Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Ivy
Alek paces back and forth in the small clearing where we’ve set up our barebones camp, more keyed up than I’m used to. The tense vibe he’s giving off matches the ominous gray of the clouds that’ve congealed overhead in the dwindling twilight.
“You won’t want to spend too much time near the scourge sorcerers,” he says, glancing at me. “We don’t know what other magic they might be using to ward off intruders.”
“They didn’t notice us this morning,” I point out. “But of course we’ll be careful.”
None of us were in a state fit to challenge an entire army after a night’s hiking with no rest. After we’d determined where the Order of the Wild people had camped out, we were able to grab some sleep for ourselves while they finished with their own slumber and waited for the final group from Pima to arrive.
They took up the march again in the mid-afternoon, and we followed at a distance. The sorcerers in their midst must be covering all signs of their passage with magic, because we passed no trampled ground or extinguished fire pits.
Little do they know, that works in my favor. I can pick up the traces of their lingering magic as a trail to follow them.
They stopped again not long after sunset. Now it’s time to see what we can learn from their campfire conversations—and whether our small group can weaken this army before they slip past the king’s forces at the provincial border.
The scholar lets out a terse hum. “What’s the information it’s most important we determine?
We need to find out as soon as possible where they’re planning to attack the royal family.
Whether they’re expecting more people and supplies from elsewhere in the province.
Who’s in charge—here, and if we can find out who the mastermind behind the entire Order of the Wild is, so much the better. ”
“How many of their people are actually people and how many are daimon,” Casimir suggests from where he’s sitting by our mostly buried fire. “So Rheave will need to go.”
The daimon-man lifts his chin. “I’m not afraid. I want to see what they’re doing.”
Stavros looks up from where he’s been constructing snares in the hope of adding fresh meat to tomorrow’s breakfast. “We do know there’s a huge contingent of Order members right here with ill intentions. If we could simply knock them all on their asses in one swoop, most of that won’t even matter.”
I raise an eyebrow at him. “You figure you’re going to charge in there with your sword and win the battle five hundred to one?”
I expect him to glower at me, but the former general’s expression turns solemn instead. “Your magic could tackle five hundred at once if you let it, couldn’t it?”
Julita speaks up tentatively. I mean… I suppose you could.
My stomach has given a sickening lurch.
It’s true, there are stories of riven sorcerers destroying entire villages and tearing through armies with vast swells of their limitless magic. But the thought makes me recoil, even when it’s an army of murderous psychopaths.
Regardless of the target, wouldn’t that kind of carnage be a monstrous act? What would it do to me to hurl so much power from the crack in my soul all at once?
How could I ever imagine an appropriate counterbalance?
What looks like regret flickers across Stavros’s face as he takes in my reaction. He pushes to his feet. “I only meant—if you thought you could handle it safely—you’ve accomplished a lot already. None of us would ask anything of you that you felt might be a mistake.”
My voice comes out rougher than I like. “I know. I suspect that might be a bit too much of a leap from conjuring invisibility and levitating shields.”
Alek has paused, inspiration sparking in his bright eyes behind a shadow of concern.
“Rheave’s magic hasn’t had any negative backlash.
If the scourge sorcerers can mingle their gifts with the accomplices they’ve pushed sacrifices on…
I wonder if you two could work your magic together as well.
Rheave could provide most of the power, and Ivy, you could simply propel it farther. ”
I have the impression of Julita clapping her hands in excitement. Oh, that’s perfect. Alek’s always so clever.
Stavros is nodding slowly, something like hope relaxing his expression. “That’s an excellent idea.”
Casimir grins at the daimon-man encouragingly, and I realize with a rush of warmth that we really are a united group now. All three of my lovers have accepted our new ally whole-heartedly.
Rheave has perked up at the suggestion. “I would give it a try. There do seem to be limits on how far I can send out the energy on its own. Without the arrows to guide it, I could only strike the daimon figures who were close to my spot in the square, and then not even hard enough to kill their bodies and free them.”
I let the idea stew inside me for a few moments. It doesn’t unnerve me as much as the possibility of slaughtering a whole horde of people directly by my own power, but it’s still an unpredictable unknown.
