12. Esmira
ESMIRA
I dropped to my knees. A hand flattened against my back pressing me down. I turned my head, surprised to see Methrin beside me. His arm shielded me as I lay flat.
“Pull your hood up,” he whispered. “Stay still.”
Grass tickled my chin as I buried my head in my arms. My entire body tensed as I squeezed my eyes shut. My book of beasts flashed in front of my mind. Were we going to be ripped from limb to limb, burned alive or pecked to death?
Every impossible death rose to the forefront of my mind, each one slower and more painful than the last. I wanted to run, not lie hidden in the grass, waiting for death to overtake me.
A shriek split the air and a great wind flattened the grass against my skin. The scent of decaying flesh filled my nose and bile clawed up my throat. Tears leaked out of my eyes. We never should have come here .
Minutes passed and nothing happened. The smell faded and silence stretched.
Finally, Rydlin called, “Clear, let’s go.”
Relief swept through me.
Instead of rising I brushed at my face, hoping no one would see my weakness. When I sat up, I was face to face with Methrin. He removed the weight of his arm but his gaze lingered on my face. “Are you . . .” He paused, searching for the right word.
I stood, dusting the grass off my cloak. “I’m fine, this place is—” I glanced at the horrid Boundary flickering in the distance. “I don’t like this place,” I finished quickly.
“We won’t be here long.”
I turned around and bit back a scream.
Two people ran toward us, dressed in animal skins.
White paint marked their bodies and they carried weapons.
Knives in their belts, a quiver of arrows on their backs, and a bow in hand.
As they neared their features became clear, a man and a woman.
They waved, shouting, “Rydlin? Lyra? What are you doing here?”
They must be outcasts from the kingdom with magic.
I wanted to step forward and meet them, ask questions, hear their stories, but when they discovered who I was, would they hate me?
It was clear in my mind that I was not my father, but I was royalty and I’d done nothing. Wasn’t doing nothing blameworthy?
Methrin placed a hand on my shoulder and stepped forward, his stance protective.
“Haldra.” Lyra bolted forward, hugging the woman .
Rydlin also walked up to the pair, clasping the man’s arm. “Oldir. Haldra.” He nodded at them. “We have urgent business on this side of the Boundary and must be on our way with haste, is all well with you?”
“It is,” the man, Oldir, confirmed. “We’ve been watching the hillside for newcomers then saw a beast chase you down. Where are you headed?”
“Toward the wood,” Rydlin said. “There’s much to tell you, the day of reckoning has come, the time of prophecy is at hand.”
Curious eyes turned toward Methrin and me, wide-eyed and full of hope. A pressure built in my chest.
The woman, Haldra, stepped forward but Lyra shook her head. “There’s no time.”
“Beware the wood,” Haldra advised. “A creature lurks there, bringing death to all. We’ve left it alone since it does not hunt outside the wood, we assume it’s protecting its young and after the summer will move on to other hunting grounds.”
“We appreciate the warning,” Lyra said.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Oldir asked. “Anything at all?”
“Keep doing as you are doing,” Rydlin instructed. “Survive, watch the hillside, one day we may call on you for help.”
“And we will be glad to give it,” Oldir returned.
Rydlin and Lyra spoke a few more words, then embraced the couple before turning back to us. Rydlin walked just a little taller as he led us deeper into the meadow.
N ightfall brought us to the edge of the field, where a grove of trees rose above us. Rydlin held up a hand. “We will wait for sunrise to enter. There are a series of caves within the wood, we’ll reach the mirror before midday.”
Lyra dropped her bedroll on the ground, followed by her sack. “Anyone hungry? Father, is a fire wise?”
“A fire is mandatory, while it is a beacon to our position it will keep the predators away, that and the wards.” Holding out his staff, he walked away from us and started chanting, pausing at intervals to raise and lower his staff.
I watched him, a frown on my forehead.
“He’s setting the wards of protection,” Lyra explained, patting down the grass.
I joined her, helping to make space for a fire.
Methrin did not participate, instead he faced the forest, an unnatural stillness coming over him.
My eyes were drawn toward him again, watching him pace, like a predator stalking its prey.
Even though I didn’t know him well, I was aware he was anxious, nervous about returning home.
How long had it been since he’d been there? More importantly, why was he exiled?
“How do the wards work?” I asked Lyra, distracting myself from him.
“The wards are similar to what we had around the castle,” she explained. “My father sets a magical circle which repels anyone or anything who tries to enter.”
