Chapter 21
The leaner,slightly shorter of the two men woke up swearing.
Viviane had been watching the soldiers since the dawn light had begun to illuminate the room through the small window high on the wall above them.
The light hit her and Genevieve first, and then slowly moved back along the floor through the day until, just before midday, it shone directly in the soldier’s face.
He looked rough, with dark stubble on his cheeks and rumpled clothes. But all four of them looked tough and competent.
Just having them in the holding cell had given her some comfort.
The man sat up with a hoarse shout, looked around, eyes wild, and then slumped back against the wall.
“Shit.” He smacked the man beside him. “Ivan. Wake up.”
Ivan came awake with a snort, and then, as his gaze met Viviane’s, his eyes widened.
“Viviane?” he asked.
She gave a nod, although she wondered how he’d guessed who she was. She knew she looked like her mother, and every soldier in the army had met the queen at least once. “This is Jon, Genevieve, and Ricardo.”
The woman who had been lying pressed up against Ivan came awake so suddenly, she seemed to go from prone to crouching in a moment.
“Fuck me,” she breathed. “We were taken.” She reached over and tapped the woman beside her on the cheek. “Jacinta.”
Jacinta groaned, turned over, and the other woman smacked her on the shoulder. “Up.”
Jacinta opened an eye, breathed in sharply, and sat up. “Shit.”
“That’s what I said.” The man who’d woken first looked down at the shackle on his ankle, then back to the wall to see where it was attached.
“He had to double up,” Viviane said.
Their abductor only had two attachments for chains on the wall opposite their cell, so he’d shackled the two men together, and the two women together at their ankles.
While she was talking, Genevieve had moved off the bench, extending her chain as far as she could, and sat down beside her, cross-legged on the ground. As soon as she did, the boys began to move across as well.
Jon suddenly frowned at the first man who’d woken. “I know you,” he said. “You’re Gallain.”
Gallain narrowed his eyes, then knocked his head back against the wall softly. “I did guard duty in Ta-lin and your father was head of command. Captain Lineka.”
This was good. Viviane felt a rush of relief. She hadn’t exactly believed the arrival of the soldiers was a trick, but having one of them recognized by Jonquil was confirmation that they were who she thought they were.
“What happened,” Jacinta asked. “Last I remember, Caro and I were talking about walking down after the lieutenant, and then . . .”
She went silent as Gallain shot her a look and made a cutting motion across his throat, then she gave a nod, her lips pursed closed.
“We were sitting around the fireplace.” Ivan leaned forward. “Talking . . . nonsense. Like dream language, where nothing makes sense.”
“It was a spell.” Genevieve said. “Everything he does involves a spell.”
“And we left . . .” Caro’s words were soft, and she let them trail off. She put her head in her hands. “We were idiots.”
“I think maybe we were idiots because we were under a spell.” Jacinta’s voice was soft, as if she suspected they were being listened to. “I can’t remember much after we turned off the main road.”
Ivan sucked in a breath. “Me, either.”
Gallain knocked his head back against the wall again. “That’s on me.”
“That’s on him.” Caro glared at the door to the side of them, as if suspecting their abductor was right outside. “Not that I have any idea who he is.”
“Nasty, is what he is.” Ric’s voice was rough, and he cleared his throat. “He’ll be coming in soon with food and water.”
Almost as if he had been waiting to be announced, the door opened on a screech of rusty hinges, and their tormentor walked in, pulling a small cart behind him.
Again, Viviane saw evidence that this was usual for him, to have a packed prison full of captives. He had organized things so that it was easy to feed them all at once, without having to make multiple trips.
“How long have you been doing this?” she asked as he stopped well short of the soldiers’ reach.
He sucked in a quick, surprised breath at the question, staring at her. “Long enough,” he said.
She had been careful to study him covertly over the few days he’d come in to feed them. He seemed too thin, and he looked haggard. His hair was a mix of brown and gray, and his clothing hung off his frame. He moved as if he was injured, and the thought gave her a searing sense of satisfaction.
His mouth was set in a hard, uncompromising line but the few times he’d spoken, his voice had a soft, melodious tone. His voice didn’t match anything else about him.
He shifted his focus from her to the soldiers, and for the first time, his mouth quirked in a smile. His eyes twinkled, and he looked like he was thoroughly enjoying himself.
“Wondering where the other two you were talking about around your camp fire are?” he asked. “That sometimes happens. One or other gets lost in the forest. Especially if they’re lagging behind.”
