Chapter Seventeen

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

T here is a particular flavor to the terror of being chased. It is overwhelming, but it also strains the bounds of credulity. Much like the monster, our situation was too big to comprehend, happening too fast. Reality felt fragile, like something that would be shattered either by a spindled limb reaching out to grab my shoulder or by waking up in my own bed.

Perhaps we weren't there at all. Perhaps the forest was only another of my nightmares. After all, it would hardly be the first time I had dreamed of being pursued.

A scream cut through the air, closer than before.

"Here," Jayne said, sudden and urgent. She veered to the left, down a little rise that ended in a cluster of thick roots. They formed a cave of sorts, and we dove for it, scrambling to find openings large enough to slip through. Once inside, Grimm hastily cast a protective bubble around us, and then we crouched there, looking out through the crisscrossing wood.

It was easy to track the monster's progress, for it was too large to move without disrupting everything around it. The trees swayed, as though in the wake of a strong breeze. I held my breath as the shaking leaves grew closer and closer, and then, gradually, farther away. The monster had not noticed us beneath it. The searching tendrils of its mouth did not seem to taste our presence within the bubble.

"What was that thing?" I whispered.

"It's called a wood kraken," Jayne said. "They're not usually a danger in the daytime as they sleep very heavily. Something must have woken this one up. We should not move just yet."

I was happy to follow this advice, letting my trembling legs finally fold so I could sit in the dirt of our hidey-hole as we listened for the monster.

We waited, and waited, but the only sounds we heard were the birds in the trees, picking up their songs again now that the threat had passed. As the adrenaline began to fade, my mind settled on Jayne and the surprising contents of her spell case.

The thing was, paralysis spells were rare. Or at least, it was rare to find one that could lock the limbs of anything in front of you. If I had wanted to freeze Grimm in place, I could have written a spell that did so, but it would have to be a spell written specifically for Grimm. I couldn't expect the same words to work on Jayne, and I certainly couldn't expect they would work on whatever monster stumbled by. There were a few scrivers who had managed to write paralysis spells with broader reach, but they'd never been replicated. Existing copies were kept in the Fount library for study, along with other rare spells.

Or at least they had been.

One of the vaults they snuck into held a collection of paralysis spells , Rainer had told me.

I looked at Jayne, and my pulse, which had finally begun to steady, sped up again.

The thieves who had broken into the Fount's library had never been caught.

Don't be silly , I told myself. But the thought, once had, would not allow itself to be banished.

It made an awful sort of sense. The thieves weren't common thugs; they had been Coterie members, and here was Jayne, with her sword-calloused hands, and her skill as a caster, her easy calm when facing monsters, as though she'd been trained to do so. Jayne, whose hood had been drawn close around her face when I first met her. Because she'd feared being recognized. I was willing to bet my inheritance that whatever other spells she carried in that case around her neck would match neatly up against the list of spells taken from the library. The only thing I couldn't make sense of was why she was playing tour guide for us. What did she actually want?

I sat in our nest of roots, furiously mulling over all the possibilities and reaching no definitive answers. Jayne had protected us from the monsters, so her intentions didn't seem entirely nefarious, but I couldn't figure out why she would risk being recognized simply to earn a little coin from two Fount students. It didn't seem wise to just come out with it and ask, so instead I sat scant feet from the person I was now certain was a sought-after outlaw, wondering how to convey this information to Grimm.

I got lucky on that front. After a little while, Jayne shifted next to me and spoke.

"I think it's gone, but I'd like to go out and have a quick look around before we leave the bubble." She got to her feet and slipped out past the roots, leaving me and Grimm alone.

I forced myself to wait until Jayne was out of sight, and then a little bit longer, just to be sure she was out of earshot. Then I turned to Grimm.

"We have a problem."

Grimm's face turned thunderous as I explained.

"We need to leave," he said. "Now. Before she gets back."

I hesitated, remembering the terror of staring straight into the wood kraken's mouth. I didn't have any spells that could have stopped that thing. "Is that wise? She may be an outlaw, but she's kept us alive. There are things more dangerous than Jayne living in this forest, and we don't know where we're going."

"What do you mean?" Grimm asked. "We're going back to Miendor."

We blinked at each other, both surprised.

"But we have to find the sorcerer," I said. It had never, not once, occurred to me that this might mean we should abandon our quest. The thought of returning to Miendor with the curse still living under my skin was almost as horrifying to me as the monster's gaping maw had been. "Jayne's identity is a stumbling block, sure, but it's no reason to throw aside the progress we've made! We must be close to the tower by now."

Grimm was shaking his head. "Do you really think that's where she's taking us? No, this was likely a trap all along. She's dangerous."

"She could have left us to the wood kraken," I pointed out. "But she didn't. Jayne may be a thief, but she's also a Coterie member."

Grimm set his jaw stubbornly. " Former Coterie member. And I don't care who she used to be. She and her troop nearly killed Phade, or have you forgotten? They're obviously not sorcerers to be trusted."

