“This Arne then, the one I’ve never seen. And Pynim, where is he? Also dead?”
“Pynim is back in the cells, still refusing. He must decide soon. Raicha wants him for her knives, but the Prime gives him time to decide.”
“Or Enstigorr decided for him, after you left Hardraste with the troop to hunt me down.”
Katya shrugged. “I am alive. I can still wield my power. I can learn new things. Allied with the Prime, I am no longer fodder for the guards.” She stood up from her boulder and shook out her cloak and heavy skirts. “I came to help you see reason. The Prime holds you in special favor. I know not why. He is eager for your return.”
“He practices death spells with my blood. Did they draw your blood for such evil?”
Katya stilled.
“Ah, they tried. And nothing.” Corrie wanted to smile; she felt only deflated sorrow. “No wonder they agreed to your bargain. They will let this Arne—and Enstigorr through him—burn you out. Do you feel the draining of your power for their spells? Do you feel your power seeping away? It is a slow death, Katya, not an escape.”
“I don’t believe you.”
Yet the young wizard’s confidence was shaken. Corrie tried another punch, a wild one. “Tell me, what did Enstigorr do when he discovered that I alone caused our escape from the cells? Did he laugh?”
She gave one jerky nod.
Corrie felt sick. She hugged herself. “You are doomed, Katya, from that moment, as is Pynim. He will play you on the leash a while longer, but you are doomed.” And she dipped her cold cold face back into the wool scarf.
. ~ . ~ . ~ .
The first day set the pattern for the next ones and bled over to set the pattern for the nights as well. Sverr still helped her mount and dismount at every stop, but he never tried for a private word. Mannemous would check the bindings morning and night, though he never touched them. The guards stayed away; Katya’s orders, certainly. The captain watched but never came within ten feet of her.
The drogger was not a conversationalist, but she found herself eagerly anticipating his nudges. Over six days he managed to come up with two more objections, but he dropped them when she pointed out that he wouldn’t earn his name.
The pattern changed on the sixth night. When Sverr helped her dismount, he murmured, “Pitch a little fit and take a walk. When you come back, sit by Mannemous.”
She let her knees buckle. He caught her, steadied her. “I’ve been sitting on that horse too long,” she announced. “I must walk. I need to relieve myself and then walk some more.”
“I’ve got horses to see to, witch,” he groused. “You’ll sit over there and wait.”
“I will not,” and she marched toward the trees.
She knew he reached for her, but Katya was suddenly there. “Let her. She doesn’t dare escape.”
Corrie wanted to scratch the young wizard’s eyes out, but she continued on, looking behind her only when she heard heavy boots crunching the iced ground.
The captain followed her. From his scowl, that duty wasn’t his choice, but he didn’t trust one of subordinates or a simple guard to watch her.
She grinned to herself and started a wide circuit of the camp. With her bladder pressing its needs, she circled back to the likeliest bush and relieved herself while he stood his obligatory ten feet away. When she emerged, she bared her teeth in a false smile. “I do need to walk, Captain. My muscles feel like they’re atrophying.”
“Have your walk.”
“With you ten paces back? I am harmless. These,” she lifted her bound wrists, “make me so.” She hoped he didn’t hear the lie.
He looked at the troop. Even with trees between and twilight rapidly deepening, they were still clearly visible. “I would not have my guard of you questioned.”
“I will not complain to Enstigorr. Ah, you think Katya might? Trust me, Captain. She is far removed from Enstigorr’s sphere. She cannot dictate anything to the Prime.”
“She is Arne’s protégé.”
“Arne I have never met, but he also cannot dictate to the Prime.”
“Rumors have a way of escalating.”
“A little conversation cannot be misconstrued, can it? I have gone six days in near total silence. Even your packmaster only grunts when I thank him for my meal. Walk beside me. Tell me of your life outside guard for Hardraste.”
“Lady, that is where our ways part. I have no life outside of guard.” He gestured to the trail she’d blazed. “Lead on, Lady. Walk out the saddle kinks. I remain your guard.”
