Natalie swallowed back bile and prayed the plan they’d agreed upon in the dungeons was coming together as Aldworth and Charlotte traded words.
“Not like this,” Charlotte said, tears streaming down her face as she twisted in her guard’s grasp. “What do you want with me? Why do you want to invade Lorelan now and build a megalith over there in the first place?”
“What do I want with you? Haven’t you put it together? You will lead the invasion. As for why Lorelan needs a megalith—”
A commanding voice echoed throughout the throne room. “Enough, Healer Aldworth. Let her go.”
Natalie knew that voice. Ystrelle? Thank the Goddess, this is an unexpected blessing.
The tall woman made for an imposing presence at the front of a squad of people from Solerin, each wearing burnished dark tan armor and bearing the weapon of their choice.
Aldworth hesitated. Natalie bit her lip to stop herself from grinning. For the first time since she’d known him, he was at a loss for words.
At a nod from Ystrelle, her troops marched into the throne room, surrounding the Queensguard and Aldworth’s men. Ystrelle walked toward Aldworth, head high, hands clasped behind her back, eyes never leaving him. With a jerk of his head, Aldworth signaled his men to let Charlotte go.
Natalie tried to catch Ystrelle’s eye. Did she not see the other prisoners in the room? Couldn’t she give the order to release them?
“There will be no invasion of Lorelan,” Ystrelle announced to Aldworth. “And no one is risking the lives of these mages. Release Mage Juliers Rayvenwood.”
Natalie’s eyes darted from Aldworth to Ystrelle to Jules, who appeared as confused as she felt. Shaking his wrist, Jules walked tentatively over to Ystrelle, and two Solerin guards took a place on either side of him.
Aldworth’s face turned dark red. “But what about the megalith on Lorelan?”
Ystrelle arched a delicate eyebrow. “Why do we need one? There will be no invasion, therefore no need to Heal anyone in Lorelan. Besides, I am certain my Queen will begin peace negotiations with Lorelan as soon as possible.” Ystrelle turned to the princess for confirmation and Charlotte nodded.
“Once we establish peace, I—”
Ystrelle held up one hand, silencing Charlotte.
Violet splotches mottled Aldworth’s face as he jabbed a trembling finger at Ystrelle. “But I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to do, and people still die on Lorelan. They need this megalith. My wife died there and I couldn’t Heal her—”
Natalie gaped. Aldworth had a wife who died on Lorelan? And he’d been working for Ystrelle? Five save us all.
“You did not do everything I asked. I made it clear to you a short time ago, there were more mages coming into their power all over the Isles. It was your former apprentice who discovered this. You did not hunt them down as I ordered. Instead, you continued your reckless pursuit of Mage Rayvenwood, nearly killing him in the process.” Ystrelle’s face darkened like a hurricane on the ocean as she bore down on Aldworth.
Oh, Goddess. Ystrelle ordered a nationwide mage hunt based on my conversation with Manuel in his greenhouse. She’s … she’s a psychopath. The room spun in front of her and the guards restraining her were the only reason she didn’t sway on her feet.
Aldworth jabbed a finger at Jules. “He escaped and betrayed me. In doing so, he betrayed my wife’s memory.”
Onlo coughed. Natalie tore her gaze from the drama before her; Onlo caught her eye and arched a meaningful eyebrow. Onlo coughing was the signal they’d all agreed upon in the dungeons. Natalie blinked and nodded back at him. The plan was still on. If she could swallow her pounding heart back to its normal location, she might even be able to do her part.
“Yes, your wife, your unborn child, and all you do for them. A story I’ve heard too many times,” she sneered. “Please, spare me. You helped me find mages, and for that I thank you, but now I’m afraid you—”
Onlo and Anli whipped around, disarming their captors and killing them on the spot. They made quick work of Natalie’s guard and Anli knelt and cut her bindings.
“Natalie,” Onlo barked. “Anli’s guard had a short staff.”
