The portal spell set Ren Monroe down in the same way a child would discard a toy. She came gasping back into the world on all fours. There was pain. Far more pain than normal. She reached up and used two fingers to loosen the collar of her shirt, because it felt like she was choking. Opening her eyes brought on a wave of vertigo. It took a moment to get her bearings.
A forest. Great trees with sprawling roots. The air was notably cooler than on campus. She tried to push up to her feet and stumbled back to her knees. Her mind and body were struggling to reconnect. Ren realized she wasn’t alone.
Dark shapes were scattered around the forest floor. As she squinted, they became people. Ren heard one of them groan. Someone else started heaving for air on her left. Ren’s own breathing came in shocked gasps. Five other figures were in the forest clearing.
That’s not possible.
Everyone who’d been in the portal room was here. That meant something had gone terribly wrong. They should have appeared at their own destinations. In their own neighborhoods. But this wasn’t the Lower Quarter. It wasn’t Kathor. Looking around, Ren wasn’t even sure if these were the same trees that marked the bordering forests of their city.
“Where are we?”
Her words came out as rust. No one answered. Another groan nearby. Ren recognized the beautiful silver-white hair, streaming ghostlike down slender shoulders. The fashionable shirt was now covered in dirty streaks. Timmons was here too. No, no, no…
Ren started crawling toward her best friend. As she did, she noted the group was in the same pattern they’d been in back in the portal room. Exact distances and relative positioning. Her fogged mind struggled to process that fact. Avy Williams was flat on his back, breathing in thick and slow. Poor Cora was trapped beneath him, working to pry herself free. Ren’s eyes circled to the right.
The two heirs were there: Clyde Winters and Theo Brood.
“What the…”
She watched Theo shove to his feet, curses rattling out as he stumbled sideways into the nearest tree. He pointed down at Clyde before retching on the ground. Ren stood, her head still spinning, and saw the reason for Theo’s reaction.
Clyde Winters was a husk.
There was no other word for him. It looked like he’d been cooked from the inside out. Every vein had burst. His eyes bulged and popped. She saw blackened scorches underneath the skin. Almost as if the magic flowing through his body had boiled, hard and hot. Even his clothing looked burned. There were dark streaks across his cardigan and his trousers. Ren thought she could handle it. Cadavers had never bothered her before, but then the scent of burning flesh hit her nostrils with full force. She turned in time to retch on Timmons’s shoes.
“Hey! That’s disgusting, Ren! Why…”
And then her friend saw the body. She let loose a scream.
For a few seconds Ren stood there, bent over, her chest heaving. Even the smallest motion threatened to rock her stomach. She waited until she was certain she wasn’t going to throw up again. Then she pulled her scarf up over her nose and turned back to face the dark scene.
Timmons looked like a dying flower. She was kneeling in the dirt, face buried in her hands, her entire body shaking uncontrollably. Theo stood with one hand pressed to the base of a giant tree, struggling to keep his feet. He’d turned his back to them. Anything to avoid looking at what was lying on the forest floor between them. Ren’s eyes skipped over that same spot.
She looked at Avy instead. He was on his back, staring up at the thick canopy. His chest rose and fell, and she remembered he’d been hit by a stunner before the portal spell activated. Likely its effect had amplified. She suspected the magic felt like a two-ton anvil now.
Only Cora remained calm. Of course. The medical student would know what to do when everyone else was panicking. Ren watched her navigate through the maze of bone-thick roots. She knelt down to take vitals and announced unhelpfully, “He’s dead.”
Those words finally brought the image back into focus. Ren couldn’t ignore it now. Clyde Winters was sprawled at a strange angle on the forest floor—and he looked very, very dead. Cora was fishing through her bag. She unpacked a small medical kit. The sound of her tools clinking together finally forced Theo to turn around. He wiped his mouth with one sleeve.
“Knock it off. That’s an heir of House Winters. He’s not a test cadaver.”
Cora paused in the middle of her preparations. Even though the forest was thick with shadows, Ren saw the girl’s expression clearly. She looked like she wanted to tell Theo that was exactly what Clyde was now. Instead she offered a begrudging nod.
“You’re right. It’s just… unlike any death I’ve ever seen… knowing the cause.…”
Ren saw the sharpness in Theo’s expression. She decided to intervene.
“Not now, Cora. We need to figure out where we are first.”
Avy finally sat up. He blinked a few times. When he saw Clyde’s body on the ground, both hands went up defensively. “I… I didn’t do that. I swear! There’s no way.…”
For some reason his denial dragged Timmons back into the conversation.
