by Barb Hendee
Then all Céline could hear was Jaromir and Amelie both panting as they stared at each other.
“There’s your captive, Céline,” Amelie breathed.
Corporal Quinn, Guardsman Rurik, and three other men broke through the trees, and Quinn raised his spear at the sight of the wolf on the ground.
“No,” Jaromir said, still panting but holding up one hand. “We need it.”
Quinn looked uncertain and didn’t lower the spear.
Feeling dizzy and sick to her stomach, Céline somehow stepped between them. “Please, Corporal . . . just tie it up somewhere and don’t give it any water.”
The world around her began to spin, and the ground came rushing up.
Chapter Seven
“Céline?”
Opening her eyes, Céline found herself in a bed, inside the tent she shared with Amelie, and her sister—fully dressed—was leaning over her, holding a plate of bread and a mug of steaming tea. The tent flap was partially open, revealing bright daylight outside.
“Amelie? What time is it?”
“Almost midday. We haven’t wanted to wake you, but Jaromir thought it was time.”
“Midday?” Céline couldn’t remember ever having slept so late, but something had happened last night . . . something . . .
Bits and pieces came rushing back.
“It’s all right,” Amelie rushed to say. “You just fainted.”
Céline blinked, suddenly feeling less disturbed and somewhat annoyed by Amelie’s suggestion. The Fawe sisters did not cry, they did not sleep until midday, and they most certainly did not faint.
Seeing the expression on her face, Amelie held up one hand in surrender. “You need to eat and get dressed. Quinn has the wolf tied up in the barn, but he’s getting anxious for us to do whatever we’re going to do.”
“Oh . . .”
Céline climbed out of the bed and reached for her tan wool dress as a number of questions rose in her mind.
“What of Captain Keegan?” she asked. “I never saw him last night.”
“He’s fine,” Amelie answered without attempting to hide her disgust. “But he looks even worse for wear. I think he kept on drinking long after we left last night, and he probably slept through the whole ordeal of having his camp attacked. One of the Pählen soldiers was killed. I saw the body.”
Céline shook her head. “Poor man.”
Keegan had no business being placed in charge of anyone. He abused the women and neglected the men. Trying to focus on something else, she began lacing up the front her dress.
“Céline . . . ,” Amelie started and then stopped.
“What is it?”
“You and I have met the man who was . . . changed last night. Quinn did a head count, and Guardsman Ramsey was the only one unaccounted for.”
Céline’s hands stopped lacing the dress. Ramsey was the tall man who’d been arguing with Keegan at sunset last night. Neither she nor Amelie knew him, but it was still sad to put a face to this tragedy. Ramsey was a victim just as much as the soldier he’d killed in his madness.
As she finished dressing, she realized she was hungry and started in on the bread and tea.
“I think I should read Ramsey,” Amelie said. “Seeing his future won’t tell us anything . . . as I’m not certain he has much of a future in his current state. But maybe I can see something that happened just before the change, something that triggered it.”
Taking a long swallow of the warm tea, Céline considered her sister’s words and nodded. “Yes, you’re right. Let me do an examination, and then we’ll have you do a reading.” She walked over to the table and picked up the empty water basin and the pitcher. “Here, you carry these. Have they kept him thirsty as I asked?”
“Yes. Why?”
Céline hurried to her box of supplies and took out the bottle of poppy syrup. “Because tied up or not, he’ll still be dangerous. I don’t want him senseless or you won’t get a reading, but we do need him calm.”
With that, she headed for the tent flap and stepped outside. Guardsman Rurik was waiting, and he offered a good-natured but mock bow. “My lady Céline.”
“Oh, stop.” She was glad to see another familiar face. His shoulder-length hair looked even curlier than usual, and in the sunlight, she noticed he had a light smattering of freckles. “Have things been all right for you here? We’ve hardly seen you, and I was worried you’d been cut off and rather on your own.”
“I’ve been fine. Most of the Pählen soldiers have taken to sleeping in the large tents. Safety in numbers and all that. But I’m bunking in the small tent next to yours with the lieutenant. I’d take my chances with him any day.” He flashed a grin.
In spite of everything, she smiled back. “So would I.”
Amelie came up behind them, carrying the basin and pitcher. “We should get to the barn.”
Rurik looked at her. “You’d best be careful around the lieutenant. He’s fit to be tied about you disobeying his orders last night.”
“I saved his life!”
“Doesn’t matter.”
By way of answer, Amelie grunted, and the three of them started off, walking through the tents toward the only wooden structure in the soldiers’ encampment. The day was fair, with clear patches showing through the clouds above. Both sisters had forgone their cloaks, and Amelie seemed to be somewhat more comfortable as she strode along in her pale blue dress.
“How soon do you think we’ll be done with all this?” Rurik asked. His previous good nature seemed strained, as if the answer mattered to him very much.
Céline remembered how reluctant he’d been to take Pavel’s place, and again she wondered why.
“I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “We haven’t learned anything of use yet. We don’t even know if these transformations are due to some kind of infection or if someone is doing this to the soldiers on purpose.”
