Trial by Fire

by Josephine Angelini

  His voice slid into her head. It’s freezing, Lily. Lean over the flames if you can.

  Lily reached her hands over the candles. Her body throbbed with pleasure as her stones gorged on the power of the flames.

  “I know this is going to be hard for you,” Rowan said. “But I need your help to get you out of here.”

  Lily nodded and brought a candle close to her chest, absorbing as much warmth as she could. A witch wind whistled down the rope hole and blew across Lily’s face.

  “Move back,” Rowan said, his willstone flaring with power. He grabbed the door of the cell and pulled it off its hinges. He tossed the metal aside, reached down and scooped her up, leaving the candles behind.

  “We have to get the shaman,” Lily said, clutching Rowan’s shoulder.

  “The shaman?” he asked, confused.

  “He’s right there,” Lily said, pointing into the cell next to hers.

  “There’s no one there.”

  “Shaman?” she called. She struggled in Rowan’s arms until he put her down. Her legs gave out, and she stumbled and fell against the bars of his cell. “Wake up, lazy! We’re rescued,” she called into the cell, impatiently. “Rowan, rip the door off.”

  “Lily. Don’t,” Rowan said, simultaneously trying to hold her up and pull her away from the bars.

  Lily brightened her magelight until she could see inside the cell. A heap of rags lay on top of the mattress. She squinted. Among the rags was something that looked like shriveled leather. It was shaped like a hand.

  “It’s not possible,” Lily said, backing away, knees buckling. “He taught me how to spirit walk, Rowan. I couldn’t have imagined that.”

  “Lily, he’s dead,” Rowan said. He picked her up. “We can try to come back to give him a proper burial later, but right now we have to leave.”

  She stared at the cell in disbelief as he carried her down the hallway. “I’ll come back for you,” she whispered to the dark, cold hole where the shaman’s bones and spirit waited to be put to rest.

  Rowan slung Lily over his shoulder and climbed up the rope. It was far, several stories at least. As they neared the top, Lily heard Caleb and Tristan in her head.

  He’s got her!

  We need to move. There are more soldiers coming.

  Lily felt hands sliding under her arms. Caleb took her while Rowan swung up and out of the hole. They were in a rock shelter built over the oubliette, much like the stone cabin in the woods where Lily and Rowan fought the Woven. Four dead bodies were scattered around the room. Lily looked out the window of the cabin as Caleb carried her past it. It was dark out, but she thought she saw two more bodies lying in the snow. Something slithered over one of them. Feeding. Lily shuddered and looked away when she saw the Woven rise up to pull off the dead man’s arm.

  Caleb laid her down in front of the small fire burning in the simple hearth. “We don’t have much time here,” he said. “The sentries will be changing soon.”

  “Give her some more of the brew,” Tristan said.

  “She finished it already,” Rowan said. They stood over her anxiously while Lily tried to absorb as much of the heat of the fire as she could. A faint witch wind whipped around the room, but Lily still didn’t feel stronger. She felt heat, but not power.

  “She’s not transmuting energy properly,” Tristan said. He looked at Rowan sharply, and Lily could nearly hear what they were saying to each other in mindspeak even though they were shutting her out. That she might be past the point of saving.

  Caleb went to the window and looked out. “We’re going to have to move her,” he said.

  “She’s too weak,” Rowan argued.

  Lily struggled up onto her forearms, her head spinning. “No, Caleb’s right, Rowan. I won’t let you three get caught.” Lily thought of the Woven outside and immediately squelched the wave of fear that followed. “We need to go.”

  Rowan nodded reluctantly. He lifted Lily while Tristan and Caleb gathered up their packs, supplies, and weapons. They breezed through the room efficiently, picking over the bodies for what they needed and leaving behind what they didn’t without a backward glance. Rowan shook out a blanket, wrapped Lily in it, and carried her outside.

  Still strengthened by the tiny bit of energy Lily had given him, Rowan leapt from boulder to boulder, carrying her out of the rocky ravine. At the bottom, Caleb and Tristan were already waiting for them with horses.

  “Hurry, Ro!” Tristan hissed.

