Chapter 31 #2
Before he can even ask the question, I toss a surge of my magic toward the wooden surface.
It removes a slab of the door—while another slab forms in the trees next to the horses where no one will notice the consequence—and fills in the space with a darkish brown haze as close as I could manage to the color of the wood.
I step straight through. Stavros follows with a brisk stride, but he’s canny enough to set his boots quietly on the floor on the other side even if he’s startled by my tactic.
With another push of my magic, I reform the wood in the door while disintegrating the stuff that conjured elsewhere.
My magic quivers eagerly as I yank the power back into my chest other than the strands keeping us invisible. My heart thuds amid the energy churning between my ribs.
Was that a yelp?
I barely hold back a flinch, my head jerking around, but Stavros doesn’t react to any sound. He simply strides forward to where the staircase must be.
A chill ripples down my back. Another hallucination. My break didn’t buy me much of a reprieve.
But I can’t turn back now.
I keep pace with Stavros through the dim, stone-walled hallway, past a few soldiers who are heading into a room farther down on the first floor, and up the narrow staircase. Muffled voices waver from other parts of the fortress, but I’m no longer sure which are real and which my mind has made up.
We pad carefully over the thin carpet in the second-floor hallway to a door with the king’s sigil etched on it.
At Stavros’s gesture, I set my hand against the bronze knob. It’s only sealed mechanically, no enchantments reinforcing the lock.
With a twist of my magic, I yank the deadbolt over in exchange for a few cracked twigs on one of the distant trees.
We wait for another soldier to amble by and then push into the room as soon as the coast is clear.
It’s a small, windowless space, the air dank between the stone walls. There are no furnishings other than the lantern that flares on automatically at our entrance—and the gold-framed mirror hanging on the wall opposite the door.
I lean against the side wall where I hope I’ll be out of view and release the magic that was concealing us. “He’ll be able to see you now.”
Stavros shrugs his cloak back from his arms and then hesitates. Just for a second, his jaw tightens with the emotions he’s reining in.
I can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now. I never pledged myself to the man he’s about to contact—the man who’d like to see us all sent to the gallows for our supposed betrayal.
The former general presses the notches in the mirror’s frame in a pattern I don’t follow and steps back. We wait in silence, hearing footsteps scrape by in the hall outside.
A niggling fear rises up in the back of my head. The soldiers could have realized their fortress has been breached—they could be gathering outside the door right now—
I give myself a mental shake and force myself to listen hard. There’s no sound beyond the door at the moment.
Just my mind addling itself again.
As I resist the urge to hug myself against the realization, the mirror’s surface shimmers. An image of King Konram appears on the glass as if he’s reflected there.
His eyes widen, his stance going rigid. “Stavros.”
Stavros drops to one knee in a supplicating pose. “Your Highness, I apologize for intruding this way. I have urgent news that affects the security of the entire country. Please, hear me out.”
The king’s mouth presses flat. He gives his former general a wounded look, as if he’s the one who’s spent the last several weeks being harassed all across the realm.
I’d like to stop the scourge sorcerers from murdering this man, but right now, I’d also like to punch his pompous face.
His voice comes out sharp but commanding. “General Leslam gave you access to this—?”
“No,” Stavros breaks in. “He doesn’t know I’m here.
I couldn’t risk— Any rumors you’ve heard that the mutinists from Eppun are marching on your current residence are true.
They’re using their scourge sorcery to conceal themselves.
From what we understand, they expect to arrive in the vicinity of Iblin by this evening.
There are several hundred of them, and they have their magic on their side—you’ll need more troops—”
“Giving military advice is no longer your job,” King Konram interrupts, but he sounds at least as disheartened as he does angry. “I’ve heard no reports confirming any significant force nearby. Surely even their illicit sorcery couldn’t hide them completely.”
Stavros gazes at him as if willing his king to believe him. “I’ve seen them with my own eyes—and seen how well their magic hides them and covers their tracks. There must be reinforcements you can summon. I expected to see more troops on hand already.”
“Scouts have noted Darium gathering forces where the channel narrows. They may have heard of the uprising and—” Konram cuts himself off with a grimace, as if reminding himself that he shouldn’t reveal anything to the man he considers a traitor.
“It will take at least a couple of days to summon a significant additional force. But I have plenty of soldiers on hand as it is.”
Stavros bows his head. “Please, Your Highness. You know I’m not one to beg.
But I’m convinced that these menaces will do everything in their power to destroy your family.
Take every measure you can to prepare and protect yourself.
I’d suggest you move to a different residence if I wasn’t afraid that you’ll be even more vulnerable on the road. ”
The king considers him for a long moment. “You’re truly worried.”
