[Study 02] - Magic Study Page 29

  Searching for my pack and bow would reveal to her that I could move. So I clamped my teeth down to keep them from chattering and to remind myself to stay still.

  I heard a thump and the cart tilted. My feet now pointed toward the ground as my head came up. With this new angle, I could see a wooden frame just a few feet away. Made of thick beams, the frame had manacles and chains hanging from the top with some type of pulley rigged to them. Under the frame lay a metal basin. I guessed that the victim stood in the basin.

  Beyond the frame spread the vivid colors of the flat Daviian Plateau. The patchwork of yellows, tans and browns seemed so soothing in comparison to the torture device.

  My heart began beating in a fast tempo. I kept my eyes staring straight ahead when Alea came into view. A few inches taller than me, Alea’s chin reached my eye level. She had removed her cloak and revealed her blue pants and short-sleeved V-neck blouse that had white disks sewn onto it, making it look as if she wore fish scales. A leather weapon belt circled her waist.

  “Feeling better?” she asked. “Let’s make sure.” She poked the tip of her blade into my right thigh.

  Concentrating so hard on not reacting, I took a moment to realize the thrust hadn’t hurt. The tip of Alea’s knife had hit my switchblade holder. Still strapped to my thigh, I wondered if the weapon remained inside it. Alea considered my expression for many frantic heartbeats. If she suspected I could move, then all would be lost.

  “Your clothes are strange,” she said finally. “They’re thick and resist my knife. I will remove them and keep them. They would make a fine reminder of our time together.”

  She stepped over to the frame and grabbed the manacles that hung down, pulling. The wheel on the pulley spun and let more chain through until the cuffs reached my cart.

  “You’re too heavy for me to lift. Good thing my brother added that pulley so I can easily yank you into place.” She unlocked the metal cuffs and opened them wide.

  My time to act approached. If she was smart, she would secure my wrists in the cuffs before untying my feet. Once my arms were locked into the frame, I would be helpless again. I would only have a brief window of opportunity. And I planned to risk everything on a guess.

  She leaned over with her knife and cut the rope holding my right arm to the side of the cart. I let it drop to my side as if it were a dead weight, hoping she would untie my other arm before fastening them. Instead, Alea put her knife in her belt and reached for my arm.

  I plunged my hand into my pocket and grabbed for my switchblade. Alea froze for a moment in shock. My fingers found the smooth handle and I almost laughed aloud with relief. Yanking the weapon out, I knocked aside her arm and triggered the blade.

  She drew her knife. Before she could step back, I plunged my blade into her lower abdomen. Grunting in surprise, she aimed her weapon at my heart. She staggered a bit as she leaned forward to strike, and I felt cold steel bite deep into my stomach. Alea fell, sitting hard on the ground. She hunched over my switchblade.

  I gasped for breath, trying to keep from passing out. Pain flamed up my back and gripped my insides like a tight vise.

  Alea pulled my blade from her guts and dropped it onto the ground. Crawling over to her cloak, she retrieved a vial of liquid from one of the pockets. She opened it, dipped her finger in, and rubbed the liquid into her stab wound. Curare.

  Lurching to her feet, she walked back to me. She studied my condition in silence. The Curare she had used must have been diluted in order for her to move.

  “Take my knife out to free yourself and you will bleed to death,” she said with grim satisfaction. “Leave it in and you will eventually die. Either way you’re in the middle of the plains with no one to help you and no magic to heal you.” She shrugged. “Not what I had planned, but the results will be the same.”

  “What about your problem?” I asked, huffing with the effort.

  “I have my horse and my people close by. Our healer will cure me and I will be back in time to watch your final moments.” She moved past the cart. After some rustling and grunting, she clicked at her horse, and I heard the familiar thumping of hooves.

  As my vision began to blur I had to agree with Alea. My position hadn’t improved, but at least I’d denied her the satisfaction of torturing me. The intense pain made concentrating difficult. Do I pull the knife? Or keep it in?

  Time passed and I drifted in and out of consciousness. I roused when the drum of a galloping horse reached my ears. I hadn’t made my decision and Alea was returning to gloat.

  Closing my eyes to avoid seeing her smug expression, I heard a whinny. The sound soothed my pain as if I’d been dosed with Curare. I opened my eyes and saw Kiki’s face.

  My prospects looked better, but I wasn’t sure I could communicate with Kiki.

  “Knife,” I said aloud. My throat burned with thirst. “Get me the knife.” Looking over to my switchblade on the ground, I then stared at Kiki. I let my eyes and head move from one to the other. “Please.”

  She turned an eye in the right direction. Then walked over and grasped the handle with her teeth. Smart, indeed.

  I held out my free hand and she placed the weapon in my palm. “Kiki, if this works out,” I said, “I’ll feed you all the apples and peppermints that you want.”

  Fresh waves of pain coursed through my body as I twisted to cut the rope around my left wrist. When the strands severed, I fell to the ground, but had enough sense to land on my elbows and knees, keeping the knife from plunging deeper into my stomach. After an eternity, I reached back and cut the rope around my feet.

