One of the City Watch guards near Pellan screamed; his eyes rolled down as he stared in horror at the spot on his wrist.
"It spreads," Moraina said.
"My city," Loran the Fyrst said. "My people." He turned to the guards, speaking through the flames.
"Have the black flag raised on the front tower and shut the gate to the castle. Now." The two guards started to run out the door, but one staggered and fell.
"I say," Javes said, his voice faint. "He must've taken a sword from one of the infected ones.” There was a silent moment as everyone contemplated that. Then one of the keep's servants cried out, holding her hand away from her.
"Not just the guards," Moraina observed. She turned her head to the Magus. "It appears, Kareste, that whatever you had planned, it has gotten away from you." She cocked her head to one side. "Or is this what you wanted? Everyone dead by pestilence?” The Magus remained silent, his ice shard eyes glittering at us. I caught a movement and frowned, as it seemed his fingers had just twitched.
Pellan laughed. "The servants said the humans called Kareste 'Maggot.' Such impertinence, they said."
He laughed again, and I could see his gums bleeding. "Such truth.” I thought I saw Kareste's fingers twitch again. I turned to my da to ask him if he'd seen the same and terror filled me. There was a faint mottling on his hand. "Oh, sweet merciful heavens."
"What's wrong, Rabbit?" Da asked, staring at me.
I reached out and grabbed his arm. I had been chained, beaten and otherwise handled by the City Watch. Then my da and uncle arrived and touched me. I looked over at Uncle Havram and he too had dark spots on his skin. My eyes dropped back to my da's hand and saw the mottling had crawled up his wrist. I reached out my own hand.
"No, Rabbit! Don't touch it!" Laurel snatched at me and missed.
The mottling tore off of Da like rotten cloth and hung twisting and seeking from my fingers. Frantic, I looked around and, seeing the Enchanter's fire, I dodged Laurel and ran over, grabbing a handful of flame and shaking the corruption into it.
The wall of flame parted and Wyln was beside me. "Make it hotter."
The flame turned yellow-white in my hand.
"Good, now contain it," Wyln said.
The flame compacted down into a ball and my eyes narrowed against its brightness. I hurried back to my da and, by its light, I pulled off the remnants of the corruption, throwing it into the fire. I then held it up and looked at my uncle, doing the same for him.
"My sister's son," Molyu said. "Please." The harbormaster opened her mouth and Her Grace snarled back at the faerie. 'Take it up with the Council, Lin.” I started to go to the commander, hanging limply in his bonds of air, but was distracted by a thin webbing of pale lines, finer than the ones that had been around Molyu, now visible by the bright light and entangling everyone in the hall. I reached down and pulled one—and the Magus jerked. I looked closer and saw all the strands led back to him.
"Sodding spider! You're feeding off of them!”
Kareste began to weave his fingers openly, pushing against the bonds of air, his lips moving. I hunkered down and ripped one-handedly at the web, but the strands only waved in the air for a moment, then settled down again. Frustrated, I stood up and flung my own fireball down on it. "Burn!”
"Don't! You'll kill everyone!" Ilenaewyn shouted, straining against his bonds, the others making noise with him. "Stop him!"
"Quiet," Moraina said. "We are dead already.”
Fire ran along the strands and the Magus flung his hands out, frost spreading from where he stood on the dais down and along the floor. The fire turned from yellow to dull red.
"Hotter, Two Trees'son," Wyln said. "Make it burn hotter.” Laurel's binding around Kareste burst away from him with a tinkling crash of broken ice, and the Magus stepped off the dais, walking towards me.
Suiden moved to block him, but then staggered, his legs giving way. Beside him, Moraina swayed, dark patches appearing along her back.
Distracted, I turned to them. "Captain! Moraina!”
Wyln caught my arm. "The fire, Two Trees'son. Make it hotter.”
Seeing the dragons affected, some broke and ran for the door, only to slump to the floor, drained, the mottling of corruption also blooming on their skin. A small blizzard now surrounded the Magus, the frost spreading further out before his feet. The fire began to wink out.
I stared at both Suiden and Moraina through the Magus' storm and thought of the ice dragon Gwyyn who had his lair on the side of a fire mountain in the Upper Reaches. A fire mountain that led straight to the heart of the earth, hot and molten. I reached down and touched a strand. The fire turned bright red, then orange with flickers of yellow, and the Magus staggered back.
