“I don’t know that, either, Lord Rafi.” Snout scratched the side of his nose and straightened. “If we’re going to stop her, it will have to be a surprise. I’ve been thinking that we might be able to take care of her while she sleeps.”
Rafi called the guardsmen over. One stood close enough to hear, but with his back to the fires so he could see when Vibora returned. They worked together to lay out a plan. Snout would incapacitate Lucas, and the other three would knock out Vibora. While she was out, they’d drizzle a sleeping tincture into her mouth. It wasn’t brave and it wasn’t honorable, but it might work.
As they were finalizing the details, a dark figure stepped out of the woods, and all of Rafi’s carefully laid plans evaporated.
Chapter 96
Johanna
Johanna smelled of rotten leaves and marsh sludge. Her hair hadn’t been washed in days and stood all over her head at crazy angles.
And she didn’t care.
“Rafi.” It was said on an inhale and the sound couldn’t have carried very far, but somehow he heard her voice across the clearing.
He moved slowly at first, blinking and shaking his head, like he couldn’t believe who stood in front of his eyes. Then he was sprinting, hurdling saddles, startling the horses, and crushing her in his arms.
She dropped Breaker’s lead rope to return the embrace, pressing him as close as physically possible.
“Johanna, Johanna.” He whispered her name like a secret, his lips moving against her hair.
She pressed her cheek against his neck, dark scruff scratching her skin. It felt perfect; it felt safe.
“I should have known that if anyone could, you would find a way to escape.”
“And I knew you’d be out here looking for me.”
Before she could question propriety or decorum, Johanna did what felt right. Rising up on her toes, she brushed her lips over Rafi’s.
It was a simple kiss, the merest contact. She pulled back, face flaming, heart skipping, but Rafi didn’t let go. Kissing her once, twice. Nervously, then hungrily.
If the men watching murmured, she didn’t notice. If Pira, lurking in the shadows, growled her distaste, Johanna didn’t care. His arms were around her waist; her fingers were in his hair.
It didn’t last long enough.
Someone cried out; Johanna and Rafi jerked apart, turning as one of the guardsmen stumbled into the fire. Snout grabbed the man’s shirt and rolled him to the side. The quick action saved the tracker’s life as an arrow whisked over his head. The second guardsman wasn’t as lucky. A bolt shot clean through his throat, exploding through the back of his neck.
“Run!” Snout shouted. The arrow that caught him in the back spun him in a tight circle before he dropped to the ground.
Rafi took one faltering step forward and froze. His shirt was pasted against his chest as if he was caught in a stiff breeze, no part of him moved except his wide-open eyes.
Johanna yanked on his arm, trying to force him into action, but even her strongest pull did no good.
“There’s no use trying to move him,” Vibora said as she strode into the camp. A collared slave with a loaded short bow followed a few steps behind. He aimed the arrow at the center of Rafi’s chest. “I’ve got him wrapped in a pocket of air. It’s so tight he’s probably having a hard time breathing.”
Instinctively Johanna reached for the dagger always in her sleeve. But her wrist had been bare for days. Pira hadn’t returned Johanna’s weapons. She had nothing, no way to defend herself except feet and fists, but with any hope she had someone.
Pira, please be close enough to hear me. Please know I’m in trouble.
“Let him go!” Johanna shouted, using her stage voice to fill the clearing with sound.
Vibora clicked her tongue. “You are a vehement little thing.”
“Please, you don’t need him. You’ve been after me the whole time.” Johanna stepped out from behind Rafi, holding her arms out wide. The slave swiveled, training his weapon on Johanna as she moved. “I’m here. Kill me, take me, whatever you want, but let him go.”
Vibora stepped over Snout’s body, worked her way around the fire, and stooped next to a black saddle. “What in the world do you have to offer me? I hold all the cards.” Digging around for a moment, she found a collar just like the one her slave wore.
“Not quite. I have information I know you’ll want.” If Pira still waited outside the camp—that had been their plan till Johanna could explain why she brought one of her kidnappers with her—she’d have to be close.
“About the Keepers you’ve been traveling with?” Vibora opened the clasp on the collar with a small key she wore around her neck. “I knew it had to be someone with magic. They couldn’t have covered so much distance without it.”
“If you let Rafi go, then I’ll tell you everything I know about them. Their names, their powers, where they are now.” Something smacked into the back of Johanna’s hand.
What was that . . .
It fell to the ground with a tiny plink, but in the firelight she saw that the pebble sparkled with metallic speckles.
“As soon as I get this around your neck, you’ll tell me anyway.”
A second pebble caught Johanna in the cheek, forcing her head to turn to the camp’s north side. She couldn’t be certain, but something Pira-size moved between the trees.
Keep talking. Keep Vibora distracted till Pira can do whatever she has planned.
“Oh, I think you’ll want to know everything about these men before you turn me into a mindless slave.” She tried to smile, to keep Vibora guessing. “Especially about the Keeper who has known you since before he crossed the wall.”
That did get Vibora’s attention. “He must be incredibly old. And probably just a weak soldier. Anyone on assignment from the Mage Council is a Keeper they could afford to lose.”
