Chapter 40
Alaric
I tug against the ropes binding me until my skin is rubbed raw, healed and rubbed raw all over again, but I cannot get free.
The gargoyles are solid stone, and there’s no one to hear my protests except the monsters in the woods.
It makes me wonder why I’ve never seen one near the castle ruins.
Come to think of it, there are always more monsters close to Blackthorn.
The further you go from the settlement, the fewer you are likely to encounter.
I hate to think of Guin heading towards danger. Of course the monsters cannot kill her, but they can hurt her—make her suffer.
She should not have gone so soon and alone. She will end up passed out, consciousness spread too thin just like last time when she stretches herself too far.
She will be a sitting duck for the queen’s men to find.
For my hunters. And if she’s discovered, the queen will know my treachery and call me back.
My mind spirals over all the possibilities, none of them good.
If I am near, then the queen can use me to hurt her, make me reveal my secrets.
If I am not near, then I cannot even try to help the princess and I cannot help her untangle the web of the queen’s magic.
I know she has protection spells cast over herself.
She pretends to only know a few simple tricks, but I have always sensed great magic there and never found the source.
When the moon rises in the sky, gibbous and mishappen, I close my eyes and cast my mind elsewhere, searching for another solution.
I’m almost jolted back into my body when I find no dead thing anywhere nearby.
As I stretch further and further, the forest is barren of any host. I continue to push, searching fruitlessly. There is nothing.
That can only mean one thing.
I tug frantically at my bonds, but the gargoyles left me no quarter. No chance of escape. I shout for them, but of course they don’t answer. I howl in frustration, but it makes no difference how much the princess needs me, I cannot answer that need.
Eventually I fall silent, staring at the sky, willing it to lighten. Twenty times I imagine dusk’s pink creeping over the treetops only to be disappointed. When it finally comes, I almost miss it. I pray to all the gods it is not too late.
I start up my shouting again, hoping to rouse the gargoyles the moment they waken. It is Raban who stirs first, his feathered wings stretching as he glides down toward me.
“Quick! No time to lose. You must untie me.”
“I cannot do that,” he replies sadly.
“You don’t understand. The princess is in danger. We need to go now.”
A flicker of worry passes over his pretty face. “We promised her. She told us to keep you safe.”
“Listen to me. If you had to choose between her safety and mine, which would you choose?”
His brows furrow. “Hers. Always.”
“As would I. Please believe me. She has done it again—borrowed too many vessels. She is either lost to us already or very close to it. We must find her.”
His blue eyes widen and he takes a step closer. “You swear you are not trying to deceive me?”
I press my eyes closed for a moment, trying to keep calm. His question is fair, but I have no way to prove myself to him. “I swear it.”
Before I can say more, Corvin and évandre join us, casting Raban suspicious looks. “Do not listen to him, brother,” says Corvin.
“Wait, he says our princess is in danger.”
Corvin rolls his eyes. “Of course she is. She went back to challenge her stepmother.”
“No, he says she borrowed again. Many, many times the number she did before. Is that not so, Alaric?”
“It is. Please. Every moment we waste arguing is a moment she needs us. If you don’t believe me, then follow. Bind me again if I’m lying—”
“You know we cannot leave our perches.”
I growl in frustration. “The castle is crumbling. What’s to stop you simply tearing the stone you perch on and taking it with you?”
Corvin’s eyes widen.
évandre has been quiet the whole time. Now he places his hand on Corvin’s shoulder. “His suggestion is clever. Is it worth considering?”
“How could it work? It is just another trick.”
“Consider what we have to lose if he is telling the truth,” évandre says levelly.
That makes Corvin pause. I want to jump to my feet and throttle the dark-haired gargoyle, but I can hardly blame him for being suspicious of me.
“Let me try,” Raban says. He gives me a sympathetic look. “I will only take a moment,”
Spreading his wings, he flies up to the spot on the wall where he perches during the day, Bracing his foot against the stone below, he bends and tears the stone plinth from the wall.
He may look slim, but his tapered frame hides a surprising strength.
The stone lifts and he carries it to the ground with a grin.
The hounds have been sniffing at my feet until now.
As Raban drops to the ground they set to barking, racing around his feet in circles and nearly tripping him.
He strides toward the gates and on into the woods.
I do not know how far they think he can go, but eventually Corvin and évandre grow restless beside me.
“Has it worked?”
Corvin scoffs. “No. He is fooling around.”
“It has worked!” Raban shouts back. “I feel like I could walk all day. I cannot fly though. Not far anyway.”
“That is a problem,” Corvin says in a low tone to évandre. “If we release him, he could easily outpace us if we cannot fly, even if we could follow.”