She sprinted and snatched the weapon, rolling under the attack of another guard running at her. Turning to face his fast, skilled attacks, Natalie turned her brain off and gave herself over to Onlo’s training. She won the fight with a smashing blow to his head. She took down three more foes and had a moment to check on her friends’ progress. Onlo and Anli fought back to back, doing amazing things despite being outnumbered by Queensguard soldiers five to one. Ystrelle seemed content to watch them take on the Queensguard soldiers. Her Solerin squadron stayed close to her and Charlotte, and Aldworth cowered next to Ystrelle.
Jules, she noted, had disarmed one of his guards and had killed one. This did not upset Ystrelle or the other Solerin soldiers in the least. Jules’s remaining captor was trying to disarm and capture him, rather than kill. Natalie strode across the throne room and was all too happy to make that fight two against one.
Grinning and bloody, Anli and Onlo defeated the last of their initial attackers and as one, the four of them attacked the squad surrounding Ystrelle and Aldworth.
Concentrating on her first adversary, Natalie almost didn’t hear Jules call her. They’d agreed not to use magic unless absolutely necessary. He must have a shot at Aldworth. She finished her foe with a sharp blow to the sternum and reached out to Jules. She grasped his forearm, he glowed blue, and pulled his arm back and threw.
“Oof!” Someone crashed into Natalie and the air rushed from her chest when her back hit the floor. Someone hauled her to her feet; blinking away the spots, she found herself face-to-face with Jules. She swayed, grasping for him with her other hand.
Jules’s forehead creased. “Are you all right?”
She nodded. “I’ll be fine. Did the bolt hit?”
He rubbed his hand over the stubble on his chin. “No, I got twisted around when you got hit. The bolt hit the wall instead. We will need to find another opportunity.”
She grasped her short staff, baring her teeth. “Ystrelle must die, too.”
“You’re damned right,” Jules grunted, taking out another foe with his dagger and a short jolt of electricity to the heart.
The number of guards surrounding Aldworth seemed endless. She tried not to dwell on the human beings she was harming, their lives and their families; they guarded an evil woman and an unhinged man who were a danger to all she held dear. She took out her anger over every betrayal, every lie they told with each strike of her staff. They must get to him.
“Natalie,” Jules appeared next to her and helped rout her current opponent. She reached for him and he lobbed a bolt. It was a brilliant throw, but Aldworth ducked, falling to the floor as he did so, and the bolt hit the wall behind him, a spider web of cracks forming in the marble.
Jules swore.
Hell in a kettle. Natalie blinked away the dizziness, dark spots splashing across her vision. She dug her fingernails into her staff. They’d just have to wait. Again. Another opponent came toward her, a tall, well-muscled woman clad in burnished leather armor and also armed with a short staff. Natalie tried to balance on her toes, shifting her weight from side to side so she was ready to move in any direction, but all she could manage was to weave drunkenly back and forth. She still parried the first few attacks, but the energy drain from the mage bolts took their toll. Her foe got more shots in. She took a nasty blow to the ribs, had a bloody gash on her leg, and was sure she had at least a few broken fingers. But she had to smile when she spotted a familiar flash of silver nearby; Charlotte must’ve broken free of her guard and joined the battle. Excellent, with the five of us and two of us being mages—Her opponent dropped in a flash of blue and someone grabbed her wrist; she turned to attack, but it was only Jules. Pulled unceremoniously behind him, she ran on her tiptoes to figure out where he was going with such determination. They
barged through a small path Jules found in the battle, and at the end stood Aldworth. Cowering behind two Queensguard, who were in over their heads fighting Anli and Onlo, Aldworth flinched when Natalie and Jules reached his side and stood shoulder to shoulder. Beholding Jules’s murderous expression, Aldworth backed up several steps, tripped on his own robe, and fell to the floor.
Natalie grabbed the crook of Jules’s elbow, leaving his left hand free to cast. Jules glowed blue and pulled his arm back, hand crackling with a ball of blue energy.
“No, wait,” Aldworth begged, face beet-red and spit flying from his mouth. “I did it all for my wife. She was pregnant and went into labor on Lorelan. I couldn’t save her. She and the babe died. Please, I’m sorry for what I did to you.”
After everything he’d done to Jules and to her, here Aldworth was, reduced to a sniveling mess on the floor. How long had she wanted to kill this man? But maybe he didn’t deserve death. Maybe he should live the rest of his life, alone with his grief and anger. “Jules, maybe we should let him rot in the dungeon.”
