47. Caspyn
Chapter 47
Staying low to the ground and far enough away that hopefully they wouldn’t see me, I trailed the snakes as they continued to beat the man they held between them. Every few steps another of them would kick or punch him, the one in the lead turning every so often to shove the butt of his sword into the shadowed man’s gut.
It was only then that he made a sound, the low grunt of impact echoing over empty tents before the snakes would laugh and move faster, leading him around to the back of the temple, past the domed door everyone had entered before.
“Why don’t we mark him and be done with it?” One of the voices traveled back to me, far louder than I expected. I darted toward the shadows of one of the wagons we traveled by, realizing I might be close enough to be seen.
“He’s too strong. I doubt his bastard of a mother would do it anyway.” I waited for the voices to drift away before I darted out from behind the wagon, careful to keep my feet silent as I followed. Thankfully they were loud enough I had no trouble following; the grunts, laughter, and spare words about death and betrayal echoed over the packed dirt and carriages like a well laid map.
I did not know this man besides his devotion to Princess Elara, beside the rumble of his magic. Saving him would reveal that I was still in this camp after my escape before. It would take away what little surprise I had left in my attack against the queen. So, I kept my magic restrained as they stepped nearer the spindly red trunks of the Forest of Ok. The sky had deepened from red to a purple smudge of a bruise, leaving the towering red trees to look more like the skeletons of lost life as we moved closer.
Haunting and death whispered from the trees, mixing with the pungent musk so similar to that of Fae blood it made my skin crawl. They scent of this graveyard of Fae. I had always chalked those stories up to nonsense. But even when I had traveled to the Isle of Dám to trade with the assassins there I had traveled the hard road through the snowcapped passages of the Luftyn mountains, staying far away from the red trees and the death that runs through them.
With each step, those stories buzzed to life, helped along by the way the branches twisted into the plum sky, by the hum of something that wasn’t quite right whispering alongside. I had felt the warm buzz of magic enough in my life, felt the burn of life as I had taken power from bush and branch. I could feel the same there. But there was something else… something that left a coppery tang on my tongue.
The taste burned in my mouth as we plunged into the forest, those arm-like branches reaching with red spindly fingers as I followed them through the thick patch of trees to a clearing, the deep brown dirt packed under the wheels of five large red pack wagons that sucked the air from my lungs.
Pressing myself against a copse of trees I kept my distance from the feeling, from whatever was inside of those wagons. Even from the far side of the clearing I could still sense the people who had been locked inside the windowless wagons, but not just the people, a feeling I knew all too well from my time in the Runturin.
Catalysts.
The wagons were full of Catalysts.
The riotous guards laughed as they reached the filth covered cart, the snarl in their voices growing as a few of the snakes broke off from the group to hit their swords against the high paneled walls, sobs and pleas echoing from inside.
“Let us out!”
“Please, help us!”
“I need to see Aeinya! It is my duty to be there! I have the ribbon! Let me see my Requisite!” The sob broke through all the others as one of the snakes laughed and jumped around the closest wagon, hitting his sword over the wooden sides like some terrorizing drum. The hollow thud was more like a call to war, to death.
“Not yet, you ain’t getting out of there any time soon! Stop your blithering!” He hit his sword against the side again before moving to the back of the wagon, two others joining him, swords drawn as he moved to unlatch whatever lock was there.
“Get back you filthy thieves! Get back or we’ll gut you through no matter what the queen says!” The wagon shifted and swayed, people inside moving as the back of the wagon was thrown open. The aroma of vomit and piss drifted by me in a woosh of air as the doors were thrown open, a few of the guards recoiling as I did, my hand on my mouth.
“You disgusting little rats! Couldn’t keep yourself clean for even a day could you?” The main guy laughed as he stepped aside, letting the others bring the shade forward.
“Please! I need to see her! She needs me!”
“We need food! Water! Please!”
The voices drifted from the foul interior of the pack wagon, pale hands reaching through the dark before the snake thrust the dull end of a sword toward the desperate grasps, the sounds of grunts and groans mixing with the creak of the cart as whoever was reaching was thrown back.
So many of them, locked away, ready for the slaughter.
Ready for the start of the Red Wave. But when? Tonight? Tomorrow? That King had clearly wanted me to see this, wanted me to do something. If I freed them now, if I sent them running would it be enough to stop what was coming?
My hand ached from gripping my sword so tightly, the pain turning into a hot buzz as I watched the snakes, knowing what I had to do. Once they left I would free them all, then I would run to the queen and continue as I had planned.
