“They’re letting us get cleaned up. Your cuts need to be washed or they’ll get infected.”
The guards unlocked his cell, and for the first time since he’d been caught, they didn’t secure his hands. Kerrick followed them to the bathhouse and washed away almost ten days’ worth of grime and blood. All his weapons had been taken from his pack, but there was a rustle of consternation when Kerrick pulled out his razor. His guards grabbed the hilts of their dadaos, but he ignored them and shaved, feeling better with every stroke of the sharp blade along his skin.
His razor was confiscated when he finished, but he was allowed to keep his pack. It felt like a luxury to wear clean clothes. And the set of lock picks hidden within them was a nice bonus. Kerrick wasn’t sure if or when he’d use them; it was just nice to have the option.
Danny smeared the cuts on his wrists with a sweet-smelling goo and covered them with bandages. The boy seemed jumpy. When they returned to the jailhouse, Kerrick asked Danny where the tribes had taken him.
“I’m in a house with other boys,” Danny said, darting a glance at the guards. “I’m to take care of you. Bring you food and stuff like that.”
“Good, then I’ll know you’re well.”
Danny nodded, but he gnawed on his lower lip.
Kerrick knelt next to him and took his hands. “Tell me what’s upsetting you.” Besides the obvious.
Danny dropped his hands and threw himself at Kerrick, wrapping his arms around his neck, hugging him tight. “It’s the other boys in the house,” he whispered in Kerrick’s ear. “They’re not from the tribes. They’re from Krakowa.”
CHAPTER 14
Saul glanced at me. His shocked expression matched mine. “Did you know Prince Ryne was leaving?” he asked.
“No.” I glanced around the abandoned tent, searching for a note or clue as to where Ryne had gone. “Maybe he repositioned his army as part of a military strategy to counter Tohon.”
“Who are you trying to convince? Me or you?”
“Let’s find Thea.”
She pounced on us as soon as we drew close. “You’re back,” she said with a note of accusation in her voice.
I bristled. “Of course we’re back. You and Major Granvil knew our mission.”
“In light of what has happened, your task could have been an elaborate ruse. Everyone believes you snuck away to meet up with the prince.”
“With Saul along?”
She shot him a glance. “He could be an accomplice.”
“Ouch,” Saul said.
“What exactly has happened?” I asked.
Thea swept her hand out, indicating the empty tents. “It’s midsummer’s day. Ryne’s cowards left last night without a word, so they wouldn’t have to face Tohon’s attack.”
“How do you know why they left if they didn’t say a word?” I asked.
“Why else? If it’s a strategic move, Prince Ryne would have notified General Jael of his plans.”
Not if he didn’t trust her. But I wasn’t going to add fuel to Thea’s anger. “Perhaps he did tell her, and she’s keeping it quiet.”
“I might believe that if she hadn’t sent a whirlwind through their camp.”
That explained the mess. And then it hit me. “Did you tell Jael where I was?”
“No. She thinks you’ve left, too. You’re going to have to explain it to her.”
Lovely. “Look, Thea. I don’t know where Ryne went or why. I’m just as surprised as you. However, I do know he did it for a reason. A very good reason, and I trust him.”
Unconvinced, she said, “Uh-huh. Let’s see how you feel about him when Tohon’s soldiers are sending you a steady stream of injured and dying. Prince Ryne abandoned you, too.”
* * *
Thea’s words didn’t sink in until I reached the infirmary. I stopped in my room to drop off my pack and froze. Flea’s scant belongings were gone. Ryne had taken Flea with him. A memory tugged—Loren relaying a message from Ryne about trusting him regarding Flea.
I sat on the edge of my bed, remembering. Ryne had changed the plans after I’d told him about my theory of Tohon burying his dead. What if he’d returned to his tent and read that book on magicians and learned something horrifying? Had he spooked? He’d certainly acted like it, and Loren mentioned he’d been agitated. Then why didn’t he confide in me? Maybe he didn’t have time or maybe because he knew I wouldn’t break my word to Estrid by leaving. And it was safer for me if I didn’t know.
