Chapter 28 #2
By the second peal of a town bell, I think I can see the town it belongs to off in the distance to our right.
Stavros turns his head that way as Casimir and Alek swap places so Alek can ride for a bit.
When I look at Rheave to offer a similar exchange, he simply shakes his head with a defiant expression.
I tap his shoulder with the side of my foot. “Next time. Your body can’t keep going without rest no matter how much you’d like it to.”
Stavros glances back at us. “Actually, I think our daimon should take the horse now—but not to rest just yet. We don’t know how well Voleska and the others were able to pass on the message about the scourge sorcerers’ plans, and we weren’t sure of where the march was going back then.
Rheave, you’re the only one of us not officially wanted for arrest. Ride over to that town as quickly as you can and warn them that the uprising has sent a concealed army this way and that they’re only a few hours behind us. ”
My body balks at the idea of our party splitting up even briefly, but I force myself to slide off Toast’s back so Rheave can take him. We have to get a warning to the royal troops as soon as possible.
I just have no idea what kind of reception he might get. We don’t know what’s been going on in the rest of the country while we were tangling with the scourge sorcerers in Nikodi.
“How’s Rheave going to find us again while Ivy’s keeping us hidden?” Alek asks.
The daimon-man pats Toast’s neck from where he’s hefted himself onto the stallion. “Her horse can find her without seeing. He already did before in the forest.”
He lifts his hand in a casual salute and launches Toast into a gallop. As they race across the open ground toward the distant town, Stavros motions for the rest of us to tramp onward.
I loosen my cloak a little to let in a bit of warmth from the rising sun. Now that we’ve left the northernmost part of the country behind, the winter chill isn’t quite as biting.
Casimir chuckles at me, the collar of his own cloak folded up to shield the lower part of his face. “You’ve all got stronger constitutions than me, I think. I like my warmth and comforts.”
I bump my elbow against his. “And you should have them.”
He hums, the sound faintly muffled by the fabric. “Eventually. For now, I’ll appreciate the beauty of the wild countryside and the lovely flush that nippy breeze brings to your cheeks.”
Even more of a flush creeps over my face at the compliment. I push myself to walk a little faster, thinking of the mass of angry scourge sorcerers and their allies behind us.
It isn’t long at all before Alek alerts us with a noise of concern. “I think that’s Rheave on his way back now. He’s coming at quite a clip. I don’t see anyone pursuing him, though.”
Stavros peers across the terrain from his lower vantage point. “He’s probably simply hurrying to rejoin us.” His forehead furrows all the same.
We don’t slow our pace on the road, but I move to the side closest to Rheave in case that’ll help Toast find his way to me. How much it’s the daimon-man’s senses and how much the horse’s, I’m not sure, but they hurtle straight toward us without hesitation.
Rheave only pulls on the reins when they’re so close I can hear Toast’s huffs of breath. At that distance, maybe ten paces from the road, my magic wouldn’t be enough to divert anyone’s attention from the sight of us.
He urges the stallion into pace alongside our group. “I don’t know if that went well.”
“What happened?” Stavros demands.
The daimon-man glances back toward the town, frowning. “There were men at the gate—guards. I told them about the people from the uprising heading this way, planning to attack the king. Instead of seeming concerned, they asked me how I knew and something about frozen trees.”
My stomach flips over. The counteraction to my fire magic. Did someone see it and realize it was caused by illicit magic of some kind?
Have I drawn the attention of even more enemies down on me and my men?
“I told them I didn’t have time to do more than give the warning and headed right back,” Rheave goes on. “But when I was turning around, I saw past the gate—on the other side, there were a couple of people in uniform nearby. Uniforms that looked like the royal army’s. Why would they be here?”
Alek knits his brow. “We’re only about a day’s walk from the main front where the army’s been fighting the Order of the Wild. It wouldn’t be very strange to have a few soldiers stationed in the area to monitor things, would it?”
He aims the question at Stavros, who rubs his jaw. “Not necessarily. But they should have been asking about numbers, how well armed, and matters like that, not acting as if they weren’t sure they should even believe you.”
Rheave deflates a little. “Maybe they didn’t. I might not have explained it well enough.”
“I’m sure you did as well as any of us could,” I tell him.
Julita sighs. I’m starting to think the king only employs idiots. Other than Stav, of course. And even he was pretty idiotic about you for a while.
Alek stiffens on his horse. “Someone else is coming.”
He has a better view than the rest of us. I peer across the terrain but can only make out the slightest hint of a shape that might be a person outside the distant walls of the town.
Stavros stares, twitches his head, stares again, and then lets his gaze slide over the rest of us as if to give his eyes a moment to recover. They rest on me for a beat longer than the others.
All at once, he exhales sharply. “Ivy, pull around your cloak—or the top of your dress—something. Everyone! Cover your mouth and nose as well as you can.”
Even as he speaks, he’s fumbling with his own cloak. He presses a flap of the thick fabric over his lower face.
With a lurch of my pulse, I follow suit even though I don’t understand. As I push the scratchy woolen cloth against my nose, my breath condenses in the thin patch of air left behind it—and my feet stumble beneath me.
