“No, we won’t travel to his mountain. Your stepfather is in the Wult lands for the wedding.”
“Wedding?”
“Rolf is getting married,” Heidel explained. “It all happened suddenly while you were in Earth Kingdom. The invitations had to be sent magically or else everyone would have missed the marriage.”
“Are you sure my stepfather is there?” I asked. “The last I spoke with him, he was on a quest to find the lost sword of the Madralorde.”
“I am certain he will be there,” Kull answered. “His duties as sky king dictate that he attend the marriage of our nobles.”
Outside, the carriage sped past mountains and onto open plains. Usually, I enjoyed seeing the mountains, but this time I couldn’t wait to get away from them.
Were we really free from the witch? Was Kull free from her? I wasn’t sure how much power she had away from her castle, and I also didn’t want to find out.
“So Rolf is getting married,” I said, trying to get my mind off darker matters. “When did this happen? And who is he marrying?”
Kull shrugged. “No idea.”
“He’s marrying a girl from the eastern clan,” Heidel said. “He met her a month ago.”
“A month? That was fast.”
“It’s not unusual for Wults to marry so quickly,” Kull said. “To be honest, after my father’s passing, it will be good to have a wedding in the family to lighten our spirits.”
Outside the carriage windows, the sky darkened. If we were headed to the Wult lands, we’d most likely spend all night traveling.
My mind wandered as we drew closer to our destination. I’d slept for only a few hours at a time during the journey—I’d had too many mishaps on these carriages to feel completely comfortable. When the sky finally lightened, I glanced through the window to find low-lying gray clouds spanning fields of dry wheat husks. We sped so fast through the fields that the stalks blurred together.
“Still a few hours to go,” Maveryck said quietly.
I turned to him. “I didn’t realize you were awake.”
“I don’t sleep well on these carriages.”
“Neither do I.”
Grace shifted at his feet and let out a short whine, so he scratched her head.
“Not much longer,” he said to her.
She rested her chin on her paws, and Maveryck shifted the staff out of her way. As he did, I noticed the runes etched onto its surface.
“How much do you know about that staff?” I asked.
“Not much. I do know that it was named after Zaladin, who was one of the Madralorde brothers. The legends don’t all agree about the Madralorde talismans, and as of yet, no one knows for sure where the brothers found the magic to fuel the objects they created.”
I studied the staff and found a bluish haze emanating from the worn wood, but the magic felt old and I feared to probe it further. The sensation was akin to touching brittle paper that would disintegrate if handled too much.
“It’s been enchanted with elven magic, but I can’t tell much more than that. Do you know how old it is?” I asked.
He shook his head. “There’s a great deal of speculation on that topic as well. Some say the objects can’t be more than three hundred years old, while others claim the Madralorde brothers lived before the Vikings arrived, more than fourteen hundred years ago.”
“That’s a large gap in time. Can’t anyone narrow it down more than that?”
“No. When the Madralorde brothers died, they took all their knowledge with them. They hid their weapons; they destroyed their scrolls. No one even knows where their keep was located, or even if it actually existed. Not much remains of their knowledge, making it impossible to understand anything at all about them. The few surviving journals don’t tell us much.”
“When do you think they lived?” I asked.
“No idea, though seeing the staff now, I would say it’s older than we suspected. These runes are written in an ancient elven language that hasn’t been in use for more than two thousand years.”
“Two thousand? That’s a little older than the historians thought. But it doesn’t make much sense. Wouldn’t that wood be rotten after two thousand years?”
“With the proper spells in place, I believe it could last for several millennia.”
I studied the staff, wishing I knew more about it.
“My stepfather said it had the power to control Theht.”
“No, by itself it can’t do such a thing. All seven items would have to be reunited, and even then, I’m not convinced it’s possible.”
“The elves think it’s possible.”
“True. But the elven queen is desperate, and she’ll resort to extreme measures to get what she wants.”
Beside me, Kull shifted and grimaced as if he were in pain. “No,” he whispered in his sleep, but then he shifted again and the pain disappeared from his face.
“Has he always had nightmares?” Maveryck asked.
“I don’t think so,” I answered.
He eyed Kull. “The witch did something to him.”
“Yes, she tortured him.”
“No, she did something else—something to his mind.”
“How do you know?”
Maveryck looked me in the face, his eyes intense as the sun’s first rays streaked across the floor.
“It happened to one of my companions a long time ago. He didn’t live long after his encounter with Silvestra. The nightmares were too much.”
“You think the same thing is happening to Kull?”
“I believe so. There aren’t many who escape the witch unscathed.”
“Can I help him?”
“No. Only he can undo what the witch has put into his mind.”
My heart clenched. Theht had entered my mind, and it was already driving me insane. Had the witch done the same thing to him? I took his hand and gripped his fingers. I would not let anything happen to him. It had taken so long to get him back. Heaven help me, I would unleash every evil in the world just to bring him back to me.
Yes, you would, Theht’s voice whispered.
I closed my eyes, pushing away the voice that lingered so close to my consciousness. Pondering those words would drive me insane, but the truth was hard to
