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A Hasty Retreat from Isolas
Evie’s plea to save Gideon echoed in Brigette’s ears as the fight erupted at the basilica. Evie’s lightning crashed, shattering windows and stonework. Yes, the little goddess had asked Brigette to be their backup plan in the event of Taviano’s betrayal, but Evie hadn’t truly understood what she was requesting. The amount of pain Brigette would have to suffer to break through those wards would be unbearable, and she was not the self-sacrificing type.
While the battle raged, Brigette waited on the beach, debating her next step. She’d considered stealing the boat and sailing back to Isolas, finding a mordid den, and drowning her doubts in smoke. Any guilt she might have suffered at abandoning Evie would be silenced easily enough. But as she took her first step toward the boat, the battle fell silent. The skies cleared. A wisp of powerful magic washed across her skin and disappeared like a breeze pulled out to sea. The Magic had felt unfamiliar, neither hers nor Taviano’s. Not Faercourt’s either, if she had to guess. Its flavor was too wild and strange for a Magician with formal training.
Curiosity sent Brigette racing back to the basilica. She gritted her teeth and called on her Magic. It snatched her up and deposited her on the staircase leading to the front doors, which appeared to have been charred to smoky black smithereens.
Good job, Evie. Not so helpless after all, were you?
Brigette strode through the doorway and stumbled upon a scene of great destruction—a hallway littered with bodies, rubble, and broken glass. The tang of powerful Magic burnt her nose—Taviano’s and Faercourt’s, most likely, but none of the wild Magic she’d scented on the beach. She hurried over to a familiar figure lying crumpled and still on the floor. Taviano’s hair was unmistakable, even when stained with blood. However, he was neither burned nor charred, as he would have been if he’d suffered Evie’s lightning strike. Instead, it looked as though a bit of flying debris had knocked him out. Brigette doubted he was dead, which meant she had to move quickly. Reinforcements were undoubtedly on the way.
She searched the hallway, spotted Gideon, and knelt beside him. Raising her hand, she released a pulse of energy, sending it racing across the ether. If it worked the way she had planned, her Magic would trigger an alarm, warning Niffin and Malita to get moving. Then she lowered her palm to Gideon’s chest. If he was dead, they’d be out of luck. She had many talents, but bringing people back to life was not one of them. She released a second, smaller pulse—a jolt to wake him from unconsciousness. He flinched and cried out.
“Good, you’re not dead. Evie will be so pleased.” Brigette rolled back on her heels, clutching her temples as her head throbbed.
Gideon groaned, struggled to his knees, and groaned again. “What happened?” He stumbled to his feet, eyes shut, and pressed his hands to his temples. “Where’s Evie?”
“C’mon.” Brigette fumbled a cigarette from the tin in her pocket and lit it. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”
They fled from the basilica and raced along the beach, pausing when they reached the pile of gear Gideon and Evie had shed before taking their late-night swim. He bundled clothes and boots, using Evie’s Thunder Cloak as a satchel to hold everything together. Glancing at Brigette, he winced. The first inklings of dawn diluted the gloom, painting their surroundings in murky shades of grayish-purple and sickly yellow. By the way he looked at her, Brigette suspected the light had done nothing to improve her complexion.
“Are you all right?” he asked.
She inhaled from her cigarette, holding the smoke deep in her lungs. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
By the time they’d found their boat and shoved off from shore, the basilica’s reinforcements had stormed the beach. The guards fired, and bullets pinged the water. Several pierced the boat’s hull before she could raise another Magical shield.
“Come on, come on,” she grumbled. “Get us out of here.”
Gideon fiddled with the boat’s controls. “I’m working on it. It takes time for the pressure to build.”
Having finished her first cigarette, she fished out another. “If I pass out, you’ll watch over me, right?”
He nodded, expression grim.
She closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. A voice in the back of her head screamed for a dose of mordid as she stirred up a current that sent the ship racing away from the island, farther than the reach of the soldier’s bullets. Her shields held until Gideon managed to get the boat’s propeller working. He leaned on the throttle, and the boat rocketed across Isolas Bay.
