Magic Steps

She walked into the inner keep, where she had been only twice before. The rooms where they’d put the four Rokat families dripped with blood. Everyone had been chopped to pieces, even the children’s pets.

No, thought Sandry fiercely. No. She tightened her grip on the nothingness, and used the white heat of her magic to banish it from her mind and heart. It is going to turn out as I mean it to, without hopelessness or despair, thank you very much!

Suddenly her clean fingertips met—she was out of darkness. Instantly she grabbed for her spindle as it fell.

A roll of finished unrnagic cord wrapped around her spindle’s stern. Confused, she looked at the dish. It was empty. No drop of shadow clung to the spelled iron. She checked the bottles. They, too, were empty. She had spun It all, Sandry wound the cord onto the last spool, and put it away. For the first time since she had dismounted from Russet, she sat. Her feet were swollen and sore; her knees and hands stiff, She let her head fall back for a moment, then looked at that rack of spools. The unrnagic on them was tanned, at least for the moment,

Now to fashion her net.

CHAPTER 13

With Alzena’s latest wound, everything seemed to go awry. No healer would attend someone they didn’t know—they’d all heard about the one who was killed. She and Nurhar should have been able to take the mage’s nameless path to the Battle Islands, where healers asked no questions. They should have, but the mage said that after their escape from House Rokat, he could open those paths no longer.

It took more strength than he could summon.

Nurhar could have hidden in the mages spells and kidnapped a healer, but he had been foolish while Alzena was at Duke’s Citadel. He had given the mage a dose of dragonsalt. Now the mage could only hum nursery songs. He would be useless until the drug was gone from his body Alzena wanted to kick Nurhar for his folly, but even the idea of it was tiring.

She suspected that Nurhar wanted to say she had bungled the Citadel exploration, but he, too, seemed not to care. She had made lesser mistakes in their years together and he had screamed at her for them. Now all he wanted to do was huddle by the fire once he had treated her wound.

Alzena joined him there. When meals came, they made themselves eat. They also forced the mage to eat. Left to himself, he would have starved, forgetting every thing but the happiness he found in dragonsalt.

He should have asked for more after a day, but he didn’t. Three days passed before Alzena figured out why. Somehow the mage had gotten Nurhars dragonsalt pouch and was dosing himself.

There were Rokats to kill. She still cared about that, so she made herself get moving. She took the drugs from the mage. Then she had a thought: dragonsalt gave strength to those not gifted with magic. She poured a measure of the drug into a cup, mixing it with ale. She drank that down, then fixed another cup for Nurhar. He refused at first, but when she would not let him be, he drank it to silence her. Within half an hour they were changing their filthy clothes, combing out their hair, and cleaning the place up. As they worked, they laid plans. There had to be a way to get at those Rokats.

“Let’s try the roof,” Nurhar suggested. “Hooks and rope we have in plenty. We go to the palace, get on its roof, then climb to the roof of the inner keep. If it’s separate, we swing across on the ropes. We’ll go in that way.

I bet they don’t have so many guards up above. We can avoid the ones they have.

Enough sitting around. Let’s move.”

“What about him?” Alzena demanded, gesturing at the mage. He was huddled into a ball, furious at losing his dragonsalt, hurting after just an hour without it.

Nurhar opened his medicine pouch and selected a pain ball. He forced it down the mage’s throat and held his jaws shut until the mage had swallowed. That would ease the dragonsalt pangs.

“Why can’t you just let me die?” he asked bitterly when Nurhar released him.

“It’s not that far off for me anyway.”

“You die when we say,” Nurhar snapped. He groped under the bed. “And you go with us,” he said, pulling out the carry-frame he’d made after their escape from Rokat House. “If you can’t make yourself useful, we’ll dump you off the keep.

You’ll die then, but it’ll hurt.” He giggled, liking that idea.

Alzena didn’t care for a husband who giggled, but she needed to get some Rokats while the dragonsalt made her want to. She helped Nurhar strap the mage to the carry-frame.

The duke had returned to the Citadel by the time Sandry emerged from the tent on Wehen Ridge. On some level of her exhausted mind, the girl was relieved. She knew her uncle might be alarmed if he saw her now, and she hadn’t the strength to reassure him.

Do soldiers ever feel like this? she wondered dully as the cart rumbled down Harbor Road to Summersea. Like they marched and marched until they just want to fall down and die, only to be told they have to keep marching?

She was cold. She was wet from the rain and from the showers that had cleansed her once she finished the net and locked it away. Most of all, she was so tired her bones hurt.

If Tris had been home where she belonged, instead of jauntering to parts unknown, at least Sandry wouldn’t be quite so cold and wet. Tris would have sent the storm that continued to buffet Summersea on its way, to make things easier for her friend.

Get some rest, Lark had advised when Sandry got into the cart. Now the girl curled up on the pallet some one had left there, thinking she would never be able to sleep. The thought of sliding across the bed of the cart until she fetched up against the ebony box that held the net gave her the horrors. Looking around, she saw ropes that anchored the canvas cover. They were securely tied, with plenty left over. Sandry called the ends to her wearily. Only when they had wrapped themselves firmly around her waist, holding her away from the box, did she close her eyes.