“I told you not to do magic in there. Look at that. Look what happened to him!”
Avy shook his head. “I didn’t even cast a spell. That’s what I’m saying. It couldn’t have been me. I didn’t use any magic.…”
There was a moment of silence. No retching or heaving or sobbing. It was just long enough for the forest to press in around them like a shadow. A sharp breeze stirred the branches, clacking them together like spears. Ren heard dying birdsong and the distant shuffling of larger creatures. The group looked around, unnerved. The quiet was a reminder that this place—wherever they were—was also a threat to them. She’d never felt so exposed. It didn’t help that one of them was already dead. That thought was followed by a darker one.
And one of us killed him.
She tried to trace back through the steps that had led to this moment. The chaos in the portal room. The fight that had broken out just before the waxway spell had activated. Somehow they’d all been transported to this forest full of shadows. Ren tried to refocus on the present. Theo had removed his cardigan and was attempting to cover Clyde’s body with it.
He’s dead. I can’t believe he’s actually dead.
The others were in varying states of shock, but as Ren watched, Theo straightened. His hands reached up, almost on their own, and adjusted the tie at his throat. She saw his facial features smooth out. It was a quick clearing of the head. That polished facade slipped back on like a mask. This was the son of a family who built and conquered cities. She should have expected this kind of poise from him. When he spoke, his voice didn’t even shake.
“There’s nothing in transportation magic that would have caused a death like this. The magics don’t just mix. That’s not how it works. Balmerick’s portal spell is an established magic. It’s been in place for a decade. Clyde brandishing his wand and casting a few stunners wouldn’t be enough for him to tap into a preexisting spell of that magnitude. It doesn’t work like that.”
He was cleverer than he looked. Ren had concluded the same thing.
“Tell that to Clyde,” Timmons shot back. “He’s… gods. He’s actually…”
She turned around and burst into tears again. Cora was still kneeling by the body, clearly hoping for permission to continue with her inspection. Avy paced back and forth like a massive wounded animal. Ren felt the need to defend him.
“There’s no spell Avy could have cast that would have killed Clyde.”
Avy shook his head. “I didn’t cast anything. He’s the one who hit me.”
Theo ignored him. “You’re right. It was something else.…”
Ren knew he wasn’t asking her for an answer, but she’d considered all the details. There were some inevitable conclusions that needed to be drawn. “We’re all in the same place, right?”
Nods from the others.
“That means our destinations merged. Instead of porting to our assigned locations…” She gestured to Clyde’s body and her stomach threatened to turn again. “Something went wrong. We got ported to the same spot. If our destinations merged, it’s possible that our distances merged. I’m pretty sure the magic took our individual bearings and combined them into a single route. One straight line. We’re lucky that it wasn’t aimed out to sea. We all would have drowned.”
Theo shook his head. “That doesn’t explain what happened to Clyde.”
“Magic,” Ren answered. “He performed a spell. And he was in the middle of performing another one. You were aiming your wand, but did you actually cast anything?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Avy?” Ren asked. “You swear you didn’t cast anything?”
He shook his head. “I was too angry to think of a spell to use.”
Ren gestured to the body. “Look at those burn marks. He got boiled from the inside. The only identifiable difference is that he was using magic when the portal malfunctioned. The waxways aren’t predictable. We’re basically using a system that the dragons left behind. There’s so much we don’t know about how they work or who created them in the first place. It’s possible that the active magic Clyde was using was seen as a threat. Which means…”
“The waxways eliminated the threat,” Theo said, arriving at the same dark conclusion.
Cora ran a finger over Clyde’s blackened nails. It almost looked like he’d been electrocuted.
“Cut that out,” Theo said. “Don’t touch him.”
Avy’s voice rumbled out in warning. “Hey. Don’t talk to her like that. It’s your fault we’re out here.”
“My fault?” Theo shot back. “You’re the one who pitched a fit about a wax-model building. What kind of child—”
“Hey!” Ren shouted. “Calm down. Can we just focus for a second? We need to get our bearings. We have no idea how far we went. Where’s the nearest overlook?”
For a heated moment Theo and Avy continued staring at each other. The massive wrestler broke off first, obediently turning to search. Cora was absently scratching at her eyebrow piercing. She stood up and joined them, but Theo turned his back on the rest of the group. Ren couldn’t tell if he was refusing to take orders or still reeling from Clyde’s death. She kept her nose covered as Avy pointed through a gap in the tree line.
“There. There’s a rise right there. Might take ten minutes to climb.”
