Chapter 5
Five
Ivy
Imight have spent the night conked out, but I don’t think the sedative made for a very satisfying rest. I’m still exhausted.
Somewhere in the midst of my waiting, with Toast grazing peacefully nearby and beams of sunlight slanting through the bare branches to warm the air around me, I drift off into an uneasy sleep.
Which I only realize when I snap back to wakefulness at the crinkling of the forest’s underbrush somewhere nearby.
As my eyes pop open, my hands is already groping for my clay blade. My fingers close around the handle-like end, I push onto my feet in a crouch—
And a voice carries to me, so familiar it cracks open my heart: “Here’s our lady thief.”
There’s no mistaking the relieved affection in his tone. I whirl toward the voice, and Stavros barrels through the woods to catch me in his arms.
The former general squeezes me tight against his massive frame, and I can’t help clinging to him in turn. Tears burn behind my eyes. I have to swallow a sob.
I’m back with one of the men I love. He still trusts me so much he ran straight to me.
Of course, that could change once he finds out exactly what I’ve been doing during the past day.
That final thought sours my joy with a knotting of my stomach.
But I keep gripping Stavros’s arms as he eases back from me, his eyes with their blending of blue and brown feverishly bright beneath his dark red hair.
He gives that little tick of his head that tells me he’s focusing his vision on me more intently.
“What happened?” he demands, his voice darkening with a promise of retribution. He lifts his hand to the edge of the blood-crusted bandage on my forehead. “Are you all right? How did you get away?”
Not “Who took you?” but maybe that part of the story is easy to guess. Who but the scourge sorcerers could have compelled one of the riven?
“I’m all right now,” I say. Before I can pull more answers together, another figure steps forward, with a smile on his gorgeous face that could warm me even in a blizzard.
Casimir sets his hand on my shoulder. “Before you get into the interrogation, Stav, let me offer my own welcome.”
The courtesan tugs me into a tender embrace that’s nonetheless just as emphatic as Stavros’s. I burrow my head against the crook of his neck, breathing in his honeyed sandalwood scent and wishing I could stay right here without having to say another word.
There is at least one question I need to ask, though. I don’t hear anyone else approaching.
I lift my head, my throat constricting. “Where are Alek and Rheave? Did something—”
Casimir shakes his head before I can get any farther into my anxious speculation. “They’re both perfectly fine, other than being out of their heads with worry for you. Which will be resolved as soon as we get you back to them.”
Stavros grins crookedly. “Have no doubts that they wanted to come with us. Rheave looked about ready to send one of his lightning bolts straight through me so he could take my place. But we couldn’t leave the royal children undefended.”
My heart leaps. “The royal children? Princess Klaudia and Prince Jacos are all right?”
That means I didn’t carry out all of Lothar’s murderous plan. But if the prince and princess are relying on my men for protection, then King Konram and Queen Ishild…
The hope that sparked inside me blinks out. Stavros must see the change in my face, because he brushes his fingers over my hair and speaks before I need to ask more.
“They’re as well as they can be, considering what Lothar did to their parents.”
He knows about Lothar. Well, the prince and princess were there in the audience room—they would have told him.
My mouth opens, but for a few seconds I can’t push the words past the tension in my throat.
“He wanted me to kill them all. One of the other scourge sorcerers, a woman who’s been controlling at least some of the daimon, was holding me with her magic so completely that at first I couldn’t even move a finger unless she commanded it.
But she had to leave the sacrificial accomplice she was drawing power from behind when we came to the palace—her control weakened a little—I tried to make sure they couldn’t use me… ”
My hand rises to my bandage.
Casimir lets out a rough sound as if he’s the one who’s been wounded. “We’ll have a medic look after that as soon as we can arrange it. You did everything you could—you shouldn’t have been put through that horrible ordeal in the first place.”
Renewed queasiness is building in my gut. The ordeal was even more horrible for people other than me.
“But I didn’t manage— Lothar still attacked the king—?”
Stavros pulls me closer and presses a kiss to my unharmed temple. Then he bows lower and captures my lips with every bit of the heat and tenderness he’s brought in the past.
When he eases back, his voice has thickened. “The kingdom is in disarray, and we have a lot of work ahead of us, but neither of those things are your fault. I think you should hear exactly what happened from those who witnessed it—the people your efforts did save.”