  I probably would have curled up on the ground and given in to the release of unconsciousness, but Kiki huffed at me and nudged my face with her nose. Looking up, I thought her back seemed as unattainable as the clouds in the sky. No step stool in the wild. I laughed, but it came out as a hysterical cry.

  Kiki moved away. She returned with my pack in her mouth, setting it down next to me. I gave her a wry smile. Whenever I rode her, I always had my pack with me. She probably thought I needed my backpack to climb onto her back. Pawing with impatience, she pushed the pack closer to me. I had mentioned apples. Perhaps she wanted the one inside.

  I opened it. Smart girl. I found the Curare that I had forgotten about. Planning to use the drug against Ferde, I had packed one of Esau’s vials. I rubbed a tiny drop into my wound. The drug soothed my pain. Sighing with relief, I tried to sit up. My arms and legs felt wooden and heavy, but they moved the right ways. The Theobroma in my body kept the Curare from freezing all my muscles. It was an effort to put my backpack on. Fear of Alea’s return motivated me, and I stood on wobbly legs.

  Kiki bent her front legs down to her knees. I looked at her askance. No step stool? She whickered with impatience. I laced my fingers in her mane and swung a leg over her back. She lurched to her feet and broke into a smooth ground-eating stride.

  I knew the instant we left the Void. Magic encompassed me like a pool of water, but I soon felt drowned by the amount. An unfortunate side effect of the Theobroma opened my mind to the magical assault. On entering the Avibian Plains, the Sandseed’s protective spells rushed me. Unable to block the magic, I fell.

  Strange dreams, images and colors swirled around me. Kiki spoke to me with Irys’s voice. Valek steeled himself as a noose wrapped around his neck. His arms tied behind his back. Ari and Janco huddled by a fire in a grassy clearing, alarmed and uneasy. They had never been lost before. My mother clung to the upper branches of a tree as it swung wildly in a storm. The smell of Curare filled my nose and Theobroma coated my mouth.

  Alea’s knife had been driven deeper into my abdomen when I had hit the ground. In my mind’s eye, I saw the torn muscles, the tear in my stomach with blood and acid gushing out. Yet I couldn’t focus my magic to heal the wound.

  Valek’s thoughts reached me. He fought the soldiers around him with his feet, but someone pulled on the rope and it tightened around his neck.

  Regret pulsed in his
heart. Sorry, love. I don’t think we’re going to make it this time.

  31

  NO! I YELLED TO HIM. Stay alive. Think of something!

  I’ll stay if you will, he countered.

  Damn frustrating man. In exasperation, I gathered the twisting images and magic that threatened to overwhelm me. I wrung them and wrestled the magic. Images swirled around me like snowf lakes in a blizzard. Theobroma coursed through my blood and enhanced my perceptions, making the magic tangible. The threads of power slipped through my hands like a coarse blanket.

  Sweating and panting with the effort to hold on to the magic, I yanked Alea’s knife from my stomach and pulled magic toward the wound. Laying my hands over my abdomen, I covered the warm torrent of blood with power.

  Concentrating, I sent my mind’s eye toward the damage. I grabbed a thread of the magic swirling around me and used it to stitch closed the rip in my stomach. I repaired my torn abdominal muscles and knitted my skin together. A quick glance at my stomach revealed an ugly red ridge of puckered flesh that caused a sharp stab of pain whenever I drew breath. But the wound was no longer life threatening.

  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.

  Come, she said in my mind.

  I opened my eyes. Tired.

  Bad smell. Go.

  We were out of the Void, but we must be close to Alea’s people.

  Grab tail, she instructed.

  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.

  Make noise. Not scare Rabbit.

  Rabbits? Sudden hunger made my stomach growl. I did have an apple, but I’d promised that to Kiki.

  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.

  Rabbit? Not Rabbit Man?

  Too quick for a man.

  “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 reported missing?”

  My announcement caused a considerable stir. Everyone had assumed that Ferde was holding Opal. Now they needed to change tactics.

  “We’ve been searching for him for two weeks,” Roze said, putting a stop to the chatter. “What makes you think we can find him now?”

  “The last victim would not have been kidnapped,” Bain said. “Let us go back and discuss this. Yelena, you will be safest in the Keep. We will talk about your future when this whole mess is resolved.”

  The Magicians headed toward the Keep. Ari, Janco and I followed. I thought about Bain’s comment. My future would be nothing without Valek. I caught up to Bain and asked about him.

  Bain gave me a stern look, and I felt his magic press against my mental barrier. I relaxed my guard and heard his voice in my mind.

  Best not to talk aloud about this, child. Cahil and his men captured him two nights ago, but Cahil would not release Valek to the Councilors or Master Magicians.

  I felt Bain’s disapproval over Cahil’s actions. And I had to quell my desire to find Cahil and skewer him with his own sword.

  Cahil tried to hang Valek yesterday at dusk, but Valek escaped. Bain seemed impressed. We have no idea where he is now.

  I thanked Bain and slowed Kiki, letting the others go ahead. I savored my relief that Valek was alive. When Ari and Janco caught up to me, I relayed the information to them.