15. Where No One Can Reach Her #6
Not just any blood. Hers.
"Allora," he whispered.
The tether inside him shivered, reaching, crying out like a thread being stretched too far.
He pressed his palm flat against the stain, closing his eyes, willing the connection to solidify.
But instead of clarity, he found static.
Interference. The pull that should have been a compass pointing true was scattered, diffused, as though someone had thrown sand into the mechanism.
"She's no longer moving south," he said quietly, standing.
Luko appeared in the doorway. "Are you certain?" That had been the plan. They had scoured maps, traced the river valley, considered every logical route to the border. All signs pointed south. All witnesses. All sense.
But Malec frowned. His gaze drifted east through the small window. The wrong direction.
"That's the problem," he said. "I'm not certain of anything."
Luko's brow furrowed as Malec stepped outside into the biting wind, boots crunching over snow. The breeze cut through the hills, blowing strangely warm from the east, like breath from a different season.
"It doesn't make sense," Malec murmured, staring into the distance.
"What doesn't?" Luko pressed.
Malec's voice dropped lower, almost to himself.
"I should be pulled south, should feel her there with absolute clarity.
" His eyes tracked the distant fog-wrapped hills, the drifts of snow piled high over hidden roads.
"But instead it's like I'm being pulled in the other direction, and a barrier is shielding me from getting a hold on her exact location.
But the tether is scrambled, almost unreliable. "
"Can you at least tell if she's headed towards us or away?" Luko asked, frustration creeping into his tone.
Malec ground his molars together. "Away. I feel her moving away."
Luko glanced down at the map still unrolled in his hands. "She can't be doubling back. The only other path is east. But there's nothing east except highlands and noble estates."
Malec's eyes narrowed. "Exactly."
The wind howled as he stepped into the courtyard of the waystation.
Snow snapped around him, his black suede cloak rippling in the gale, its snow-leopard pattern marking him like a predator crowned.
His dapple-gray horse stomped restlessly beside him, steam curling from its nostrils.
Dark circles carved shadows beneath his eyes, and his platinum hair whipped loose around his face, still not bound or controlled echoing the unraveling that raged war with the last thread of his sanity.
Behind him, Luko crossed his arms, watching with wary eyes, unsure whether Malec was unraveling or becoming far more dangerous.
Malec's voice rang cold and clear across the courtyard. "We split the forces."
The soldiers straightened, attention snapping to their commander.
"The primary force will continue south. Sweep the border towns.
Scan for movement, unusual trades, any sightings of a dark-skinned Canariae.
Check inns, caravans, river ports." He paused, his breath misting in the cold air.
"I want a second unit to double back north.
Cover the routes we've already passed. If she's clever enough to wait for us to move ahead and then circle behind us, I want her cut off. "
The captain nodded, already mentally dividing his men.
Malec's gaze turned to Luko, his voice dropping but losing none of its intensity. "And I want a bounty posted. High enough to turn every merchant, innkeeper, and traveling peddler into my eyes. Make it substantial."
Luko pulled out parchment, already scribing notes. "How high?"
"High enough that refusing it would be foolish," Malec said flatly. "Five thousand marks."
Luko's pen paused. That was enough to buy a house. A ship. A new life.
"Make it clear in the posting that she is the property of House Talandros," Malec continued, his voice hardening.
"She is to be returned unharmed. Not a hair on her head touched.
No bruises, not even a scratch on her." His eyes burned with barely controlled fury.
"Anyone who harms her in any way will face penalties severe enough to make death seem merciful.
I want that explicitly stated. She is valuable beyond measure, and damage to her will be considered an act of aggression against my house. "
Luko nodded, scribbling faster. "Unharmed. Heavy penalties for damage. I'll have it distributed to every town, waystation, and trading post within a hundred miles by tomorrow."
"Make it two hundred miles," Malec corrected. "And include her description: dark-skinned Canariae, seventeen and a half hands tall, likely traveling with companions. She will be disguised or hooded."
"Understood," Luko said quietly, tucking the parchment away.
Malec's gaze turned eastward once more, his expression grim.
"And I want scouts sent into the eastern highlands.
Look for signs that shouldn't be there: fresh rations, foreign waste, hoof prints in frozen soil.
Any indication that someone is sheltering where they shouldn't be. Then report back to me directly."
The captain tilted his head. "Do we know she's headed east, my lord?"
Malec mounted his horse in one fluid motion, the leather creaking beneath his grip. His hands trembled on the reins, exhaustion and obsession locked in battle through his frame. He lifted his gaze to the distant hills, driven by an instinct deeper than logic, heavier than hope.
"I don't know anything anymore," he said quietly. "But I feel it. And right now, that's all I have."
He turned his horse toward the eastern road, his voice carrying across the courtyard. "She's out there. Somewhere. And whoever is helping her hide will learn that there is nowhere in this world beyond my reach."