“I still don’t understand why this is necessary,” grumbled Kenzi somewhere off to the side.
“Like I said,” Tabor yelled from somewhere in front of us, “if any of you are captured, I don’t want you telling the Citadel where we are going. Better you don’t know.”
“What about you guys though?” Kenzi protested. “You get captured, you’ll clearly tell them what’s going on.”
I heard Tabor and Rausch chuckling up ahead. “Yes, because if we were found on the road, they’d suspect something.” There was some more laughter and some inaudible chatter, which was interrupted by the sound of something whizzing through the air and Tabor shouting. “Ouch! Griska, damn it, I know you don’t serve us. That’s just what they think. Don’t throw rocks. What are you, five?”
I laughed, and accidentally sucked in some of the fabric from the hood into my mouth. I pushed it out with a puff and shook my head around.
We’d been on the road for the better part of four days. We’d stop at nightfall, during which the three men would build a quick fire and take off our hoods. In the dark, we couldn’t really tell where we were, and on the road, if any of us tried to take the hood off, Griska would toss a rock at us or trot over to tug it back over our heads.
The trees and brush that lined the campsites where we stayed were unfamiliar, the campsites looked worn and well used, as if this road had been traveled many times before.
“It’d just be great if you could give us some hints as to where we are going,” Kenzi continued, pressing on with the same conversation we’d been having with the trio for days. “What if we get split up? What if something happens to you guys?”
Tabor snorted. “If something happens to us, you three won’t be around to tell the tale anyway. Now just drop it. We’ll get there by nightfall.”
The sun was setting. The horses began to slow and I felt myself growing anxious. After hours of uncomfortably sitting on the large creature and breathing into this musty hood, occasionally dozing off only to be jolted awake when the horse trotted over something, I’d finally be on the ground, breathing fresh air.
I heard the soft sounds of someone dismounting in the distance.
“Stay here,” said Tabor, standing off to the side of my horse. His footsteps trailed off in the distance.
“Rausch?” I ventured, speaking into the darkness.
“Stay there!” I heard him shout. My heart started to race. Where were they going? Why were we being left here?
“Are we in trouble?” I yelled, quickly realizing what an idiot thing that was to shout. My realization was confirmed when a small rock thwacked me in the back of the head, and I heard Griska’s horse shuffling behind me. Shut up. I got it.
“Kenzi? Dreya?” I softly whispered.
“I’m right next to you,” said Kenzi, sounding slightly annoyed.
“Up here,” said Dreya, still in the front.
“What do you think they’re doing?” asked Kenzi, irritably. “I’m about to pull off this hood and light up the sky.” I heard his skin crackle softly, followed immediately by a soft whoosh and crack. “Ouch!” shouted Kenzi. “Gods damn it, Griska, was that really necessary?”
I could have sworn I heard a chuckle, the closest I’d heard to Griska speaking.
Far off I heard muttering and an array of shouts that were anything but threatening. Indeed, the noises sounded friendly. Fast footsteps hurried toward me, and as they grew close, I braced myself, wincing. Heavy hands grabbed me. They took me off the horse and pulled off my cloak. I opened my eyes and blinked again and again, bright torches illuminating a structure in the distance. Tabor slowly came into focus as he lifted Kenzi from his horse, kicking and squirming. “Calm down!” Tabor said, his voice sounding amused. “It’s me, Kenzi, relax. Caenum, go help your lady friend off her horse.” I gave him a look and he shrugged at me. “What? Go get her, lad.”
I awkwardly walked over to her, my legs feeling loose and wobbly from spending almost an entire day on horseback. Dreya turned a cloaked head at me.
“Where are we?” she asked, still muffled behind the mask.
“Not a clue,” I said, grasping her around the waist. She threw her arms down around my neck as I pulled her off the large animal and steadied her on the ground. She pulled the cloak off and fluttered her eyes open, adjusting to the firelight up ahead. Rausch approached us, a torch in his hand and a large smile on his face. Griska, Kenzi, and Tabor walked up next to us, Griska and Tabor leading four horses.
“All right,” Rausch said, grabbing the reins for his horse, “we’re here.”
“Here” didn’t seem like much as we walked along a long dirt road, with lush green fields and rolling hills off to the right and the left. The occasional small orchard cropped up here and there, but otherwise, the vista was calm, quiet, and empty . . . until the road crested a hill and revealed a stunning sight.