“Where were you?” His voice was a bear’s growl. “You were supposed to show up if things started falling apart.”
She sneered. “Things were always going to fall apart. Taviano’s involvement guaranteed that. This plan was doomed from the start, and I made her no promises. It’s not my fault Evie has unreasonable expectations.”
Gideon’s face turned a deep shade of red. “I should throw you overboard and save her the trouble of dealing with you.”
“You could.” She chuckled and paddled her hands in the air. “But I know how to swim. And I can still be useful. I saved your mangy hide, didn’t I?”
The muscle in his jaw bulged, and she wondered if his teeth would crack from the strain. “I don’t care what happens to me,” he said. “If there’s ever a question, the answer is always: save Evie. Save her at all costs.”
“Funny.” Brigette rolled a shoulder. “She said the same thing about you.”
His fury fled, and he blinked dumbly at her. “She said what?”
“Her last request to me was that no matter what, I had to save you.”
“She shouldn’t have asked you to do that. She should never waste those kinds of resources on me.”
“That’s a subject you’ll have to take up with her when you see her again.”
He grumbled under his breath, his mood darkening as he changed the subject. “Have you sent the signal to Niffin and Malita yet? We’ve got to warn them. Let them know it’s time to move on to Plan B.”
“I have.” She tapped her nose. “It’s been done.” Sighing, she slumped against Gideon, thankful Evie had such good taste in her choice of guardians. Brigette had met plenty of powerful Magicians who’d come in all shapes and sizes, but something about the corporealness of Gideon’s big frame, his solid muscle beneath her cheek, comforted her. Made her feel safe.
She released her hold on the Magic and gave in to her exhaustion, letting consciousness slip away...
She awoke when Gideon lifted her from the boat. She blinked until her vision sharpened and awareness returned. He’d brought them to a grungy, narrow canal in what appeared to be an industrial area of factories and warehouses. Oil floated in globs on the murky water, and a foul, sour stench filled the air. “Where are we?”
“In a service canal. We needed to hide and get rid of the boat.” He set her on her feet on a narrow dock, holding her until she nodded, signaling she could stand on her own. “It was already taking on water from the bullet holes.” He shrugged. “I made the holes bigger.”
She arched an eyebrow. “You’ll sink it?”
“Tide’s coming in. Should make the canal deep enough to hide it until after we’re long gone.”
He had dressed, putting on his shirt and boots, but he’d left his black cloak and mask in the boat. She shrugged off her own cloak and tossed it in beside his. “Let’s get a taxi. Assuming Plan B goes right, Niffin and Malita should already be waiting for us.”
“How’s your pain?” he asked.
Her head felt like it had swollen to twice its usual size, and her brain weighed ten times as much as it should, but she could bear it. For now. “Don’t worry about me. How about you? Faercourt hit you hard back there.”
Gideon grimaced. “I’ve survived worse, believe me.”
They kept to the shadows until they reached a busier thoroughfare and hired the first empty taxi they came across. Huddling close, they kept their faces hidden, looking to the outside world like two young lovers on a sunrise cruise through the city. Halfway through their journey, Brigette asked the pilot to pull over. After paying their taxi fare, she and Gideon disembarked, hiked several more blocks on foot, and boarded another boat. If anyone tried to follow them, she hoped they’d sufficiently muddied their trail.
Their pilot rowed them to their next destination, and they exited quickly, blending in with the other early-morning pedestrians on their way to work. Several blocks later, they reached the shop where Brigette had taken Evie to buy her peacock mask. Three horses waited outside, and Niffin, wearing his shaded spectacles and a slouchy cap concealing his vibrant hair, sat astride a reddish-brown stallion loaded with saddlebags. He held the reins to two more horses, a grey mare and a big black stallion.
He smiled when he recognized the two figures approaching him. “I was not certain you would make it, but I am very relieved you have.”
“Where’s Malita?” Brigette asked.
“In the shop. She is, um... procuring disguises for us.”
“The shop’s open at this hour?”