Quain and Loren had promised to protect me from Tohon. Not that they could, but still...I felt forsaken, despite knowing there had to be a good reason why they had left.
My door flew open. It banged against the wall as a blast of air slammed into me, knocking me down. Jael stormed into my room. The air around me thickened like syrup. It picked me off the floor and held me suspended in midair. My legs dangled.
“Where is he?” Jael demanded.
“I don’t know.”
With a whoosh, I hit the wall hard enough to rattle my teeth.
“Tell me.”
“I don’t—” The air pushed me up until I banged my head on the ceiling. Hard. Pain flashed, dimming my vision.
“Where were you?” she asked.
“Collecting medicinal...herbs.” I gasped. Her power still held me aloft. “Ask Sergeant Saul.”
“You’re lying.”
My air support disappeared, and I plummeted. Crashing to the ground, I rolled until I stopped flat on my back. My wrists burned with agony, and my knees and right hip hurt. Before Jael could pick me up again, I asked, “Why else would I return?”
“A guilty conscience,” she said.
“I’m not a glutton for punishment, Jael. He left me behind. I’m sure he has an excellent reason. I just don’t know it!”
“I do. He’s been scheming with Tohon all this time, feeding him information. It explains how you managed to escape Tohon, cure Ryne and live through the plague. I don’t believe that nonsense that Kerrick’s magic saved you. Tohon, yes. Kerrick doesn’t have that ability.” Jael considered. “Now all I need to decide is if you’re in collusion with them or if you’re a patsy. Tohon can be quite...persuasive when he applies his full power.”
She revealed quite a bit in her comments, but I focused on the problem at hand. I caught movement behind her. Noelle hovered near the door. Great. All I needed was Tohon to complete this little get-together.
“I’m—” A gust swept me toward the ceiling. Fast.
“Jael, stop,” Noelle said.
I hovered in midair as Jael rounded on Noelle.
“The harder you push her, the harder she’ll resist,” Noelle said before Jael could respond. “Besides, she’s a coward. If she knew Prince Ryne was leaving, she would have gone with him.”
Jael hesitated.
“And you should know better than anyone that Ryne and Tohon would never team up,” I said. “Tohon hasn’t forgiven him for what happened when you were in school with him.”
“Boarding school for brats” is how Kerrick had described it. Where Ryne had been crowned king in their final year, Jael broke Kerrick’s heart and Tohon turned into a monster.
Jael set me down hard. Pain shot through my arms as I sat up. My wrists were either broken or sprained. Jael stepped back.
I continued to poke holes in her argument. “You’re also well aware that Kerrick and I can share our magical energies. Or have you forgotten that day you attacked us and we stopped you?” I glanced at Noelle. “I haven’t.” Nor would I forget Noelle had asked Jael to stop hurting me. Progress!
Jael pressed her lips together—a warning sign that I ignored.
“Plus, if Tohon had...claimed me with his life magic, I’d be...well, I wouldn’t be here, that’s for sure.” I shuddered. I’d been a complete mess. His touch had been like an elixir, and each time I’d grown more addicted.
Jael’s gaze turned contemplative. I hoped she remembered those six years. Even though she and Kerrick had bee
n friends with Tohon, she had to have seen the rot below the surface of his mind. As I thought about the stories Belen and Kerrick had told me, I recalled a comment.
“Did Tohon use his magic on you when he attempted to steal you from Kerrick?” I asked her.
She smiled. “The bastard tried and failed. Like you, he needs skin contact to work his magic. I wouldn’t let him near me.” Her grin turned sinister. “As you’ve just learned, air is a powerful force.”
“Handy.”
“Indeed. Estrid believes we need Ryne and his army to stop Tohon. I’m here because of her panic.” Jael shoved a long golden strand of hair behind her ear, expressing her exasperation. “My mother-in-law doesn’t put any faith in my abilities during a battle.”
Odd. I hadn’t considered her magic either. My pain forgotten, I scrambled to my feet. “Can you knock a company down?”
