“Don’t tell me!” Fritzi screeches, her face draining of color. She looks wildly around at Cornelia, Rochus, and Philomena. “Don’t let me know. Don’t—” Her voice breaks in a sob. “You can’t trust me with secrets, not with Dieter able to…”
Bile rises in my throat, and I wrap Fritzi in my arms.
“It is safe,” Philomena says, and for the first time ever, I think I hear some actual human emotion in the cold witch’s voice.
But Dieter has found ways to break through the protections around the Black Forest before.
I glance at Fritzi, who looks more terrified than ever. We can’t talk about this in front of her, not when she fears her mind is being spied on. I want to know where the other stones are, but I have to trust that they are safe—at least for now. From what I know of the goddesses, I doubt they just tossed the stones into the sea or something like that. If this is truly about a choice, the means to destroy magic have to still be accessible to someone determined to do so.
Someone like Dieter.
“We have to get to Trier,” Fritzi says. Her eyes take a moment to focus on the room, and I realize she’d been talking to her goddess, Holda, while everyone else has been wondering how much she can safely hear.
“That’s exactly what I want to do,” I say. Go to Trier and eliminate the threat of Dieter.
“No, you don’t understand.” Fritzi clutches my hands. “Dieterisin Trier, Holda says, but so is her stone.”
“What?!” I shout as the room erupts in chaos.
Fritzi’s voice rises above the commotion. “She’s been watching the city carefully. She says he didn’t know about the stone before.” Her face settles into grim worry. “He knows now.”
Birresborn isn’t far from Trier; going from the village to the city would have been a logical step for Dieter. But if Holda’s stone is in that city already, and he now knows that it’s there…
“Does he already have the stone?” Cornelia asks, blanching.
Fritzi shakes her head. “Holda tells me it’s still safe. But…” She frowns, concentrating on the voice only she can hear. “She can’t see Dieter. He’s blocking her, so she can’t tell if he’s close—but she does know the stone, at least, is untouched. For now.” It makes sense that the goddess doesn’t say exactly where it is, but it’s still frustrating to have to dance around knowledge.
“We will have to send troops to the city,” Rochus says grimly.
Now they care about Trier.They watched the city fall to darkness and a reign of terror, watched the innocents burn. But since the people burned had not been actual witches, just innocent humans who’d been accused by corrupt people in power, they…just had done nothing.
Fritzi leans in closer to me. I know she knows what I’m thinking, not because of our bonding, but because she shares my rage at the council’s apathy.
“The council will focus on the protection of the stone we hold here,” Philomena insists, her tone ringing with authority. “Even if Dieter claims Holda’s stone in Trier, he cannot possibly find Perchta’s, and the third will be protected. We must concentrate all forcesherein order to ensure that protection.”
Rochus nods with her. But I can tell that Cornelia, Brigitta, the rest of the guards…
We doubt.
We doubt the safety of the council’s stone. We doubt the security of the goddesses’ stones.
We doubt that the Tree—and all magic, all the world—is safe.
What we do not doubt is that Dieter will find a way to get what he wants.
“We have to kill him,” I say again, even more certain now.
Brigitta nods, understanding me. The stones are not safe because the council guards one in the Well and the other two are hidden, especially if one of the hidden stones is already so close to where Dieter is. The only way the stones will be safe is if Dieter is dead.
“Trier,” Brigitta says, the word an order. We all ignore the way Philomena sputters at her.
“Trier,” I say. “Best case, Dieter’s not found the stone, and we kill him. Worst case, he’s found the stone, and we still kill him.”
“He may not be in Trier,” Cornelia reminds us.
But the stone is. “New best case,” I say, “we find the stone first, take it back here for protection, and then kill Dieter.”
“I will lead another contingent of Grenzwache,” Brigitta states, turning to the priest and priestesses in the room.