Niffin flicked his eyebrow. Breaking into the mask-maker’s shop was the least of their indiscretions in Isolas. “Any damages or losses will be properly recompensed.”
This early in the morning, few people would be wearing Stagioni di Magia costumes, but Brigette hoped she and her friends look like tired revelers on their way home from an all-night party.
Gideon mounted his big black horse and stroked the beast’s neck. He caught Brigette’s skeptical gaze. “You want to take Evie’s horse, or do you want to ride Wallah with me?”
Adrenaline and survival instincts had kept her going long after she might have otherwise passed out, both from pain and exhaustion. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to manage a horse on her own. “Ride with you, I guess. I’ve never been much of an equestrian.”
Malita exited the store carrying a bundle of plain white masks designed to completely cover everyone’s faces. She also handed out colorful capes made of cheap, flimsy material. Put together, Brigette hoped their disguises looked convincingly festive.
Following a map Malita and Niffin had copied during their visit to the library, the troop hurried out of town, sticking to back roads and byways. If the Council searched for them on main roads, canals, or trains, they would come up empty-handed. Still, Brigette wouldn’t relax any time soon. Escaping Isolas had been the easy part.
The true test of her Magic was still to come.
Beyond the city’s borders, they found themselves traipsing over a rutted and worn trail winding between ancient olive groves. Huge trees lined the path like gnarled old men, casting shade, offering relief from the hot morning sun.
“Now that we are not in such a hurry, can you tell us what happened at the basilica?” Niffin had shed his mask and cape along with everyone else’s when they’d passed beyond Isolas’s borders, but he kept on his hat and spectacles. “When we got your signal, we feared the worst.”
“Pesce was a traitor, as we’d expected,” Gideon grumbled.
He summed up their raid on the basilica, and Brigette listened close to the parts she herself hadn’t witnessed. She waited for him to say something about her failure to participate, but he left those details out.
“Faercourt knocked me out and disappeared with Evie. If it weren’t for Brigette, I never would have made it out of the basilica or off that island.”
Heat rose in Brigette’s face. There was a bit of begrudged respect in Gideon’s voice, and she knew she deserved none of it.
“If Faercourt took Evie,” Niffin said, “they are surely headed for Inselgrau.”
“Not just Inselgrau but to Fallstaff,” Gideon said. “The literal seat of Evie’s kingdom. Her home. That’s where Le Poing Fermé has established its base.”
“Then that’s where we will reconnect with her.”
“What if Jackie takes Evie somewhere else first?” Malita asked. “Maybe he will hold her as a, um...” She glanced at Niffin. “Eru?”
“Captive?”
She nodded. “Maybe he will keep her as a captive somewhere else. He knows Evie has friends who will come for her.”
“I can track Evie if she still has the token I gave her,” Brigette said. She’d managed to hold her seat behind Gideon by sheer force of will, but she was fading fast. “But I’ll need a quiet place, a rather large and detailed atlas, and some food and rest. I won’t be much good to Evie, or to any of you, if we don’t take a break soon.”
“There is a sizeable town north of here,” Niffin said. “But it is on the train line. That means a good chance of finding a decent inn and food, and maybe a town official’s office with an atlas. But it also means—”
“A greater chance of the Council finding us too.” Brigette sighed. “It would be best if I went into town alone.”
“Not alone.” Gideon’s objection was forceful. “That’s too risky, and right now, you’re our most valuable team member.”
“Nice of you to call me a team member rather than an asset. Or a weapon. But I’ll have a better chance of going unnoticed if I’m on my own.”
“I will go with you.” Malita’s stern expression implied she expected objections from her companions, particularly the male ones, but was prepared to stand her ground. “You must have a partner, Brigette. The danger is too great on your own. Let that partner be me.”
***
The group reached the small town of Florrenco near sunset. Brigette had napped on the way there, passed out against Gideon’s broad back. When she’d gone limp and almost slid off the horse, he’d tied a rope around her, fastening her securely against him.