I had forgotten that bit, actually. It was hard to associate the quiet, steady woman we'd been following with what had happened to Phade, or my brother's injured arm for that matter. Grimm's words elicited a rare flicker of guilt, as well as a stab of genuine worry. Thievery was one thing, but violence was another. Suddenly our little bubble of protection didn't feel so safe, knowing that Jayne could return at any moment.

"All right," I said. "Let's go before she comes back." I had every intention of convincing Grimm that we should continue to look for the sorcerer on our own, but that could wait until we were away.

Grimm narrowed his eyes at me, as though suspecting I had given in a bit too easily, but he must have also decided now was not the time for that particular argument. Instead, he quietly beckoned for me to follow as he led the way out of our shelter and back into the open forest. We went as quickly as we could while still watching for all the little signs of danger Jayne had taught us to be aware of, as well as watching out for Jayne herself.

"I heard the sound of moving water while we were running," Grimm said, keeping his voice low. "We should retrace our steps and look for it. If it's the River Noire, we can follow it all the way back without getting lost."

This was a sound plan of escape from the forest, since the River Noire flowed straight out of the trees and into Dwull. We would end up much nearer to the coast than where we'd started, but still firmly back in Miendor. Of course, I wasn't interested in escaping the wood just yet and was therefore disappointed when Grimm was right and we found the river after only ten minutes of walking.

We both stopped on the bank. The ground fell away sharply in front of us, and the water below was wide and deep. Swirling currents formed little patterns of foam on its dark surface.

"You know," I said, taking advantage of this pause, "if it wasn't for the wood kraken, we probably would have reached the sorcerer's tower by now. If we walk upstream, deeper into the woods, maybe we could find—"

"The sorcerer likely doesn't exist," Grimm said, cutting me off firmly. "These outlaws are liars and oath breakers. Jayne fed you a story she knew would get you to follow her, and it worked. We need to leave this forest now before she can connect with the other members of her troop."

"A little late for that."

The voice carried over the sound of the water crashing below us, faintly amused in a way that held little real mirth. Grimm and I both spun round in time to watch the speaker step out from the shadow of the trees.

Jayne , I thought, even though the voice was too deep and the shoulders too broad. The man's face, however, was strikingly similar to that of our guide—same fair, narrow brows and freckled skin, same slightly overlarge nose. He had a crossbow like Jayne's as well. But where Jayne exuded a practiced sort of calm, this man simmered with resentful energy.

Oh , I thought, here is someone I can imagine leaving Phade for dead. My palms began to sweat.

Grimm reached for his sword, and the man made a soft tsk ing sound.

"Don't tempt me," he said, and shifted the crossbow so it pointed directly at Grimm's heart. "Leave your blade where it is and drop whatever scrap is in your other hand while you're at it."

Grimm reluctantly lowered his hands, and a piece of paper fell to the ground. It was one of the repulsion charms Grimm had stocked his pockets with. Now the spell lay at our feet for a moment before a breeze caught it up and sent it twirling a few feet away.

I could taste my heartbeat in my throat. The man seemed a breath away from releasing an arrow at Grimm, and I had the strangest urge to say something that would make him take notice of me instead.

"Who are you?" I blurted.

The bolt didn't waver, but his gaze shifted to me. "Didn't you hear? I'm a liar and an oath breaker. Best do as I say. Who knows what other sins I'm willing to commit?"

Before I could begin to formulate an answer to this, the leaves behind the outlaw rustled and Jayne appeared. She looked at Grimm and me, standing frozen on the edge of the bank, then to the man with his crossbow, and sighed. It was a weary sort of sound. The sound of someone whose day was not going at all how she would have liked.

"I see you've met my brother, Mathias," she said.

The man—Mathias—didn't lower the crossbow but shifted so that he could stand a little closer to Jayne and murmured, "They know who you are."

"I inferred that much, thank you." Jayne turned to me. "Something must have given us away for you to run. What was it?"

"The paralysis spell," I answered, seeing no reason to lie. "You couldn't have bought anything so rare from a vendor. They're all locked up in the library vaults." I tilted my head to one side, and then amended with "Or at least, they were."

Jayne nodded, fingers playing idly with the strap her spell case hung from. "Clever reasoning. I knew using that spell was a gamble, but it seemed worth it, at the time."

"You should be thanking her," Mathias said. "I wouldn't have wasted that spell on you, considering you're the one who probably woke the kraken up in the first place, with your little song."

I was so shocked by this accusation that it took me a moment to process its second meaning: Mathias hadn't just appeared now; he'd been following us from the start. Trailing behind and watching our progress through the trees. Jayne hadn't come to us alone.

"I know what you must be thinking," Jayne began.

"I'm thinking that Grimm was right about you. Which is upsetting for me on a number of levels." I took a very small step toward her that also, coincidentally, moved me closer to the spell on the ground, and said plaintively, "Did you ever even see the sorcerer's tower?"

"Believe it or not, I did. Once. But… I don't actually know how to find my way back there. I think there's a spell on the tower that disorients anyone trying to seek her out. I'm sorry." Jayne really did sound apologetic, but her brother was still aiming a crossbow at us, so I didn't feel particularly inclined to forgive anything.

"What was all this about, then?" Grimm asked, voice cold. "What do you want from us?"

