Steel Maiden (16 page)

“My horse needs water.”

Mad Jack opened his mouth to argue, but I
left him and steered Torak to the riverbank.

I was not alone. I had Torak.

I slipped off his back and let him relax a
little. He deserved it. As he began to drink, the thunder of
stampeding horses filled the air. I whirled around to see the
Girmanians dashing across the road. The other groups saw them
leaving and rushed their packing, too. In a few moments most of
them were mounted and racing across the fields to catch up to the
Girmanians. It all happened much faster than I could have
imagined.

I coughed as the last of the riders hurried
off, and everything was covered in a blanket of dust and dirt. I
blinked through the mist and saw that Landon was watching me. Our
eyes met for a moment. He gave me a meaningful smile, like he was
pleased to see that I was still in the race, and then he turned his
horse and galloped after the fury of rushing horses.

Mad Jack’s great white mare shifted
nervously, anxious to be let loose and join the others, and he
looked at me anxiously, pleading with me to move.

I had told him that I didn’t want to race
with him or anyone. But
I
would race.

I met his gaze and nodded my head.

He kicked his horse, and they were off.

I pulled myself up on Torak’s back and
grabbed the reins.

“So sorry for this, my boy,” I whispered and
caressed his mane.
Creator, forgive me.

“I promise it’s only for a few more hours.
Then you’ll have a whole night to rest.”

But Torak didn’t seem tired. He was excited,
and his eyes were wide and fixed on the other galloping horses. He
wanted
to run.

“You are a true godsend, my friend.”

I didn’t need to slam my heels into his
flanks to encourage him. We flew into the open fields, and when I
stole a look behind me, I spotted riders eating my dust. I couldn’t
see their colors, and I didn’t care. I welled with pride and urged
my horse faster.

This time I
wasn’t
last.

CHAPTER 16

W
E TORE DOWN THE central road,
finally passing out of the mountainous wilderness of Anglia and
into easier country. And I was still not last.

Mad Jack and his crew rode ahead of me, and
I could see him glancing back over his shoulder every few minutes,
just to make sure I was still there. I ignored him completely. I
didn’t want him to think that he was doing me any favors.

Again Torak was the model of strength. He
ran with an effortless grace that put all the other horses to
shame. I understood why Landon had seemed so sad that he had had to
sell this magnificent creature to the priests. He was a prince
among horses. Although I knew nothing about riding, and even less
about a horse’s pedigree, I was sure that Torak had come from a
line of kingly horses.

I caught a glimpse of Landon’s gold and red
banners about a half a mile or so ahead, and I knew he was there
somewhere, riding with the rest of the champions from Anglia.

By midday we had reached Gray Havens. It was
a small village protected by forest, and I knew from studying my
maps that this was a legendary witch village. Stories were still
told of the strange and deadly witches who lived here. They were
said to be cruel magic bearers that stole children in the night and
feasted on their bodies.

Gray Havens was a small part of Witchdom, a
giant realm east of Arcania. Regular folks didn’t dare enter. There
was no invisible wall or anything like that. But the legends said
that the witches ate human flesh, so I guessed that was enough to
deter anyone from entering.

Personally, I never believed in such
nonsense. I didn’t think women could
actually
eat people,
let alone children. It conflicted with our maternal instinct to
protect the young. It sounded more like a manmade myth to keep
children at home at night and to prevent them from doing
mischief.

Legend said that in the days of the kings,
the royal guard had been charged with destroying the village and
killing all the witches. But the guard had gone in and never
returned. The people of Anglia never set foot in the village
again.

As we approached, I could see a road that
wound into the forest but then was lost in shadow. And then I heard
a strange humming sound, like the buzz of giant bees. I could see
that the sound came from tall wooden posts in which grotesque faces
had been carved. They were part human and part animal, with horns,
holes for mouths, and long protruding tongues.

The posts stood like giant guards at the
entrance to the town, to warn off intruders no doubt, and I felt
their eyes following me as I galloped by.

A strange energy was thick in the air, like
lightning before a storm. I couldn’t see anything, but I could feel
it—a warning of some kind. But I wasn’t sure if it was a warning
not to enter, or a warning about something else entirely. Even
Torak stiffened beneath me. I was terrified.

“It’s witchcraft,” shouted Will twenty feet
ahead of me. “Demons, disciples of the Devil himself. Do not look
into the eyes of their demons, my friends, for they will curse you
and take your soul.”

He spit on the ground and made the sign of
the Creator.

Every rider who passed after that spit on
the ground, and each time it made me more and more nervous.

I glowered at them. “Do you think it’s wise
to insult them like that?” I yelled to anyone who would listen. “If
anything, it might make them angry.”

A man I recognized from the Pit turned to
me. “If you don’t want them witches to poison your soul, best spit
on the ground and ask the Creator for protection.”

He pulled out a trinket in the shape of a
sun that hung from a thin leather string. He kissed it. No doubt it
was some crude protection charm to ward off evil. I’d seen them
before at the traders’ market, and they never stayed on display for
long.

Why did the people of Arcania fear magic
bearers so much? Their hatred for anything magic made me uneasy. I
didn’t want to think of what they would do to me if they found out
my secret.

I caught Mad Jack watching me. He looked
nervous and curious, like he knew there was something different
about me but just didn’t know what. All he knew was that I had
managed the impossible when I had survived sorcerer’s fire to steal
the crown.

I sighed in relief as the village of Gray
Havens disappeared behind us. I had the uneasy feeling that the
witches had seen the disrespect that the other riders had
demonstrated at the doors of their village. I suspected they
wouldn’t forget.