The barn loomed ahead, with a small collection of hens pecking at the ground out front, and then she saw that Jaromir was waiting outside with two men. As she drew closer, she recognized Guardsmen Saunders and Graham. Saunders’s expression was bleak, but Graham’s eyes were red, as if he’d been weeping, and again the whole face of these tragedies hit Céline. Graham was young, and Ramsey had been his friend—possibly even a protector.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, walking up. “Amelie just told me that it was Ramsey.”
Graham looked at the ground.
“Keegan and Quinn are inside,” Jaromir said quietly. “I thought you might like to question these two before we go in.”
That was good thinking on his part. Though yesterday and last night had been trying, the sleep and the tea had left her feeling much more like herself today. She turned to Saunders.
“Please understand that we are only trying to find out what is happening here so we can stop it,” she began, “but were you with Guardsman Ramsey last evening?”
Both men nodded.
“Did he eat anything you did not?” she asked. “Or drink something you did not? Can you think of anyone unusual that he spoke to?”
Graham lifted his head. “No, we all ate our normal rations and then played cards for a while, but an hour past dark, we split up to go to our night posts, and that . . . that was the last time I saw him.”
“Was he still angry at Captain Keegan?” Amelie asked suddenly.
Both men’s eyes widened and neither spoke.
“It’s just that we overheard the captain dressing you down,” she went on, “and Ramsey spoke back to him.”
Saunders shook his head. “That’s just Ramsey’s nature. He blows up easy and gets over it easy. He wasn’t angry for long.”
“Miss . . . my lady,” Graham said. “Can you do anything for him? He . . . he always looked out for me. Can you give him one of your potions a
nd bring him back?”
Poor young man. Céline couldn’t lie to him. “I don’t think so. I don’t even know what’s happened to him, so I wouldn’t begin to know how to fix it.”
His chin dropped toward the ground again, but she would not offer him false hope. “If either one of you remembers anything, anything out of the ordinary that happened yesterday, please come and tell one of us.”
Jaromir turned to open the barn door, and she realized that he appeared to be pointedly ignoring Amelie, who was pointedly ignoring him back. Céline wanted to sigh. She sensed a loud argument in their near future.
Before entering, Amelie walked over to the horse trough and filled the pitcher.
Céline turned and stepped through the door. Inside, she took in the sight of the barn, which also served as a stable for a number of horses—and two cows that she could see. It was a large construction, with high windows along both sides. Light flowed in to show dust hanging in the air, and the horses were restless, moving anxiously in their stalls as if they wished to get out.
Amelie and Rurik joined her inside.
Jaromir stepped past and took the lead, heading through the line of stalls, straight for the back. The quartet emerged into a large open room with a dirt floor, where Captain Keegan and Corporal Quinn waited. Quinn was his usual well-groomed self—and holding a spear—but the captain looked awful, his hair a mess and his skin tinged green. He put one hand to his mouth and belched quietly.
However, she did not stop to appraise him for long, as the growling creature tied to a stake consumed her attention. She’d not gained a clear look at it last night, and now she moved closer. Its growl rose to a snarl, but she could see it had been secured with some kind of makeshift leather harness and tied to a stake pounded into the ground.
The beast appeared to be an enormous wolf, larger than a bear—though she had seen that much last night. Now she had full view of its teeth and the details of its massive claws. Its fur was brown peppered with white. Its eyes were still red, and its body gave off a strange, musky odor.
“I’m sorry it’s not muzzled,” Quinn said. “We got it tied up last night, and I was just about to arrange for a muzzle when it woke up, and I pulled my men back. If you need me to, I can knock it unconscious again.”
“No, that’s quite all right, Corporal. Amelie and I need it at least partially awake.”
“This is absurd,” Keegan said angrily, turning on Jaromir. “And I would think you should have had the good sense to stop it last night. You cannot possibly allow these ladies of court to go near that thing and pretend to read its future or its past.”
Well, there it was. At least he was openly admitting he believed them to be wealthy, silly frauds playing games at court for Anton’s amusement.
The skin over Jaromir’s cheekbones drew back. “I am here at the request of Prince Anton, and I serve him. Since you were not present last night, as the ranking officer, I handled the situation as I saw fit.”
Keegan’s green skin blanched, and Jaromir turned to Céline.
“Now what?” he asked.
“We need to drug Ramsey,” she said, walking to Amelie. “Set the basin on the ground and pour the water. He’ll be thirsty by now.”
At her use of Ramsey’s name, all the men winced slightly, as if she’d said something in poor taste. She ignored them.
Amelie half filled the basin, and Céline measured and poured in several spoonfuls of the poppy syrup, though she was uncertain quite how much to use. She wanted the wolf calm but still awake.
“I think that’s enough,” she said finally, reaching down to pick up her concoction.
“What are you doing?” Jaromir asked in alarm, striding over. “Give me that!”
Rocking back on her heels, Céline watched helplessly as he grabbed the basin.
“Bully,” Amelie said under her breath.
