The clamor of steel on steel. Screaming.
My magic pulling me, tugging me toward something dark in the distance.Emrys?
Snatches of grass gone to brown from the summer heat. Another vial being poured into my mouth, gasping, coughing, but rough hands clamping down over my face so I had no choice but to swallow.
Jostling. Pain from a second set of careless hands pulling me upward. Smelling horses and blood.Moving. Moving so fast I almost lost my stomach.
That dark magic that felt like home to me fading in the distance.
Then only darkness.
***
Consciousness returned the way iron cools—slow and hissing with an aching, dull pain. This was not the castle in Darreth. It was too cold, the smells too unfamiliar even before I opened my eyes.
My limbs were leaden, my tongue dry. I blinked once, twice. Then I realized the ground beneath me wasn’t dirt, grass, or canvas. My face was pressed to a fine carpet, the cold of the stone beneath it leaching into my bones.
My fingers had become ice. My wrists were slick with my sweat. Rough bindings bit into them, leaving bruises that throbbed with each futile tug.
Stay calm, Isca.
My body ached in places that suggested I’d been slung over a saddle like a sack of grain. But I didn’t feel violated in any other way.
Thank the gods.
I lifted my head.
Stone walls. No fire in the hearth, only a few spare candles for light. A draft crawled beneath the dark, heavy iron-oak door, scented with peat and something unfamiliar. And a flickering figure paced on the other side of the room wearing a…gown?
A gleam of steel between damask folds—a sword belt where usually a decorative belt would hang.
I shifted and forced calm into my limbs. Panic was for people without options. I had magic. Not much, but some. More importantly, I had my mind. And I wasn’t afraid—yet.
“You’re awake,” came a woman’s voice—low, clipped, and laced with iron. “I worried we’d overdone the sleeping draught after the druid’s spell wore off.”
My heart sped up, but I kept my face still. She didn’t need to know I was afraid. I tilted my head. “Sorry to disappoint.”
“Oh, we need you alive.”
She stepped closer, candlelight shimmering across her features. Her beauty was sharp, ice-and-honey spun into something too perfect. Light brown hair in a simple braided chignon. Flawless skin and rosy cheeks. Eyes so pale they were barely blue.
Butsocold. Her eyes were colder than a winter’s storm. What had the world done to leave someone so empty?
My magic reached out before I gave it leave to act, testing on instinct.
It sensed nothing. Only silence. Silence that was as complete as what Emrys and Nisien had shown me.
She was either shielded somehow or, worse, a mage. I didn’t feel any traces of the magic that had been used in my kidnaping within the room, so I doubted this woman was responsible for that. Whatever the case might be, it wasn’t a good idea to try manipulating her emotions. She likely had ways to protect herself, while I was unskilled in combat.
I’d thought Gelida hated mages. If my sparse memories were correct, I’d been kidnaped by one, handed off to another, and now they seem to have sent this mage to interrogate me.
At least… I hoped this would only be about asking questions. With a jolt, Emrys’s caution flooded my thoughts. I’d been so groggy, so disoriented that I hadn’t erected a mental barrier like he’d taught me for situations exactly like the one I’d found myself in. I pulled my magic up over my mind like a blanket, hiding it from any prodding. It probably wasn’t impenetrable, but it was the best I could do half-dazed.
She must’ve noticed the change because her smile went flat.
“Where am I?” I asked.
“Tir Gelida.”