I hear Stavros swallow. “We’ve done what we can to disrupt the uprising and stop the scourge sorcerers, but there are many more of them than us. And the power they can wield…”
Something shifts in Konram’s expression. “‘We.’ I suppose that’s how you accessed the mirror. Is your riven sorcerer there with you?”
Stavros’s chin comes up. “Ivy has given more of herself than any of us to ensure your safety and—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” the other man snaps, and then seems to gather himself. “I’ll take your report into consideration. Turn yourselves in, and I can withdraw those soldiers from their patrols.”
“My king—”
“That’s all I have left to say to you.”
The mirror dims, and then it only reflects Stavros, his shoulders slumping.
Julita sniffs indignantly. You’d think he’s forgotten how well Stavros served him for all those years before. What a knobhead.
I have to suppress a sharp guffaw at the crude insult in her noble tones.
Cautiously, I step toward Stavros and touch his arm as he stands. “Do you think he’ll listen?”
Stavros sighs. “I can’t tell. We’ve never had this kind of distrust between us before. At least he gave me the chance to say the most important parts.”
I turn toward the door, my skin starting to creep in the cramped room. “There’s nothing else to do here, then. Let’s get out of this place.”
I lean close to the door and hear nothing from the other side. Ignoring my trepidation, I extend my magic around us again to hide us from view. I ease the door open, step into the hall—
And wrench to the side with a heavy hand clamped on my shoulder and a blade tapping against my throat.
“Don’t move an inch,” the soldier who’s grabbed me snarls as I’m already freezing in place. My magic shudders, the invisibility effect faltering when he’s pressed right against my back.
He must have heard us through the door, managed to grab me through practiced instincts even when he couldn’t see me.
Now it doesn’t matter.
His blade digs into my neck with a faint sting. “All right. You’re going to walk with me down to the dungeons, and then you’ll explain to the general what the fuck you’re doing here.”
My lips part, but my entire body has gone deathly cold. I don’t know what to say. Stavros won’t intervene when my captor could slit my throat in an instant.
My power flares through my limbs, making my muscles ache, clambering for me to release it all. To blast through the prick who’s threatened me.
And all the others. Raze the whole fucking fortress to the ground. Crack skulls and smash spines. Ensure there won’t be a single one to give chase—
Gory images flood my mind, and I recoil inwardly.
No, no, that isn’t want I want. We need these soldiers alive to stop the real villains.
I’d become the monster Stavros used to see me as.
But my magic keeps flailing at me. My mind whirls, and I can’t hold on to a single steady thought.
The jolts of rage break through again and again, alongside Julita’s frantic voice. No, no, we can’t get caught like this. It isn’t fair. Oh, Ivy, no…
Something clicks in my head. The soldier starts to drag me backward, and my voice spills hoarse from my throat. “Julita says no.”
I pull my thoughts deep inside my skull, letting my vision fog and my mind haze, hoping she understands.
Nothing happens except the soldier sputtering, “What the fuck are you babbling about?”
Then the tingling presence at the back of my head leaps forward.
My lips move again, but not through my will. Julita’s spirit grips my body and propels my voice—with the gift she gave up two ribs for years ago. “I will not go to the dungeon. You will not stop me from leaving by any means. You cannot prevent me from doing as I wish.”
The soldier lets out a sound that starts as a snort and then seems to choke. His grasp on me loosens, his sword sinking.
Julita propels me out of his arms and then flings herself back into her usual place in my head, letting my consciousness hurtle to the fore again.
I yank the strands of invisibility around me, glimpsing Stavros staring at me with a grayish tint to his light brown skin, and grab his hand.
“Come on. I don’t know how long Julita’s gift will last.”
The soldier is gaping at what must now look like only empty air again. But he doesn’t snatch at me or raise any shout of alarm as we bolt past him.
We rush down the stairs and through the hall. I have just enough wherewithal to remove a chunk of the front door just in time for us to dash through it.
My magic batters me from the inside in a fury. My nerves jangle with the insistence that we should flatten the whole building and everyone in it to the ground.
They aren’t going to leave me alone until I—
No, no, no. I pull the image of the protective vine tight around myself, but the power keeps wrenching at me.
Gods above, I wish I could use Julita’s gift on myself.
Her buoyant laugh rings through my head. It really worked. Thank the gods! I’m so glad I could do something real for once.
“You were pretty amazing,” I murmur to her. I don’t want to think about what might have happened if I couldn’t have turned to her, but my stomach churns with the horror anyway. “We’re still a good team.”
As the last words leave my mouth, a holler carries across the hill from the fortress behind us. Stavros and I exchange a frantic glance and run for our mounts as if the world depends on it.
Which, unfortunately, it very well might.