An annoying cramp in her neck nagged her as she dismounted. Sleeping at such an awkward angle likely had something to do with it. But if not for that nap, she never would’ve had the energy to sneak into Florrenco with Malita, this brave and stubborn girl. Malita might, at first, have seemed the least valuable among them. But she was possibly the bravest and most loyal of all. Brave because she had no Magic, no thunder, no muscle, brawn, or real fighting experience to depend on. Her bravery was raw—the stuff of legends.
Brigette understood why Evie considered Malita her best friend.
Before the two young women left Gideon and Niffin hiding in a vineyard at the edge of town, Gideon gave Brigette Evie’s Thunder Cloak and explained how it worked. “Evie would want you to use it.” Worry stormed in his gray eyes. “And she’ll kill me if anything happens to you.”
“Have some faith,” Brigette said. “We’re going to get you back to your girl.”
Once they reached the heart of Florrenco, Brigette and Malita crept through back alleys and side streets, each girl looking over her shoulder until they reached the town square. They paused, peering around the corner of a dry goods shop, and studied their surroundings. A stuccoed fountain burbled in the center of the square, sparkling from the light of the gas lanterns being lit by a pair of young boys on stilts. The surrounding shops either had closed or were in the process of shuttering their doors. The square appeared mostly empty.
“Brigette,” Malita said, “I would like to ask you a question.”
“That doesn’t surprise me.” She and Malita hardly knew each other—had barely spoken to each other. Brigette had answered Evie’s questions sufficiently to gain her trust, but Evie was gone, and now Malita likely needed some reassurances.
“Why do you do this? Why are you here?”
Brigette had asked herself the same question a dozen times and still hadn’t found a satisfactory answer other than the fact that working with Evie was better than slowly dying in an apothecary storeroom. That reason wouldn’t satisfy Malita, though. “In the beginning, Evie offered me a chance to escape, so I took it, and that’s all it was. A clean slate and a chance to start over. But since I’ve been with you all, for the first time, I’ve seen that there’s something more than just pain. There’s something worth living and fighting for. I could be wrong, but I’d like to find out for sure, either way.”
Perhaps Brigette’s answer had sufficed, because instead of asking more questions, Malita said, “Maybe the train station has a large map to show all the places the train goes.”
“I agree, but if I were the Council, that train station is the first place I’d look for us. It’s the first station on the line from Isolas.”
“Then you must use the Thunder Cloak.”
“No.” Brigette shoved Evie’s coat into Malita’s arms. “I can conceal myself. You take the cloak and use it to get supplies.” She pointed at the entrance to the dry goods store beside them. “I need beeswax candles, a platter or bowl to hold water, and several full waterskins.”
Malita quirked an eyebrow, giving Brigette a wry look. “I came to protect you and help you, not to be your...” Her face screwed into a thoughtful expression as she tried to find the word she wanted.
“Pack mule?” Brigette blushed. “You’re right. Sometimes my brain gets ahead of my mouth. We’ll go to the train station, double back to the store, and then hurry back to the boys before they miss us. I don’t want them storming into town to look for us if they think we’re taking too long.”
Malita giggled as she slipped on Evie’s cloak and whispered the Magic word. “I think Evie likes Gideon so much because he reminds her of thunder when he is angry or scared.”
Brigette gasped when Malita disappeared. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen someone use invisibility Magic, but it never stops amazing me.”
An intangible finger poked Brigette’s shoulder, and Malita’s disembodied voice said, “Do not forget yourself.”
Brigette scrubbed her hands all over herself, as if wiping off a stubborn coating of mud, and muttered ancient words under her breath. She’d never been entirely sure if the words triggered the Magic, or if they were mostly a tool to help her express her will—her professors at university could never quite agree on an answer. Either way, the Magic worked. Darkness cloaked her, and she appeared as nothing more than a thin shadow.
“How do you feel?” Malita asked, patting Brigette’s shoulder.
“I’ll be okay, but we should hurry.” She grabbed Malita’s hand, and the two girls traipsed across the square, heading for the train station at the opposite side.