Jayne and Mathias exchanged a loaded glance.

" I'm not going to explain," he muttered. "I thought this idea was more trouble than it was worth from the beginning."

Jayne sighed again, then looked to me. "I wanted your help, Leo. Not everything I told you was a lie; we really are trying to make our way as foragers here. But surviving in this forest requires magic, and our spells are dwindling. We have neither enough money to purchase more, nor anyone in our troop left who can scrive them. When I spotted you at the pub, I saw an opportunity and I took it. I'm sorry I lured you here under false pretenses, but I couldn't think of any other way to get what we needed."

I stared. "You brought me out here because you want a scriver?"

Jayne nodded. "We need someone who can restock our pockets, and you're Fount trained…" She trailed off as I began to laugh.

"I'm sorry," I said, dabbing at my eyes a little. "It's just terribly funny. You see, I'm an awful scriver. Absolutely the worst person you could have kidnapped for this purpose. Ask Grimm!"

Jayne's brow furrowed. "I heard what you did for that town. It wasn't the work of an amateur."

I waved my hand dismissively, using the gesture to distract from my inching a little bit closer to the paper in the grass. "A stroke of luck. Most of the time I can't even remember the words to a basic heating spell. And don't get me started on what happens when I'm asked to compose anything more powerful than a charm. Disastrous! Isn't that right, Grimm?"

Grimm gave a stiff nod.

Jayne looked back and forth between us, doubt written clearly across her face. I was close enough to reach out and nudge the paper with my toe now. I held off, hoping that Jayne would reconsider. Give the whole job up as a bad idea and let us go. I thought she wanted to.

But in the end, the same desperation that had prompted her to bring us here in the first place won out.

She let out a short, frustrated breath and said, "Your skill might be limited, but it's more than we have currently. I'm going to approach you now to bind your hands. If you struggle, I have methods that will make it easier for me, but I'd prefer not to use them. I'd like to keep this as civil as possible."

It was my turn to hesitate. I didn't want to play along nicely while my hands were tied up, but I had only one idea to prevent that from happening and it wasn't a particularly good one. And then there was Mathias, who still had his crossbow pointed at Grimm, giving me heart palpitations. Surely it was not such a bad thing to cooperate with outlaws if they asked you very politely and it meant not getting shot?

But on this matter, as on so many others, Grimm and I did not seem to be in agreement.

He tilted his head to look down his long nose at Jayne as she took her first step toward us and said, in a voice dripping with scorn, "You're thieves and liars. You have earned no civility from me."

This seemed like an ill-advised declaration, all things considered, but it was just like Grimm to be unwilling to compromise, even with a bolt pointed at him.

"The high and mighty have spoken," Mathias said with a sneer that I didn't care for at all. Without lowering the crossbow, he leaned in his sister's direction and whispered, not quite so quietly that we wouldn't overhear, "We don't need both of them. It will be easier with just the scriver."

"Hang on," I said, voice jumping a few octaves, but neither of them paid me any mind. Jayne was looking at Grimm with consideration.

Before anything else could be said or done, she reached into the spell case around her neck. It was a practiced motion, fingers easily retrieving the strip of paper they sought. "This will not hurt," Jayne told Grimm soothingly as the edges of the paper began to smoke. "It's for the best."

I panicked, plain and simple. It came over me all at once, sweeping aside any scrap of reason. They'd drilled us on defensive measures during combat training at the Fount, but much like the words to a hundred spells I'd once memorized, every one of them flew from my head. All I could think about was that she was going to kill Grimm and I would be left alone with these people and (more importantly) Grimm would be dead . The desolation I felt at that thought was profound and overwhelming and not entirely my own. But I had no time to recognize the maneuverings of the curse; all I had time to do was step forward so my boot settled over the repulsion spell on the ground and speak the few short words needed to cast it.

My only thought toward self-preservation was to sing the words, hoping that would be enough to lessen the cost of a spell I had no business casting. I picked three notes and sang my intention into them.

Away. I want to be away from these people. I want them away from us.

Mathias's brow furrowed at the sound, but he did not shoot. I was the one they had a use for, after all, and I don't think he'd yet realized what was burning up under my foot. Grimm made a half-surprised, half-outraged noise behind me, but by then it was already done. The last word hung in the air, trembling, before the magic consumed both it and the paper beneath my boot and the casting was complete.

Several things happened all at once. Most of them bad.

Mathias and Jayne were lifted unceremoniously off their feet and blown backward.

Unfortunately, the spell, being inexpertly cast, also blasted Grimm and myself backward with the same force.

There was a clicking sound, followed by the soft hiss of displaced air as the bolt in Mathias's crossbow released. Whether this was in retaliation or by accident was hard to say (though I have my suspicions). Grimm was who he'd been aiming for, but all of us now being in the air changed things, and I yelped as the arrow grazed my right arm, pain blooming in its wake.

There was no time to reckon with that, or mourn the tear in my coat, because I was falling. Not back to earth as Mathias and Jayne were, but down and down, over the steep riverbank. I had a brief glimpse of Grimm falling beside me, all tangled limbs and a flash of pale hair. Then we both hit the water.