Dreamless

by Jenniffer Wardell

  Delighted, Cam winked at Elena. “I’m sure I can remember a poem or two,” he murmured, grinning when she blushed again.

  The doctor, for once, seemed to be entirely oblivious. “Oh, I doubt you have the vocal chords for draconic poetry. Some of the most moving passages mostly consist of snarling.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” Elena said, shooting the mirror a quelling look. “I’m sure we’re all fascinated.”

  The queen cleared her throat to get everyone’s attention, but there was an amused look on her face as she activated the illumination spell. “Positions, everyone.”

  Once the circle lit, the queen spread her hands wide and murmured a phrase in what Cam had always privately thought of as “secret magic language.” Then she blew gently into the circle, the air turning into a silvery cloud of light as soon as it crossed the barrier.

  It was Dr. Flyte’s turn to speak, making the candle flare at an unnatural angle and cross the circle. Droplets of water rose from the cup at Braeth’s portion of the spell, and when Ariadne spoke a thin stream of dirt rise into the air. After each element crossed the circle, it transformed into a silvery light that slowly filled the circle.

  The entire time, Elena was whispering the translation to him. He’d asked before they’d started if it would cause problems with the spell, but apparently magic didn’t recognize Common. “alone, fragments of a true whole. Only entwined can they become themselves.”

  At Ariadne’s final word, the circle flared with green light. That was his and Elena’s cue to begin their portion of the spell. Reluctantly letting go of each other, they both took a step back. Then Cam held out his hand, and she used the tip of the knife to sketch what looked like a compass rose against the skin of his palm. A silent apology in her eyes, she pressed the knife into the center of his palm just deep enough to draw blood. When the first red drop welled up, the entire pattern flashed green.

  Cam was fascinated enough that it took him a second to remember his line. Elena had taught it to him phonetically, and so far it was the only line he knew in “secret magic language.” “Inimeserjetaure da vaka.” My heart is bound to yours.

  Then Elena sketched the same design in her palm before drawing a drop of her own blood. Her pattern flared blue, the same color as her magic in the earlier spell. “Kenmu a tauledusjeaedno.” Our souls are tied as one.

  The queen then drew a symbol in the air, ending in a wide circle that she closed by joining her hands together. As she spoke a final word, he and Elena pressed their palms together. The flash of light was bright enough that he shut his eyes, blue-green spots still dancing behind his eyelids.

  A second later, he opened one eye and risked a peek at Elena. “Are we done?”

  She hesitated, as if considering the question. “The spell’s over. I don’t feel any different, but there’s no reason I necessarily would.”

  “Not unless your bond was put to the test,” Braeth said. Before Cam could react, the wraith flicked a small jolt of electricity straight into Cam’s right ear. He flinched, grabbing the now-sore appendage, and next to him Elena did the same thing to her own right ear. A second later, he realized that the electricity hadn’t hurt quite as much as he’d thought it would.

  Two seconds later, he realized a potential problem. He grabbed Elena’s hand, forcing her to meet his eyes. “So if I get stabbed in the chest at some point saving your life, this means you’re going to feel it anyway?”

  Elena stared at him, completely incredulous. “I think you have more important things to be concerned about right now.”

  Annoyance was not helping him be any less worried. “No, I really don’t.”

  She stared at him another moment, then kissed his hand. “Only you,” she murmured, the wealth of affection in her voice doing dangerous things to his heart. When she met his eyes again, though, there was a serious warning in them. “Now you know you’d better not let yourself get stabbed.”

  “Given his profession, that’s not exactly a feasible restric—” Dr. Flyte began, only to be cut off by a rattling noise that sounded like someone giving his stand a firm kick. Cam sent a silent but heartfelt thank you to whoever had done the kicking.

  When he looked up, he saw the queen moving away from the mirror and back to her original position. She was as solemn as someone about to go into battle. “I see no reason not to move on to the next step immediately,” she said, gaze sweeping over everyone. “Are we agreed?”

  Cam watched Elena go pale, his eyes never leaving hers. When she nodded at him, he squared his shoulders. “We’re agreed.”

  As everyone else cleared the remains of the binding spell, Cam pulled Elena down onto the floor next to him. “Now, if all of this goes like it’s supposed to, I’m the only one who should be blacking out in the—”

  She shook her head, cutting him off. “No. If this works out, neither of us should lose consciousness.”

  “Okay, I’d prefer that,” Cam continued, pulling her closer. “But either way, it’s probably safer if we start this a little closer to the ground.” He scanned the circle, measuring out his height and relative angles in his head, then scooted them both closer to one edge. “If I do end up collapsing like I’m not supposed to, I’ll try to make sure I don’t fall over onto the runes and screw everything up.”

  Elena brushed an imaginary bit of hair off his forehead. “Oh, your head will explode long before that happens,” she said.

  He smiled at her, knowing she was trying to play. “I have no idea why no one else can see this evil side of you.”

  Before she could respond, everything was ready. As everyone moved into position, the universe displayed a truly horrible sense of timing by letting the door open. Silently, his parents and Bishop walked into the room.

