Chapter 52

There were too many wounded and it was cold. We had few supplies, no shelter, and only what I carried in my healer’s bag.

I sent the unwounded and the barely hurt to scavenge whatever they could find: clothes to tear into bandages, blankets for warmth, wood for fire. We needed heat. I needed time.

My mana was already running low. I’d closed the worst wounds, stopped the bleeding that would have killed them outright, but there were still burns - raw and blistered - and limbs bent at angles no body should allow. I hadn’t seen many dead yet. That was the only mercy. I didn’t ask what had happened. There was no time for answers.

These people needed help. They needed leadership. They needed calm.

The matron was hurt. Grams was hurt. And there was only me.

I chose healing. The rest would have to wait.

“Wargs!” someone shouted.

Then came a scream - too long, too wet to be anything but the end.

“Everyone, gather around me!” I yelled.

Shapes flickered through the smoke - dark brown blurs weaving between ash and flame. Low growls rolled in from every direction. It made no sense. Wargs didn’t come out in daylight. They didn’t come this close to the village. The hunters kept them culled.

Unless they’d been driven out.

The dragon. It must have hit their dens first - scattered them, enraged them - and now the smell of burned flesh had drawn them in.

But why? Why attack the wargs? Why the village?

One of the huge, ugly, wolf-things lunged for Mollin. I grabbed a chunk of stone and hurled it, cracking it against the creature’s skull and knocking it aside.

Another seized Brinzee and began dragging her away. I slammed my foot down and a spike of stone burst from the ground, impaling the warg through the chest. It died screaming. Brinzee collapsed, her leg pouring blood.

I took down two more before one grabbed Jemmie.

It dragged her by the leg. Another caught her arm. They pulled in opposite directions while she screamed-

-and a third warg rushed in and snapped her neck.

I screamed too. Fear. Rage. Grief - all of it tore out of me at once.

Something inside me broke open. I reached deeper than I ever had and didn’t stop to think about the cost.

Stone spears erupted from the ground in a violent ring, skewering every warg foolish enough to be close. They rose higher and higher, crashing into one another, knitting together into a jagged, brutal cage around us.

The wargs circled outside, growling. Brown fur flashed through cracks. They clawed at the stone, hurled themselves against it, **** to get in.

Then the air went bitterly cold.

Frost crawled over the stone, spreading fast. Ice bloomed in white veins.

And beneath it all came a terrible, rising crack.

* * *

The dead man reached for me. Maggots spilled from his empty eye socket, sliding down his cheek and dropping onto my leg.

“We’ll take you to Mirri,” he said, his grin twisted and wrong. “She’s dying because of you. Right now.”

Lightning split the air.

The bolt struck his face, followed instantly by thunder so loud my ears rang. White spots burst across my vision. When I could see again, his jaw lay on the floor beside me, still twitching.

The dead woman shrieked - and roots and vines tore up through the stone beneath her, coiling around her legs and pinning her in place.

Another corpse shoved its way through the doorway. Its eyes locked on me.

I staggered backward until I hit Torvek. He groaned beneath me.

A second bolt of lightning arced over my head, slamming into the newcomer’s chest and driving him back. Elarion stood with his hands raised, lightning crackling between his fingers. He was flushed, sweat streaking his face. I didn’t know how much mana he had left - but I knew it wasn’t much.

Brinja stayed focused, jaw clenched, more vines forcing their way up to tighten around the shrieking dead woman.

I turned, grabbed hold of my mana, and shoved it all into Torvek.

His eyes flew open. His pupils went wide. His breath came in harsh, uneven gasps as his muscles swelled beneath his skin. With a roar, he hurled himself up and slammed into the newest corpse, driving it back through the doorway. The frame splintered as they vanished outside.

Something wet and cold closed around my arm.

The first dead man loomed over me, black bile spilling from his mouth as he hauled me up.

I fought. I kicked and punched and screamed and thrashed - but it didn’t matter. He was strong. I was small. I was empty.

I just had to hold on.

Thren would be back.

And he would save me.

* * *

Elise and I walked together through my demesne. Today it was warm. Great, fluffy clouds - shaped like animals no matter which way you looked at them - drifted lazily across the sky. There were fewer ribbons than usual, but the air was thick with moths, their soft wings scattering bright, fuzzy color everywhere.

We talked as we walked. She told me about a book she was reading. I told her about Ashlara, Lilae, Mirri, Serah, and the children who had somehow become part of our lives.

That unsettling feeling still clung to her, a pressure at the edge of my senses. But I was getting used to it. It began to fade into the background, like the constant stress of the office - ever-present, corrosive, so familiar you stopped reacting to it. Routine. Expected. Despite the danger.

We came across a dog along the path. I had no idea how he’d found his way here. Elise hesitated, shrinking back at first, and told me she’d never seen a dog in person before. He seemed friendly enough and with a little coaxing I got her to come closer. The moment she reached down to pet him, I ceased to exist in his world. She was the favorite.

He barked happily, licked her face, pressed his weight into her side. She laughed - bright and unguarded - and shrieked with delight. It was a moment of pure, innocent joy.

Then my heart clenched.

Fear. Desperation. Need.

Lilae.

I didn’t know how, but I could feel her terror as clearly as my own pulse.