To do any of that, I needed time.
I stepped to the side, making sure I was well hidden by the vermillion trunk of one of the larger trees, my bare hand already wrapping around the spindly trunk of the small one beside it.
My magic flared as I watched the snakes, ice slithering over my skin as my eyes shifted, that power swelling and my magic devoured the life within the poor tree.
Except that this life, this power… it was all wrong.
When I took time from plants it was always sweet like honey, the tang strong and warm. But this was not that.
The coppery taste that had flooded my mouth as I stepped into the Forest of Ok was everywhere now. It flooded my senses, popping through every nerve and over every inch of my skin in a sensation I had never felt before. It wasn’t only life from a single plant, it was life from every plant, from every life in Okivo. Somehow, impossibly, it was all rushing into me. This vast world of power was like something the world had forgotten. Life that was mingled with magic.
My core tightened, the sensation overwhelming as it blended with that taste of sugared juniper berries and melons that grew on the low banks. It was everywhere. I couldn’t escape it, but I didn’t want to.
I wanted it everywhere.
I swallowed my moan, whatever was flooding into me bringing pleasure in ways that shouldn’t be allowed. It was only when the first flakes of ash floated past my eyes that the sensation left, although it was not as I expected.
Even with all that life and power that still rumbled through me, my stores of time were frightfully low. It was almost as though I hadn’t received time from the tree. What was now thrumming through me felt like a memory. A memory of time. The memory of life.
“Now, Boy. In you get.” The harsh voice pulled me back to the forest, the last flakes of ash floating by me as the taste of the tree faded and left me staring at the figures now shoving the shade into the wagon.
“We warned you that you’d get what’s coming for you. And here you are, your final ride. Too bad you'll miss what we do to that little girl without you there to protect her.”
“No! Please! Stop!” The words erupted from the formerly silent shape, his panic exploding from him as he finally fought back. He was clearly skilled, his moves crisp and strong as he tried to fight them. His panic, however, made him sloppy, he was no match for the weapons that were being hurled his way, for the magic that was crackling between them.
I should have stepped in right then, I should have intervened. I would free them all soon regardless, but I needed to time this perfectly, especially now that the tree didn’t give me enough for more than a single jump.
My fingers dug into the surprisingly soft bark of another tree as I watched him fight, those snakes closing in as they forced him closer to the wagon that was now rocking as shrieks echoed from within.
It only took one strong butt of a sword pommel to the back of the head to send the shade into the arms of the snakes. They laughed as they threw him into the dark depths, the rickety conveyance groaning loudly from the impact of flesh and fabric against soiled wood.
“You’ll get water when we find some for you. Seems we are fresh out!” The snakes laughed as they closed the doors, the lock snapping before they walked away and left the Catalysts trapped inside. Their sobs and moans echoed through the spindly trees like the haunted moans that I would have expected from this place.
Except it was not the wraiths of fallen Fae. It was The Catalysts.
It was time.
Free the Catalysts, and then to the queen. Perhaps, after feeling the intensity of the Princess’s magic, I would not have to face the wicked woman alone.
We would know soon enough.
Keeping to the outskirts of the clearing, I darted between spindly trees as I approached the wagons, taking care to assure the snakes had left. The sobs that had echoed from each of the wagons were beginning to ebb, the sounds turning into the haunting moans of pain and loss.
There were no guards, no snakes watching the red wagons. It was just the haunting echo of the Catalysts magic as I darted around another tree, just as much of a shadow myself as I raced through the last of the sun to reach the pack wagon they had thrown the shade into. This close, I could make out the hissed whispers from the other side, the low tones blending with someone's sobs.
“You’re the Princess's Guard, what are you doing here?” someone, a young man, asked in a low hiss.
“I have to get out of here,” the shade hissed, the strong voice I had heard before now laced in panic.
“There is no getting out,” another voice, a woman, answered. “They put us in here back at the Runturin, said it's for a surprise, for after the wedding.”
My core tightened, every muscle flaring as my fíra magic pulled itself right to the surface.
After the wedding.
Did all of this start at the Temple?
The stories had all said that the princess faced her mother at the crimson stained altar, and the histories said the prince was married at that time, but I had never heard any more than that. So yes, it could.
The cart rocked violently as someone, I assumed the shade, grunted from within. The man was clearly throwing himself against the back, trying to break his way through the door. That I could help with.
