Chapter 14
“We have to go to the feast tomorrow. We’d be missed if any of us didn’t. But you know what folks do at a party?”
“Get drunk.” Hekla was nodding slowly.
I pointed at her. “Exactly. We wait until everyone is good and sloppy, then Lucus, Hekla, and I slip away to free Kaippa and the Binder’s son.”
Hekla frowned. “Why me? I mean, I’m up for whatever, but dude can fly and you’re all magical. What do I have to offer?”
“My plan is for Lucus to come up under the cells, cut the vines, and help each of them get back to solid ground safely without the guards even noticing. We’ll be there to keep an eye out for the guards and for backup in case things don’t go as planned.”
“Why can’t Lucus control the vines?” Hekla asked.
“Remember what happened when I tried to use my fae magic last time?” Lucus pursed his lips.
Hekla sighed. “Oh, right. Buried alive. Got it. No fae magic, then. So we’ll just use knives? I haven’t seen any around here except the one Nora was using on those leeks.”
Nora pulled said knife from her bag. It was a pretty thing, golden in color and glittering like it had magic too. “It’s a fae knife. Made of amber and set with copper touched by fae magic. The magic isn’t active though, so it’s just a basic tool at this point.”
“See?” I said. “I think that’s what will work here. Arleigh won’t expect non-magical attacks, right?”
“Perhaps she’s on to something. I doubt it, but I’m willing to keep listening,” the Binder said.
“Lucus can help the boy and Kaippa to solid ground where we’ll be watching for incoming guards. If something happens with Lucus and his ability to fly, I’ll climb the cliff face under the cells and do it myself. Hekla will help me look for a good path if it comes to it. She’s a star at that.” I faced the Binder. “What is your boy’s name?”
“Oliver.” The way the Binder pronounced his son’s name cracked my heart. He was gripping his shirt like his life depended on it, and his eyes had closed. Would he be able to keep this whole thing under wraps? If we secured his son, he could probably keep his cool. We’d have to show him the boy as quickly as possible if we were going to get him to try to break the boundary. Even then, this whole thing could blow up in our faces.
“We need to try to get your Oliver out of here.”
“If you fail and are caught, I will not move to save you unless it helps my boy survive,” the Binder said.
“Noted.”
“Once you deliver my son, and I have a chance to hide him, or you manage to do so, I’ll crack a hole in the boundary, and Coren can portal all of us out of the kingdom. We will need to be fast. So incredibly fast.”
My chest tightened at the thought of portalling everyone. Sure, I’d done it once, but I’d had a powerful spell book at my fingertips. “I’ll need to practice portalling.”
Nora glanced over her shoulder like she feared being overheard. “We can help you, but we’ll have to keep it secret. Portalling is the one thing Arleigh doesn’t allow us to practice. If we keep it to our own camp and beyond the henge, we should be fairly safe.”
“What has she done to mages caught practicing portalling?” Hekla asked.
Nora wrung her hands. “Arleigh took one mage’s ear.”
My hand went to my ear as my stomach twisted.
“And she had Corliss hang another from a tree,” the Binder said. “Oh, and there was the mage who lost his hands for trying to portal.”
I traded a look with Hekla, who mouthed Holy shit.
“Asher. Yes, I remember him.” Nora squeezed her eyes shut.
“You can’t take the boundary down completely?” Lucus asked the Binder.
“No. It is made of both fae and mage magic. I don’t know how Arleigh managed it in the beginning. I can create a small opening for us to portal through. I will only be able to keep it open for a few moments, but with the power Coren has with portalling…” He whirled and began pacing, muttering to himself. “No, no, no. It won’t work. Her portal was a fluke.”
“Just help me practice it. I can do it.”
“We have to hope,” Nora whispered to his back, but he didn’t seem to hear her.
Hope was the only thing we could truly control here.
And so my portalling practice began.
While Hekla and Lucus kept an eye out for guards and suspicious plant life, the Binder and Nora coached me on increasing my power and channeling it into a vision of where I wanted to be and who I wanted to have with me.
“I’m getting this single portalling down pretty well.” I stood and brushed dry grass from my tunic top thing. I had just landed in a heap inside the henge, completing my journey from the tree line where the Binder and Nora waited.
Hekla smiled. “You really are.” Then she whipped around as a voice tumbled through the air. She swallowed hard and gripped my sleeve.
Two fae approached, their silhouettes ethereal in the sunset’s hazy light.
“It’s Corliss,” Lucus said, his eyes flashing and his body tensing. Dude was so ready for a fight. Well, he was ready in spirit, but not in body. His cheeks had sunk a bit again. He probably needed to feed on a tree soon to keep up with the curse’s increasingly dangerous effects. Would the curse kill him slowly and give me some time to fix this? Or would it suddenly snatch his life when I wasn’t looking?
“It’s just them checking up on us,” I said of Corliss and her guard. “It’s a good thing. They weren’t close enough to see when I portalled, and now we’re just standing here. Once they see us doing nothing interesting,