“Where are they, then?” Gallain asked.
“Coming soon enough. I sent someone to bring them to me.”
The soldiers leaned back, looking unhappy, but Viviane saw Gallain and Caro share a look, as if there was a chance things weren’t going to go quite the way their abductor thought they would.
“What are you after?” Jacinta asked. “Why did you take the children?”
“They shone like a lighthouse beacon, and drew me in.” He began sliding food through the grate as he spoke. “You and you,” he pointed to Gallain and Caro, “you have a glimmer of it, but not enough to be of any real use. And you two have nothing.” He flicked a hand at Ivan and Jacinta.”
“Shone like a beacon?” Jacinta raised her eyebrows in question.
“With magic,” he exclaimed. “Bright and clear. I’ll need to separate them out, see who’s generating most of it, but all of them have some. It created a kind of synergy out in the fields. Quite astonishing.”
“And why do you steal children with magic?” Ivan asked.
“Not just children, although they are the most lucrative of my acquisitions.” He closed the grate, then set the food and water for the soldiers on a tray on the floor and pushed it, sliding it toward them while still remaining a safe distance away. “I wouldn’t have taken you four, even with the two who have a little magic, because I don’t deal in the non-magical any more, but I overheard you say you were looking for the children, and I couldn’t have you wandering around Warven, asking questions, no matter how idiotic they are in the town.”
He seemed to expect a response, and when no one said anything, he gave another smile, and left.
Everyone must have thought he was still lurking outside the door, because no one said a word, and after a long wait, finally Viviane heard the cart rattling away.
“He doesn’t deal in the non-magical anymore.” Jacinta’s words were hushed. “Did he say that?”
“He called us acquisitions.” Jon tipped his weight forward, so he was balanced in a crouch on his toes. “He plans to . . . sell us?”
“After he works out which of us has the most magic.” Genevieve looked up to the window. “I don’t have any. I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
“My mother thinks the Cervantes do have magic.” Viviane spoke carefully. “And let me guess, Gallain and Caro are Cervantes?”
The two soldiers looked at each other in surprise, and then over to her.
Her friends were staring at her, too.
“What are you talking about?” Ric asked.
“It’s the way we move. There’s a reason we were once put into camps by the old Kassian queen. My mother and General Ru of the Venyatu have both said it, lots of times.” She didn’t know if she should have told them, didn’t even know if her mother and the general’s guesses were right, but it felt like something she shouldn’t keep to herself.
“I have thought there is something magical in the way your father moves,” Ivan said, suddenly. “I’ve never seen someone so intuitive in a fight. But then I thought . . .” He cleared his throat and looked uncomfortable.
“You thought it might be his magical sword?” Viviane asked.
Caro snorted and turned to look at her friend. “You think the Commander’s sword is magical?”
Ivan shrugged sheepishly. “It’s a rumor.”
“It’s been a rumor since he came back with it from north Kassia to rejoin the Rising Wave,” Gallain said. “But I once heard someone ask him, and he laughed and said it really is just a sword.”
“My mother thinks there’s a Cervantes magic. Something the Cervantes are born with. A magical connection between body and mind.” Viviane had seen her father smile when her mother said things like that, then kiss the top of her head and whisper about getting a little help from his wife.
Her mother had stitched magic into her father’s skin when he was wounded, to heal him. But that had been before Viviane was even born. Neither of her parents knew if it was still active, although most likely not. But her mother still protected her father with every piece of clothing she made him, every stitch of embroidery she put into everything he wore.
Her mother didn’t go anywhere without needle and thread.
Vivi had neither right now, as she had been taken in her sleeping clothes and her abductor had taken their things. But stitch work was not her only weapon. Any kind of weaving, including braiding hair, could work. But as she’d decided when she’d first awoken, that was too dangerous to do when there was no plan. He said he could see their magic. Best to make none, then, until it really counted.
“Who was the man talking about? Saying he’s having another two brought to him?” Jon asked.
Jacinta glanced toward the door, then spoke in a soft voice. “Lieutenant Theo Hallan, and Melodie.”
“Theo?” Viviane’s voice shook. “He’s caught?”
“That one seems to think so,” Ivan said, jerking his thumb at the door. “I’m not so sure.”
Viviane heard the words, but she curled over her knees. She thought she remembered him being captured once before, the first night they’d been taken, but that had turned out to be wrong. She wouldn’t think about him being captured again.
Because if he was, the hope that had bloomed inside her would be crushed.