Chapter 20
Ava was worried about Rafe.
She was worried about quite a few of the older warriors who rode with her in the tight group.
She glanced over at Luc, but he was focused ahead, face grim, feelings held close and tightly controlled.
She reached out, even as their horses galloped over uneven ground, and brushed her fingers lightly down his upper arm.
He turned his head, his gaze meeting hers, and she saw the rage burning in his eyes. It matched her own, but unlike in some—like Rafe—it was a clear rage.
Rafe worried her because this kidnap, this abduction, had him spiraling back to memories of the Chosen camps, and a few of his fellow officers along with him.
She flicked her gaze ahead, to where Rafe rode in front, and back to Luc, and he gave a nod, urging his mount ahead; allowing the advantage of rank as others let him through.
He caught up with his second-in-command, and forced his pace to slow.
Ava noticed a sigh of relief ripple through the unit at the slacking off of what had been an almost impossible pace.
Suddenly, from up ahead, someone called out a hail, and the whole riding party went stone-faced and ready for trouble, before the call came again, and from the suddenly relaxed postures, Ava guessed it was the correct hail from one of their own.
Luc and Rafe slowed their mounts to a walk, and then finally to a stop. They had cut across from Ta-lin to take the road north that ran some of the way along the Bartolo River, and the horses moved straight to the banks to drink, their sides heaving.
Both men dismounted as four soldiers came into view, looking like they’d be riding hard themselves. At the sight of their commander and his second-in-command, they snapped to attention and pulled up on the reins, then eased themselves from their saddles.
Ava thought they would have slid off, groaning, if they’d been alone.
They were clearly known to some of the soldiers in the group, because as everyone dismounted, there were greetings and some back-slapping, which made Ava think they’d been trained in Fernwell and Ta-lin.
She wondered if this was a coincidence, or if they had some news to share about Viviane, and where she was.
A soldier came to take her mount to the river to drink, and she murmured a word of thanks and then stepped forward so she was shoulder to shoulder with Luc, eager to find out why they were here.
“My queen.” One of the riders obviously recognized her and bowed his head and put a fist to his heart, and the other three followed suit, shock at the sight of her etched on their faces.
This salute was something Luc had told her to stop fighting against. He had started it, so she blamed him for its entrenchment. Way back when the Rising Wave had first taken Fernwell and established control of Kassia, she had planned to divest herself of the title and move the country to a parliamentary system, like Grimwalt.
That had been harder than she’d thought it would be, and when it was discovered that Grimwalt’s parliament had been corrupted by a spell worker, it had become even more difficult to shift the old ways.
Eventually, she had settled on a compromise. She wasn’t exactly a figurehead, her word still carried weight, but she was no longer the only decision-maker in Kassia and Cervantes. The people had some say in their own fate.
“We were hoping to meet you on the road,” one of the soldiers said.
“You’re based in Illoa, aren’t you, Tiano?” Gunnar, one of the older soldiers, asked, and the woman nodded.
“We were sent by our captain to help General Bardet if he needed assistance on his way to Ta-lin, and to bring news about developments.”
“Theo was at your barracks?” Rafe asked.
Ava realized that was the only way they could know Rafe would be traveling this way.
Her breath hitched as she realized these soldiers had actual news.
Luc reached out and grabbed her hand, squeezed it gently, and she wondered if he was warning her not to expect too much.
“He was in Illoa, sir.” Tiano turned to Rafe respectfully. “He rode into Grimwalt, following after the abductor, and Captain Draper gave him four soldiers to accompany him.”
“Listen up.” Luc raised his voice, cutting off the rising murmurs. “Everyone eat, drink, rest for a bit.”
There were interested gazes that told Ava the other soldiers knew they were being excluded from a more in-depth debrief, but they also knew they’d find out eventually, so suddenly the unit of thirty scattered, the noise level increased, and the tension seemed to lessen.
“Let’s talk,” Luc said to Tiano. His gaze swept over the other three. “All of you.”
He led them to the side, and Rafe and Lineka came with them.
Lineka’s son Jonquil was one of the other abductees, and Ava shared a quick, hopeful look with him as they gathered around.
“Give us everything, Tiano. Including impressions. And if anyone has something different to say, you say it.” Luc’s order was implacable.