She sniffed and turned back to the circuit, but inwardly she glowed. He had believed her protest, but he did not intend to offer her sympathy. Hopefully, when Mannemous moved forward with Sverr’s plan, the captain would show a little sympathy then.
She would have pitched a tantrum if she had known how Katya fit into Sverr’s plan.
She eyed them balefully over her bowl as Sverr led the young wizard into the woods. She burned at the guards’ sniggering comments.
Her bowl was tugged. “I’ll take that for you.”
Mannemous, distracting her. She released it and picked at the cords until he settled back beside her.
“She’s been coming on to him for days,” he murmured. “He’s just ensuring we stay on her good side into Hardraste itself.”
“He’s mine,” she snapped then clamped her mouth shut, appalled at staking that claim.
“And he knows it. Don’t waste this time he’s bought.”
“The captain watches.”
“He always watches. I don’t think he plans on more, but we have to be quick. Stay angry, and I’ll stay amused; he’ll think I’m taunting you. Have you tested the cords?”
“I’ve been too busy!”
His chuckle sounded amused. “Katya will be furious. She hasn’t an nth of your power, and she never really had you prisoner.”
The captain leaned forward, watching them intently. “Get on with it,” she gritted.
“The drogger still with us?”
“Increasingly cautious, but aye.”
“He will turn the tide for us, I think. Wise Corrie.”
She shook her head. “The chance fell into my lap. I didn’t think anything would come of it. Nothing may come of it.”
“Here you and I differ. I would not have even seen the chance.”
The captain stood. He looked her straight in the eye then walked over to his sergeant and spoke.
“Out with it, Mannemous. Our captain grows suspicious.”
“I agree. I told you, didn’t I? that I understand how the Prime thinks?”
“You claimed to, when we talked about the seal.”
“You still do not believe? How do you think I have evaded his hounds for so long? He was seeking witches to thrall long before he aligned himself with Hardraste’s lord. And all those years that he hunted, I hunted, too. I hunted for what drove him as well as for his weaknesses. Many years ago I found one weakness. I did not think much of it, then, for it is deceptively simple. In recent years I have come to believe that it is the key to lock up his powers. So I give it to you. Use it wisely.”
“Tell me quickly,” she urged as the captain glanced back at them then stalked off in the direction Sverr and Katya had taken.
“As Corrie is not your real name, Corrissidy, so is Enstigorr not his real name. His birth name is Tigorr-Ensroon.”
Truth surged as powerfully as it had six mornings ago. “An Ornestreigon name.”
“He was born there. The Chancellor-Regent Ensroon-Balorr was his blood.”
“The chancellor-regent that Sverr killed?”
“The very same. And likely the reason that the chancellor acceded to the Prime’s request to turn over a Norther. Cousin works with cousin.”
“Tigorr-Ensroon,” she repeated.
“Do not waste this knowledge, lass. I came by it at great risk. For years I counted it naught. Yet it is the reason I had to flee my home in the Raikon. I have hoarded his name,
and I give it to you. Swear you will not waste it.”
“I so swear, Mannemous. But why did you not use it yourself? If it will lock his power, you could have gone against him.”
“Because a bane witch is nothing against a wizard, but a bane wizard can defeat a Prime. Even a Prime and his hand.”
“A bane wizard? You persist in this belief? I have never heard such.”
“I will be quick. They are returning.”
And they were. Katya harped at the captain for interrupting her time with Sverr.
“We have discussed how inadequate your training was, Corrie.” Mannemous kept his eyes on the wizard and the chief officers. “Could that have been planned? We must consider that later. As for bane wizards, your father knew of them. He believed you would become one. I believe the Prime—Tigorr-Ensroon himself—suspects you are. A bane wizard is most rare. The Reckoning only records one a century, for century upon century. The greatest of gods have given you the greatest of gifts.”
“Not me.”
He rose as the trio entered the campsite. “Aye, lass, you.” Then he walked away.
