Page 30 of The Shadow Wand

Just before reaching the Southern Spine, we come to a sheltered riverbank, morning sunlight setting the water shimmering, the buzz of insects pricking at the air.

I let the heavy Vu Trin garb slide off my body with grim reluctance. The Noi weave offers protection from fire and the sharp points of arrows and knives, but almost as important, this garb provided the illusion that I could be accepted by a new people. That I could be something other than what I am.

I leave the clothing folded on the riverbank’s rocky ground, grit my teeth, and quickly submerge my faintly green-glimmering body in the river, the water so cold that it sets me shivering, rigid goose bumps rising on my flesh as Ni Vin watches, impassive, from where she sits on a flat boulder. The intricate black lines of the shield-safe rune my friend Sage marked on my forearm and the demon power–sensing rune she impressed on my abdomen stand out in sharp relief on my cold skin.

Memories of my reunion with Sage a few months ago in the Amaz lands trigger a sharp longing for friends and family.

Where are you, Sage?I wonder. Is your Icaral baby safe and did you make it to Noi lands? Are you there with my brothers and Diana and her brother Jarod and everyone else I love?

Are you there with Yvan?

I stiffen, forcing down the fierce yearning to be with loved ones until it’s buried deep inside.

My resolve steeled, I quickly finish washing. When done, I emerge from the river and wrap myself in a rough blanket then stand glaring at the fine Gardnerian clothes and cloak that Ni has set out on the flat, broad stone before me. Clothing Chi Nam was savvy enough to have at the ready in case I needed to flee.

The morning breeze picks up the edge of my blanket and sends a chill snaking around my ankles.

Feeling as if I’m voluntarily swallowing poison, I go about meticulously putting on the garb of my people—the silken undergarments and stockings, the slender, dark leather boots, the flowing black long-skirt. I thread my arms through the formfitting tunic, my breath catching as Ni firmly cinches the lacing that runs down my back and I tie it off.

She hands me the dark cloak, and I fasten it around my shoulders.

Then I slide the wrapped-up Wand of Myth back into the side of my left boot and push Chi Nam’s rune stone deep into my tunic pocket, the feel of the stone through the silk the only thing able to quell my rising sense of dread.

Later that morning, Ni and I reach the Southern Spine, the ragged peaks looming overhead.

I watch as Ni Vin waves a stone marked with blue Noi runes over the flat, sun-dappled wall of rock before us, this section of Spine-stone rising higher than the Valgard Cathedral. An ache of longing cuts through me as I remember how Yvan effortlessly scaled this Spine as I clung to him with my eyes closed, terrified of how high we were.

Today, I will not be going over it.

An arc of sapphire runes similar to those on Ni Vin’s stone appear on the Spine-stone, first as a faint outline, then as clear markings. Ni Vin presses her stone lightly on the series of circular runes, and part of the Spine-stone turns misty and disappears to reveal the tunnel that’s to be my path into the newly annexed Keltish Province of Gardneria.

I turn to Ni Vin, my travel sack slung over my shoulder, and wait for her to hand me the dhantu stone that will illuminate my way.

Instead, her hand goes to the hilt of her sword and her expression goes raptor-hard.

The blood drains from my face in a light-headed rush as I’m pinned by Ni Vin’s merciless glare. She could strike me down in an instant, and we both know it.

“I know you have considered killing me,” I say, my voice low and careful.

“I consider it now,” she replies without malice.

“Everyone I love,” I tell her, my voice quavering with emotion, “every single one of themwill be destroyed if the Gardnerians win.”

Her hand remains firmly on the hilt of her sword. “Elloren Gardner, I know that in your right mind you are with us. But the Gardnerians...they have ways of breaking their enemies and bending their will.”

What can I say in response? I know her words to be true. Images of broken Icarals and ruined Wyverns litter my mind. What methods would the Gardnerians resort to if it meant control of a Black Witch? We both know that if they discover what I am, they’ll stop at nothing to own my power.

Power I don’t know how to control, making me vulnerable to them.

Power that would force the Prophecy into its most nightmarish resolution.

“It is a risk to keep you alive,” Ni Vin states, calm as a windless night.

“If I am dead,” I force out, struggling to keep my voice from trembling, “that still leaves the problems of Marcus Vogel and Fallon Bane and the Gardnerian military. You have your Icaral, but Yvan’s untrained and not powerful enough to take down the Gardnerians. Not yet.”

Ni Vin holds my stare.

“And we both know Vogel’s stronger than you all thought,” I press, bargaining for my life.

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