Torn: Bound Trilogy Book Two (37 page)

“Will he have the key?”

She looked past me to the body on the floor. “I think so. Be careful.”

The door to the hallway opened, and I jumped to my feet. Pain seared through my leg again, and I still felt light-headed from the knock against the wall, but I would fight again.

Kel stepped in. “Sorry we took so long. One of them tried to run toward a warning bell, but we—Rowan.”

“Hello, Kel.” She smiled again, though her chin trembled. “Gods, it’s good to see you.”

The corners of Kel’s eyes crinkled. “You curse like a Tyrean now.”

She shrugged. “I know I don’t belong here. Might as well move on, right?”

I rolled Langley onto his back and searched his pockets. A small ring held several keys, which I tried on Rowan’s shackles. One opened the lock that fastened the chain onto them, releasing her from the wall, but nothing worked in the tiny lock on the cuffs.

“I might have something,” Nox said. I turned to see her and Cassia in the doorway. They stepped further in and closed the door, and Nox held up a set of keys. “Courtesy of one of the lovely gentlemen out there.”

A fresh cut marred my sister’s forehead.

“Everyone all right?” I asked.

“Never better,” Cassia replied, and forced a smile. “But I think we should get out of here.”

A bell clanged outside.

“Definitely time to go,” Kel agreed, and slipped an arm around Rowan’s waist. “You need a hand?”

Rowan glanced back at me as we all moved into the hallway. She frowned as she saw me limping. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Keep going. I’m fine.”

We headed back toward the door to the courtyard. Nox tried keys in the shackles until the lock clicked and the metal clanked to the floor.

“Thank you.” Rowan rubbed her wrists. “Who are you?”

“Long story,” Nox said, and stooped to pick up the shackles, which she strung through her belt. She turned to the door. “This way. We’ll go the way we came. We’ll get lost otherwise.”

Rowan hung back “No.” She squeezed her eyes shut, and appeared more focused when she opened them. “We need to get away from here, but we can’t leave. Aren, your father. He’s here. He’s been here the whole time, but they’re going to kill him. That way.” She nodded further down the corridor. “Down below.”

“My father?” I wasn’t sure how to react to the news. My father, here. I’d given up on finding him, and for days my thoughts had only been with Rowan. And she’d been with him. A chill came over me.
We almost waited for morning. We almost let both of them die.

Cassia looked uncertain. “We’re going deeper into the fortress?”

“This is what we came here for,” Nox said softly, addressing Cassia. “Aren and I are not leaving. You and Kel take Rowan and go.” She pulled a dagger out of her belt. The other was gone. “We’ll be fine.”

Rowan shook her head. “I can’t go. I have to show you where Ulric is. He might be hurt. I can’t leave him here.” She looked back at the room I’d found her in. “Dorset Langley has been with me since they took me from the cell, but he left just before Aren came in. He’s gone to finish Ulric, I know he has. Please.”

A shout of alarm echoed through the corridor. Rowan’s lips pressed into a thin line. She seemed to be growing stronger every second. “Come on,” she said, and led us past the courtyard door. Her steps faltered, and Kel caught her.

“Thanks,” she said. “The shackles kept my magic from getting that stuff out of my blood, but I think it’s getting better now.” Her steps slowed, and she touched her fingertips to her chest. “He was right. It does come back stronger.”

I had no idea what she was talking about, but the awe in her voice told me it was important. I only hoped whatever it was would heal her quickly.

I stayed at the back of the group, keeping up as best I could. I was able to move quickly as long as I didn’t put my full weight on that leg, or my foot flat on the ground. When I paused to check the wound, I found a deep puncture, only bleeding slightly, but the flesh around it was red and swollen. I’d had worse injuries before.

The corridor turned into a steep staircase leading underground, curving under the courtyard. I lost track of the turns we made, but Rowan seemed sure of where she was going.

We stopped in front of a heavy-looking door with a metal pull on the outside and two keyholes.

“That’s not good, is it?” I asked, nodding at the locks.

“I don’t think so,” Cassia said. “I’m guessing that none of the guards carry both keys. I might be able to unlock one.” She found the key to fit the upper lock quickly enough, but nothing for the lower.

Rowan looked at me. “Can you?”

Footsteps echoed from farther down the tunnel.

I closed my eyes and tried to pull magic into myself. There was nothing in the area except for what I felt burning in Rowan, stronger than I’d ever felt it before. In fact, hers seemed to be growing. “I don’t think I can.”

Rowan closed her eyes. “I think I could right now,” she said, “but I don’t have the skill.” She looked to me and stepped closer. “What’s wrong with your magic? I felt it when you kissed me. I mean, I didn’t.” Her eyes filled with concern. “Did they catch you? What did they do to you?”

