She could hear people stirring immediately.
Vane appeared suddenly beside her, and she realized he was shouting, although she couldn’t hear a single sound.
She hoped her own silence working in Luc and the general’s tents was as good as this and she wondered how they had done it.
Lights began to flare as people scrambled out into the night, and she ululated again as she finally had a chance to pull her knife from her boot sheath.
Vane’s arm was raised to strike her again, and there was nowhere for her to go but toward him, but his companion must have called to him because he looked over his shoulder. The blooming lanterns all around them illuminated the two men fully for the first time.
The second abductor was winding up what looked like a length of black rope and suddenly she could hear them shouting to each other.
She tilted her head. The rope was spelled.
She wondered if she could do that.
The idea appealed to her greatly.
And she wouldn’t need black for the rope, although she didn’t know if they chose the color to make it all but invisible in the darkness or because the spell caster had to work in black.
Even as he turned to run, Vane swung his stick at her head.
She dived forward, avoiding the strike and tackling him around the waist as he tried to follow his friend.
His shout brought his companion running back, and Vane struck out at her with an elbow to her face.
She managed to turn her head in time but it loosened her hold on him, and then he was gone.
“What’s happening?” Catja was suddenly beside her, and then the general, in some flowing garments she took to be their leader’s silk pyjamas.
“The unfriendly eyes.” She pointed in the direction they had run and then flopped back down.
“Are you hurt?” General Ru crouched beside her as Catja called to a few others and ran in the direction she had pointed.
Ava shook her head. “No. But I feel . . .” Suddenly, it was as if a weight had lifted off her, and the general crouched over her with her knife extended, a thin piece of rope hanging from it.
“It was over your shoulder,” the general said. She brought the knife closer and looked at the short rope with interest.
“They also used rope to create an area of silence, so no one could hear us.”
“Is that so?”
Ava sat up and looked carefully at the rope. Like the one they’d use for silence, this one was also black, although much finer.
“This could come in useful.” The general seemed pleased. “Did you recognize them?”
“I recognized their voices but only one of their faces.” She frowned. She was sure she wasn’t mistaken.
“They would have had to have a way to change their faces if they wanted to keep you from finding them. Especially being around you every day.”
The general spoke so casually of changing appearances, but Ava hadn’t heard that was possible. “How would they do that?”
“I’ve heard of one person who could do that. But that was many years ago.”
“Where is that spell caster from?”
“Grimwalt.” The general smiled. “As so many of you are.”
“Being in Grimwalt is what keeps us safe.” Ava had heard that saying many times in her childhood. Now she wondered if it had ever been true, or whether it was only the rise of the new Speaker that meant spell casters had to be wary in what was once their safe haven.
And it had never been true for her mother. She needed to remember that.
“I’ve heard that said.” The general rose up and offered Ava a hand up, keeping the rope balanced on her knife and away from both of them.
“They meant to use this on me to keep me weak so they could carry me away.” Ava reached out to touch it, felt the bite on her fingers as the magic tried to grab her, and pulled her hand away, shaking it as if burned.
“They were fools if they thought they could get even half a mile away before your lover chased them down.” The general turned, and as she did, Luc loomed suddenly out of the darkness, moving with that silent, deadly focus she had seen more than once.
The general went still, and Ava was impressed she hadn’t flinched as he appeared.
She was right, though.
Vane and his friend would not have lasted ten minutes.
“Ava.” He pulled her toward him, and she lifted a hand to his face.
“I’m fine.”
“Who?” He looked around with a grim expression, and then his gaze snagged on the rope still dangling from the general’s knife.
“Enspelled,” the general said and Luc bent closer.
“What did it do?”
“Made me weak.” Ava put her hands in her pockets, unwilling to touch it again. “They were trying to abduct me, not kill me.”
“Who is they?” he asked again.
“The Grimwaldian spies.” She heard the sound of Catja and the others calling up ahead.
“They’d have had everything ready to go,” Ava said. “They were planning to grab me and run. They’ll be long gone. And using magic to hide themselves, if what I saw in the attack is any indication.”
“Why now?” The general asked.
“My guess is they learned we’d found the missives from the Speaker of Grimwalt, and that we knew they were in the column.” Ava lifted her shoulders. “They probably had some magical means of finding that out. I don’t think anyone is a traitor.”
“Hmm.” The general eyed the rope. “What you say is likely.”
“I don’t want them getting away and running back to tell the Speaker his plans have been spoiled.” Luc was suddenly gone, and Ava peered into the darkness to try and see his silhouette.
“There is something almost otherworldly about the way he moves.” The general’s voice was soft.
“I have always thought so, too,” Ava agreed, and then found the general looking at her with interest.
She turned and walked away.
“Don’t forget to mention your assignment for tomorrow,” the general called after her, and Ava winced as she waved in acknowledgment.
It was going to be a lot harder to convince Luc to let her go now than it had been before this attack.
Chapter 29
This time, Luc found Ava in his bed.
He was not at all unhappy about that.
Except she was fast asleep, holding a piece of cotton in her hand. She’d been embroidering it, and even in sleep her fingers were gripping the needle.
“Ava.” He whispered her name and she stirred, then opened her eyes with a snap.
“Did you get them?” Her voice came out husky and something within him stirred.
“We shot one in the back, and he’s dead. The other one got away.” The spy hadn’t ridden in the direction of Grimwalt though. That didn’t mean he wasn’t going to double back, but Luc wondered if he hadn't decided he would have better luck and a warmer welcome on the heels of the missives to the queen at Fernwell than to his scheming master in Grimwalt. Especially as he wasn’t bringing a captured Ava back with him.
And Luc found he wasn’t unhappy about that outcome. Especially not with the subtle changes to the letters that Ava had made.