Had they used blood magic?
I nearly shuddered at the thought.
As I cast my torch towards the ground, I sensed rather than saw her approach. Mina was huffing, dodging the grip of thedarukkarI had assigned to watch over her, as she raced into the clearing.
When I turned to regard myMorakkari, I scowled at her but waved the helpless and lostdarukkaraway and he faded back amongst the others. I didn’t blame him. I knew how determined my wife could be, after all. And she had already disobeyed my own order to stay in thevoliki.
“They were taken?” Mina demanded immediately, coming towards me. Her face was pinched into a solemn, worried expression.
“Lysi.”
“Humans?” she asked next, a thread of discomfort entering her tone.
“Sarkias.”
She took a step back at the word. I had bit it out harshly, so unlike the soft, teasing tone I used when I called herrei sarkia. Once it had been a curse. Now, I used it like a soft name for her. One filled with reverence and quiet warmth.
“Though it is very likely the humans helped,” I added, turning from her, casting my torch to the ground once more.
Valavik approached. “You are looking for a blood mark?”
“Lysi.”
“A blood mark?” Mina asked.
“You think they used blood magic to enter the fog?” Valavik called out, stepping up to the wall of billowing, thick mist and walking along its perimeter, searching for the same thing I was.
“How else?” I bit out. “Unless one of theirsarkiascan do what ourMorakkarican.”
Fourdarukkarswere taken. I had stationed five out here to guard the plains. Makeshiftvolikisnow sat empty. A subdued quiet had begun to descend.
“Vorakkar?” came an alarmed voice. “What’s happened? Where are they?”
I blew out a quiet breath, steeling myself. Then I turned, only to see three females and mymrikro, thepyrokimaster. They were all breathing heavily, as if they’d run here once they heard the terrible news.
Hukri was among the females, her hand pressed to her mouth when she saw Olin’s head hung. I had placed her mate on the night watch for this week. He had been one of thedarukkarstaken.
As had mymrikro’sson, Ujaki. As had Natevik’s brother, Bevir. As had Riva’s mate, Muniv.
Mina immediately went to Hukri, her friend, herpiki.
“What has happened?” I heard Hukri ask her. “Where is my husband?”
My jaw tightened.
“Thesarkiastook them,” I told the small, gathering group, my voice gruff and hard. “Back to the Dead Mountain. But we will return them to you. I swear it on Kakkari.”
Riva’s sobbing cry echoed out into the still plain and I listened to it hard as mymrikromet my eyes, willing me to get his son back. But I saw in the grim expression of his face that he feared what I did. A fear that had plagued me since I left the Dead Mountain.
That in their desperation, thesarkiaswould try to use blood magic to banish the fog, since they could no longer use my own heart. And they would need a lot of blood.
The fact that they had survived within the fog told me that at least one of the witches possessed a gift. TheSetava Terunhad already been dismissed as powerless inDothik,though she was driven by her own delusions of importance. But one of her followers, one of her coven, might actually possess a fragment of Kakkari’s powers, just like Drokka and his queen, just like my own.
And what would thesarkiasdo with such an untamed power?
“Rowin,” came Valavik’s sudden call. “Over here.”
I looked away from the group of females and mymrikro, seeing Mina reach out her hand to take Riva’s as she wailed, trying to comfort her in whatever way she could.
