Chapter 37
“Here,” Jalall said as he set some food down.
Manu pushed the bowl away and walked from the kitchen, his thoughts rotating between Inej, Chanda, Tahmine, and the Masters. The last thing he wanted was a meal.
“You need to eat to keep up your strength,” Jalall said as he followed. “We’ve been out all day.”
Manu shook his head and continued down the hallway. His patience was unraveling quickly. Every passing second spent waiting for Rhi and Con chipped away at his calm. He clenched his fist, his breath tight in his chest. An overwhelming sense of urgency slammed into him, demanding he get to Inej.
He had his hand on the knob and the door open.
As he began to step out, Jalall shouting his name made him pause.
Manu looked back to find Rhi and Con standing in the front room.
Still, he hesitated. Manu looked toward his house.
No one could get to Inej there. It was only apprehension that made him think she was in danger.
Inej would remain safe—and sleeping—for another few moments.
Manu set down his foot and slowly closed the door.
His hand wouldn’t loosen on the knob, however.
He pried each finger away, and when he turned to face the Dragon King and Fae, the insistence to get to Inej doubled.
He parted his lips to tell them he would be right back when Rhi’s words silenced him.
“Sorry it took so long,” she said. “But we wanted to be sure.”
Manu frowned as he looked between the couple. “Of what?” Then he raised a hand to stop them as his chest tightened. “This will have to wait. I need to get to Inej.”
“What is it?” Jalall asked.
Manu shook his head. “I don’t know. I can’t explain it.”
“Rhi,” Con said.
She was striding toward Manu and Jalall. “Already ahead of you, my love.”
Even though Manu expected to be jumped, he was still dazed to suddenly find himself in his chambers.
He spun to the bed to find it empty. Inej’s bloodstained clothes were piled near the tub, and one of his tunics had been carefully laid out at the foot of the bed.
He brought it to his face and inhaled, his eyes closing as Inej’s scent mixed with his soap drifted through his senses.
Manu tightened his fingers on the shirt as he opened his eyes. “She woke up alone. I wasn’t here. I should’ve been here. Someone should’ve been with her.”
“How did she get out?” Con asked.
Manu forced himself to release the tunic and drop it onto the bed as he scanned the room. “There’s no way she could’ve left. Nor could anyone have gotten in.”
“That’s not entirely true,” Jalall stated.
Anger blazed unchecked as Manu swung his head to his friend. “What do you mean?”
“I can pick your magic. Same as you can pick mine.” Jalall swallowed and glanced at the floor.
Manu’s legs went weak as he realized that Jalall was right. He scanned the room, looking for something, anything, that would give him proof.
“Would someone please explain?” Rhi asked.
Jalall ran a hand down his face, weariness creeping into his voice. “Manu, Chanda, and I used to pick doors locked with magic. No one was better at it than Chanda.”
“Which means she had access to this room, and thereby, Inej,” Rhi said.
Manu couldn’t imagine Chanda doing such a thing, but the facts were indisputable. “Why would she do this?”
“You can ask her once we find her,” Con said. “Where would she go?”
“She knows the city as well as either of us does,” Jalall answered. He suddenly swung panic-filled eyes to Manu. “Does she know about the tunnel?”
Manu shook his head and looked at the others. “I never told her, but it’s the only way she could get out of Navara without being seen.”
“Then let’s assume she knows. Where would she take Inej?” Rhi asked.
Manu wrenched open the door. “I aim to find out.”
“Wait,” Con called, halting him.
Manu glanced back at Con to see the Dragon King watching him with an intense look. He stared down the hall, the need to hurry after Inej warring with the desire to learn what Con and Rhi had found.
“If Chanda wanted to kill Inej, she would’ve done it here,” Jalall pointed out.
That didn’t help Manu any. The fact that Chanda had taken Inej was enough to make him want to flatten every peak in the range. He shut the door and turned to the others. They had two minutes.
“You were right,” Con told him. “The avalanche was intentional. There are black marks in the ice that suggest magic was used.”
Rhi nodded, her silver eyes meeting Manu’s. “We didn’t uncover much there to track. But we did find where Jalall and his team were attacked. The group responsible for that was large enough that they left deep grooves in the snow that had yet to fill up.”
“Which made it easy to trail them back to a meeting point,” Con added.
Had Chanda gone to them? Had his friend taken Inej there? Manu had to know. “Where are they and how many?”
“There are fourteen in total. They seemed very confident they wouldn’t be found,” Rhi answered.
Con grunted. “That will be their downfall.”
“Where are they?” Manu repeated through clenched teeth.
It was Con who caught his gaze. “Two peaks southwest of the avalanche site.”
