Chapter Seventeen
Merrigan made no effort to follow him, but his deep footprints in the thickening slush and icy mud outside were clear and went the same direction she had planned to go. She didn't slow her steps, but listened for the sound of him ahead of her as she walked down the long side of the warehouse, heading away from the main street. The splashing of booted feet faded, so she didn't expect to see him when she turned the corner, into an open field. Many of the carting businesses and merchants in that part of the city pastured their horses there. Bayl stood in the open, arms spread, head tilted back to the sky. She shuddered, sensing the pressure building in him.
"No, don't," she whispered, unsure what she feared about to happen.
"Belinda!" he cried, the last vowel turning into a howl that fractured into a sob. Bayl dropped to his knees, head bowed, bracing himself on his arms as he crouched there in the mud and thickening slushy snow. "Belinda." His voice shuddered, dropping to a whisper so Merrigan more felt than heard the name. "So close. Can you hear me, love? Belinda..."
A sensation washed over her, as if all the world held its breath. Then for two seconds, utter darkness splashed across the field. It rippled out from Bayl as if he was the point where a massive rock was flung into a mud puddle, sending it splashing out in all directions.
Mi'Lady? Bib's voice sounded thin, scratchy, torn—the sound she imagined all his pages would make as they were ripped, a dozen at a time, from his binding. Mi'Lady, are you all right?
Merrigan couldn't seem to gather her thoughts enough to concentrate and respond. She took one more glance at the prince. She remembered how her father wept when her mother died, and did not want to hear Bayl sobbing now.
No, wait. He wasn't sobbing.
He wasn't there.
A massive, churning black shadow swirled around the spot where he had knelt, and then spun up into the sky, to vanish.
Stupid, stupid, stupid ...
Now they knew at least one of the contingency spells that Belinda's sisters had cast, in case Bayl did find her. Was it possible that Belinda heard, if only with her heart, when Bayl said her name? Did that trigger this malicious bit of magic?
Merrigan turned and ran, back into the warehouse. She nearly knocked several children over as she kept running, down the narrow aisle between different living areas. Back to the sewing room and her shelf bed, where she had left Bib and Crystal having another long talk.
"What did that fool do?" Crystal cried, before Merrigan could do more than tug aside the curtain across her bed.
"You felt that too?" Merrigan flung off her cloak and dropped down next to the two magical beings. Now she shook, hard enough she thought she would be sick.
"The more important question," Bib said, "is if the enchantresses felt it."
"What did he do?" Bryan demanded, sliding to a stop in front of Merrigan's shelf. He went to one knee and caught hold of her shaking, cold hands. "Mara, are you all right? What did my idiot brother do?" He shook his head. "No, I can imagine. We need to brace ourselves for attack."
"What attack? He's gone." She stumbled, her tongue tangling, as she told them what Bayl had said, what she had seen, ending with, "They've won."
"That kind never considers themselves winners until all hope is utterly shredded," Crystal said. "They've taken Bayl away, but if they felt the reaction, those two hags have to know Belinda is nearby. They'll come looking and deal with her, to make sure she can't find and rescue her prince."
"All right then. We need advice. Some magical help. Defense." Merrigan could almost have laughed at the fractured way she talked. "It's time you met Bergomass." However, when she tried to get up, to take Bryan across the city to meet the enchanter, her legs didn't want to support her weight.
She hated being so weak. Her sewing girls came to report that a massive snowstorm had swept in, surrounding the warehouse with howling winds and dropping gobs of snow that threatened to bury them by nightfall. They couldn't have gotten across the city in that mess outside, but Merrigan wouldn't forgive herself.
Bryan admitted he knew it was hopeless, but he had to try to get some clue to what had happened to Bayl. He took Crystal with him. Belinda showed up a short time later, the baby bathing finally done for the day. She exclaimed over the signs of shock on Merrigan, and immediately fussed over her. When Bib asked how she felt, they discovered Belinda hadn't sensed the reverberation of magic.
More than a dozen people were caught in that part of the city, blinded so they couldn't find their way. The storm swept them into the warehouse. Most buildings around the orphanage were uninhabited, with no one to respond to shouts for help, no heat, no blankets, and no smoke from fires burning. Nearly everyone who stumbled up against the orphanage doors reported they had smelled the bread baking for dinner