Only to be brought up short by Katya as she rounded the fire. “Old man, what were you talking about with her?”
“I reminded her what Enstigorr will do with her.”
“I did not need reminding,” Corrie grumbled.
“Shut your mouth. Did you touch her? Did you touch the cords? Did he touch her?” she snapped at the guards gaping up at her.
“I cannot bear to touch the cords,” Mannemous said while the guards answered that he hadn’t even reached out to the wizard.
“Truth,” Katya judged, but her eyes remained narrowed on the bane witch. Mannemous met her gaze with limpid honesty.
Corrie stared at the wet patches at the knees of Katya’s skirt.
Katya turned to Corrie. “What did he say to you?”
She lifted her gaze and examined Katya’s hectic flush and reddened lips. “He told me nothing of Enstigorr’s cells that I did not already know. I spent more than a season there, old man.” She tore her gaze away from those two damp patches and pretended to grumble at Mannemous. “I have been chained to the walls of his tower.”
“And will be again, this time tomorrow,” the young wizard said with satisfaction. “Show me the cords.”
Corrie dutifully lifted her wrists. She glanced at Sverr, unconcernedly re-lacing his trews. He didn’t have wet patches on his knees. So, he’d made Katya kneel before him and used her mouth. If she hadn’t finished him, he had lost his erection pretty quickly. And Katya had certainly not gotten what she’d sought from the encounter.
“Untouched,” the young woman pronounced and turned to Mannemous. “But you are not to talk with her alone again.”
“I count ten guards in this camp. Hardly alone, Katya.”
She flung a hand up. Power glowed around it. “Do not anger me again, old man.”
“If you are this wild when you are frustrated,” the captain said softly, “perhaps you should go back into the trees with the Norther.”
Katya glanced at Sverr—but he had dropped onto his blankets. He yawned widely. “Try me at dawn.”
Corrie, who knew his vigor, had to smother a laugh.
“Fernat!” Katya snapped. The cornet leaped to his feet. She didn’t try to seduce him. She didn’t even smile. “Come with me.”
The captain still loomed over them when the two disappeared into the trees. “Stay out of trouble,” he warned Corrie.
She lifted her bound wrists. “What trouble can I get into?”
“My own question,” he said. “It’s the answer that worries me.” He did what Katya had not. He touched the cords and checked the knots. He tightened the right wrist then slipped a finger underneath to check if it were loose enough not to cut off circulation. “You are the prize. Enstigorr killed six witches making the spells to draw you back.”
“He is evil. That is the proof.”
“Katya thinks he’ll torture you before he drains your blood.”
“He will not kill me. He wants me alive, to use my blood. Torture? Aye, though he will not think it is torture. If he seeks to win my allegiance, turning me into a fawning dog, he cannot do it through pain. The binding will not hold.”
“She will not be pleased unless she hears you scream.”
A shout silenced the camp. When its echo ended, Corrie gave the captain a wry smile. “Then she will not be pleased.”
He cocked his head to one side. “You’re not frightened enough for a wizard going back to Enstigorr.”
“Should I gabble gibberish? Or soil myself repeatedly?”
“That’s good. The Prime respects defiance. It’s the ones who seek a bargain that he doesn’t trust.” He flicked a glance at Sverr. “She finish you?”
“Hard to keep it up,” he complained. “More businesslike than enthusiastic.”
The captain grinned. “She won’t put her throat into it,” he commiserated crudely. “It’s a night for good sleep. We should reach Hardraste a couple of hours after the nooning. Hate to see you lose your bounty.”
“We won’t lose it.”
He looked at Mannemous. “You’ve met her temper now. She don’t like people talking back. Once you’ve dropped the wizard off, come find me at the barracks. I’ll see you get your bounty.” Then he strode back to his pallet on the other side of the fire.
“To the letter and no more,” Corrie whispered as Mannemous returned to his pallet.
“Doesn’t make him an ally,” Sverr warned. “Forgive me?”
“If Mannemous did give me the key, then aye. But you owe me.”
“I am always willing and capable for you, Lyse Oyne.”