Aldworth nodded vigorously. “Yes, Natalie, my best apprentice, thank you for your mercy.” Even as the platitudes fell out of his mouth, one hand slid into the other sleeve of his robes, withdrawing a tiny glimmering blade. Jules released his arm and hit Aldworth with a bolt square in the chest, killing him instantly.
Chapter 25
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atalie’s knees and palms hit the floor, rattling her teeth. Blackness encompassed her as the world spun a thousand times faster and she heaved her stomach contents onto the marble tiles. Curling onto her side, she longed to give in to darkness.
“That’s enough,” Ystrelle barked. “Secure them.”
Natalie blinked rapidly as her vision partially returned. The yawning blackness pulled at her like the ocean when she would go with Mother and Da in the summer. But she couldn’t go into the black, there was something she had to do. What was it? She tried to rub her eyes but someone had tied her hands together again. Why? Ystrelle was here, wasn’t she a good person? I have to wake up, I have to. Breathing deeply for several moments, she recovered her vision, though it was blurry. She managed to keep the blackness at bay, but her head felt like it was made of stone. Turning her head slowly, she found her friends.
Jules was on her left, with Charlotte on his other side. Onlo and Anli were to her right. They all faced Ystrelle, who towered above them on the throne plinth, her remaining guards in perfect lines on either side of her.
“This day,” Ystrelle proclaimed, “marks the return of the mages to the Isles as in the days of Bridhe and my beloved Jyrenn.”
Beloved Jyrenn? She loves a mage stuck in a big stone? Oh Goddess, we’ve killed Aldworth only to replace him with the delusional woman he’d been working for. Hell in a kettle.
“From this day forward, Queen Charlotte and Mage Juliers Rayvenwood will help me repopulate the Isles with mages,” Ystrelle decreed.
Natalie’s stomach slithered into her throat. All this plotting and violence to start a breeding program for mages with human beings? Using her friends?
“The rest of you will either swear allegiance, or your lives will be forfeit.”
As Ystrelle droned on, Natalie chanced a glance to her right. Anli and Onlo knelt panting, covered in their own blood and the blood of their foes. She hoped it was more of the latter. Anli sported a black eye, and Onlo a laceration on his forehead she knew needed stitches.
She peered to her left. Charlotte had tears pouring down her face, glaring at Ystrelle, chest heaving.
Jules caught her glance, winked, and flicked his eyes downward. She followed his gaze and Jules flexed his hand behind his back. No one had secured his arms. Ystrelle’s guard—perhaps because he underestimated Jules, or because he didn’t want to harm one of Ystrelle’s prize mages—was holding one wrist and the other elbow behind his back. Jules could easily get free, touch her and they fire one last mage bolt. They could kill Ystrelle, stopping her for good and that would—that would kill me.
She blinked at Jules, terror washing over her in waves. He returned her gaze, his expression bleak. Natalie bowed her head and stared at the floor. Surrender to Ystrelle and everyone she loved died. Fire one last shot and the blackness would pull her under forever.
Her eyelids fell closed, and she recalled landing on Obfuselt after her exile from Ismereld, dehydrated from sea sickness and adrift in the world. She’d just wanted to rescue Jules, teach Charlotte and find a way through her upside-down world. Trapped in Roseharbor Palace, confronted with a deranged, murderous woman, was not the future she envisioned. Natalie’s eyes snapped open. Maybe not. But I am a Healer, lover and friend; I am someone who can protect my people.
If she and Jules killed Ystrelle, Charlotte would become the wonderful Healer and Queen Natalie knew she could be. Queen Charlotte could repair the damage done by the previous King and Queen and keep the Isles safe.
With Onlo at her side, the Queen would always have a trusted advisor—and Goddess willing, Roseharbor society would accept a relationship between a monarch and a spy from Obfuselt.
Anli could return to Em’s arms. Her heart warmed envisioning their happiness.
At last, her gaze turned to Jules. She’d fought so hard to get him back; if they took this one last stand together, he’d lose her. What would her death do to him?