“I can send a whirlwind to distract and keep them off balance.”
“Just one?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Too bad. “How many soldiers can you neutralize by suffocation?” I asked.
“About a dozen.”
Not enough. And it wouldn’t even work on the dead troops. I wilted.
“Why the sudden interest?” she asked.
“I’m looking for some hope.”
“And?”
“We need Ryne.”
* * *
I lay on the floor long after Jael left. She hadn’t appreciated my comment and had knocked me flat before leaving my room. At least she no longer considered me a threat. Of course, it would be temporary.
My wrists ached, my head throbbed and my knees stung. When the pain lessened, I climbed to my feet. I wasn’t going to spend the rest of midsummer’s day lying on the ground.
A ripple of surprise rolled through the caregivers when I entered. I wondered if they’d heard Jael’s attack or were just shocked to see that I’d returned. Christina helped me splint my wrists, and I did what I could to fill the herb pouches for the troops. A few soldiers visited the infirmary for cuts and abrasions. I questioned all who entered, seeking news. Nothing about Tohon’s troops engaging ours or Belen’s whereabouts. Or Ryne’s, for that matter. Jael had ordered double patrols for tonight, and her first-wave soldiers guarded Pomyt’s border. She must have trusted Ryne’s prediction that Tohon would strike today more than she let on.
The sun set and still no word about an approaching army. I doubted anyone would be able to sleep tonight. I couldn’t. As I tossed and turned, images flashed in my mind—Tohon and his dead, Kerrick and Belen, Ursan and the jumping jacks.
* * *
During the night, Tohon’s troops attacked. It wasn’t what I’d imagined the start of a war would be like. I’d expected battle cries, the ring of metal against metal and the crash of two forces colliding. I’d expected to be roused from my restless sleep. Instead the assault happened with utter and complete silence.
In fact, nothing appeared to be any different in the morning. As my first shift of caregivers arrived, they reported all was well. But as the day progressed, reports filtered in. The patrols that were due back failed to return. And when the second-wave soldiers arrived at Pomyt’s border to relieve the others, the first wave had disappeared.
Tension permeated the camp. Everyone was on high alert. Rumors reached us that Jael had sent a company of soldiers to the north and one to the south to flank the enemy, she’d doubled the troops at the border and she’d remained with them.
In the middle of another sleepless night, loud voices and yells of pain drove me to my feet. I raced to the infirmary and roused my staff just as the first injured arrived, followed by a steady stream. My world shrank to cleaning and bandaging stab wounds, splinting limbs, treating concussions and dispensing medicines. So far, no one had sustained an injury that needed my healing magic. A good thing, considering my wrists hadn’t fully healed and I needed to save my strength for someone on the edge of dying.
Those who could talk kept repeating the same thing about the enemy. Silent, deadly and without life or mercy. They shuddered in revulsion.
“We are the lucky ones,” a sergeant said to me as I stitched a deep slice on his arm.
“How so?” I asked.
“We escaped. The others...” He fisted his hands. “The others...” The sergeant closed his eyes. “The others were dragged down into the earth.”
Although I wanted to dash out and find Noelle so we both could hide under the bed, I kept calm, finishing his stitches. As I checked on other patients and gave instructions to the caregivers, I overheard more horrible descriptions.
“...the ground opened up, and they poured out like fire ants.”
“Two grabbed Helen and snapped her neck...”
“...didn’t give chase, but most of my team couldn’t run...”
“Our squad climbed through the trees, thinking to get behind them, and they swarmed after us.”
Within a few hours, the stream of casualties stopped. Jael had called a temporary retreat.
I wasn’t surprised when Jael arrived later that afternoon. Haggard and bloody, she clutched a map in one hand and a dagger in the other.
Without a word, I led her back to my examination room. Then I turned to her. “Where’s my sister?”
“She’s running messages for me. Don’t worry. She stays well away from the zone.”
“Zone?”