We rode on in silence for hours after that.
When we finally reached the border of Anglia, the sun was a fiery
red orb of light sinking beneath the waters of the West Sea. The
sky was ablaze with warm oranges and searing reds, and I could see
that the outer edges of the blazing sky were cooled with the indigo
of the coming night.

Even before I saw it, I smelled the
delicious salt scent of the West Sea. We came over a rise, and I
could see the waves that beat golden beaches that stretched into
the distance.

The long strip of land that was called
Death’s Arm disappeared into a blanket of rolling mist out at sea.
It was wider than I’d first thought, the size of a farmer’s field,
and although I couldn’t see past the fog, I knew that it stretched
out all the way to Goth.

At the border between Anglia and Goth,
Death’s Arm connected the two realms with the miles of dead grasses
and rotted trees that were known as the Eternal Bog. Tree skeletons
were foreboding shadows that loomed up in a thick gray mist to warn
off intruders. Weeds covered most of the dark greasy surfaces of
the sullen black waters, and white mist coiled above the stagnant
pools of the bog. A faint smell of sulfur tickled my nose, and I
could smell something more foul that I didn’t want to think
about.

The Eternal Bogs looked more impenetrable
than I’d first thought.

I felt a sudden pull, like something in the
bog was reaching out to me. And then I heard a droning sound. At
first I thought it was the sound of the waves hitting the rocks
around the cliffs, but I quickly realized that the sound was
something else. It was coming from the bogs. It was almost as
though the mist itself was alive and breathing.

A chill rolled down my spine, and my pulse
raced. There was something evil lurking beyond that gray mist. I
couldn’t see it, but I felt something in my bones, something
inhuman. A dark entity was waiting for us on the other side.

How are we going to cross?

Torak shifted nervously, and I eased him
into a full stop. I stared out into a white evil. He could sense
it, too, the evil that lurked in the bogs.

I spotted the Girmanians, the Espanians, the
Anglians, the Romilians, the Fransians and the Purtulese. They were
all camped out on the beaches. While many of them regarded me with
animosity, I couldn’t help but feel invigorated. I was still in the
race. And by the looks of it, everyone was at a standstill.
Everyone was equal now.

I took in a long breath of fresh air and
relaxed a little.

“Quite a sight, isn’t it?”

Startled, I turned to see Landon. He walked
over to me with his head high and looked very regal in his red and
gold tunic. There was no mistaking his noble birth. It practically
oozed off him. He smiled with that too perfect smile, and I cursed
self-consciously that the blood always seemed to rush to my face
when I saw him.

I looked away quickly.

“It is. It’s like a white evil. I’ve never
seen anything like it before. It doesn’t even
look
real,
more like a dream, you know, like a nightmare.”

He didn’t say anything, but I could feel his
eyes inspecting every inch of me. I felt my ears burn, and my heart
raged in my chest.

He came up and stroked Torak’s neck,
soothing him softly with words I couldn’t hear. Torak nickered in
greeting, a hello to an old friend, and rested his head on his
shoulder. They stayed that way for a while. Finally, he peered up
at me, and our eyes locked.

“You’re holding your own,” he said,
impressed. “Glad to see it. For someone who’d never ridden before,
I wasn’t even sure you’d make it past the gates in Soul City.”

When I saw the mischief in his smile, I
couldn’t help but laugh.

“Well,” I said, trying to compose myself,
“you haven’t gotten rid of me just yet.”

He was so close I could smell his musky male
sweat. It was intoxicating.

“Who says I want to get rid of you?”

His gaze met mine again, and he didn’t try
to hide the flirtatious tone in his voice.

I looked away again as my treacherous cheeks
began to give me away. I blurted the first thing that came to my
head.

“Why has everyone stopped? Shouldn’t we
continue?”

“Because it’ll be dark soon.” Landon looked
over to the bogs. “And no one, not even the strongest warrior in
all of Arcania would venture into Death’s Arm at night. It would be
suicide.”

“Because of the bogs?” I asked and
shivered.

I had to admit that just looking at them
almost caused me to break out in hives. I peeled my eyes away from
his, and with a straight face I asked, “Tell me more about this
bog. Something tells me you know more about it than the rest of
us.”

I wasn’t sure he would answer, but I felt it
was worth a try. I needed to prepare myself for whatever devils
were lurking out in Death’s Arm.

Landon spoke lightly, but his eyes were
grave.

“Well, from what I’ve heard, the bog is a
perilous swamp that goes on for miles. Some say that it never ends.
Some say that it’s a doorway to hell, and that you’ll be lost when
you are sucked into their shallow waters. Only your bones will
resurface, years later,” he added with a knowing expression as
though he’d witnessed this first hand.

“Well, it’s really creepy and disturbing
that we have to cross it.” There was no way in hell I’d go in there
at night. “Is there no other way around the bogs?”

I peered at the swamps that bordered Death’s
Arm. “There might be some dry areas that would be stable enough
support us.”

Landon shook his head. “No, there’s no other
way around, unless you fancy a swim. Even then there’s no telling
what demons lurk in the waters. I’ve heard stories of folks who’ve
only just dipped in their toes, only to die the next day of a
mysterious illness. No, I wouldn’t chance it. The waters are
treacherous.”

“Such nonsense is probably just old wives’
tales,” I said. “But I believe there’s a bit of truth in any tale,
so I suspect it’s wise to stay away from the water.”

When Landon grinned, tiny dimples formed
below his cheeks.