Chapter 24 #2
They do. The scourge sorcerers are trying to be subtle about it, but you wouldn’t normally see three figures with swords in hand just hanging around outside a stable.
The men and woman stroll a little this way and that, pretending to have a casual conversation, but their gazes dart furtively over the street at regular intervals.
My jaw clenches. The conspirators have ousted us from our latest sort-of home, and they’ve stolen our horses too.
I guess you could say we stole the horses from the royal college in the first place, but Toast at least was mine as far as he and I were concerned. No one else wanted him back at the college anyway.
Here’s hoping he’s kicked several ribcages in for their trouble.
We draw back out of view of the stable, clutching our cloaks tight around us and scanning our surroundings.
Even though the daylight is fading, barely any of the nearby shops and eateries have lit lanterns to welcome customers.
The front window of the restaurant we’re standing outside is dark and unwelcoming.
Only a few pedestrians other than us are walking the streets, and those with a hurried stride.
Stavros’s vision may be faulty, but he reads the atmosphere quickly enough. “The locals are holing up after the riot, bracing for what the Order might do in retaliation. They know the conflict isn’t over yet.”
The conflict we kicked off. For their benefit, but it still seems horrible to run off now.
What choice do we have, though?
“What should we do?” Rheave asks, his normally luminescent eyes shadowed with worry.
Alek adjusts his stance, and I realize he’s still clasping the book he was reading under his arm. He never let go of it when we made our hasty dash out of the apartment.
“We should be able to find some other place to ‘hole up’ ourselves,” he suggests. “At least for long enough to get a sense of—”
Casimir makes a gesture to silence him, his gaze fixed across the street. “Someone’s coming to us. I think—that’s one of Emor and Voleska’s people, isn’t it?”
I jerk around, but I do recognize the face of the woman approaching.
When she sees we’ve noticed her, she lopes the rest of the way across the street, her expression fraught. “We were told to keep watch for you. Voleska caught word that the Order of the Wild was hunting down people with your descriptions. If you come with me, we’ll see what we can do to help.”
As the men and I exchange glances, Alek tugs his cloak’s hood farther forward with a twist of his mouth. He must have left his mask behind at the apartment. No one but us has seen his uncovered face and its scars before.
But the woman doesn’t show any sign of horror. Her gaze latches on to his face for a beat longer than the rest of us and then flicks back to me.
I haven’t seen any reason to doubt our newer allies’ loyalty. If this woman wanted to get us caught, she could have avoided our notice completely after seeing us and simply roused the nearest Order members.
Rheave fixes his intense gaze on her. “No one there is planning to hurt Ivy?”
The woman blinks as if startled by the question. “Of course not. You’ve all helped us pull off more than we expected to so quickly.”
Stavros sets his hand on my shoulder protectively but makes the decision for all of us. “We’ll come.”
The woman leads us on another winding path through the city. She’s clearly more familiar with the back ways than I am, understandably.
We end up behind the Bright Bloom Café where we met with Emor and Voleska before. The woman hustles us inside to where the two leaders of the local resistance are consulting with a couple of their comrades in urgent tones.
Voleska’s face brightens at the sight of us, a sharp contrast to the hostile reception we got from the other woman we thought was our friend. She and Emor move to join us.
She glances at Alek first, with an expression that’s more sympathy than anything else. Her people didn’t have the chance to meet the scholar before, but I mentioned he’d likely be masked if they did. I guess now she can see why.
She bobs her head in greeting. “You must be Alek. I’m glad Bessa was able to find all of you together.”
Emor studies us. “You all look well enough. Did Bessa reach you before the Order of the Wild people did? I assume she told you they’re out to ‘arrest’ you.”
I grimace. “We ran into a few of them, but we managed to get away.” It seems wisest not to mention exactly how.
“They’ve taken our horses too, though,” Casimir puts in.
Emor sighs. “I’m not sure you’d have gotten away safely even on horseback. Whatever the Order found out about you, they’re not happy. We’ve gotten more reports since Voleska first sent people out to warn you. I’m sorry if we dragged you into a bigger mess than you were prepared for.”
Stavros tips his head. “We knew the risks.”
“What exactly are you hearing?” Alek asks, his head still low beneath his hood.
Voleska pipes up in a strained tone. “From what we’ve gathered, a fairly large bunch of the people with the Order are heading out of the city as if they’ve got something important to do elsewhere.
But just about everyone they’re leaving in Pima is under orders to focus on tracking the group of you down.
They’ve already sent patrols around the surrounding countryside to keep watch there too. ”
My heart sinks. Are they pursuing us this avidly because Borys is giving the orders, and he particularly wants to crush anyone associated with his sister?
Julita seems to think so. She recovers from her stunned silence to simply say, That treacherous prick.
