I triggered my switchblade and threw it at the Vermin attacking Valek. He grunted when the blade nicked his shoulder, but he didn’t stop. However, the Curare on my blade spread throughout his body and paralyzed his muscles. I grabbed the man’s spear. Valek regained his feet and his weapon.

A mere second later, the others reached us.

Events blurred into one long fight. I used the spear’s length to my advantage, keeping the scimitars from reaching me. After a fake to the midsection, I swept my opponent’s feet out from under him. I didn’t hesitate to plunge the tip of the spear into his neck. His soul rose from his body and hovered above it. Should I help his soul?

Before I could decide, another man approached. But he stopped and I felt strands of magic tug at my spear. A Warper who could move objects. The spear flew from my grasp, turned and pointed straight at me.

“Jal wants me alive.” I reminded him.

He advanced. “Why not use your power to stop me? Afraid the Fire Warper will tell Jal what you’re doing?”

“Give the man a prize. Your intellect is truly amazing.”

The spear’s tip came closer and poked me in the hollow of my throat. “Surrender or I’ll skewer her,” the Warper called to Valek.

Valek disengaged, his gaze questioning.

“He won’t do it,” I said to Valek.

“You are right. How about surrender or I will set the barn on fire?” The Warper pointed to the building. “Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of ten children?”

CHAPTER 30

“NO! DON’T,” I YELLED. “Let the children go and I’ll come with you.”

“I know you will,” the Warper said. “I am more concerned about the Ghost Warrior.” He looked at Valek. “Put your weapon down.”

Valek placed his scimitar on the ground, but as he straightened, he flicked his hand twice. A small dart pricked the Warper’s neck. The man jerked in surprise.

“Move,” Valek ordered.

I twisted, avoiding the spear’s thrust, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop the sharp edge from cutting a gash across my neck. A line of stinging pain registered in my mind. It was forgotten as soon as I saw the Warper turn. Fire erupted under the barn’s door. He collapsed beside his colleague, finally overcome by Valek’s sleeping potion.

Smoke reached my nose, igniting memories of dread and fear.

“Valek, go!” I waved him on and whistled for the horses.

They came and I raced toward the barn. Kiki help! I said.

Valek had gotten the burning door opened, but flames crept toward the roof. Topaz and Onyx shied away from the acrid smoke, but Kiki and Garnet braved the heat.

“Tell them to move to the left side,” I yelled to Valek over the roar.

He sprinted through the opening and I led Kiki and Garnet to the right side. I waited for two horrible seconds then banged on the barn’s wall.

Kiki. Garnet. Kick. I dived to the side. The animals aimed their back hooves and punched a hole in the wall with their powerful legs.

When the opening was big enough for the adults, I stopped the horses. Pulling a few splintered boards clear, I looked inside and called to the captives. Even with the bright firelight, the room was obscured by smoke. But a person grabbed my hand. I pulled coughing children through the hole, counting them as they came out.

The smoke thickened and the inferno advanced.

When Councilor Greenblade’s husband crawled out with a small child clinging to his back and a baby clutched to his chest, my count totaled ten children and one adult.

“Where’s Gale?” I asked.

Hacking with the effort to expel the smoke from his lungs, he pointed through the opening. “Collapsed.” He wheezed for air. “Couldn’t take…them all.”

I moved to go in, but he pulled me back.

“Roof.” He coughed.

We shooed the children away from the barn mere moments before the roof buckled with a shower of sparks and an explosion of sound.

I counted children again. Ten. One adult. No Gale. No Valek. He was still in the barn!

Horror and anguish twisted around my throat and shredded my heart. I bolted toward the blazing building. The heat rolled off the structure, pushing me back. Roof beams had fallen on top of the Vermin. The flames lapped at their bodies and sucked their souls into the inferno.

A porthole into the fire world opened in front of me. I could have grabbed one of the Vermin’s souls and returned to the Fire Warper. But I wasn’t ready. I had a few more things to accomplish and a few goodbyes to make before I embraced the fire.

Then I would crave the fire. Living in this world without Valek held no appeal for me.

The blaze raged all night. By morning it settled into a large smoldering heap. Still too hot for me to search among the ruins for some sign of Valek or Gale. Instead, I led the children over to Diamond Lake to get cleaned up and tried to ignore the grief burning inside me.

Councilor Greenblade’s husband, Kell, helped feed the children and tend their wounds. Kiki and Garnet drank from the lake, and I washed the soot from their coats. The water was clear. The red color came from the bottom of the lake as if someone had painted the rocks and gravel. Perhaps they had. After all, it was a man-made lake.

When everyone’s needs were met, we headed back to the campsite. We found Marrok engaged in the grim task of burying bodies.

“Guess I slept through the battle,” he said. “Did we win?” He inclined his head to Tauno. “Or lose?”

“Both,” I said. My anguish over Valek threatened to push from my throat. I bit down hard on my lip, tasting blood.