  “Woven coming in from the south and east!” Caleb said urgently.

  Rowan jumped onto the horse Tristan was leading and held Lily in front of him as he rode away. Everything was bouncing around and her head hurt, but as they passed a narrow crack between two gigantic slabs of granite, Lily finally remembered where they were. She recognized this place from her world.

  “That’s Fat Man’s Misery,” Lily said, pointing with a sweaty arm. “We’re in Purgatory Chasm, way out in Sutton.”

  She felt Rowan squeeze her tighter with worry. “We call this place Witch’s End.”

  “I came here with Tristan and his parents when we were kids, before I started getting sick all the time. It was far,” she mumbled incoherently. Her head fell against Rowan’s chest. “Rowan? Is Carrick dead?”

  “No,” he replied in a low voice. “Not yet.”

  The dark forest blurred by as Rowan reached more level ground and urged his horse to pick up speed.

  CHAPTER

  13

  The jarring motion of the galloping horse seemed to go on forever, and Rowan kept wrapping her more tightly in the blanket even though she was pouring sweat.

  Lily twisted in his arms, trying to stretch her aching back and free herself of the insufferable constriction. She wished she could just fall asleep, but every time she closed her eyes, her senses sharpened unbearably until every fiber in the blanket stuck into her skin like pins and the gamey smell of the horse and the leather saddle made her stomach turn. Hours passed, each one worse than the hour before it.

  “Here!” she heard Tristan yell. “The river is up this way.”

  Rowan turned the horse and headed for Tristan’s voice. They rode faster, and the rocking motion as the horse hit a canter nearly had Lily screaming.

  “Get a fire going, Tristan,” Rowan said, pulling the horse up sharply. Lily closed her eyes, trying not to throw up, and felt herself being passed down into Caleb’s thick arms.

  “She’s as hot as a lit match,” Caleb said.

  “Don’t touch her bare skin, it’ll burn you,” Rowan warned, dismounting. He took off his jacket and shirt.

  “Are you sure about this brew?” Tristan asked uncertainly. “Birch bark could give her the grippe.”

  “Just do it,” Rowan snapped, ending the argument. He pulled off his boots and stripped off his pants, shivering violently with the cold, and turned back to Caleb. “Give her to me.”

  “I’ll scout up the riverbank for Woven.” Caleb handed Lily over, and then put out an arm to stop Rowan. “What if you freeze to death in there?”

  Rowan paused to grasp Caleb’s shoulder. “She won’t let me die, brother. Not from the cold,” he said, smiling.

  Caleb helped Rowan get down the riverbank and to the iced-in edge of the river.

  “Is this the Charles River?” Lily asked blurrily. “’Cause the Charles is totally polluted.”

  Rowan laughed through a shiver. “It is the Charles, actually. I can’t believe we call it the same thing. And don’t worry. It’s not polluted at all here.”

  “Oh. That’s nice. But nothing’s polluted here, is it? It’s just my world that’s a big mess. All the glaciers are melting and the polar bears are starving.”

  Rowan was too preoccupied to answer, or even try to figure out why Lily was mumbling about bears. He broke the ice edge with his heel and stepped into the frigid water. “Hold your breath, Lily.”

  She felt cold water slosh over her. Rowan held on to her underwater and kicked them both back up t
o the surface. He shouted when they crested, his whole body convulsing with shock. Lily wrapped her arms and legs around his torso, letting the blanket drift away on the current.

  Steam rose off Lily’s skin and the water around them bubbled and hissed like they’d poured hot fat into it. She pressed her chest against Rowan’s, trying to keep his heart warm, as he paddled with his arms and legs to keep them afloat. Lily tipped her head back into the icy current, trying to cool her head. It didn’t help. She felt so hot she thought she might explode from it. She wondered if this was what a dying star must feel like—never hotter than just before it goes supernova.

  Rowan? Am I dying?

  “No,” he said roughly, working against the current. They were being swept downstream. “You’re not going to die.”

  You didn’t answer me in mindspeak.