Jalall asked, “What do we do? Go after the group, or Chanda and Inej?”
There was only one place Manu needed to be. Others wouldn’t understand, but he didn’t care. He turned to Jalall. “Take thirty soldiers and go after the group. I want to double the sentries while the rest of the army waits here.”
Jalall’s frown deepened. “You can’t go after Inej alone.”
“He won’t be,” Con replied.
Manu looked from Jalall to Rhi and finally to Con. “All right. We’ll carry out dual strikes. I want to make sure Chanda believes I’m alone.”
“No one will see us,” Rhi vowed as she tied her hair back from her face.
“We’ll trail you and only take to the skies if needed,” Con told him.
Jalall grinned eagerly. “I like this plan.”
Manu clasped his friend’s forearm. “Be safe, and good luck.”
“Same to you,” Jalall whispered.
Rhi and Con vanished from sight before Jalall opened the door. Manu grabbed his coat and exited his home. He ran, uncaring that his sprint caused others to notice. He just raced straight for the waterfall and the hidden stairs.
His father had made him climb this path blindfolded, weighed down with items, and in a full-out run.
Manu knew exactly where to put his feet, when to grab a rock to hoist himself up, and when to duck low-hanging rock shelves.
He sped up the incline, pushing himself harder and faster than he ever had.
Horrors of all kinds of things being done to Inej filled his mind.
He shut them out and focused on what he could do—track.
Manu finally reached the tunnel and turned to the side to squeeze his shoulders through. The fit was uncomfortably tight, but that didn’t slow him. The only thing that would stop him now was death.
He barreled through the passage in a frenzied fury, not slowing until he saw the exit. Every instinct told him to keep running, but he had made too many mistakes. A couple of seconds here could save Inej’s life.
Manu crept to the entrance, magic in his palms, and squinted against the piercing brightness that momentarily blinded him.
He blinked rapidly to let his eyes adjust. The first thing he saw was two sets of footprints.
Given the tracks’ small size, they were women’s.
He looked ahead, hoping to spot Inej and Chanda, but there was nothing but white.
The snow was coming down thicker now. Soon, it would wipe out the trail.
“Where are you heading, Chanda?” he whispered as he stepped into the snow.
Manu sank to his knees before using the path already forged.
Within a few feet, the two sets of tracks became one.
He started running along the packed snow to catch up to them.
It didn’t matter which of them was leading.
It would be slow-going. Yet no matter how fast he ran, Manu caught no sight of them.
He had to know if Inej had left of her own volition.
Because no matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t imagine Chanda—who he thought of as a sister—forcing her to leave.
Chanda had always been the voice of reason in their trio.
Had something changed that he’d missed? Were there signs he had been too blind to notice?
Manu raced up an incline. He could jump, but he needed to be cautious. He had no idea what awaited him once he reached the top. But he wouldn’t be alone either. He didn’t look behind him for Con and Rhi. They were there.
Finally, he crested the mountain. His palms pulsed with magic waiting to be released. A cruel wind battered him and whipped snow from atop boulders. Icy shards pelted him as he hunkered next to a set of rocks and scanned the long, wide mountaintop and down the opposite slope.
There, halfway down, he spotted two figures.
He didn’t recognize either of the coats, but Chanda could’ve traded hers to throw him off.
He scrutinized the trees and the nearby mountains, looking for anything that moved, anything that could be a threat.
There was nothing but the two figures. But there were hundreds of places to lie in wait to ambush someone.
“Is that them?” Rhi’s voice asked from beside him.
He glanced over and saw shoe impressions but nothing else. “I think so. I can cut them off, but I wanted to make sure no others were waiting.”
“We’ll take care of them if there are,” came Con’s deep brogue from behind him.
Manu slipped from behind the boulder and ran to the edge of the mountaintop before launching himself into the air. His strong legs helped him soar down the slope, his eyes locked on his targets. He landed behind the two figures and yanked them both backward to the ground.
But it wasn’t Chanda and Inej looking up at him. Two unfamiliar Mountain Elves stared up at him. Confusion filled him as he stumbled back a step, his chest tightening with panic. This wasn’t right. The tracks had led him there. So, where was Inej? His pulse roared in his ears as dread rose quickly.
“Who are you?” he demanded of the females.
The one on the left smiled as she raised her arm.
He anticipated her magic and blocked it, but he wasn’t quick enough against the other.
Tight fingers of magic wrapped around his left arm and sank into his chest. Pain erupted through him like lightning, skimming along every nerve ending before latching onto his heart.
He dropped to his knees, unable to move as darkness closed in around him. All the while, laughter rang in his ears.