Page 12 of Invocation

Neiryn, Aruna, and Kadaki still stood in a circle with her, looking as bewildered and nauseous as she. Kadaki slumped, and Neiryn extinguished the flame in his hand to catch her. She was boneless in his arms, her eyes shut.

Novikke sheathed her sword and flicked her mage torch on. “What’s wrong with her?”

“Too much casting in too short a time,” Neiryn said, lowering her to the ground. “The same thing that happened to her after the last time we were here. Mages can only channel so much magic energy before they hurt themselves.”

Aruna sighed, letting his shoulders slump. He was still holding the pack Shadri had given him. He said something acerbic to Neiryn, who replied with equal venom. There was a tense back-and-forth for a few seconds.

“Stop arguing,” Novikke cut in. “If you can’t talk without arguing then just be quiet. It’s not helping anything.”

“We aren’t arguing,” Neiryn said primly. “We’re discussing.”

Novikke crossed her arms. She glanced down at Kadaki and frowned. “Kadaki can transport people from place to place with a spell? She could have magicked us out of the forest this whole time?”

“Of course not. She’s only one mage. Look at what taking the four of us from the village back to here has done to her. She couldn’t take us across miles and miles of forest. You ask too much of her.”

She leaned back on her heels. “I didn’t mean it that way. Is she all right?”

“She will be,” he said, but he was watching her with a concern that conflicted with his words. Novikke watched as he reached out to brush a lock of hair away from her face. She frowned.

“What’s really going on between you and her?” she said.

Neiryn pulled his hand away, looking up at Novikke. “We’ve become friends,” he said.

“That’s it?”

“What business of it is yours, Novikke?” he said with a tightening smile.

She narrowed her eyes. “She’s my friend, as well. And she seemed taken with you very quickly. Just like Shadri did. I think you have that effect on people, when you want to. And I also think that your desire for companions tends to line up with the extent to which they’ll be of use to you, whether it’s getting you out of a prison or guiding you out of Kuda Varai or hiding you from a bunch of Varai villagers or casting spells.”

Neiryn’s lips twitched. She saw a shadow of anger cross his features. “And when I was saving you from that psychopath who had you pinned? Was that self-serving also?”

She looked away. “It was not.”

“But you still don’t trust me? Do you not believe it’s possible for me to care about someone? Or for them to care about me?”

That cut her a little. She was being unfair. She was taking her stress out on him. “You did say we weren’t your friends. ‘I don’t befriend Ardanians.’ Remember?”

“Kadaki is not just any Ardanian,” he said. “Neither are you.”

Novikke chewed her lip. “Sorry. I didn’t really mean that. I just…” She shook her head.

Neiryn tipped his head toward Aruna, who had wandered off toward the edge of the ruins. “Anyway, are you the only one who’s allowed to have an unusual relationship with someone across enemy lines?”

“That’s not what’s happening with us,” Novikke said, trying not to let her regret leak into her voice.

Neiryn gave her a dubious look.

“Ask him, if you don’t believe me,” she said, with more bitterness than she’d meant to reveal.

He blinked. “Well. Sorry to hear that. I thought you were… You seemed…?”

Novikke turned away to avoid further scrutiny, but her gaze landed on Aruna. He was looking at the trees creeping into the edges of the ruins.

The trees were dry and gray, like they’d been burned. Leaves had fallen off into piles at their roots. She turned in a circle and saw others—thin, withered trees dotting the perimeter. Many more than there had been at Rameka. Like death was spreading from the ruins outward.

“Gods,” Novikke whispered. “Look at that.”

“It’s happening so quickly,” Neiryn said. “Natural death doesn’t come on this fast. It’s like the life is being drawn out of them.”

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