I kept my end of the bargain. I desperately hoped Valek kept his. Exhaustion tugged at my consciousness, and I would have fallen asleep, but Kiki nudged me.
I opened my eyes.
We were out of the Void, but we must be close to Alea’s people.
Clutching the long strands of her tail, I pulled myself into a standing position. Kiki knelt, and I mounted her back.
She took off, breaking into her gust-of-wind gait. I hung on and tried to stay awake. The plains blurred past as the sun set. The icy air bit at my skin.
When she slowed, I blinked, trying to focus on my surroundings. Still in the plains, but I saw a campfire ahead.
She snorted in amusement, whinnied and stopped. I glanced past her head and saw two men blocking the path. The moonlight shone off their swords. Ari and Janco. I called to them and they sheathed their weapons as Kiki drew closer.
“Thank fate!” Ari cried.
Seeing how I drooped over Kiki’s neck, Ari pulled me off and carried me to their campfire, setting me down as if I was as fragile as an egg. The sudden wish that Ari was my real brother overcame me. Even as an eight-year- old, I’d bet Ari never would have let me be kidnapped.
Janco feigned boredom. “Going off and getting all the glory again,” he said. “I don’t know why we even bothered to come to this crazy land. Your trail marks didn’t even have the decency to go anywhere but in circles,” he grumped.
“Don’t like being lost, Janco?” I teased.
He harrumphed and crossed his arms.
“Don’t worry. Your skills are still keen. You’re in the Avibian Plains. There’s a protective magic here that confuses the mind.”
“Magic,” he spat. “Another good reason to stay in Ixia.”
Ari sat me by the fire. “You look terrible. Here.” He wrapped my cloak around my shoulders.
“Where—”
“We found it in the plains,” Ari explained. Then he frowned. “Valek had asked us to back him up last night. We followed him, but they ambushed him at the Citadel’s gates.”
“Cahil and his men,” I said.
He nodded then began inspecting the cuts on my arms.
“How did they know where to find him?” I asked.
“Captain Marrok is a tracker of some renown,” Ari said. “Seems he had dealings with Valek before. He is the only soldier to have escaped from the Commander’s dungeon. He must have been waiting for the perfect opportunity.” Ari shook his head. “Valek’s capture presented a dilemma.”
“Help Valek or help you,” Janco said.
“I think he suspected something might happen to him and didn’t want you unprotected. So we stuck to the plan and followed you.” Ari handed me a jug of water.
I gulped the liquid.
“Not that we did any good,” Janco huffed. “When we reached the meeting site, the horse and cart were gone and we figured we would track you. She had to stop sometime. But—”
“You lost your way,” I finished for him. Ari probed the deep gash on my right forearm. “Ow!”
“Hold still,” Ari said. “Janco, get my med kit from my pack—these cuts need to be cleaned and sealed.”
If I’d had any energy, I could have healed the wounds on my arms with magic. Instead, I endured Ari’s administrations and admonishments. When he pulled out the pot of Rand’s sealing glue, I asked him about the Commander’s new chef to distract myself from the pain.
“Since Rand never made it to Brazell’s for the transfer of cooks, the Commander promoted one of Rand’s kitchen staff.” Ari frowned.
I grimaced as Ari applied the glue to my cut more from remembering Rand than from the burning in my arm. Rand had lost his life protecting me, but I wouldn’t have been in danger if he hadn’t set me up for an ambush in the first place.
“The food hasn’t been the same,” Janco said with a sigh. “Everyone is losing weight.”
When Ari finished wrapping my arms, he pulled something from the fire. “Janco got a rabbit.” He broke off a piece and handed it to me. “You need to eat something.”
That reminded me. “Kiki needs…” I moved to stand up.
Janco waved me down. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Do you—”
“Yeah, I grew up on a farm.”
I had gnawed every bit of meat off the rabbit’s bone when Janco came back covered with horsehair. He seemed to be in a better mood. “She beautiful,” he said about Kiki. “I’ve never had a horse stand so patiently to be rubbed down and she wasn’t even tied!”
I told him about the honor she gave him by changing his name from Rabbit Man to Rabbit. “Unprecedented.”
He gave me an odd look. “Talking horses. Magic. Crazy southerners.” He shook his head.
He might have said more, but I could no longer stay awake.
The next morning, I told my friends about Alea and the clan on the plateau. They wanted to go after her, but I reminded them about Valek and the need to find Ferde. My heart lurched when I thought of Valek. Even with a night of sleep, I still didn’t have enough energy to find out what had happened to him.
The rest had roused me. “We need to get to the Citadel,” I said, standing.
“Do you know where we are?” Ari asked.
“Somewhere in the plains,” I said, shouldering my backpack.
“Some magician you are,” Janco said. “Do you even know which direction the Citadel is?”
“No.” Kiki came and stood next to me. I grabbed her mane. “How about a boost?” I asked Janco.
He muttered under his breath, but offered his linked hands for my boot. When I had settled onto her back, I looked down at him. “Kiki knows where to go. Can you keep up?”
He grinned. “This rabbit can run.”
Ari and Janco packed their gear and we set off at a trot. All those laps around the Commander’s castle had kept them in top physical condition.
We reached the road, and I heard Janco curse and grumble about being lost only a mile away. When we approached the Citadel’s gates, we encountered the four Master Magicians. They all sat on horseback. A well- armed Calvary team accompanied them.
I smiled at Roze Featherstone’s look of astonishment, but sobered at Irys’s cold stare.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“We were coming to either rescue you or kill you,” Zitora said. She flashed Roze an annoyed glance.
I met Irys’s gaze, questioning. She turned away and blocked my efforts to reach her mind. Even though I had known she would shun me for going off alone, her actions still tore at my heart.
Not bothering to conceal the satisfaction in her voice, Roze said, “Because of your dangerous disregard for the well-being of Sitia, you have been expelled.”
The least of my worries. “Is Opal safe?” I asked the magicians.
Bain Bloodgood nodded. “She told us a woman held her. Was she connected to the killer?”
“No. We still need to find Ferde. He doesn’t want me. He must have taken someone else. Has anyone been