“Nothing. I’ve been using a lot of it, that’s all, and there’s nothing here to replenish it. How is yours so strong?” She practically glowed with it.

She glanced at Nox, then back to me. “Long story.” She frowned. “I’m going to try something. Griselda asked whether you’d ever tried to take my magic when we—” She bit her lower lip. “Never mind the explanation. I’m going to try to give you some, since you seem to be empty.”

Before I could reply, she placed both hands on my neck and pulled my face toward hers. As she pressed her lips to mine, warmth flowed from her and through my body, thin sunlight burning through my veins. Magic. Hers felt different from before, sure and ready and powerful. Confident. Something had changed in her.

She pulled back. “Well?”

I felt the magic rushing to my injured hand and foot. Before it could be used up I touched the lock, and it cracked inside the door, which swung open onto a well-lit room with blue walls. I tried to hold Rowan’s magic in reserve, but couldn’t stop its healing.

I looked behind me. Bloody footprints trailed down the corridor. Perhaps the magic knew best. It was fading already. Using itself up.

I followed Rowan into the room. She moved quickly, gracefully, as though she hadn’t just been drugged and nearly dead. Her bruise, which should have been darkening, had begun to fade.

At first I didn’t recognize the man who stood in the center of the room with blue shackles around his ankles. He appeared dazed, but competent enough. His hair was whiter than when I’d last seen him, his face more lined. His expression remained blank as he saw me. My heart pounded from dread as much as excitement at finding him at last. He’d brought that reaction in me since I was a child.

“Hello, Aren,” he said, voice catching as he spoke.

I forced myself to look him in the eye, as an equal. I would not let him underestimate and dismiss me again.

“Hello, Father.”

A
ren’s
new friend unlocked the shackles around Ulric’s ankles, then stepped away as though retreating from a hungry wolf. I left Ulric and his son to enjoy their reunion in peace. I forced myself to move slowly, though everything in me wanted to run from that cell. I moved down the hallway a few paces and crouched with my back against the wall. We all needed to be alert, keeping watch. But it was too much, too fast. I rested my face in my hands, just for a moment.

I’m supposed to be dead
.

I’d thought I
was
dead. I’d tried to find peace even as I slipped repeatedly between pain and drugged oblivion, tried to accept my death, to die well…and then Aren was there. Seeing him had surprised me as much as seeing a unicorn roaming the halls would have. I’d thought he was a ghost, and both of us dead, and had for a moment been glad that at least we were together.

Then he’d kissed me, and he’d felt so warm, so solid. I’d felt his heart pounding, and mine, and it had broken me.

I took a deep breath and touched my fingers to my lips, pressing hard as though it would hold back the emotions that still threatened to flood me.

Forget the past few hours. Forget the weeks in the cell. Forget the fear. Move forward.

At least Dorset Langley wasn’t in the cell, though that did leave me wondering where he’d gone.

I pushed my back against the wall and stood. A bell clanged, calling whatever troops might be in the area to arms. We needed to go, now. The soldiers had to know where we were, and they’d come soon.

Kel approached. “You’re missing an interesting family reunion in there. Awkward, actually.��� He glanced down the hallway, listened, looked back the other way, and leaned against the wall beside me. I noticed for the first time a deep gash on his forearm.

“You should take care of that,” I said.

He shrugged. “Nox will patch me up once we get out of this pit.” He looked me over and frowned. “You’re okay, right? They’ve been treating you well?”

“Could have been a lot worse. Hours alone with Dorset Langley weren’t pleasant, but I guess he kept me safe from the other guards until Callum got here.” I wanted to say
to finish me off
, and couldn’t. Even now, after his knife had been nearly at my throat, I couldn’t believe Callum had wanted me dead.

Kel reached out to run his thumb over my cheek, where the pain from Sir Dorset’s last attack was receding. I closed my eyes and saw Langley’s anger, felt the sting of every injury I’d been awake for.

The other woman stepped out of the cell and cleared her throat. Kel’s hand dropped. “We should be going,” she said, and glared at me as she passed.

“That’s Nox,” Kel said.

“We sort of met. Who is she?”

“Aren’s sister.” Kel pushed off from the wall to follow Nox, joining Ulric and Cassia.

I didn’t move. “Aren doesn’t have a sister,” I said, too late for Kel to hear.

“That’s what I said.”

I turned to see Aren emerging from the cell, still limping. He gave me a pained smile.

I turned to look again at the retreating woman. “She…how…”

Aren draped his arm across my shoulders and pulled me close. “I’ll explain everything later.”

We moved down the corridor, heading in the same direction I’d gone when called to the king’s offices, and when I’d tried to escape. Aren leaned on me, and I took some of the weight off his leg. “What happened to you?” I asked. “You look terrible.”

“The very words I’ve been waiting to hear from your beautiful lips since I left Belleisle.” His smile faded. “It wasn’t easy getting in here. I’ll be fine.”