I swallow hard. Yes. If I hadn’t knocked myself into a stupor, Zaneta would have forced me to slaughter every member of the royal family.
She and Lothar must have attacked the king and queen while I was unconscious, but they didn’t have the power on their own to destroy the entire royal family all at once.
Guilt remains lodged like a stone in my stomach. “The scourge sorcerers wouldn’t have been able to get into the palace at all if it wasn’t for me. I killed some of the guards…”
“Because Lothar forced you to,” Casimir says, stroking his fingers up and down my back in a soothing caress. “You’re no more responsible for that than Rheave is for the damage they’ve compelled him to inflict.”
And yet it’s so much easier to forgive the daimon-man than it is myself.
Stavros gives me a gentle shake. “You haven’t answered my first question yet. How did you get away from them?”
I gather myself and explain about the sedative and Kosmel’s voice in my dream, waking up and killing the daimon guard and Zaneta.
Casimir’s deep blue eyes brighten at that part. “Then she can’t bring you under her control again.”
I nod. “And it was hard for her to keep up her influence, so I’m not sure if any of the other scourge sorcerers could manage it. But that doesn’t mean—we’ll still need to be careful. If I start acting strangely again—”
“We’ll recognize what’s going on and react much faster,” Stavros finishes for me.
That wasn’t what I was going to insist on, but I can’t summon much enthusiasm for arguing with him about when he should murder me.
I do arch an eyebrow at him. “You came right to me here without having any idea whether I was in my right mind or if it was a trap.”
The former general snorts and motions at the shard of clay I dropped by my feet. “It seemed incredibly unlikely that your captors would have sent you to assassinate us without even a proper weapon.”
Trust him to have paid that much attention to what blade I was holding. And I guess he has a point.
I exhale in a shaky rush. “All right. What do we do now?”
Stavros glances at Toast, who’s been watching our exchange with an air of mild disdain. “Get on your horse and follow us back to where we left ours nearby. We’ve temporarily taken shelter in one of the military’s hidden supply stores, just a couple of hours’ ride from here.”
Looking around with my non-military-trained eyes, I wouldn’t have a clue the patch of forest we’ve entered contains anything other than trees, birds, and the other obvious components of a woodland. But Stavros directs his stallion through the brush without a moment’s hesitation.
He stops and dismounts at a spot where the layer of leaves and dirt on the ground looks a little more stirred up than elsewhere. With a sweep of his arm, he uncovers the slab of stone that he removes to reveal the round steel hatch underneath.
The metal surface is etched with the crest of the Melchiorek family—and scorched around the edges.
The last time we broke into one of these underground storage rooms, Rheave had to shatter the magic sealing it with his daimon power. It looks like he used a similar tactic here.
The seal must be permanently broken. Stavros gives a quick pattern of knocks, presumably designed to let those below know it’s him and not an unwelcome intruder, and then hefts the hatch upward without any resistance.
“We’ve got—” he starts to call down.
Before he can get out one more word, a well-built form with a topping of chocolate-brown curls launches up the ladder and springs at me.
Rheave catches me in his muscular arms and spins me around with his face pressed close to my hair. A rush of exhilaration sweeps through me as I hug him back.
“My little vine,” the daimon-man mutters with a rasp in his normally clear voice. “They tore you away from me.”
Casimir lets out a soft chuckle. “Be careful with her. She’s injured, you know.”
Rheave growls in consternation and pulls back to look at me, letting my feet return to the ground. As he takes in the bandage on my forehead, his lips draw back to bare his teeth. “Those bullies. When I get my hands on them…”
A swell of affection fills my chest. It’s only recently that I’ve accepted that my own intense fondness for Rheave goes beyond friendship, but there’s never been any denying how devoted he is to me.
I set my hand against his cheek. “I’m all right, especially now that I’m back with all of you. It’s good to see you too.”
The daimon-man makes a sound that’s almost pained. For a second, I think he’s going to dive in to kiss me, but then something flickers in his eerie sea-green eyes. His expression tightens as his grip on my arms loosens.
Maybe he’s only concerned that he’ll hurt me with his enthusiasm. I don’t have much time to ask about it, because Alek has just scrambled out of the underground room after him.