She shrugged. “The only way to be sure is to actually use your powers together, but I fear doing so would alert Lord Endrick to your position. We need a quieter method.”
“Such as?”
“There’s a simple test.” Joth held out his hand to me. I walked over to him and tentatively took his hand. “Don’t use your magic, just think about it, and I’ll do the same.”
I closed my eyes and reached out to feel the strength inside him. How easily I could take enough to sustain myself for days. It would be wrong, I knew that, but he’d been so unlikable since we’d met, the temptation was there.
Still skeptical, I reached for his strength but was surprised to feel something tug from his end too as he focused on me. His magic pressed in tighter and tighter, until I was short of breath. Suffocating.
I could stop him.
Unnerved, I yanked my hand free, and he immediately backed away, eyes wide with alarm. “You considered killing me just now?”
Killing him? No, of course not! Yes, maybe I’d considered draining his strength, incapacitating him for days, but I wouldn’t kill him. How would he have known that anyway?
Or how was it that I had felt something from him too?
I stared at him. “What happened?”
“You felt the presence of my magic, as I felt the presence of yours.”
“Then there is compatibility,” Loelle said.
Joth brushed off Loelle’s comment. “It doesn’t matter. I will not help her.”
Loelle crossed over to him, her hands clasped in a desperate attempt to make him change his mind. “You did connect!”
“It wasn’t a connection, only a thought in her that I detected. The kind of thought a person should pay attention to if he wants to live.”
“Without your help, she will fail against Lord Endrick,” Loelle said.
“She is corrupt,” Joth said. “I felt it from the moment she came. The Navan have never been corrupted because we have never connected with anyone outside. We don’t know how a connection will affect us.”
“But we do know what happens if she fails.”
Keeping an eye on me, he said, “And what if she succeeds, as she is? We have never trusted the corruptible, and we cannot start now.”
He was speaking to Loelle, but I felt like I’d been hit with his words. Corrupt? That’s what Simon had said about me. He’d been so delirious at the time, it had been a simple thing to dismiss it. I had no such excuse for Joth.
Barely glancing at me, Loelle said, “If there are problems, then it’s only because she’s spent weeks absorbing the curse on this land. Whatever has happened to her, it’s been in the service of our people! Don’t we owe her something for that?”
“She will betray us before this is over,” Joth said. “Anything we owe her, she will make us pay for it. How is she any different from Lord Endrick?”
I’d heard enough. My heart pounding with fury, I stood, retrieved my cloak again, and this time marched straight for the door. I flung it open, hearing Loelle call my name, and took my first step outside. The falling snow was up to my knees by now—Loelle’s wagon wouldn’t make it through this, or at least, I hoped she wouldn’t try to follow me.
From the doorway, she said, “Where do you think you are going?”
I had no idea, but I called back, “I am nothing like Lord Endrick, nor do I need anyone’s help to defeat him. I will finish this alone.”
I trudged on ahead until the snow was lower on my legs and I could move faster. Wherever I was going, I intended to get as far from Joth and Loelle as possible. I felt the presence of spirits around me as I ran, and I shouted vague orders at them to leave the area entirely or I would never heal them. I wanted to be alone, needed to be alone—to be anywhere that I could think.
Sooner than I had expected, I came to the boundary of the forest, finally able to see rolling hills and open fields waiting for me beyond these densely packed trees. It was strange, to be here inside the forest, a place I had seen so often but rarely dared to enter. Now Antora felt just as foreign, a place I seemed to be seeing for the very first time.
I came closer to where the border of the forest thinned and stretched into open space. Only then did I spot clusters of Ironhearts gathered in pockets around the forest, set up in camps that looked as if they had been here for some time. They were scattered as far as I could see along the entire border. Were they here for me?
I pressed into the shadows of the trees, where I hoped I wouldn’t be noticed, and tried to figure out the best way to escape. I couldn’t fight off all the Ironhearts who were here.
And even if I did escape, where would I go? I was not welcome anywhere, not wanted anywhere. I still had to kill Lord Endrick but had no means to do it.
“My lady, I’ve been watching for you.”
I nearly fell back as a familiar-looking girl stepped out of a small tent. Her hair was lighter than mine, with a natural curl I’d always envied, even when I’d despised her for having once betrayed me. It had been a long time since I’d thought of her, though I never would forget her. At one time, I’d considered her my closest friend.
“Celia?” I whispered.
Celia was my former handmaiden, and former friend. She had been with me during my exile into the Lava Fields, and had betrayed me to the Coracks. I’d heard almost nothing of her since then.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
Celia shrugged. “We didn’t. But we believed that if you did leave these woods, you would be in one of only a few places. This is the area to which I was assigned. I hoped you’d come this way. I felt of anyone, I’d be the best to talk to you.”
“Are you here representing the Coracks?” I asked, keeping my place. “Because if you are—”
“I was with them for a while,” she said. “Then, last fall, I was captured by the Dominion in a raid of Lonetree Camp. I now serve as a messenger from Lord Endrick … as an Ironheart.”
I exhaled as I took that in. If she was an Ironheart, then Endrick had the ability to communicate through her, if he desired. And I was certain that he desired it very much.
“You serve as a messenger?” I asked. “What is your message?”
“My king, Lord Endrick, wishes to know how many people must die before you accept your punishment for treason.”
That took me aback, but Celia had spoken so calmly, I wondered how deep Endrick’s hold was on her heart, how much he controlled her thoughts and feelings now.
“Your king, Lord Endrick, is the only one who needs to die,” I replied. “If he surrenders, all other lives will be spared, including yours.”
Celia lowered her eyes, as if listening, then said, “Lord Endrick refuses your offer. However, in his mercy, he has one of his own. Vow to serve him, and through you, he will rebuild the Dominion. You will be the lady of Woodcourt, Endrick’s prime counselor, and the most powerful woman in all of Antora.”
I arched a brow. “Most powerful woman? Without him, I would be a queen.”
“He knows you do not have the Olden Blade, nor does he believe you have any hope of finding it again.” Celia blinked once, her tone remaining disturbingly even. “But he invites you to come with me now, to go to him in peace. He will help you to understand your powers, and how to use them as he would.”