Page 60 of Degradation

“What did you do?” she whispered, sounding horrified.

“I apologize. I lost control for a moment.”

“Lost control? Foolish child! When you first came here and stopped me from coshing Garron with a log, that was losing control. This was more than that. You lit a signal fire. You need to leave. Now.”

“Leave? Why? Doesn’t the spell prevent what’s cast inside from being seen from without?”

Pogwid got to her feet and grabbed the large casting stone.

“The spell is a lid that can keepmostof what’s cast inside. Not everything. Like the lid to your well. Sometimes, the magic cast is stronger than the spell holding it.”

She forcefully threw the stone to the ground, shattering it.

Garron swore under his breath—something so out of character that I turned to stare at him.

“The same happened earlier at our home,” he said.

Pogwid used air to force me to my feet as she broke something else on her shelves.

“Take her. Find the others, and do not return here or home. When they come for me, I will accept the blame.” Her gaze locked with mine. “My life for yours, Princess. Your sister isn’t the only person who needs to be freed. Help your men free the people of Turre.”

Her words filled me with denial. Not that I refused to help but due to her willingness to sacrifice herself for my mistakes.

Garron grabbed my hand and started pulling me from the workroom before I could voice anything.

He paused at the door and looked back at Pogwid.

“Forgive us.”

“No,” I said, tugging at his hold. “We can’t?—”

“As I swore to Henry, my life for yours. Do not let the queen win,” Pogwid said.

The door opened, and Garron pulled me out onto the street without letting me say more. My hands started to tremble.

“Stay in control, Kellen, or we will die.”

I breathed through my nose and tried to find that calm mask of indifference I’d worn so often in the past. It felt wrong. Ill-fitted. My emotions fought against being contained. I wanted to rage, to lash out…to love.

Garron turned us away from the path home.

“Get us away from here, Snow,” he said. “No patrols or all is lost.”

Understanding the gravity of what I’d done, I tried harder to lock everything away. Outwardly calm, I took his arm, smiled beatifically, and walked away from Pogwid’s as if I didn’t have a care in the world. As I did, I cast one more spell.

Pogwid’s power belongs to her alone, and for any who try to take it, let them atone with boils and blisters to disfigure and cause waste.

I sent my energy through Pogwid’s barrier and touched hers. She fought it, but my will was stronger, and I felt it settle into her. I filled her well as much as it allowed then withdrew.

Opening my senses, I watched the patrols far and wide.

“They already fill the street of our home,” I said. “Others are leaving the castle and coming this way. Casters are with them.”

“We will go to Edmund and Eadric first,” Garron said.

It took more than an hour to reach the market and longer still to locate Eadric. His face was caked with muck and his hair disheveled. He smiled idiotically at the man speaking to him but was filled with fear and desperation.

“Something happened,” I whispered to Garron.

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