Page 42 of Fate Promised

Juri glanced at Triska. What if the mists became a barrier again? Had he trapped her here?

“Called my island? Why?” Koschei waved his hand. “There’s nothing here any longer.”

Juri growled. “I was hoping you could help with that part.”

Triska had remained silent, but now she asked, “Why was this junction sealed off? What happened?”

“I let someone through I shouldn’t have. As a guardian, I’m bound by laws and rules you can’t understand.”

Juri closed his eyes briefly. Magicwielders all had superiority complexes.

Koschei continued, “I broke them, and I was punished. My people were sent to the mainland, and the island went wild when the magic ripped through.”

Fergal bent over and traced a finger over the charred earth, apparently cool enough to touch now. “What is the source of the power here?”

But Juri didn’t need Koschei to answer. “It’s shuwt, isn’t it?” Juri said.

Koschei’s eyes widened. “I can’t comment on that.”

“We already know the answer.” Juri briefly explained what he’d heard Hoyt say in the sewers about an incantation and gaining access to shuwt through the island. “Could he really perform an incantation here? How did the sorcerers who lived here get access to its magic?”

Koschei’s brow furrowed. “As children, every single one of us on Eynhallow underwent a ceremony where our powers came to us. In a way, it’s similar to how a peltwalker gets their pelt and learns to shift for the first time. It all comes from the spirit and power of the land. My people are a part of this land. The necromancer you talk about isn’t. It would take powerful magic for him to tap into it. Even more for him to call and claim it without being one of the original dwellers of Eynhallow.”

Fergal sighed. “With Hoyt having Herskala’s grimoire, we can assume he has access to that kind of magic.”

Koschei’s mouth dropped open. “Herskala’s grimoire? We must stop him.”

Juri chuffed. “What do you think we’re doing? We’re certainly not visiting you because we got word of your hospitality.”

Fergal snorted. “This isn’t just about stopping Hoyt. We need to make sure no one can use the island for an incantation. Ever. All magicwielders will desire this power, and a full-on war will start.”

Juri nodded. “When we get Hoyt, we need that grimoire as well.” It wasn’t only to prevent the magicwielder war, Hoyt also knew things about the vulk because of what Herskala wrote in that grimoire. He’d created the spell that sent Juri crashing to the floor and said there was more in the book he hadn’t deciphered yet.

Fergal studied Koschei. “What can you tell us about the island? How do we stop its power?”

“What?” Juri said. “We can’t attack an island.”

Fergal nodded. “No, but we can remove the source of its power. We just need to figure out how.”

Triska gasped. “But this is Koschei’s home. What will that do?”

Koschei shrugged. “My people are long gone. Everything you saw in my home is what this island left behind after I was punished and the magic swept through.” He waved his hand. “The island is only a wild forest now, filled with mist.”

Juri turned to Fergal. “How do we figure out how to remove the source of its power?”

Fergal still stared at the ground. “I’m not sure, but I may have an idea. It’s only a cloud of an idea though … I need time.”

“Time for what?”

Koschei scoffed. “I’ve lived here millennia, and I know every inch of the island. Every branch. Every plant. There’s nothing to find. The power source isn’t physical.”

Fergal shook his head. “Yes, it is. I don’t know where it is, but I have a few ideas. And a few ideas on how to find it.”

The ground shook again, and the black, charred circle belched a small puff of green smoke. Lifting into the air, the smoke drifted away, but it flew into the wind, not with it. The smoke had the same hazy quality of the mist he’d seen when Hoyt drained the nameless man in the sewers and surrounded the inhabitants of Ryba.

He bared his teeth. “I’m going to search this island. If the necromancers are here, or they’ve cast spells here, I’ll find them.”

17

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