“Sir.” Tiano stiffened at the order, face earnest. “Two nights ago, Lieutenant Hallan came into the barracks. He had no weapons and he looked terrible. He asked for the captain, and then after the captain finished speaking with him, she called us in. She said when we met up with you, you would want to know everything, and so she gave us information that we would not usually be high enough in rank to know.”
“She was right,” Luc said. “Keep going, soldier.”
Tiano cleared her throat. “Lieutenant Hallan said he followed the abductor in the direction of Grimwalt, and found his camp. He saw the children, alive but bound, lying around the fire, and he circled them, looking for the abductor or abductors. Suddenly, a man was behind him, and the lieutenant told Captain Draper he thought perhaps he had been wearing something to make himself invisible, because he would have seen him earlier, otherwise.”
Ava felt a shiver down her arms. She had worn something that made her invisible many times.
“He and the magic user fought, and as the lieutenant struck a blow, he said something was done to him. He was on the ground, unable to breathe. The man told him he was too much to handle, given he had the children as well, and then he remembered nothing more.”
“So he escaped later?” Ava asked, and the shiver turned into a chill. The description of the children bound up had her hoping there was no magic rope involved in this. She felt nauseous at the thought of someone who was holding her precious baby, or any child, having something like what had been used on her long ago. Sucking away her life and her spirit.
“He . . .” Tiano looked at the other three, as if nervous about what she was going to say next.
“It doesn’t matter what it is,” Luc told her, voice gentle. “We need to hear it.”
“It’s just . . .” Tiano shrugged and blew out a breath. “Lieutenant Hallan says he was turned into a goat sometime after he was made unconscious.” She hesitated, then plowed on. “But the lieutenant had hurt the abductor in the struggle and he thinks the man was unconscious or badly hurt. He was found by another trader on the road who was headed to the Illoa market on the Grimwalt side. For some reason, instead of keeping him, though, he tied him to the bridge, as a tribute to Malin.”
Luc looked over at Ava, face slack with surprise. As if asking her if it was even possible.
“I’ve never heard of magic that can turn someone into something else, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Ava’s voice shook a little. This was someone who was powerful. She couldn’t even conceive of doing magic like that.
“Continue,” Luc said.
Tiano shook her shoulders. “While he was tied to the bridge in Illoa, on the Grimwalt side, a woman noticed him, rescued him, and freed him of the spell. That is how he was able to come to the barracks.”
“What woman?” Every instinct in Ava came awake.
“Some Grimwaldian.” Tiano shrugged, as if that was all the explanation necessary.
Grimwalt did have the highest concentration of magic users. Ava was Grimwaldian herself, as it happened.
“You don’t know her name?” Luc asked, just managing to keep the impatience from his voice.
Ava knew him well enough to hear it though, just under the surface.
They all shook their heads.
“She came to the barracks later that same night, though,” another of the soldiers said. “The lieutenant had asked her to help him find the abductor, and she agreed.”
Tiano nodded. “The captain said the woman was going to leave in the morning with the rescue party. Because if they were up against a magic user, it would help to have someone with her skills along.”
“Her skills?” Lineka spoke for the first time, his voice hoarse, as if he had been screaming.
“She could see the goat was enspelled. That’s how she knew to rescue the lieutenant.” Tiano lifted her hands. “I’m not sure of the details. But she, the lieutenant, and four soldiers from the barracks, left at daybreak,” Tiano said.
“And they knew where to go?” Rafe asked.
“The woman who saved the lieutenant had interacted with the trader who’d tied him to the bridge before he left the city. She thought he may know where the spell worker was from, so they were going to catch up to him on the Taunen road and get more information, then take it from there.”
There was a plan, at least, Ava thought. But that was a far cry from knowing where the children were, other than somewhere on the Taunen road.
Her heart physically ached with worry, with fear, and with stress.
And still, they had more information now than they’d had before. Much more.
It seemed for the first time, she was going up against someone as powerful, if not more powerful, than herself.
She only hoped that Viviane had managed to keep her own power hidden. Because having been locked away for years by someone who wanted to use her, Ava would fight until there was nothing left in her to save her daughter from the same fate.