“How did you break the trance?”
“I didn’t, Leah did.”
“What? Where is she?”
“I don’t know. They said they were taking her north to Formaux, but she must have escaped and come back—”
“Is that her dagger?”
“Yes, it’s how she broke the trance, she threw it and struck the Bloodmage.”
Tomaz was suddenly in the Prince’s face.
“From where? Did you see her throw it?”
“N-no, it just came flying in from the forest, but she can’t be far—”
“She’s a Spellblade, princeling,” Tomaz hissed at him. His anger and fear were palpable, and barely controlled. “She can throw a dagger from wherever she wants and make it go wherever she wants. She could be miles away! She threw the dagger hoping the Bloodmage would be where he was when she last saw him, and she got lucky. But she only would have thrown it as a last resort—only would have thrown it if there was no way she could use it to help her own situation and come back to help us.”
The Prince looked into the giant’s face and saw that Leah was lost to them.
”No,” he said. “No, you’re wrong. She can’t be that far.”
“Far enough that you’ll never catch her.”
Both the Prince and Tomaz whipped around and saw that one of the Defenders had regained consciousness. There was blood dripping down his face, and it made him look like a grisly reanimated corpse. He was smiling at them with an expression of zealous triumph.
“Explain yourself,” Tomaz said, towering over him and radiating danger.
“She is on her way to Formaux with a squad of two-dozen fully armed Defenders of the Realm. They left almost an hour ago, before you or this scrawny little runt even woke up!”
“Liar!” the Prince shouted.
“I speak the truth,” he said, grinning his bloody grin.
“We have to go after her,” the Prince said to Tomaz.
“How?” the Defender asked, laughing. “We slaughtered your horses! Hah hah! You have no way to catch them. You should have been more careful in setting up your campfire… we could see it through the trees a mile away. Didn’t even need the Bloodmage to point us in the right direction at that point.”
“I told her!” the Prince said, suddenly angry at the Exiles, trying to make it their fault for some reason he didn’t understand. “I told you both, we needed to be more careful!”
“Too late for that now,” Tomaz growled at him, anger and pain in his eyes, and the Prince realized, with despair, that the big man had a point. It didn’t matter who was in the wrong. Leah was gone, and they had no way to get her back. If he had continued to use the Talisman, like she’d suggested, to feel around them for signs of life and pursuit….
“They will reach Formaux before you can come within a dozen miles of them,” the Defender said, breaking into the Prince’s thoughts. “And once she’s there, she’s out of your reach, and we will have a bargaining chip the Exiled Kindred dare not ignore!”
“What is she to you? Why didn’t you take me instead?” the Prince demanded, grabbing the man by the throat. He squeezed too tightly, but hecouldn’t help it. Impotent energy was racing through him that he had no other way to express.
“The daughter of General Goldwyn, the leader of the Armies of the Exiled Kindred?” the Defender managed to choke out. “And not only that but part of a Rogue pair and likely a Spellblade as well? She’s worth ten of you!”
The Prince shot a quick look at Tomaz. The look of horror on the big man’s face was all the confirmation he needed.
“How do you know all that?” the Exile asked, pushing the Prince out of the way and grabbing the man himself, lifting him clear off the ground into the air as far as the restraints would allow. The Prince had never seen Tomaz lose his temper, even when he was fighting for his life, but there was a panic beneath his anger now, and his massive shoulders were shaking. He was on the verge of losing control.
“We know more than you could ever guess,Exile.”
The way the man spat the final word struck a chord in the giant, and he dropped the Defender, drew his sword, and held it against the man’s neck. The Defender stared back at him defiantly, and it was clear that he was ready to die.
Tomaz raised his sword, held it high, and then let out a bellow of frustration. He turned away and threw Malachi end-over-end into a nearby tree, where it sank up to the hilt and caused the tree to sway dangerously.