“That’s a start,” she said as she lay back on her pallet.
Chapter 15
The ground-troll stopped when it sensed the extent of Hardraste’s walls. It preferred the smaller houses, the taverns, the merchant buildings. Near the castle gate, it hunkered down, and Corrie could not even hear the rumble of its mind as it realized the task before it.
I go, she told it, to defeat a great wizard and his tamed wizards and witches. I may die.
I may die, it ground out.
Aye. That is the nature of battle. I will understand if you want to leave rather than risk death.
You go to fight evil.
He makes slaves of others. As she made you a slave.
The drogger growled. A deed worthy of the name Stone Destroyer, it repeated her persuasions.
Relief washed through her. When I tell you, take down the innermost stones and scatter them. You need not do the outer rings of wall.
That would be a deed of many moons.
If you cannot do it—.
I do it.
As soon as they passed the outer town wall, guards began peeling off at some pre-arranged signal. They were only a half-dozen strong, counting Sverr and Mannemous, when they reached the inner castle gate. The packmaster led his horses off as soon as they rode into the cobbled yard.
A man ran from the tower to greet Katya, and the young wizard began her boasts before she dismounted.
Sverr helped Corrie dismount, and in the chaotic swirl he hauled her against him. “I want to kiss you all over, even your secret places. I want to lap up all your sweet honey.”
“Aye. Soon.”
“Darkfall. We start then. No matter what, Lyse Oyne. Be ready.” He pressed something into her palm then turned away.
Over Mannemous’ shoulder, Corrie saw Katya approaching with that man. She closed her fingers protectively around the object Sverr had given her.
The man was shaved bald. His skin looked as if it hadn’t seen the sun for months. Corrie didn’t recognize him, but he stared goggle-eyed at her. “We should chain her.”
“I’m already bound.” She lifted her wrists.
The man recoiled at sight of the spell-binding cords.
“The Prime will not want her chained,” the captain said. “He will not ap
preciate such rough treatment of his prize.”
“So be it,” the man said.
They walked—wizards and guards along with Sverr and Mannemous—into the open enclosure common between castle and the donjon with its cells and Enstigorr’s tower. The snow swirled fiercely, more and more flakes caught into the vortex created by the squared walls.
“I leave you here.” The captain pointed to an archway. “That passage will take you to the barracks. I will have your bounty there.”
“They have questions to ask Omonte,” Katya said.
Inside the donjon the air seemed appreciably colder, although decades of despairs could have iced the tower stones.
“Omonte is seeing no one today,” the man said.
“You will take these men to him. He is the only one who can give them their answers.”
“He warned us last evening not to disturb him.”
“He will already have been disturbed by servants running through with news of what I—with what we’ve returned to the Prime.”
Sverr had sidled close during their exchange. “Darkfall,” he reminded her.
She gave no sign of hearing him other than a blink of her eyes.
The man acquiesced and led Sverr and Mannemous to a paneled door. Corrie, knowing what the door led to, turned away. One flight of stairs down, and a great room opened up. There were open cells, tables with basins beneath to catch blood, benches with chains running through rings mortared into the walls. Omonte’s great room, where he interrogated the newly arrived until they gave up every fact of their lives. And then he sent them to the deeper cells, the ones with the spell-dampening stones, until Enstigorr selected his few, and Raicha and Snossi divided up the rest.
She wanted to wretch.
While they descended, Corrie climbed behind Katya, up the open perron steps, past the first floor room where the wizards met with the lord’s emissaries, up another flight and then another. The young wizard pushed aside a heavy curtain and stopped their climb.
Two braziers tried to heat the winter-chilled room. Corrie looked around her. She had never entered the tower by this means. The guards had used the twisting stair with its abyssal darkness that smothered the flickering torches they carried. They had harried her, not caring when she slipped and fell. Up and up until they had to drag her up the last steps into Enstigorr’s room at the very top. And then, weakened by blood loss or sapped by his spells, she had to be hauled down and down into the cells below ground.
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