This last question, she had no answer for. But, as Ystrelle at last concluded her droning monologue, Natalie clenched her fists. If we surrender to Ystrelle and she kills us, all we’ve done will be for nothing. If I have this one life to give, then I will give it. I want everything we’ve been through to mean something. She caught Jules’s gaze and nodded the tiniest bit.
Jules blinked at her, acknowledging her decision. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down and he pressed his lips together. He knelt so still for so long that Natalie thought he’d changed his mind. Natalie jumped when he whirled in his guard’s grasp, elbowing him in the stomach.
“Charlotte, no!” Onlo shouted.
Natalie’s jaw dropped as Charlotte charged Ystrelle, flames curling in her palms.
Jules put his forearm on Natalie’s head, fired a shot at Ystrelle, and the world went dark.
Chapter 26
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he drifted, lost in a vast nothingness. Her limbs, thick and made of stone, did nothing to anchor her in the black. She squeezed her eyelids against the infinite, but they would not close. She’d witnessed death countless times, but she’d never imagined it would be like this—no light, no sound, no anything. Only nothing. Forever.
Chapter 27
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ingling. Natalie bent and peered at her toes. She cocked her head to the side and bent each toe at a time, curiosity awaking in her dull brain. Green, the color of spring grass after a gentle rain, sparkled around her toes and crept up her legs like ivy on a tree. If she could have blinked she would have, but it was true. The verdant energy spread through her body, flushing out the weight of the rocks and replacing it with summer forests, rolling fields of grass and overflowing beds of flowers.
She knew this energy; it’d had been part of her since she was thirteen. But how did it reach her here? She couldn’t get thoughts past the fog in her brain; the lushness growing in her body doing nothing to blow away the thick clouds in her mind.
A beat sounded in the distance, the first thing she’d heard in an eternity. She twisted and turned in the void but couldn’t place it. She placed a hand on her heart; it tapped feebly against her hand. It couldn’t be the source of the thump-thump … thump-thump … thump-thump growing louder with every passing moment. Turning one last time, she spied the source of the sound; a stream of green-blue energy traversed the vast blackness to a point in the distance. Something is out there. She stretched a hand along the cord, fingertips stretching into the energy, reaching into the distance.
Dropping her hand, she spun off into black space again. The tingling faded from her
body and she curled into a ball, numbness creeping in like gangrene. The thumping rhythm increased as she rotated and spied the vine of energy still dangling in the dark. Longing to be a part of its summer warmth again, she forced her limbs to uncurl one by one and swam toward it. Grasping it with one hand, warmth flooded through her once again. She reached with her other hand and climbed the rope.
The memory of the rot and death she sensed when parted from the strand haunted her. It kept her fingers clasped around the vine as she climbed and climbed. Why am I even doing this? She was going nowhere in the vast emptiness, like an ant crawling on a road from one end of an Isle to the other.
But the beat. It seemed familiar; like home. It pulled at her heart. Each time she stopped, head bowed against the stream of energy, arms leaden, legs weak with the effort, the beat resonating in her chest restored her and she raised her head and kept going.
Time ceased to have all meaning. Was it hours that passed? Or days? A golden light enveloped her. Unable to go on anymore, she let the light take her, folded in its loving yellow warmth.
Chapter 28
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hat rhythm. It was … under her ear. Natalie blinked, her eyes resisting the motion as if too much sand and salt had gotten in them while swimming in the ocean. She tried lifting her head, but the effort proved too much, so she moved her eyes around her surroundings. Quilts, wood carvings, and flickering candles in tin sconces adorned the thick stone walls of the room in which she lay. A door near her feet led to another room while a spacious yet empty fireplace took up one wall along with a window. It was night, she noted. How long had it been since…?
What happened? Her brain felt thick and the memories danced in and out of grasp. Dammit, why wouldn’t her mind work properly? There was the boat ride to Ismereld. They got caught and … and put in the dungeon. Yes! And then Ystrelle came and … Ystrelle. Natalie’s eyes snapped open. She finished her scan of the room, finishing with the bed. A patchwork quilt covered her, and she spied snow-white sheets twined around her legs, yet found herself not laying on them, but mostly on Jules himself.
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