“What if I carry your stone blocks?” I ask him.
He turns to me surprised. “You would do that?”
“I would do anything if you will help me get to the princess.”
At this, his hard expression softens. Corvin and évandre share a look. Raban trots back into the courtyard and drops his stone at his feet. “Well? Are we going?”
“Why not just leave him here and go ourselves?” says Corvin.
“Leave me if you must, only go. Quickly.”
évandre hums. “No. I do not think that is wise. Alaric knows the area. He can guide us.”
Corvin sighs. “I hope you are right, Raban, that we can trust him.”
“I know I am.” Raban begins untying my bonds, and Corvin sighs but moves to help him.
Soon my hands are free and I can untie the belt around my ankles and stand. “You will not regret trusting me. There is only one thing that could make me do harm to the princess. Or to you. If I feel the call, you must promise to restrain or destroy me.”
“Will you know?”
I nod. “I will.”
“Then we will watch over you,” says évandre.
Varkhul, Knochenwolf, and Grimmfang whine as we saddle Tharrok and head toward the gates. Raban kneels to scratch behind their ears. “We will return. Don’t you worry. You must stand guard until we do.”
They bark as we leave the castle ruins, but there’s nothing to be done about it.
I could not carry their stones as well as the three I already have.
Two I fix to Tharrok’s saddle and the last I carry on my back myself.
The gargoyles laugh as they spread their wings and disappear above the treetops, and I have more than a few moments of jealousy wondering what it would feel like.
Tharrok snorts in disdain and flicks his tail across his flank.
He hasn’t stopped fidgeting with the makeshift sling we made to allow him to carry two of the heavy stone plinths since we left Havenrock.
The third hangs on my back in a pack we fashioned from old curtains, so I know how he feels.
Raban drops through the treetops laughing.
“It feels good to fly.” He brushes pine needles from his hair, casting me a sideways look with a shy smile. “Let me carry that for a while.”
I huff. “I said I would carry them and I will. Did you see any sign of her?”
He shakes his head. “No. We cannot see much through the trees.”
I am worried. I still cannot sense any dead things nearby. What if she has borrowed every vessel from the castle to Blackthorn? The thought chills me.
As if sensing my mood blackening, Raban places his hand on my shoulder. “We will find her. You will see. She is strong.”
“She is also stubborn. I hope that means her spirit will hang on instead of going…wherever it is that spirits go after they are done here.”
“Do you believe in paradise?” he asks.
“I do not believe I will go there if it exists.”
“What about me? Do you think I have a spirit?”
I look around at him, surprised. “What else is it that brings the stone to life?”
“I hope so. Then if the princess has gone, maybe I can follow.”
I hope quietly to myself that she has not, but the motive is selfish, so I say nothing. Guinevere clearly belongs in paradise. And if her gargoyles can eventually join her there, it is only me who will suffer if she has.
There’s no sign of évandre and Corvin. Raban and I walk on for a while in silence, but a comfortable silence.
The straps of the pack dig into my shoulders, and we are slower than I would like.
We’ll have to stop at daybreak too. I’m of two minds about whether to be faithful to my word and stay with the gargoyles or try to go on alone once they are stone.
Tharrok will need to rest, though. And I find the thought of betraying them less palatable than it would once have been.
If it is anything like last time, I will need their help to save Guin anyway.
I wish she would have listened to me when I told her she wasn’t ready.
When morning is close, évandre and Corvin alight to join us. “We must tie you until the night,” says Corvin.
I don’t like it. I could go on ahead and they could easily catch up. I’m about to argue, but I see the resolution in his eyes. I sigh. “Very well.”
They bring their stones into a circle and bind me between them hand and foot, and we wait.
I squint through the canopy at the sky, which is hard to make out in the dense woodland.
The pine trees have given way to birch and tall ash trees, and even during the daylight hours only a paltry amount of light will reach the forest floor.
We wait.
Eventually I cough. “How long until it happens?”
Raban frowns. “I sense that it is daylight, but I can still move. Is it possible that within the forest we will not turn to stone?”
évandre slaps his forehead. “I cannot believe we did not think of these things before. Let us continue. The princess has already made much ground.”
They untie me and we continue, sticking to the densest part of the woods. Tharrok is tired, so I lift another stone from his back and add it to my pack until I am bent forward with the weight.
Raban’s hand settles on my shoulder. “Please let me help.”
I grunt. “Take the weight from my horse. He is suffering most.”
He does so, and Corvin rolls his eyes but takes one of the stones from my back. évandre takes the third, and I straighten and stretch out sore muscles. “Thank you.”
“We are all on the same side.” the angelic gargoyle says. “Perhaps we should spend less energy fighting each other and save it for the true enemy.”