  Don’t ask me to answer, Lily. I can’t—

  “Ro! Reach for this!” Upstream, Caleb hung over the edge of the ice, holding a stick out to Rowan. Rowan managed to grab on to it as they passed, stopping them.

  The water around them roiled. Rowan’s face was a grimace. Lily released him and floated away a bit so she could look back at him. Even in the pale moonlight, she could see an angry red burn where she’d been holding him. Lily kicked away from him and into the current, but he grabbed her wrist before she got away.

  “Let me go,” she cried. “I’m hurting you.”

  “Like that’s anything new,” he said, managing to smile at her through chattering teeth. The hand that held her wrist shook with effort. Rowan was fighting every instinct to hold on to her even though her skin was burning him. The water around Lily was boiling. Her head was so hot.

  “I can’t stop it, Rowan,” Lily said, trying to tug her wrist out of his grip. “It’s just getting worse.”

  “I know.” Rowan’s face suddenly fell. “Cold water isn’t going to be enough to put out the fire. We have to suffocate it.”

  He pulled Lily to him with a scared look on his face. “I’m sorry,” he said. His eyes pleaded with hers for a brief second, and then he pushed her head underwater.

  Lily looked up at him through the shifting surface, too stunned to do anything else. The moonlight and the bubbles distorted his face, making his sharp features elongate until they seemed hawkish. The unseeing gleam in his black eyes was familiar to Lily.

  Carrick.

  Even though she’d run from him, he’d found her somehow and now he was trying to drown her. Lily struggled under his hand, thrashing violently. He grabbed a hank of her hair and pushed her down even farther. Water burned as it rushed into her nose and mouth. Lily grabbed his wrist, trying to twist herself free. More water rushed into her lungs. She grew cold and sluggish, staring at Carrick’s face above hers. She wanted to fight him, but she felt so heavy.

  * * *

  Lily heard a familiar voice slide into her head. Her own voice. This time, Lily knew that it was Lillian and not herself she was talking to.

  No. Don’t you dare die, Lily.

  I don’t want to live. There’s no one here in the dark with me.

  I’m here, Lily. And so is Rowan. You have to fight, Lily. He can’t handle losing us both.

  You don’t want me to live for Rowan. You want me to live for you. You brought me to this world for a reason, and you can’t let me die because you want to use me somehow.

  Everyone wants to use you. But don’t think for a second that I don’t care about what Rowan feels. Loving Rowan is what made me who I am now.

  How dare you blame your evil on him? You killed his father.

  No one can lie in mindspeak, Lily. Everything I did, I did for Rowan. Everything I am doing to you now is to save Rowan by saving the world he lives in. You will stay here and finish what I started—for him. You may as well accept it, Lily. You’re stuck here. There’s no one left to teach you how to worldjump.

  How can you know that? You killed the shaman, didn’t you?

  I left him to die.

  You failed, Lillian. You killed his body but not his spirit. He taught me how to spirit walk. Sooner or later I’m going to figure out how to worldjump, and I’ll leave this place. Your battles are yours to fight. I don’t belong here.

  And what happens when Gideon or Alaric comes to your magicless, mind-blind world to pillage it for resources? Will you still sit on the fence then?

  Alaric? He wants to help me. He would never come to my world to pillage—

  What did I tell you? Everyone wants to use you. You think Alaric would allow you to claim three of his braves out of the kindness of his heart? Or did he plan on you claiming them, loving them, so you would join him? I was seduced by that dream once, too. I started down this path looking for a way to rid my world of the Woven so no more Outlander children would have to grow up in fear as Rowan did. Have you experienced his night terrors yet? Have you woken up next to him when he’s sweating and crying out?

  No. But I can feel the shadow and sadness inside him when he looks up at the trees in the woods. I hate it like I’ve never hated anything.

  I know. I hate it, too. The Woven are Rowan’s sad shadow. That’s why I begged the shaman to teach me how to worldjump. There are an infinite number of universes. Somewhere out there is a world that figured out how to eradicate the Woven. I was going to go there and learn how to free all of the Outlanders. I was going to save the man I loved from the monsters that hunted him in his nightmares. And look at me now. I was a fool, but I was a powerful fool. And so are you. Ask Alaric what he really wants from you. Open your eyes. Get angry. Your fight has only just begun.