"Hotter," Wyln said.
I thought of the sun burning across my back on summer days, so hot that the sky was white with heat.
The lines turned solid yellow and steam rose from the floor. The Magus pushed his hands out in front of him and more folk swayed, some falling where they stood. The lines dimmed again.
"Hotter," Wyln said.
I thought of the sun and the earth together, the Creator's forge that crafted life—steel blinding hot under the master's hammer as it is struck against the anvil. I called, and me wind roared along the floor as from a bellows, the strands brightening until they sang with heat and light. The Magus was shoved back, sweat pouring down his face.
"That's it, Rabbit," Laurel said, joining Wyln. "Bind them together, earth, wind and fire.” I bound them together, a three-cord binding that flashed over the strands, and I closed my eyes against it, shielding them with my hand. I felt the rune flare hot and fierce in the moment between two heartbeats; then it was gone, the hall becoming cool again. The wind blew gently around me and I staggered, Wyln catching me before I fell.
The flames died down around the Fyrst and he hurried over as Wyln once more took my chin in his hand, looking into my face. "Earth, wind and fire," he repeated. "Of my line—”
"Not to interrupt your exultation, honored Enchanter," Moraina said, steadying herself, "but we're not finished here." Beside her, Suiden slowly climbed to his feet.
Everyone stared at the dragoness—except me. I slipped through Wyln's hands and sort of folded down to the floor, all the while focusing on breathing as I dealt with the metallic taste in my mouth. Da came over and stood by me, followed by Uncle Havram. Beyond them, though, I could once again see a flash where the Magus' working had cracked the marble. Wary, I turned my head fully to look at it.
"What do you mean, honored Moraina?" Wyln asked, his hand now resting on my head.
"The sorcerer who had everyone upset," Moraina said. She turned her sapphire eyes on Falkin and the lieutenant jumped, shutting his mouth with a snap. "Slevoic, you called him?”
"Yes," Molyu said before Falkin could. She walked back over to Pellan and tapped his cheek. "Where is he?”
There were tears on Pellan's face as he looked back at Her Grace. I supposed having a second chance at life could be rather intense. He considered his aunt for a moment, then hung his head. "He's with the Magus. As another apprentice." He closed his eyes.
"Why am I not surprised?" Javes said. The wolf looked at the Magus, who had fallen to his hands and knees, gasping, winded. "You are a bad man. I'd bite you if I weren't sure you'd poison me."
"Where is he, Kareste?" the Fyrst asked.
Several castle guards approached the Magus, and he lifted his drooping head to glare at them out of ice shard eyes. The guards stopped and looked to His Grace.
"I think you should touch Kareste, Laurel Faena," the Fyrst said, "for if I lay hands on him, there won't be much left.” Laurel moved swiftly to the Magus, the truth rune glowing on his paw.
All brooding malevolence drained out of the Magus' face, to be replaced by panicked terror as he tried to evade the Faena, staggering to his feet. "No!”
"He says that a lot, indeed he does," Esclaur remarked as the guards caught the Magus by his arms, holding him still for Laurel.
I started to watch Laurel lay his paw on the Magus' forehead, but was distracted by another flicker. I managed to stand, pulling away from my da and Wyln, and went to the damaged marble. Resting my haunches on my heels, I held my staff in one hand and stared at the floor.
"What do you see, Two Trees'son?" Wyln asked as he and my da moved with me. Laurel hesitated, his paw just above the Magus' head as he turned to look.
Once more I saw the light flash along the stone. An earthy fragrance rose up from the cracks and bubbles, evoking summertime in the forest.
Laurel's nostrils flared, scenting, and he dropped his paw. "I'll be right back," he said to Kareste. "Don't move." He hurried over to where I was, the beads on his ears and staff clacking, as he stooped next to me once more. He inhaled again and smiled, showing his fangs.
"What is it?" Wyln asked.
"A gateway," Laurel said. He held out his paw. "Like this, Rabbit.” I mimicked him, holding out my hand, and felt something grasp hold.
"Now pull."
I stood, pulling.
"Rabbit," Da said, his voice hushed. "What have you become?”
"I—" I began, staring into Honor Ash's face. She reached out and almost touched the staff, and she smiled.
The High Council once more erupted in screams and frantically pulled at their bindings as haunts flowed after the sprite's shade, filling the room with ghostly fangs bared, claws unsheathed, horns lowered. Basel, flickering rapidly between man and stag, started towards Kareste. Still staring at the sprite Faena's haunt, I put out my arm, and he stopped, his eyes red with rage.