Jaromir pretended he hadn’t been close enough to hear and headed for the wolf, which snarled and jerked against the harness as he drew closer. He stopped a few paces out, put the basin on the floor, and slowly slid it over until it was just close enough for the wolf to begin lapping thirstily.
Captain Keegan watched all this with his arms crossed. “Madness,” he muttered.
“Thank you,” Céline told Jaromir. “Now we wait.”
No one spoke for a while, and then the wolf ceased growling. It stumbled. After another few moments, it sank to the ground. Céline took a few steps toward it, and Jaromir was at her side, hand on the hilt of his sword.
“Come and help me with this next part,” Céline told him as she moved even closer. The wolf lay awake but in a stupor.
“Help you with what?” Jaromir asked.
“I think you must have some experience looking for small wounds? We need to go over its body and see if we can learn how Ramsey was infected. Was he bitten? Slashed? Poked with something? It may be none of these, but we need to look.”
Nodding with interest now, Jaromir knelt beside her. He was always happiest when he had something solid and clear to do.
Amelie hung back and let Céline and Jaromir go over the body of the wolf carefully. Céline started with the paws, while Jaromir started at the head, examining the ears first.
For the first time, Keegan appeared less disgusted and watched silently, as if even he could see the sense in what they were doing. Céline ran her hands over every inch of the wolf’s body, her fingers prodding through its coarse fur to feel a thick hide over its muscle structure. In the end, to her frustration, they found nothing other than several lumps on the wolf’s head from when it was bashed unconscious.
She shook her head. “Nothing.” Then she looked back at Amelie. “I guess it’s your turn. I can’t think of anything else to search for here.”
* * *
Although Amelie was the one who’d suggested that reading Ramsey’s past would be far more useful than reading his future, now that the prospect was upon her, she found herself reluctant to touch this creature and try to form a strong enough connection with its spirit to read its past.
Her ability worked slightly different from Céline’s in several ways. While Céline could see someone else’s future only as an observer, if Amelie wished, she could bond with her target and see the past through his or her eyes. Also, in some cases, the people Amelie read could be just as conscious as she was of the scenes being replayed, and afterward they were aware of exactly what she’d seen. The people Céline read never had any idea what she was seeing. The two sisters had discussed these differences, and Céline guessed they might be due to the fact that the past was set in stone, and the future could still be changed—that she was seeing just one possible line unless something was done to alter it.
As Amelie slowly approached the wolf, she was determined to go back only as an observer, and though she believed herself to have courage, even that much filled her with dread.
The moment of doubt must have shown on her face, because Jaromir stood up from where he’d been crouched beside the creature.
“What’s wrong? Can you do this?”
That was all it took to stiffen Amelie’s backbone. He’d been insufferable since last night, first refusing to do anything to help Mariah, then treating Amelie like a child and ordering her back to her tent when she belonged in the middle of the fight, and now he was behaving as if she was the one in the wrong for having come to his aid in the forest.
She would not allow him to see her in fear of anything.
“Of course I can do it.”
Striding over, she crouched down, and so did he.
“Céline,” he asked, “how long will this beast remain drugged?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know anything about its internal workings. I had to guess at how much syrup to put in the water.”
Jaromir looked across the wolf at Amelie. “Go ahead and do yo
ur reading, but if this thing starts to wake up, I’m going shove you hard. Céline, you get back near Quinn and Rurik.”
As Céline hurried away, Amelie gritted her teeth. When it came to the three of them, why did Jaromir always have to insist on making sure everyone knew he was in charge?
Trying to forget he was there, she reached out and closed her eyes. Her hand rested on the wolf’s shoulder. She’d expected the fur to be soft, but it was surprisingly coarse. Letting go of all her fears, she focused on the wolf . . . on Ramsey, and she tried to feel for the spark of his spirit.
After first, she felt nothing, sensed nothing.
Refocusing, she forgot the wolf and focused only on Ramsey, picturing him in her mind.
Without warning, without a single jolt, she was jerked back through the gray and white mists, rushing backward down the corridor of time. Now she could definitely feel a spirit, and it was strong. It was grabbing for her own, clinging to her, and she tried to fight back, to keep herself separated, to be only an observer, but the spirit meshed with hers, and she knew she had lost the battle. Struggling to keep her head, to make certain this reading was not a waste, she focused on Ramsey’s recent life in this camp, on trying to make him show her what had happened to him, what had caused him to change.
But the mists jerked her to a stop and would not allow her to cross a certain point. Then the mists cleared, and she found herself standing in the darkness on the edge of the soldiers’ encampment, looking inward at the tents.
Nausea hit her.
Pain like she’d never experienced flowed through her body in waves, and she couldn’t help crying out and choking as she retched up the contents of her stomach. Raising her hands before her eyes, she saw a man’s hands, with fur beginning to sprout and claws beginning to grow.
Terror exceeded pain.
She was inside Ramsey as he was last night, and he knew what was happening to him. He was so afraid and in so much pain. She heard his clothing tear, and she felt his body expand.
