Chapter 28
Twenty-Eight
Ivy
Iwake to faint early dawn light and a pine needle dropping against my cheek. The boughs Stavros hauled into the shape of a tent late last night block the worst of the wind, but it’s still a pretty rough shelter.
The best we can do in our present situation.
With a heavy pang in my stomach, the memory of the panicked dash that brought us here fills my head.
We piled onto the horses two apiece with Stavros jogging alongside us.
As well as I could tell in the midst of the turmoil, he led us in a wide circuit around the scourge sorcerers’ camp before they’d had much of a chance to conduct their search and continued on to give us at least a few hours’ lead on their typical marching pace.
Are we still in their path or safely out of reach? I’m not sure we’ll know for certain unless they crash right into us.
A clinking sound and a rustle outside the shelter tells me at least a couple of the men are already up—and cooking some part of our breakfast. As I turn my head to look around, an arm tucks around my waist from behind.
Beneath the layers of blanket, Alek scoots a little closer so our bodies are aligned. His breath tickles through my hair to the back of my scalp. A quick glance shows it’s just the two of us left in the shelter.
The scholar dips his head to press a kiss to the nape of my neck. His voice comes out low and rough. “I’m sorry about last night.”
I twist in his embrace so I’m facing him. As I meet his anguished eyes, I rest one of my hands against his chin. “You didn’t do anything wrong. We tried our best, and it didn’t work out after all.”
He swallows audibly. “I encouraged you to take on a bigger challenge with your magic—I know how much you hate grappling with it—”
“Hey.” I caress Alek’s unscarred jaw with my thumb, my throat closing up around the truth of what happened. “You didn’t ask for too much. I did what I could handle, and I stopped when I needed to.”
There really wasn’t anything overwhelming about the effect he asked me to create. Fire balanced by ice is an easy equation.
The real problem was that while the flames I’d conjured wavered and roared, I thought I caught a glimpse of Borys in the disarray—and a sudden urge to blaze straight through the camp to destroy him blotted out everything else for a moment.
In that moment, I was so convinced that I had to make the fire bigger. That I needed to flood the whole camp with flames before… before the scourge sorcerers and their lackeys lashed out at us. Or something even more horrible happened.
It didn’t totally make sense. I’m not even sure it was Borys I saw, the glimpse was so fleeting.
But the feeling just kept growing, and I lost my grip on my intentions. More magic leapt out of me than I’d meant to release.
Maybe if I’d let it, it would have scorched the entire camp and everyone in it to embers: deceived civilians, sacrificial victims, horses, and all alongside the actual villains.
But I didn’t let things go that badly. I felt my control slipping and I yanked it back, just as I always have. Everything is still okay.
If I repeat that to myself enough, maybe I’ll totally believe it.
Alek’s mouth twists. “I thought the strategy I suggested would accomplish something. I don’t see how we made any progress at all. Instead, we’ve ended up with the scourge sorcerers actively on the lookout for us.”
I caress his face again. “We gave them something to worry about. We distracted them. The blaze might have made some of the locals they drew in question what they’ve actually signed up for.”
Alek sighs and hugs me tighter, his lips brushing my temple. “I’m still sorry it didn’t work out better. And I think you need as much of a break as you can get from working more magic. It looked like it’s starting to wear you out.”
The uneasiness lingering in my gut won’t let me argue. I’d already come to the same conclusion myself. “I think that should be manageable. But I guess we’d better get up so we can all figure out exactly where we’re going from here.”
He lets out a softly disgruntled sound and nuzzles my cheek before seeking out my lips.
I sink into the kiss, wishing I could give myself over to it completely. Wishing we didn’t have so many threats looming over us.
“I love you,” he murmurs after he’s eased back. “Nothing else matters if you’re not all right.”
I stroke my fingers into his thick hair, a swell of emotion momentarily stealing my words. “I feel the exact same way about you. So don’t push yourself too hard either.”
The scholar snorts as if that’s impossible, but he sits up and we clamber out of the shelter.
Casimir has the small pot I lifted from the Order camp braced over an equally small fire. I spot several little white orbs bobbing in the bubbling water.