I hug myself. “We thought maybe if we laid low here for a little while, it might blow over…”
Voleska is shaking her head before I’m even finished speaking. “They’re busting into people’s homes and businesses, searching everywhere. I don’t want to promise we could hide you when I’m not sure you’d be safe.”
Emor steps in again. “I don’t know if you’d be in a position to accomplish much more anywhere in Eppun at this point.
They’ve sent messengers out—the Order members in other cities and towns may be on the lookout too.
Frankly, you’d face an awful struggle just making your way out of the province back to the rest of Silana. ”
Stavros raises his eyebrows. “Well, we have to either stay or leave. It can’t be neither.”
“We had another thought.” Voleska nods toward one of the men she was speaking with when we arrived. “There’s a trade caravan heading out tonight for Bryfeen. It’s only a few hours journey across open countryside, with plenty of ways you could be concealed, and then you’d be out of their reach.”
I stare at her. “You want us to leave Silana completely?”
She holds up her hands in a gesture of surrender.
“I don’t want you to. I’d rather you could stay and keep chipping away at these assholes.
But it might be the only way we can ensure you don’t end up dead within the next few days, and we owe you that much.
Within a week or two, we might have been able to sway more people across the province against them, or the king’s forces might have taken back control. ”
Emor offers us an apologetic smile. “If you stay near the border, you can monitor the situation and come back when the pricks have been driven out.”
The bottom of my stomach drops out. Is this really the best option we have? We meant to stop the scourge sorcerers, and instead we end up fleeing the country?
But am I really going to insist on staying and seeing the men who’ve committed themselves to this cause—to me—slaughtered because of my stubbornness?
Voleska clears her throat. “There is one condition.” She gestures toward Rheave. “The offer doesn’t include the daimon. We’re concerned that the Order may find a way to trace his movements, and the caravan runner is nervous about his powers.”
My body balks automatically. “We can’t leave him behind.”
But before I can protest further, Rheave hangs his head and then turns to me.
Anguish contorts his beautiful face. “It’s all right, Little Vine.
I understand why people are nervous. I want to be with you making sure you’re safe…
but if the best way for you to be safe is for me to stay back, I’ll stay and do my best from here. ”
The despondence in his voice wrenches at me. He thought it was his fault that Hanie betrayed us, and this situation is only going to drive that idea home.
If Voleska and the others knew what my real powers were, they’d be far more frightened of me than they are of him. It doesn’t make any sense to punish him.
He’s still got blood on his clothes from protecting me, and I’m supposed to leave him to be recaptured by the horrifying masters he escaped?
What are my other options, though?
I don’t know what would be best anymore, Julita murmurs, echoing my uncertainty.
As I rub my temple, Stavros touches my back as if to steady me.
“I don’t want to leave anyone behind,” he says quietly.
“But times like this call for awful decisions. I’m not going to argue for one outcome over another.
You have the most at stake. It’s possible I’ll be more useful to the royal family by learning what I can along the border—certainly I’ll accomplish more that way than if the Order of the Wild does manage to get the upper hand on us. ”
If even he’s willing to give up… I glance at Casimir and then Alek and find the courtesan and the scholar watching me, their faces set in similar expressions of supportive but pained resignation.
They’ll go where I go, even if they don’t like the idea any more than I do. Just like they have since King Konram first called for my execution.
The right thing to do would be to protect them, wouldn’t it? To put their safety first, to slip away where the scourge sorcerers won’t reach us.
And probably kiss our chances of getting a pardon goodbye, since we won’t be instrumental in undermining the scourge sorcerers if we’re not here. Will we really be able to return if we leave when the king is still calling us traitors?
That’s what Stavros meant when he said I have the most at stake. Maybe they could reach an understanding with King Konram once all this is over, but there’s not much short of stopping a civil war that would prove the riven sorcerer has the country’s best interests at heart.
My magic squirms in my chest, wanting to defend me but not sure how.
I look down at myself, at the spot where Kosmel once branded me with a magical glow, at my hands that have directed more power in the past few weeks than I ever thought I’d allow myself to.
Though Emor and Voleska don’t know what I’m really capable of, I do. An ordinary group of resisters might not be able to evade the Order of the Wild and continue weakening their attempted coup, but we aren’t ordinary.
I’m not ordinary.
If I bring all my power to bear—carefully, thoughtfully—I can ensure the scourge sorcerers never touch so much as a hair on our heads. We can stand together—all of us, including the daimon who’s fought just as hard—and finish the mission we came here for.
A twinge of anxiety shivers through my nerves, but not potent enough to shake the sense of resolve that’s welled up inside me.
“No,” I say. “We’re going to keep fighting. I’m not letting the scourge sorcerers get the better of us. We’ve still got a few tricks up our sleeves.”