"Necromancy," one of the clerks said, warding against evil, others muttering, gesturing and hissing with him. "Ripping ghosts from their rest, moon season or no.”
"No, not necromancy," Doyen Allwyn said from where he sat a little ways from me on the floor. "It's a reckoning. These are the phantoms that the Magus had banished, and they have now returned. With a vengeance.”
I looked down at Honor's hand in mine, truth rune to truth rune. My eyes widened as I saw—Honor shook her head, gently disengaging, and it faded into a memory of a dream that maybe I once had. But other things remained.
"You killed her!" I spun around, glaring at Kareste as he hung limp between the guards. "You bound her, took an axe and sodding cut her down! For her staff!” Laurel growled, showing his fangs again, his own claws unsheathed.
I walked towards the Magus, Basel and Honor on either side. "Tow killed honored Moraina's son! For his bones and hoard!"
Moraina gave a muted roar.
The unicorn paced with me. "You killed her for her horn!" The leopard joined us as I leapt onto the dais.
"You killed him for his claws!" The rest of the haunts crowded behind me as I raised my staff. "All done for power! All of this done for pox-rotted power!”
"Rabbit, stop." Laurel caught up with me, stepping in front.
"Give him to me!" I howled, trying to get past the Faena. "I will cut his heart out and eat it with a spoon!”
Laurel cuffed me with his paw. "The Magus is forfeit to the Lady!”
As I glared at the Magus, dragging air into my lungs, he suddenly raised his head, staring back at me with iced eyes. Then he yanked his arms from the surprised guards and I was blown off the dais with the shrieking blast of an ice storm. He must've caught his breath. I slid along the floor, spinning, managing to stop and get back to my feet just in time to see folk thrown aside as the blizzard blew out of the audience hall.
"Kareste," I belled, exploding out the remaining windows in the hall.
"Rabbit, wait—" I reached for the wind, and was gone.
I flowed down the steps, out into the castle courtyard, streaking past the inner gate, through the bailey and out the main gate, everything blurring as I chased the fast-moving ice storm. We flashed over the moat, the water freezing as the Magus passed, icicles dripping from the bridge. Full of winter, he streaked into the park, rime coating the trees' needles and branches.
We sped along the hard-packed sand of the road, made crystalline by ice, Kareste always just out of reach. Then he veered off into the trees, dodging around their trunks, and I could hear the park denizens fighting to escape the killing storm. Some didn't, and I flew by frozen birds' nests, a hedgehog, a doe and her two fawns. We exploded into a large clearing, the pine needle ground cover turning brittle and the surrounding trees becoming tinted with frost. Kareste abruptly stopped, changing back into the man, facing me. I also stopped, allowing myself to form, ignoring the icy ground against my bare feet.
"Well, if it isn't Lord Sweet Cheeks Puke.”
My head snapped around to see Slevoic, wearing the dragon skin hauberk, standing with the rebel troopers, lit cheroot in one hand, Pru Oak's body in the other.
"Vicious," I said. "You slither into the most amazing places.”
Slevoic glanced at Kareste, holding out Pru Oak's body to him, then looked back at me. "I told you you should be careful who you let get behind you."
Kareste plucked the death staff from Slevoic's grasp and gave his wintry smile, speaking to me directly for the first time since I returned to the Border. "Apparently, the captain of the Valiant is a good friend of Lord Gherat and not averse to a little free trading." He settled the tip of the staff into the ground, the dead sprite's eyes black pits in her tortured face.
"Yeah," Slevoic said. "It's not the first time he's slipped me into the Borderlands. This time right under sodding Suiden's nose.” As he spoke, I caught the heavy smell of burnt wood and I looked beyond the horses and other obvious evidences of a camp to see that the trees ringing the clearing bore scorch marks.
Reading my expression, Slevoic shrugged. "I never understood the tree problem during the Border War, puke." He took a drag on his cheroot and was briefly outlined in fire. "A little torching took care of any freakishness.” My gaze returned to Kareste just in time to see a thread shoot out from him to Slevoic, and I quickly lifted the truth rune, the ice on the trees catching its reflection. The rebels cried out as the blinding brightness filled the clearing, but Kareste just did his wintry smile once more, while Slevoic laughed.