“Will you? What about your magic?” Something had seemed off when he first kissed me, but I’d been too drug-addled and shocked over seeing him to place what the problem was. Even after, I’d thought that perhaps the drug and the manacles had suppressed my own magic enough that I couldn’t feel it. But I was sure, now. When I’d tried to share my magic, I’d felt almost nothing in him. A breeze where there had once been a blizzard.

He set his jaw in a determined look I knew all too well. “It will recover once we get back to Tyrea. Even just away from this cursed city. I don’t know how you survived this for so long.”

“Your father’s been enduring it longer than I have.”

Ulric turned back and glared at us. “If it’s not inconvenient,” he said, “please consider shutting up.”

The words stung, and Ulric’s tone more so.
Don’t be sensitive
, I chided myself.
He wants to get out of here alive.
I nodded, though our voices hadn’t been any louder than our footsteps.

With every step he took away from the cell, Ulric stood straighter. Every time he glanced back over his shoulder, he appeared to have become younger.

At least there’s that.
I felt the push-back effect he’d described in myself. My magic seemed ready to overflow, and I almost felt that if I didn’t use more, I would burst from it.

And
, I added to myself,
that much power might not be a good thing.
I’d learned control in the cell, over smaller amounts of magic. Trickling stream magic, as Ulric had said. This would be a flood again, and floods could kill.

I stopped, pulled Aren aside, and kissed him again. He didn’t object. The magic refused to leave me this time. It felt like I was trying to cram my foot into a too-tight boot. Though Aren could surely feel my magic, I couldn’t pass much of it on. I held him tighter, focused harder, and then focused on him instead of the magic. Something happened, though I didn’t feel much impact on my own power. My headache returned, and subsided as I stopped trying.

I released Aren, frustrated. There was a time when it might have worked, when my magic would have flowed from me and healed his wounds.

He looked a little brighter when he pulled away, though I couldn’t tell whether it was the magic or the kiss that had done it.

“Did you get anything?” I asked, barely mouthing the words.

“I did, a little.” He smiled faintly. “You should hold onto that, though. You’ll need it.”

We moved forward, and he leaned on me less.
I’ll do that a thousand times,
I decided,
if that’s what it takes to get him out of here.

Shouts echoed behind us, sounds of panic and frantic orders. We all quickened our pace, and I stole glances over my shoulder. My heart raced, and my face broke out in sweat.

Faster. Don’t be caught. Not again.

Footsteps clattered, accompanied by the clanking of light armor. Ulric stopped and turned, and a terrifying grin spread across his face. His eyes sparkled with malice like I’d never seen in him. Terrifying as it had been, he
had
only been acting when he threatened me.

“Down,” he ordered. We obeyed.

He closed his eyes. “Oh, that’s better.” He turned his gaze on me, and I shivered. “Do you feel it?”

I nodded, but couldn’t hold back a frown. He’d changed, become a stranger, and not one I trusted as I had the man in the cell who had thrown himself into danger to save me.

Or to use you
, I thought again.
You’ll never know.

Ulric laughed deep in his throat. “Watch, and learn.”

A dozen guards rounded the corner. Ulric raised his arms, swept them wide over his head, and pushed his hands forward. There was nothing to see, no wind or temperature change to feel, but every hair on my body stood on end as the force passed over us.

The invisible power caught the guards, knocking them off their feet and throwing them back. The ones in front screamed. I caught a glimpse of bright blood and looked away. I didn’t need to know what he’d done.

Ulric roared into the silence after they fell. “Gods, that feels good,” he said, louder than I’d have dared. He moved past us toward the soldiers. I didn’t move. I couldn’t.

You’ll have to use your magic for the same purpose some day
, I thought. My stomach churned at the thought. I’d killed before, but not intentionally. This was far beyond anything I’d imagined in the days when I dreamed of fairy tales and innocent magic.

Ulric handed Aren a long dagger he’d pulled from one of the fallen soldiers. I noticed that Nox carried a similar weapon, sheathed at the small of her back. She went to the men to pick up a second blade, and tested its weight and balance. Kel looked back toward the bodies and away, appearing nauseated. It seemed he and Cassia were content with the hunting knives they held in their hands. The weapons were perhaps not ideal for combat, but they’d obviously served well so far.

Ulric hefted a heavy iron rod in one hand and a short sword in the other, then turned and continued his determined march through the gradually narrowing tunnel. The rest of us followed.

Kel took Nox’s hand. “That was interesting use of magic.”

“I’m not sure
what
that was,” she replied.

“If it gets us out of here,” he muttered, “I’ll call it a miracle.”

“Changing your mind on magical force?” Aren asked.

Kel looked back, as did Cassia. “Necessary evil, maybe?” He said it jokingly, but there was something deeper there.