Whatever Vibora had done to the collar was finished, and she straightened from beside the saddlebag. “Now let’s just get this on—”
“Even if it’s Jacaré?”
The woman’s confident smirk melted into a soft O of surprise. She recovered quickly. “I don’t know who you’re talking about.”
Johanna didn’t either, but it didn’t matter, because at that moment Pira let loose a storm of rocks that pelted Vibora. The woman took one shot to the head and fell to her knees. The bowman immediately followed, his weapon clattering to the ground beside him.
Rafi gasped; his lungs filled with air as Vibora’s hold on him disappeared.
Pira materialized from between the trees, a short sword in one hand and a dagger in the other. “Get on that horse and ride,” she commanded. “You know where I’ll meet you.”
“But—”
“If I’m not there by dawn, tell Jacaré I’m sorry and Leão—”
The rest of her words were cut off by an angry growl. A dizzy Vibora struggled to her feet, one hand pressed to the back of her head, blood streaming from every place her skin was bare.
“Go!” Pira shouted, dropping into a defensive crouch.
Rafi didn’t let Johanna stay to watch. He grabbed her arm and yanked her toward Breaker.
The startled horse rushed out of the camp with the sound of a tornado on his tail.
Chapter 97
Rafi
Rafi could smell the marsh before he could see it. The stench of plants submerged too long in water tickled his nose with memories of pond scum and black mold. Still, Johanna urged him toward the swampy banks rather than to the bend in the trail.
“You’re sure this is where she wanted to meet you?” he asked Johanna as he slid out of the saddle.
“I’m positive.” Johanna followed him to the ground. “Pira and I walked through the entire thing. She could find her way like the trail was a paved road.”
Something splashed into the water. The marsh was dan
gerous enough during the day, but to venture into it at night when all the predators were awake? Suicide.
“You think this is safe?”
“I think we don’t have a better option.”
Rafi didn’t disagree. How could he? He saw a woman create a hailstorm of pebbles after another had frozen him with air.
“I don’t have Pira’s skills, but I have an idea.” Johanna worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “We’ll have to let Breaker go. He can follow the trail, and will undoubtedly run to safety. Vibora will be more likely to follow his tracks than believe we’d try to cross the swamp.”
“That’s because it’s crazy.”
Johanna shrugged. “What isn’t?”
She was right. They’d become part of a Storyspinner’s tale—complete with magical barriers and mind control—and Johanna was at the heart of it. The heir to Santarem’s throne was alive, was his betrothed, and he’d kissed her. All subjects he meant to talk to her about when they weren’t running for their lives.
“All right. Let’s go.”
Rafi slung one saddlebag over his shoulder, knowing he wouldn’t be able to carry more than that if they were slogging through mud.
Pressing his forehead against the white star on Breaker’s nose, he whispered a soft good-bye. He hated to send the horse away, especially when there was a good chance he’d never see the animal again.
Johanna found a branch, taller than she was, and waited at the edge of the swamp. “I’ll lead. You keep a lookout for things.”
Rafi didn’t need a clarification.
Chapter 98
Johanna
Johanna wanted to move faster, but her process was slow. She prodded the ground with her stick before taking a step in any direction. Rafi kept his sword in his right hand and his left balled into the hem of her shirt.
The weight was comfortable and reassuring. It was nice to know that someone was at her back.
They didn’t talk very much, afraid to attract predators, afraid to be distracted. Occasionally a splash sounded, and something big brushed past Johanna’s boot when she led them into a knee-deep hole, but otherwise the call of the potoo was the only night sound.
She focused on the black water directly ahead of her, made blacker under the half-light of Mother Lua. It was her single-minded focus that almost killed them.
Rafi’s hand tightened in her shirt, pulling her back hard enough that she smashed into his chest.
“Stop,” he whispered. “There’s something ahead.”
She felt his heart racing against her shoulder blade and knew whatever he’d seen was deadly.
“We’ve got to go backward,” Rafi continued. “Slowly. Make as little noise as possible.”
Backing up scared her just as much as going forward. There was no guarantee that the step Rafi took wouldn’t land them in a pool of mud that would instantly close over their heads.
“There’s a tree ten feet behind us. We’re going to climb it and . . .” He hesitated, and Johanna knew he was deciding the plan as he made it. “And stay there till it’s light.”
The water around her calves rippled. Something big swam toward them. She couldn’t make out the animal’s shape, but as it turned its head, a bit of moonlight reflected on a pair of eyes just above the water level.
Caiman, she thought. And if there’s one, there are probably many.
She followed Rafi, step for step. His arm stayed tight around her waist, his head swiveling as they backed away from the creature.
Off to their left they heard a near-silent splash, followed by another.
“We’re almost there.” But almost wasn’t close enough.
The first attack came as a hard bump against Johanna’s shin. She stumbled, and Rafi threw her toward the tree’s roots. Brackish water closed over her head and she thrashed, feeling something cold and solid against her palm.
Oh Mother Lua, help. The water filled her mouth and she surged upward. Her head broke the surface, and her flailing arm slammed against tree roots.
