Fire Study - Study 03 - Мария Снайдер

The Citadel was three days away by horseback. Too far for me to project in normal circumstances. Desperation increased my distance, but then I had no control of direction. Also, Bain would be asleep, his mental defenses impenetrable. I decided to wait until the morning to try.

The desire to sleep dragged at my body. I made several rounds of the room just to stay awake. When seated, my attention lingered on the fire’s dancing flames. They pulsed in a rhythm that matched my heartbeat. The flames’ movements appeared choreographed, as if they tried to communicate something to me. Something important.

I knelt near the fire. Fingers of orange and yellow beckoned. Come, they invited. Join with us. Embrace the fire.

I inched closer. Waves of heat caressed my face.

Come. We need to tell you…

What? I leaned in. Flames crackled, sap hissed and boiled and the harsh scent of burning hair billowed.

“Yelena!”

Moon Man’s voice drenched me with cold reason. I scurried away from the hearth, stopping when I reached the far side of the room. Chills raced over my skin and I shivered.

“Thanks,” I said to him.

“I thought something was not right.” Moon Man descended the rest of the way down the stairs. “I woke feeling as if the threads of my blanket had ignited.”

“It’s a good thing you did.”

“What happened?”

“I’m not sure.” I wrapped my cloak tighter. “I thought I saw souls in the fire.”

“Trapped?”

I barked out a laugh. If I had said that to anyone else, they would have believed I was a raving lunatic. Moon Man wanted details. Details I couldn’t provide.

“I think they wanted me to join them.”

He frowned and stared at the hearth. “You should not be left alone with a fire. I will finish Tauno’s shift.”

“Finish?” I glanced out the window. The curtain of darkness had thinned. I had lost track of the time, and failed to wake Tauno for his turn. Not a good sign.

“Go get some sleep. We will need to make plans when you wake.”

The deafening peal of Mrs. Floranne’s bell jarred me from sleep. Leif sat on the edge of his bed with his head between his hands, blocking out the noise. With silence came relief and he dropped his arms.

“She’ll be ringing that again if we don’t get down to breakfast soon,” Leif said.

All the motivation I needed. I kicked off my blanket and followed Leif from the room. We joined Moon Man and Tauno in the common area. The crowded inn buzzed with conversation. Mrs. Floranne poured tea while her staff served breakfast. The smell of sweet syrup wafted through the air.

The good night’s sleep reflected in Tauno’s face. The swelling was gone and the bruises faded from bright red to a light purple smudge. He moved without wincing in pain.

We ate our breakfast of honey, eggs and bread and discussed our next move.

“We should search the city,” Leif said. “Quarter by quarter until we either find them or determine they’re not here.”

“It would take a long time.” Moon Man spooned a glob of eggs onto a slice of bread.

“They are gone,” Tauno said.

I stopped eating. “How do you know?”

“They mentioned leaving Booruby.”

“Why didn’t you tell us last night?” I stabbed my eggs with my fork.

“I was distracted by the pain and did not remember the comment until now.”

“Would it have made a difference?” Leif asked.

I thought it over. Tauno had been in bad shape. But with no fatal injuries, I could have left him here and…what? Scanned the surrounding forest with my magic? I didn’t know which direction they had gone and they had almost a full day of travel.

“Probably not,” I sighed. “Tauno, do you remember anything else? Did they say where they were going?”

“The need to hurry was all I sensed. Perhaps that is why I was not killed. They did not have enough time.”

“The best strategy would have been to keep us in the dark about Marrok, wondering if he is dead or alive and what he told them.” I sipped my tea. “However, Cahil likes to feel superior and probably believes letting us know Marrok has betrayed us would make us doubt our instincts and slow us down.”

Cahil had tried that tactic with me before. When he had thought I was a spy from Ixia, he had ambushed me in the forest. Then, he wanted me to believe Leif set me up to demoralize me. It hadn’t worked. And it wouldn’t work now.

If anything, I was more determined to find them. Even though we had lost their trail. My appetite gone, I pushed my plate away.

“What’s next?” Leif asked.

The door to the common room banged open. Marrok stood in the threshold with a bloody sword in his hand.

The four of us jumped to our feet. Breakfast forgotten, we pulled our weapons as the conversation in the inn’s common room dwindled into a deadly silence.

“Come on.” Marrok gestured from the doorway with his sword. “Let’s go before they catch up.”

“Who?” I asked.

“Cahil and his…his…friends.” Marrok spit the words out. “I escaped.” Horror bleached his face, and blood dripped from a cut on his throat. “I’ve lost them, but they know we’re here.”

“How many?” I demanded.

Marrok straightened. “Seven.”

“Armed?”

“Swords, scimitars and Curare.”

“How soon?”

Marrok glanced over his shoulder and froze. He dropped his sword. It clattered on the stone floor. A big hand shoved him, pushing him to the ground.

Behind Marrok, Cahil, Ferde and five Vermin streamed into the common room.

