The Bitter Kingdom

So, one afternoon, we encounter a small valley that is sheltered enough by the surrounding peaks to harbor a bit of soil and some dry, stubborn grass. We pause to let the horses graze their fill—and to allow Storm and me to practice with our Godstones.

While Belén and Mara stretch out in the grass to rest and Mula explores the valley, Storm and I stand across from each other in awkward silence. The longing in Storm’s face is hard to look at, so I focus on the fact that the bright mountain sun has reddened his cheeks and caused the skin on his nose to flake away.

“So . . . er . . . maybe we should have blood?” I say at last. “Whenever I watched an animagus do . . .” I make a vague gesture with my hand. “There was always blood.”

Storm rubs his chin, considering. “But you have never needed blood. You healed Hector, moved the Aracely through a hurricane, broke my chains, and never once used it.”

I nod. “I tried it a few times, with Father Nicandro in Brisadulce. We used to experiment with my Godstone. But nothing ever . . . No, wait! When we were on the island, I accidentally pricked my finger on the thorn of a sacrament rose. It felt like the whole world shook. I saw lines of power for a moment, coming from all directions toward a central point. So maybe I should try it with blood too.”

“Blood?” says a voice at my elbow. “Do you want some?”

Mula thrusts out a scrawny, sun-darkened arm. For the first time, I notice the tiny white scars along her forearm.

Bile rises in my throat. “You’ve been bled before?” I ask in a faltering voice.

She straightens and says proudly, “I’m a good bleeder. Orlín sold my blood to the animagi all the time. It makes me tired, but it’s not so bad.” She shrugs. “Better than scrubbing the common-room floor.”

I turn to ask Storm if bleeding innocent children is a common practice in Invierne, but he seems just as appalled as I am. “We won’t be needing your blood, girl,” he says gruffly. “Go play.”

She peers up at him. “But you are an animagus, aren’t you? Even though you said you’re nobody.”

He avoids her gaze. “I’m not a sorcerer.”

“For true?”

“I always speak for true.”

“Storm always speaks what he thinks is true,” I interject. “Now go play, Mula. And thank you for your generous offer, but Storm is right—we will not need your blood.”

She starts to meander off, but then she whips around and says, “But you have a sparkle stone, don’t you? You both do. I can tell.”

“Go play!” we both say at once, and she darts away.

Storm and I face each other again. “Exasperating child,” he grumbles.

“Tell me about your training, Storm,” I order. “I want to know everything you learned until you gave up.”

Storm considers. In the distance, I hear Mula say, “Mara, how come you have that scar on your eye?”

“The trick,” Storm says, “is to become one with the world around you.” He shrugs sheepishly. “Though, to be honest, I’m not sure what that means. But my tutor had me do this.” He pulls his Godstone amulet from beneath his tunic and takes it off; the chain is just large enough to fit around his head. He stands tall, his feet shoulder-width apart. His amulet swings from one hand as he reaches it to the sky.

“My tutor said it’s important to ground yourself to the earth,” he explains. “Otherwise the power rushing through you can throw you off balance. And you must always aim your amulet or staff away from your body, for when the zafira courses through it, it will be too hot to touch.”

“I don’t have a staff or amulet,” I point out. “Just me.”

“Indeed, I am very interested in seeing what happens with you. Archivists at the Morning Temple—that’s where the training of novices takes place—speculate that someone with a living Godstone would be immune to its more dangerous properties.”

I nod, remembering how the animagus who held me captive used magic to freeze everyone around him. But it didn’t work on me.

“You think I’m even immune to a Godstone’s fire?”

“I doubt it. It becomes a natural thing after it leaves the stone itself, burning and spreading just like any other fire. But you might be immune to your own.”

So I follow Storm’s example and set my feet shoulder-width apart. I imagine that my legs are rooted to the earth, conduits for the magic creeping beneath the earth’s skin.

“Now what?” I ask.

