Page 43

Chapter 43

Laude

Bruno dragged Beatriz and Zichri into the dining hall like an angry mama cat bringing her kittens back from disaster for the third time. But Bruno was no mama, and he’d brought them into dangerous waters where a shark toyed with its prey before the killing chomp.

A ragged squeak escaped my throat and caused Beatriz’s eyes to focus on me. They held a hint of a threat.

In a desperate attempt to distract the predator, I spoke up, “Surely, we could chat over what you’d like me to do.” I tried not to sound desperate. “Your goal is to make Pedroz a center of commerce, is that right?”

Whyzer Patro’s thin lips looked like a slit between his mustache and beard. He leaned back in his chair that had his staff propped against it. A hint of a smile, which was anything but friendly, lifted his face when he looked up at Bruno. “Kill them.”

I stood up and threw my wine at Whyzer Patro’s face. Please let poison get him , I prayed under my breath.

Zichri twisted and kicked Bruno in the knee.

The big guy buckled.

Jaime bolted out of his seat, attacking Whyzer Patro.

Beatriz’s powers pulsed through the room, taking my desperation with her. She flicked her wrist and Bruno flew across the table.

But Whyzer Patro grabbed my hair. The pain was jolting. “Try that again and your friend won’t have long to live.”

Would Beatriz think of me as a traitor? She might even do something rash. Jaime wrestled the staff from Patro’s hands. I hit the ground hard, but the whyzer had lost his grip on me. The staff he used like a weapon toppled onto the ground beside me. I picked it up and scurried to Beatriz’s side.

“Can you do that thing with your gift again?” I asked.

“Perhaps if I’m desperate enough.” Beatriz pulled me toward the door by my arm.

Bruno stood, but Zichri cracked a chair over the back of his head.

“Where’s Minerva?” I asked.

“Waiting outside, I hope.” Beatriz whipped her head around at the sound of footfalls.

The portly cook shuffled toward us with a pan in hand. “What happened?” When she got to the doorway, she gasped.

For a split second, I thought she might smash the iron pan over our heads, but she ran across the room and swung it at Whyzer Patro.

The whyzer twisted in time to save his head, but his body got the full blow.

“Get out!” the lady screamed. “And take the staff.”

Jaime took a single gulp from his wine glass.

“No!” I shouted. But it happened so fast, and Beatriz pulled me through the dining room doorway.

Zichri and Jaime followed us, leaving the cook alone with the old man. We shuffled down the hall.

Beatriz tugged me down the hallway, into the entry hall, and out the servants’ door of the castle. Fields of white flowers in perfect little rows stretched over the mountainside.

“Keep moving, you’ll catch a fly.” Beatriz yanked me by the wrist, dragging me across the field toward the forest’s edge.

“What is this?”

“The last relic.” Her strides grew heavy as we descended even further.

I wiggled out of her grasp and plucked as many petals as possible in a matter of seconds. All the time I’d spent studying the history of the Agata Sea and the relics left me with no doubt that we might need these if we planned to make it out alive. An arrow flew in our direction, whistling over our heads.

Jaime grabbed my wrist, and Zichri grabbed his. Arrows continued to shoot through the sky like they couldn’t aim worth all the gold in Giddel. Beatriz held tight to Zichri’s other hand too. If I didn’t know any better, a gifting was at work.

I tripped and fell, losing hold of the staff. Jaime bent to pick me up, releasing Zichri’s hand. An arrow landed an inch from me with a thud. I inhaled so loudly I didn’t hear the next arrow whistling overhead until it grazed my hair. Horrified, I saw Jaime had an arrow sticking out of his shoulder.

Snatching the staff, I almost got hit. I tried to lift Jaime, but his weight and the unrelenting fire of arrows gave me the shakes.

Zichri put his arm around Jaime and a strange electrical sensation buzzed between Jaime’s and my touch. Now, all together, we held on to each other, trudging along at a slug’s pace on account of my injured betrothed. We turned out of the fields, but arrows continued to fire where we had been before. Either something strange was working to keep us out of sight or they were very bad marksmen.

The four of us kept on moving into the jungle beyond the fields, limping and all.

Blood trailed down Jaime’s tunic in amounts that made my lunch curdle like crumbly cheese in my stomach. Who knew where Minerva waited for us? Why did she have to be so far? Steadying a bloodied Jaime who’d drunk deadly poison, it hit me anew that he might die, and I blinked back tears. The thought that I might live the rest of my life without Jaime, that I might have caused his death, put such a weight on me that my knees buckled.