Jael sheathed her weapon and unrolled the map. A bright red arc slashed a long curve around the western side of Zabin. She tapped it with a dirty finger. “This is where they’re hiding. Approach this area, and they...swarm, but back off and they stay in this combat zone.” She took a breath. “How do we stop them?”
I resisted the urge to be petty. “Are they wearing metal collars?”
“Yes.”
“Then you have to use the skull jab.” I explained the maneuver. “We were training your troops before...” Ryne left, but I was smart enough not to say his name.
“Who knows this technique?”
“Major Granvil’s Axe Company.” None of his soldiers had come into the infirmary, and I didn’t know if I should be worried or glad by their absence.
Jael cursed. “Figures.”
I waited.
“I put them on suspension due to too many unanswered questions about their involvement with you and Ryne.”
“They’re loyal. Ryne taught them the skull jab. I taught them to move silently in the forest. Their involvement with us prepared them for this.”
“Then they’re unsuspended as of now.” Jael gathered the map and strode away.
It wasn’t until after she left that I realized I’d just condemned my friends by defending them.
* * *
The next three days passed in a blur. Casualties arrived in waves as Jael tried different tactics. I healed only a couple soldiers who had more severe wounds. Most of my patients suffered treatable injuries. It seemed the soldiers who could walk away from the combat zone had a better chance of escape.
Noelle came to the infirmary every night to write down the names of the injured. Her face appeared more drawn each time. She looked very young and frightened. I wanted to comfort her, but I was afraid she’d spurn my efforts—although she did drink a tonic I mixed for her to help restore her energy. She thanked me with a tentative smile.
The soldiers in my care remarked that Tohon’s dead stayed within the combat zone. They didn’t advance nor retreat. Jael stopped sending patrols, since none of them returned. Also no one encountered a living enemy, which made sense for Tohon and had the added benefit of unnerving our army.
When Odd arrived carrying a limp Wynn in his arms, I rushed over. Blood covered half her face, the other half was pale. Fear lumped in my throat as I gestured him to the examination room. He laid her down on the table with a gentleness I didn’t know he possessed.
“What happened?” I pulled her eyelids up to check her pupils.
“Her opponent tried to decapitate h
er,” Odd said stiffly.
While there was plenty of blood, it wasn’t spurting or gushing. I grabbed a wet cloth and cleaned the skin. A deep cut ran from the tip of her chin, along the jawbone and sliced through her left ear. The gaping skin exposed teeth and bone. I examined the laceration, running a finger along the inside of the injury.
“Well?” Odd asked.
“She’ll live.”
He blew out a breath.
“It’ll heal, but...” I pushed the skin together.
“But what?”
“Infection could be a problem, but...this is going to heal ugly.”
“So?” Odd asked.
“It could affect her hearing and her mouth. Like her smile and maybe interfere with chewing.” Magic swelled in my core. “Or I could heal her, and she won’t even have a scar.”
“But you will,” Odd said.
I shrugged. “I won’t develop the other problems.”
“And she might not either. Besides you’ll be useless for a while.” Odd scanned the full infirmary. “You’re in high demand.”
Wynn opened her eyes. “Stitch me up and send me back out, Baby Face,” she slurred. “Gimme something for the pain first.” She squeezed her eyes shut.
I hesitated.
“What would you do if she wasn’t your friend?” Odd asked.
No need to answer. He’d made his point. Giving Wynn a dose of pain medicine that also put her to sleep, I assembled the supplies. Odd hovered as I stitched her skin back together. I made the stitches small and close together, hoping the scar wouldn’t look as bad.
As I worked, I asked Odd about the battle. “Is the skull jab effective?”
“When we can get in tight, it works just fine. But those...things are hard to disarm.” Odd sank down into a chair next to me. “I never realized how much pain factors into a fight.”
“What do you mean?”
“Usually when you slice a person, he backs off or at least hesitates. And he’s more cautious when you have drawn his blood. But these things just keep coming. Their intestines can be falling out, but it doesn’t matter.”
Unfortunately, I remembered when Kerrick, Belen and the monkeys had fought them.