“Do you?” Qown looked at the pale-skinned woman and wondered just how much this would cost her. He also wondered if she was attempting to save their lives for Relos Var’s benefit or because she didn’t want to see them die herself.
She marked the air glyph on everyone’s forehead and then added an unfamiliar second glyph. Qown studied the new sigil, memorizing it.
When she finished, Senera said, “All right, let’s go.” Evidently, she’d no intention of staying behind.
Which meant she too had caught the loophole in the duke’s orders to Wyrga.
The old woman scowled but didn’t protest. The group continued until they reached the tunnels underneath the palace. Wyrga clearly knew the way.
Senera took one look at the large monolith in the main cavern and turned back to Janel’s sleeping figure. “She removed the sigil from her back.”
“I did,” Brother Qown confessed. “She mostly just lay there.”
Wyrga smirked at him.
Brother Qown felt himself turn red. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
The old woman walked around the room, seeming to stand straighter with each step. She tsked at the bodies on the ground even as she swept her gaze from side to side like an industrious maid with a broom. “The razarras ore is gone. The smoke is gone. Who’s been cleaning my house?” She set her cub down—Cherthog,4 Qown reminded himself—and the little beast immediately began chewing on a corpse’s thigh bone.
“Tya removed all the dangers,” Brother Qown said. “Earlier.”
Senera met his stare. “It’s not necessary,” she repeated Qown’s earlier warning to herself, and then sighed.
A guard lowered Janel to the ground. “Do you want me to wake her?”
“Good luck with that,” Ninavis said.
Senera walked over to Janel and frowned. “Relos Var must have her under another sleep spell.”
“I doubt Relos Var had her under a sleep spell after the duel in Atrine,” Brother Qown said. “She’s … hard to wake once she sleeps.”
So naturally, Janel woke right away.
Qown and Ninavis exchanged looks. It was still night. Janel normally wouldn’t—couldn’t—wake before dawn.
“Hard to wake, you say?” Senera raised an eyebrow at Qown. She gestured to the guards. “Get her up.”
Wyrga ignored them as she ran her hands over the stone monolith, muttering to herself.
“Janel,” Qown said. “Are you all right? The situation is a bit, uh—”
“Everything’s screwed,” Ninavis finished.
Janel blinked as the guards hauled her to a standing position. “Hey, Ninavis. It’s been a while.”
“You too,” Ninavis said. “You know, I’d started to wonder if you were a ghost haunting Arasgon from the afterlife. Looks like I owe Dorna twenty thrones.”
“Oh, you know me. Hard to kill.” Janel looked around the cave, noting the people present. Her gaze stopped at the blue-haired man. “Why do I know you?”
He swallowed and looked away.
Janel made a face. “You were one of the prisoners I freed.”
The man didn’t deny it. “I just wanted my family back. I’m sorry, I thought—”
“You thought all would be forgiven if you gave us up to the duke,” Janel said. She glared at Wyrga. “You must be loving this.”
“Oh, I am,” Wyrga agreed.
“We should’ve switched to fake names,” Ninavis mused.
Janel said, “Did Tya come back? Where’s Relos Var?”
“He … left,” Senera replied.
“Who fixed the walls?” Xivan Kaen stepped into the cave. She wore full Khorveshan armor and carried the spear Khoreval. She turned back behind her and shouted, “Don’t come in! It’s not safe yet!”
The soldiers straightened and bowed to their duchess as she entered the cavern complex. She must have left the Spurned back in the tunnels. And since Xivan had recognized the cave walls and floors no longer posed a problem, the caves could only be dangerous because of two people: Wyrga and Senera.
“Hello, vampire,” Wyrga said. “I’m not receiving guests, so leave.”
“I plan on leaving,” Xivan said, “but I’m taking your prisoners with me. I don’t trust you not to hurt them, and my husband isn’t thinking. I don’t want him doing anything rash.” She smiled. “I know how well that works out.”
Wyrga sighed. “You don’t have Azhen Kaen’s permission.”
“No, I don’t.”
Wyrga just stared at the woman, lips drawing back from her teeth, fangs showing.
Qown realized Duke Kaen must have ordered Wyrga never to harm his wives, his family, himself.
But Kaen had also just told her to destroy anyone who tried to rescue the prisoners.
Wyrga couldn’t obey both commands. If she attacked Xivan, the gaesh loop started, and the moment Xivan left with a prisoner, it also triggered.
Xivan looked over at Senera. “Are we going to have a problem?”
Senera cocked her head. “Not unless you object to me leaving with you.”
“He’ll never forgive you,” Wyrga growled. “Your husband already feels betrayed. He already doesn’t trust his friends.”
“Your doing, I think,” Xivan said.
“Of course it was my doing!” Wyrga screamed. “He deserves nothing less!” She held out her hands, changing tack, her voice dropping to a more reasonable volume. “I’m helping him, defending him against all the things he’s too weak to understand are threats: trust and love and respect. Only when he understands his true enemies were his closest friends will he be ready for my truth.”
Ninavis edged over toward Brother Qown. “I’m guessing there’s some history here I don’t know.”
“Just a little,” Qown said. Then he blinked and put his hand to his chest.
Wyrga did the same.
Janel frowned.5
“Are you all right?” Ninavis asked Qown.
“I can breathe,” he whispered. “By the sun, it feels like I can finally get enough air. What is happening? Why—”
Across the cave, next to the monolith, Wyrga’s eyes widened with surprise, joy, triumph. “My gaesh is gone!”
Xivan grabbed Janel by the arm. “Run.”
* * *
They all heard Wyrga cackling behind them. Then the sound of large stones breaking battled with her high-pitched screams. Xivan led Janel, whose hands remained bound. Everyone else—including the guards—followed in her wake. No one wanted to stay and see what the witch-queen Suless would do, freed from her gaesh.
They exited into cold air at the mountain’s base. The sky wouldn’t see the sun rise for several hours. Tya’s Veil spread out over the sky as a ribbon of red, green, and violet above them, just bright enough to reflect off the packed ice and snow. A snow incline led up and away from the palace.
When they had reached the slope’s top, Xivan stopped. “We can rest here,” Xivan said. “I’ll do a head count while you catch your breaths. We’ll figure out what happened—”