didn’t reply. Instead, I scratched behind her ears as Tauno slid off her back. He greeted me with a cold look and returned to the others. Leif, Moon Man and Marrok lingered near their horses while they talked to Ari and Janco.
From Leif’s various frowns and Tauno’s scorn, I knew they remained angry with me. I couldn’t blame them—I had acted badly. Liveliness lit Marrok’s face and I hoped Moon Man had been able to weave his mind back into a coherent whole.
Everyone went inside, but I stayed behind, taking care of the horses as best as I could with half-burnt brushes and scorched hay. Part of the pasture’s fence had caught fire and collapsed. I stared at the gap, knowing the well-bred Sandseed horses didn’t need a fence and Onyx and Topaz would stay with them. However, I attempted to fix the broken section. And kept at it while the sun set and the night air turned frosty. Kept working even when the horses decided it was too cold in the open and left the pasture to find warmth under a copse of trees nearby.
Valek arrived. I pounded on a post with a heavy rock. He halted my swing and removed the rock from my hand.
“Come inside, love. We have plans to discuss.”
Reluctance pulled at my feet as if I walked through thick, sticky mud.
The living-room conversation died the moment I entered. Moon Man looked at me with sadness in his eyes and I wondered if he knew about my deal with the Fire Warper or if he was disappointed by my actions.
A fire had been lit. I sat down next to it, warming my frozen and bleeding fingers, no longer afraid of the flames. The trapped souls within the fire twisted. Their pain and presence were clear and I wondered how I had been able to ignore them before.
I averted my gaze. Everyone stared at me. Ari and Janco had gained their feet and held their bodies as if ready to spring into action.
“Did I pass your test?” I asked. “By not diving into the flames.”
“That’s not it,” Janco said. “You have a rather ugly bat clinging to your arm.”
Sure enough, a hand-size bat peered at me from my upper left arm. His eyes glowed with intelligence; his claws dug into my slee
ve. I offered a perch and he transferred his weight to the edge of my right hand. Carrying him outside, my efforts to release him failed. He didn’t want to leave. Settling on my shoulder, he seemed content so I returned inside.
No one commented on my new friend. In fact, Leif regarded the bat with an intensely thoughtful expression.
The others waited. A moment passed until I realized they waited for me to begin. To make the decisions. To set events into motion. Even after leaving them as prisoners of the Commander, they still looked to me. And this time, instead of backing down and pushing them away, I accepted the responsibility. Accepted the fact that they might be hurt or killed, and understood my life would be given in exchange for keeping the Fire Warper from returning.
“Leif,” I said.
He jumped as if bitten.
“I want you and Moon Man to get into the Council Hall’s library and find everything you can about a tunnel into the Keep.” I explained Bain’s comments. “Moon Man can disguise himself as a Vermin and hopefully you won’t be caught. Do not use magic at all from now on. It will only draw them to you.”
Moon Man and Leif nodded.
“Marrok?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Are you able to fight?”
“Ready, willing and able, sir.”
I paused, swallowing a sudden knot in my throat. By their determined expressions, I knew they were all willing. At least Valek’s smug smile was better than hearing him say, I told you so.
“Good. Marrok and Tauno will accompany Valek and me. We’ll go south to rescue the hostages.”
Ari cleared his throat as if he wanted to protest.
“I haven’t forgotten about you two. I need you to go into the Citadel and help organize the resistance.”
“Resistance?” Valek asked. “I hadn’t heard.”
“I put an idea into a merchant’s head, and, I think if Ari and Janco disguised themselves as traders, they could move about the Citadel. Ari will have to dye his hair. Oh, and find a boy named Fisk. Tell him you’re my friend and he’ll help you make contacts.”
“And when and where, Oh mighty Yelena, do we resist?” Janco asked.
“At the Keep’s gates. As for when, I don’t know, but something will happen and you’ll know.”