“We need to go,” I said, grabbing Elise’s arm. “Lilae is in danger.”

My heart was pounding too hard for anything else to register - not even the familiar tug as our skin touched. All I could think of was getting to my little girl.

* * *

I stepped into the common room, Adhaneth crackling with barely contained energy. Screams tore through the air - crying, shouting, panic layered on panic. Chaos reigned.

A corpse had Lilae in its grip, dragging her toward the door.

I struck. Adhaneth slammed into its back and the thing exploded in a cloud of bone dust and packed earth.

Elise shouted, and where the word DESTRUCTION should have been there was only absence. The sound vanished - and with it, a corpse, entangled in vines.

Outside, Torvek was a blur of motion, slamming his fists into another corpse again and again. Its face was crushed beyond recognition, yet its arms still flailed at him, mindless and relentless.

I thrust Adhaneth forward. The staff’s tip twisted, reshaping itself into a barbed hook. I caught the corpse, ripped it free from beneath Torvek as if it weighed nothing, flipped it into the air, and shattered it with a single, devastating blow.

Torvek turned on me with a snarl and charged.

It was rage-fueled and sloppy. His eyes were bloodshot, unfocused - recognition drowned in instinct.

I sidestepped, planted Adhaneth against his side, and pushed. He stumbled, lost his footing, and skidded thirty feet across the ground.

“Torvek,” I commanded, my voice hard. “Calm down.”

He sprang to his feet like a cornered animal. That creeping dread I had nearly learned to ignore surged back all at once. The hair on my arms and neck rose, electricity crawling across my skin.

The sound where the word END should have been collapsed into a crushing silence.

Torvek staggered. His muscles shrank, strength bleeding out of him as his legs gave way. I caught him before he hit the ground and eased him down.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

His breathing was ragged, shallow - as if he’d run for miles. He nodded.

“Where’s Mirri?” I demanded. “Lilae - where’s Mirri?”

She ran to me and buried her face in my chest, sobbing so hard I couldn’t make out her words. I wrapped my arms around her, stroked her hair, murmuring nonsense reassurances until her breathing began to slow. The other children hovered at a distance - frightened, confused, unsure if it was truly over.

I lifted Lilae and carried her to them. They shrank back at first, fear written plainly on their faces. I smiled softly, beckoned them closer, hugged each of them in turn while Lilae clung to me as if her life depended on it. I told them - over and over - that everything would be alright.

Eventually, Lilae calmed. I wiped her tears, met her eyes, and asked gently, “Where is vaer?”

She sniffed, tears threatening again, but she **** herself to speak. “A dragon,” she said. “It attacked Reedwatch. Vaer went to help Grams.”

I shushed her softly, doing my best to soothe fears I didn’t fully understand yet. “Where are Ashie and Serah?”

“Gone,” she said. “They flew away. To Wolfsend. Vaer didn’t want them to go.”

I looked at the children, one by one. “I need you all to be brave,” I said quietly. “You’ll be safe in my demesne. But I have to find Mirri. So gather close.”

They edged away from Elise, unease radiating from them, and clustered around me instead. I reached back for her hand. That familiar tug pulled at something deep inside me as our fingers touched - and then I stepped us all into my demesne.

Once there, I knelt before the children. “You’re safe here,” I told them. “I need to take Elise home, then I need to find Mirri. I’ll be back soon. I promise.” I met their eyes, one last time. “You’ve all been very brave. Be brave a little longer. And take care of each other.”

Then I turned, took Elise’s hand, and stepped back into the library.

* * *

My fingers and toes had gone numb in the merciless cold. Around me, the others huddled and shivered - moaning, whispering, weeping in terror.

A shrill whine pierced the air. Then silence. Then a crack.

Another whine. Another crack.

Again and again, the pattern repeated until at last there was only stillness.

I stood at the center of it all, trying to watch every direction at once. I was exhausted, drained of mana, and so very cold - but they needed me. They needed protection. I **** myself upright and held the line.

Ahead of me came another crack, this one without any warning whine. Then another. The stone spears before me shattered, breaking apart like brittle glass.

Yveth stood beyond the ruined cage, her mournful face framed by jagged remnants of stone. She stepped forward with effortless grace, and the cold began to loosen its grip. Her eyes locked onto mine.

“Interesting,” she said softly.

“You killed the wargs,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

She nodded once.

“Why?”

“I felt Seth’s Faith flare here - and elsewhere,” she replied. “I came to investigate.”

“What do you mean-” I started, but a wail cut me off.

Skem sat on the ground, cradling Jemmie’s body, rocking back and forth as if the motion alone might undo what had been done.

Skem.

I rushed to him, seized his shirt, and hauled him to his feet. “What are you doing here?” I shouted.

He blinked, stunned - grief wrenched violently away by my fury.

“Why are you here?” I demanded.

“I… I live here,” he stammered.

“You came to my home,” I said. “You told me about the attack.”

He shook his head frantically. “No, varesh. I’ve been here all day.”

“Lilae,” I whispered, the truth crashing down on me. I let him go.

My hands began to shake. My heart slammed against my ribs. Tears burned in my eyes as I turned to Yveth.

“Take me home,” I said, my voice hard despite the tremor beneath it. “Now.”

It wasn’t a request. She would do it - or I would find a way to break her.