“Care to explain?”

I filled him in on what had happened. He accepted Tauno’s betrayal with a cynical snort and a wry twist of the lips that reflected his black thoughts about trust.

After I finished, he said, “At least your little friend is all right.”

“Friend?”

He pointed to a nearby tree. “I thought he was dead, but when I went to pick him up he flew off. Scared the heck out of me.”

I went over. My bat hung upside down on a low branch. The creature opened an eye halfway then closed it again, contented. Somehow I had created an emotional link with the bat that was similar to my link with Kiki.

Contemplation about my affinity for animals would have to wait, though. More pressing matters needed to be addressed—finding Valek’s body, for one. But I said, “We have to find a safe place for the Councilors’ family members.”

Bavol Zaltana’s daughter, Jenniqilla, pulled at my cape. “I want to go home,” she said. Although happy to be free, sadness touched her eyes and weariness lined her young face.

I crouched down next to her. “I know, but I need you to pretend you’re still a hostage for just a little while longer. It’s really important. Can you help us out?”

Determination filled her eyes, reminding me of Fisk. I assigned all the older children small jobs, and they moved about with a renewed sense of purpose.

“What about me?” Kell Greenblade asked.

The Greenblade lands were east of Bloodgood’s. “Do you know anyplace where we can hide all of you?”

He gazed off into the distance. Tall and wiry, he resembled my friend, Dax, another member of his clan. I hoped Dax and Gelsi were all right, and the thought of them being the next victims of the Kirakawa ritual made me restless to get moving.

Kell sensed my mood. His attention focused on me. “My sister has a farm outside of Booruby that could hold all of us.”

“In the Cowan Clan’s lands?”

“Yes.” He tsked. “She married a flatlander, but he’s a good man and will help us.”

I looked at the ragtag group of children. Booruby was farther east than I had wanted to travel and it would be a slow trip.

Kiki nickered at me. Get wagon, she said.

The wagon was burned in the fire.

I felt her huff of impatience. Horses run off. Take wagon.

Where are they?

Stuck. Come. Kiki flicked her tail.

Marrok came with me. We mounted Kiki and she went southwest through a small wood.

What about Onyx and Topaz? I asked her.

I felt her sorrow. Can’t smell.

We reached the wagon. When the fire had erupted, the panicked horses had bolted through the woods until the cart wedged between two trees. The animals had calmed, but their raised heads and alert ears meant they felt unsafe.

The wagon had been filled with empty coffin-shaped crates, but we found a toolbox underneath the floor. Getting the wagon free was difficult and time-consuming.

While fixing the broken wheel, Marrok lost his patience and shooed me away. “You’re rushing and making it worse. Go take a walk, Yelena. This is a one-person job anyway.”

When I hesitated, he added, “Go look for him or you won’t find peace. And we won’t either.”

Being busy had been good. Walking through the quiet forest, there was nothing to distract me from my flaming thoughts. No respite from the wrenching pain deep inside me. It felt as if I had swallowed a red-hot coal.

The barn’s ashy remains drifted in the air. Only a few beams at the edge of the structure retained their shape. Everything else had been reduced to gray and white cinders. Smoke curled from a few hot spots, but otherwise a pine-scented breeze blew the acrid fumes away.

The crunch of my boots on the residue echoed a lonely and final sound in my ears. All hope disappeared when I found Valek’s knives. Blackened and misshapen, the blades were half-melted. I collapsed to my hands and knees and sobbed, turning the ash under me into slurry. Gasping, ribs aching and throat raw, I tried to expel the smoldering sadness within, only stopping when all moisture was gone from my body. I sat back on my heels and wiped my face, smearing soot and tears.

Once my breathing returned to normal, I scooped up a handful of the ash near Valek’s weapons and let the wind scatter them. Soon, love. I’ll join you soon. The knowledge of our reunion in the other world was my only comfort.

Eventually I returned to Marrok. He had fixed the wheel. After looking at my face, he squeezed my shoulder. I had washed off the dirt, but I knew my eyes were red and puffy from crying.

Marrok steered the wagon, but finding a road around the wood used up our remaining daylight.

By the time we returned to the camp, Kell had settled the children next to the fire. I wanted to wake everyone and get moving, but Kell convinced me the children would be upset by being roused and hidden in those crates at night. After recalling my own horrible experience with the boxes, I agreed.

If Valek hadn’t shot the Warper, I would have been shoved inside one of those crates. The Councilors’ families would still be hostages, but Valek and Gale would still be alive.

I stared at the sleeping children. Jenniqilla had a protective arm over Leevi and the baby curled next to him, sucking on his thumb even while asleep. In that state, they embodied innocence and peace and joy and love. Valek had known the risk when he went into the barn and he hadn’t hesitated. I would have done the same. Eleven living beings for one unselfish act. Pretty good odds.

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