Sheathing my swords, I ran to the back of the wagon, to the doors didn’t budge no matter how much the man inside grunted and ran himself against them. That, however, was possibly due to the fact that there weren't any doors there.
I had seen the doors swing open, I had seen them shift a lock, but looking at it now, nothing was there. Not a hinge, not a bolt, just an expanse of red painted wood.
“What in the world is this,” I snarled, letting the heat of my magic flare. It would be too dangerous to simply set it ablaze, but I doubt it would do anything anyway, my blazing fist against the wood didn’t leave even a singe mark. It didn’t burn or smoke like wood, almost as if it was not wood.
Magic. But what kind?
I had never seen magic such as this.
“Who is there?” the shade’s voice hissed alongside the sounds of shifting and gasping inside the wagon.
“It’s not a snake,” one of the women whispered, the wagon shifting again as I was sure she moved to the back of the wagon. “I know their voices. Who are you?”
I opened my mouth, suddenly tongue tied at what to tell them. Usually I would say Jack, but that part of my life was gone. The Wanderer. The Fae killer. It was all in the past.
I, however, was not. I was in this time, and I wanted Dalyah to know exactly who was coming for her.
“Caspyn, Light Bringer,” I said for the first time. I expected the buzz of fury to rush through me the same as it had every time I heard the title from Ryndle, and from Vaelar before. It hit differently. It burned through me like light.
As though it was true.
“Well, Caspyn Light Bringer, mind getting us out of here,” the deep voice of the shade filtered through the wood and I stepped closer.
“I would, but there is no door.”
“What?” The question rattled through the wood as I stood there, the protests loud enough that I was sure someone would come running. Instinctively, my hand swung to my back, to the blade there.
“There is no door.” I repeated in a low hiss, continuing before they could ask me more ridiculous questions. Ridiculous questions, for ridiculous situations. I didn’t understand what I was looking at, but the perfect plan I had so recently formulated needed to change.
“Where is the Shade they brought to the wagon?”
“I’m here,” the same voice as before growled. The wagon rocked as he once again shoved shoulder into the wood.
Had he not heard that there is no door, or did he simply assume he could break his way through a solid slat of wood? The fool.
“Let me out, Light Bringer!” he roared, the wagon rocking as he slammed into it again.
“Calm down, you fool,” I hissed, shifting myself closer to the shadows, angling toward where the snakes had vanished. I would like to be warned of attackers lest they come back, which they could with how this idiot was screaming.
“Then let me out! I have to save her!”
“I cannot,” I slid my blade from its sheath, sure I had heard something approaching. “But perhaps I can save her for you. The Princess Elara?”
The second I said her name he settled, the violent rocking of the wagon slowing to nothing.
“What are they planning for her?” I asked.
“I have no idea, but they have tried to kill her many times before.” His voice was pained and I cringed, thinking of all the blood that covered her. “I have to reach her or this time they may be successful.”
The way he spoke made that seem like a real possibility.
“I will find her.” I promised, not even a hint of regret ebbing in my voice. “But first, tell me, I need to know, is she strong? Strong enough to kill the queen.”
I was well aware the others could hear me, but I didn’t care. I had come all this way, I had spent all my life for this. If I was going to risk my life for this I needed to be sure.
“She is. If she can break the bind, she is.” I had no idea what that meant, but it was all I needed to hear. She was strong enough. Together, we would be victorious.
I could change everything. The queen would see her end before she enacted her plan, before all of the Catalysts met their end.
I could save Lily.
I could save them all.
“Then I will save her.” Save her from whatever they have planned for her, and then together we will face the queen. It was up to fate what would happen after that.
It was a special kind of villainy to promise to save her, knowing I might as well be taking her to her death. But there was no other path.
Now, we could only hope I had done enough.
“She will be in the forest nearest to the wedding bed.” His voice came from behind me as I turned, sheathing my sword in preparation to run. “You must take her far away from here. If you are going to save her… take her away… as far as you can.”
“I will do what I can.” It was all I could say, after all, I had no intention of taking her anywhere but right to the queen’s side. Besides, if what that woman had said before was true, everything was going to begin after the wedding.
I was down to minutes.
But first, I had to find Elara. Thankfully, I had enough time to do that, and if not, I could find more.
I ran, the shade’s last words nearly lost in my retreating footsteps as I pulled that icy power back to me. I was sure I heard him anyway, it was the same as last night when I had heard him make promises that no one could keep.
Promises that I was sure she would not hear.
“Tell her I love her. I always have.”