“This is the part I never mastered,” he says with a grimace. “But my tutor said that if I closed my eyes and blocked out everything around me, I should feel a connection to the magic of the earth. Almost like the tug of a string.” He lowers his amulet and shrugs. “But I never felt anything. I failed—”

“Try it. I’ll try it if you do.”

He opens his mouth, closes it. Stares at the amulet dangling from his hand.

“It’s just you and me,” I add softly. “No one need ever know what transpires here today.”

He reaches with a forefinger to hook his hair behind his ears—a nervous, useless gesture, for it is still too short. “All right,” he says. “We’ll try it without blood first. Ready?”

I close my eyes. I concentrate on the feel of the earth beneath my feet. I imagine a string connecting me to the zafira.

Power rushes into me like a flood. My Godstone flashes hotter than desert sunshine, and my limbs tingle with an overwhelming desire to spring into action.

I crack open one eye and peek at Storm. He is panting, his face is flushed, and tiny beads of sweat collect on his upper lip.

“Anything?” I ask.

He opens his eyes, and a huge smile spreads across his face. “Oh, yes,” he breathes. “It’s like a thread of power connects me to the world.” He stares wide-eyed at his caged amulet. A tiny spark pulses at its center. “What about you? Do you feel the thread?”

“It’s more like a rushing river. A really warm river. I could probably heal someone right now. I’m not sure how to call fire, though.” As I relax my focus, though, the power drains out of me as if I’m a sieve.

“You’re supposed to direct the line of power through your Godstone somehow. And apparently it helps to think angry, destructive thoughts.”

“How pleasant.”

He nods. “If by ‘pleasant,’ you mean the exact opposite of that. Here, I’ll try it.” He closes his eyes, breathes deeply, holds his amulet out toward the granite outcropping. “Just reach down,” he murmurs, “find the thread, direct it toward the stone.” His brow furrows, and his breathing quickens. “Then think about something that makes you angry—”

A stream of red-orange fire erupts from his stone and pounds against the cliff, trailing sparks to the ground.

The fire fades quickly, and I stare at the circle of char left behind, mouth agape. “You did it! Storm, you . . .”

I turn to find him knocked to the ground. His long limbs are sprawled at awkward angles, and his amulet smolders beside him in a carpet of dead pine needles. But his smile is huge, and his green eyes blaze with triumph. “With practice,” he says, “the fire will get so hot it will turn blue. Then white. A white fire is powered wholly by the zafira, and will continue to burn even when it’s out of fuel. For years, sometimes.”

I think of the charred ring of destruction around my capital city and its unquenchable embers. “It was a white fire that struck Alejandro. And Mara. Mara’s burn resisted healing until I healed her myself.” I reach my hand down. We grasp forearms, and I help him to his feet.

In his other hand, he dangles his now brightly glowing amulet at a safe distance. “With practice I’ll be able to aim better,” he says. “Ground myself so I don’t fall down.”

My lips twitch. “I just hope you don’t set the mountainside on fire while you figure it out. And maybe you shouldn’t try for a white fire just yet. Not until you have some control.”

His eyes narrow. “Your turn,” he says in challenge.

I take a deep breath and turn toward the granite face. I imagine myself shooting fire from my belly, which sends me into a fit of giggles.

“This is humorous for you?”

No, I suppose it’s not. In answer, I close my eyes and open myself to the zafira.

It comes in a rush, eagerly, as powerful as a sandstorm, as gentle as a feather. “Well, hello,” I whisper, as if greeting an old friend.

Now to focus it all on my Godstone, the conduit for my power.

But unlike Storm, I feel no single thread. There is nothing to focus on. Instead, my whole body hums with power.

My whole body. That’s the difference. A living Godstone is not the conduit.

I am.

“Elisa?”

I lift my right arm and point toward the granite face. “Storm, you might want to step farther away.”

And it’s as easy as telling it where to go. It blasts out of me, a bolt of blue-hot fire that explodes against the cliff face. Shards of rock fly everywhere. Something stings my cheek.