Except for a man pushing a broom across the concourse between ticket booths, the station was empty. Hand in hand, Brigette and Malita softened their steps. A brass placard with the words Ufficio del Capostazione, Office of the Stationmaster, hung on a heavy oak door at the end of the corridor. Seems like a good place to start looking, Brigette thought.
She’d studied the railroad maps plastered to the ticket booth walls, but their scope and view were too limited for her needs. Faercourt could have taken Evie anywhere, although even he hadn’t likely been strong enough to transport her all the way from Isolas to Inselgrau, especially not while bleeding profusely from that nasty bullet wound in his shoulder. Yet if the charm she’d made for Evie had worked at all, Faercourt shouldn’t have been able to use his Magic to transport Evie anywhere, not even an inch. The fact that he’d taken her probably meant he had accomplices, and that complicated things.
Malita reached the office door first and tried the handle. “Locked.”
Brigette called on her Magic and touched her finger to the lock. A bolt of fire raced down her spine and faded. A bit of pain for a bit of Magic—but all those bits added up over time and eventually became unbearable. She hadn’t reached that point yet, but she was looking forward to lighting another djageesh cigarette when she got back to camp.
As they slipped into the dark office, Brigette brought forth a light, a small glowing red orb. She could produce these Magical lanterns in any color, but red came easiest and was therefore the least painful. The girls searched the office, rifling through stacks of papers on the stationmaster’s desk and through the bound tomes on the bookshelf. Malita sucked her teeth sharply and held up a large, flat, leather-bound volume. “Will this do?”
Brigette took the book, unhooked the clasp on the cover, spread it open on the desk, and peeled back page after page of detailed maps of the Continent, from Vinitzia to Dreutch and points farther north, east, and west, including the Antellic Ocean. She felt for Malita’s hand, found it, and gave it a squeeze. “It’s brilliant.”
Brigette doused her light, closed the atlas, and extended her invisibility Magic to conceal the book of maps. After leaving a few coins on the desk in payment for the stolen atlas, she tugged Malita’s hand. Together they retreated from the station master’s office. The custodian had extinguished the lights and disappeared from the concourse, but he’d braced a heavy trash bin against the main door to prop it open. The girls hurried toward the exit but stopped short when several tall shadows flickered in the open doorway. Raised voices and sharp footsteps warned that someone, or several someones, were approaching.
“Are you certain? Look at the drawing again.” The speaker, a man, sounded aristocratic, his Vinitzian pronunciation precise and careful, as if he were not a native speaker.
“No,” answered another, wavering voice. “I’d remember seeing them. I’m sure.”
Brigette shuffled closer, eager for a glimpse of whoever stood beyond the doorway. Two tall figures, one man and one woman, both with severe posture and stern expressions, were questioning the night custodian. The man wore a conservative but elegant black coat and pants. The woman also wore black—wide cotton skirts and a linen jacket nipped at the waist. A sapphire brooch sparkled on her lapel. Magic and power exuded from them both.
Cold prickles broke out on Brigette’s neck and shoulders, tracing icy rivulets of fear down her spine. The pair was from the Council of Magic. She was sure of it.
“We’ll be searching the entire town,” the woman said. “If you see anything or hear anything, let us know.” She pressed something into the custodian’s hand before turning away.
“Wait.” He gripped his broom handle until his knuckles stood out white against his skin. “May I look one more time? I’ll try to memorize their faces.”
The black-suited man leaned forward and unrolled a bit of parchment. Brigette couldn’t see what was on it, but she could guess. A wanted poster. She suspected the paper contained sketches of Evie and Gideon’s faces. Perhaps her own, as well.
Satisfied, the custodian nodded. The Magician rolled up the parchment and stuffed it in his pocket, and he and his companion strode away. But the woman paused and turned back, her gaze scanning the station, pausing at the doorway where Brigette stood. Her eyes narrowed, as if trying to peer into the gloom on the other side.
Brigette held her breath, fearing the Magician had somehow sensed Brigette’s Magic the same way Brigette had sensed hers. The woman took a tentative step toward the doorway.
“Meet me at the store,” Malita whispered in Brigette’s ear.