“Climb, Johanna!”
She couldn’t see Rafi, but she hauled herself out of the water and onto the arching roots.
“Rafi!” Blindly she gripped the bark, searching for a fingerhold, a knot, anything to pull her body away from the creatures Rafi fended off with his sword.
She didn’t need it. A strong arm gripped her around the waist and boosted her to the lowest branch. Johanna caught it and swung her hips over like it was a trapeze. Dangling, she reached for Rafi.
“Come on!”
He took a few more swipes at the animals crowding around the tree’s roots, knocking one caiman back into the water when it tried to use the roots to propel itself toward him.
Grabbing her outstretched hands, he braced his foot against the trunk. Johanna used all of her strength, all of her body weight, to pull him into the tree.
She heard him gasp and felt something tug him back, yanking on her arms till she was certain they were going to pop out of their sockets.
Then he was free, scrabbling onto the branch beside her.
From their vantage they could see at least five caimans waiting below, snapping their empty jaws and growling at the humans invading their territory.
“Are you hurt? Did one of them bite you?” She traced his arms with frantic fingers searching for an injury. Her mind raced with the possibility of infections and of a dripping wound attracting predators of a different variety.
He surprised her by laughing. “I’m fine.” He covered her hands with his own, squeezing tightly. “It got my boot heel and yanked it clean off my foot.”
He held up a perfectly intact foot and wiggled his stockinged toes.
Johanna wanted to laugh, but the noise that bubbled over her lips sounded more like a sob. Tears immediately followed.
“Light, Johanna, I’m sorry.” Rafi pulled her tight against his chest, which was incredibly awkward as they straddled a tree limb.
“No, I’m sorry,” she cried into the middle of his chest. “I dragged you into a swamp in the middle of the night and almost fed you to giant reptiles.”
“Just think. It will be an incredible story to tell our grandchildren.”
Johanna raised her head slowly. “Our grandchildren?”
Rafi’s hands stopped drawing the soothing pattern on her back. He took a deep breath. “Oh, Johanna. I have so much to tell you.”
They found two branches farther up the tree that grew almost parallel, giving them a more stable place to spend the night. Rafi edged his back against the tree trunk, and Johanna sat between his legs.
His hands draped loosely around her waist as he told her everything. His grip tightened when she cried—the grief over the deaths of her family fresh and raw. It wasn’t that Johanna had believed her mother or Thomas had survived, but an unreasonable part of her heart had hoped. Johanna would never get a chance to set things right, to apologize to her mother for the words she’d said in anger.
Please, Mother Lua, Johanna prayed silently. Tell my mother I love her. Tell her I’m sorry. Tell her . . .
“Michael is safe.” Rafi whispered the promise against her ear. “He was brokenhearted, but between Dom, my mother, and our household staff, he’ll be well cared for.”
Johanna nodded, relieved at least in that.
“And then there is the matter of the lockbox from your wagon.” His hands traced down her arms, and he wove his fingers between her own. “Light . . . I don’t know how to say this.”
She felt his Adam’s apple rise and fall. He cleared his throat and described how Snout had found her mother’s body curled around the box.
“I knew it was important, so I brought it with me. Inside was a letter from my father. I recognized the seal and opened it. I’m sorry if that was prying.”
“It’s fine.” Johanna squee
zed his hands, urging him to continue. “What did it say?”
“I have it here in my vest, and you can read it for yourself when it’s light enough.”
“Just tell me. Please?”
He didn’t speak for a long time, and the quiet made every muscle in her body tense like a bowstring.
“You are Princess Adriana. Arlo rescued you from the Citadel as it fell.”
She closed her eyes and pressed her head against his collarbone. It wasn’t new information, but it was verification. Hearing it from Rafi made it truer. And more awful.
“I already know. The people who kidnapped me, well, they’re Keepers. You saw them use magic. You know it’s true.”
Rafi gave that little cough-laugh that held no humor. “I can’t deny it, but I can’t believe it either. Keepers are characters in your stories.”
“I wish that were all.” Without any of her typical eloquence or lyricism, Johanna laid out the details of her capture and the reasons why she was taken. “They’re trying to protect us from more people like Vibora—people who will try to enslave all of Santarem.”
“What do we do now?”
“We could go back to Santiago and hope all of this fades away.”
He took a deep breath like he was going to say something, but let it go with a sigh. “If that’s what you want.”
“It is what I want to do,” she said, turning to look at him over her shoulder. In the darkness she could make out the strong shape of his jaw, and the perfectly straight line of his nose, but she didn’t need to see his face to know it would show disappointment. “But what am I supposed to do?”
“If what the Keepers said is true . . . if there are more people like Vibora and they’re in league with Inimigo and Belem . . .” He shrugged. “I won’t make that decision for you. If you choose to return to Santiago to be with Michael, I’ll go with you. If you choose to go to the wall, I’ll go too.”
“What would you do?”
He tucked her hair behind her ears, letting his fingers trail along her neck. “To save all the people of Santarem? You know what I’d do.”
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