I fall to my knees, gaping at the smoldering crater in the granite. The rock is glazed over, melted like glass. I feel empty, used up, like I could sleep for days.

Storm’s laughing penetrates the haze. I turn to find him doubled over. “You’re not supposed to let it all out at once!” he says between gasps. “You’re supposed to loose it in controlled bursts. No one else in the world has so much power, and yet you are the clumsiest thing I’ve ever seen. You are as vulnerable as a babe.”

I smile sheepishly. “We both have a lot to learn.”

“Yes. But, Elisa?” His uncanny eyes flash with glee. “We’re animagi now.”

12

HECTOR

ONE of the horses died. Not the tiny mare with the white fetlocks, and I’m not sure why one horse should matter more than any other, but I’m glad.

Four others sickened. They vomited green bile and collapsed onto the ground, thrashing their legs. The Inviernos had seen mountain laurel poisoning before, and they assured the Joyans that their horses would most likely be well enough to travel in a day or so. But Franco is out of patience with delays. After an afternoon’s debate, he ordered everyone forward, leaving the Joyans without healthy mounts behind.

There are now only sixteen captors from whom I must escape.

Poisoning the horses halted our progress for less than a day, but I sit straighter in the saddle, feeling stronger. Not helpless. Maybe I can do it again. My mind spins with other possibilities. Anything to slow us down and give Elisa a chance to catch us before she’s forced too deep into enemy territory.

It’s almost like protecting her.

I think hard about it as we navigate the tight, rocky trail of the mountainside. Below us stretches Invierne, a vast land forested with pine trees that, by some trick of light, seem as blue as the deepest part of the sea. Fog sends billowing tendrils through gorges and ravines. It rains or snows several times a day.

After an evening meal of pine nuts and thin soup, the chip-toothed Joyan comes to tie me up for the night. My bonds are so badly frayed now that he is derelict not to notice. If he worked for me, I’d make him scrub chamber pots for a month.

“Marreo,” I say, using the name I’ve heard others use. “A word.”

“You have nothing to say that I care to hear.”

“It’s strange, don’t you think?” I say as he works the triple hitch. “That only our horses got sick.”

“Your horse is fine. So is mine.”

“I mean only Joyan horses got sick.”

This would normally be met by a smack across the face or a hissed warning to be silent. But Marreo just frowns.

I’m encouraged. “It’s convenient that they outnumber us now. I won’t be surprised if you’re all dead or left behind by the time we reach the capital.”

This does earn me a cuff, and my head spins with the impact.

“Trust the Inviernos if you want to,” I mutter, blinking rapidly. “But I am not your enemy here.”

I am most definitely his enemy, and if he has any sense he knows it. I’m praying that he does not have any sense.

He grunts and walks away. I stare at his back, hoping the traitor will fall asleep on watch again tonight.

He does, and I’m the only one awake to observe when Franco speaks quietly to one of his men. After a hushed conversation in a language I don’t recognize, they clasp forearms, and Franco whispers, “The gate is closing.”

“The gate is closing,” he responds, as if by rote. They part, and the Invierno unsheathes a long dagger and slips back up the trail.

The traitor Joyans we left behind will not be making it home after all.

I would never send only one man to dispatch four. Franco must have the highest confidence. It’s true that these Inviernos might be the most dangerous men I’ve encountered. They move with predator grace and display a level of fitness I’ve only seen among the most elite soldiers.

I refuse to let myself feel sorrow for my countrymen. Treason deserves no less.

Even so, there is no sense of triumph that my prediction to Marreo has already proven true. And if the Joyan soldiers don’t stand a chance, then neither does Elisa. Though she surprises me at every turn, she is no warrior.

Somehow, I have to even the odds.

13

I can’t tell the exact moment we cross the watershed, but one day our path slopes downward more than not, the clouds thicken, the icy mix of rain and snow becomes relentless.