  Cam had no idea what the expression on his face might have been, but Elena read it well enough to squeeze his hand. “They belong here, too.”

  He glanced back over at his parents’ seemingly emotionless faces, far too aware of how much pain they were hiding. “While I’m not admitting that you were right at all,” he whispered. “I’m starting to understand your side of our earlier argument.”

  As the illumination and projection spells activated, the corners of Elena’s mouth curved upward just a little. “Eventually, you’ll learn that I’m always right.”

  She’d said “eventually.” Cam grinned despite himself.

  When the image of the curse flared to life above their heads, however, all he could do was stare. The knot that had tangled Elena up so painfully tightly the last time he’d seen it had started to move again, the strands straining and twitching as if they were trying to get away from whatever was at the center. The strands of Elena’s magic seemed to push in the opposite direction, trying to draw back in to the core, and every time the two threads strained against each other Elena winced. It took Cam a second to come to the quite horrible realization that, unlike Braeth’s little trick with his ear, he wasn’t feeling a thing.

  “Why isn’t the bond working?” He took Elena’s face in his hands, trying hard not to sound desperate. “We’re supposed to be sharing the pain, remember? Tell me what I need to do.”

  Ariadne said something over his head, the words sharp, but Cam didn’t bother paying attention. Elena looked like she trying to figure out the answer to his question, and he was going to listen to her opinion before anyone else’s. “I don’t know. I think—” The words were cut off by another wince. “Maybe the effects of the binding are only automatic if it has a parallel to work with.”

  And he didn’t have any magic. Fantastic. “Then how do we make it work?” His own brain raced, trying to come up with its own answer. “I don’t have magic, but I have energy. Use that.”

  “Cam.” Elena winced again, then let out a long breath. “This isn’t that significant a problem. I’m not going to steal your energy just to make myself more comfortable.
”

  More talk happened above their heads, but none of that mattered. “Elena, this is why I’m here.” Determination rose up inside him, as if his energy could reach for Elena all on its own. “If it’s this bad now, you’re going to need it later.”

  “Then I’ll use it later—”

  The conversation above them coalesced into the sound of his mother’s voice saying his name. “Cam. Look up.”

  He obeyed, but it took him a while to understand what had happened. The strands of Elena’s magic, originally bright blue, were shimmering with a faint green light that made it look the same color as her mother’s. The curse strands were moving even more violently now, not pleased by the new development. Cam wasn’t sure he was pleased, either, since just looking at it seemed to be giving him a headache.

  Then Elena, who was also staring up at the knot, squeezed his arm. “It doesn’t hurt as much anymore.” There was something close to wonder in her voice. “Cam, what did you do?”

  “I have no idea.” But now that he concentrated, he could tell that the headache was really a series of faint aches piled on top of each other.

  “Fascinating,” Dr. Flyte said. “It seems that Cam somehow forced the binding spell to recognize his energy as an appropriate comparative for Elena’s magic.”

  Testing the theory—at least, that was what he was going to tell Elena if she started yelling at him—Cam focused on trying to push more energy at her. The knot flared again, the pain in his head sharpening into more distinct individual jabs, and Elena’s eyes narrowed at him. “That’s enough.” She lifted her hands to touch his face. “You have less energy to work with than I do.”

  “That’s true, Cameron,” the queen confirmed. “Elena’s father and I attempted a few things when she was a child. When you use life force for both physical and magical energy, you’re drained twice as quickly.” She paused, sounding oddly wistful. “His energy was green, too.”

  “I need you with me through all of this,” Elena said firmly, the warning clear on her face. Since she was also obviously in far less pain than she had been before, Cam decided silently that he’d been proven right and left it at that.

  Deciding he wasn’t going to try anything stupidly heroic for the next few minutes, Elena looked back up at the knot. “So, you said that it was the destruction of the inner shield that made me black out last time. Since that doesn’t seem to have renewed itself, do we have any guesses as to what might trigger it now?”

  Every head turned to Ariadne. “I never experimented beneath the inner shield,” she said, a careful rephrasing of what Cam guessed had originally been “I have no idea.” “The simplest answer would be an attack of equal strength, but it’s likely that the core will be even more sensitive to attack than the rest of the curse. Anything might set off a defense mechanism.”

  Cam saw Elena’s mouth move, muttering what he was pretty sure was “Well, that’s helpful,” too low for anyone to hear. Then she took a deep breath and reached up toward one of the blue strands. “There’s one way of finding out.”

  Lightly touching it with the tips of her fingers, Elena closed her eyes. She curled her fingers to the right just a little, as if she was attempting to carefully nudge something into place. Cam felt a faint ache inside himself, like an old bruise being poked at, but he ignored it.

  “She’s following the line of her magic,” he heard the queen say, though he was pretty sure neither he nor his parents had asked a question. Maybe she explained things when she was nervous, too. “She’s tangled too deeply into the curse for us to do a great deal, but the more she can free herself the more easily we can work on removing it.”

  A moment later her hand nudged again, this time in the opposite direction, and as she tensed Cam felt a stronger twinge of pain in his chest. Then she stopped, her body tensing as she opened her eyes. “Cam,” she said quietly. “Get ready.”