“Let’s see exactly what we’re up against first.” I tip my head toward Rheave. “We should go while they’re still distracted by setting up camp.”
Casimir pats Rheave’s shoulder and aims his gorgeous smile at me next. “The rest of us will get dinner ready to welcome you back from your mission.”
Stavros holds out his fist. “Go forward boldly and wisely.”
Instinctively, I tap my knuckles to his. The other men step forward to follow suit.
“I can quickly start the fire before we leave,” Rheave offers, and Alek moves to grab the kindling we gathered as we walked. Casimir opens a pack to take out some of our stash of food while Stavros begins heaping earth to cover the fire.
Watching them move together in comfortable harmony brings an odd lump into my throat.
Julita’s voice comes out quiet. We’ve made some strange kind of family here, haven’t we? And as strange as it is… I never had anything like this while I was alive back home.
Yes, that’s what this feeling is—this mix of homesickness and happiness. I haven’t felt like I could count on people like this since my riven magic burst out of me and ruined the family I had when I was just seven.
Rheave rejoins me after sparking the kindling with a measured flare of his daimon energy. He peers at my face. “Are you all right?”
I smile past the tightness in my throat. “Yes. More than I expected. Let’s get moving.”
The daimon-man and I slink through the woods carefully. I keep my senses alert for the first tingles of magic.
So far, the scourge sorcerers’ strategy has worked in our favor.
Their sentries remain inside the haze of magic they cast around them to avoid being seen by anyone outside—which means as long as we can’t be seen from their camp, no one will stumble on ours.
I don’t have to expend magic concealing us once we’re at rest.
As the trees thin, I do need to draw on my power. I’ve taken inspiration from the scourge sorcerers’ strategy and combined it with my previous tactics.
Rather than picturing our individual bodies vanishing like I did with Rheave back in Pima, I imagine a current wrapping around the two of us together, whisking away all visible trace of our forms to anyone outside.
I balance it out by having those forms appear back in the forest where we’re actually not.
That way we can still see each other. And it only takes a whiff of my magic, one I can easily keep under control.
“We’ll walk through the camp,” I murmur to Rheave. “Keep quiet, avoid touching anything, and stay close to me. You can focus on identifying the daimon-people.”
He nods, peering ahead toward the camp we can’t yet see.
“Thank you,” he says abruptly before we’ve quite left the forest.
I pause and glance at him. “For what?”
Rheave offers me a softer smile than usual. “You could have left and been out of danger. But you stayed, and that meant I could stay with you. As much as I want you to be safe… I’m not sure what I would have done on my own. I’m glad we’re still together. The men too.”
He adds the last bit like a fleeting afterthought, which makes my lips twitch with amusement. But the honest gratitude in his voice brings back the bittersweet ache I felt earlier.
I touch his arm. “I’m not sure you should thank me.
I made the decision for a lot of reasons, and I’m probably going to get you into a lot of danger with what we’re trying to pull off here.
But it wouldn’t have seemed fair to abandon you either way.
I’m glad you’ve been with us on this journey, as awful as parts of it have been. ”
Rheave’s tone brightens. “I’m glad too. And I’m not worried about the danger. I’d like to keep this body, but if I don’t, I will still be me. The scourge sorcerers can’t hurt me that much.”
For his sake, I hope that’s true. Gods help me, I wish I had the same confidence that I’ll stay who I am even while I’m still breathing.
I nudge his elbow. “Come on then. Let’s see how we can hurt them.”
We walk cautiously across the open fields beyond the stretch of forest. The march veered farther from the road during the afternoon—I’m no longer sure I’d be able to see travelers journeying along it from this stopping point.
As expansive as their concealing effect is, now that I’m familiar with it I picked up a hint of the tingling sensation before we even left the forest. When the tingle wriggles right into my skin, I know we’re passing through the outer barrier.
I tap Rheave’s arm again to alert him. With a few more strides, the sprawling camp materializes in front of us.
As we expected, they’re deep in the midst of preparing for the night. Several campfires burn at intervals, a few figures at each cooking tonight’s dinner in pots over the flames.
The greasy meaty odor makes me think they’ve added some kind of waterfowl to their stew. My stomach gurgles in anticipation of our own dinner.