Before Brigette could ask her what she was going to do, Malita’s quiet footsteps announced her retreat.
The Councilwoman approached like a cat hunting a mouse, her movements careful and alert. The other Magician had noted the change in his companion’s mood. He crept behind her, his attention focused on the station’s interior. Brigette edged a step back, preparing to run, but then a scream cut through the tension. A huge splash from the fountain in the square caught the Magical couple’s attention, and they turned away.
While they were distracted, Brigette scurried out, carefully squeezing past the two Council members. As she raced through the square, she saw a young boy—one of the lantern lighters on stilts—flailing in the fountain, trying to get back on his feet. Did Malita...? Brigette slapped her hand over her mouth before her laughter gave her away. Did Malita push that poor boy into the fountain?
Pausing in the dry goods store’s doorway, Brigette caught her breath. “Malita?” she whispered. “Where are you?”
“I am here.” Malita shifted closer and brushed Brigettte’s shoulder.
“How did you get out of the station?”
“There was an open window. I saw it when we came in.”
Brigette fumbled for Malita and squeezed her in a tight hug. “Thank the gods. I was sure those Magicians were about to find me.”
Malita patted Brigette’s back. “We should not stay here much longer.”
After breaking into the dry goods store, the girls raided the shelves, taking as much food as they could carry and leaving money on the counter on their way out. They stopped briefly at the fountain to fill their new waterskins. Although Brigette’s feet felt as heavy as lead and her head was pounding again, she managed to keep up with Malita as they raced out of town and ducked into the cover of the vineyard.
Brigette formed another red light to announce their presence and light their small encampment. Niffin appeared from the gloom and threw his arms around Malita as she tossed off the Thunder Cloak. Brigette didn’t understand his words, but she heard the relief in his tone.
Gideon’s big shadow sidled up to Brigette and took her load of supplies. “Any trouble?” he asked, peering at the tins of sardines and olives she’d collected.
“The Council was there, looking for us.” She crouched and set out the enamel bowl she’d been carrying under her arm. She filled it with water from one of her skins until its surface bulged like a convex mirror. “They had a wanted poster they were showing around town. It seemed like there were only two of them. Nobody saw us, but we should still be careful.”
Gideon grunted deep in his throat, a sound of agreement. He cracked open a tin of sardines with his knife, not offering to share with Brigette. He wasn’t threatening to throttle her, but he wasn’t dishing out forgiveness or friendship, either. Brigette thought about it and decided she could live with that arrangement.
While the group settled down to eat dinner, she lit candles, placing them around her water bowl. She opened the atlas to a page showing the Vinitzian borders and the surrounding countries, seas, and oceans. From her pocket she removed a coin, a perfect match to the coins she’d given Evie and Gideon earlier, and set it on the map. She leaned over the water bowl, staring at her reflection, and let her gaze go unfocused.
“What are you doing?” Malita asked.
“Scrying. Now... everyone be quiet.”
Brigette drew on her Magic, and a hazy image swam to the surface of her liquid mirror: a ship with a single mast and a paddlewheel at the stern. Evie stood at the bow, moonlight glowing on her white dress, winds whipping her dark hair. The coin on the map shifted, sliding into Isolas bay then curving around a jutting peninsula on Vinitzia’s east coast before cruising into the Antellic Ocean.
Brigette blinked and leaned back, rubbing her eyes until her vision returned to normal. “Looks like Faercourt is taking the long way home.”
“We could surveil Fallstaff and then be set up to intercept Jackie and Evie before they get there,” Gideon said, “assuming that’s where they’re headed.”
“I’ll scry her again later to be sure they haven’t changed course.”
“Getting to Inselgrau ahead of them will mean we have to take the train,” Niffin said.
“I don’t know about the rest of you,” Gideon said, “but it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“So you think we’ll get to Inselgrau several days before Evie and Faercourt?”
“Probably,” Gideon said. “Unless there’s trouble along the way that slows us down. Why do you ask?”
“Getting there before them gives us an advantage. I think we should figure out how best to use it.”