  * * *

  Someone was hitting Lily hard on the chest. Thump, thump, thump. It was almost like a heartbeat, except it came from the outside. Her eyes focused. Carrick was pounding on her chest like he was trying to crack her in two. Hot liquid surged up the back of her throat and spurted out of her mouth and nose. Carrick grabbed her by the neck, twisting her head to the side. As the water poured out of her, she found the strength to fight him. She pushed at his hands and kicked her legs, her hoarse voice pleading for him to stop.

  Oh God. He’s really going to kill me this time.

  “Enough! You’re scaring her!” Tristan yelled. He pushed Carrick aside.

  “Tristan,” Lily gasped. She reached out her arms to him, her best friend. A big man came and helped Tristan pull Carrick off her.

  “He comes down every day,” she continued through hiccups, scrambling hysterically to get away from her tormentor. “He’s been hurting me. He’s been—” Lily couldn’t find the right words to describe what Carrick did to her. She thought it instead and saw Tristan recoil for a moment before he pulled her close to him.

  “Caleb, she thinks he’s Carrick. Get him out of here,” Tristan ordered.

  Carrick looked sad. He went sort of limp, and Caleb didn’t have any trouble dragging him away through the snow. The last thought Lily had was that Carrick was wet and nearly naked. He might freeze to death if she was lucky.

  * * *

  Lily felt Tristan’s arm, heavy and smooth, draped over her shoulder. They were lying on their sides and he was tucked against her back.

  She’d woken up with Tristan holding her like this before, but now instead of sheets, pillows, and white curtains dancing on the breeze, Lily saw only dry leaves and dirt.

  Her arm reached out to hold the hand of another boy. Caleb lay across from her, his giant hand swallowing her wrist and his boulder-like shoulder rising and falling with his gusty breaths. The ground under them was seared and brown. The air radiated up from their little circle, wavering with heat like a mirage. Lily’s heat.

  She edged out from under Tristan’s encircling arm and sat up. The ring of heat Lily had created was edged with ice and snow. She looked up and saw snow hissing into steam above her as if it were hitting an invisible dome that vaporized it.

  Lily tried to move her leg. Her ankle was being held. She looked down and saw Rowan sitting up, guarding them while they slept.<
br />
  “I’m not Carrick,” he whispered.

  A flood of images from the night before rolled over Lily from Rowan’s perspective. How she’d screamed and scratched him. How she’d shied away from his hands and cried. How he’d burned and froze, burned and froze, over and over to keep her alive.

  Lily reached for him and pulled him into the circle of heat. Tristan and Caleb rolled over and complained wordlessly through the gooey glue of sleep. Rowan’s hand was cold. She held it close to her chest and tried to forget everything that they and their doppelgängers had done to each other. A nagging thought pestered her mind as it trudged back toward unconsciousness.

  Something troubling about Alaric.

  It was still snowing at dawn when Lily awoke. The guys were up and clustered around the cauldron, talking quietly. She wanted to get up and join them, but she couldn’t. Lily could barely lift her head.

  “She’s awake,” Rowan said, ending their conversation. He looked over at her.

  Who am I?

  You’re Rowan.

  He smiled at her. Don’t forget it again.

  Tristan brought her a small bowl of broth while Caleb and Rowan saw to the horses. The broth didn’t go down easily. After just a few swallows, Lily felt uncomfortably full and oddly shaky. She almost threw it up. The guys exchanged worried glances as they packed. They were probably all arguing inside their heads about what to do about her, but Lily knew that they only had one choice. If they didn’t push on, they’d be found by Gideon’s men, or eaten by Woven. They had to make it the rest of the way to the sachem’s camp outside of Salem, or they didn’t stand a chance.

  “How much farther do we have to go?” Lily asked Tristan.

  “Just a few hours’ ride. Can you make it?”

  She smiled weakly at Tristan as he helped her sit up. “Every morning—at least I think it was in the morning—the shaman would ask me if I was dead yet.”