“Like the wolves.” I looked up at the darkening sky. “What if something comes from above?”
“You need not worry,” Methrin said, folding his arms across his chest. “The beasts that live here are not a threat. They are curious, some, vicious, but they are not hungry hunters and we are not easy prey.”
I studied him. He still intimidated me yet I forced the words out of my mouth. “When will you teach me how to use Mirror Magic?”
He flinched but otherwise held my gaze. “Soon. It will be easier since we are no longer being hunted.”
I frowned. We hadn’t been hunted for days, not since arriving at the sorcerer’s castle. Yet he stood, arms folded around himself, shoulders slightly bent. And then there’d been that flinch of reluctance. He didn’t want to teach me Mirror Magic. Why?
Tucking that thought away I turned my attention back to the fire. It took me a few tries before it caught. As it licked through the grass, Lyra and I gathered sticks and bramble from the edges of the wood, feeding it.
Rydlin returned and we ate, warming our food over flickering flames. As darkness gathered, Rydlin sat in front of the fire, sharing tales of old. I lay back on the bedroll listening to the cadence of his voice, the rhyme of verse.
Again my gaze roamed to Methrin. He lay on his side, facing me but it was impossible to tell if he were watching me or sleeping.
Something flickered on the edges of my vision, shifting my focus to the forest. A shape moved so quickly it faded back into the darkness, but not before I caught a halo of red. A shiver went through me and I squeezed my eyes shut. Tight.
It was just my imagination. Nothing more.
But sleep would not come.
I lay on my back, hands resting on my stomach, head cradled by the bedroll.
The sky was ablaze with the crystal light of stars, far away in the darkness like a sea of diamonds.
I wanted to reach up and drag my fingers through them, watch them scatter and resettle into new constellations.
I kept my gaze above while the thump thump of my heart steadied, and my thoughts drifted to my mother.
What had happened to her? If she had magic, I must have gained mine from her bloodline, although why it manifested so late in life, I wasn’t sure.
If she had Mirror Magic, it would explain her disappearance, yet more questions lingered.
Why would she walk in the wood with me, and offer her soul to a shadow?
Perhaps the very monster that had been unleashed from the mirrorverse?
Did my father know about her magic and demand her execution?
Or did the Captain of the Venators have something to do with her disappearance?
I wanted the truth, all of it, no matter how desperate and ugly it might be.
However, answers would be impossible to get once I left my kingdom for Methrin’s, a place where mortals did not dwell.
I’d be walking away from answers, but how would I gain the truth about my mother without confronting my father, or the Captain of the Venators ?
A cry had me sitting upright, flinching as I stared at the forest. Rydlin sat by the fire, poking it with a stick, humming under his breath. Lyra lay close to me, still, as though she did not fear what might come in the night or hunt among shadows.
A rough, wet tongue licked my cheek and I opened my eyes to daylight, then scrambling off my bedroll, a shriek on my lips.
A lizard-like creature the size of my hand scrambled away from me, hissing as it ran.
Lyra burst into laughter.
I glared at her, wiping at my face. “What was that?”
I hadn’t seen those creatures in my book of beasts.
“They are harmless.” Lyra giggled, rolling up her bedroll. “A nuisance, but they won’t harm us.”
More of the tiny creatures scattered away from the ash of the fire, chirping as they went. A shiver of revulsion went through me and I stood, snatching at my bag. One hopped out of it, hissing.
I yelped, dropping it.
Lyra grinned. “Sorry for laughing, it’s just?—”
I huffed. “You don’t have to apologize, I’m sure it was amusing.”
Cautiously, I kicked the bag to see if more of the creatures would hop out, then glanced around to see if Rydlin and Methrin had witnessed my embarrassment. They both stood a distance away, talking in front of the wood.
Lyra pointed. “They are waiting for us.”
I rolled up my bedroll, heart thumping in my throat. I certainly hadn’t missed traveling. Already I felt grimy from sleeping outside, and I was sure my hair was dew-damp and frizzy. No matter, the woods rose before me, eerie and haunting. Time was almost up.
It was much cooler under the canopy of trees.
The scent of honeysuckle imbued the air with a note of sweetness.
Bulbus trees with leafy boughs and giant roots stood like tree guardians, and woodland creatures scattered as we passed.
We followed no path that I could see, yet Rydlin seemed to know exactly where he was going.