Hidden away on the opposite side stood an enormous fortress. Thick gray stones made up the intimidating structure, with a large guarded drawbridge in the middle. Wooden spires, not unlike the kind at Frosthaven, lined the structure, the tops carved into thick spikes, flags of an unknown origin waving in the light breeze. Small windows dotted the front, and as we got closer, I caught the occasional glaring reflection from inside. A spyglass, perhaps?
The six of us stopped at the lowered drawbridge, and the guards approached Kenzi slowly, sizing him up and down. It didn’t appear that any of them were Inked, but there was a strange, faint glow pulsing around them.
“Weapons?” asked one of them, his head bald, a thin wisp of a beard hanging from his chin.
Kenzi held his arms out to his sides and spun around in a circle, his leather satchel flapping against his body. “Seriously?” he asked. “Does it look like I have anything?”
“Have to ask,” he said grumpily, and then patted Kenzi down and rustled quickly through his bag. Kenzi looked over at us and let loose an exaggerated sigh, shaking his head, noticeably annoyed. The man continued this with everyone in the group, patting down Tabor, Griska and Rausch with a quick, careless effort, clearly familiar with the three of them. He came over to me and sized me up.
“Weapons?” he asked, a stern look on his face.
“Nope,” I said, holding my arms out to my side, “you can check the bag. Griska has my crossbow.”
I sized him up as the man patted me down. His thin beard swayed back and forth as he searched me, his eyes darting about. I squinted in the light of the torches, trying to make out any sign of Ink on his shoulders or exposed forearms. But there was nothing, not a dab. Perhaps there was something under his tunic, hidden in his clothes . . . but at first glance he looked . . .
“Is this another Unprinted village?” I asked. The man stood up sharply and looked at me, his gaze hard.
“We don’t use words like that around here,” he said curtly, looking me up and down. He turned to face his comrades, who were still standing by the gate. “He’s clean.” He turned back to me. “You can head on up.”
I glanced over at Dreya, who was last in line to be searched.
“It’s okay, I’ll wait.” I said.
“Have it your way,” he said, sauntering over to Dreya. “Arms up.”
Dreya hoisted her arms up hesitantly and looked at me, a worried flush on her face. I kept my eyes set on the man as his hands gently patted her arms, sides, and legs.
“Weapon!” the man shouted as Dreya shrieked. I turned around to see him pushing her on the ground and snatching the leather satchel from her hand. Clutched in his other hand, held up high so the men at the gate could see, was the brass dagger that once belonged to her father.
“Give that back!” shouted Dreya from the ground. She moved to stand up, and the man kicked her down. She landed with a soft thud and groaned.
The inside of my chest felt as though it was on fire, and I took in deep, heavy breaths. Who was this man to treat Dreya like that, to rip away a family heirloom, to toss her on the ground? I felt a rattle in my throat as I screamed at him.
“Knock it off!” I yelled, tossing my leather satchel aside and stretching out my hands. I curled my fingers into a fist and then outstretched them, listening to the crack of my knuckles.
I could feel it.
Whatever it was—the Magic, the power— it was suddenly flowing through me again. I didn’t need to glance down to know that earth was starting to move beneath me, the soil was starting to turn itself over, dust particles floating into the air. I didn’t need to glance at my hands to know they were glowing. I didn’t need to exhale and look at my breath, to know that with every gasp, white smoke was pouring out of my lungs.
I shook one of my hands, and felt the power surge.
This power. It was mine.
I lifted my arm and watched the man’s face, horror-struck, as he cowered on the ground. A large, monstrous green tendril erupted from the earth, the vine swinging madly like the limb of a sea creature. I could feel it as if it were a piece of my own body.
The man tossed the dagger aside, the blade slicing through the air and inserting itself firmly into the earth. I winced and felt a sharp prick, as the blade dug into a root near the surface. The stranger with the wispy beard lifted his hand up, and a pale glow radiated from inside of his tunic. His eyes washed over a bright white light.
“Don’t make me hurt you, boy.” he said, his voice echoing from somewhere inside of his throat.
“Step away from her!” I roared, my voice booming. Kenzi darted over to me and stretched out his hands, his Ink glowing. The man looked at me, and his eyes wandered behind me. I turned quickly and saw that the men at the gate also had their hands outstretched, energy pulsing through them.