“I’ll go with you,” Ren said. “I’ve got most of the map of Kathor’s surrounding regions memorized. We might be able to figure out exactly where we are if I can see the landmarks.”
Theo glanced back now. She knew he’d spent his entire time at Balmerick calling the shots and leading a dedicated crew. Friends had likely sat around waiting to agree with his plans. The idea of watching someone else take the lead of their search party clearly dug under his skin.
“I’ll come too. I’ve spent a lot of time at our home in the foothills. I might recognize the location.”
Timmons looked up. “I’m not staying here with… with the body.”
All eyes went to Cora. She was still hovering near Clyde, eyeing the corpse every few seconds. It wasn’t hard to guess what she was thinking. She answered in a quiet voice.
“I can stay behind. It would be sensible to perform even a cursory autopsy.”
“No way,” Theo shot back. “Clyde’s family is religious. There are certain rites they’d want performed. No one touches him. Not yet. Let’s all go. Up to the rise and back. Avy said it won’t take long. We get our bearings and then we come back for Clyde. All of us.”
Ren nodded. “Fine. Let’s get moving.”
Theo leaned down, tugging the edges of his cardigan to better cover Clyde. Ren knew he would want to transport the body. Especially after the comment about Clyde’s family. She was trying not to scoff internally at that. Most of the major houses only worshipped themselves and their own power. There were nods in wedding ceremonies or prayers to the Old Delvean god, but she highly doubted the Winters family put any true stock in the faith they sold to the masses.
Besides, transporting a body would be difficult. They could use levitation magic, but it relied on relatively small changes in undulation. If the path became too treacherous, it would be very difficult to maintain the integrity of the spell. They could always make the body lighter, but too light and they’d risk letting him float up into the clouds like a balloon. Their best bet would be a featherweight spell with some kind of tethering magic.…
Ren was so lost in her mental calculations that she didn’t realize Timmons was sobbing, walking a few steps behind her. She paused long enough to hook an arm through her friend’s. The two of them trekked up the hill together. Avy marched well ahead. She could see that he was still fuming a little after his second showdown with Theo. His prime physical condition made the uphill climb look easy. The others struggled through the trees, skirting undergrowth. Sunlight guided their ascent. Cora lagged behind, muttering under her breath about wasted opportunities.
“Almost there,” Avy called.
Ren was starting to sweat by the time she and Timmons plunged through a final curtain of branches, out onto a barren hillside. A few more strides brought them to the top of the same perch where Avy and Theo stood. It offered a decent view. Valleys swept from multiple directions toward a peak they all recognized. Ren’s eyes found the Watcher. Fog draped its passes and foothills. The mountain was one of the highest and most recognizable landmarks outside Kathor, and the second-tallest mountain on the entire continent. Ren was still eyeing the distant peaks when Avy spoke.
“We’re not too high up. Somewhere in the foothills. It shouldn’t be a long hike. I’m not sure we can make it by sundown, but at least we’re closer to Kathor than we are to the Watcher.”
Cora arrived, breathless. Theo’s entire face was drained of color. He considered the distant mountains and ignored Avy’s assessment. “Kathor should be that way.” He pointed. “Doubt there are any paths this far up, but we’ll eventually find hiking trails farther down. We can get to a safe spot to sleep tonight and get back home by tomorrow.”
It was his effort to take control of the group. Timmons squeezed Ren’s arm in relief. Just one night out here, and they’d be home. None of the others noticed the detail Ren had.
The distant fog was churning and shifting. She knew there were two notable peaks visible from their city. The first was Watcher Mountain, but the second and slightly smaller peak was the Eyeglass. She’d finally spotted its blade-sharp top. The old tale was that the Watcher used the Eyeglass to spy on the valleys below. Ren considered the position of the two mountains.
That’s not possible.
Still, she spoke the words. “The Eyeglass is on the wrong side.”
“What?” Theo shook his head. “No, it’s… right there.…”
Ren recited the poem they’d all learned as children. “ ‘The Watcher was watching at half past two. He was watching and watching, waiting for you. Fog in his left hand, eyeglass in his right, he’ll watch and wait from dawn till night.’ The Eyeglass should be on the right side. It’s on the left.”
All of them stared into the distance, maybe hoping if they looked long enough, the mountains would shuffle positions and it would all turn out to be some cruel joke. Timmons hissed a curse. Ren felt the truth knife into her gut. She’d imagined a few days of hiking at the most. But those distant mountains confirmed they were not in the tamer forests outside Kathor.
“We’re in the Dires,” Ren said. “We’re lost.”