The ground feels suddenly, strangely uneven, as if it’s bobbing and dipping like a raft on a river.
I try to concentrate, but my thoughts have started to float away from me. My head is full of clouds.
Julita whips around in the back of my skull. Ivy, what’s happening?
Something Stavros caught on to, but maybe not in time. He staggers to the side before righting his balance.
Alek has tugged the neckline of his tunic all the way up over his nose, but he sways on the horse’s back and has to snatch at its mane to stay on. He leans close to its neck the way Casimir rested before, his hands trembling. “Is that some kind of drug? How…?”
“It’s a trick… the sorcerer-hunters use,” Stavros rasps through his cloak.
“Can’t easily confront one of the riven head on.
They carry sedatives on them, sometimes traveling with a companion who has a gift…
that can carry it long distances through the air.
There are a few enchanted tools around… that do the trick too. ”
Rheave wobbles on Toast and pulls the side of his cloak tighter against his face. Only Casimir seems relatively unaffected, but he already had his collar up before Stavros’s warning.
He’s adjusted his cloak so it’s more tightly molded to his face. “How did you know?” he asks Stavros in a muffled voice.
The former general’s laugh is dark. “It seems my gift hasn’t completely abandoned me. I looked at Ivy and saw her faint, and I guessed that scenario was the only reason it would happen so quickly. We took precautions… before the full effect could take hold.”
Alek turns his head where it’s resting on the horse’s neck and gives a soft yelp. “Soldiers coming.”
When my head jerks around, sending a fresh wave of dizziness through my body, I spot the blue specks of their uniforms against the greenish-yellow of the grass. “Shit.”
Our pace has slowed in our muddled state. Stavros manages to take command. “Ivy, get on Toast with Rheave. Alek, I’m joining you. Casimir’s the only one in a state to walk at a decent pace on his own. The horses will have to forgive the extra weight one more time.”
I don’t see how we’ll go that much faster, but before I can find the words to debate, Rheave has already jumped down. He wobbles but still manages to scoop me up and heave me onto Toast’s back right by his withers.
The daimon-man hauls himself up behind me. The stallion grunts in protest but clops onward.
Toast might be able to speed up to a trot with the two of us, or even a canter if I really pushed him, but I’m not sure we could stay on. And there’s definitely no way to bring Casimir on as well.
Stavros has managed to swing himself up behind Alek, his massive frame swaying, but their horse is only a little larger than Toast. It’ll be having an even harder time carrying both of their weight for long.
The blue specks in the distance are growing larger, along with the brownish blotches beneath them. They’re on horses too, I realize hazily. Riding much faster than we can.
Can they see us? Great God smite me, I’ve lost all my focus on my magic.
It’s roiling in my chest, where I must have pulled it back inside instinctively. A chill breaks over my skin.
Even with Casimir jogging between us now, there’s no way we can outrun the soldiers. If I could just…
Julita’s voice pulls my thoughts into order. You could make a mirage, Ivy! Send them off after a ghost.
She laughs as if it’s a joke, but I understand what she means. The natural consequence of the invisibility effect I’ve created before.
Yes. Yes, that might be exactly what we need.
I clench my jaw to try to steady my addled mind. I have to concentrate.
Have to direct the magic nagging at me so it does what I want and not all the other chaos it could create.
Rheave had his arms braced on either side of me, but now he wraps one around my waist. He must be able to feel the tension as I ready myself.
“Whatever you’re doing,” he says quietly, “I’ve got you. I won’t let you fall.”
As the heat of his body cocoons me, an unexpected sob rises in my throat.
I need every bit of support I can get.
I drag air into my lungs and hone my consciousness as sharply as I can onto the image of the five of us hustling along the road.
Erase that sight from where we actually are. Project it swerving around and rushing away in the opposite direction. Off the road. Beyond the next field and into the woods, where the soldiers can think they lost us.
Rheave grips me tightly, grounding me even though we’re not touching the earth. I twist my head to watch the soldiers, and my cheek presses against his shoulder.
His warm, fresh scent fills my nose. I ignore the impulse to nestle even deeper into his embrace. Ignore the pang of affection and possibly more that I can’t grapple with right now.
Maybe a hundred paces behind us, the two soldiers gallop across the road and on toward the woods. Or are there three?
I’d swear I do see three of the blue-uniformed figures careening away from us, but when I blink, they meld back into two. My gut lists with that floating sensation again.
When I yank my head around, my gaze snags on another blotch of blue back by the town. My heart leaps into my throat. “There’s another…”
Stavros follows my gaze and then peers over at me. “I don’t see anyone.”
I squint and swipe at my eyes. It’s all just yellow-green grass.
Dread pools in the pit of my stomach.
At my shiver, Rheave rests his cheek against the back of my head. His arm stays tight around me. “I’ve got you,” he repeats.
He does. But how much do I have myself?
I thought if the worst effects of being riven hit me, it’d be in one big crash. I thought my unsteady moments over the past couple of weeks were only fatigue and nerves.
But what if this is how the madness comes: not a sudden slap of insanity but a slow, subtle creeping of it through the mind?
One you might not even notice until you’re already lost.