“What,” I started to mutter.
The man with the wispy beard roared and I turned around to catch his swinging arm, a trail of blue followed his hand, a powerful gush of water shooting from his palm. I dodged as the jet surged past me, then extended my hand in his direction.
I felt the enormous vine move with me, swaying forward angrily as I heaved my arm. I grasped with my fingers, and the tendrils twirled around the man and hoisted him into the air as I lifted my arm. He struggled, shooting jets of liquid to no avail. I almost wanted to laugh.
Water? Come on.
I looked at Dreya, who lay on the ground, staring at me. I reached out my other hand gently toward her, and a small, thin vine popped out of the ground and made its way toward her. I gestured, and the tip of the vine gestured with me. She lifted a hand and took the vine, which helped to stand, and she walked to my side.
The man moaned, helpless in the grasp of the vine.
“We just wanted to be left alone!” I yelled, the man swinging back and forth as I gestured angrily at the men at the gate. Behind them, I could see Tabor, Griska, and Rausch, trying to push their way through to no avail. “To find someplace safe. To get away from this!” I shouted.
My skin felt flush with frustration.
“J-just,” I stammered. “Just go away. All of you.”
The men stood there, some arms crossed, others bearing torches, their skin pulsing faintly. Rausch, Tabor, and Griska stopped fussing from behind them, and stood watching silently.
“I said go away! Go inside, and I’ll”—I glanced up at the wispy bearded man hoisted above me—“I’ll let him down. I’ll let him go.”
Same icy stares. Same quiet pulsing.
“They aren’t moving Caenum,” whispered Dreya from my side, the small vine twirled around her waist. “What do we do?”
“I,” I started.
“Throw him,” said Kenzi. I turned to look at him, surprised, and he nodded his head up at the man. “Just toss him at the gate. They’ll rush to help the guy, and we’ll get away.”
“I-I don’t know,” I stammered, “I don’t think I can do that.”
The men started to move, splitting down the middle of the group. A shadowy figure started to walk through them toward the three of us.
I tensed, and felt the vine tighten around the man above me. He moaned and I took a step back.
“They’re sending in reinforcements!” Kenzi yelled. “Do it!”
I glanced at Dreya, her eyes full of worry, and Kenzi, his face full of determination and rage. I pulled my arm back and tightened my fist, the vine arching back toward the ground, and moved to throw him at the gates. The men up ahead braced one another. I heard Tabor yell something in protest.
“Caenum!” another voice bellowed from the distance.
There was something intensely familiar about that voice. I squinted, concentrating. These men who looked at us with cold gazes and untrusting stares, these weren’t the people to keep us safe.
“Caenum stop!” The man’s voice echoed through the air.
Everything stopped.
I felt the energy surge right out of me, and I fell to the ground. The tall vine withered away instantaneously, turning from green to a dried brown husk, crumbling under the man’s weight. He dropped through it, the dried bits snapping and crunching, as he crashed to the earth with a loud thud. Phosphorescent sparks danced in front of my eyes, and as the white haze vanished I tried to readjust to the darkness.
“Caenum?” Dreya asked, grabbing me. Loud footsteps approached. I leaned against Dreya, all the energy felt sucked out of me. Kenzi grasped one of my arms and I felt the slight buzz of his lightning dance across my skin.
“What . . . who was that?” I asked feebly.
“They’re coming,” Kenzi said, and as my eyes came back into focus, I could see all the guards standing around us, some with torches and an irritated look. Tabor, Rausch, and Griska sauntered over to the man who was hidden in the shadows. “Get ready to run.”
“There’s too many of them,” I said, swatting harmlessly at Kenzi. “Don’t do anything, don’t hurt anyone.” He looked at me with pleading eyes and I shook my head lightly.
“Caenum.” The familiar voice spoke again, now looming over me. It was deep, but the timbre was friendly and kind. Genuine.
“It’s been a long time,” he said, kneeling down. I lifted my head up, and my eyes went wide.
“You know this guy, Caenum?” asked Kenzi as I looked on, my mouth open.
“Yes.” I said, my mouth completely dry.
I looked at Dreya, her eyes watering with tears. She recognized him too.
“He’s my father.”