“I found some ground fowl eggs,” Stavros says from where he’s checking Toast’s shoes. The stallion eyes him warily but seems to have accepted that the former general means no harm. “Only bird that lays in the winter. We should get going as quickly as possible, but we can eat them on the way.”
Rheave emerges from between the trees, holding up one of our canteens. “I filled all these up at the stream! And I also saw…” His gaze latches on to me, and he gives me one of those smiles that’s all daimon, eager and mischievous. “Ivy, come over here.”
I gamely walk over to the spot he indicates several paces beyond the edge of our cramped clearing. He grasps the branch of a nearby tree and clambers up it, disappearing momentarily between the needled boughs.
“Hold out your hands,” he calls down.
When I do, he shakes the branches above me. A deluge of glossy brown nuts almost the same shade as his hair rains down, some into my waiting hands, others pattering across the forest floor.
Rheave leaps down to collect the strays. “I know I’ve seen people eating these before—they seemed to like them.”
I can’t help laughing. Somehow our situation seems less dire when the daimon in our midst is all but conjuring a meal out of the sky.
Stavros considers our loot when we’ve carried them back to the camp. He claps Rheave on the back. “Nice find. Pry the tops off with your teeth, and you can get at the softer flesh inside the shell. They’ve got an almost toffee-like flavor, and they’re quite filling too.”
Rheave and I distribute the nuts between us. I stuff my own portion into a pocket and hurry to collect the rest of our supplies.
By the time Alek and I have folded the blankets for our packs and pulled apart the shelter, Casimir has finished cooking and doused the fire with the pot water. Stavros kicks dirt over the spot to cover the most obvious signs of our stop here.
“Where are we going now?” I ask.
The former general glances toward the sun, shimmering through the trees just above the horizon.
“At this point, I can tell where the scourge sorcerers’ march is going.
Since it doesn’t look as if they’ve faltered in their ambitions, we should aim to get there first so we can alert the king and summon reinforcements. ”
My pulse stutters. “How can you be sure?”
The former general passes out the last of the dried plum Voleska included in our packs.
“There are only a few cities with fortified palaces that the royal family would move to when facing a threat like this. The march has been heading southeast since we crossed the provincial border. There’s only one option they could be heading to: Regica.
And that’s the one I’d have expected King Konram to choose given every other consideration. ”
Rheave offers his hands to me to boost me onto Toast’s back, since there are no stirrups to help. I’d insist that he should ride first, but after how stubborn he’s been in the past, that’d only waste time.
“Are you sure we can get to Regica quickly enough?” I ask as I swing onto the stallion’s back. “The conspirators running the march must know they have to hurry too.”
Stavros smiles grimly. “One of the benefits of having a small party.” He boosts Casimir onto the other horse.
“We have less to pack up and less to carry than they do. And I’d suggest we rest as much as we can while we have our turns on the horses.
We can use the blankets to make a sort of sling.
If we stay on the move for as much of the night as possible as well as the day, we should continue to pull ahead of them. ”
Sleeping on horseback? Julita mutters. That’s army men for you, I suppose.
The thought of the tiring journey ahead of us makes me feel about as dejected as she sounds, but I gather my spirits as well as I can. “How much farther do you think we have to go?”
“I’ll have a better idea once we’ve gotten a look at a crossroads sign, but if we keep a good walking pace and limited time at camp, I think we can cover the distance in four or five days’ time.”
I drag in a breath. Okay. Less than a week, and we’ll be done with the trek.
And facing the king who wants me executed again. So much to look forward to.
As we set off through the woods, I send out a little of my magic to flow around our group.
By daylight, when we’re not too near to the march, I’ve found the simplest effect for avoiding notice is to deflect attention rather than making us outright invisible.
It’s a perfect balance, the magic to nudge anyone’s eyes away from us having the consequence of pulling their gaze toward something else.
If Stavros is right, the scourge sorcerers won’t get close enough to have us in their sights anyway.
He takes the lead, guiding us through the forest and across a sprawling field until we reach a country road. “Now that we’re setting our own course, we don’t have to stay so far off the beaten path,” he says. “We’ll make better time on even ground.”