“Do it.”
She pressed her bare, free hand into the bark of the tree and closed her eyes.
A new voice cut through the forest.
“We have twelve more soldiers on their way,” a female voice called in Usti.The Sooth, her small frame well hidden behind her tree.“This is your opportunity to surrender.Three of you are mages.Two of you areghiseau.Your lives have value, and I do not want to kill you.”
None of us were foolish enough to reply.Mary remained eerily still, a faint glow manifesting where she touched the tree.
On our side of the river, a different tree shuddered.A male voice cried out and a musket immediately cracked, tearing my focus from the hidden Sooth.
One of the hidden soldiers toppled into sight, scrabbling at his chest and gasping.Grant meanwhile ducked back under cover, gunsmoke dispersing above him.Benedict could barely be seen beside him, tucked into the tree and clutching an arm soaked in blood.I could not tell if Grant had been successful in removing the shot.
The entire forest began to shudder, then to sway and creak.Branches broke and toppled into the snow with muffledwhumps, while the ground began to ripple with coiling roots.
The Sooth twitched into sight.I fired.She fell.
My victory was short-lived.I had barely felt the musket kick before Mary darted out of shelter and sprinted through the snow and falling branches—directly towards our enemies.
The Magni man rose, facing her down.I had no time to reload; Mary, steadily advancing through the snow, leveled her pistol and fired.
The Magni jerked and dropped his musket, but not before the muzzle flashed.
A shot slammed into a tree branch right in front of Mary’s head— a branch that had not been there an instant before.The branch exploded and ghisten light flared.
Not a single shard touched Mary.She was already behind another tree, breathing in quick, measured breaths.
The mages were down.There was only one soldier left.
An agonized shout broke the stillness.Across the river, Ben rose to his feet.His arm was still sheathed in blood, his coat hanging off him and shoulder exposed.
But I felt his power billow out once again.The last soldier stepped out from behind the tree, her arms raised, every inch of her trembling as she pointed her own pistol under her chin.
More blood splattered across the snow.
In the stillness that followed, Mary’s eyes found mine.I saw relief in her face, along with an odd closedness—an echo of shock and a shadow of turmoil.
I went to her, but something in her posture warned me not to pull her into my arms.Instead, I extended a hand, and she took it.Her touch wavered, fingers trembling, but, as I tightened my grip, they stilled.
“Ready?”I asked.
She ducked her chin.
The four of us regrouped around the Mereish Sooth.She sat against a tree, bleeding profusely from a wound to the chest.I had been aiming for her arm and felt a rumble of regret.Whether or not that wound was fatal would entirely depend on how far behind her comrades were.
It also destroyed the possibility of recovering our single Sooth shot without killing her outright, and the thought of sifting around in the open chest of a still-warm corpse was not one I entertained.
“How are you tracking us?”I asked.
The Sooth clutched her chest, her face sheeted with pain and her eyes battling to stay open.
“She’s in too much pain, it’s useless,” Mary said.She looked more frantic than ever.“We need to move.”
Ben crouched before the Sooth, and she cried out, though he had not touched her.
“How are you tracking us?”Ben asked.Using his good hand, he pulled the Sooth talisman from beneath his shirt.“Does this not work?”
“The Ess Noti,” she rasped.Her eyes were so wide with panic I half feared they would rupture.“Trackinghim.”