  When he squeezed her arm in response, she looped her finger around the visible strand. Then, with a quick jerk, she yanked it free.

  Pain blossomed in Cam, sharp and hot, but that wasn’t nearly as bad as the wave of dizziness that crashed into him. He swayed, feeling Elena do the same, and braced them both. It took some effort, but they both kept their eyes open.

  Elena held onto him tightly. “I won’t do it that abruptly again, I promise.” He could hear the leftover strain in her voice. “But now we know.”

  Cam steeled himself for what was coming. “Now we know.”

  Chapter 25

  Sacrifice and Glory

  The work went painfully slow, with far too much emphasis on the last two words.

  For the first little while, Elena was working mostly alone. The writhing had loosened the knot, giving them more leeway to work with, but there was still far too much of her magic in the way. The jostling was constant enough that the pulses of ache blended together, and though Cam was a steady, quiet presence next to her she could imagine every slice of pain inside him. It made her want to hurry, to get him safe and away, but her experiment had already shown what would happen to him if she moved too fast. She forced her fingers to be patient.

  The silence in the room had a weight. Everyone watched her work as the time slipped away from them, each second stretching out until it seemed endless. Occasionally, the others would catch the curse strands with their magic, either holding it in place or move it aside to make her work a little easier. She was certain they wanted to do more—she remembered how hungry she’d been to help the last time they had done this—but they didn’t dare until she’d cleared more room. A thousand threads would have to disappear to make any real difference, and it took a small eternity to unwind each and every one. Even then, there was always another one waiting.

  Every needlepoint project she’d ignored over the years mocked her.

  The writhing curse strands both helped and hurt matters. They gave her desperately needed room to work, but they put just as much strain on the strands of her magic as impatient fingers did. Her own pain was distracting enough, but the knowledge that Cam was hurting as well did even more damage to her focus. It should have made her focus even sharper, her love for Cam transforming her into the kind of woman with the power to save them both, but she had failed in the romantic heroine department.

  “Talk to me,” she murmured to Cam. There was something unforgivably rude about the request, as if no one else was in the room, but she needed to get away from her own thoughts if she wanted to have any hope of finishing this.

  Cam hesitated, a more relaxed stillness than when he was bracing them both, then leaned just a little closer to her ear. “Any idea why the binding spell made the curse panic like this?” The last few words carried some strain in them, timed perfectly with a fresh jab through her own ribs. “Or is it something else entirely that’s set it off?”

  “It was you,” Ariadne said, completely ignoring the fact that she hadn’t been invited into the conversation. Her aunt’s fingers twitched, unhappy with the helplessness that pinned them in place, and she hooked her magic around one of the curse strands and began to work it free. “I can’t be certain without more experimentation, but from what I saw the curse recognized you as an invading presence in the center of its magic. It wasn’t happy.”

  “You’re suggesting it sees Cameron’s energy as a threat nearly equal to the combined force of all our talents?” Braeth asked, finding his own strand only seconds after Ariadne had claimed hers. “For that to have any chance of being true, your curse would need to be as insanely possessive as its creator.”

  There was no response from her aunt, and Elena wondered if the wraith’s insult might have a seed of truth in it. They’d proven that emotion could affect magical bindings, and if that was true, maybe it could also alter the very shape of a spell.

  She heard her mother say Braeth’s name quietly, an unspoken reminder that now wasn’t the time to argue, and Elena le
t the thought go momentarily. You’re not talking enough,” she whispered to Cam, eyes still on the curse. He leaned closer to her ear. “I’m just going to set everyone else off again, and I don’t think that’s the kind of distraction you’re looking for,” he whispered back.

  She hesitated only briefly before the admission slipped out. “I need the sound of your voice.” The words were as brisk and practical-sounding as she could make them, the last remnants of pride that hadn’t yet thrown its metaphorical hands up and accepted the hold that Cam had on her. “I don’t care what you say, or how anyone else feels about it. But I need you to talk.” Another brief pause. “Please.”

  He didn’t say anything at first, but he did shift close enough to eliminate the few scraps of air that had managed to squeeze between them. Tightening his arms around her just a little bit more, he leaned down so that his lips were close to her ear but his breath wouldn’t tickle her skin. “Article 3, subsection 2: Each member of the border patrol shall be issued one full set of leather armor, fitted as closely as possible to the wearer given the armor currently in stock. One standard-sized crossbow, though the patrol member may also outfit themselves with—”

  Elena smiled slightly, promising herself that there would be time to ask him why and how he’d come to memorize what sounded like a part of the border patrol handbook, and resumed her work.

  Soon, her mother and Dr. Flyte joined in as well, wrestling the curse strands into submission. Time continued to crawl, the knot disappearing far more slowly than it had the last time they had battled the curse. At one point Cam apparently came to the end of the handbook, leaving him scrambling for a moment before moving on to detailed descriptions of his own patrol routes.

  All Elena could do was continue the patient taming of her own knotted magic, surprised at the way it had been so bent and twisted by the curse. She had never felt any limitations on her power, any handicap that had kept her from reaching her full sorcerous potential, but surely this much of a mess had created some sort of negative effect.