Magic Under Stone

Ilsin rose to join him.

“My apologies to the court. Don’t let me disrupt your dinner,” Tamin called on his way out.

As they left, the whispering rose back into a roar of conversation.

Chapter 25

Before we reached our destination, Rowan blindfolded us, so we stumbled over uneven ground, a guiding enemy hand at our elbows while our hands were tied behind our backs. It was already getting dark, and I couldn’t even see much beneath the edge of the cloth. I was beginning to have grave doubts about the assistance Annalie had supposedly seen or sensed in the woods, but I’d had no chance to ask her anything more about it.

We should have tried to take them, I kept thinking. There would surely be even more guards at the prison, and what if the king locked us away before we had a chance to spread his secrets? What if he did something worse? I kept thinking of Ordorio’s story of Erris trapped in the automaton, and how the fairies had mangled his and Melia’s bodies, and I could hardly bear the panic crawling over my skin like ants.

Suddenly my feet were on the packed ground of a path again, and then the hand guiding me stopped to knock at a door. I heard the door swing open.

“Found them at the gate,” Rowan said. “This is the girl who was with Erris Tanharrow, plus some witch.”

“Nice work,” said a gravelly male voice.

Rowan grunted. We were led across a threshold, wooden floor, and then carpet. The room smelled rather like wood, offering no particular clues, but I had only taken a few steps in before Rowan said, “Stairs ahead, ladies.”

Now we were led downward. I kept my elbow against the banister for some stability. When we came to the end, Rowan removed my blindfold, revealing nothing but a small, dark room. A man was sitting on the ground in bored repose, with metal shackles tethering his ankles and wrists mere inches apart.

“Oh, good. Company,” he said in a droll voice.

“I wouldn’t get too comfortable,” said Rowan’s male cohort, sounding grim. Rowan moved to the door. The woman was behind me, and I heard the clink of chains. She handed a set of shackles to the man, and he crouched to put them around my ankles.

I stepped back instinctively. I didn’t want to be tethered and bound-like Erris to the piano-helpless.

“You’ll make things worse if you don’t hold still,” Rowan said. The man took a firmer grip on my ankle.

Don’t be stupid, Nim, I thought wildly, only I wasn’t sure what the stupid act was-to let him shackle me or to fight it. Of course, if we couldn’t fight them before, we couldn’t now, but what if this was our last chance? I kept imagining my regret if I was dragged out to a guillotine or a hangman’s noose-how did fairies execute people anyway? No, it probably wouldn’t be anything fancy and public. They wouldn’t want me screaming about Erris before I died. Maybe someone would just come slit our throats.

Upstairs, the door opened, followed by a thump and a strangled cry. Rowan looked behind him.

“What was that?” the woman asked. The man clamped his sweaty hand over my mouth. The woman shot Annalie a sharp look and took out her knife, pointing the tip at both of us in turn. “Either of you make a sound and you’re dead.”

Rowan hurried up the stairs, taking out his own knife. My heart was pounding.

Rowan shouted, “Both of you come up-”

He never finished the sentence and he never came downstairs. In a rush of adrenaline, I gathered my heat magic and blew out a hot breath, forcing the man to take his hand from my mouth. Annalie slipped her hands easily from her bonds, and I realized she must have gotten her spirit friends to loosen them for her.

“Hey!” The man grabbed my arm. “Don’t you try it!”

Annalie was left to fight the woman, and I saw her hand move with the knife, heard Annalie scream, but I had my own battle to pay attention to. I quickly moved the heat from my lungs to my skin, shooting it up the man’s arm-just as I had warmed Erris so many mornings, only now the magic was too hot, and the man howled with pain and took his hands off me.

The room was cold, however, and it was hard to keep up my magic without a source. My hands were still tethered behind me, and I took a step back to the wall, quickly noting that Annalie was still on her feet-sleeve slashed and arm bleeding-but she seemed to be merely grazed. Could I burn away the rope? But I couldn’t seem to make fire. I was too panicked.

But now whoever had initiated the attack upstairs was coming down the stairs-a man in front with a sword at the ready, a redhaired woman with a bow and arrow poised to shoot-both in green capes.

“Drop your weapons now, you lot of traitors,” the woman shouted. “Two of your comrades are already dead and there are ten of us here with more on the way.”

“You call us traitors? You’re traitors to your king,” the woman shot back, but she sheathed her knife.

“We’re waiting for the true king,” the Green Hood woman said. “Or queen. Whichever it may be. Now, lift your hands and come up.”

I went over to Annalie. “Are you all right?”

Her hand was clamped over her upper arm, but she nodded. “It’s just a scratch. A nasty scratch, but not much worse than the Captain’s given me on occasion.” The Captain was her old cat, and having encountered him once, I could believe it.

Tamin’s spies went up the stairs in surrender, and the two Green Hoods came down to us.

“I’m Keyelle,” the woman said, untying my bonds. “And that’s Esmon. Ifra, the jinn, he told us to expect you. I’m not sure he really had all of this in mind, but we couldn’t wait for a convenient time to act. You’ve come looking for Erris, haven’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry it took us so long to intervene,” she said. “We thought Rowan was one of us, and he volunteered to go to the gate and look out for you after Ifra told us you might come, but we know there’s been a traitor in our midst because that’s how Calden was captured.” She nodded at the man in shackles. “Another one of our people who works the gate suspected Rowan, so we’ve been following him, hoping he’d lead us to Calden.”

“Nice work,” Calden said. “I hope there’s food around. They’ve been giving me nothing but porridge.”

“You’ve got bigger worries than porridge. There’s a rumor that Tamin wants to have you executed at Belin’s ball this very night,” Esmon said. “And we’d better clear off right away. We’re only half an hour from the palace on horseback and we don’t know who’s watching the place.”

“Where are we?” I asked. “We came blindfolded.”

“You’re in Tamin’s lodge. He comes here in the fall for his royal hunt,” Esmon said.

“Half an hour from the palace,” I said. Half an hour from Erris’s body, if my hopes and suspicions were correct. I could almost taste both success and failure. “Where will we go now?”

“Ifra told us to be very careful coming after Erris or Violet,” Keyelle said. “But Belin’s hosting a ball to introduce Violet. He’s hoping his engagement to a Tanharrow will calm everyone down, but a lot of them are Tanharrow sympathizers, and… well, if we could sneak in tonight and find Erris…”

“Do you know where he might be?”

Keyelle glanced at the men.

“I’ve some idea of the layout of the palace,” Calden said. “But I’d rather not have anything to do with this, if those Graweldin brothers are out for my head.”

“I confess I was hoping you might have an idea,” Keyelle said, looking at me.

Just as Keyelle glanced at the men, I glanced at Annalie.

“The spirits might help,” Annalie said. “But you might be able to help too, Nim. Your magic has improved so much, and you know Erris’s spirit better than anyone. I wonder if you’ll be able to sense him.”

“Well, let’s get away from this place and figure it out then,” Keyelle said, waving her hands. “My family is already upset that I just had to go put myself in danger, but if I end up getting ambushed at Tamin’s house, it will be particularly mortifying.”

When we came upstairs, I laid eyes on Rowan’s corpse. It was just there, on the ground, eyes open, an arrow in his chest. One moment he’d been leading me down the stairs and now he was dead.