She turned her head toward her father’s familiar voice calling her name. For all that the gods and fortune had abandoned her, they had not deserted Mercer. Red-faced with cold, bedraggled and bound like she was, he nonetheless appeared unharmed.
Her swollen tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth, and she hissed as her cracked lips split. “Water,” she croaked. Lead weights hung on her lashes, and she closed her eye.
“Stay awake, Lou,” Mercer urged. “Stay awake. I’ll get you the water.”
She raised an eyelid, intending to ask him how he planned to do such a thing since he was as tightly trussed to his tree as she was to hers. A pair of fine boots, their high polish dulled by mud, filled her vision. She lifted her head, blinking away dizziness, and met Jimenin’s amused gaze.
“Nice to have you join us, Mistress Duenda. Sleep well?”
If her mouth wasn’t robbed of every drop of saliva, she’d spit on him. He held out a cup, pulling back as she reached for it.
“For gods’ sake, man,” Mercer snapped. “Show some mercy. Wasn’t beating her enough?”
Jimenin stared at Louvaen, and his mouth curved into a small smile that didn’t touch his eyes. “Not really. Killing her outright might be.” He pushed the cup roughly into her hands. “Good thing for you both I still need her.”
Her frozen fingers trembled, sloshing water against the cup’s sides. She wanted to guzzle it back but sipped instead, welcoming the cool relief that slid over her swollen tongue and down her parched throat. She tasted the salt of her blood but at least her mouth no longer felt like she’d eaten a plate of sand. Another cup or two would quench her thirst. Unfortunately Jimenin wasn’t in a generous mood. He snatched the cup from her grasp just as she emptied it.
“Enough pampering. We’re wasting time.” He motioned to one of his men to untie Mercer while he took care of Louvaen. He unfastened the ropes that held her to the tree, reserving one to noose around her neck. He freed her feet but not her hands and used the trailing length of rope from the makeshift collar to jerk her upright. She swayed and swallowed back a groan. Jimenin’s affections and her tumble down the stairs assured she was one giant bruise. “Ride peacefully or you’ll taste more of my fists,” he warned.
Despite the humiliation of being leashed like a dog, she remained silent and docile, offering no protest when he gave her only the privacy of a juniper shrub to answer nature’s demands. She did cry out when he tossed her roughly onto his horse’s back. His chuckle grated in her ears as he mounted behind her and took up the reins. “This is going to hurt,” he said in tones so thick with anticipation, she fancied he grew hard against her back.
Her skin did its best to creep off her bones at the thought. He spurred his horse to a gallop, and Louvaen forgot her disgust at his proximity. He was right; it did hurt. Every time a hoof struck ground she imagined one of her ribs cracked loose. Each inhale was a stream of cold air and glass splinters that settled in her chest.
They rode until the sun grazed the treetops and the distant lament of wolf song serenaded them through the trees. Louvaen estimated if they continued at their current pace, they’d reach Ketach Tor by midafternoon the following day—if Ambrose’s journey spell still worked. If not, she’d spend almost a week in Jimenin’s foul company. Part of her hoped the spell had faded. Surely by then those at the castle would know they had enemies headed for their door and take precautions—namely spiriting Cinnia away from danger.
A dreary clearing much like the one in which she woke earlier in the morning became their temporary camp. Louvaen accepted another cup of water but refused the hard bread one of Jimenin’s men thrust at her. Her stomach roiled at the thought of food and her jaw ached at the idea of chewing anything tougher than gruel.
“You need to eat something, daughter.” Mercer sat nearby, too far for her to cause trouble but close enough that he could speak to her without shouting.
“I’m not hungry, Papa. Besides, I wouldn’t trust anything Jimenin or his ilk gave me. I’m surprised I’m not yet dead from drinking the water.”
“How do you feel?”
Like she’d ridden this far tied to Jimenin’s horse’s hooves instead of mounted on its back. Her father’s pinched expression stopped her from counting off a litany of complaints. She shrugged. “I won’t be dancing any reels these next few days.”
“I told you, you shouldn’t have returned to Monteblanco.”
She sighed. “I know, but we’re here, and we need to make sure we stay alive long enough so I can cut that toad’s heart out with my eating knife.”
As if he heard her threat, the toad sauntered across camp, her mirror in hand, to where she sat tethered to a stake one of the men had driven into the ground. He tossed something at her. It struck her shoulder, bounced off and rolled drunkenly toward her foot—an apple, crimson and glistening. Louvaen’s sore mouth watered at the sight, even as her teeth throbbed in warning. She turned a blank stare on her captor. “What do you want?”
Jimenin gestured to the apple. “They’re not bad you know. Straight from your neighbor’s root cellar.”
“Pilfered no doubt.”
He shrugged. “She won’t miss them.” He held the mirror up to her, making her squint from the sun’s glare on the glass. “I’ve a need to see her. Summon her.”
Her frightful reflection stared back—black eye, swollen face, split lip. Her fingers itched to snatch mirror out of his hand and crack the glass into a thousand shards. Jimenin was careful though and kept it well out of her reach. “Why? You’ll see her in person soon enough.”
His scowl warned she tried his patience. “The fairest woman of all. What man not blind wouldn’t want to look his fill?” The scowl deepened. “And because I said so. Now summon her.”
Louvaen’s frown mimicked his, but she did as he commanded. The mist arose, followed by a wavering vision of a stone wall that faded just as quickly back to the wispy miasma. Her heart stuttered to a halt for a tiny breath of time.
Jimenin shook the mirror before thrusting it in her face. “What’s wrong? Do it again.”
She called Cinnia’s name a second time, this time with gusto. The same thing happened—mist and a wall and mist again, but no Cinnia. If she didn’t think she’d die for the effort, she’d leap to her feet and whoop her joy. Someone in Ketach Tor had learned her fate, and Ambrose had done as she’d hoped. She offered her nemesis a bland expression when he turned on her. He leapt forward, thrust his hand in her hair and yanked until he pulled her head back, exposing her throat. Louvaen yelped, and tears blurred her sight. The thin edge of cold metal pressed against her flesh.
Jimenin’s breath cascaded over her face in rancid puffs, and his eyes glittered. “What did you do to the mirror, witch?”