Aren smiled sadly. “Maybe that’s it.”

We reached an opening in the wall on our left that contained the curving stone staircase I’d taken to my audience with Haleth. Torches burned bright and hot leading up the stairs. The tunnel we were in seemed unused past that turn-off—unlit, cold, and dirty. Ulric paused, then placed one foot on the bottom stair.

“I thought the way out would be underground,” I said. In fact, I knew it. He’d never fully explained the route, but I knew from his notes that this wasn’t the way.

Ulric’s hands balled into fists, and the air crackled again. “It is. But they’re here. Haleth and Dorset Langley.” He spat the names out. “The king wouldn’t have attended a messy execution himself, but taunting me afterward would have been too sweet for him to miss. If I were alive, of course. That would have been up to Langley.”

“He didn’t come to the cell, did he?” I asked.

“Not yet.”

I swallowed back the dry lump in my throat. “He could be anywhere. Waiting.”

“He knows you’ll come after the king,” Aren added. “This fortress may be short on troops tonight, but that’s where they’ll be waiting. Too many even for you to handle, and I can’t help. They’ll kill you.”

Ulric’s lips pulled into an animal snarl. “I don’t care, as long as I kill the two of them first. We’ll see if the gods are smiling on me tonight.” He started up the steps.

“Then Severn wins,” Aren said, barely loud enough for Ulric to hear. He leaned against one of the cold, stone walls. Ulric hesitated.

I climbed a few steps toward him. I’d faced death already that night. I could take his anger. “If you’re not going to come with us and take your throne back, Severn keeps it, and the rest of us will join you in death before long. The country will fracture, more people will die, and it will be like you never accomplished anything at all, good king.”

His lip curled in distaste. “Are you using my words against me, girl?”

“They’re all I’ve got. Sir.”

It was a close thing. He kept his cold gaze glued on me, and I took a step back when I realized he was calculating whether he might have enough power to win if only he stole mine. I had no doubt he could do it, that he would be too strong for me to fight it, even if I knew how. No, the cellmate I thought I knew was gone. He looked at Aren, frowned, then turned to Nox. Something passed over his face then, though I couldn’t place what it was. Not a softening, but a change.

He flexed his hands and stepped down the stairs without another word, and strode confidently into the darkness of the tunnel ahead.

“Is he always like this?” Nox asked Aren.

Not always,
I thought.

“Yes,” Aren said. “He’s not accustomed to being told what to do.”

“I meant his magic,” she said.

“Oh. No, not as I remember. He’s an incredibly gifted Sorcerer and has had centuries to develop his gifts, but I’ve never felt power on this scale. I don’t understand it. There’s so little magic here.”

A deep scowl-line formed between Nox’s blue eyes. “You ran out, didn’t you? That’s why you look like shit.”

“I’ll live.”

“Let me know if it gets worse.”

“I don’t think you can do anything now.”

She sighed. “I know. But you might need me later.”

“About Ulric’s magic,” I said. They both looked at me. Kel and Cassia were too far ahead to hear. “He calls it a push-back effect. He’s stronger now than he’s ever been, but it won’t last long.”

“All the more reason to hurry,” Nox said, and rushed ahead to speak to Cassia, then Kel.

The shadows grew deeper until I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. The air became colder and wetter, and though I saw nothing, I felt water in the walls, seeping down them, dripping over rough, moss-covered rock. My connection to water felt as sensitive as new skin. Somewhere nearby, there was more. Much more.

A soft glow appeared ahead, and I realized it came from Ulric. He held one hand in front of him, and a ball of soft, white light hovered over it. The ceiling had become lower as we walked, held up with wooden beams. Aren and Kel had to stoop slightly each time we passed one to avoid hitting their heads.

No one asked exactly where we were going. No one dared.

The passage curved to the left, following the shape of the fortress above. The river flowed beyond the walls. A need to respond to it rose in me, and I pushed it aside. If I so much as acknowledged my magic, I’d probably call the river and break the walls, flooding the place before we could escape.

I thought I heard footsteps behind us again, and stopped. Only the soft patter of dripping water and the footfalls from the group ahead remained.

“Are you getting anything?” I asked Aren. “Sensing anyone?”

“No. Couldn’t if I tried. Why, are you?”

“It’s nothing. I just want to be out of here.”

Ulric stopped in front of a rough, wooden door to our right—the wall holding back the river. He tried the handle, then gathered his magic and blasted through. A draft of dank, cold air washed over us as the old wood crumbled, and we stepped into a narrow tunnel made of stone. The beams supporting the walls and ceiling here appeared half-rotted, and the walls themselves were in need of maintenance, dotted with loose stones. Moisture gleamed off of every surface as Ulric’s light passed. In the shadows, something scurried away.