CHAPTER 14

WITH THEIR WEAPONS pointed toward us the Vermin and Cahil fanned out in front of the door. Two Vermin had scimitars, two had swords and one held a blowpipe to his lips.

“Everyone just stay calm,” Cahil ordered. His long broadsword made an impressive threat. The people in the common room stayed in their seats. Mostly merchants and salesmen, there wasn’t a soldier among them.

Marrok remained on the floor. A Vermin stood over him with the tip of his scimitar pointed at Marrok’s throat.

I glanced at Tauno. “You said they were gone.”

His face had paled and, although he held his weapon, he hadn’t nocked an arrow. Moon Man eyed the Vermin as if judging the distance between their necks and his scimitar. Leif’s machete glinted in the sunlight from the open doorway.

“Change of plans,” Cahil said.

Cahil had let his blond hair grow past his shoulders and it was unbound. Besides that, he remained the same. Same gray traveling clothes, same black riding boots, same washed-out blue eyes and same hate-filled expression on his bearded face.

“My friend wanted to exchange Marrok for Yelena.” Cahil inclined his head to Ferde.

I noted his use of the word friend. How could he call that creature his friend?

The Soulstealer’s plain homespun tunic and pants hid most of the red tattoos covering his body. With a scimitar in one hand and a blowpipe in another, he looked at me with cold calculation. Despite his lean and powerful build, I sensed his magic remained weak. Yet a bite of fear nipped my stomach.

“I hope you have a few more Warpers with you,” I said to Cahil. “The Soulstealer is no condition to fight three magicians.”

“I may have failed in my power quest,” Ferde said. “However, I now serve another who has learned blood magic.”

The sound of roaring flames reached me before the heat. A quick look over my shoulder confirmed the blaze in the hearth had grown. Terror boiled in my throat, prompting me to act before the Fire Warper appeared.

Pulling power, I sent a thread to Moon Man. Take out the man with the blowpipe. I’ll take Ferde. He agreed. Leif, I said, attack the man over Marrok then keep Cahil busy.

When? Leif asked.

“Now.” I shouted and projected my awareness into Ferde’s mind, bypassing his mental defenses and seizing control of his body. It was a self-defense move I had learned when Goel had captured me. Chained and left with no recourse except using my magic, I had sent my soul into Goel’s body.

Once Ferde realized I had invaded, he concentrated all his energy on ejecting me. I ignored his efforts. He threatened to kill me the same way he had murdered his other victims.

Memories stabbed; sounds of their screams pounded; the smell of rancid blood pierced and visions of mutilations assaulted. His black desires of power and dominance through torture and rape revolted me.

To stop him, I harvested his soul and wrung it, exposing his deep fears and the events that had caused his addiction to power. The favorite uncle who had tied him down and sodomized him. The older sister who had tormented him. The father who had belittled him. The mother he had trusted and confided in. The mother who had sent him back to live with his uncle as punishment for lying.

A Story Weaver may have helped Ferde untie the knotted strands of his life, but I wrenched them apart, broke the threads. He became the helpless victim again. I examined his memory for every bit of detail, looking for information about the Daviian Vermin. When I finished, I peered through his eyes.

My body lay on the ground, comatose. Moon Man fought a Vermin. They maneuvered around a headless body. Cahil hacked at Leif, whose machete was no match against Cahil’s longer sword. Leif would soon be forced to surrender. Tauno stood in the same spot as if rooted to the floor. Marrok had regained his feet and sparred with one of the Vermin near another body. The people in the inn had organized a bucket brigade to dump water on the fire.

Even though my time with Ferde felt like a lifetime, only seconds had passed. I raised the blowpipe in the Soulstealer’s hand and aimed. First Cahil. Reloading, I shot each Vermin with a Curare-laced dart, ending the fight.

Water wasn’t going to stop the Fire Warper, but with his cohorts neutralized, he conceded the fight. “Next time, my little bat.” The fire died with a hiss and puff of oily smoke.

I returned to my body. My limbs felt as if they weighed a thousand pounds each. Leif helped me to stand on weak legs.

Mrs. Floranne came over. She clutched her apron between her hands and worried at the fabric. “What should we be doing?”

“Send someone to fetch the city guards. We’ll need help transporting the prisoners to the Citadel,” I said.

She sent the stable lad.

“Have they all been hit with Curare?” Leif pointed to the prone figures.

I looked at Ferde. He had collapsed in a heap on the floor. “All but one. I’ve examined his soul, and he won’t be giving us any more trouble.”

“For how long?”

“Forever.”

“Do you think that was wise?” Moon Man asked. His scimitar dripped with blood and gore, and lacerations crisscrossed his chest. “You could have achieved the same result without damaging his mind.”

“I—”

Leif jumped to my defense. “Hold on, Mr. Let’s-exterminate-all-the-Vermin Man. Given the chance you would have decapitated him. Besides, he deserved it. And it doesn’t matter anyway; Roze would have done the same thing to him once he arrived at the Citadel. Yelena just saved time.”